Indigo grass project aims at reviving unattended farmland in southwestern Japan

March 28, 2022

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Indigo grass project aims at reviving unattended farmland in southwestern Japan

Cute mechanical toys give time of peace to Japanese amid continued pandemic

 February 28, 2022

Cute mechanical toys give time of peace to Japanese amid continued pandemic 

The small art museum located in Fukuoka Prefecture, southwestern Japan, used to be a guesthouse for a local sake Japanese rice wine brewer. Currently owned by Okawa City, the facility usually displays its collection of paintings and other art works, but it has become an exhibition theater for cute mechanical toys, some of them mysterious.

The two-story, semi-Western style building was completed by Seiriki sake brewer in 1908. It was used as a privately run art museum from the 1950s, and then, it was donated in 1996 to the city, which reopened it for citizens after renovation in 2001.

As the event comes amid the covid-19 pandemic, visitors are asked to register their name and mobile phone number at the entrance so that if a virus infection is found there, they may be so informed any time soon. This kind of measure has been taken by public facility operators throughout Japan since just after the start of the pandemic. 

Visitors also have their temperature checked at the entrance. After using a hand disinfector, they receive a pair of thin plastic gloves from the staff. 

They can touch and move the toys and other objects displayed with their gloves. When the toy's handle is turned around or the button is pressed, some objects start playing mysterious music and sound. 

This enables visitors to forget their hard days from early 2020 with the virus and refresh themselves for a while. 

The latest event, held at Owaka City Seiriki Art Museum from early January to late February, displays about 80 pieces of work crafted by five artists. The largest part of them are built by a local architect-turned mechanical toy maker. 

His pieces feature witches, fairies, rabbits and other creatures, as well as working figures like a baker and a woodcutter. 

Okawa City has been known as a hub of woodworking plants, which produce mainly furniture.

Based on its tradition of woodworking, the city aims at spreading enjoyable wood crafting among citizens and other people, not just adults but also children, a receptionist said. "We have organized the exhibition to demonstrate the fun of woodworking to many people" while taking anti-infection measures, she said. 

Big straw hen hoped to herald end of anti-pandemic fight

January 28, 2022

Big straw hen hoped to herald end of anti-pandemic fight 

The huge object appeared at a park in Chikuzen Town, Fukuoka Prefecture, southwestern Japan, early in December, amid local people's hope that the covid-19 pandemic will subside soon so that the affected people's griefs will come to an end around the world.

The 8-meter-high straw hen is a product by young volunteers who have gathered for a project to build a monument for each year to cheer up the largely rural community.

Chikuzen Town is known as a hub of egg farms in the region. This is why the hen has been selected as the theme for the straw monument project this time. 

The objects built so far since 2015 include a wild boar and a gorilla. 

The straw hen has a total length of 6 meters and weighs about 3 tons.  Lying beneath its body is an egg from which a chick has just appeared. 

The project has been organized by a local youth group, and the straw hen is a product of two months of work by about 150 volunteers, with bunches of straws collected from the rice fields around after the harvest.

The hen is known as a bird which heralds the dawn in Japan. In order for a chick to be born, the mother bird and the chick work together by picking at the eggshell from the outside and from the inside of the shell simultaneously, organizers say in a message on the board put near the object. 

"This can be interpreted to mean that we must close our ranks to overcome the covid-19 pandemic." 

The straw monument project is supported by crowd funding from across the country.  

The big hen will be displayed until the end of January, and spectators could see its night view lit up on some days from late December to early January.  

Visitors are asked to see the object while wearing a face mask and keeping a social distance from each other.

The series of new daily customs for living with the new coronavirus has come to stay among Japanese people. 

At a time when many people in Japan are getting exhausted with continuing the new practices in their daily life, the big hen is hoped to help boost their spirits and bring their normal days back to them soon.

Japan entering 3rd year of fight against covid-19 pandemic

 

December 29, 2021

Japan entering 3rd year of fight against covid-19 pandemic 

Japan's fight to contain and end the covid-19 pandemic is about to enter a third year, with many Japanese patiently hoping to see a virus-free, new safer daily life. 

The deadly new virus broke into Japan in mid-January 2020, when a Japanese man was confirmed as Japan's first covid-19 case after returning from Wuhan, China. The news did not draw so strong attention in the country, but Japan came to realize the magnitude of the pandemic in early February as a cluster of patients positive to the new coronavirus was found among passengers aboard a luxury cruise ship which had entered Yokohama Port.

Then came a decision by the government to close all public schools across the country from the start of March 2020 to protect pupils and students from the pandemic. The policy triggered a shock wave among not just working child-raising families but also various small traders and vendors doing school-linked business, such as school meal providers. 

This represented the beginning of Japan's long battle to overcome the covid-19 pandemic. In the course of about two years from early 2020, Japan experienced five waves of surge in the number of daily covid-19 positive cases. A total of over 1.7 million people have been found to be positive to the virus so far in Japan, among them fatal cases surpassing 18,000.

Japan has no strong anti-pandemic legal measures, like city lockdown. Japanese people have come to be accustomed with wearing facial masks, using hand disinfectors placed at the entrance of public places and shops, and taking a social distance from each other at busy locations. 

The year-end and New Year's holiday season is one of the most important periods for Japanese families and friends to get reunited and confirm their individual links, visiting temples and shrines together to share their happy time. 

In January, many famous Japanese shrines are flooded with New Year's worshippers, but amid the pandemic, Japanese are recommended to avoid a congestion of worshippers in the early days of January. Most shrines are ready to accept worshippers paying New Year's homage even before the start of the year.  

Such early New Year's worshippers were seen at some shrines on fine days in early December, among them young girls accompanied with parents. 

 It remains unseen when the covid-19 pandemic will end, but the series of new daily life rules and customs is expected to come to stay in Japan's society sometime in the not too distant future. 

Japanese attracted to SDGs campaign for safer future life to survive covid-19 days

 

November 26, 2021

Japanese attracted to SDGs campaign for safer future life to survive covid-19 days

Japanese people find media reports and news featuring  the U.N.-sponsored SDGs campaign almost every day this year. The campaign reminds Japanese of the need to make their daily life more sustainable, by using more environmentally friendly products, among other things. They have come to pay more time than earlier to thinking about what is really a sustainable daily life for them, as the covid-19 corona virus pandemic has somewhat subsided in Japan. 

The Sustainable Development Goals, proclaimed in 2015, call for developed and developing countries alike to work harder to solve the world's serious challenges in 17 fields by 2030, or nine years left before the target year.

Globally, such targets as those for ending poverty and hunger, taking action on climate change and realizing gender equality are much publicized, but environment-conscious citizens in Japan are interested in the 11th target of the SDGs, which envisages making cities and communities inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable. 

At present, redevelopment projects are under way at some 300 locations in the heart of Tokyo, mainly aiming at relocating urban facilities like utility poles to sites underground and building antiflood regulating reservoirs under the ground. But small, grass-roots endeavors to realize a sustainable, pleasant living environment also can be seen in part of the capital.  

In the calm residential area of Daita, Setagaya Ward,  passers-by enjoy strolling on a riverside road lined by cherry trees. Flowing by what local people call the "green road" is a small stream of recycled, purified water. 

The artificial "seseragi" stream, built in 2008, extends about 4 kilometers past Daita above an underdrain, which used to be called Kitazawa River or Daita River.  

Members of a group of local residents gather twice a month for activities to preserve the environment around the stream. Their effort has helped to keep the area so clean as many kinds of wild birds can be seen. 

I find myself taking a rest by Daita River, as the willows riverside have started to bloom.

(A personal translation)

This is a poem made by Mokichi Saito, a distinguished poet who was active in the early years of the 20th century. 

He actually lived near the river in the 1940s. So, a monument with the poem engraved was set up beside the seseragi stream by local residents in 2013. 

The monument should lead many people to think about the preciousness of their ordinary life, as Japan moves toward building a new corona-era life while keeping the pandemic subdued.

Japanese hoping to see calm spring incoming amid continued covid-19 pandemic

 

January 30, 2021

Japanese hoping to see calm spring incoming amid continued covid-19 pandemic 

Japan has entered its second year of painful fight to contain the new coronavirus pandemic. The number of covid-19 cases in Japan has been held at a relatively low level overall. 

Japan's government leaders have had difficulty in effectively keeping the pandemic from spreading further, because, unlike other major countries, Japan has no system to make its people observe preventive measures against extensive infectious illness under law. 

The government instead has asked the people to voluntarily follow a series of recommended measures to protect themselves from the covid-19 virus on various occasions. Their voluntary cooperation has much contributed to supporting Japan's campaign for containing the pandemic.

As of late January, the number of covid-19 cases confirmed in Japan came to about 387,000, far below 26.07 million in the United States, 10.7 million in India, and 3.8 million in Britain.

As reports about developments regarding the pandemic have occupied most of their daily life since early last year, Japanese people have become somewhat tired of continuing the voluntary cooperation. 

This is feared to loosen their resolve to end the pandemic, but most people are expected to keep trying to find a new daily style to improve themselves for a better future.

Around this time of the year, Japanese have fun while looking for early signs of the advent of spring out in the field and other places around themselves. 

On the very start of spring, we are here to see each other's face in a joyful atmosphere; Is this out of the season? no, how happy this party is!

(a personal translation)

This is a waka poem made by Otomo Yakamochi, a noted poet who was active in the Nara period in the eighth century, when he enjoyed his time with his friends while drinking. 

Yakamochi, who was a high-ranking Imperial court official, is known as the editor of Japan's oldest poem anthology Manyoshu. He compiled the anthology with about 4,500 pieces of poems made by people from various walks of life, including nobles and peasants.

In an attempt to keep away from the deadly virus, Japanese people are further asked to refrain from going out for nonessential purposes and wear face masks as much as possible during their daily life.  Their painful fight against the pandemic will continue in the months to come, but their solidary-oriented national character is expected to help them overcome the difficulty ahead.

Miniature likening photos feature days of "stay safe" antivirus fight

 

December 22, 2020

Miniature likening photos feature days of "stay safe" antivirus fight 

The young Japanese photographer has filled a part of exhibition rooms at an art museum in Saga, southwestern Japan, with a lot of miniature works and their corresponding zoomed pictures. 

The artist builds a unique world of miniature figures by fabricating small pieces with various personal effects casually found in the daily life and likening them to different things. This time, he focuses on items seen in the current days with the new covid-19 virus.

Visitors find miniature works made with disposable light blue face masks. Their pleats are compared to lane lines in the swimming pool in one photo and waves in the beach in another one. A different photo shows a clinical thermometer likened to a smart race car with four miniature wheels attached.  

A pair of surgical grabs is also likened to waves with which a female surfer is enjoying. 

Mourners and a priest are seen bowing to a coffin put on the PC keyboard which is likened to the graveyard.  

The Miniature Life Exhibition at the Saga museum started late in November, as Japanese people were increasingly concerned with the spread of the new coronavirus amid the approach of cold winter days. 

Tatsuya Tanaka, the 39-year-old artist, introduces himself as an art director and miniature photographer. 

His jobs include not only taking pictures of miniature objects but also crafting miniature figures to be placed at a georama setting made by himself for them. 

His "Miniature Calendar" website, opened in 2011, daily updates his works made with small items casually seen in the daily life likened to different things. 

Breads are sometimes likened to mountains, and fruits are compared to balloons. Further, vegetables are likened to forests.  

In a message to visitors at the museum, Tanaka says it is the very fight against the new coronavirus that has enabled him to produce the latest works, in an effort to survive the "stay safe" days. 

He hopes that visitors will have fun by finding the interesting features of the series of likened items.