Japanese Plants: know them and use them,

Japanese Plants: know them and use them

Betty W. Richards Anne Kaneko

Shufunotomo Co. Ltd

ISBN4-07-975121-4

228pp


This book is small enough to fit into a pocket or purse, yet absolutely packed with useful information on the flora of Japan. It covers trees, flowers, bushes, grasses, vegetables, and fruits, almost everything you are likely to see anywhere in Japan. Each plant is given in its English, Japanese, and Latin names, and has a color photo.

Information on where you can see the plant, where it came from, it's life-cycle, interesting tidbits on its cultural values and history, and, most usefully, how it is used. Wild food collection is still widely practised in the rural areas of Japan, and if you are a "stalker of the wild asparagus" this little guide is indispensable.

There is enough information for it to work as a field identification guide, or simply for learning the Japanese names of plants.

Excellent little book, I can't recommend it enough!!

Recommended Japan web resources

These are five websites that I access regularly, and for those living in Japan, or those interested in visiting, they all offer valuable information.

Japan Map

This is the complete geologic survey map of Japan. From the home page, click either of these

and you are taken to a map of Japan. Click on the map where you want to see, and again at the next level. The contour map is zoomable, and scrollable. Train stations, Post Offices, schools, shrines, temples, etc are all marked. A word of warning.... Japan is building new roads constantly, and in some cases the map has not been recently enough updated to include the changes, also many of the footpaths that are marked have fallen into disuse and no longer exist. I sometimes double-check with Google Maps, but it is still the map I print out and refer to on my walks, wether in countryside or city.


Hyperdia timetable

For finding routes and times for train journeys in Japan, this site is excellent. Not only that, but it is simplicity itself. Enter start point, destination, date, and time, and hey presto the first 5 choices are shown. It works with all the private rail lines as well as JR, and also includes connecting buses. Completely detailed with changes, waiting times, and ticket prices.


ZNET Japan

In-depth articles by many good historians and journalists that cover the issues you won't read about in Japan's banal and incredibly non-controversial media. Labor issues, Japan's international relations, Article 9 and military, historical revisionism, etc. much of this material is translated from Japanese. There is also a small set of links to other alternate media sites on Japan.


Encyclopedia of Shinto

This is a huge site, and is the complete translation of the Encyclopedia of Shinto into English. Laid out in the original chapters, the online version has added short videos and an excellent search function. If there is anything you want to know about Shinto, this is the place. I write a lot about shrines and ceremonies, and often this is the only place to find information in English. Any shinto terminology in my blogs that you aren't sure about, definitions can be found here.


Gensyoushi

This is a directory of thousands of the older, major, Shinto shrines in Japan. The opening page gives you a clickable map of Japan. Choose your area, and the left of the page is a list of shrines organized by old province names. Each shrine page has many photos, all the relevant historical information, and a map link.

Milky Way Hall (inside)

Going inside Milky Way Hall I was surprised to find an open central area filled with a shallow pool. Luckily a shaft of light was coming in through the buildings superstructure.

Designed by local architect Shin Takamatsu, Milky Way Hall is a 700-seat uaditorium and conference centre in Gotsu.

See outside Milky Way Hall

Blue Oni (demon or ogre) Mask

This is my largest kagura mask to date. It is a blue Oni. As usual I had to experiment a little, so I changed the eyes some. The most common translation of oni is "demon", but I am less and less satisfied with that due to the association of the word demon in english with pure evil. I think a better translation of oni would be ogre. Oni can do bad things, but they can help people too.

Oni are almost always depicted as being very hairy, and one theory of their origin is that they were the original inhabitants of Japan. As the rice-growing Yayoi people started moving in to Japan around 2,300 years ago from the Asian mainland, the indigenous people were pushed up into the mountains where the rice-growing invaders did not initially go. From the mountains the "oni" would probably have raided villages for food or women.

Kagura Mask Index

Hagi walls and natsumikan

This manhole cover is from the town of Hagi in Yamaguchi Prefecture. It depicts 2 of the things this popular tourist destination is famous for, old walls, and Natsumikan. The natsumikan is a type of large, bitter orange that bears fruit in the summer. You can see many natsumikan trees throughout the town, and juice and preserves from the fruit are on sale everywhere.

Large sections of Hagi have been spared redevelopment, mainly as a result of the railways line going around the town rather than through it, so some areas of the town are still laid out as they were in the Edo period. Tall earthen walls and stone walls in a multitude of forms line the streets.

Utilizing old rooftiles in walls is not uncommon. See this one in Kyoto.

Milky Way Hall (outside)

With its rectilinear, minimal design and windowless walls clad in blue tile, Gotsu's Milky Way Hall looks like a warehouse or factory, but is in fact a 700 seat auditoriun and conference centre that hosts concerts and other cultural events.

Opened in 1995, and designed by Shin Takamatsu, it is called Milky Way Hall because there are small lights set in the wall and at night the building displays constellations on its exterior.

Takamatsu is a professor at Kyoto University and was born locally at nearby Niima. He has designed many buildings in his home prefecture including Hamada Childrens Museum, and Nima Sand Museum.

See inside Milky Way Hall

Anaguma Japanese Badger

Anaguma Japanese Badger

This guy was rooting around in my back yard recently. I figured it was a tanuki, a racoon dog, but when I posted the video on another site someone pointed out that it was an Anaguma, a Japanese badger. They are quite similar animals, and Tanuki soup is quite often made with anaguma. It's the same species that is found all over Europe and Asia, Meles meles. They are found all over Japan. Anaguma are nocturnal creatures, so it was strange that it was out and about in the middle of the day. They are omnivorous, and it was rooting around one species of plant, so maybe it was going for the roots, maybe for bugs or worms. When I finally moved closer it just sauntered away nonchalantly. The name anaguma derives from 2 kanji that mean "hole", and "bear". We are visited often by creatures from the surrounding forest, usually at night. I caught a Marten going after my chickens, and there was a Civet around for a few weeks. The monkeys haven't been by in a while, though they will surely come once the persimmons ripen. Shimane gets more bear sightings than any other prefecture, but so far none have come into our village. The wild boar will probably raid the gardens once the sweet potatoes and pumpkins are getting fat, though we trapped and ate three of them last autumn, so maybe word has gotten round and they will leave us alone this year.