Welcome to the March 2010 Japan Blog Matsuri! The theme for this month was yokai (and also open to Japanese monsters, ghosts, demons, and villains from folk tales, literature, movies, manga, anime, music, and television programs).
Including in this month’s matsuri is a contest for the best story (as determined by the number of Socs, or votes, received via the JapanSoc web site). The prizes include items from my home of Shikoku with a yokai twist (you can view the prizes and rules here).
Read more on Japan Blog Matsuri : March 2010 : Yokai…
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I am going to drastically cut back on my posting frequency as I focus on my 88 temple pilgrimage project. You can find me at for sporadic locked friends-only updates.
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As I mentioned yesterday, around Setsubun the geisha of Kyoto celebrate Obake, a special event where they dress up in costumes.
The event has become quite popular and you can also find hostesses participating. These two are dressed like Disney characters. They were quite sweet and even posed for us when we asked.
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At the start of the year in Kyoto the geisha celebrate a special event with the festival of Setsubun called Obake (the Japanese word for “ghost”). It involves the assorted geiko and maiko dressing up in costumes and visiting as many tea houses as possible to perform silly skits.
On this particular night I went out with a few friends and my children to photograph the geiko and maiko of Miyagwacho and Gion Kobu dressed up.
This particular photograph is of a maiko (apprentice geiko, the Kyoto word for geisha). However, she is wearing her normal maiko attire. I really love this photograph. It was taken at night without the aid or a tripod and captures the movement and surrealism of the night. The blur is completely intentional as I shook the camera while taking the photograph.
I hope you like it!
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One of the most difficult things in Japan is celebrating traditional Jewish holidays. This is especially true in Shikoku as there is no access to a community or proper goods. But, I think we do ok. . .
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It has come to my attention that in my switching over to Wordpress that I have been just about the biggest dolt. Instead of saving my posts and publishing them I have been simply saving them as drafts. D’oh!
I humbly apologize for this oversight (and the flood of posts because of it) and hope that you are understanding as I learn this new program.
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This month, in honour of my hosting the March 2010 Japan Blog Matsuri, I have been creating posts about yokai (Japanese monsters).
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Have you been thinking about getting a domain name? Perhaps you have wanted to just try one out? Have an idea that you want to register but you weren’t sure or did not want to spend the money? You are in luck!
The service I use to register my domain names ran a promotion earlier this month to celebrate ten years in business. To thank their customers they gave away promo codes that can be used to register a domain name for FREE.
As I have no use for them I am passing mine off to my readers! But, as always there is a catch!.
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This is a photograph of the nio (Japanese Buddhist guardian statue) Agyo at the first temple of both the Fudo Myoo and Bekkaku pilgrimages in Shikoku, Japan.
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This is a photograph of the nio (Japanese Buddhist guardian statue) Ungyo at the first temple of both the Fudo Myoo and Bekkaku pilgrimages in Shikoku, Japan.
These particular statue has seen better days. I remember when I first saw it five years ago and it had a bees nest inside it with bees crawling out of its eye socket! If that is not creepy than I do not understand the meaning of the word creepy.
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Japan has a plethora of odd junk foods. Everything from match (green tea) Kit Kats to sweets made from beans.
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At the end of each year the media loves to bombard people with the idea of setting resolutions. Most of the time it ends up causing only guilt as resolutions are created and tossed aside in defeat or a cloud of memory loss.
Late last year I stumbled upon a project called “101 in 1001″. The idea was to create a list of 101 things you want to do and to complete them in 1001 days (just shy of three years).
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Niomon of Yashima in Shikoku.
Upon entering the grounds of many Buddhist temples you will find yourself having to cross through the nimon. This is the gate that houses the nio, two fierce devas (the Vedic Sanskrit word for gods, but merely meaning celestial beings in Japanese Buddhism). These nio are guardians of the temple, menacingly threatening any spirits or humans who would dare do harm to the temple and its inhabitants.
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Deep in Tokushima-ken (and an hour from my home) you will find Miyoshi City and the Oboke Valley. It is a gorgeous area determined to woo any and every nature lover on the planet. With turquoise blue rapids, jagged gorges clinging to mountains, forests that light up with the signs of passing seasons, and long suspension bridges that overlook supreme sights– the Oboke area is simply breathtaking.
This particular area of Shikoku is well known as a hotbed of yokai activity. In nearby Mount Tsurugi there is said to be a giant snake and that local villages host hunts for it on occasion. Miyoshi itself claims, on their English web site, that the area is the ancient birthplace of the yokai mythos.
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This past weekend the Oscar’s were held in the United States. I admit I enjoy looking at the photographs afterwards to see what people were wearing as the world of fashion and expressing oneself through clothing is something that intrigues me. I also enjoy looking at some of the more obscure categories because sometimes they bring to light a film or two that I managed to miss.
However, most of the time I find the Oscar’s to be laughable. They tend to ignore Science Fiction and performances that are truly wonderful if they are not pushed to them by the movie studios. It is my very simplified thinking that one cannot be the “Best Picture” of a English movie if all deserving candidates are not reviewed. This along with some bizarre choices in the past (Inglorious Bastereds nominated for best picture, really? Really? Half the “basterds” disappear halfway through the movie with no explanation and the main villain does a complete about face from a cold calculated man to a giggling buffoon without the aid of any brain damage of psychedelic narcotics) gives me the opinion that the Academy Awards is really a circle jerk for the studios.
At least they get people talking. And talking about movies is always a good thing– especially when it brings movies you may have missed to light.
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I am now taking pre-orders for geisha odori programs for the March/April/May dance season of the Kyoto geisha districts.
I am also accepting orders for the district posters and furoshiki (a piece of cloth with district logo on it; signed ones are thrown by the geisha during the performance, I will get you an unsigned version).
I can get programs, posters, and furishiki for Miyagawa-cho, Gion Kobu, Pontocho, and Kamishichiken.
I am accepting orders for Kamishichiken and Miyagawa-cho until March 31st, Gion Kobu through April 15th, and Pontocho through April 30th.
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As I mentioned yesterday, I am doing a yokai theme this weekend for the weekend photographs from Japan.
This particular photograph is an older style tanuki figure (to read more about tanuki please see yesterday’s post).
This work was created from the fur of a tanuki and I found him at the Tokushima Museum at an exhibit on tanuki and foxes.
I have only ever seen two other tanuki figures like him, so I would like to say he is rare (skinning an animal to make a rather humourus looking figure is not high on my things I enjoy).
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In keeping with the yokai theme I have for this month’s Japan Blog Matsuri I am keeping my weekend photographs to a yokai theme this week.
This is a picture of some tanuki sculptures at one of the temples up the street form me.
These particular tanuki sculptures are the most common forms you will see in Japan but there are other styles as well. The large one is over five feet tall, where most sculptures are usually a few feet tall.
The tanuki is a raccoon dog and has unusually large testicles. The Japanes like to humorously exaggerate this feature and tell tales of tanuki using their testicles as backpacks, drums, and even weapons.
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A few months ago the McDonald’s in Japan began an American Burgers promotion. They debuted four different burgers tied to four locations in the USA. One burger was available at a time and only for a limited time.
I happened to be in Kyoto for the start of the promotion. As a bonus the Kyoto McDonald’s were serving all four burgers, but the catch was you had to go to different McDonald’s to get each one.
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I grew up with the ocean. As a child my summers were spent at the shore, the waves crashing over my feet. I adore the ocean. It inspires a great deal of awe in me. But, awe is not always a good thing. For as beautiful as I find the water (and as much as I wanted to be a mermaid when I grew up) it also frightens me.
I love looking at the various octopus, the squids, the crabs, and the fish. Yet when it comes to whales and sharks you can bet there will be a shiver up my spine and flames of fear in my eyes. I cannot really say how I developed either fear, and even I admit it is a tad humorous to be afraid of whales– but there you have it.
Unfortunately for me, my husband loves sharks (as well as manta rays which also give me the willies) and I have an adventurous streak.
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Posted by: Maz on 25th March 2010 in