Obon in Gion

Just got back from a couple of days in Kyoto.

It's Obon season, and we were up visiting Yoko's family in Gion.

Last night we went up the hill behind Gion to visit the cemetery at the temple called Otani-san where Yoko has some family buried. The cemetery is all lit up with lanterns.

About half the crowds there were visitng and washing family tombstones, and the other half were tourists taking photos and enjoying the view over the city. There seemed to be more tourists than usual in Kyoto, probably there for the Daimonji fires that will be lit tomorrow night.

The long path leading up to the temple from behind yasaka Shrine is lined with lanterns.

Down around the main temple buildings all the lanterns were painted by local children.

Apparently Shinran, the founder of the True Pure Land sect has his tomb here.

Back from Vacation

Been away for a while but now its time to start posting again.

Here's an odd little thing I found recently. It's the oldest existing artwork of mine.
Over the years I have painted/printed/produced dozens of thousands of artworks. Most of them no longer exist. This one is from 1971 when I was in my first year of art school. Made with a manual typewriter, and indicative of both the style of imagery I was into back then and the absurd amounts of time I used to spend "making art"

Defending the garden

Before moving to the Japanese countryside, my experiences of gardening were all in the desert, so learning to grow food in Japan has been a long learning period. One of the main differences between gardening in Arizona and in Japan is that there are few animals and bugs in the desert. Here in Japan it is a constant battle defending the garden against critters. I don't mind sharing,.... I expect to lose a certain percentage of a crop to other critters, but there are some greedy critters.

Caterpillars of the white butterfly (called Cabbage White in England) will consume all the brassica family, cabbages, cauliflower, brussel sprouts etc. Most Japanese gardeners will use pesticide, but for me growing brassicas under net works perfectly.

The only other bug that is a real problem is a little orange bugger that feeds on the leaves of squash plants. Pumpkins will usually recover, but every year my Zuccini plants have been completely eaten and killed by the orange bugs. Every version of organic pesticide I've tried has been completely useless, so I now grow zuccini under net also.

My village garden now has a metal fence around it. The village put it up recently around the rice paddies, and my garden is in the same piece of land as the paddies. The purpose of the fence is to keep wild boars out. Not sure how much damage boars do to rice paddies, but if they get into a garden they will dig up and eat all the sweet potatoes and as many pumpkins they can find.

Down in the riverside garden the ripening corn needs a net to protect it from the crows. They will sometimes eat tomatoes, peas, and other veggies, but they really love newly ripened corn.
The blue fence is to protect against a creature I never knew existed in Japan, the Coypu, or Nutria, sometimes known as Beaver Rat. It is originally from South America, but has spread around the world as people raised them for their fur. It likes to eat cornstalk.

In the bamboo grove next to the garden is a foxes den, and people say the foxes damage the gaedens when they dig around for food, but they have never given me any trouble.

Both gardens have moles, but again they have not caused enough trouble to worry about.

Both my gardens are too far from the edge of the forest for the monkeys to raid, but my neighbors are constantly losing food to them. They particularly like daikons and onions.

Umeboshi,... an acquired taste

Umeboshi, pickled plums, can most often be found in bentos, where a single plum is placed in the center of the rice to look like the Japanese flag.

After picking when ripe in June, the plums are mixed with salt and shiso leaves (to give the color) and packed with a weight on top.

Later the pickled plums are sun dried, like these of my neighbors in the photo above.

Actually Ume are not true plums, being closer to apricots.

Not fond of umeboshi myself, though umeboshi-flavored candy is OK.

Ainu-design bags

These bags were designed and made by my good wife Yoko. She is a dab hand with a needle, and makes a lot of clothes, curtains etc.

A few years ago she took some classes on Ainu embroidery from a couple of Ainu sisters, Machiko Kato & Sanae Ogawa. The Ainu now live mostly on Hokkaido, and are descended from the Emishi, the original inhabitants of eastern Japan before being driven out by the invading Yamato. A couple of years ago the Japanese government finally admitted that the Ainu exist, and there has been a resurgence of interest among younger Ainu in their traditional culture and language.

Ainu design bears a striking similarity to celtic design sometimes.

Yoko has sold a lot of these bags, each one unique as she doesnt like to repeat a design.

If you are interested in knowing more, or in purchasing any of them, please contact me. They go for approx 50 USD.

Season of the Frog Part 2: Egrets

With the flooding of the paddies in late spring, there is an explosion of frogs. This has effects on other species in the vicinity, not the least of which is us gardeners. There are dozens of frogs in my garden, and as frogs eat insects, I'm quite happy about that.

Snakes come out from the forest and feast on the cornucopia of small frogs, and this afternoon I watched a flock of egrets come in for the feast. They don't mind vehicles driving by, but will up and fly away if a human gets within 100 metres.

The egret, related to and often seen with herons, can be found all over Japan, and in total there are 18 different species, but I'm not ornithologist enough to be able to tell which species these were,

In the streams that run through villages and urban areas, the herons and egrets are less skittish.

Another post on egrets

NTT Docomo, Chugoku Head Office, Yamaguchi City

Yamaguchi City is a prefectural capital, but it is the smallest in Japan, and has a feel more like a large town rather than a city.

There is very little in the way of modern architecture other than a cluster of NTT buildings.

Yamaguchi City does have lots of interesting places to visit though.

I've been a bit lax with posting recently as I have been really busy. The onset of the rains means I should have more time now ....

Nichihara Town

This is the second manhole cover design from the small town of Nichihara (now merged with Tsuwano) in western Shimane. The first design is here. Nichihara is home to an observatory, built in 1985, it had one of the largest lenses in japan, but is no longer very popular.

There are lots of old. decaying buildings,....

...and the streams running into the Takatsu River are well controlled, but not home to much wildlife...

Nearby is the largest tree in Shimane

More Japanese draincovers

Typical Japanese Landscape 23

This is a view looking up the valley of Ato Town in northern Yamaguchi, not far from Tsuwano.

Sumo Shrine. The legendary origin of Sumo

This small shrine, located a little off the yamanobenomichi in Sakurai, Nara, is the legendary site of the first Sumo match between humans. The mythical origin of Sumo is in a contest between kami in Izumo. Izumo features in the legendary origin too, as the Sumo Shrine enshrines a man from Izumo, Nomi no Sukune, who was the victor in this first bout.

The story is set during the reign of the Great King Suinin who ruled over Yamato during the early 4th Century. There was a braggard named Kuehaya who lived over in Taima, across the Nara Plain at the northern end of the Katsuragi Mountains, who claimed that he was the strongest man in the world. Suinin heard that in Izumo was a man who was stronger, so Suinin invited Sukune to come and fight Kuehaya.

Sukune easily defeated Kuehaya, who died by having his ribs broken and his testicles smashed. I would guess that if contemporary Sumo went back to the traditional rules it would probably reverse its decline in popularity. In return for victory Sukune was given Kuehaya's land and invited to stay in Yamato and serve Suinin. Kuehaya and his fellows became the first makers of Haniwa.

Postscript: It seems there is some kind of unwritten law in Japanese media that forbids the use of the word "sumo" without prefacing it with the phrase "Japan's ancient sport of...". I guess that is to distinguish Sumo from the really, really, really, ancient sports of Roman wresting or Greek wrestling.