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)