Manhole Art of the Chikugo Plain

 

January 4th, 2015, was the 55th day of my walk around Kyushu. I started from Amagi Station in Asakura, Fukuoka, and walked west across the Chikuzen Plain north of the Chikuzen River and ended at Tosu just inside Saga Prefecture. As with all my walks around Japan I kept my eyes open for manhole covers. These are eight I found that day. This first one depicts den-den daiko, a kind of drum. I cannot find any connection to Amagi.

This next one is from Asakura City. Not sure but that is probably Egawa Dam, though it could be one of the other dams within the city limits.

This is from Miwa Town. In 2005 Miwa was merged with another small town to form the new town of Chikuzen, which was the name of the former province that became Fukuoka. The town flower was wisteria, and the town tree was pine.

I am guessing this small manhole is from Chikuzen and features, I think, the Japanese Bush Warbler, known as uiguisu in Japanese, as well as more wisteria.

This full-size manhole cover from Chikuzen features pine, cosmos flowers, and warblers.

Yet another Chikuzen design with a warbler, cosmos, and a water wheel, though I'm not sure what the building is. In neighboring Asakura, they have more famous waterwheels but I think this one is connected.

By the afternoon I had reached Ogori which also features wisteria, this time in a geometric design.

I then crossed into Tosu City in Saga whose city flower is the Japanese Iris.

I have posted many times on Japan's unique manhole covers. Unfortunately many of the older posts no onger have photos, but more recent ones can be seen here. All the previous posts on my epic walk around Kyushu can be accessed by clicking the Kyushu108 tag below.

Japan Goods

Recent Manhole Art

 

Japan is quite famous for the variety of brightly colored and diverse designs of its manhole and drain covers. I used to regularly post on the hundreds of designs I have encountered in western Japan, but those posts have never been popular with my readers. However, on my recent post-pandemic excursions I have come across some new ones......this first one depicts Ganryuji Falls, a picturesque waterfall not far from me

Just got back from a trip to Hiroshima, and noticed a new design that commemorats the Saigoku Kaido, the Edo period highway that ran through Hiroshima on its way from Kyoto to Shimonoseki, and that is almost identical to the Sanindo, the ancient imperial highway.

Yoshinogari is a huge archeological site with reconstructed buildings near Saga. Touted as the home of the legendary Himiko, "queen of japan",  in all probability it wasn't.

Also in northern Kyushu is the city of Tagawa, and one of their designs feature the cities official flower, the azalea.

However, while historical and natural features and sites are common, increasingly manhole cover design is shifting to manga, anima, and computer game-derived designs, no doubt with "sponsorship" from said companies.

These two designs are from Saga and feature Zombie Land Saga, an anime about an "idol" group of schoolgirl zombies formed to promote and regenerate Saga. The designs feature zombie schoolgirls with Saga icons, the top one being a statue of Naomasa Nabeshima, Daimyo of Saga, and the lower one featuring the famous Saga International Balloon Festival

Another series of designs in Saga features characters from the computer game Romancing SaGa. As far as I can figure there is no connection with Saga itself, rather than the name.

Yura, a coastal village in Tottori , is the hometown of the author of the Detective Conan  originally a manga character but also now anime. Tottortori airport has been renamed Conan Airport, and some trains have been repainted inside and out featuring Conan characters

However, all over Japan are appearing manhole covers featuring pokemon. There are hundreds of them, each one unique. This one is in Kaike Onsen, a seaside hot spring resort in western Tottori. I must admit I know nothing about pokemon except it is very popular. I believe these manholes are a feature of the pokemon go smartphone game

A few other posts with colorful designs can be found here....

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More Mascot Manholes

Though there was reputed to have been a culling of some of the more useless cute mascots that threaten to outnumber the humans in Japan, new one keep appearing and some make it onto manhole covers. These three were all found on my recent trips to Kyushu. This first one was in Omuta which is home to some of the coal mines that have become World Heritage sites.....

This one, found just outside Kumamoto Station celebrates the20th anniversary of Keroro, apparently a famous manga character, and the 70th anniversary of the introduction of theunderground drain and sewage system in Kumamoto.

This last one is thye town mascot for Kurino, a small town up in the mountains near Kirishima in Kagoshima.

Mascot Manholes

There are more "cute" mascots per capita in Japan than anywhere else on the world by far. Last year a serious culling took place but still they continue to propagate. Among the latest is even one for the campaign to "promote" the cleanup of the nuclear meltdown at Fukushima.

To my mind such infantile mascots belong in the realm of the under 7's, but I seem to be in a minority. Its not surprising then that such mascots appear sometimes on the manhole and drain covers. The first is of one of the pair (male and female) of mascots for Sanda City in Hyogo. I believe it is based on the official city bird, the green pheasant.

The second depicts Ratochan, the official mascot of Oda City where Iwami Ginzan is located. It is based on the shell-candle miners used to take to light their work underground. The third is from Nakatsu. Kurokankun is based on Kuroda Kanbe, the samurai who built Nakatsu castle.

The fourth is Kintakun, the mascot of Kawanishi in Hyogo, and the final one is I think a cat in samurai helmet representing Hikone.

Yokai Manholes

I won't be posting for a week or so as I am off on the pilgrim trail, and as we are approaching Halloween I thought these would be appropriate.

Sakaiminato in Tottori was the home of Mizuki Shigeru, the great manga writer and the town has a whole bunch of new manhole covers featuring some of his most famous yokai.....

The first one is Gegege no Kitaro, with Daddy Eyeball. The second one is Kitaro's sidekick Nezumi Otoko, ... filthy, disease-ridden, never bathing, with disgusting breath and farts......

Then we have Neko Musume,...normally with the appearance of a young girl but able to transformn into a monstrous cat........ then there is Konaki Jijii.....Little Crying Old Man...... who attaches himself to enemies and then increases his weight until he crushes them.

The final one is Ittan Momen, a length of cotton cloth that attacks by wrapping itself around the head and mouth........

Manholes by Children

On some recent travels I came across a couple of towns that have their manholes designs designed by children. The first was Takamatsu in Kagawa on Shikoku.

These first three designs were all executed by high school students at a local arts & crafts High School. 2 of the designs show views of the famous Ritsurin Garden located in Takamatsu, and the middle design features Sanuki Udon, the noodle speciality of the area.

The other 2 designs come from the town of Obama on the Japan Sea coast in Fukui, and these were done by obviously much younger children.

Bovine Drainspotting

An unusual subject, one would think, for manhole designs in Japan is cows and bulls. This first one is from the highlands of the Chugoku Mountains in northern Okayama, Hiruzen-Kogen, which is apparently the main breeding area for Jersey cows. Who would have thought it?

Chibu, the smallest inhabted island in the Oki Islands group in the Japan Sea off the coast of Shimane, is famous for raising cattle, Unusual for Japan you can bump into them standing in the middle of the roads.

Bullfighting or rather Bull Sumo, is popular in several areas of Japan, including Uwajima on Shikoku.

Bull Sumo is also very popular on Dogo, the largest of the aforementioned Oki Islands. Two of the towns have fighting bulls on their manholes.

Manhole Bridges

Misasa in Tottori is a famous hot spring resort in the middle of the prefecture not too far from Kurayoshi. Several bridges over the river are symbols of the area, and opoen air pools under the bridges contain the highest level of radon for any hot springs in the world.

Mount Kasayama is a small, 100 meter high volcano just along the coast from Hagi in Yamaguchi. It is known for its "forest" of camelias. At the base is a small pond with a bridge leading over to an Itsukushima Shrine.

The Ichinosaka River runs through the middle of Yamaguchi City, but I have no idea which particular bridge this is or its significance.

Tabuse on the south coast of Yamaguchi has this bridge named Sakura Bashi, cherry bridge, for its famous promenade lined with cherry trees. In the middle of this modern bridge are a pair of tall steel sculptures, symbols of the sakura festival.

A little further down the coast is the town of Obatake where the Oshima Bridge connects to Suo Oshima, the third largest island in the Inland Sea.

Manhole Rice

The most common motif by far  used in the designs on manhole covers in japan is the cherry blossom. Considering the central place occupied by rice in Japanese identity it is surprising that it does not appear more often than it does. This first one is from Mizuho up in the mountains near where Iwami meet Hiroshima.

I found this second one in the village of Koshita south of Usa in northern Kyushu.

Also in northern Kyushu, but on the opposite side in Fukuoka, this one is from Itoshima, one of the very ancient centers of early Japanese intereactions with Asia.

The final one is from near Kurayoshi in Tottori and it shows a farm woman using a senbakoki, a threshing machine with a steel "comb" that separates the the easr and grains from the stalks. Prior to its invention in the 17th Century a tool made from a piece of split bamboo, a kokibashi, was used.

Manhole Boats

Composed of thousands of islands, it is not surprising that boats feature on some of the local manhole designs. This first one is from Hirado, the island in Nagasaki that was the center for trade with the Europeans especially the Dutch.

Kurahashi, a small island near Kure in Hiroshima, was where some of the early boats were built that transported diplomatic missions from the ancient court in Yamato to China and Korea.

Imari in Saga was where the local porcelain was exported, mostly to Europe.

Innoshima in the Inland Sea was a base for the pirates who controlled the shipping lanes and who eventually became part of the "navy" used by Hideyoshi in his failed invasion of Korea.

Etajima, the island in Hiroshima Bay that is home to the Japanese Naval Academy is reached via a short ferry ride from Hiroshima Port.