Nakayama, Tottori

This is the draincover for Nakayama Town, now incorporated into Daisen Town, on the southern slope of Mount Daisen in Tottori Prefecture.

The plant depicted is Hamanasu (lit. Shore pear), Rosa Rugosa , a Japanese Rose native to east Asia. The coast in Nakayama is the southernmost point of the plants habitat in Japan.

The Japan Times this week has an excellent short article on the history of decorative drain covers in Japan. Access it here.

I've also come across a website (in Japanese only) that has a map of draincovers in Japan. They don't have all of them though. Access it here

The bridge at Aquas revisited.

I've posted pics of the bridge at Aquas before, but on our recent visit there the light and weather was different, so I post some more.

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Sacred Texts & Buried Treasures:

Issues in the Historical Archaeology of Ancient Japan

William Wayne Farris

University of Hawaii Press

ISBN: 0824820304

333 pp

Farris's book is a much needed addition to English-language scholarship on early Japanese history, and not only that, it is that rarest of books, a highly readable book on archeology that manages to bring to life and make real aspects of life in Japan in the period of 100 AD to 800 AD.
The books contention is that the explosion of archeological research in Japan during the past few decades has challenged many of the assumptions held on early Japanese history that until now had been dependent on just a few written sources. He has chosen four topics and explores in depth what Japanese archeology has discovered that throws new light on them.

The first topic is the great "Yamatai Debate".
The first written records of Japan come from China in the 3rd Century when Chinese historian Chen Shou wrote of the "Wa" people who lived in a country called Yamatai, ruled over by a shamaness named Himiko. Just exactly where Yamatai was is the subject of the ongoing Yamatai debate. Until the late 19th Century it was believed that Yamatai was the country known as Yamato, present-day Nara Prefecture, in the Kinai, but for the last century Japanese historians have been split between believing Yamatai was in the Kinai, or in Northern Kyushu. This section of the book reads like a mystery novel, as each new piece of archeological evidence is used as proof for one side of the debate or the other, and sometimes even both interpret the discovery to their own advantage. If there will be a solution to the debate, it must be somewhere in the future, as to date the evidence remains split.

The second section of the book concerns Japan's relationship with Korea during the 4th and 5th centuries, a subject that has consequences and repercussions that continue today: it was Japan's claim that parts of Korea were colonized by Japan at this time that was partly behind their "re" colonization of Korea in the 20th century. In the 1950's, Egami put forward his controversial "Horse rider" theory - that Japan had been colonized by a northern people through the Korean peninsular. Since then the controversy has been was Japan a colony of Korea, or vice versa? On this topic Farris does offer a conclusion. During the period in question, the Korean Peninsular consisted of 4 separate kingdoms, with changing borders and alliances. Japan was dependent on Korea for technologies and natural resources, most notable metals, and in return for these Japan supplied military force to various sides of the inter-kingdom disputes. The conclusion reached by Farris is that all the Korean kingdoms and Japan were roughly equal to each other with no one being dominant enough to colonize another, though the Korean kingdoms were generally more advanced technologically.

The third section looks at the building of Japan's first permanent capitals, Nara, Kyoto, and the less well known Fujiwara, and Naniwa (Osaka). These capitals are commonly referred to as Chinese-style capitals, but there was plenty of Korean influence as well as indigenous Japanese influence on their designs rather than the wholesale adoption of Chinese styles. Farris's own specialty of the impact of disease and famine on populations comes in here as he examines the economic and population pressures that cause some of the capital building to remain incomplete, and the recycling of materials from some of the capitals to build the newer ones

The final section deals with a new form of archeological resource first discovered in 1961, wooden tablets with writing on them dating from the 8th century. To date almost 200,000 of these tablets have been discovered and they have greatly added to our knowledge of such things as the daily life of the aristocracy, the operations of the bureaucracy, the tax system, and how the Taika Reforms were implemented.

For anyone interested in early Japanese history this book is a treasure trove of material much of which has not been available in English before. Highly recommended.

Around Aquas

Last week when we went to Aquas we didn't actually go into the aquarium, but explored behind it (there is no entrance fee to the park :))

I was very pleasantly surprised, it is a nicely landscaped garden with artificial stream and pond.

There is a solar-heated atrium, and from inside it one can descend and come out

...behind an artificial waterfall.

There is a big playground for the kids ( and adults who can appreciate it :)
The bright, sculptural play area was designed by painter Kei Amatsu who lives in Tsuwano and who has executed a lot of public art in Shimane and across Japan.

And of course, across the bridge in front of the aquarium is 5 kilometres of fine sandy beach.

All in all, you can spend a pleasant few hours at Aquas without spending any money

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Hiroshima Kagura

A couple of months ago we were driving along a backroad in SE Hiroshima on our way to Shikoku when we saw a small shrine at the side of the road with all the banners flying and the parking area full of cars, matsuri!!

We pulled in and were delighted to find kagura being performed.

The kagura in this area is related to Iwami kagura, but one noticeable difference is that the "heroes" don't wear masks but rather use makeup.

It was a very small shrine, but it had a kagura-den, which was in fact the largest building at the shrine. The audience was small, and mostly elderly people. The kagura group was from somewhere else in the region.

The steps down from the shrine to the kagura den were lined with shimenawa, creating a sacred space for the kami to descend to the performance. I asked the locals who were manning the stalls what the name of the kami was, but they didn't know so they suggested I ask the priest. He had been enjoying the O-miki (offering sake shared by the congregation and kami) and he admitted he had forgotten!

As is usual in the back country of Japan, the villagers were very friendly and we were treated as honored guests. They gave us a bunch of yakitori and a pack of the areas speciality, candied peanuts.

Visiting village matsuris is one of my favorite activities. There is no comparison to the crowded, tourist-filled events that are the famous city matsuris.

Shimoyama Inari Shrine, Hamada,

Shimoyama Inari shrine is on the large hill at the mouth of the Hamada River on the opposite bank to the Castle Hill.

If one counts all the smaller Inari shrines in the grounds of other shrines then Inari shrines are the most common in Japan.

Like most kami, Inari has had, and continues to have, multiple identities and meanings. Primarily it is the kami of foodstuffs, but also the kami of industry, which is why many companies either erect Inari shrines on their property, and/or donate torii to established shrines. Inari is often erroneously called a "fox god", but in fact the foxes are just the messengers of Inari.

At this shrine the main kami is listed as Kuramusubi which believed to be another name for Ukanomitama, the most "official" of representations of Inari, and a son of Susano. Inari has both male and female identities, Uganomitama being female. Inari also has hindu/buddhist manifestations, primarily as Daikiniten. The head shrine of Inari is at Fushimi near Kyoto. It was founded by the Hata family, an immigrant clan considered to be from Korea or China, though there are some who believe they are a lost tribe of Israel that wandered across Asia.

At Shiroyama Inari there is a secondary shrine to Sarutahiko who is also considered a manifestation of Inari sometimes, and a secondary shrine to Izanagi and Izanami, the creator couple who created the islands of Japan.

Underneath this shrine you can see a hole in the base. This is fairly common and exists to allow the "spirit foxes" to enter and leave.

Aquas (outside)

The Aquas aquarium building is not much to look at as you speed by on Rte. 9, but a closer look reveals that it represents a shark

Opened in 2000, the building was designed by the Nikken Sekkei design company.

The dorsal fin?

The main body.

The mouth, "Jaws"!

and the tail.

Recently opened was a new Penguin House, a white concrete box to the side of the mouth. Maybe it represents a big piece of polystyrene trash that litters Japanese beaches. I once showed some photos of beaches in Cornwall to some neighbors, and the first question they asked was "where is the trash?". I've been repeatedly told that the mountains of trash on Japan Sea beaches comes from Korea, and some of it indeed does, but most of it has kanji, hiragana and katakana on it, meaning its from Japan.

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Aquas Aquarium

Aquas is the largest aquarium in western Honshu and is located within Iwami Seaside Park on Route 9 between Hamada and Gotsu. More than 400 species of critters are on display.There are lots of flying fishes, the Prefectural fish.

The changing colors of the Cuttlefish fascinated me. It had been more than 40 years since I had been to an aquarium, and I was pleasantly surprised at the displays and environment, not the dark, damp, concrete structures I remember from my childhood.

What fascinated me the most were the jellyfish, particularly the gentle writhing of their (tails? tendrils?

I kept coming back to them.

There is a transparent tunnel under the largest tank filled with turtles, sharks, and all manner of aquatic beings.

The main attraction is a show by a pair of white Belugas. Apparently they blow bubble rings. I didn't see the show as I was too busy watching the jellyfish.

Typical Japanese Landscape 12

Japan is mostly mountains, so this time some mountain shots!

For those who have never been to Japan, it is hard to fathom just how much concrete there is, and how much "nature" is manipulated and controlled.

I can't remember whose quote it is, but "The Japanese have a wonderful sense of beauty...... and absolutely no sense of ugly!"

More Typical Japanese landscapes
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December harvest

Coming from northern Europe, I still am delighted by the fact that gardens in Japan keep producing all year long and the ground doesn't become frozen solid like concrete! Started picking Komatsuna, which is often called Japanese Mustard Spinach in English, but is actually not related to either mustard or spinach. It is believed that the name derives from a Kamatsu, once a village near Edo.

Cauliflower, karifurawa in Japanese, is not wildly popular in Japan. It was introduced from Europe in the Meiji Period. You don't often see it in supermarkets, so I was surprised one day while walking a backroad to come across a farm building filled with cauliflowers being boxed. I asked the farmer "how much" and he just gave me one. The kindness of strangers is something I've experienced often in all the countries I've lived in, but in Japan it tends to be in the countryside. On the same walk a car stopped, the driver handed me a big ripe persimmon, then drove off.

Yoko tried planting some ginger this year, but only half of it came up. Shoga in Japanese, it was introduced from China about 1,800 years ago. It is used a lot in Japanese cooking, but my favorite way of eating it is the thin slices that accompany sushi.