Riverwalk at Kokura

Riverwalk, designed by the Jerde Partnership. is located in Kokura, Kitakyushu.

Opened in 2003, the complex houses shops, cinemas, auditoriums, museums, and TV studios.

The color scheme has the following meaning.
Brown for earth
Black for rooftiles
White for plaster
Red for lacquer
Yellow for ears of ripening rice.

The Jerve Partnership has designed several other multi-use complexes in Japan, including Namba Parks in Osaka, and Canal City in Hakata.

The Emperor didn't sleep here.

Today is a National Holiday in Japan in celebration of the Emperor's birthday. Actually his correct title is "Tenno" which translates as "heavenly Sovereign", but when the Japanese came to translate the word into English they chose "emperor" as China had an emperor and Japan wasn't going to be outdone by the Chinese.

The new government of Japan in 1868 had the task of molding a unified nation out of the many seperate domains that had existed up till then, and the chose the new emperor as the symbol of the new nation. Problem was that the vast majority of Japanese had no idea who or what the emperor was. Part of the solution they come up with was for the Meiji Emperor to travel the length and breadth of the country on a series of Grand Tours. Like much of the "Imperial traditions" that were invented around this time it was based on the traditions of European royalty.

So all over Japan local authorities scrambled to build suitable accomadation for the Emperor.

Above is located in the grounds of Matsue castle and was built in 1903. Now it houses a local history museum, the Kyodokan.

The Emperor never did stay there.

The Gobenden is now located underneath the castle hill in Hamada. It was constructed in 1907 in case the Meiji Emperor visited Hamada.
He didn't.
The Crown Prince Yoshihito, the future Emperor Taisho, did stay here for a couple of days however.

On a related note, this is the Goseimon at Gakuen-ji temple. It's a gate that is only used by members of the imperial family. The current Crown Prince, Naruhito, used it a couple of years ago.

Catholic Church in Tsuwano

Tsuwano

Must be in the Christmas spirit to be posting all these churches :) The Catholic Church in Tsuwano was built in 1931.

It's a replica of the Oura Tenshudo, the church built by the French in Nagasaki in 1865.

Inside, no pews or chairs, only tatami to sit on.

The church is open daily. On May 3rd there is a procession from the church up to the Chapel at Otome Pass followed by a Mass in front of the church.

Sexy Kappa?

The Kappa, Japanese water imp, does on occasion behave kindly to humans, but mostly it is a malevolent creature, so it is not surprising that traditional representations of it portray it as a rather vicious-looking animal, as in these pictures at the excellent Onmark site.

Contemporary representations of Kappa however tend to portray it as "kawaii", cute, cartoon-like, childish. I have yet to read a convincing explanation as to why contemporary Japanese culture is obsessed with kawaii, but if anyone knows of any I would like to hear it. A few examples can be found here

But there is another representation that is found nowadays, that of the sexy female kappa.

The above design is found on vending machines for Kizakura brand sake, and she is certainly well-endowed.

This one, also amply-endowed, is on a bridge in the village of Izuha up in the mountains near here. The statue commemorates an annual race held here, the Suichu Kappa Ekiden, which is a "road race" that takes place in the river.

O-miki by the bottle.

If you are a sake brewer or are rich you can donate a barrel of sake to a shrine. For most people, however, a bottle of sake is normal. The one pictured above is on the steps leading to the honden of a small, but brightly painted, shrine on the south coast of Shikoku.

After pouring sake around the rice paddy, this bottle is then placed next to the sacred sakaki tree in then center of the paddy in preparation for the planting ceremony Tauebayashi.

Often you will see several bottles in front of the honden, like here at a shrine near Hiroshima Station.

At Okazaki Shrine in Kyoto there were a LOT of bottles of O-miki. The names of who donated is written on each bottle.

During ceremonies a little sake is put in 2 "jugs" on the offering table, as here at a temporary shrine on Iwaishima

Torture in Tsuwano! The Memorial Chapel of Mary

The Memorial Chapel of Mary is located in Otome Pass in Tsuwano. It was built in 1951 on the site of the torture and martyrdom of 25 Christians, including a 5 year old girl, in the early years of Meiji (1867-).

 

When Japan "opened" in the 1850's thousands of "hidden christians" mistakenly believed that it was safe to come out of the closet as a Christian Church had been constructed in Nagasaki by the French. Rather than execute them all, which is what the law proscribed, it was decided by the new government to disperse them to "re-education" camps across Japan and "encourage" them to join the new state-created religion of Shinto.

 

One method used on some of the 153 Christians sent to Tsuwano was imprisonment in tiny cages and left exposed to the elements. These statues show one of the famous martyrs, Yasutaro, who was visited by the Virgin Mary every night during his torture. Otome is the Japanese word for "virgin girl", and the pass was named Otome Pass because of an old, local legend that told of a young girl who was spurned and she wandered into the mountains here and disappeared.

 

There is a lot more detailed information on the martyrdom of the hidden Christians at this site

The short path leading up to the pass and chapel starts not far from the station in Tsuwano.

St. Xavier Memorial Church

The St. Xavier memorial Church is located in Yamaguchi City. It was built in 1998 to replace an earlier church that "mysteriously" burnt down in 1991.

It was designed by the Italian architect Rugieri, and is constructed of marble and concrete.

St. Francis Xavier spent 6 months in Yamaguchi in 1550 as the guest of the local daimyo and it is said it was the happiest 6 months of his life.

The church bells can be heard all over downtown Yamaguchi, and they made me realize how much I miss the sound of church bells. Much nicer than the piped muzac spouting from the PA's in every other Japanese town.

There is a small Christian museum in the basement of the church with a small entrance fee. Entrance to the church itself is free.

O-miki by the barrel

A huge stack of sakedaru (sake barrels) at Matsuo Shrine near Kyoto. Matsuo is the home of the patron kami of sake brewers.

Sake when offered to the kami is known as O-miki. It is one of the primary offering (shinsen) to the kami. After a ceremony the omiki will be shared among the participants and congregation.

I don't drink sake, but gladly drink omiki.

The wooden sakedaru are wrapped in a ricestraw blanket to protect them during transportation.

Most of the major shrines will have a stack of sakedaru, usually, but not always, donated by brewers.

It's going to be a snowy winter...

...at least according to these critters! They are Kamemushi ( Turtle Bug), and this fall there has been a much larger number of them invading the house. Local wisdom says this means heavier than usual snowfall this winter.

Members of the Pentatomidae family of bugs, in English they are commonly known as Stinkbugs because of the unpleasant smell they excrete when attacked. Many Japanese women and kids freak out if they see one as if it were a deadly creature, but in fact the smell is a little unpleasant but not that bad. Japanese say the smell of Cilantro is like that of the kamemushi, ..one reason freash cilantro is hard to find in Japanese supermarkets.

In Vietnam they eat the bugs. From personal experience I can tell you that even after cooking they remain crunchy!!

Traditional japanese house

It's only been quite recently that I have begun to appreciate the aesthetics of traditional Japanese houses. This one seemed a little lighter than many.

I have also come to appreciate the gardens, though I can't quite get used to the fact that Japanese gardens are meant to be looked at, not walked in.

For many years I didn't even bother going into any of the many old houses open to the public.

This one is located in the small village of Chikauchi-cho, a few hundred meters from Takeuchi JR station in SW Nara Prefecture.

We stopped in on our way to walk the Katsuragi kaido. The place had obviously been recently renovated and had just opened to the public. Like many places off the beaten track, entrance was free.