Sado Cycling: Nashinoki Jizo

I've never seen so many statues or figures of Jizo-sama at one place. The story of the Nishinoki Pass Stone Jizo is legendary. Long ago, a fisherman from the coastal village of Toyoda set out in his single-mast vessel. Some distance from shore, the sail unaccountably went slack, and his boat stopped. Peering into the sea, he noticed a shiny object on the sea bottom; diving in, he retrieved a small figure (30cm) of Jizo-sama. Abandoning the fishing, he returned to port, where he summoned his neighbors to discuss what to do, as this eerie and unprecedented experience clearly required a response. The result: a shrine to the Bodhisattva. Some time later, as the votive figures to Jizo-sama increased, it was decided to move the shrine to Nashinoki Pass, several kilometers from Toyoda Village. As the video shows, there are thousands of Jizo-sama figurines. The shrine has an air of isolation (though it is no more than 100 meters from the road, the sign announcing it is parallel to the roadway, not perpendicular), dereliction, even abandon. The pinwheels and stuffed animals were especially poignant (as appeals are made to Jizo-sama by pregnant mothers and parents of children suffering from illness).

Goddess of Mercy

A temple to Kannon in downtown Niigata.

Niigata, 1859

In 1858, the Edo shogunate named Niigata one of 5 treaty ports open to international trade, ending more than 200 years of isolation. Ganzuiji a temple near the port, hosted discussions between local authorities and foreign emissaries who visited the following year, 1859. https://note.com/brian_southwick/n/ne5c716f2b50a#:~:text=%E6%97%A5%2017%3A10-,Niigata,-was%20named%20one

Sado Cycling Photos

Monday was a holiday in Japan - Respect for the Aged- and as Sunday (ordinarily my only day off) was a washout, I postponed my 1-day cycling trip to Sado to the following day. It started out overcast, but by lunchtime the sun was out, and unlike the recent past, the humidity was not outrageous. So, a great day on the bike on Japan's largest island that is not a prefecture. Photos of the trip to follow. Video here.

The bike on the boat

Nagano Soba: Uzuraya, Togakushi

I visited Togakushi Shrine in Nagano last weekend. Uzuraya (opposite the main gate at 中社, the central of Togakushi's three shrines) served up the best soba I've ever had.

Artist Tana Keiichi

A bit ago I switched on the tele to public broadcaster NHK's education programming and discovered the work of prominent contemporary Japanese artist Tanaami Keiichi, of whom I had never heard. He died today. Either the broadcaster hastily prepared a program to honor his life, or, knowing the seriousness of his illness, had already planned to air a program about Tanaami on September 9, which just happened to be the day he passed. He was 88. https://images.app.goo.gl/emhS558Fhggss9Gm8

Heavenly Veg: Amanoya 天野屋

You couldn't devise a better name for a veg shop:Heavenly (天 ama) Vegetable (野 no) Shop (屋 ya). Moreover, and you can't make this up: a homophone for 天 is 甘 (ama, sweet). 天野屋: my Japanese family have been shopping there for generations, first served by the elder Amano, now the son (who has children of his own). Grandma 天野 asks about my mother-in-law (roughly the same generation), wife, and children (whom she remembers from their childhood) and usually adds a few extras to the order free of charge.

A Nice Story

A nice story about a primary school student who helps an elderly woman with dementia. https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20240904/p2a/00m/0na/009000c

Equal Work, Unequal Pay

While women in Japan enjoy reproductive freedoms and paid maternity/ child-rearing leave (1-2 years, depending on circumstances), they are not paid the same as men for the same work, in certain sectors. The photo of the front-page story in today's local paper shows the percentage of men's pay received by women.

In other words, in Niigata (highlighted), women in these sectors earn 77.1% of their male counterparts. The figures on the right show the average number of consecutive years women work less than men at the same job.