Ryōma Sakamoto – Poppin’ caps

Article posted on Sunday, November, 20th, 2011 at 3:26 pm

In early November of each year, the annual Saga International Balloon Fiesta is held on the western outskirts of Saga city. I didn’t make this year as I’m yet to fully recover from last year’s efforts in trying to escape the car park. The fiasco that that was aside, it was a fun day with plenty of things to do & see besides hot-air ballooning.

One odd little thing that I saw was this huge image of Ryōma Sakamoto made using soft drink bottle caps. And I must say, I am relieved (and a little surprised) to see that they’ve used the image of the real Ryōma Sakamoto and not the suave Masaharu Fukuyama, who played the lead character in NHK’s 2010 Taiga Drama, Ryōmaden. The piece was assembled by the students of a local high school.

And speaking Ryōma Sakamoto, how about checking out the latest Samurai archives podcast: Symposium Report – Why Ryōma Now

Arima Kinenkan Exhibition – The life of an Edo Period lord

Article posted on Wednesday, July, 20th, 2011 at 4:41 pm

Just another day at a Japanese school. It seems everytime I get back to my desk, there’s yet another pamphlet or flier from a insurance or travel agency sitting on my desk, waiting to be thrown away. Sometimes they leave hard candy. I like it when they do.

I couldn’t've been more surprised the other day when I saw this one. A new exhibition was being held in Kurume at the Arima Memorial Hall, a small but tidy historical museum of the Arima clan at the site of their former castle. Well, looks like I finally had a plan for the coming Summer vacation.

Sprung!

The drive to Kurume castle was brief. Making my way from the Eastern entrance, I walked across the face of the Sasayama Shrine (篠山神社). Having not entered via the front gate, the first doors I was presented with were that of the toilets. And, if my memory served me correctly (it did), the wall of the male toilets is decorated with old roof tiles, some featuring heraldic symbols. I could hardly resist, so I whipped out my camera.

I struggled to get the shot I was after in that confined space. At my third attempt I noticed a man approaching. Actually, I noticed that he had noticed me. I gave a slight bow then scuttled off. Gee, that didn’t feel weird.

The memorial hall

In the door & up the stairs I went. "Konnichi wa", to the man at the front desk. I handed over the ¥200, and I was handed back about ¥200′s worth of pamphlets & fliers. What the..? I felt like I was back at work.

I heard footsteps behind me. It was the man who saw me in the toilet taking photos. He relplaced the man who had been on the front desk. There was just the two of us there now. What a relief that we’d broken the ice earlier!

The exhibits

I was immediately ushered toward a seat, and the friendly staff member started a short video of how the Arima clan came to be in Kurume city. A second video briefly spoke of the life of a princess at the end of the Edo period. A third video spoke of the Arima clan residence in Edo & of the clan’s legacy. The primary focus appeared to be that of an elementary school & a horse race.

I found all three videos of interest. They weren’t too long, and I was able to pick up on some tasty tid-bits of information here & there.

It was time to unleash myself upon the rest of the exhibits. It was a very short walk and I was reminded of how far away I was from Tōkyō, Kyōto, Nara, Nagoya or even Fukuoka city.

Okay, sarcasm aside, I really did enjoy myself. I definitely got my ¥200′s worth. There were several paintings/prints & artifacts relating to the castle that I was very happy to see. Also interesting was the amour with the dark-blue laces shown in the top picture. There is a dent in the breastplate from where it had been tested against gunfire. Kewl!

It was time to go, but before I left, I made sure I got the big, round, red stamp you see to the right to make sure it was ¥200 well spent.

The Namamugi incident

Article posted on Friday, February, 18th, 2011 at 10:53 pm

Setting the scene

In 1862, the acting head of the Shimazu clan, a guy named Shimazu Saburō (島津三郎), attended the Emperor’s envoy’s entourage to the capital of Edo. Perhaps he was there to offer weight to the request that the Shōgun travel to Kyōto to discuss measures that could be implemented to keep foreigners off Japanese soil.

In addition to his already stated purpose, there were two additional items Saburō wanted to discuss with the Shōgun. They were:

• the law requiring lengthy attendance by Daimyō in the capital (and when not there, hostages in their place) to be abolished
• for himself to be appointed by the Shōgun to a level of particular importance in the Emperor’s court

Not only were the above two requests denied, but the Shōgun didn’t even make space in his schedule for face time with the regent of Satsuma. This only served to add to what was already a deep, hereditary hatred that the Shimazu had for the Tokugawa.

The scene

A woodblock print depicting the attack upon a British national on September 14th, 1862. The man standing upright with the red, billowing Hakama is none other than Shimazu Saburō (this time written as 嶋津三郎).

The dangers of horseback riding

With their business more-or-less concluded, they left Edo. When on the Tōkaidō, the main road linking Edo with Kyōto and Ōsaka, Saburō and his procession came across four mounted Englishmen, one of which was a lady.

When the day-trippers got close, only one of the four dismounted & bowed. To dismount was seen as the right thing by the Japanese, but seen as appalling by every other foreigner in Japan at the time. In fact, the Anglo-Japanese friendship treaty that was in effect, deemed such an action as unnecessary for Anglos. In any case, Charles Richardson, pictured in the black coat & top hat, met his end for not having shown sufficient respect.

Compensation of ₤25,000 was demanded for Mr Rishardson’s death, however almost one year had passed and the British still hadn’t received the requested funds. Dissatisfied, several British ships were assembled and  proceeded to bombard the Satsuma capital of Kagoshima.

Azuchi scribbles

Article posted on Monday, November, 22nd, 2010 at 5:24 pm

Just before diving into the inevitable Ehime-visit posts, I thought I'd share with you one of the ways with which I keep my self occupied when I'm in a quite house.

Thanks to the well-stocked Tosu city library, I was able to get my hands on a book that detailed the reconstruction of the 5th & 6th floors of Azuchi castle for the purposes of displaying it at the 1992 Seville Expo.

For those not familiar with the partial reconstruction, the 6th floor is a 4-sided room covered with gold-leaf and the floor below it has eight sides & is the reddest thing you ever saw. it remains on display in Azuchi. Just don't go on a Monday like I did! It ain't open.

The whole thing is a work of art, but within the 5th floor is the screen & sliding doors pictured below. A detail of one of the doors is sitting to the right. But as if you hadn't already noticed.

So getting back to my time-spending ways, after scanning in the images, I clumsily added the frames, some shadow & the handles. I then messed around with layers to add the text and the background with the Oda clan heraldry. I used a program called GIMP, an open source Paintshop alternative.

I doubt the resulting image is going to impress anyone but I do enjoy the learning process. I never really knew about Japanese castles, taking photos, making websites, blogging or making videos either, I just gave it a go. Gotta start somewhere, hey? (That's a rhetorical question.)

Kote-e, The plasterer’s art

Article posted on Saturday, January, 23rd, 2010 at 11:51 am

During my time & travels in Japan I’ve seen plenty of old buildings. My main focus was of course castles but along the way I started to notice some stubby & sturdy looking white-plastered storehouses. Surprising to me was that these buildings are dotted all over the place and in some places you’ll see row upon row of them (many crumbling) such as in Kurashiki near Okayama or, as in the attached photo, Ako castle in Hyōgo Prefecture.

The white plaster that cover the walls act not only as a fire retardant but goes a long way to giving these buildings their uniqueness and beauty. It was during the Edo (1603-1868) and Meiji (1868-1912) periods that it became fashionable to carve or form plaster into decorative aspects of the storehouse’s overall design. This was known as Kote-e 鏝絵, which translates directly as trowel pictures.

Copyright © The Yomiuri Shimbun

There isn’t a great deal of pictures & information about but here are some links:

Kote-e in Tottori (Awesome!)here
A basic Google image search – here
A Yomiuri news article – here
Kote-e in Hiji, Oita – here

Folding screen of Hideyoshi’s Osaka Castle

Article posted on Monday, October, 12th, 2009 at 9:55 pm

Folding screen depicting Hideyoshi's Osaka Castle

A friendship agreement now exists between Graz Palace in Austria & Osaka Castle. It all started in 2006 when the magnificent folding screen depicting Osaka castle was discovered decorating the walls of one of the Indian rooms of the Eggenberg Palace. It’s believed the screen was painted in the years prior to Osaka castle’s destruction during the Winter & Summer campaigns by Tokugawa forces in 1614 – 1615.

The screen most probably made it’s way to Europe in the mid to late 1600′s then into the hands of Prince Johann Seyfried von Eggenberg. The eight-part folding screen was dissembled in 1750 and the individual panels were embedded into the walls of the third Indian room of the Eggenberg Palace some years later. The Indian rooms were decorated with treasures brought to Europe by the East-India company.

More information can be found at the The Universal Museum Joanneum website and this Japan Times Article.