Kabuki actors gather for boat parade to demonstrate start of performance in Fukuoka

May 31, 2013

Kabuki actors gather for boat parade to demonstrate start of performance in Fukuoka

A busy riverside area in the heart of Fukuoka City, southwestern Japan, became what may be termed a mobile, open-air theater this week. The Hakata Riverine district was occupied by more than 30,000 people hoping to take a glimpse of 10 Kabuki players who gathered for a spectacular boat ride before the start of their performance at the Hakataza theater.

Accompanied by theater executives and local celebrities, the Kabuki players boarded 10 different boats and went down on a canal slowly to a wharf near the theater. The 800-meter elegant boat parade was watched by spectators flocking on bridges and promenades on both banks of the canal.

The “Funanorikomi” boat procession began in the Edo era as an event to herald the start of Kabuki performances in Kyoto, the then capital of Japan, by actors who arrived from Edo, the old name of Tokyo. Similar water parades later began to be held in Edo and other places with big Kabuki theaters. But the Funanorikomi parade now can be seen only in Osaka and Fukuoka. The parade in Fukuoka started in 1999 on the occasion of the opening of the Hakataza theater. The parade has come to stay as an event which tells people in Fukuoka the arrival of summer, as it takes place at the end of May every year. Kabuki world people and theater executives pinned even greater hopes on this year’s parade because it was aimed at not just demonstrating the forthcoming Kabuki performance at Hakataza in June but also introducing two actors on their succession to big stage names to fans in Fukuoka.

The new star actors, Ichikawa Ennosuke and Ichikawa Chusha, led the procession while waving their hands to fans from their boats. Some fans shouted cheers and their company name, Omodakaya, toward the procession. Kabuki plays and dances, backed by bands of musicians, date back to the early 17th century. Initially, the plays were performed by “yujo” prostitudes, but this style was banned later. Instead, performances only with actors flourished. The Kabuki performances then have been inherited almost hereditarily over the centuries.

At the front of the procession was a boat with two paper lanterns held high up on bamboo poles, followed by boats with the 10 actors on board and tall flags wearing their respective names put up. The parade was even more exciting because many spectators scattered confetti distributed by organizers on Ennosuke, Chusha and their comrade actors. Confetti were also seen falling on spectators themselves and press photographers who took their positions in the press area trying hard not to miss their chance.

A few big-caliber Kabuki actors died of illness around the turn of the year. This spread fears among Kabuki world people and fans about the future of the centuries-old performance. But new actors are coming to the fore to succeed their art, among them Ennosuke and Chusha. The new-generation Kabuki actors are expected to help create richness in today’s stressful life in Japan while adapting the traditional art better to the current situation.

Slow boat ride attracts tourists to Yanagawa as “Town of Water”

April 30, 2013

Slow boat ride attracts tourists to Yanagawa as “Town of Water”

Time passes slowly in Yanagawa as it entertains tourists with a relaxing boat ride through a water district, called “Suigo,” in a historic, poetic landscape. Suigo is actually a network of small waterways and canals extending in every direction around the Yanagawa Castle ruins and the “Ohana” villa built by the Tachibana Clan family which ruled the region from the early Edo era  in the 17th century.

As “donko-bune” boats operate almost throughout the year, tourists can enjoy their time while watching water flowers and weeping willows down the stream from spring to summer. In the winter time, boats with “kotatsu” low, covered tables which have a heat source underneath are provided. Boats pass under 13 bridges before reaching the end of the ride in the Okinohata district, a fishermen’s town which faces the fertile Ariake inland sea.
Okinohata is known as the birthplace of Hakushu Kitahara (1885-1942), one of the most distinguished poets in the 20th century. He produced not only a lot of nostalgic poems but also lyrics for children’s songs. Ariake sea, lying west of Yanagawa, in the southern part of Fukuoka Prefecture, southwestern Japan, has 6 meters of difference between the tide marks, the biggest in Japan. This creates vast tidelands as a fine living environment for various fish and small marine creatures.

With the sun setting, the tide is rising.
On the evening tideland, a crab mutters,
having finished his long day of work.
(A personal translation)

This is a short poem written by Hakushu and included in a collection of poems and photos titled “Composition of Water,” published in 1943.
In the course of the 70-minute boat ride, which is available from 9 in the morning to sunset, boatmen sometimes sing local folk songs with a slow rhythm while steering their boats with bamboo poles. Tourists can also see time-honored structures and monuments along the waterways, among them the narrow stone water gate at the entrance to the former Yanagawa Castle. They may also see a traditional “yotsude-ami” fishing net with four bamboo rods combined and buy foods, drinks and others at a waterside market.
The holiday-studded “Golden Week” from late April is the most profitable season for nearly 100 boatmen, who belong to five different boat operators. After carrying tourists to the terminal in Okinohata, a busy town with Japanese-style restaurants and souvenir shops, they return with vacant boats to pick up tourists again. “This is the third job for me today. I may be asked to do it once again,” a veteran boatman with a sweet voice, who introduced himself as “Mr. Tsutsumi,“ said happily on a fine weekend day.
Hakushu, whose real name is Ryukichi Kitahara, admired his birthplace in his works, admitting “Yanagawa is the mother of my poems and lyrics.” Tourist spots in Yanagawa, which has a population of 70,000, are sparsely located but linked with riverside promenades and alleys.This, coupled with lack of smokestack factories, is a reason for its unique atmosphere. Hakushu's love for the “Town of Water” is shared by today’s Yanagawa people, who should further try to preserve its environment and landscape over the years.

Hot spa resort Yufuin refining itself as relaxing, healing spot

March 31、2013

Hot spa resort Yufuin refining itself as relaxing, healing spot

Yufuin is one of the most successful hot spa resorts surviving the low growth years in Japan, but it is making further efforts to refine its feature as a relaxing and healing spot.
Unlike many other hot spa towns in Japan, Yufuin has no pleasure-oriented amusement area. This is why it is loved by many female tourists. Located in a basin in Oita Prefecture, southwestern Japan, Yufuin used to be a small retreat-like health spot. A few projects emerged to develop the Yufuin hot spa as a major resort town early in the 20th century, but Yufuin residents resisted these projects, because they hoped to continue their business in the town while preserving its calm rural landscape. Their policy was maintained even when Japan underwent a speculation-driven development boom from the 1980s. This helped Yufuin to win a public image as a healthy hot spa resort, where people can relax and heal themselves in a beautiful natural environment.

Dozens of hotels with hot spring baths are situated on streets and alleys extending toward the foot of Mt. Yufu, a landmark for Yufuin, which currently attracts 4 million tourists a year. The 1,584-meter active volcano can be viewed to the north from open-air baths at many Japanese-style hotels.

“Yufuin Floral Village,” a miniature theme park, is a brand-new tourist spot in the town. Opened in November, the park is designed as a copy of the English countryside, particularly Cotswolds which is said to be the world’s most beautiful village. Visiitors are welcomed at the entrance by a duck named after Jemima Puddle-Duck, a character in the Peter Rabbit series children’s novels by Beatrix Potter. Visitors can enjoy strolling around pretty dry stone houses and shops. The facility also has a hotel with a hot spa and a restaurant, as its catch copy says: "You can fiind something truly healing to you here." The Yufuin Floral Village project was initiated by a local businessman “in an effort to activate this town,” said a village staffer.

Yufuin organizes new, unconventional events such as music and film festivals from time to time. A horse-drawn wagon service for tourists has been available since 1975. Some people are concerned that too ambitious a tourist project will run the risk of undermining the town’s brand image as a healthy, calm resort, but others believe that Yufuin has many tourist assets to demonstrate, at a time when Japanese people are becoming more aware of the importance of the nature.

“Hina” doll displays enliven calm rural town toward Girls’ Day festival

“Hina” doll displays enliven calm rural town toward Girls’ Day festival

Feb. 27, 2013

Yoshii Town is a calm community in the southern part of Fukuoka Prefecture, southwestern Japan, but it becomes busy from February to early April with attractive “Hina” dolls publicly displayed at dozens of houses and shops. Yoshii flourished as a stage town in the Edo era to the middle of the 19th century. Its traces of prosperity can be seen in areas around its main street, lined by big “dozo” storehouses with white fireproof plaster walls.
The traditional “Hinamatsuri” doll festival celebrates the Girls’ Day of March 3. In recent years, town-wide festivals of its kind are held in many regions across the country. But the Hina doll festival in Yoshii is unique. Visitors can casually see time-honored and relatively new cute Hina dolls while strolling and shopping on the street.
“When we saw a Hina doll festival in a town in Oita (the neighboring prefecture) over 20 years ago, a good idea hit me,” a local old man recalled. He and his friends then believed, “This can be done in our town, too." The man, who is in his 80s and runs a small restaurant and café with his niece, said there are a number of families and shops with old Hina dolls in the town.
“These dolls, displayed beautifully here and there in the town, can be attractive to tourists,“ he said. The 21st Yoshii Hina Doll Tour, launched Feb. 10, continues until April 3. “We had a lot of tourists on the first weekend after the start of this year’s festival,” his niece said.
Visitors can see old Hina doll sets, some of them made in the Edo era, at a ceramic ware shop, a confectionery store and elsewhere. Passers-by may also find Hina dolls and their miniature belongings displayed at a bank’s windowside. Tourists can also enjoy riding in a rickshaw on 15 to 30 minute courses on Sundays during the festival.
Yoshii, with a population of about 17,000, became a part of Ukiha City, a largely rural area in Fukuoka Prefecture, in 2005. People’s life in the town is less bustling, but they look well satisfied with their daily life as it is fillled with centuries-old, rich tradition and culture.

Old ume tree cheers students toward entrance exam season with good fragrance

Jan. 28, 2013

Old ume tree cheers students toward entrance exam season with good fragrance

The old ume Japanese apricot tree is right in front of the main building of the Dazaifu Tenmangu Shrine and always the first to bloom among about 6,000 ume trees in the shrine area.
The shrine, located in Dazaifu City, Fukuoka Prefecture, southwestern Japan, is dedicated to the memory of Michizane Sugawara, a Heian period scholar-turned politician. He is known as the “god of learning.” So, the shrine attracts many students from across the country for the god’s protection for their endeavor to pass entrance exams for junior and senior high schools and universities. Dazaifu Tenmangu is at the top of over 4,000 Tenmagu shrines across Japan. This is even more encouraging to students worshiping at Dazaifu for the god’s favor for their attempts. As Japan’s school year starts in April, entrance exams take place from mid-January to early March at many schools.
Coinciding with the start of the entrance examination season, the “Tobiume” (Flying Ume) tree, so called for a legend linked to Michizane, begins to blossom in mid-January with its white double-petaled flowers giving off a refreshing fragrance.
Michizane fell victim to slander when he was Minister of the Right in 901. He was then exiled to the Dazaifu governor-general’s headquarters and died there two years later. After that, the Imperial Court acknowledged the charge against him was false and restored his honor. The shrine was built at the site of his grave a few years after his death.The legend says that the ume tree flew from Michizane’s residence in Kyoto in one night to Dazaifu, longing for his soul.

When the kochi east wind blows, please blossom and give off your good fragrance, ume flowers! Your owner is not here, but do not forget the spring.
 (A personal translation)

This is a waka poem which Michizane made, while watching his beloved ume tree at his residence, when he left Kyoto to be exiled in Dazaifu. Michizane, hailing from a less noble family, became known as an eminent scholar and joined the top echelon of the Emperor's government.
The precincts of the shrine are also occupied by big camphor trees, some of them 1,000 or so years old.
These trees might have been seen by Michizane when they were saplings. One of the trees fell after a typhoon hit the area about 20 years ago, but about 50 tall camphor trees still exist, spreading a solemn atmosphere within the shrine, a clerk at an information office said.
Students and other worshipers can buy a variety of lucky items at the information office, incluidng white "hachimaki" headbands reading "Praying for passing an exam." Following the aging of Japan's population, the number of young people has been decreasing in recent years. This is basically expected to make entrance examinations less harsher than ever, but students have to be faced with tough days more toward exams because competition for entry into famous universities and high schools, seen to pave good career paths, remains hard amid uncertainties surrounding today's Japan.

Hakata Station area attracts people with new and old landmarks

Dec. 28, 2012

Hakata Station area attracts people with new and old landmarks

Hakata Station is the main land gate to Kyushu, southwestern Japan, but the station area and its vicinity are filled with not just modern structures but also old, scenic landmarks. Centuries-old Buddhist temples can be found on alleys just behind tall office buildings and hotels a few blocks to the west from the station.
Tochoji Temple is the most famous of more than 10 temples located in the area. The temple consists of a main hall, a building that houses a 10-meter-high wooden Buddha statue, a red five-story tower and a graveyard for the Kuroda “daimyo” family which ruled the northern part of Fukuoka from the 17th century to the middle of the 19th century.
Tochoji, whose history dates back to the ninth century in the Heian era, is a main feature of a tourist course which covers the old quarter of Hakata, the town which emerged from a port city more than 10 centuries ago. Hakata is also the name for the eastern half of the core Fukuoka City area. (A related story can be found in the post released on July 17, 2011.)
When visitors enter a quiet street next to Tochoji Temple, they can find the white long wall and the main gate of Shofukuji Temple, a temple built at an Emperor’s behest late in the 12th century. Shofukuji is also known as the first zen temple built in Japan.
The station building was completely renovated from 2007 to early 2011, in time for the full opening of the Kyushu Shinkansen bullet train services. A new station building, launched for business in March 2011, has 10 stories and three underground floors. As Hakata Station accommodates about 180,000 passengers a day, the building is a new landmark not just for Fukuoka City, with a population of about 1.5 million, but also for the western part of Japan. With 180,000 square meters of floor space for commercial use, the building has accepted one of Japan’s best known department store chains as its core tenant.
Various attractions and decorations are provided almost throughout the year to entertain visitors, passengers and passers-by, among them extensive night illuminations.
Because Fukuoka is geographically close to China and Korea, the city has made various efforts to attract many tourists from China and other neighboring Asian countries. Tourist businesses in Fukuoka have been hurt by a sharp decline in the number of Chinese tourists this year amid political tension between Japan and China over a territorial dispute, but the new station building, coupled with the old temples in the surrounding areas, is expected to make the city more attractive to tourists from now on.

(video8) School kids perform ritual dance for legendary princess

Nov. 28, 2012