(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.