Winter, mountains, and snow
2012年01月31日
Japanese archipelago keeps taking a cold weather now.
In the temperate zones on the globe it is the rule that every year they have
cool or cold winter seasons.
When I try to point out what is conspicuous for Japan’s winter, though, I’d like to say that it has so thick snowfall.
Why does Japan have so much snow in winter? – The reason lies in its
geographical features.
Japan is struck by a very cold seasonal wind in winter blown from Siberia.
It blows from the continent through Sea of Japan, and while it passes
through the sea water it gets wetter and wetter.
The cold but wet wind lands on Japan, and when it collides against high
mountains of Japanese archipelago it turns into so much snowfall.
Because of such a feature of Japan’s geography, we have different
weathers between northern and southern sides of mountains in Japan.
Now I live in Kyoto, western Japan.
Kyoto has a rather cold winter, but it hardly sees much snowfall and dry
days continue here.
Only 50 kilometers up northward from Kyoto, however, this year it snows
heavily in San-in and Hokuriku Regions (山陰・北陸地方).
Between Kyoto and San-in and Hokuriku Regions there are mountains that
part two of the weathers.
Japanese mountains with white snow are beautiful, though.
I’d like to pick up the beauty of snowy mountains as one of the most
beautiful landscapes of Japan.
White mountains can be seen even from many big cities in Japan. Many cities
lie near mountains in Japan.
As for Kyoto where I live, we can see Hira mountains (比良山地) covered with
glittering snow to the north, when I stand at the place called Toba (鳥羽),
southern part of the city.
From Toba we can see Kamo River (鴨川) flow through Kyoto City, Mount Hiei
(比叡山) stand in the foreground, and Hira mountains glittering with snow on
the background.
The total landscape of these river, city, and mountains in winter is nice,
I think.
Once upon a time Toba had a gorgeous detached palace of the Imperial House,
around a thousand years ago.
Now there is no palace left, but mountains and rivers remain.
Standing at Toba in 21st Century I can imagine how ancient nobles enjoyed
the landscape from the palace that once stood here.
(Oda Mitsuo : Yueisya/JITEN)
Hatsumode
2012年01月04日
On January 3rd I and Sumida Masanori of Yueisya visited Fushimi Inari Shrine (伏見稲荷大社). It is the top shrine of so many “Inari (稲荷)” shrines all around Japan. And so many people visit it in Oshogatsu (お正月) to pray for their good fortunes of this year. To visit and pray in shrines or temples in Oshogatsu is Japanese tradition, that is called “Hatsumode (初詣)”
At first I and Sumida planned to climb up tnrough pillars of red Torii (鳥居) gates that lead to the peak of Inari Hill (稲荷山). This path is called “Senbon Torii (千本鳥居)” – one thousand torii gates.
But, as the picture shows, it was also so crowded that we could hardly advance. So we gave up to climb Senbon Torii. My residence is near Fushimi Inari, so there can be any chances for me to try again.
(Oda Mitsuo, YouAT/JITEN)
New Year 2012
2012年01月01日
From the end of last December, Japan has been struck by cold weather.
Japan has conspicuous four seasons – hot summer, cold winter, and pleasant
spring and autumn.
In Kyoto, mountains around the city are covered by white snows now. Half
years ago it was very hot in the same place, but winter chilliness rules
in turn.
In this winter nearly 90% of nuke stations in Japan are out of operation.
That is the outcome of suspicion to nuke power by people after 3/11 great
earthquake and Fukushima disaster.
So when winter comes, the authorities once again demand people to refrain
from using electricity in excess. It is the same as last summer.
I can’t almost endure Japanese summer’s hotness.
And I am of more patience with Japanese winter’s chilliness. Although
chilly, winter in mainland Japan is not so severe. But from the end of
December I can’t help turning on a heating machine in my room at night.
I can’t refrain from using electricity when that spares me catching a
cold.
Anyway, today is new year’s day of 2012.
As you know, today is “Oshogatsu(お正月)” in Japan.
Oshogatsu is the most important festival season in Japanese calendar,
like Christmas for western cultures, Chunjie (春節) for Chinese culture,
Seollal for Korean, Diwali for Indian culture, etc.
Once upon a time, the date of Oshogatsu was the same as Chinese Chunjie
or Korean Seollal.
When Meiji restoration came in the middle 19th century, Japan adopted
western calendar instead of traditional eastern calendar. Oshogatsu
moved to January 1st after that.
Contemporary Japanese also call Oshogatsu “Shinshun (新春)”, that means
“a new springtime”.
But January 1st in Japan is chilly, and there is no springtime around
here.
When we celebrated Oshogatsu according to traditional calendar, it was
around 1 month later.
After 1 month from now, daytime gets longer, and Ume (梅) flowers start
to blossom. That matched the word of “a new springtime”.
Although Japan is still in a chilly weather, I’d like to greet you:
- Shinshun akemashite omedeto gozaimasu!
- 新春あけましておめでとうございます(A happy new springtime)！
New Residence
2011年11月29日
From the end of November I moved my residence near Tofuku-ji, Higashiyama-ku, Kyoto.
Until then I had lived near the neiborhood of Gion, some kilometers north of my new residence.
In my days of Gion, I used to hear a Buddhist bell struck at Kodai-ji, which is a famous temple near Gion, on every evening of 5 o’clock PM.
Almost at the same moment, monks’ voices of reciting Buddhist sutras used to start to be popped in my room. Voices were heard from another temple just next to my apartment, Juhon-ji, whose sect is Nichiren Shoshu (日蓮正宗).
Their voices of reciting sutras are accompanied by the rhythm of beating a Buddhist drum, that sounds low-pitched, regular, and simple.
Now I live just next to the large complex of Tofuku-ji, which consists of many branch temples around the head temple.
In the start of the evening, we can also hear sound of a Buddhist drum from there.
But its sound is interestingly different than that of Juhon-ji.
The drum of Tofuku-ji has an elaborate rhythm, with distinct accent and changeable speed. That is almost artistic. I had the impression of that way when I first heard it.
Tofuku-ji belongs to the sect of Zen (禅).
In the history of Japanese Zen its followers had pursued to set their minds free from any conventions and fixed ideas of human, that they thought the essence of the enlightenment of Buddha.
Zen followers saw artistic activities important with a free mind. Its achievements were, for example, Sho-do (書道: calligraphy), Sa-do (茶道: way of tea), and many kinds of drawings.
I can feel the tradition of Zen activity going on even nowadays when I hear Tofuku-ji’s artistic sound of drum.
Nichiren, on the other hand, was a monk who started his own sect in the same age of the beginning of Japanese Zen.
He tried to spread his interpretation of Buddhism into ordinary people with simple doctrine, that was sharply different than the way of Zen, that could only be shared by sophisticated persons.
Nichiren Shoshu is one of the downstream sects that see their founder Nichiren. I think that the simple sound heard from Juhon-ji fits well its founder’s religious policy.
(Oda Mitsuo, YouAT GK)
I will chane my address
2011年10月31日
I(Oda) decided to change my address next month.
It will be another place in Kyoto, where I live.
Now my address is near the neighborhood of Gion (祇園).
Gion is a district with a long history, that developed from within the
precinct of Kennin-ji(建仁寺), a famous Zen temple.
Next mont I will start to live near Tofuku-ji (東福寺), another famous
Zen temple.
The name of Tofuku-ji was taken from Todai-ji(東大寺) and Kofuku-ji(興福寺), two old and influential temples in Nara.
The name of Tofuku-ji implies its magnificence that can match the preceding great temples.
Indeed, its precinct was once quite large.
Now it has shrunk to today’s size, but still is boasts a rich complex of
buildings.
Tofuku-ji has many elegant Sekitei(石庭), gardens with stones and sand.
Plus it pleases visitors for scenery with famous tinted leaves in deep
autumn.
This autumn it has been more hot than warm, so probably leaves will get tinted late.
I expect I will be able to meet beautiful scenery around Tofuku-ji when I move there.
(Oda Mitsuo, JITEN/Yueisya & Asia no Tofu)
Nowaki (Autumn Typhooon)
2011年09月30日
This September was another disaster for Japan.
Successive raids of typhoons did it serious damages.
In the first week the prime minister changed, but that hardly made a
significant topic.
Politics in Kasumigaseki was dwarfed by a natural disaster again.
“Nowaki(野分)”, or “Nowake” is an old Japanese word denoting autumn
typhoons.
In ancient times typhoons also swept Japan, naturally.
“Nowaki” is one of autumn’s Kigo(季語) for Haiku. Traditinal-styled
Haiku has a rule to include a “Kigo” – a range of words that are regarded
to represent a mood of a season – in it.
The word “Nowaki” was frequently used in Haiku or other kinds of Japanese
literatures, and wasn’t necessarily used with nasty meanings.
But typhoons were, and are, destructive when being struck, as you know.
Were ancient people so patient that they felt even typhoons as beautiful?
These days weather forecasting technology has fully developed, and we can
trace typhoons’ path hour by hour.
As we can see coming typhoons accurately and be worried so much even much
before landing, it might be that we have lost patient and easy-going hearts
that people in old times had for natural phenomena.
(Oda Mitsuo, Asia no Tofu)
September
2011年09月01日
Der Garten trauert,
kuehl sinkt in die Blumen der Regen.
Der Sommer schauert
still seinem Ende entgegen.Golden tropft Blatt um Blatt
nieder vom hohen Akazienbaum.
Sommer laechelt erstaunt und matt
in den sterbenden Gartentraum.
(English translation)The garden is mourning,
the rain cooly sinks into the flowers.
Summer shudders
quietly to its end.Leaf upon golden leaf drops
down from the tall acacia tree.
Summer smiles, amazed and exhausted
onto the dying dream of the garden.- Verses from “September” by Hermann Hesse
A verse from a poetry made by 20th century German poet Hermann Hesse.
In Germany autumn might come fully in September.
But in Japan September is a month whose temperature gets sometimes rather hot, and it belongs to neither autumn fully nor summer fully.
Today in Japan a typhoon is approaching and rain continues to drop, not like a cool rain in Hesse’s poetry but like a tropical shower.
Japan’s summer this year was not scorching hot and at the same time
didn’t have bad weather days so much.
It was quite good summer, so we would foresee good harvest season coming, if all were usual.
But there is a concern about this autumn’s crops – it is still unclear how much and wide radioactivity from the damaged nuclear station might affect them.
Now this year’s rice crops produced in adjacent areas are under intense investigation for their safety.
Recently some information within utility companies and the government was revealed.
According to them, the utility company had expected a huge tsunami over 10 meters’ high might occur along eastern coast of Japan, that is contrary to their initial explanation that they didn’t expected such a great scale
as the one that occurred this spring.
Plus it is revealed that company and government didn’t have a detail
prescription how to do when a total blackout in a power station that occurred by this spring’s tsunami, and explosions of the power station that occurred one after another were totally out of their expectation.
It was a great fault that we didn’t expect every possibility in every
situation that would occur.
But we shouldn’t do the same fault again, without taking every possibility into account, from now on.
(Oda MItsuo, “Asia no Tofu”)
Beautiful Seto Naikai
2011年07月30日
In Japan tsuyu(梅雨), rainy season in early summer of mainland Japan, ended as early as the first half of this July.
It was a very early ending of rainy season compared with usual years.
After the end of tsuyu, intense summer sunshine extensively covered Japan.
I went on a trip in the first half of this July to western Japan, from Hiroshima City in Chigoku region(中国地方) to Matsuyama City in Shikoku Island(四国).
It was a short trip, so I dropped myself at Hiroshima in the morning, held a meeting there, and in the afternoon got on a ship bound for
Matsuyama City.
I got on the tram train from center of Hiroshima City to Hiroshima port.
At three afternoon I and my business partner Sumida got on a ferryboat at Hiroshima port.
When at Hiroshima, I felt scorching sunbeam. But after having launched myself into the sea, I saw seawater gently reflect the lights and on
board I watched beautiful landscape of Seto Naikai (瀬戸内海, Seto Inland Sea) around me.
The ferryboat went through a range of islands, had a short stay at Kure port, and after that it managed to proceed a very narrow strait called Ondo Seto (音戸瀬戸).
After having got though the strait, it sailed for Matsuyama port, during which I met and passed handful of big and small islands in my view.
From Hiroshima port to Matsuyama port it took less than 3 hours.
But during its course I enjoyed beautiful landscape of sea of western Japan so much.
Shiba Ryotaro(司馬遼太郎, 1923-96) was a famous novelist and essayist.
He referred to, in an essay, a student from China who told him that there is no ‘river’ in Japan.
In his opinion, Japan has only brooks.
For Chinese such as him, ‘river’ means much greater flows than Japan’s ones, for example Yellow River or Yangze River in his home country. It is true that we have no ‘river’ in Japan, if we accept his definition.
On the other day, however, the student met the essayist again and revised his previous opinion, after he went on a trip in western Japan.
- I must say that Japan has quite a beautiful ‘river’, I found out!
In reality he saw Seto Naikai.
So what he saw on his trip wasn’t a river, but a sea. Seto Naikai is a sea by definition.
But the landscape I saw on the ship was really enough to make travelers deeply impressed, I thought.
The strait is really like a great river flowing generously, whose water is clear.
On the course of the flow, many green islands build up here and there, which give passengers a lovely natural beauty.
Once I had an experience to travel along Nakdong River of South Korea (洛東江).
There I highly appreciated the river’s landscape on which large water threads through steep mountains.
But in Seto Naikai I could enjoy a landscape which has more large and clear water flowing through pretty green islands.
It was really a harmony between water and mountains.
Seeing beautiful scenery, I picked us a paper and wrote down haiku(俳句), that I made on my own:
夏の瀬戸 Natsu no Seto
海から山が Umi kara Yama ga
生えている Haete iru
- I’m in Seto Naikai of summertime, where mountains build up right from the sea.
Now islands on Seto Naikai don’t seem to be regarded as important traveling destinations by Japanese people.
I told Sumida:
“Making a second life on such beautiful islands, and spending days with fishing and cultivating crops. That is quite good, isn’t it? If developed
wisely, these islands can turn into a paradise of going a slow life for people.
So they might be able to be transformed into a splendid traveling destinations.
But in reality they are being almost deserted now. How regrettable…”
Seto Naikai has quite a few islands on it.
And many of them suffer from depopulation problem, and now they fail to make their blueprints for the future development.
Beautiful sea of Seto Naikai has already been severely spoiled by excessive exploitation of industrial materials such as deep sea sands.
Japan has already got into post-industrialization stage.
It must create new industries for the future generation.
Now we have beautiful Seto Naikai, that surely has a promising potential to be a resource for tourism.
Japanese people have called Seto Naikai “Aegean Sea in Japan”.
But why should we compare our own beautiful sea with a foreign tourist spot?
It is a treasure of Japan, and it can be shown proudly to outside world if polished well, I think.
The evening came, and the ferryboat was about to reach its destination.
I made another haiku:
目の前に Meno Mae ni
瀬戸の夕凪 Seto no Yunagi
他に何ある？ Hoka ni Nani aru?
- I can see an evening calm of Seto Naikai in front of me. What can we need more?
The evening calm of Seto Naikai had little wind. All was quiet and still.
I couldn’t help feeling that I had forgotten another beauty of my own country until my trip this time.
(Oda Mitsuo)
Mt. Fuji – Ever-lasting mountain
2011年06月30日
This June I happened to visit Yamanashi Prefecture, just west of Tokyo, for my business.
I and my business partner popped in Fujikyu Railway at Otsuki station and went south until Kawaguchi-ko station, that lies on the skirt of Mt. Fuji.
Weather forecaster had told that it might have been raining on the day, but when we went Yamanashi we got a fine day.
So we could see magnificent faces of Mt. Fuji everywhere on our way of business, getting on the railway.
I now live in Kansai area, western Japan, so I don’t have a chance to see this most famous mountain in Japan unless I go on a trip to east, like the
business tour we did on June. I and my business partner, Mr. Sumida, were lucky to see Mt. Fuji fully on only one-day trip.
Have you ever seen Mt. Fuji?
If you had an experience to live in surrounding areas of the mountain, either Ymanashi or Shizuoka Prefecture, then you must have seen it.
Or if you had lived or worked in Kanto area, then you might have had chances to see it far in the west when you lifted yourself onto tops of tall buildings.
But if you assume there is no such tall buildings and there is also no air pollution, then you should see a shape of the mountain from almost ubiquitous places in southern Kanto area, even on the ground.
You can find a place name called “Fujimi(富士見)” in many cities in Tokyo and nearby prefectures.
The original meaning of “Fujimi” is ‘a place from which Mt. Fuji can be seen’.
But nowadays you might not be able to see the high mountain far west when you stand at a “Fujimi”. If so, then it must be thanks to modern developments – high buildings and air pollution.
“Fugaku sanju-rokkei (富岳三十六景)” is a series of woodblock prints drawn by an Edo era’s famous artist Katsushika Hokusai (葛飾北斎, 1760-1849).
“Fugaku sanju-rokkei (富岳三十六景)” means ‘36 views of Mt. Fuji’.
It is one of the artist’s greatest masterpieces, and well-known even worldwide.
For this work, Katsushika Hokusai chose 36 places from Kanto area to Tokai(東海) and Koshin(甲信) areas, and drew views of Mt. Fuji from each of places, with dynamic contrasts between the mountain on the backgrounds and humans’ lives on the foregrounds.
Mt. Fuji stands conspicuously tall compared with surrounding mountains and hills. So it can be seen from very far.
Out of “Fugaku”’s 36 prints, around a half consists of views from places that are located within modern Tokyo metropolitan 23 wards (東京23区).
In the past Tokyo was called Edo(江戸).
Residents of Edo could see Mt. Fuji in their daily lives, as “Fugaku” shows.
Once upon a time Tokyo had its gift to be able to see the highest mountain in Japan everywhere.
Modern Tokyo has almost lost it, though. It is thanks to modern developments that modern Japanese people have built.
I visited Yamanashi Prefecture and went deep south near Lake Kawaguchi(河口湖).
From there I saw the great Mountain Fuji.
I have seen it many times in pictures and television, of course.
But when I stood in front of the great mountain, we couldn’t help but uttering a voice of admiration and awesomeness.
It was beautiful.
It was covered by white snow even in early summer.
It is a typical ’strato-volcano’, in the course of geographical history erupts again and again and adds layers of ashes taller and taller, and finally has made itself the tallest one in Japan.
It is tall conspicuously in the region, and no mountain can prevent it from being seen from its skirt.
Japan has a lot of volcanoes, but I think any of them can be compared with Mt. Fuji for its beauty.
Seeing the mountain, I found that Mt. Fuji is really unique, and the sacred one in Japan.
The mountain is beautiful.
But unfortunately, towns are not.
Towns we visited for my business are full of industrialized constructions made of iron and concrete.
They are really what we can see in any cities and towns of modern Japan.
It was disappointing that disgusting buildings stood in front of Mt. Fuji and artificial ugliness much spoiled natural beautifulness.
- It’s beautiful. It’s rare in Japan, or even in the world!
- And it’s rare phenomenon that residents spoil such a rare natural beauty to such a nasty point.
- Japan can no more drive itself with only old industries. It should try more to vitalize new industries such as tourist industry.
- These towns must try to build themselves in a manner to fit Mt. Fuji’s natural beauty. This great mountain deserves tourism, and its potential attractiveness hasn’t fully been developed yet.
- We are Japanese, and even we feel magnificent when we stand in front of Mt. Fuji. Why foreign people don’t feel the same and enjoy it, if we develop its beauty more and PR it worldwide?
I and my business partner Sumida talked so with each other, seeing Mt. Fuji from a station.
You foreigners might have had a chance to see Mt. Fuji, from a skyscraper in Tokyo or while going on a trip by Tokaido Shinkansen express train.
But I’d like to tell you that its beauty deserves more staying and enjoying than only taking one or two glimpses from remote places.
We think Japan should try more to develop its tourism, in a way not in the past but more sophisticated and, especially, in a way to preserve indigenous natural beauty, and even enhance it.
Japan must strive more to attract foreign people (as well as Japanese themselves, of course) and let them enjoy its beauty they should have.
It is my impression when I visited Yamanashi and Mt. Fuji this June.
(Oda Mitsuo, the president of Asia noTofu)
Shall we Gaman?
2011年05月31日
June has come.
In Japan archipelago “Tsuyu(梅雨)” has begun as early as in May.
It was one of the earliest beginning of rainy season in meteorological record of Japan.
“Tsuyu” is Far East Asia’s rainy season in early summer.
It brings much rain from central China, Korean peninsula and Japan, except for northern Hokkaido.
In Japan Okinawa archipelago enters “Tsuyu” first, usually on May.
The meteorological front called “Tsuyu Front” goes up northward slowly, and in a usual season mainland Japan has much rain from June to July.
“Tsuyu” is the forerunner of summer season.
After rainy days cease, Japan has hot and humid summer days.
Last summer 2010 was one of the hottest ones in the record, too.
All around Japan many people were knocked down by the heat, fell down, and even died.
How will this year’s summer go?
This summer is different than usual.
It is expected that the outcome of nuclear power station disaster will influence every corner of daily summer life.
Not only stations struck by earthquake and tsunami, but also a station located in Hamaoka, Shizuoka prefecture, where there was no damage on 3/11, is now shut down by a decision of the government, that takes citizens’ steeply surging concern into consideration, because Hamaoka station is built along the coastline of Shizuoka and pundits warn that it is a remarkable probability that Tokai great earthquake will occur in the near future and coastline of Shizuoka will be hit by huge tsunami caused by the earthquake.
Because of shutdown of several nuclear power stations, a concern of power shortage lingers on, especially in this coming summer, in that heat wave pushes power demand up highly.
So companies are forced to think their devices to curb power consumptions.
People strive to save power at home in various ways.
Above all excessive use of air conditioners is criticized.
Instead people turn their interest again to an old-fashioned cooling product – electric fan.
Japan’s summertime is almost unbearably hot and humid, both night and day, especially in city areas.
“Gaman(我慢)”, getting patient, is a word Japanese people like to use.
I hope that this summer won’t be unbearbly hot one again.
When one gets “Gaman” in an unbearable heat and end up dying from it, it must be called another disaster.
(Oda Mituo, the president of Asia no Tofu)
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