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

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

Shioharae

The first dance in any Iwami Kagura performance is the Shioharae, in which the dancers purify the dance space in readiness for the kami. While there are nowadays performances of kagura put on in public spaces for tourists, the home of kagura is in the shrine, and like many activities it is performed firstly for the kami.

This performance is by the Ichiyama kagura group in their home shrine of Ichiyama Hachimangu. The 4 colors worn by the dancers represent the 4 directions. Above the dancers is the tengai, a canopy of paper streamers. The kami descend through these streamers into the dancers.

Kagura dancers hold various torimono, objects through which the kami pass into the dancers. In this dance the torimono are wands and metal rattles. Other common torimono are fans and swords. The dancers create mandalas with their movements, am influence from esoteric buddhism by way of Shugendo.

The dance lasts about 40 minutes.

Togawa Omoto Shrine

One of the first walks I did to explore the area I now live in was along the Yato river. After passing the dam and walking along the bank of the reservoir, after it once again became a small river I came to the small mountain settlement of Togawa. Maybe 20 households at the most, large farmhouses and a few rice paddies, at the end of the village set in a dense grove of trees was the local shrine, the Togawa Omoto Shrine.

Omoto is the original, local land kami. Up in Izumo he is known as Kojin, and like there it is a very popular kami here in Iwami. Omoto (and Kojin) is represented by a rope snake, usually found wrapped around a sacred tree. To my mind, this is the heart of the ancient form of Japanese religion, before the advent of modern State Shinto with its emphasis on the Imperial family, and national rituals. When I go for walks I am hoping to find these kinds of shrines.

The feeling at these kinds of shrines is one of silence and the sacred. The surrounding woods are dense and dark, with shafts of sunlight penetrating to illuminate the natural, aged materials of the shrine.

2 days ago I drove the 10k up into the mountains to visit the shrine again to check on some information for this blog. I was very surprised to find that the shrine had been completely rebuilt. Building a shrine is no cheap project (unlikel so much contemporary housing in Japan). A lot of native materials and labor go into the making. My first question was, where did the money come from? There is no "direct" financial support for religion in Japan. How could such a small community get the money? Just above the village, the small local road punches its way 800m through the mountain in a brand new tunnel. I suspect that the construction of the tunnel and the road widening infringed on village property slightly, and so compensation money was made available. The amounts of money that are spent on mostly unnecessary construction of roads and tunnels in Japan is truly staggering.

While it was good to see a shrine being rebuilt or refurbished, good that the life of the spirit still plays an important part in the community, it was sad to see that the grove of trees had been cut down. The shrine is now open, and light, but something powerful has been lost.

Japanese Plants: know them and use them,

Japanese Plants: know them and use them

Betty W. Richards Anne Kaneko

Shufunotomo Co. Ltd

ISBN4-07-975121-4

228pp


This book is small enough to fit into a pocket or purse, yet absolutely packed with useful information on the flora of Japan. It covers trees, flowers, bushes, grasses, vegetables, and fruits, almost everything you are likely to see anywhere in Japan. Each plant is given in its English, Japanese, and Latin names, and has a color photo.

Information on where you can see the plant, where it came from, it's life-cycle, interesting tidbits on its cultural values and history, and, most usefully, how it is used. Wild food collection is still widely practised in the rural areas of Japan, and if you are a "stalker of the wild asparagus" this little guide is indispensable.

There is enough information for it to work as a field identification guide, or simply for learning the Japanese names of plants.

Excellent little book, I can't recommend it enough!!