Tuintje

Het tuintje begint er al beter uit te zien

Japan Nieuwsbrief nr. 267

Link naar: Japan Nieuwsbrief 26 april tot 2 mei

Japan Nieuwsbrief nr. 266

Link naar: Japan Nieuwsbrief 19 tot 25 april

Moving

We moved this weekend. From Noge-cho (Sakuragicho Station) to Matsugaoka (Yokohama St., Tanmachi St.).

Nyuugakushiki

Mayuko's school entrance ceremony


11 pictures

Wereldnet 3 april

Wereldnet donderdag 3 april 2008. Correspondenten in De Seychellen, St. Lucia en Japan.

Voor Japan heb ik verteld over over 1) verbijsterende prijsdaling benzine en politieke impasse, 2) 'Beleefdheidspolitie' in de metro van Yokohama.

Audiobestand: via de Wereldnet-site.

Japan Nieuwsbrief nr. 265

Link naar: Japan Nieuwsbrief 29 maart tot 4 april

Kjeld Duits: Old Photos of Japan

Last week I got email renowned Dutch journalist and photographer Kjeld Duits. He started a new blog dedicated to old photographs of Japan:

Old Photographs of Japan
http://www.oldphotosjapan.com

"A multilingual photoblog with daily uploads of rare photographs and postcards of Japan between 1860 and the 1930's.

These images display an abundance of information about the urban settings and customs of Japan. This is further augmented by well-researched articles accompanying the images. Many of the articles contain maps and additional illustrations, making them a very useful resource on modern Japan, especially the Meiji, Taisho and early Showa periods.

The photographs can be searched by keyword, period, theme, location, photographer and medium."

Interesting also are the Google Maps. They make it possible to find the exact location displayed in the image. Kjeld mentioned also that he plans to add very soon photographs of Yokohama.

Japan Nieuwsbrief nr. 264

Link naar: Japan Nieuwsbrief 22 tot 28 maart

Kyoto Trip

Short Kyoto trip with my daughter


52 photos

'Busier than adults'

The typical day of an elementary school student:


(NHK NewsWatch9 - 2008, March 20th)

Sotsugyoushiki

Sotsugyoushiki: 15 pictures

Japan Nieuwsbrief nr. 263

Link naar: Japan Nieuwsbrief 15 tot 21 maart

De Japanse lach

Westerlingen en Japanners interpreteren gelaatsuitdrukkingen verschillend, las ik in de krant. Westerlingen zien emoties als individuele gevoelens, maar Japanners daarentegen zien emoties in samenhang met de groep. Zo zou onderzoek uitgewezen hebben.

Of een lachend kind temidden een groep lachende dan wel ernstige kinderen staat, maakt voor een westerling niet zoveel uit. De westerling interpreteert de lach van het kind los van de groep. De Japanner echter kijkt ook naar de gemoedstoestand van de omringende groep. Lacht de omringende groep niet, dan interpreteert de Japanner het lachende kind merkelijk minder gelukkig.

Dit deed me denken aan Japanse smileys. Japanners snappen westerse emoticons niet altijd. De :) is in Japan (^_^) en de :( is (;_;). Dat is perfect verklaarbaar, stond in LiveScience.com: omdat het in Japan niet altijd gepast is om breed te lachen, zijn voor de Japanners de ogen belangrijker dan de mond. Onderzoek heeft inderdaad bevestigd dat Amerikanen meer naar de mond dan naar de ogen kijken. Zo waarderen Amerikanen een lachende mond met droevige ogen als vrolijker dan Japanners dat doen.

In ieder geval, Japanse smileys zijn bijzonder gevarieerd. Meer hier.

(Gepost in De Standaard Expatblog)

Japan Nieuwsbrief nr. 262

Link naar: Japan Nieuwsbrief 8 tot 14 maart

Now and Then 24

The French Hill: End Meiji era - Today

"In Naka Ward’s Yamate area, the slopes going down towards the Yokohama Doll Museum make up the area that is still today called 'French Hill", or furansu-yama. The origin of this name comes from the long history of foreigner settlement in Yokohama; about 130 years ago, the French military was stationed near French Hill, while the British had its military in the area of today’s Minato-no-mieru-oka Park/Iwasaki Museum.

Foreign military did not always have a large presence in Japan. Although conflicts between Japanese and foreigners took place constantly with the influx of the foreign population, the Shogunate government, asserting its sovereign right, took the responsibility of mediating conflicts and ensuring the security of the Settlement.

The turning point came in 1862, when the samurai of Shimazu Hisamitsu, father of the lord of the powerful Satsuma domain (today’s Kagoshima Prefecture), clashed with a group of foreigners at Namamugi-mura Village, which left one foreigner dead and two wounded (See Now and Then 23). The reason of the clash – cultural misunderstanding, hubris of the foreigners, or willful murder committed by the Japanese due to their dislike of foreigners – remains unknown, but the Namamugi Incident eventually led to the stationing of French and British garrisons to protect their respective legations in the Settlement (...)

As elsewhere, the British and the French delighted in games of one-upmanship. The French, for example, built their flagpole higher than that of the British, while the British made sure they had more troops than the French.

The French also cultivated shogunate officials, especially the highly capable Oguri Tadamasa, who, along with Kurimoto Kon, welcomed their help in constructing a naval shipyard at Yokosuka. The French also established a language school and a small iron and steel plant near Ishikawa-cho. All this reflected the desire of Paris to build up its influence as part of its global competition with the British. The French Minister Léon Roches, who served as a translator for the French army for several years in North Africa before joining the foreign service, vastly overrated the shogunate’s chances. But his liberal support for the government no doubt encouraged Harry Parkes, the British minister, to cultivate contacts with the pro-Emperor party. Eventually, Roches lost the trust of the French government, which ordered him home in the middle of 1868.

The foot soldiers could not have enjoyed all this tit-for-tat tomfoolery very much, since the conditions under which they were forced to live on Camp Hill were hardly idyllic. At first the British simple erected tents on the fields covered with nightsoil that stank to high heaven, while a damp fog clung to the heights in the morning. Many soldiers died of smallpox. When drunk, which by all accounts was a frequent occurrence, the Englsih akatai ("red troops") were referred to as akatombo, or "red dragonflies". Similarly, the French were known as the "blue troops".

Foreign residents were allowed to lease land on the Bluff from 1867. Nevertheless, the foreign residents were clearly happy to have troopers nearby. Writing in 1866, A.B. Mitford, the Second Secretary to the British Legation, admitted that "for nearly four years I never wrote a note without having a revolver on the table and never went to bed without a Spencer rifle and bayonet at my hand". The foreign troops were not withdrawn till 1875."

Source:
John Carroll, 'Trail of Two Cities', ed. Kodansha, Tokyo, 1994, p. 87-88
And
Yokohama Echo, August 2004

Now and Then 23

Namamugi ('The Namamugi Incident') : End Edo erea - Today



'The period between the arrival of Commodore Matthew Perry's Black Ships at Kurihama in 1853 and the Meiji Restoration in 1868 was a tumultuous and dangerous time for the foreigners who lived in Yokohama.'

----
The Namamugi incident is one of my favourites stories about misunderstandings between Westerners and Japanese in the Edo Period. Only a few Westerners were in Japan at that time.

Namamugi was a village on the Tokaido. Today Namamugi is a cheerless, ugly industrial area between factories, fuming trucks, the port and highways. Despite this, I like to bicycle in this area. It’s so different from Minato Mirai. Pressed between a canal, a highway and a railroad live people in crumbly houses. You can see remnants of farm houses, humble fisherman boots, empty shops, people almost living in the street. This is light-years away from rich Japan. But the Tokaido passed through this hamlet. History was written here:

"The period between the arrival of Commodore Matthew Perry's Black Ships at Kurihama in 1853 and the Meiji Restoration in 1868 was a tumultuous and dangerous time for the foreigners who lived in Yokohama.

Japan was in the heat of an internal struggle for power, precipitated by Perry's arrival, between the Tokugawa Shogunate and those who advocated the return of the Emperor to the throne. Many of the followers of the latter group, led by the Satsuma and Choshu clans (in present-day Kagoshima and Yamaguchi Prefectures), fervently pursued the exclu-sionist sonno-joi ideology (expel the barbarians, revere the Emperor). This manifes-ted itself in numerous attacks, often fatal, on the foreign residents of Japan.

One of the most notorious such attacks was the so-called Namamugi Incident, which took place in 1862 in the village of the same name located just off of the old Tokaido road, in present-day Tsurumi Ward. Charles Lenox Richardson, a British merchant visiting Yokohama from Shanghai, was on horseback headed for a sightseeing trip to the Kawasaki-Daishi temple with three British companions. On route, at Namamugi, they encountered the 1000-strong procession of Shimazu Hisamitsu, the powerful daimyo of Satsuma, who was on his way back to southern Japan from the capital, Edo. The tourists looked on at the procession from horseback and did not dismount when ordered to (whether this was due to miscommunication or due to arrogance is still unclear), which enraged the retainers of Lord Shimazu. On the grounds that the foreigners were not showing the proper respect to their lord, the samurai unsheathed their katana and attacked, cutting down Richardson and seriously wounding two of his companions. This incident had a great impact on political and everyday life at the time. Foreigners became increasingly angry at the number of attacks against their ranks and called for their govern-ments to take action, while at the same time they felt increasingly vulnerable and worried for their own safety. Defences in the residential areas of Yokohama were quickly reinforced.

Events culminated in the Anglo-Satsuma War, in which British warships were sent to Kagoshima to "settle" the dispute one year later in 1863. Kagoshima was shelled relentlessly, and it is estimated that 180,000 people were displaced in what became a showcase of the "barbarians" superior military power. The war served as an important psychological turning point for both sides. Having witnessed with their own eyes the stark realities of what Western technology could do, the incident provided the impetus for the Satsuma clan to do an about-face with regards to their exclusionist ideology, and they became champions of modernizing Japan in the Western model. The British also sustained substantial losses in the battle, and they were forced to acknowledge the strength of the Satsuma clan, while also facing jeers from other nations for their "defeat" at Kagoshima."

Source: Yokohama Echo, March 2003

More: Burritt Sabin, 'A historical guide to Yokohama', ed. Yurindo, Yokohama, 2002, p. 272-280

Japan Niewsbrief nr. 261

Link naar: Japan Nieuwsbrief 1 tot 7 maart

Japan Nieuwsbrief nr. 260

Link naar: Japan Nieuwsbrief 23 tot 29 februari

Japan Nieuwsbrief nr. 259

Link naar: Japan Nieuwsbrief 16 tot 22 februari

Obama steunt Obama

De Obama-trein dendert voort. De kandidaat voor de Democratische presidentsnominatie surft van overwinning naar overwinning. Barack Obama heeft zelfs steun uit zeer onverwachte hoek gekregen: de inwoners van een Japans visserstadje scharen zich als één man achter Obama.

De manager van het voornaamste hotel in de stad heeft een heuse fanclub opgericht. De inwoners volgen de Obama-overwinningen op de voet. De burgemeester heeft Obama aanmoedigingen en cadeautjes opgestuurd. In de stad hangen Obama-posters. De lokale koekjesmakers maakt bonenpasteitjes met de beeltenis van Barack Obama. De toeristische dienst verkoopt ‘I Love Obama’-T-shirts. Met politieke overtuiging heeft het allemaal niets te maken. De reden is simpelweg de naam van de stad: ‘Obama’ (‘klein strand’ in het Japans).

De stad Obama heeft een lange geschiedenis. De streek was een toegangspoort voor Chinese invloeden die hun weg vonden naar het historische steden Nara en Kyoto. De stad Obama was een belangrijk handelscentrum, een transportknooppunt. Maar vandaag ligt het stadje in een uithoekje van het land, buiten de grote verkeersaders. De toeristen laten Obama links liggen.

Wat beter dus dan op de Amerikaanse Obama-trein te springen om naambekendheid te verwerven? De inwoners van Obama zien het groots: ze willen wereldbekendheid. Ze twijfelen er niet aan dat Barack Obama de volgende president wordt en dat hij hun stad zal bezoeken. De stad Obama, u zal er nog van horen.

(Gepost in De Standaard Expatblog)

Now and then 22

Mt. Fuji from Yamate Park: Showa - Today


(View from Yamate Park is blocked today. 2005 photo taken from
nearby Yamate Italian Garden)

"The seed of Yamate park, formerly the Bluff Gardens, was planted by one W.H. Smith. He came to Japan as an officer in the Royal Marine Light Infantry in 1864. We don’t know whether the soldier’s life no longer agreed with him or whether he was bewitched by Japan, or both, but he resigned his commission and in a short time was known as Public-Spirited, not Lieutenant, Smith. His good works on behalf of the small foreign community earned him this epithet (…)

Yamate Park, originally know as the Bluff Gardens opened in the summer of 1870. It was the first Western-style park in Japan. The first month there was no admission charge, and from July 1 a small admission fee was charged those who did not subscribe.

The gardens were a success, initially. The band of H.M.’s 1st Batallion 10th Regiment played Saturday afternoons, and evenings there were al fresco soirees by the light of Japanese lanterns (…)

But the palmy days did not last. Subscribers were too few to cover the rent. The gardens sank deeper into the red. The Government wanted to lease the land for housing. Then Sir Harry Parkes, the British Ambassador, brokered a reduction in the land rent. That allowed the women in the Settlement to form the Ladies Lawn Tennis & Croquet Club (LLT&CC) in 1878. Thus Bluff Gardens became the birthplace of modern tennis in Japan (…)

The LLT&CC, now the YITC (Yokohama International Tennis Community), is Japan’s oldest tennis club. The LLT&CC was the exclusive preserve of women. Men, after all, had the United Club, numerous sports facilities, and the pleasure quarter. Gentlemen could, however, be admitted to the LLT&CC as honorary members. Japanese were ineligible for membership. Children and dogs were barred from the grounds. Later men were admitted, and still later, in 1964, Japanese. Now children can join too. Still excluded is man’s best friend."

(Burritt Sabin, 'A historical guide to Yokohama', ed. Yurindo, Yokohama, 2002, p. 27-29)

Obama is hit in Japanse stad

Maandag 18 februari. Het Radio 1-programma Mezzo heeft me enkele vragen gesteld over de plotse populariteit van Barack Obama in het verre Japan.

'Het Japanse stadje Obama is absoluut fan van de Amerikaanse Democratische presidentskandidaat Barack Obama. In het stadje van iets meer dan 32.000 inwoners is zelfs een Obama-campagneteam opgericht.Mocht Barack Obama de nieuwe president van de Verenigde Staten worden, dan is hij alvast van harte welkom in het Japanse Obama.'

Het interviewtje: in de website van Radio 1 of ook hier (996kb, mp3).

Japan Nieuwsbrief nr. 258

Link naar: Japan Nieuwsbrief 9 tot 15 februari

Belgium in Black and White

For those who love photography: Flanders Center in Osaka organizes an exceptional exhibition of Belgian photographer Stephan Vanfleteren. A must see

"For fifteen years, Stephan Vanfleteren has captured portraits and landscapes of small towns in Belgium. The series, "Belgicum", consists of black-and-white photographs that document the phenomena of everyday life in Flanders and Wallonia. In contrast to the vibrant and contemporary Belgium often portrayed in the media, the works reveal a glimpse of the melancholic and somewhat nostalgic world that is rarely exposed to public eyes."

Wereldnet 12 februari

Wereldnet dinsdag 12 februari 2008. Correspondenten in Israël, Singapore en Japan.

Voor Japan heb ik verteld over over 1) vergiftige gyoza uit China, 2) waarom Japan walvissen vangst en 3) valentijnsdag in Japan.

Audiobestand: via de Wereldnet-site.

Japan Nieuwsbrief 257

Link naar: Japan Nieuwsbrief 2 tot 8 februari

Now and Then 21

Yamashita Park: End 1920's - Today



"Yamashita Park and Kaigan–dori, or Water Street, was the main entranceway to Japan. What a joy it must have been to first set foot onto Japanese soil in a park. Even Yokohama oldtimers constantly feel drawn back to Yamashita Park, and if one spot has to be named the spiritual heart of Yokohama, this is it
(...)
The Park itself is a legacy of the great earthquake, designed as a dumping ground for the huge amount of rubble clogging the city. What a practical idea: build a grassy park to celebrate life on the desolate site of death and destruction!"

(John Carroll, 'Trail of Two Cities', ed. Kodansha, Tokyo, 1994, p. 40-41)

See also:
Now and Then 5
Now and Then 10

Now and Then 20

Yoshidabashi Bridge: Meiji - Today



"Yoshidabashi bridge gently arched above the Ha-Ookagawa where the river debouched into the estuary. It was the main entrance to the Gated Within (…)

Japanese bridges, with few exceptions, were built of wood, trees with bark even serving as piers. This was the least durable of materials in a country of heavy rains. Bridges were built in expectation of replacement in several years.

In 1868 Kanagawa Governor Terashima asked Henry Brunton, a Scottish engineer, to build Yoshidabashi from iron. The bridge would be in the nature of an experiment and would demonstrate to the governor’s countrymen how bridges were built abroad. (…) The country got its second iron bridge, though Brunton returned home thinking he had erected its first. An iron bridge had earlier been built in Nagasaki (…)

Iron bridges lasted and could support heavy vehicles. What they did not was inspire (…)

The Ha-Ookagawa was reclaimed in the early 1970s. Today Yoshidabashi spans a highway. A plaque on the present bridge explains its history."

(Burritt Sabin, 'A historical guide to Yokohama', ed. Yurindo, Yokohama, 2002, p. 94-96)

Japan Nieuwsbrief nr. 256

Link naar: Japan Nieuwsbrief 26 januari tot 1 februari

Voedselpaniek in Japan

Grote opschudding in Japan: er zijn sporen van giftige insecticide aangetroffen in diepgevroren gerechten uit China. Officieel is bevestigd dat tot nu toe een tiental mensen zwaar ziek zijn geworden door het eten van gyoza (een soort knoedels) geproduceerd in China. De media is in rep en roer. Vandaag heeft het persagentschap Kyodo gemeld dat er over heel het land al zeker 500 zieken zijn geteld. De regering heeft een crisiscel opgezet en een lange lijst verspreid van diepvriesproducten van het Chinese voedselverwerkende bedrijf dat in opspraak is gekomen.

Niemand durft nog voedselproducten uit China te consumeren. De warenhuizen halen de rekken leeg. Enkele grote restaurantketens hebben aangekondigd geen ingrediënten uit China meer te gebruiken tot er klaarheid komt in de zaak. Dat zal hard aankomen want wat voedselbevoorrading betreft is de Japan een van de industriële landen dat het meest afhankelijk is van voedselimport. Berekend op basis van calorie-inname kan Japan slechts voorzien in 40% van zijn nationale voedselbehoeften – vergelijk dit met 122% in Frankrijk, 97% in Duitsland of 77% in het Verenigd Koninkrijk. China is bovendien de belangrijkste handelspartner van Japan en na de Verenigde Staten de grootste voedseltoeleverancier. De regering beschuldigt China van laksheid. De zaak dreigt de bilaterale relaties ernstig te bekoelen.

(Gepost in De Standaard Expatblog)

Now and Then 19

Bashamichi: Meiji era - Today



"Bashamichi (Horse-Drawn Carriage Road) was built in 1866 to provide a straight roadway to Kaigan-dori (the harbor road) from Yoshidabashi (the main entrance to the foreign settlement). The road was wide enough for carriages; hence its name. Eighty percent of the people who entered of exited the Gated Within crossed Yoshidabashi. (…) The concentration of banks and insurance companies made Bashamichi the Wall Street of Yokohama. Bashimichi bustled (…)

Within the Gates but outside the Settlement, Bashamichi served as a conduit for the introduction of Western things. In 1862 Shimooka Renjo set up Japan’s first photo studio on Bashamichi. The street merchants competed in planting willows and pines in front of their shops in 1867; and Japan acquired the first roadside trees in her modern era. One Machida Fusazo set up a shaved ice shop on Bashamichi in 1869. Soon he was selling ice cream. It was too expensive for Japanese, but Machida had an occasional foreign customer. A foreigner eating ice cream was a sight to behold. The Japanese came to watch.

In October 1872 Bashamichi was illuminated by Japan’s first gas lamps.

(Burritt Sabin, 'A historical guide to Yokohama', ed. Yurindo, Yokohama, 2002, p. 96-98)

------
"Towards the harbor on the right side of Bashamichi, you’ll find the Taiyo no Boshizo, or "mother-and-child in the sun" statue, which marks the site of the first ice cream parlor begun by Richard Risley in 1865 with imported ice. One serving aisukirin cost the equivalent of 8,000 yen in today’s prices, or roughly half a month’s salary for the common man, even though its consistency and taste were more like sherbet than ice cream as we know it today.

At first the Japanese gathered to gawk at the Westerners eating the strange concoction. Some braver souls gave it a try, but on more than one occasion when a customer discovered that the cool treat was made from cow discharge, he or she rushed outside and vomited violently. In 1869 Machida Fusazo opened the first Japanese ice cream parlor. A local company reproduced a close replica of these early ice creams based on original recipes. Bashamichi Aisu, as it is known, is available in four flavors at Aioi Coffee Shop as well as at Shogo Department Store."

(John Carroll, 'Trail of Two Cities', ed. Kodansha, Tokyo, 1994, p. 49)

Zonder auto

Voor de jonge Japanners is de auto geen statussymbool meer. Een recente peiling van de Japanse autoconstructeurs heeft aangetoond dat de jongeren hun schouders ophalen voor de auto. Ooit was het anders. Tien, twintig jaar geleden droomden alle jonge mannen van 'doraibu' ('drive', 'driving'): eigenaar van een mooie wagen, een vriendinnetje in de passagierszetel en samen rondrijden tijdens de weekends.

Vandaag heeft slechts 30% van de twintigers interesse voor auto's. Meer dan de helft vindt dat de auto enkel een middel is om zich te verplaatsen. Slechts 6,7% van de hedendaagse jongeren zegt dat een wagen onmisbaar is om met meisjes uit te gaan.

Voor de stadsbewoners alvast is de auto meer een last dan een plezier. Ook ik wil geen auto.  Een paar evidente redenen op een rijtje:
*In de steden is het treinnet ontzettend efficiënt en sneller dan elk ander vervoermiddel.
*Een auto kopen kan niet zonder parkeerplaats. Zo kost een onoverdekte staanplaats naast ons flatgebouw 40.000 yen (250 euro) per maand.
*De auto op de openbare weg laten staan mag in principe niet. Dus moet bij elke uitstap aan een parkingplaats gedacht worden en dat kost gemiddeld 600 yen (3,8 euro) per uur. *Het verkeer is tergend langzaam. Tijdens het weekend mogen we in de bebouwde zones gemakkelijk rekenen op een uur om 15km af te leggen.
Geen wonder dat de gemiddelde autobezitter in Japan slechts 8.000km per jaar aflegt. *In de dichtbevolkte Japanse steden is alles nabij. Om dit te illustreren heb ik mijn thuisadres ingetypt in de website 'Address Power' en dit is het resultaat:
Meer dan 100 restaurants en bars, 24 kappers, 40 banken, 27 boekenwinkels, 27 warenhuizen, 52 superettes, 7 bioscopen, 13 bejaardeninstellingen, 14 supermarkten, 18 vrijetijdetablissementen (karaoke,etc), 7 videoverhuurwinkels, 5
crèches en kleuterscholen, 11 trein- en metrostations, 11 ‘love hotels’, 92 seksclubs(!) en 7 tempels. Dat alles in een straal van 1,5km.

Een auto? Nee, liever niet.

(Gepost in De Standaard Expatblog)

Now and Then 18

Honcho Elementary School in Naka-ku, Yokohama: Meiji - Today

Japan Nieuwsbrief nr. 255

Link naar: Japan Nieuwsbrief 19 tot 25 januari

Radio 1: de beurs van Tokio

Dinsdag 22 januari. Aziatische beursen gaan flink in het rood.

VRT-Nieuws heeft me geïnterviewd over de sterke daling van de Nikkei op de beurs van Tokio.

Het volledige interview rechtstreeks in de 'De Ochtend' van Radio 1: te beluisteren in de website van Radio 1 of ook hier (595kb, mp3).

Stukjes van het interview werden gebruikt in het radionieuws van 7u, 8u (265kb, mp3) en 9u (305kb, mp3).

Now and Then 17

Iseyama Shrine: Meiji - Today



"The Grand Shrine of Iseyama was built as a talisman.

Protestants missionaries had ensconced themselves in Buddhist temples in Kanagawa directly after the port opened. French Catholics built the Tenshudo in 1861. Anglicans erected a church two years later. The settlers ate meat, not a widespread custom in Buddhist Japan. They rode, although the horse had been reserved for the samurai. The Settlement broadcast their beliefs, ways, and attitudes.

As a counterweight, Izeki Moritome, the deputy governor of Kanagawa prefecture, petitioned the Meiji oligarchy to establish a state shrine in Yokohama. The government agreed. It issued on April 14, 1870, a proclamation: "Amaterasu Omikami [The Sun Goddess] shall be invited to Iseyama and a grand shrine shall be built to pray for the protection of the nation and to promote the worship of the kami [gods] and the emperor." Its vicinity was renamed Iseyama.

A small shrine was moved from a knoll in Tobe to Nogeyama. It was built on a vastly larger scale and named Iseyama Kotai Jingu (the Grand Shrine of Iseyama). A ceremony for the division and the transfer of the Sun Goddess's spirit from the Grand Shrine of Ise, in present-day Mie Prefecture, to the new shrine was held on April 15, 1871. The day (May 15 by the solar calender, adopted in 1873) was celebrated as a city holiday until the Second World War. It is still celebrated, but in these days of separation of church and state, schools and public offices don't close for the gala.

The shrine precints cover 3.2 acres at the top of Iseyama hill (...)

Monuments recall the shrine’s origin in State Shinto. In the far-left corner of the precincts rises a moss-covered memorial to the government soldiers who fell in battle against the rebel army during the Seian War (1877) in Kyushu. In the right corner stands a memorial, inscribed in General Oyama Iwao’s hand, to Japan’s war dead. Soldiers would assemble at the monument and pray before leaving for the front in the Second World War."

(Burritt Sabin, 'A historical guide to Yokohama', ed. Yurindo, Yokohama, 2002, p. 117-119)

Now and Then 16

Hikawa-maru: WWII - Today




"The Hikawa-maru made her maiden voyage on Nippon Yusen’s route from Yokohama to Seattle and Vancouver in may 1930. She was so popular passengers called her the Queen of the Pacific. Then came the war. Converted into a hospital ship in November 1941, she treated wounded Japanese soldiers in the South Seas for five years. Following the war, she repatriated soldiers and civilians form the Marshall Islands and Wake Island. She resumed service on the Yokohama-Seattle route in 1953 and was retired in 1960. She had carried 25,000 passengers in 238 trans-Pacific voyages. She received a much-deserved rest when she permanently moored at the eastern end of Yamashita Park in the (belated) commemoration of Yokohama’s port’s centennial (…) Of the 26 Japanese passenger ships in the 10,000 class in prewar service, only the Hikawa-maru was not sunk."

(Burritt Sabin, 'A historical guide to Yokohama', ed. Yurindo, Yokohama, 2002, p. 56-57)

Japan Nieuwsbrief nr. 254

Link naar: Japan Nieuwsbrief 12 tot 18 januari

Now and Then 15

Takashimadai (near Kanagawa resting station on the Old Tokaido) : Meiji - Today



"View near Hongaku-ji Temple on the Old Tokaido. Sadly all that remains of Hongaku-ji, which was important during treaty port days, is the main gate. All the buildings in the complex were destroyed by bombs during the Pacific War. The temple housed the American consulate soon after the port of Yokohama was officially opened in June 1859. The first US Consul, Townsend Harris [1804-1878] relocated to Hongaku-ji from Gyokusen-ji Temple in Shimoda because Kanagawa was the term used in the treaty."

"The temple and its panoramic views of what was once beach, bay and fishing village during the Edo Era, is now the vast sprawling urban complex consisting of Yokohama Station and five department stores (….) The sea disappeared progressively under concrete and steel".

(Patrick Carey, 'Rediscovering the Old Tokaido. In the footsteps of Hiroshige', ed. Global Oriental, Folkstone England, 2000, p. 17)

Now and Then 14

Nigiwai-za Theater: Meiji - Today

"The theater district provided people respite from hardscrabble lives. Theaters opened as early as eight o’clock in the morning and the day’s program ran through eleven o’clock at night.

The Nigiwai-za was known as the Handkerchief Theater, for it was the favorite of the 'handkerchief women', who sewed and embroidered silk handkerchiefs in the cottage factories on the back streets. They wore around the neck silk handkerchiefs that were perks of the job. In the evening groups of them gadded about town, crimson, purple, blue, or peach-colored handkerchiefs gaily adorning their kimono collars. Young punks mingled with them, for which reason the term 'handkerchief woman' had a disreputable ring.

But the handkerchief women were the nucleus of the Yokohama's economy, and they vied to earn the most money. There were lavish spenders. The Kabuki was the favorite indulgence. Their handkerchiefs rendered the Nigiwai-za's pit a sea of color. They shouted in their peculiar voices the names of favorite actors.

In 1890s Yoshikawa Eiji, later a popular writer of period fiction, went with his grandfather to the Nigiwai-za. He was too young to appreciate the plucky lasses with the colorful kerchiefs worn chicly around the neck. But his grandfather, sake cup in the hand, reveled in the nubile audience and in the daylong play viewing. Eiji would play hooky from his Chinese classics lesson and go to the theaters."

(Burritt Sabin, 'A historical guide to Yokohama', ed. Yurindo, Yokohama, 2002, p. 102-103)

Note:
Nigiwai-za was located in Isezaki-cho Theater Street. The new Nigiwai-za stands now nearby Noge-cho (near Sakuragicho Station).

Now and Then 13

Nogezaka: After the Big Earthquake (1923) - Today

"Rain lashed Yokohama in the early morning of September 1, 1923. By nine o'clock the rain stopped and the sky cleared. But shortly before noon the earth rumbled like distant thunder. Then the ground heaved in waves. The earth shook for four minutes.

The epicenter of the quake, with a magnitude of 7.9, was beneath Sagami Bay. It was powerful enough to have been felt throughout almost all of Japan.

Yokohama's premier buildings were made of brick, a material promoted for construction after the 1866 fire. But the brick construction of the time could not withstand a strong quake (...) Sam Robinson, Captain of the 'Empress of Australia', observed from his ship bridge all the buildings on the Bund dissolve as if built of sand.

The quake struck at 11:58, just as families were preparing meals in charcoals stoves. Embers set paper-and-wood houses ablaze (...) The firestorm was so intense that it rained the city's printed matter down upon the Boso Peninsula across Uraga Strait (...)

Captain Robinson, as soon as the dust settled and he saw the annihilation of the city, decided to turn the 'Empress of Australia', about to leave the port, into a relief ship. Many refugees owed their lives to this decision.

In Kannai, people fled the flames to Yokohama Park. En route to the park many burned to death or drowned in canals because bridges had collapsed. Water from burst mains flooded the park, and refugees stood knee-deep in water. Flames gradually enclosed the park. Some refugees risked the flames for fear of drowning. But the water rose no higher and kept the flames from the park. The park was a life-saving refuge for 50,000 people (...)

Otis Manchester Poole, a long-time Yokohama resident left a first-person account of the earthquake and its aftermath. Having returned to Yokohama from his Kobe refuge a week or so after the calamity, he saw everywhere 'charred corpses, pathetic shrunken mummies. The canals, docks and slips were filled with bodies, bloated to an orange shapelessness, scattered amongst masses of rubbish that choked every waterway. Here and there the funnels sunken launches protruded from the scum. Many of the bodies of Japanese which still littered the streets were being methodically collected into piles of four or six and crudely, though with surprising completeness, cremated under sheets of corrugated iron laid across them.'

Yet there was comic relief. A French woman happened to be bathing in her room on an upper floor of the Oriental Hotel when the building collapsed leaving her exposed in the tub held up by the plumbing. A passerby heard the screams and clambered up to the pipes to rescue her.

People tend to think of the earthquake as the 'Tokyo earthquake'. But Yokohama suffered proportionately more than the capital. Of its 99,840 houses, only 4,957 were undamaged. Of a population of 448,472 , 21,384 were killed and 1,951 were missing. The national government, too, took a Tokyo-centric outlook, and in reconstruction funding favored the capital at the port's expense."

(Burritt Sabin, 'A historical guide to Yokohama', ed. Yurindo, Yokohama, 2002, p. 283-285)

Now and Then 12

More Negishi area: Meiji - Today



[See also Now and Then 11 about Negishi]:

Japan Nieuwsbrief nr. 253

Link naar: Japan Nieuwsbrief 5 tot 11 januari

Japan Nieuwsbrief nr. 252

Link naar: Japan Nieuwsbrief 29 december tot 4 januari

Minato Mirai Night Views

Night views in Minato Mirai:


22 pictures in flickr

Hatsumode & Hatsuhinode

Hatsumode in Iseyama Jinja, Yokohama Jan 1st, around 1h30. And 'Hatsuhinode' the first sunrise of the year, around 6h45. In the afternoon Jan 1st: Again temple & shrine visit.


66 pictures in flickr