Posted in Japan, food, intercultural on Aug 4th, 2006 No Comments »
Chopsticks are one of the simplest and best inventions ever made by mankind and as August 4 is the Day of the Chopsticks in Japan this is a good opportunity pay hommage to it. The reason this day is so named by the “Waribashi Union,” the association of importers of disposable chopsticks, is onomatopoeic: hashi […]
Posted in Japan, architecture, art and photography on Aug 4th, 2006 No Comments »
After writing my A New Victory about the Narita temple, I found the article Naritasan Shinshoji and Commoner Patronage During the Edo Period on the web, written by Patricia J. Graham of the University of Kansas.
I encourage you to read the whole article, but here are a few points I have picked up in addition […]
Posted in Japan, travel and places, temples on Aug 3rd, 2006 No Comments »
Narita is so famous as the site of an airport (and therefore not particularly popular as airports the world over all mean long waits and hauling heavy luggage) that one forgets it was first and for all the site of a temple. In fact, Narita grew up as the monzenmachi, the “Town before the Gate” […]
Posted in Japan, nature, travel and places, temples on Aug 2nd, 2006 No Comments »
Entsuji, in the northern part of Kyoto, is a prime example of one of the major techniques of the Japanese art of the garden: shakkei, or ‘borrowed scenery.’ This means in short that the view is incorporated into the garden. In Entsuji’s case, distant Mt. Hiei is cleverly captured, thereby making the small garden more […]
Posted in Japan, writing and poetry, travel and places, haiku on Aug 1st, 2006 No Comments »
For haiku fans, the quiet former castle town of Kurobane in northern Tochigi is an important pilgrimage place, as Basho spent two weeks here in 1689 on his way to the Deep North. It is indeed a great place for a leisurely walk, there is a fabulous temple (Unganji) and a Basho museum… and the […]
Posted in Japan, nature, travel and places, religion and philosophy, temples on Jul 30th, 2006 No Comments »
Paradise Mountain lies here on earth, close to Hon-Nagashino on the Iida line out of Toyohashi in Aichi Prefecture. Horai-zan, it is called, and Horai is the Land of Bliss of the Chinese Taoist tradition. In its original conception, it was conceived as a mountainous island in the wide ocean, in Japan it was applied […]
Posted in Japan, calendar, religion and philosophy, intercultural, kyoto on Jul 26th, 2006 No Comments »
The Bon festival or “Obon” has an interesting history. Folk-Buddhist in origin, it came from China where Buddhism was heavily colored by ancestor worship and Confucianism before it marched on to Japan. The festival finds its religious justification in the Ullambana Sutra (probably not an original Indian sutra but written in China). This popular sutra […]
Posted in Japan, food, intercultural, kyoto on Jul 23rd, 2006 No Comments »
What is the best summer food in Japan? Most people will answer: eel. Unagi is a popular food in Japan and it never sells so well as during the hottest period of summer, as it is believed to give lots of stamina to bodies freaked out by the heat. In the traditional calendar, that […]
Posted in Japan, crafts, art and photography on Jul 16th, 2006 No Comments »
This summer, two interesting temporary events in the field of Japanese art are held in Tokyo, both fitting in the category “restored art.”
The first concerns a rediscovered mural by 20th century avant-garde painter Okamoto Taro called The Myth of Tomorrow. This work measuring 5.5 by 30 meters was created in 1968/1969 for the walls of […]
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