American woman honored by Japanese fans in service at Yokohama cemetery

April 6, 2010

American woman honored by Japanese fans in service at Yokohama cemetery


The American journalist and travel writer rests in peace at a Yokohama graveyard along with her mother and her elder brother. A small memorial service was held in front of her grave last week by a group of her Japanese fans, who hope to disseminate her achievements for friendship between Japan and the United States.
Eliza R. Scidmore was born in Clinton, Iowa, in 1856 and died in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1928. Her ashes were transferred to Yokohama the following year as her mother and brother had died in Yokohama earlier. Scidmore joined her kin in their grave at the Yokohama General Foreign Cemetery. A small monument set up beside her tombstone reads “A woman who loved Japanese cherry blossoms rests in peace here.”
Notable among Scidmore’s achievements was her key role played for a project to transport about 3,000 young Japanese flowering cherry trees to the United States and plant them in the Potomac River area in Washington D.C. in 1912. The cherry trees became widely known there as a token of friendly relations between the two countries. The trees are in full bloom early April every year. Timed to coincide with their blooming, the “sakura” cherry blossom festival takes place there annually. A few young plants were created by grafting from one of the cherry trees in Washington and donated back to Japan in 1991. One of them is in front of the tomb of Scidmore and her mother and brother.
Her fans annually gather before her grave in the cherry blossom season to remember her achievements. This year’s service, the 24th of its kind, brought together about 40 people, who offered flowers to her grave one by one and sang the sakura (cherry blossoms) song for her.

Cherry blossoms, cherry blossoms
Cherry trees are in full bloom
across the hills out there under the March sky.
They look like mists or clouds,
and their fragrances are everywhere.
Now let’s go. Let’s go and see the cherry blossoms.
(A personal translation)

This old Japanese folk song is sung at various occasions in spring. The song, which is linked to an old etude for the “koto” Japanese harp, is so much loved by Japanese as to be called the “second national anthem.”
The young cherry tree which came from Washington “was just about a meter high when it was planted here, but it is now this high, “ extending its branches over the tombstone, Kaoru Onji, a founder of the fans' group, told participants.
Yokohama was the place where Scidmore set foot on her first visit to Japan in 1884. Her brother, George, was an American diplomat in Yokohama at that time. She visited Japan many times after that and stayed mainly in Yokohama. Scidmore published her first book about Japan in 1891, devoting the first four chapters of the 37-chapter book to discussing people’s life and exciting spots of Yokohama. The former small fishing village had been opened as a new port to foreign countries 25 years before her first visit. About 3,700 foreigners were in the port city in 1884, when she saw Japan for the first time. The cemetery where she rests in peace is in a scenic area on the Bluff which commands a nice view of Yokohama Port.
Scidmore joined the National Geographic Society of the United States in 1890 and wrote many books about Japan and other Asian countries. She was the first woman to have a seat on the Board of Managers of the society.
What Scidmore made in contribution to friendship between Japan and the United States had been little known among general people in Japan “when we started holding memorial services for her," Onji said. The Scidmore family had ceased because the brother and sister died unmarried, leaving nobody to take care of their tomb, said Onji, the widow of the first Japanese translator of Scidmore’s 1891 book “Jinrikisha Days in Japan.”
A young cherry tree was further grafted from the tree beside her grave and planted near a shopping street in Yokohama a few years ago through efforts by the group and others to let people know about her episode.
Scidmore showed keen interest, with a favorable feeling, in almost everything she saw in Japan. She was particularly curious about Japanese flowers and plants, including not only cherry blossoms but also "asagao" morning glories, and above all, the Japanese art of gardening. Her passion about Japanese flowers led her to write a long essay, titled “The Surprising Morning Glories of Japan.” The Japanese translation of the essay was contributed to a magazine published by a group of Japanese horticulturists in 1900, a researcher said at a party after the service. The essay contained many professional remarks, indicating Scidmore had tried hard to collect information about what she saw and studied hard about it. "It is just great," the researcher said.
Efforts for better relations between Japan and the United States were made by a variety of Americans, among them Scidmore, who were charmed by Japan and its culture in its early stage to get out of two and a half centuries of isolation under the Tokugawa shogun regime. This suggests relations between the two countries across the Pacific were rather closer than at present, at least in terms of culture and people’s feelings. What should have Scidmore said about the current shaky relations between Tokyo and Washington if she was alive? This is a question one should be tempted to ask.

Mt. Fuji continues to charm Japanese with many faces

March 31, 2010

Mt. Fuji continues to charm Japanese with many faces


Mt. Fuji has continued to charm Japanese over the centuries while showing them many faces as a god-like object and a beautiful but dangerous peak for climbers. Japan’s highest mountain stands on a border that separates Shizuoka Prefecture facing the Pacific to the south and the landlocked Yamanashi Prefecture. But the 3,776-meter-high dormant volcano can be seen from various places as remote as some 300 kilometers away on Japan’s main island of Honshu on clear days, because it has no other mountain or mountain range around.
Fuji used to be an active volcano in the ancient times. The mountain was depicted in many classical literary works as a volcano that constantly emits big columns of smoke to no purpose. In later periods, Fuji became to be seen as an awe-inspiring mountain.
Following is a love poem composed by Ki Tsurayuki, one of the greatest waka poets in the Heian period from the late eighth century to the 12th century:

My unrealized ardent love will remain to be met.
A fire in my heart may climb up to the sky like a cloud.
As Mt. Fuji constantly burns itself,
I will continue to burn the fire of my love forever.
(A personal translation)

Those who start their trail from the southern bottom point can see an old big shrine that stands to guard the mountain as a god. Most of the areas above the eighth station of Fuji are believed to be part of the precincts of the shrine, Sengen Shrine. One of the buildings that belong to the shrine is on the top of the mountain.
Today, paved roads take people up as high as the half way point of the mountain, but it sometimes shows its dangerous face, exposing climbers to the risks of developing altitude sickness and being hit by strong winds or fallen rocks. In the winter season, they must also be careful about the danger of slipping down the icy slopes and freezing to death.
Accidents on the mountain claimed at least nine lives in 2009. Among the dead were two Americans. A total of nearly 1,000 people are seen to have lost their lives on the mountain since modern mountaineering was introduced into Japan in the Meiji era.
Local people and authorities have been campaigning to get Mt. Fuji on the list of world heritages of UNESCO. They first tried to have it registered as a natural world heritage, but they switched to a registration as a cultural heritage because the contaminated natural environment around the mountain must be improved.
People in the local community still admire Fuji as a god-hosting mountain. Many people in other areas also watch the mountain while seeking something that heartens or encourages them to get through the current hard time. The mountain is expected to continue to give Japanese a lot of spiritual energies to support their life.

Kamakura shrine loses symbolic tree

March 12, 2010

Kamakura shrine loses symbolic tree

A famous Shinto shrine in Kamakura, the home to Japan’s first samurai-led regime, was filled with a mixed atmosphere one day this week. Visitors were heaving a sigh of admiration at early cherry blossoms at several places in the precincts of Tsurugaoka Hachimangu Shrine, while others were watching a fallen ginkgo tree near the main building of the shrine with worried faces. The news that the 800-year-old, 30-meter-high tree had fallen has attracted an unusually large number of visitors to the shrine. (Readers may be advised to see the post published on Jan. 7.)
Tsurugaoka Hachimangu attracts about half of some 19 million tourists to Kamakura. After the incident, shrine priests held a rite in front of the tree to calm and purify its soul. The ginkgo tree, which had shed its leaves, was uprooted by a storm before dawn on Wednesday. A watchman at the shrine heard big sounds a few times before finding the tree lying beneath the big staircase leading to the main building with its root totally exposed. The incident came as a shock to frequent visitors and worshipers to the shrine as well as citizens of Kamakura, because the tree has been admired as the symbol of the shrine.
“We will resuscitate the tree while obtaining experts’ advice,” a shrine official said. “We’ll have to do so anyway, because it has been a sacred tree for us,” he said. An expert who was called to the shrine and took a look at the situation said it will be difficult to plant the tree back at the same place.

The tree, with its trunk 6.8 meters around, is linked to a legend about the 1219 assassination of Minamoto Sanetomo, the third and last Kamakura shogun. Sanetomo, a son of the first Kamakura shogun Minamoto Yoritomo, was 26 when he was assassinated by his nephew on a snowy day at the shrine. He was also known as a waka poet. One of his works in his own waka poem anthology goes:

This world would be unchanged forever, I wish.

A fisherman is seen ahead

rowing a small boat

tied to a rope extended from the beach.

What an interesting view it is!

(A personal translation)

With its root covered by straw mats, the tree was surrounded by hundreds of people standing with a worried look behind the fences. An old man said, “I feel sad about it, because my wife and I had a wedding ceremony at this shrine 50 years ago.”
The tree has been designated as a natural monument for Kanagawa Prefecture. Kanagawa Governor Shigefumi Matsuzawa expects to establish a task force to discuss what to do about the tree. Japanese people are busy making their living amid concern about the course of the economy, but the incident suggests that people are rather having stronger interest in Japan’s culture and tradition. The year 2010 should be remembered as an important year not just for the shrine but also for those who love Kamakura and its history.

Small rural town activates itself with Hina Matsuri doll festival

Feb. 28, 2010

Small rural town activates itself with Hina Matsuri doll festival

The 300-year-old former village headman’s residence becomes the theater of a traditional “Hina Matsuri” festival from February to March with hundreds of special dolls displayed to the public. The doll festival, organized by Kaisei Town with a population of 16,000, attracts about 20,000 visitors to the dominantly farming region every year. During the three-week festival, members of the local women’s club are busy cleaning the residence and preparing special dolls and other items to be displayed before receiving visitors.
The oldest of the special dolls are those preserved by the Seto family, the former owner of the straw-roofed residence, whose origin goes back to the 17th century early in the Edo era. Other dolls, made in the Meiji era or later periods, have been contributed by other families of the town. They are displayed along with many colorful hanging decorations of lucky items, which are handmade by members of the women’s club. “We have about 20 sets of special dolls contributed and over 7,000 items of hanging decorations,” a women’s club member said. “There are also some dolls in the warehouse, because we cannot display all of them right here.”
The special dolls for the Hina Matsuri festival include a pair of dolls representing the Emperor and the Empress, which is placed atop of five- or seven-tier alters covered with red carpet. Placed beneath them are the three court ladies, the five court musicians and the ministers of the left and the right. Also on display are miniature pieces of furniture, including “bonbori” paper-covered lanterns, and fake foods like lozenge-shaped colored rice cakes.

Let’s light up the “bonbori” lanterns,
let’s offer peach flowers at the alter,
flutes and drums played by the five musicians.
Let’s have fun with the Hina Matsuri dolls today.

The Emperor and Empress dolls,
sitting side by side with straight faces,
the white faced court lady is
just like my married elder sister.

The spring breeze gently sways the flickering light
on the golden folding screen.
The Minister of the Right has a red face.
He must be drunk with rice malt sake.

Changing clothes and tying obi sashes,
today, I will also be dressed in all my finery,
for this special day of March,
for the Hina Matsuri festival, lovelier than anything else.
(A personal translation)

This is a children’s song which is frequently heard toward early March. The song, made in the 1930s, is in a minor key but it has been loved for its gentle melody not only by children but also by many women.
The Hina Matsuri festival is usually observed on the third day of March. The fest is based on a practice which dates back to the Heian period of the 10th to 12th centuries, in which people transferred their sin and misfortune to small paper dolls and floated them down the river. Combined with a doll play among girls at noble families, the practice developed into a festival in later periods to wish for young girls’ good health and happiness. The event is also called the Feast of Peach Blossoms, because it comes when peach blossoms start to bloom.
The Hina Matsuri doll display at Kaisei Town is one of many newly launched events in various parts of Japan in order to demonstrate each region’s attractive features in historical and traditional terms. The town can be reached by about an hour of train ride from Tokyo.
The doll festival at the Seto family residence began only five years ago. But enthusiasm among local people, particularly members of the women’s club, about displaying their life and culture through the event suggests that the fest will continue to attract far more people than the town's population in the years ahead. The special dolls will be displayed until March 7 this year.

Ume Japanese apricot heralds spring in chilly weather

Feb. 20, 2010

Ume Japanese apricot heralds spring in chilly weather


Japanese apricot, or “ume” plum trees are beginning to bloom in Tokyo and neighboring regions, though the mercury shows no signs of going up. The season’s second accumulation of snow was observed in the central part of Tokyo this week as a low-pressure system packing cold air stayed over the Kanto region. Streets near the Gaien gardens outside the Imperial Palace compounds were covered with a thin layer of snow early Thursday, inconveniencing people walking to their workplace. The snowfall also forced a delay in the opening of a trial at a district court in Mito, Ibaraki Prefecture, northeast of Tokyo, because two lay judges were unable to be there on time.
Enduring cold weather, ume plum trees begin to bloom as the hours of sunshine get longer. Ume blossoms are less brilliant than "sakura" cherry blossoms, Japan's most favored flower in terms of its traditional culture. But ume charmed ancient people with its fragrance, which spreads elegantly in chilly, humid air in early spring. They were also impressed by the dignified atmosphere the style of the ume trees gives off.
Ume plum blossoms were loved by waka poets from the ancient times as a flower that signals the arrival of spring before other flowers.

Let’s get the scent of plum blossoms
to be carried with the messenger of the breeze
so it may be a guide
that lures bush warblers out of the valley.
(A personal translation)

This is a poem composed by Ki Tomonori, one of the editors of Japan’s second oldest waka poem anthology Kokinwakashu. Ume is the first flower that appears in the spring section of the poem anthology, compiled in the 10th century. Bush warblers were also believed to be a bird which heralds spring. Ume plum trees were imported from China, but they were admired by ancient people so that it came to be seen as Japan’s indigenous flower.
In warmer areas, people enjoy plum blossom viewing parties from early February. But ume trees are just budding in Tokyo and its vicinity. The temperature remains far below 10 degrees centigrade in Tokyo, but the budding ume trees brighten up people's heart, telling them that spring is just around the corner with various new lives poised to be born.

Lunar New Year’s events at Chinatown cheer up Yokohama

Feb. 14, 2010

Lunar New Year’s events at Chinatown cheer up Yokohama

February is the hottest season of the year for residents of the Yokohama Chinatown, with various traditional events held for the lunar New Year’s holidays. Since the lunar New Year’s Day, “Chunjie” in Chinese, fell on Sunday this year, the town attracted more visitors than usual.

The Yokohama Chinatown, with an area of 0.2 square kilometer, accommodates more than 500 shops, including about 200 Chinese restaurants and over 50 ethnic food and souvenir shops.
Visitors and tourists flocked to the Chinatown Sunday aiming to take a look at lion dance performances, one of the most attractive events for the New Year’s period. “We divide into four groups. We’re gonna call at about 50 shops each today,” a performer said. Each group has a pair of dance performers holding the mask and body of the lion and four to five musicians. They perform lion dances on drum beats at the entrance of the shops praying for a success of their business for the New Year.
The Yokohama Chinatown, the largest in East Asia, is hemmed by 10 Chinese-style gates. The largest of them, the Goodwill Gate, stands at the busiest corner in the town. Every street in the area was filled with so many visitors that it was very hard for vehicles and shoppers to pass. Trying to maintain order among the crowd, a staffer shouted, “Don’t push, please. You don’t need to hurry. We have many more performances until evening.”
Yokohama, Japan’s second largest city, was a small fishing village until the middle of the 19th century, when it was turned into a port for commerce with other countries toward the end of the Edo period. The opening of the port triggered an inflow of many foreigners, including immigrants and merchants from China, who started their business at a quarter of the designated foreign settlement area. The community of ethnic Chinese, mainly from Guangzhou, was relatively small at the initial stage. The community underwent turbulent years as Japan and China fought two wars from the late 19th century to the 1940s, but it has grown into one of the biggest tourist spots in Yokohama.
The year 2009 was the 150th anniversary of the opening of the port at Yokohama. The city held a big exposition at a portside area in commemoration of the anniversary from April to September last year, but the number of visitors to the event fell far short of the target of five million. The disappointing result was attributed mainly to an allegedly inappropriate project concept, but it also reflected weak consumer sentiment amid Japan’s economic slump. The series of New Year’s events at the Yokohama Chinatown has helped dispel the bearish economic mood and spirit up people's mind.

Nara's relations with ancient China, Korea revisited on 1,300th anniversary of Heijo-kyo Capital

Jan. 31, 2010

Nara's relations with ancient China, Korea revisited on 1,300th anniversary of Heijo-kyo Capital

Nara, a major tourist spot of western Japan, is out to demonstrate its history as Japan’s first “international” capital with links to the ancient China and Korea by organizing many special events and programs. Nara boasts of being a “serene ancient capital” but people from various walks of life there are having exciting days this year, the 1,300th anniversary of the founding of Nara’s Heijo-kyo Capital.
Nara hosts a number of valuable cultural heritages preserved throughout its 1,300 years of history. Some of them are original to Japan, but some were based on imported thoughts and cultures, notably Buddhism, according to the Rev. Kashu Matsukubo from Yakushiji Temple. “When Buddhist priests from China and Korea visit Nara, many of them tell us, ‘We feel as if we were back in our homeland,’” he says.

Nara was Japan’s capital from 710 to 793, the period when Japan tried hard to establish itself as a “state” with a universal code of laws and a firm cultural foundation. Advanced technologies and precious items came along with Buddhism mainly from China. They were used to design and build temples and other structures in Heijo-kyo Capital.

Colored with bright blue and red,
the capital of Nara is at its best now,
just like glowing cherry blossoms.
(A personal translation)

This is a frequently quoted waka poem composed by Onono Oyu, a court official who was active in the early eighth century. Blue-green lattice windows and vermilion-lacquered columns at shrines and other buildings at various places in Nara, the colors which can be seen even now, characterized the capital’s landscape in the period. Heijo-kyo Capital, which had a population of about 100,000, also had streets laid out orderly in a grid pattern, based on a design for the capital of the then Tang dynasty of China.
Many important items and technologies were brought to Japan from China by missions who risked their lives to travel across the rough East China Sea. One of the projects planned in celebration of the 1,300th anniversary calls for building a full-scale ship at the restored Heijo Palace site. The ship is a replica of an old vessel which was used by a mission sent to China during the Nara period. “It will be really worth seeing because you (visitors) will have a sense of the reality and dynamic appearance of the ship,” Nara Governor Shogo Arai says in an interview on Nara Explorer, an English language quarterly. The structure “represents symbolic evidence that Nara flourished as an international city.”
Imported technologies and thoughts were accepted and studied by monks at temples in Nara because Japan had no public or state facilities to digest them at the time, the Rev. Matsukubo said at a recent lecture meeting organized by the Nara prefectural government. Yakushiji, the temple where the 43-year-old priest serves, was one of the “Big Seven” temples in Heijo-kyo Capital.
Buddhist priests in the Nara period contributed to not only establishing basic systems to govern the country but also integrating Japanese people as a nation under the Buddhist philosophy, which stresses harmony among people and calls to be modest while helping and respecting each other, the Rev. Matsukubo said. It is feared that today’s world is becoming excessively economy-oriented, he said. East Asian countries, especially Japan, China and Korea, share traditional values based on Buddhism. The Rev. Matsukubo hopes that the planned events in Nara will provide an occasion for visiting people to take a fresh look at the Buddhist values held among Asian countries.
Buddhist priests from Japan, China and South Korea have been holding meetings almost every year since the 1990s to reconfirm their roles to play for people’s peace. The first meeting was held in Beijing in 1995, two years after the then Buddhist Association of China President Zhao Puchu visited Japan and proposed holding a trilateral Buddhists' dialogue. “We, the Buddhist priests from Japan, China and Korea, are resolved to work closely together for peace,“ since the three countries have nothing but a narrow strip of water to separate them, the Rev. Matsukubo said.
The programs for the 1,300th anniversary include a pilgrimage-like tour of religious sites in Nara and neighboring areas. The Journey of People’s Wishes over 1,300 Years program will be joined by 52 temples and shrines, which will offer special displays of their historical assets, including secretly preserved statues.
Nara attracted 540,000 foreign tourists in 2008, 31 pct of them from South Korea and 6 pct from China. Nara government people expect the series of events will make the ancient capital more attractive to foreign tourists with illustrations about its historical relations with the rest of Asia. “I would like many people to discover and enjoy Nara and would like them to feel glad to have spent some time here,” Governor Arai said. Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama's government pins hopes on tourism in addition to the environment and health as the three major pillars of Japan's new growth strategy for the years ahead. A success of the special events planned by Nara must be a matter of great concern not only for local government officials but also for the Japanese government.