Thursday, February 29, 2024
Wednesday, February 28, 2024
Nagoya Castle Photos
Nagoya Castle, built in 1615 on the orders or Ieyasu, founder of the Tokugawa Dynasty (1603-1868).
I visited Nagoya last December and will be sharing photos of the castle in posts to follow.
As for the golden roof ornaments, they are shachihoko, mythical creatures with the head of a tiger and tail of a fish. Capable of summoning rain, they offer protection from fire. Those atop Nagoya Castle are the largest in Japan.
Saturday, February 24, 2024
Vending Machines
Vending machines are ubiquitous in Japan, and 20 years ago, jihanki (short for jidouhanbaiki- 自動販売機) selling alcohol were a common sight. However, the number of such machines has dropped significantly over the years in response to efforts to curb underage sales; the machine pictured is the only one of its kind remaining in downtown Niigata. Conversely, a new breed of jihanki offer a variety of food items, as here and here.
Thursday, February 22, 2024
A Disappearing Japanese Institution: The Sento (銭湯), or Public Bath
It's becoming harder and harder to find public baths, with the following photo (taken in downtown Niigata City) illustrative of many sento today:
"- 乃湯", the first character of the name is missing, but the character 湯 , meaning 'hot water', is the giveaway that this used to be a bath (as are the doors separately marked ’女湯’(Women's Bath) and ’男湯’Men's Bath).
However, as the plume of steam indicates, いずみ湯 is still in operation.
The number of public baths peaked at 17,999 in 1968. As of 2022, the figure was 1865.
By the way, hot springs are indicated by the characters 温 and 泉, or onsen, literally 'hot spring', while the sen (銭)in sento is a trifling sum of money, 1/100th of a yen.
Ramen Kurai
Tuesday, February 20, 2024
Kayabuki Thatch Roof
The thatch roof is a feature of traditional Japanese farmhouses, of which the most iconic are the gassho-zukuri of World Heritage site Shirakawa-go. While such roofs last 30-40 years, replacing them is labor intensive, besides requiring a local supply of raw materials. Metal sheeting is the practical solution.
Monday, February 19, 2024
Mamoru-kun, Mascot of Miyako
The mascot of Miyakojima (宮古島-in the Okinawa island chain) is Mamoru. 'To protect, defend', also a name for boys, hence the 'kun'- Mamoru, in the guise of a policeman, watches over the roads in 20 locations throughout the island. I attended a wedding on the island a year ago, and one evening some of us repaired to an izakaya where customers are treated to- I'll let the video do the rest.
Sunday, February 18, 2024
Basho and Sora in Niigata: Narrow Road to the Interior
A couple of links to short videos regarding the haiku poets' passage through Niigata in early July, 1689.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kveHtuRNMc8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCjueus1cLg
Pottering Discoveries: Yoshida Inari Shrine, Niigata
Inari is the god of rice in the Shinto 'pantheon'-since the late Edo Era, Japanese have prayed to the god for commercial success as well as agricultural bounty. Given its history as Japan's most productive rice-growing region, it is unsurprising that Niigata should be home to the greatest number of shrines to Inari, of which that pictured offers a fine example of Inari gates. By the way, the fox: as a predator of mice, the bane of rice farmers, a natural choice to be Inari's messenger (not a representation of the god). As everyone knows, foxes are particularly fond of fried tofu, hence: Inari Zushi and Kitsune Udon/ Soba.
https://youtube.com/shorts/
Saturday, February 17, 2024
A Showa-style Dagashi-ya Candy Store
C-57 is the largest Showa-style dagashiya in Niigata, with over 300 varieties of 'low-grade' (the da [駄] of dagashi ) candies, sweets, and sundries. Located in Niitsu, nicknamed 'Railroad Town' because of its long history as a hub for Japan National Railways (until 1987) and its successor, East Japan Railway Company (familiarly, JR East), the shop takes its name from the old steam locomotive 'C-57', pictured prominently above the entrance. Clink the link below to see a video of the shop's exterior.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptf5g8KaQk0
For videos of the interior:
https://youtube.com/shorts/6vxh5-9fY3k?
Wednesday, July 05, 2023
Zen Monk and Poet Ryokan-sama: a Reposting
Recently I've been reading John Stevens's Zen Poetry of Ryokan. Ryokan was born 251 years ago in Echigo Province, as Niigata was then known. A couple of years ago I visited his birthplace, Izumozaki, as well as the nearby hermitage Gogo-an, where he spent the latter part of his life. The late novelist Yasunari Kawabata as well as the renowned author of books on Zen Buddhism, Daisetz Suzuki, have said that one who wishes to understand the Japanese psyche can do no better than read Ryokan-sama. The following poem is one of my many favorites:
My hut lies in the middle of a dense forest;
Every year the green ivy grows longer.
No news of the affairs of men,
Only the occasional song of a woodcutter.
The sun shines and I mend my robe;
When the moon comes out I read Buddhist poems.
I've nothing to report, my friends.
If you want to find the meaning, stop chasing after
so many things.
THURSDAY, JULY 09, 2009
Zen Master Ryokan- The "Great Fool"
Taigu Ryokan (1758-1831) is one of Japan's best-loved mendicant Zen monks and poet-calligraphers. The topmost photo shows a memorial erected at his birthplace in Izumozaki, Niigata.
Most of his life was spent far from the madding crowd in Echigo Province, as Niigata Prefecture was known in his day, an area of fertile rice fields and rich fisheries some 350km from the capital, Edo, as Tokyo was then called.
According to Minakami Tsutomu, writing in 1984, "Wordly people call him different things: fool, wise man, idiot, man of the Way. He never flatters the rich and important, nor disdains the poor and humble. He isn't happy when he gets things or sad when he loses them. He just goes along, natural, relaxed, a man who has transcended the dust of the world." Maxims to live by, I think.
The daily Niigata Nippo newspaper publishes on its front page a poem by Ryokan every day. There are "In the Footsteps of Ryokan" tours offered by towns and villages through which he was wont to pass, begging for alms. The hut in which he spent the latter part of his life is preserved and annually receives thousands of visitors from all over Japan.
That the Japanese lavish so much attention on poets and writers is one of the things I love about the country.
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Nakasendo: An Old Post Road
The most heavily travelled and important of Japan's post roads was the Tokaido, which connected Edo (modern Tokyo), the capital of the Tokugawa shogunate, and Kyoto, the old imperial seat. The 53 stations along the way were made famous in a series of ukiyoe woodblock prints by Hiroshige. The nakasendo , as its name suggests (naka is inner, sen mountain), was an inland route (unlike the Tokaido, which followed Japan's Pacific coastline before heading away from the coast to Kyoto.) The way was longer, mountainous, and boasted 69 posts, starting at Nihonbashi and winding its way through present-day Saitama, Gunma, Nagano, Gifu, and Shiga before arriving in Kyoto. One section of the road remains much as it was during the Edo era (1603-1868) and is the subject of the following video link.
Greed and Ginger: A Folktale from Iwate
Long ago in some forgotten corner of Iwate there was an inn, and the keeper of this hostel was a most covetous man indeed, so much so that anything left behind by guests became the man's personal property. One day a traveler arrived at, goggle-eyed, well-dressed, with a striped bundle on his back.
"I'd like a room for the night," the man said.
"Welcome, please come in, you can have your pick of the rooms" said the innkeeper and, grinning ear to ear, showed the visitor to his room.
"He certainly looks prosperous. I wonder what's in that bundle of his? Aha, I have an idea. They say that myoga induces forgetfulness, so I'll just serve him up a dish of Japanese ginger for dinner," thought the innkeeper.
So he summoned the maidservant and explained that the guest had ordered ginger for dinner- and lots of it.
The guest tucked in to a dish piled high with the herb, exclaiming, "My, this is delicious". Before long the plate was clean.
Our innkeeper gleefully pictured to himself the mysterious bundle of the guest and the riches it must hold, which would undoubtedly be his come morning the next day.
On preparing to depart the next morning, the guest thanked the serving girl for the delicious dinner and set out on his way.
No sooner had he left than the innkeeper rushed into the man's room, fully expecting to find the forgotten bundle lying in plain view on the tatami matting. To his great surprise, however, it was nowhere to be seen. He turned over all the floor cushions and bedding and emptied the closets, all to no avail. Despite having eaten a heaping plate of ginger for dinner, the departed guest had forgotten nothing.
Perplexed and disappointed, the innkeeper remained lost in thought until he had a revelation: the guest had indeed forgotten something- to pay his bill.
The man rushed out and pursued the guest in the direction he had left, stopping passersby to ask if they'd seen a goggle-eyed man with a large bundle wrapped in a striped cloth. But the villagers knew the innkeeper well, and his inquiries were met with howls of laughter.
Japanese ginger and furoshiki wrapping cloth
Friday, June 04, 2021
Wednesday, May 12, 2021
Chorus of Peepers
Rice fields just outside, recently irrigated and planted, so the frogs have moved in.
Pottering Pics
Jyuuni Shrine, at top, which houses two wooden statues by the "Michaelangelo of Echigo", Ishikawa Uncho, unfortunately locked.
Rice field and temple in Tsuchikura
Row of trees supporting horizontal bars for drying sheaves of rice in Otani
Kamo River
All photos taken in Nanatani "Seven Valleys" area of Kamo City, Niigata
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