Yabusame. Horseback archery in Tsuwano

Yabusame tournaments are held at various locations throughout Japan, but only one is held in an original yabusame ground, and that is the one at Tsuwano at the Washibara Hachimangu Shrine.

The course is 270 metres long, with a stone embankment running the length. The festival is held in April, and usually the cherry trees lining the course are in full bloom. Hachiman, the primary Kami of the shrine is, among other things, the god of archery.

Yabusame, like Sumo and Kagura, is primarily performed for the entertainment of the Kami, which is why it is properly held at shrines. The morning is spent with ceremony, ritual, and pageantry, and the medieval costumes of the participants combined with the cherry blossoms makes for a very colorful affair.

Horse, riders, and all the participants plus the grounds itself are all purified prior to the competition.

Once it begins, it all happens very quickly, the horse and rider taking just a few seconds to gallop down the course. The arrows have a heavy, rounded head so a loud "thunk" is heard if the target is hit.

View the complete Yabusame slideshow

Morning mist

Mist fills the valleys and burns off slowly once the sun rises.

Japrocksampler

Japrocksampler: How the post-war Japanese blew their minds on rock n' roll

Julian Cope

Bloomsbury Press

ISBN 978-0-7475-8945-7


Books about music are especially problematical when the music in question is not known. Such is the case with this book. How many people know the music of Speed, glue, & shinki, or Flower Travellin' Band? Cope's book on the genesis of Japanese Rock music is fascinating nonetheless and offers insights into post-war japan.

Like his earlier book, Krautrocksampler, the former front man for The Teardrop Explodes explores how Japanese rock music was no mere copying of American & English rock, but was subject to a whole variety of cultural, commercial, and political influences.

Particularly fascinating to me was the influence of avant garde musicians such as John Cage and Karl Heinz Stockhausen, and in this regard, Yoko Ono's first husband makes many appearances. The pervasive influence of Jazz on other forms of post-war japanese music is also surprising. Politically, Japan's reaction to the Beatles, Japan's drug policies, the closing of the musical Hair, and the band connected to the terrorist group Red Army, all provide insights that help build a more coherent picture of the "scene" in Japan.

Cope's writing style I found sometimes too "hip" and frenetic, and the earlier part of the book is more interesting than the latter as there is a lot of repetition, but this an exteremely well-researched book, and gives a lot of information that previously wasn't available in English.

June harvest (part 2)

Here's a further look at what we have been picking from our gardens in June.

Green peppers are one of the plants that do so well that people allow them to rot in the garden as there are just too many. I bought 2 freezers to keep all our excess vegetables available year round, so we don't let them rot. Called "pima" in Japan, they were introduced by the Portugese in the 16th Century, although did not become popular until after WWII.

Another plant that usually produces more than people need is the eggplant/aubergine. Introduced from China about 1,500 years ago, the Japanese word for them, 'Nasu", means grows quickly. My favorite way to preserve the excess is with a Sri Lankan pickle recipe.

I tend to favor veggies that grow easily with little maintenance, and green beans/French beans fit that description. Known as "ingen" in Japan, apparently named after a zen monk named Ingen who introduced them to Japan in the middle of the 19th Century.

June Harvest part 1

Typical Japanese Landscape 2

Earlier I posted a typical Japanese landscape, but that may be what Japan mostly looks like, but a small percentage of Japanese live there nowadays. So here are a couple of pics of a typical Japanese landscape from where most Japanese live, the cities and towns.

Shimane Art Museum (outside)

Located on the banks of Lake Shinji in Matsue, the Shimane Art Museum opened in 1997.

The 93,000 sq.m. building, designed by Kikutake Associates, houses a permanent collection including works by Monet and Rodin, as well as temporary exhibitions.

There are several large sculptures in the grounds of the museum and on the bank of the lake. There are also exhibition spaces available for use by private groups.

Entrance is 1000yen, but like most tourist sites in Matsue there is a 50% discount for foreigners.
Between March and September the museum stays open until 30 minutes after sunset, and it is a great place to watch the sunset over the lake.

After recently visiting London, where fantastic museums are free, I am loath to pay the entrance fee for what is essentially a provincial museum, but the lobby and ground floor exhibition spaces are free and sometimes the exhibitions there are OK.

Inside Shimane Museum of Art

Amaterasu

Amaterasu. Acrylic on paper. 2006

I'm a painter as well as a mask-maker. This is my version of Amaterasu, the "Sun-Goddess", and though I use some shinto symbolism it also owes much to Changing Woman, one of the Navajo deities.

Any introductory text on Shinto will say that Amaterasu is the most important kami in Japan, but that is only true of contemporary shinto which is closely related to the emperor-centric State Shinto created in the late 19th Century.

Amaterasu is the kami that the current Imperial family claim descent from and that is why she is now pushed as the "head" kami. Before the 20th Century there were actually very few shrines dedicated to her.

The most well known myth of Amaterasu is the Iwato story wherein she hides herself in a cave and plunges the world into darkness and is later tricked into coming back out. The above shot is a scene from an Iwami Kagura performance of Iwato.

You can see a small selection of my paintings from the past 38 years here

Akaoni mask (red ogre)

This is a small Red Ogre mask made in Iwami Kagura style. With its hairless face and red color it looks the most like the euroamerican devil. Like all my masks, it is for sale, so please contact me if you are interested. You might be surprised how affordable it is. Like all my masks, it is a fully functional mask, but is also used as a "gargoyle" to drive away bad spirits from a home.

In this photo you can see one of the features that distinguishes Iwami Kagura,.... the fantastically elaborate and vivid costumes.

Kagura Mask Index

Bullfighting in Japan

This manhole cover is from the town of Tsuma on the island of Dogo, the largest of the Oki Islands which lie off the coast of Shimane. Bullfighting has been a tradition there since the early 13th Century, though Bull Sumo is probably a more accurate title. The bulls lock horns and push. The loser is the one that turns tail and runs away. There is no truth in the rumor that the loser ends up as Oki beef. The story goes that bullfighting began as an entertainment put on for Emperor Gotoba who was exiled to the Oki Islands.
Bullfighting of this style also occurs at several other places in East and South-east Asia.
There are several bullfighting rings on the island, but the Oki Moo Moo Dome is the largest and is covered so bullfighting can be enjoyed whatever the weather.

Nowadays the bulls are raised for fighting, but originally in Japan they were used as beasts of burden, in fact there was a law against killing and eating cows not because of Buddhism, but because they enabled farmers to be more productive. Nowadays Oki beef is known as being particularly tasty, probably because the cows actually get to spend time outside in the sun grazing.

More from the Oki Islands

Typical Japanese landscape & anaguma update

This is a fairly typical shot of the Japanese landscape. I took it a couple of days ago on my trip up to Togawa. About 65% of Japan is forested mountains. In the distance you can see the roofs of Ichiyama. The lighter green down below are the rice paddies. Summer is my least favorite season in Japan, visually-speaking. Grey, green, and brown is the palette. The wet air and overhead sun makes a very monochromatic view. In the winter you have strong shadows and when there is snow, strong contrast. In the spring there are a multitude of shades of green from the new growth, and colors from the blossoms. In the fall you have blue skies, low sun making shadows, and the reds, browns, oranges and yellows of the changing leaves.

Stepped outside my front door yesterday and right in front of me were one of the local feral kittens and a juvenile badger (anaguma). They were studying each other inquisitively about 50 cms apart, no hackles raised. Unfortunately the badger ran off due to my intrusion, and all I could get was this one snap. It was not the badger I posted a video of recently , that was an adult, this was a juvenile about 30-35 cms in length. Why these usually nocturnal creatures are hanging out around my house during the day is a mystery.