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The creatures are known as koma-inu or Karashishi meaning Korean Dog or Chinese Lion, and are guardians of temples and other holy places.
In ancient times stone or clay figures of animals were placed near the tombs of kings and other eminent persons in the Middle East and certain parts of Asia. The lion symbolizes the Power of the Buddhist Law. An so the practice of using stone carvings of these lion like creatures was introduced from China and Korea with Buddhism.
The lion was unknown in ancient China except in travelers talks. A Chinese philosopher once advised his nephews to draw swans rather than tigers. "For", he said, "if you try to draw a swan, the result will be a duck; whereas if you try to draw a tiger, the result will be a dog." And so the Koma-inu probably originated in the Chinese conception of a lion. The Koma-inu, supposed to ward of demons, are always seen in pairs, the male with a horn in its head, open mouth, and paw resting on a ball, and the female, Ama-inu, Heavenly Dog, horn-less, with closed mouth and sometimes fondling a puppy.
The open mouth of the Koma-inu is said to express the first Sanskrit vowel Aum, and the closed mouth of the Ama-inu that last vowel Umje, the Alpha and Omega of Faith and worship.
Today is a national holiday since 1870 as Shunki-korei-sai (Spring Festival for Consoling the Imperial Ancestors) and now is called Shunbun-no-hi (Spring Equinox Day).
O-higan, the spring and autumn equinoxes, are the Buddhist weeks of prayer which commence on March and September 18, when there is heavy pressure on the various transportation facilities with people throughout the country making pilgrimages to their family temples and the tombs of their ancestors.
Higan means "the other shore" or "other site of the river," which divides the world of men from that of salvation and, according to Buddhist belief , it is only when one is able to ford this river against all the currents of temptation that one finds salvation in the Buddhist paradise.
It is also an occasion when people seem to radiate hope; for the winter is over, the green spring is at hand, and the cherry trees will soon spread a pinkish white garland over the land.
放送記念日 Start of Broadcasting in Japan
On March 22, 1925, when first radio waves were sent out from a studio of the Tokyo Broadcasting Station at Shibaura (a private concern). In the same year separate broadcasting companies and stations were established at Nagoya and Osaka (supported by news papers).
In August 1926 the NHK was established under the control of the Ministry of Communications and by 1930 key was well as local stations were established throughout the country.
It was in 1930 that the first successful long distance relay broadcast was received from abroad; a speech by Baron Watatsuki, Japan's chief delegate to the three power naval disarmament conference in London, and in October the first international short wave exchange broadcast took place among Great Britain, the U.S. and Japan to mark the exchange of ratification of the London Naval Treaty.
In 19--, the NHK Second Network was established.
In 1935 overseas broadcasts were started in Japanese and English to the western parts of Canada, the U.S. and Hawaii in Japanese and English.
From the outbreak of the Pacific War in 1941 to after H.M. the Emperor's broadcast announcing Japan's unconditional surrender all broadcasting and radio waves were under strict Government control. Full-scale commercial broadcasting started after the war.
Regular television was commenced in February 1953 by NHK, soon to be followed by commercial stations. However, Japan's first experimental telecasts had been made as far back as 1939, when preparations were being made for the Olympic Games in 1940, which had to be abandoned due to the outbreak of war in Europe. Experimental color telecast were made in 1956, and regular programs were started by NHK in 1960.
徳川家康と江戸城 Tokugawa Ieyasu and Edo Castle
He received first five, the eight provinces of Eastern Japan in fief from Hideyoshi in 1590. At that time the land now covered with the blocks of offices and buildings and known as Marunouchi, was a half-submerged swamp. What is now the broad avenue past Wadakuramon was "a sea-beaten beach with only fishermen's huts there on".......
Between 1590 and 1600 Edo was merely the provincial capital of Musashi, as this plain was known. After 1600, when the victory at Sekigahara gave Iyeyasu control of the country, until the reduction of Osaka Castle in 1614, the feudal lords would call at Osaka to pay their respects to Hideyoshi, then come to Edo to call on the Shogun......
Ieyasu, who only held the office of Shogun for two years (1603-1605) never resided in this, and the walls and moats were completed under his son Hidetada and his grandson, Iyemitsu.
The raising of the ramparts took about 10 years and was finished two years before Shakespeare died.....
In July 1604, the feudal lords were told to get preparations under way, to see that labor and materials would be forthcoming in the necessary quantities. The amounts were levied on a basis of their incomes, which were reckoned in terms of "koku" of rice. This might be translated as a "bale" though it actually weighed five bushels. Each daimyo had to supply 1,120 koku for every 100,000 koku of his income.....
城壁の石について About the Castle Foundation Rocks
The face of the walls shows the broadest part of the tapering stones, three or four feet across. These polygonal 多角形 blocks are skillfully fitted together, with never a pinch of mortar. This enabled them to yield and readjust to the strain of earthquakes. Many of them are 16 feet in length!
東大の赤門 Red Gate of Tokyo University
Tokyo University occupies the site of the former estate of the Maeda family, but the only relic remaining today is the Akamon, or Red Gate. It was constructed in 1827 and repaired in 1961, having been designated as an "important cultural property."
Akamon is the best preserved daimyo gateway. Actually, it is little more than 100 years old and escaped the fire of 1923 which destroyed the University Library. The Red Gate was built specially for the 21st daughter of the 11th Tokugawa Shogun, Ienari, on the occasion of her marriage to a member of the Maeda family. She had a separate house in the corner of the enormous Maeda compound of a hundred acres, now the campus of Tokyo University.
Zoujouji Temple, the headquarters of the Jodo sect in the Kanto district, was formally the family temple of the Tokugawas. The two storied gate, built in 1605, is registered as an "important cultural property"
The red-lacquered gateway at Shiba was one of the first structures in Edo, completed in 1605. It is the largest and oldest "Sanmon" literally meaning "Three Gates". "Sanmon" is a shortened form of "San-gedatsumon", the gateway of freedom from the three kinds of worldly passion.
There is the largest bell in Tokyo inside the gate. It is known as the "One-ri-bell" from the saying that when it is struck the reverberating sound lasts as long as it takes a man to walk one ri, or about four kilometers. It was cast in 1673.
The Zojoji enjoyed special privileges as it was chosen by Ieyasu as the family temple of the Tokugawa's. It was removed to its present site in 1596. The original plan was that the Tokugawa Shoguns should be interred 埋葬ｽﾙ here and at the Kaneiji in Ueno, but this was not strictly carried out. The mortuary埋葬ﾉ temples were in ornate style, with much painted carving, black lacquer and gold leaf.
Much of the carving was the work of Hidari Jingoro, while the walls and screens were painted by such musters as Kano Chikanobu. The coffered 格間( ごうまﾃﾞ ｳﾒﾙ ) and painted ceilings were magnificent with phoenixes and angels.
According to Japanese tradition evil influences come from the northeast, so Iemitsu, the third Tokugawa Shogun, founded the Kaneiji. The original temple, which held all the land that now forms Ueno Park, was burnt down at the time of Restoration. In May 1868 a fierce battle was fought at Ueno between the forces supporting the Tokugawa Government and those supporting the Emperor. The Kaneiji was burnt in the course of this fighting. The fine black gateway survived, though punctured with bullet holes. After 1937 it was moved to the Ryodaishi temple on the northeast of the park.
Long, long ago, the priest of the Gotokuji, at Setagaya, Tokyo, then in miserable condition, had several cats. One day in pondering over the decline in the fort unes of his temple, he addressed his cats, saying, "I wish you would bring us be tter days."
Shortly afterward a group of Samurai, returning from a hunting trip, happened to pass the temple. At the gate they observed a cat with its paw raised as if beck oning them inside. This vastly amused them and so they went into the courtyard t o rest. Then, just as they had tethered their horses, there was thunder and a vi olent storm arose. And so in order to entertain the huntsmen the priest gave a sermon, which so impressed them that they felt indebted to him, and especially to the cat, which had as it were invited them into the temple to shelter from the storm which it knew was approaching. As a result, the leader of the samurai huntsmen, Lord Ii Naotaka, promised to become the patron of the temple and through him the Gotokuji recovered its former prosperity.
自衛権 Article 9 of Japanese Constitution
The Government has held the belief that the war renouncing clause of the Constitution does not prohibit the exercise of the nation's right to use force in self-defense.
The Constitution in Article ) "forever renounces was as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as a means of settling international disputes."
Japan's defense potential is made up only of conventional defense weapons to be used only to cope with an act of aggression whose scale dose not exceed that of localized warfare.
The Government's official interpretation of Article 9 is that it does not deny Japan's right to self-defense and, therefore, the nation may have means for exers- ing that right.
Yet, the controversy over Art.9 is far from finished. It is likely to be stirred most violently when the question of arming the SDF with nuclear weapons ("for defense purpose") comes up eventually.
He was born in Sakai in 1521 and committed Harakiri on Feb. 28 of the lunar calendar by order of Toyotomi Hideyoshi.
In those days Sakai was a very prosperous city, and as its wealthy merchants were lower in the social scale than the worrier class, they originated Sado, which is said to have been one form of demonstrating a refined resistance toward the amurai.
In 1568 when the forces of Oda Nobunaga advanced to the Kyoto-Osaka area, Oda asked the Sakai merchants to furnish a large sum to assist him in pursuing and defeating his enemies. However, the most influential and wealthy group which controlled the virtually self-governing city, refused to comply with the request , and Oda was only pacified when some, including Sen-no-rikyu sent the general a valuable set of tea ceremony utensils. This resulted in Rikyu's entering Oda's service and receiving a grant of 500 koku (1 koku=5 bushels) per year.
After Oda's death, Rikyu served Hideyoshi who raised his income to 3,000 koku, and was initiated into Zen Buddhism by the Priest Kokei at the Daitokuji.
Under Rikyu's influence the tea ceremony became extremely popular and it was on the order of Hideyoshi that he formulated new rules and made it practicable for ordinary towns people.
Rikyu is said to have earned Hideyoshi's displeasure by having a wooden statue of himself placed at the gate of the Daitokuji, another reason given is that he refused to give his daughter(お吟) to Hideyoshi on the ground that she was promised to another.
Sen-no-Rikyu founded the Senke cha-no-yu, the Omote Senke was originated by his grandson, Sen-no-Sosa, and the Ura Senke by his great-grandson, Sen-no-Soshitsu.
祇園踊り Gion Odori
Kyoto is famous for the splendor of its cherry blossoms. But it is also as well famous for its "living blossoms" - geisha and maiko.
Every gay quarters in Kyoto has its own dancing festival of geisha-maiko enter- tainers but particularly famous are those of Gion and Pontocho; the former known as Miyako Odori and the latter as Kamogawa Odori.
The Miyako Odori festival annually runs from April 1 to May 10 at the quarter's dancing studio in Shijo called the Gion Koubu Kaburenjo. During this period, about 300 geisha and about 50 maiko dancers give performances four times a day at 1:00, 2:30, 4:00, and 5:30pm.
Tickets are \900 for a special seat, \600 for first-class seat and \250 for second class seat.
賀茂川踊ﾘ Kamogawa Odori
In Pontocho, Kamogawa Odori, or its annual dancing festival will be held in its dancing training hall at Sanjo from April 15 through May 16. 1:00, 3:00, and 5:00pm. A special seat ticket is priced at \500 and a common seat is \300. Besides, Kitano Kamishichiken, another gay quarters in Kyoto will hold its own annual dancing festival at the Kitano Hall April 10-25.
Geisha and maiko entertainers at Miyagawacho quarters will also hold their own dancing festival at Minamiza Theater in Shijo.
桜 Cherry Trees
Since about 1,000 years ago, the city has been termed "flowery Kyoto." Of course "flowery" means "full of cherry blossoms".
There are many species of cherry trees and consequently many kinds of cherry blossoms - some come out early, some late and some bloom in single layer of petals and others in many petals.
The cherry trees that can be seen in Kyoto include wild cherry trees, drooping cherry trees, and those known here as Somei Yoshino and Sato Zakura trees. Leaves
of a wild cherry trees are brown and unfold themselves when the blossoms come out. Many cherry trees of this species can be found at Mt. Arashiyama.
The drooping cherry tree is beautiful with its slender branches drooping. Maruyama Park is famous for having many of these trees.
Some Yoshino is the kind most common throughout this country. Leaves of Somei Yoshino are green. Its blossoms are light red at first but later turn paler. The name Somei Yoshino comes from a gardener living in Somei in the Edo Period who created the species by improving Yoshino cherry trees.
Sato Zakura is a species whose trunk is gray and whose blossoms come out at the same time the leaves sprout. The blossoms are large with many of them single-row- petaled and all of them have a fragrance.
This species is commonly called Yaezakura in Japan. Cherry tree of this species were sent to the U.S. in 1912 and planted on the banks of the Potomac River.
Blossom-viewing has a long history with its origin dating back to the Nara Period (711-793). Then, cherry trees were planted mainly in gardens, but in the foll- owing Heian period (794-1191) they were planted in the compounds and especially in the gardens of shrines and temples in Kyoto.
In Mt. Higashiyama, 1,000 Somei Yoshino trees stand along a waterway stretching from Ginkakuji to Eikando. The best season for blossom-viewing is early April.
In the grounds Shinnyodo, there are about 200 Somei Yoshino trees.
Nanzenji is well known for about 100 wild cherry trees on its grounds.
In the compound of Heian Shrine, there are about 200 trees of wild cherry, Sato Zakura and Somei Yoshino. Wild cherry and Somei Yoshino blossoms are at their best early in April while Sato Zakura blossoms come out around mid-April.
In Murayama Park, there are some 400 trees of wild cherry, Sato Zakura, Somei Yoshino and drooping cherry trees.
桐箪笥 Tansu
The exterior is made of hard cryptomeria wood, and the drawers made of paulownia (tong wood?). Paulownia wood when damp or wet shrinks to prevent the wet air from coming into the interior.
象眼 Damascene
(Kyoto Craft Center opened on April 1, 1967)
Damascene handcraft techniques were introduced in Japan ffor the first time in the Nara Period (711-793) via India, China and Korea. The techniques originated in Damascus, thus giving the present name "damascene". Another technique of the art is said to have been introduced from Damascus to Japan through Spain and Portugal. These ancient techniques are still prserved in Kuyushun, Nagasaki, and Kansai, Kyoto.
The techniques practiced here are still preserved as one of traditional arts of this country.
A damascene piece is a work of industrial art - which represents a certain artistic pattern of gold or silver set in a steel foundation. These works were used as decorations for swords, worrier's garments, and helmets, mirrors and Buddhist altar fittings.
The process for making these damascene pieces is as follows. First, numerous lines are chiseled on a steel foundation by delicate instruments. Second, a given design is inlaid with gold (24K) and pure silver. Third, the surface is corroded with nitric acid and rusted, then rusting is inhibited by boiling the surface in green tea. Fourth, several layers of lacquer are baked on the entire surface. Fifth, the design is polished with charcoal. Last, the final engraving is made.
版画 Wood Block Prints
One of the oldest woodblock prints in the world is the print found on the door of the alcove for a Buddhist scripture, discovered in the stone cave of Dunhuang, China. It is dated at 868 A.D. The technical level revealed by this print shows that the Chinese had wood-block printing since ancient times.
The technique came to Japan with Buddhism. The oldest wood-block print now existing in the world is that made by Hyakumanto-darani in 707. It is found at Horyuji Temple.
Wood-block printing developed much later in Europe. Today, prints made in 1423 in Europe are extant 現存ｽﾙ.
The art of wood-block printing in Japan is of the highest level in the world. The prints are treasured by foreign visitors to Japan.
It marked the highest level of development along with Kabuki during the Edo Period (1603-1868).
In Japan today there are both the original prints of the past centuries and modern reproductions of them as well as contemporary works.
The Japanese style is represented by Ukiyoe. In making Ukiyoe-type prints, hard cherry is popular as material because it is hard and its texture even. A wood-block print is a joint work of three artists - painter, cutter and printer. The painter first draws an outline with black ink on rice paper. After this is pasted on its reverse side on a block, the cutter traces the lines with knife and chisel.
After the wood-block is finished, the printer makes many black-ink prints. With these prints, several blocks for different color patterns are made. Some of the treasured prints from the old days have 16 different colors, for which 16 different blocks were used.
The knives used in cutting blocks are made by the same technique that is employed in making the Japanese sword.
ぼたもち会式
Nichiren Shonin (1222-1282), perhaps the most colorful, and also the most militant Japanese Buddhist saint, is said to have warned the Government of the imminent invasion of Japan by Mongols. And while the authorities affected to scorn his prediction, nevertheless it put them on their guard.
Nichiren was a constant thorn in the side of authority. Fearless, critical, he welcomed persecution as a means to gain his ends. He suffered banishment to remote islands and in 1271 was under sentence of death and about to be beheaded at Tatsunokuchi, Katase, opposite Enoshima when a pardon arrived from the Shogunate.
In 1339, the splendid temple of Ryukoji was erected on the execution ground by Nichiren's disciples to commemorate the saint's deliverance from the execution and each year on September 12 holds the rite of 法難祈念法会 for commemorating the persecution of St. Nichiren.
All through the night of the 11th, odaimoku - the prayer of the Nichiren Sect; Namu Myoho Renge Kyo - "Hail, the Sutra of the Lotus of the Wonderful Law," is recited and on the following night botamochi - sweet red-bean paste and rice cake - is thrown to the congregation. For this reason the annual event is also know n as Botamochi-eshiki.
西郷隆盛の江戸入り、上野の乱、西南の役
Just over three months after the Restoration, the Imperial force, with Saigo Takamori as chief of staff, entered Edo on April 26, 1868. Through all the confusion of those times, Saigo firmly believed that the samurai, and the samurai alone, should provide the armed forces of the new Japan.
He was met at Shinagawa by Katsu Awa, who represented the Shogunate, and taken t o the top of Atagoyama. Katu Awa pointed out the roofs of the city stretching to the north-east and said, "If we fight, these innocent people will be great sufferers." Their agreement saved the city, though a battle did take place in Ueno in July that year.
俸禄 帯刀禁止
In 1873, an Imperial decree offered pension to get the Samurai to stop wearing t heir swords and to cease to be a class apart. This was soon followed by a conscription law making every male liable for military service, whatever his social status.
朝鮮征伐
In 1873, the Korean court abandoned the 300-year-old custom of sending an embassy of congratulation and, in a dispatch, charged Japan with being a renegade 裏切 ﾘ 者 from the civilization of the Orient.
At that time, Saigo Takamori, was one of the five most prominent leaders in the country. He fiercely resented the conscription law and urged a punitive expedition against Korea, but the peace party prevailed. Saigo resigned, retired to Satsuma.
オ−ストラリアへの移住
The Government of South Australia, apparently without consulting London, had put forward an ambitious plan for the development of the Northern Territory by large scale Japanese immigration. All classes of Japanese were to be included in the scheme, laborers, farmers, teachers, aristocrats: "They were to have their own lands in free-simple and were to enjoy all the rights they had in their native land, plus the privileges ordinarily assigned in law to Australian citizens."
The Government agent, one Wilton Hack, was in Tokyo and the Japanese Foreign Off ice had agreed to the general principle of the scheme. The arrangements for ship ping some three or four hundred Japanese had practically completed. Then the outbreak of the Satsuma Rebellion wrecked the plans.
Tea (1) お茶
Tea is said to have been introduced to Japan from China by the Buddhist priests Saicho, or Dengyo Daishi, and Kukai, or Kobe Daishi, in the 8th and 9th centuries, planted in temple gardens, and used mainly by the priests and those of the upper classes for medical purposes.
In the early Kamakura Period, a Chinese priest, Eisai, planted on the slopes of Seburiyama on the border of Hizen and Chikugo in Kyushu and plants were sent to Myoe-shonin, a famous priest at Kyoto through the Shofukuji Templae at Hakata.
It was Eisai who first ground tea to powder, matcha, before infusing it in hot water; a method which is still used today, especially in the tea ceremony.
In 1214 Eisai presented Matcha to the Shogun at Kamakura and presented him a book describing the value of tea as a medicine. From this period tea drinking tea became popular with the Zen sect and the worrier class who considered that i t assisted promote tranquility of mind.
What, however, provided great impetus to the custom of drinking tea among a wide r circle was the establishment in 1223 of a kiln at Seto for making pottery - setoyaki - by Kato Shirozaemon, who had studied ceramics in China.
By the Ashikaga Period the tea plantations of Uji, were flourishing and tea drinking became such mark of refinement among the upper classes that Eisai was entrusted with drawing up rules for its preparation.
Tea (2) お茶(2)
According to a Buddhist legend the tea shrub originated from the fatigue which Boddhidharma, or better known to Japanese as Daruma, suffered after long years o f prayer and meditation. For it said that when the Buddhist saint could no longer keep his eyes open and fell into a sound sleep he was so angry with his own eyelids when he awoke that he cut them off. When they fell on the ground each became transformed into a plant, the leaves of which were henceforth seeped in water to provide a medicinal beverage for those in search of Truth and Nirvana.
So the drinking of tea in the manner interpreted as a ceremony - cha-no-yu - has always maintained a tinge of religious influence from the days when Buddhists priests found it effective in keeping them awake during the night and early morning hours of devotions, and who believed in its valuable medicinal properties.
The Buddhist abbot Eisai who first codified the rules for cha-no-yu wrote a treatise 論説 on the subject, "The Salutary Influence of Drinking Tea," which he pointed out the manner in which tea "regulates the five viscera 内蔵の and expels evil spirits."
BY the 16th century tea drinking had become popular with the wealthy merchant classes and Sen-no-Rikyu codified the rules of chano-yu ever more rigidly, decreeing that the utensils should be of the most plain and unpretentious design and for m, without intrinsic本質的ﾅ value, and the tea room as simple as possible.
The drinking of tea among the lower classes did not spread until the end of the 17th century. In 1737, in the Edo Period, a certain Nagatani Sochiro of Yamashiro near Kyoto, succeeded in making sencha - green tea which, unlike black tea, is not fermented. And it was this new type of tea which revolutionized tea drinking in Japan and made it available to all classes.
Sencha is of course the ordinary type of tea drunk in most Japanese homes and comes in various qualities. Bancha is the cheapest tea, made from chopped leaves , stalks, and trimmings of the plant, slightly brown in color, but there are those who like it.
Tea (3) お茶(3)
The tea plant is ready to be picked in its third year. It is generally cultivate d on slopes and terraces. The first picking takes place at the end of April and beginning of May and lasts for about four weeks, the second in June or July, and some times there is even a third crop. The first picking, shincha, is for sencha, gyokuro made from the tenderest leave s of old shrubs, and for matcha or hikicha the powdered form for the chano yu; the second and third pickings are for the best black tea or kocha.
Unlike Chinese tea or the black type, Japanese tea must not be made with boiling water for this makes it extremely bitter. gyokuro should be brewed in water at 60 to 70 degrees centigrade for about one to two minutes and cups warmed to this temperature. Ordinary sencha requires a water temperature of 75 to 85, and brewed from a half to one minute, while cheap qualities like bancha may be brewed at between 85 and 100.
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