Season's Greetings from a Classical Japanese Poem Lover

Dec. 23, 2011

Season's Greetings from a classical Japanese poem lover with photos of the four seasons of Japanese children (from the top):

a little girl and her grandma at "Hinamatsuri" doll festival in Kaisei Town, Kanagawa Prefecture

a girl at flower carpet festival in Ginza, Tokyo

children dancing for a flea market attraction in Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture

young girls writing hopes on wishing cards at "Tanabata" festival in Hiratsuka, Kanagawa Prefecture

a boy and a baby watching goats at county fair in Asakura, Fukuoka Prefecture

a little girl and a mother at Yokohama Museum of Art Square in Yokohama

girls playing on Meganebashi bridge in Akizuki of Asakura, Fukuoka Prefecture

little girls at "Hagoita" fair at Sensoji Temple in Asakusa, Tokyo

Japanese admire colored leaves in many ways in quiet autumn air

Nov. 30, 2011

Japanese admire colored leaves in many ways in quiet autumn air

One of the pleasures for Japanese to have in the chilly but quiet autumn air is colored leaf viewing. Colored autumn leaves usually mean maple and gingko tree leaves for Japanese today, but residents of a small town in the eastern part of Kurume City, Fukuoka Prefecture, have long loved “haze” Japanese wax tree leaves, which turn bright red toward the end of autumn.
The haze trees are called so because the seed vessel is rich in wax. Haze wax trees were once seen here and there in the Yanagizaka district, mainly on the riverside and on the corners of fields. “Mokuro” wax extracted from the seed vessel had been used as an ingredient for Japanese candles until early last century. But demand for mokuro wax candles declined sharply around the middle of the century following changes in people’s way of life. As a result, many haze trees had been cut down.
Colored leaf viewing in autumn compares with cherry blossom viewing in spring. “Sakura” flowering cherry trees have been best loved by Japanese people over the centuries. But many Japanese have also been lured by the beauty of autumn tints of various trees that decorate mountains, hills and elsewhere.

It was the day when the first blow of autumn winds was felt.
The top of trees had then begun to turn red
on the peak of Mt. Otowa where I heard the winds.
(A personal translation)

This is a “waka” poem composed by Ki Tsurayuki, a distinguished poet in the Heian period who played a key role in editing the Kokinwakashu poem anthology early in the 10th century.
A row of about 200 old wax trees,　5 to 6 meters high and about one meter around, is one of the few haze tree groups left in Yanagizaka. The trees line a 1.1-kilometer road which used to be the approach to a Buddhist temple at the northern foot of the Minoh Mountains. The Yanagizaka wax tree avenue was designated as a natural monument by Fukuoka Prefecture in 1964.
Wax tree planting started in Yanagizaka and neighboring areas about 250 years ago in the middle of the Edo era as the clan who had ruled the Kurume region recommended planting haze trees and producing mokuro wax to farmers in an effort to promote the local industry and support their livelihood.
Wax production for supply to Japanese candle makers is already over, but wax produced from the remaining haze trees is used mainly as ingredients for cosmetics such as pomade and lipsticks, colored pencils and paints. The wax tree avenue at Yanagizaka becomes a busy street toward the end of November when local people set up roadside stands to welcome visitors hoping to see colored wax tree leaves.
A local elderly man, who was at the avenue to guide visitors, said, “They (the trees) are losing their vigor in recent years.” A group of local high school students "helped us prune and cut undergrowth a few years ago. The trees are so old anyway. That’s why we have to take care of them carefully,” the man said.
Local people’s efforts to restore strength to the haze trees are expected to continue, but the avenue should remain as a treasure for them for many years.

Old castle town "Little Kyoto" trying hard to keep its own life

Oct. 30, 2011

Old castle town "Little Kyoto" trying hard to keep its own life

Cities and towns in various parts of Japan are trying hard to bolster their life by their respective means as the Japanese economy as a whole has been decelerating over the years. Among them is Akizuki of Asakura City, Fukuoka Prefecture, which boasts of its natural beauty and historically important sites as a former castle town.
Akizuki, which literally means “the autumn moon,” is one of more than 20 old towns across the country that are nicknamed “Little Kyoto” because their appearance and historical atmosphere resemble those of Kyoto, Japan’s capital from the late eighth century to the middle of the 19th century.
Akizuki attracts about 500,000 tourists a year, enchanting them with flowering cherry trees in spring, fireflies and moon viewing in summer, colored leaves in autumn and snow scenes in winter.
Akizuki Castle, which had been built on the southern slope of Mt. Kosho, was deserted after the Meiji Restoration of 1868. On its ruins is a junior high school. Tourists cannot enter the school premises, but they can see Kuromon Gate and Nagayamon Gate, the two former gates leading to the castle which have been restored with almost the same style as they used to have. They can also see a 500-meter straight road in front of the castle ruins, which was used for horsemanship training and other purposes by samurai.
Akizuki is just one of the numerous former castle towns in Japan. It is also rather a smaller one, but it is one of the oldest towns of this kind. The original Akizuki Castle was built early in the 13th century by a warlord who worked with the Kamakura shogun government. Akizuki is also unique because its basic structure and layout as a town, including building sites for samurai and ordinary people like merchants as well as roads and watercourses, have been preserved almost as they were. Preserved sites in the town also include a few houses for senior samurai families with thatched roofs and the 200-year-old stone bridge, called Meganebashi, which still stands at one of the entrances to the town. Some Buddhist temples were built mainly on the edges of the town so that they could be converted into forts in wartime.
Akizuki had a population of about 5,000 at its prime time. Its population has decreased to about 1,000, and visitors are limited on weekdays and off season. But local people receive tourists warmly all the time while living a calm life which has been kept over the centuries.

(video5) Young samurai meets goddess in exciting Yame mechanical doll play

Sept. 27, 2011

(video4) Young samurai meets goddess in exciting Yame mechanical doll play

Sept. 27, 2011

(video3) Young samurai meets goddess in exciting Yame mechanical doll play

Sept. 27, 2011

(video2) Young samurai meets goddess in exciting Yame mechanical doll play

Sept. 27, 2011

(video1) Young samurai meets goddess in exciting Yame mechanical doll play

Sept. 27, 2011

Young samurai meets goddess in exciting Yame mechanical doll play

The three-story structure used for the Toro Ningyo play in Yame City, Fukuoka Prefecture, is fabricated each time and dismantled after the end of the event. On the upper level of the house are singers and a band of musicians, including drummers. The stage on the medium level has a separable bridge on which two dolls are operated with eight long sticks extended from both wings of the stage. Another doll also performs on the stage, but this is moved by operators from the lower level under the floor. Each doll is operated by six persons.

The doll play shown this year is based on a simple, happy story in which a young samurai from Satsuma, the old name of the current Kagoshima Prefecture, visits Itsukushima Shrine in the current Hiroshima Prefecture to pay homage to the Goddess of Benzaiten and sees a beautiful woman as the goddess incarnate emerge with her maid from the shrine and dance on sweet music while granting his wishes.

Small quiet town excited on traditional mechanical doll play in autumn festival

Sept. 27, 2011

Small quiet town excited on traditional mechanical doll play in autumn festival

Yame City is a quiet town which lives on a variety of small handicraft industries in the southern part of Fukuoka Prefecture, southwestern Japan, but a joyful mood spreads among local people toward the end of September when a time-honored mechanical doll play is performed every year.

The Yame-Fukushima Toro Ningyo show is one of the most existing events in a three-day town-wide festival around the Autumnal Equinox holiday. The doll play, designated as an important national tangible folk cultural asset in 1977, is performed by a company of more than 60 local ordinary people five times every day.

The stage for the 30-minute show is a three-story knockdown house, called “Yatai,” which is set up in the precincts of Fukushima Hachimangu Shrine in the heart of the city. The event attracts a few thousand spectators from around the town, but local people look forward to seeing the last performance on the last night because it is played with all sliding paper doors and shutters around the stage removed to show doll operators, singers, musicians and others to the audience. Local people call the doll play “Tapponpon,” never call it “Toro Ningyo,” as it is officially named. While saying “Let’s go to see Tapponpon,” they gather at the shrine in high spirits.

The event started in the middle of the 18th century as part of “Hojouye” life-releasing rites dedicated to the shrine and later, a mechanical doll play began with a method introduced from Osaka. The doll play used to be performed by residents of about 10 neighborhood blocks around the shrine, but it is currently performed by a company formed by local residents to preserve the cultural asset.

One of major products from Yame is a Japanese green tea brand. Local people also live with traditional handicraft shops, such as “chochin” paper lanterns, candles, papermaking, arrows and stone garden lanterns. They also boast of a group of old two-story houses with hipped gables and white walls on Monmachi Street in front of the shrine, which was lined with banboo lanterns in the evening during the festival.

The last performance this year attracted fewer but more excited spectators than those in the daytime. Every time an MC introduced members of the company one by one at the start of the last performance, shouts of cheer arose from among the audience, spreading a relaxed, friendly atmosphere in night air around the stage. The local economy in Yame is less impressive than ever, as is the case with many other regions across Japan, but local people are determined to preserve and inherit the doll play and other time-honored cultural assets in the town over generations.

“Tanada” rice terraces, forests provide healing therapy to urbanites

Aug. 30, 2011

“Tanada” rice terraces, forests provide healing therapy to urbanites

A steeply slanting area with vast “tanada” rice terraces and deep forests in the southern part of Fukuoka Prefecture, southwestern Japan, receives many urbanites hoping to have a time to heal and refresh themselves in the natural environment.
The Tsuzura district in Ukiha City, designated as a “forest therapy area” in a publicly financed project in 2008, extends on both sides of the valley along Tsuzura River, which waters the beautiful tanada rice fields. The district has about 300 tanada rice terraces built with stone walls in an area of about six hectares around 500 meters high. Tsuzura was selected as one of Japan’s 100 most beautiful tanada areas by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries in 1999.
A landscape with tanada rice terraces spread beneath a mountain or on a hill is said to be one of the classic natural views which are original to Japan. The Tsuzura area, which has a history of about 400 years, used to be cultivated by some 100 farmers, but the number has declined to about 15. This is why Ukiha City has taken various measures to preserve the rice terraces and the district.
Guided tours are available mainly on weekends from spring to autumn, with volunteers chosen by the city from among local people ready to show visitors around while telling them not only about natural features such as the names of trees and wild flowers but also efforts by farmers to maintain the tanada fields over generations. Guided by them on “therapy roads” of 1.8 kilometers and 3 kilometers, visitors can have a close look at Japanese cedars and Japanese cypresses, and pure mountain streams while following trails in the woods in fresh air which contains minus ions. Lucky visitors may also have a chance to see sunbeams streaming through the leaves of trees or morning dews on the tip of leaves glitter on the sunlight like diamonds with rainbow colors. Trails at some places are said to be filled with the so-called 1/f noise fluctuations which have an effect of healing the man’s heart.
Water which irrigates the tanada fields comes via bamboo gutters from streams high up the valley. The streams are so pure that people come from distant places to dip up water for drinking at their home, a guide said. The water temperature is unchanged throughout the year and “this is why delicious rice can be produced here,” said the guide proudly.
The so-called “owner system,” introduced by the city, provides people with opportunities to join rice planting and reaping for a donation of at least 30,000 yen. The "owners" have a part of the harvest from the fields sent to them. The system not only contributes to preserving the tanada fields but also gives urban people chances to be friendly with the nature and remind themselves of its preciousness.
The series of efforts by Ukiha City to demonstrate its beautiful natural environment and activate the local community is expected to be more successful at a time when agri-tourism is gradually becoming popular among health-conscious Japanese people.

Summer fests in W. Japan geared to cheer up quake-hit E. Japan people

July 17, 2011

Summer fests in W. Japan geared to cheer up quake-hit E. Japan people

Summer festivals take place across Japan from June to August, but those in western Japan have a different taste this year; to cheer up people in eastern Japan areas devastated by the March 11 earthquake and ensuing tsunami waves.
Post-quake reconstruction is making slow progress, because the influence of the disaster has been aggravated by the unprecedented nuclear plant accident triggered by the tsunami waves. Despite a lapse of four months since then, more than 100,000 people remain without houses to live in. This has led festival organizers to think about what they have to do for affected people. Some of them have decided to extend moral or financial support to the affected regions by, among other things, inviting people from there to their festivals. One of such examples is the Hakata Gion Yamakasa festival, in which heavy floats borne by men on their shoulders race through the streets in the Hakata area of Fukuoka City, Kyushu, southwestern Japan.
The festival, which is held from July 1 to 15, is actually a Shinto ritual dedicated to the Kushida Shrine, the main guardian shrine for the Hakata area, downtown Fukuoka. Seven “Yamakasa” floats are created by local people divided into seven different “Nagare” neighborhood groups. The festival culminates in a fever pitch early in the morning on the final day. With every street and every corner around the shrine occupied by tens of thousands of onlookers as well as TV crew, photographers and police officers and guards, the first of the seven floats, the Nishi (West) Nagare float this year, set off at the signal of beating drums just before dawn and dashed out at full speed into the streets of Hakata. The other floats followed at 5-minute intervals.
Despite the vigorous atmosphere, participants have to keep a gracious attitude and are urged not to have a sense of privilege. The managers of the Nagare groups equally said they would strive to be even more vigorous this year so that “our energies may reach the affected people and help them get back on their feet as soon as possible.”
The festival, designated as an important national intangible folk heritage in 1979, is said to have originated from a ritual which took place in the 13th century to stop epidemic spread in Hakata, which used to be merchants' self-governing city. The heroic and colorful festival attracts about one million people from various areas during the 15-day period.
Each float, which has a weight of about one ton and a height of 5 to 6 meters, is carried by more than 20 men clad in happi coats, who are directed by up to six riders from atop the float. The seven Nagare groups compete to cover the 5.1-kilometer course from the shrine to the goal, in the shortest possible time, about half an hour. The race is also joined by a far loftier float, about 16 meters high, but this float covers a different shorter course before returning to their district.
Spectators gave a shout of joy every time the floats came out of the shrine. Their cheer became even louder against the tallest float, which weighs approximately 2 tons. The eight floats, including the tallest one, are decorated with legendary samurai or popular character dolls fabricated by master Kakata Doll craftsmen.
The records of time with which the seven floats covered the distance to the goal varied, from less than 30 minutes to far over 30 minutes, but float bearers, riders and other participants in all groups looked fully satisfied with their performances, after accomplishing this year’s added aim of extending their energies to the quake-affected people in eastern Japan.

Old waterwheels may be hint for Japan’s fresh renewable energy drive

June 29, 2011

Old waterwheels may be hint for Japan’s fresh renewable energy drive

Farmers in a small village in Chikuzen, the old name of a part of Kyushu, southwestern Japan, had frequently suffered from droughts for lack of irrigation. A long spell of dry weather in the middle of the 17th century early in the Edo era especially hard hit the area, prompting the farmers to seriously consider ways to secure water for their fields. They decided to dig an irrigation canal to draw water from the nearby hard to control Chikugo River. Supported by the feudal lord who ruled the area, they completed the canal after years of hard work, but another problem occurred for them; because the northern part of the village was at a higher place, they decided to build waterwheels on the canal to pump up water for supply to the higher farmland. The complex, multiple wooden waterwheels were rebuilt every 10 years or so with some interruptions over the three and a half centuries since then and continued to water the fields and paddies in the village, which is currently called Hishino, Asakura City, Fukuoka Prefecture, by using only the power of currents.
The structures with three or two waterwheels tied in a row may provide a hint for Japan’s fresh renewable energy drive, which is drawing strong public attention following the nuclear plant disaster which occurred in Fukushima Prefecture on the heels of the March 11 devastating earthquake in northeastern Japan.
Japan depends on nuclear energy for about a quarter of its electric power production. But Japanese people are becoming aware that they cannot rely on nuclear power so much any longer. At a time when people feel a need to increase the use of renewable energy sources instead of nuclear energy seriously, the unpopular Prime Minister Naoto Kan pins hopes on a bill to facilitate trade in electricity produced from renewable energy sources, particularly solar power, to keep afloat amid increasing pressure for an early resignation.
The series of waterwheels in Asakura is the sole system of that kind in Japan designed to pump up water for irrigation. The waterwheels, as a nationally designated historical item, have become one of the few tourist spots in the rural area.
With a small watergate built upstream on the canal open from the middle of June to October, the facilities continue to operate in the period. “When the waterwheels started moving, a lot of people came and took pictures here, “ said an old female farmer who runs a souvenir shop.
The largest of the three structures actually consists of three waterwheels with a diameter of 3.98 to 4.76 meters. With 132 dippers altogether, the wheels can pump up 6,100 liters of water per minute.
The nuclear plant crisis has given added impetus to efforts to look for unconventional sources or means to produce electricity throughout the resources-poor country. The waterwheels are free from any costly conventional power source. On top of that, the structures blend well with the surrounding natural environment. They are expected to be a good example for efforts Japan will have to make from now on to build a new, environmentally friendly energy system which can sustain its economy.

“Manga” comics, ancient capital and post-quake Japan

May 25, 2011

“Manga” comics, ancient capital and post-quake Japan

Kyoto, Japan’s capital from the end of the eighth century to the middle of the 19th century, is so deep a city that accommodates very old and modern assets simultaneously. Not a few streets in the city are lined by time-honored national treasure-class buildings, mainly Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines. But on the corners of other streets, American-style fast food shops like McDonald’s and new fashion brand boutiques can be found. The coexistence of buildings and items with quite different tastes gives nothing strange to people walking in the ancient capital.
Kyoto International Manga Museum is one of the newest tourist spots in the city, which attracts 4.5 million tourists, including about 500,000 from abroad, a year.
The museum serves as a library, with a collection of approximately 300,000 "manga" comic books published in Japan and foreign countries around the world. Some of them, such as valuable old books, are stored in its archives, but about 50,000 books are available to visitors, who can use the facility with an admission fee of 500 yen. The books, classified into sections for boys, girls and young adults, are kept on the “Walls of Manga” book shelves from the first to third floors. The Japanese books on the shelves include titles translated into foreign languages such as "20th Century Boys" and "Slam Dunk." Most of the books "have been donated by publishing companies or readers from around the world, but we sometimes buy important titles by ourselves," a museum official said.
The building which houses the museum is on a site formerly occupied by a closed elementary school. This gives the facility an educational element as part of its purposes, specifically research and studies of the manga-related activities and dissemination of related knowledge and information.
Visitors can read whichever book they want in a relaxed atmosphere, when it is sunny, on the lawn just in front of the building. The rooms inside the museum include a children’s library, where kids accompanied by mothers, sometimes students and other young visitors, can read books while lying on the mat.
Why does Japan’ s traditional cultural center host a facility aimed at spreading a new Japanese pop culture? This may be a frequently asked question about the museum, which calls itself MM. The museum was opened in November 2006, at a time when Japan’s manga comics began to be internationally known. Kyoto had already had a tradition of cartoon works dating back to the Heian period about 10 centuries ago. But another probable reason is that Kyoto has been a place which has an enterprising spirit. As Japan’ s capital city, Kyoto sometimes played a pioneering role in cultivating Japan’s culture and tradition. This is apparently one of the factors behind the project, engineered by a local private college, to establish Japan’s first comprehensive manga museum in the city.
Japan's economy is inevitably expected to enter a period of low, or minus, growth in the years to come following the unprecedented devastating earthquake and tsunami tidal waves of March 11, which have left nearly 25,000 people killed or missing mainly in northeastern Japan. The manga culture and MM are expected to be an important asset which demonstrates a new face of Japan’s unique pop cultures, not its economic strength, to the world from now on.

New Challenge Emerges for Tokyo to Be Less Power-Hungry City after Disastrous Quake

April 29, 2011

New Challenge Emerges for Tokyo to Be Less Power-Hungry City after Disastrous Quake

Tokyo is becoming a hard place for the physically weak for their activities with electrically driven systems like escalators stopped at railway stations and other public facilities amid fears of power shortage toward this summer.
JR Hamamatsucho Station on Tokyo’s Yamanote loop line is not an exception to this phenomenon. The station, which handles about 150,000 passengers a day, is a main gateway to Tokyo International Airport at Haneda from the heart of the capital.
The partial suspension of power-using systems at railway stations, shopping mails and other major places is part of a campaign to reduce the consumption of electricity in the greater Tokyo area. Power supply to the area is covered by Tokyo Electric Power Co., or Toden. But its No. 1 Fukushima nuclear plant has been seriously damaged by the devastating earthquake and the ensuing killer tsunami waves of March 11, causing an extensive power shortage in Tokyo and neighboring areas.
Upon arrival at Hamamatsucho, passengers go straight to the exit or the gate for the airport-bound monorail train service through stairways without giving a glance at the escalators. Most passengers are getting accustomed with the inconvenience, but it is a hard work for elderly people to use stairways. Elevators are available at some platforms, but they have to walk up there.
Consumers in the greater Tokyo area also had to accept rolling blackouts from early morning to evening in a few weeks after the disaster. This was explained by Toden as a measure to avoid a sudden blackout.
Power consumption in the Tokyo area climbs to peak levels every summer because of the use of air conditioners. Toden could weather the power shortage just after the disaster, but major power users, including railway operators, and consumers have been asked to continue to reduce their electricity use toward summer.
Energy-saving campaigns had been launched every summer in recent years in an effort to reduce CO2 emissions to prevent the global warming from worsening further, but they were not necessarily successful. The current situation is very serious for power users in Tokyo, commercial or noncommercial, but this is a good opportunity for consumers to seriously think about how to reduce their use of electricity and to this end, how to change their lifestyle, experts say.
Nuclear power generation has been supported as a clean energy source in the recent decades, but the latest mishap is expected to trigger a serious debate about the advisability of continuing Japan’s existing nuclear power policy. Japan must make redoubled efforts to increase the use of even cleaner, recyclable energy sources, especially solar energy, and eventually make itself a less power-hungry society, experts say.
A new hard challenge has been posed for people in Tokyo and many other parts of Japan. Economic growth is expected to be sacrificed in the next few years, but Japan should overcome this challenge and reemerge as a less power-hungry, more environmentally friendly economy in the future.

Japan Out to Share Sorrows with Quake-Hit People

March 28, 2011

Japan Out to Share Sorrows with Quake-Hit People

Japanese people make it a custom to go out and enjoy cherry blossoms toward the end of March, but the atmosphere is quite different this year. The arrival of spring was late and to be much worse, a devastating earthquake and ensuing killer tsunami waves hit the northeastern part of the Japanese archipelago on March 11, leaving more than 20,000 people dead and missing.

Japanese from various walks of life are out to share the sorrows and grievances of the people affected by the unprecedented natural disaster. The earthquake, measuring a staggering 9.0 on the magnitude scale, jolted widely scattered areas on the Pacific coasts from the Tohoku to the northern Kanto regions. The tsunami waves washed away and flattened not a small number of villages and towns.

Japanese tend to dislike openly showing their feelings, such as sadness and hardships, even in disastrous situations. This is different from, for example, Koreans and Chinese, though they are also Asians. Japanese also think patience is a virtue. People in the Tohoku region are said to be even more patient than in other areas. This is attributed in part to the cold climate in the area. But this time, the affected people, including more than 200,000 people evacuated to shelters, are urged not to be excessively patient about their hardships. “Maybe, it will take five years or 10 years to rehabilitate the affected areas. We have to strive right now to keep the lives of those who survived the disaster while closely following their needs,” a disaster volunteer leader says. “We talk to people at shelters ‘Is there any problem with you?’ or ‘What can I do for you’ but this is not effective. They do not easily open their minds to us.” “’Don’t you know somebody who is in trouble around here?’ This is effective. This can draw words for help from them, letting them say ‘We are in trouble,’” he says.

Commentator Eriko Zanma knows very well about the nature of people in the Tohoku region, because she grew up there. “Please not be so patient this time. Please depend on us this time. Many Japanese are standing up to help you,” she said in a message column in the vernacular daily Asahi.

Cornering is reported in some regions. Some shops are said to be capitalizing on the mishap to increase prices, while thefts have increased in part of the affected areas, prompting local officials to ask the neighboring communities to help maintain law and order. But calmness is generally maintained among people in the affected areas. TV and radio programs and many publications are filled with messages to encourage the affected people and express willingness to help them, not just from celebrities but also from ordinary people.

To be more encouraging, more than 130 countries around the world have offered to help the affected Japanese people. This has come as a surprise to many Japanese, because they have understood Japan is known as a major economic power to foreign countries but they have little interest in Japanese people’s life.

Rehabilitation projects in the affected areas should be carried out over many years. This is expected to be a major task for the young generation in this small but persevering nation.

Bean-scattering party celebrates arrival of spring in Japan

Feb. 8, 2011

Bean-scattering party celebrates arrival of spring in Japan

The third day of February is a “setsubun” season-dividing day in Japan, which heralds the beginning of spring. The setsubun day is a pleasure for Japanese people not only because it ushers in spring after cold weather but also because they can obtain lucky beans in bean-scattering parties at Buddhist temples and shrines across the country.
Yugyoji, the main temple of the Jishu Buddhist sect in Fujisawa, southwest of Yokohama, attracted hundreds of worshipers for its bean-scattering party, preceded by the setsubun ritual performed by dozens of priests led by the Rev. Taa Shinen, the Jishu head priest. Bean scatterers, including the priests, climbed on a makeshift stage set up on the premises of the temple and threw small bags containing “fukumame” soybeans toward the worshipers, while shouting “Good luck in, devils out.”
“I will turn 92 this year, but I am in the best of health. We wish you happy days this year,” the Rev. Shinen, clad in long brown robes, told them.
“When you took many bags, please share them with other people, because that is mutual help,” a priest said. But when the bean-throwing party started, people around the stage scrambled to catch the beans, some of them spreading their hats and other belongings. Some of the bags contained gift certificates.
People on the stage included those chosen for the ceremony from among men and women who were born in the years of rabbit, this year’s sign of the zodiac in Chinese astrology. These “fukuotoko” men and “fukuonna” women are believed to bring about good luck for the year.
The gifts were provided by more than 20 sponsors, mainly local businesses and shop operators. Top prizes included three bicycles, and one of the bikes went to a woman in her 50s. As she was waiting to receive the prize, an onlooker said, “It’s great, isn’t it?” The woman smiled, and a sexton rang a bell in celebration. Her smile and the bell spread a happy atmosphere among people on the premises of the temple, surrounded by blooming red and white “ume” apricot trees.

Recycling revisited as a long-maintained custom in Japan

Jan.　22, 2011

Recycling revisited as a long-maintained custom in Japan


Recycling campaigns have spread to various areas of Japan as Japanese people are becoming aware of the importance of preserving the environment, but this is not a new trend in Japan.
A flea market in Setagaya in the western part of Tokyo has a history of more than 400 years, dating back to the 16th century. The Setagaya Boroichi rummage sale, held twice a year, has become so popular that it has been designated as an “intangible folk cultural asset” by the Tokyo metropolitan government.
Setagaya was a castle town when the predecessor of Boroichi started at a “rakuichi” tax-free area established by a warlord who ruled the region. The town was always thronged with shoppers, travelers and other people, but the Setagaya Castle was destroyed later and the town lost its prosperity.
The tax-free market changed to a year-end fair only for local farmers. But the custom was maintained by local people, in a less brilliant manner, throughout the Edo era.
The current Boroichi market is organized mainly by an association of local shop owners for two days in the middle of January and in the middle of December. On the first day of sale this year, which fell on a weekend, many people flocked to the Boroichi shopping street, which is less than one kilometer long. The street almost looked like a jam-packed train. “How many today’s turnout is? We have no idea at all,” said an old man at a staff’s office. “Maybe, between 40,000 to 50,000 and 200,000. That’s all we have to say,” he said smilingly.
The street was lined by about 700 roadside stands. Most of them were miscellaneous goods and curio dealers, but ordinary people were also seen displaying their items, mainly old clothes and toys and secondhand tools. A curio dealer said, “We open exactly at this place every year, and customers come and see us every year.”
The Edo era, which was ruled by the Tokugawa shogun government, has been generally believed to be a dark feudal society, but the idea has come to be challenged by some historians, who argue the era was rather a vivid period with people having fun in various ways and living their life in a manner which was friendlier to the environment. One of unique businesses in the Edo era involved paper collection as paper was a precious item at that time. Paper collectors bought scraps of paper and made paper again for sale. Secondhand stores were also seen in every town. These may be indications that the Edo era was a recycling-oriented society with amounts of waste reduced as much as possible.
In today’s Japan, almost all municipalities urge residents to separate combustibles and others in garbage collection services. Some of them are even more precise, separately collecting wastes which are recyclable as resources, such as steel and aluminum cans, plastic bottles and cardboards.
Recycling is becoming an important business in a new dimension for Japan as a resources-poor country. Business concerns are eager to find a more effective means of recycling rare metals used as components in cellular phones and other electronic tools.
Japanese know very well that any resources are not inexhaustible. Flea markets, including Boroichi in Setagaya, are expected to be even more popular in an environment-conscious atmosphere in the years ahead.