Posted in books, culture, architecture, anime, museums, kyoto on Feb 23rd, 2007 No Comments »
The Kyoto International Manga Museum rides the high tide of interest in Japanese popular culture, and is housed in a beautiful old school building, but curious visitors will not find much to see inside. Unless you want to observe how blissfully quiet kids can become when they sit reading manga books…
The walls of the long […]
Posted in architecture, travel and places, museums on Dec 4th, 2006 No Comments »
There is not much to see in literature museums, but in the case of the Kamakura Museum of Literature you come for the great house and spacious garden. A Western-style villa right in the middle of the old warrior capital! The art deco manor was built in 1936 by the Maeda family, who had been […]
Posted in writing and poetry, museums on Dec 1st, 2006 No Comments »
Our blogging maiko is still blogging on, now with an article about autumn.
It so happens that autumn is her favorite time to read books (as is the case for most Japanese, that is why the expression “dokusho no aki,” or “autumn for reading” is so common).
Ichimame divulges to us that she is reading a book […]
Posted in travel and places, museums on Nov 22nd, 2006 No Comments »
When you travel to Itabashi via the Mita line and see the endless ranges of giant flats on the horizon, you might mistake them for mountains. When the truth dawns upon you, you may start to feel faint at heart and doubt whether you made a good decision to come here. Don’t worry: a walk […]
Posted in art and photography, museums, kyoto on Nov 21st, 2006 No Comments »
Komatsu Hitoshi (1902-1989) is an interesting nihonga painter to whom a small gallery has been dedicated in Ohara, on the road leading to Jakkoin and Sanzenin, in the northern part of Kyoto. We visit on a cold day, when snow covers the fields.
[Winter scenery in Ohara. Photo © Ad Blankestijn]
Komatsu Hitoshi was born in Yamagata […]
Posted in museums on Nov 20th, 2006 No Comments »
The Mitake shrine sits on top of Mt. Mitake (929m) to the west of Tokyo, just inside the Chichibu and Tama National Park. It has always been regarded as a sacred mountain and was honored by both Japan’s indigenous faith and Buddhists. Mt. Mitake was especially popular among the syncretistic shugendo cult of the mountain […]
Posted in history, museums on Nov 18th, 2006 No Comments »
The Shinjuku Historical Museum is one of the best of the many city museums about local history in Tokyo. It highlights Shinjuku’s past as a post town.
The displays (all on the basement floor) start with a short section about archeological materials excavated in the ward and another one about Shinjuku in the Middle Ages with […]
Posted in architecture, art and photography, museums on Nov 14th, 2006 2 Comments »
Traditional Japanese houses, or minka, are something I am very fond of. My dream is to live in one in the future! For now, I have to do with open-air museums, and that is not so bad, as there are beautiful traditional houses in parks like the Japan Open-Air Folk-house Museum in Kawasaki, the Shikoku […]
Posted in museums on Nov 12th, 2006 No Comments »
The Shinagawa Historical Museum stands a short walk from Omori Station. It has a permanent exhibition in two rooms about the history of the part of Tokyo that today is called Shinagawa City.
The ancient history centers on the Omori Shell Mounds and the Jomon pottery discovered there. This tableland at the coast was convenient for […]
Posted in museums on Nov 9th, 2006 No Comments »
Although the Fukagawa Edo Museum (Fukagawa Edo Shiryokan) is no match for the giant Edo-Tokyo Museum, it presents visitors with a very likeable display about old Edo.
In one hangar-like hall this museum features a full-scale reproduction of a riverside district in Fukagawa, the area where the museum stands.
[Fukagawa Edo Museum]
Although not far from the […]