Author
May 29th, 2006 by Ad Blankestijn
Ad Blankestijn feels at home in both Japan and in Europe and has always been going back and forth between Western and Eastern cultures. For most of my life I have immersed my self in “Things Japanese” (and “Things Chinese” as well) and I am fluent in Japanese on a near-native level.
Experience
After study at Leiden University, Nanjing University and Kyoto University, I worked a number of years at the Sinological Institute of Leiden University before joining the Japan Office of the Netherlands Foreign Investment Agency in Tokyo. My task was a very practical one: to attract Japanese companies to the Netherlands and inform them not only about the Dutch business climate, but also help Japanese businessmen conquer cultural differences.
Activities
During almost 20 years in Japan, I have traveled widely and soaked up Japanese culture from traditional art to contemporary manga, from ancient temples to cutting-edge architecture. In the past, I have translated a Japanese novel, Chinese poetry and contemporary stories and written book reviews on Japanese and Chinese literature. I write about various aspects of Japanese culture, old and modern. At the same time I am working as an intercultural consultant.
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Dear Sir:
In the middle to late 50’s I lived and taught in Japan. One February I attended a fertility festival near Nara. I think it may have been at Asuka-Ni imasu Jinja.
While I was at the shrine, a shinto priest took me inside a building and showed me a huge metallic disk. It was between 6 and 8 feet in diameter.
He told me that this was the original mirror of amaterasu omi kami, and that the one in Ise was a smaller replica.
Do you have any knowledge of such a mirror. I am sure that this is the original mirror, it also has writing on the back of it. I hope
that you are able to research this object. As far as I am able to find out, very few people have seen this mirror.
Thank you very much.
William Munger