10th INTERNATIONAL CERAMICS FESTIVAL AT MINO

The 10th International Ceramics Festival, scheduled for the autumn of 2014, has announced the opening of the application process which will extend from November 1, 2013 thru January 10, 2014. For information, just click on the link below.

http://www.icfmino.com/english/top.html

KUMANO SHRINE I

KUMANO SHRINE

(Based on a photograph by Aoi Tokugawa).

 No one comes here any longer. 

The shrine slowly weathers and crumbles into dust.

Are we so advanced that we can forget the kami?

A Kumano shrine (熊野神社 Kumano Jinja) is a type of Shintō shrine which enshrines the three Kumano mountains: Hongū, Shingū, and Nachi (Kumano Gongen (熊野権現)). There are more than 3000 Kumano shrines in Japan, and each has received its kami from another Kumano shrine through a process of propagation called bunrei (分霊) or kanjō (勧請). The point of origin of the Kumano cult is the Kumano Sanzan shrine complex, which includes Kumano Hayatama Taisha  (熊野速玉大社) (Wakayama Prefecture, Shingu), Kumano Hongu Taisha (Wakayama Prefecture, Tanabe), and Kumano Nachi Taisha (Wakayama Prefecture, Nachikatsuura).

UKAI TIME IN GIFU

Once again it is time for Ukai, the unique style of fishing using cormorant birds to catch ayu, or "sweet fish" on the Kiso River in Gifu Prefecture. If you are going to Gifu-ken and have never seen this, make sure you put it on your list of things to do and see. If you have seen ukai, see it again!  There is plenty going on, lots of treats, as well as entertainment - we guarantee you will have fun!


If you are unfamiliar with Ukai, please visit our earlier blog on the topic: 


http://visitgifu.blogspot.com/2008/12/nagaragawa-no-ukai-cormorant-fishing-in.html 


or this site about Ukai:


http://www.gifucvb.or.jp/en/01_sightseeing/01_01_01.html


Hope to see you there!!! And if you come by our house, you can have sweet fish and chips with a pint of Guinness! Yum!

SHOPPING DAY AT VALOR

SHOPPING DAY AT VALOR

Just like in any other town or city, in any prefecture in Japan, and just like any town or city in the USA, we do much of our weekly shopping on Friday or Saturday at our local supermarket and home store. In Tajimi-shi, we like to go to the Valor supamaketto and home store. Valor is a chain of such stores, based in Tajimi which serves Gifu Prefecture among others. The company is quite popoular with everyone and highly successful:

http://www.valor.co.jp/vghp/, http://www.alacrastore.com/company-snapshot/Valor_Co_Ltd-1079290

Fridays and Saturdays are particularly busy, a time when not only young families come to shop but also middle-aged and elderly couples as well. If you visit Gifu, and particularly Tajimi-shi, you owe it to yourself to visit Valor. You will be amazed at the wide variety of foods and goods available in both the grocery market and the home store, and the prices are often much better than in the US. You'll be amazed. What perhaps will impress any visitor the most is that each store is immaculately clean and the staff are not only helpful, but extremely polite and gracious, always eager to help a visitor.

The front entrance to the Valor supamaketto in Tajimi-shi.

The ever-present security guard, there mostly to direct traffic.

Nobody likes him!


A required stopping place, either before or after
shopping is Mr. Donut for fresh coffee and donuts!

The main entrance to the supermarket, featuring the

freshest produce and fruits.

Got a cat? There's a wide variety of canned cat food

available, including some from the US - which our cat

hates with a passion!

Fresh fish at reasonable prices.

More fish, probably caught the day before.

Bacon for 97 yen - that's $1.50 USD!

Aisle after aisle of anything food from Japan and

many places around the world you can imagine.

Of course there are the ever-present vending machines.

Japan is vending machine country and you can

find anything from sodas, tea, cigarettes, to candy and snacks.

I have seen this gentleman many times before, although I have never

learned his name. He rides his bicycle, almost daily, some three miles

over a steep hill to the market, and back again, rain or shine,

summer or winter. Well into his seventies well into his seventies,

possibly over eighty, he is a fine example of how fit and hardy

Japanese senior citizens are.

Something you rarely see in the US, a pay telephone! Very handy

to have when your cell phone breaks down!

Of course there are fresh flowers, an important part

of any Japanese household.

Security directing traffic into the home store parking lot.

DONDO-YAKI IN ICHINOKURA, TAJIMI CITY, GIFU

It’s early morning and the sky is sunny, the air fresh and crisp as the residents of Ichinokura, part of Tajimi City in Gifu Prefecture, begin to filter into the local school grounds, to gather together around a blazing fire to warm themselves, eat, sing, and enjoy good company! What’s the occasion? It’s Dondo-yaki in Ichinorkura.

The day is also called “Small New Year’s Day” and outside the main urban centers of Tokyō and Ōsaka, in what might be more properly be called “mainstream Japan,” in almost every town and village, people come together to celebrate the New Year.

Dondo-yaki has its origins in the Sagi-cho Matsuri, celebrated for the first time at New Years in the late 16th century and organized in grandiose fashion by the “Great Unifier” Oda Nobunaga, who himself wore makeup and danced in the original celebration. While still celebrated in January in some parts of Japan, such as in Kamakura, Sagi-cho as a separate festival, has typically been moved to mid-March in order to assure good weather and a much larger, extravagant festival; the largest of which is celebrated in Omihachiman-shi, Shiga Prefecture. Yet, Dondo-yaki traces its origins even further back in time than the “Warring States Era;” back to ancient Izumo, in Shimane Prefecture: a town which lies at the core of ancient Japanese history and the foundations of Shintō.[i] According to tradition, a kami (god) named Toshitokujin, the goddess with responsibility for auspicious directions and happenings for the coming year (and when happy, insures an abundant harvest to come) visits during the New Year’s season, to announce the arrival of Shōgatsu-sama (literally, “Honorable New year”). The celebration is regionally known by several different names, including Onbe-yake, Kangari, and Saito-yaki, but by and large, is best known as Dondo-yaki.

New Year’s traditions run deep in Japan and begin on December 31. Many Japanese wives and moms however, will attest that the traditions begin well before the 31st, with the traditional New Year house cleaning (at times an awesome undertaking) and the cooking of traditional Japanese foods for the coming holidays. Wise men and husbands absent themselves during this period or else find themselves in forced domestic labor.

One of the primary traditions linked to Dondo-yaki is the burning of New Year’s decorations such as kadomatsu, shimenawa, and Omomori. A kadomatsu (門松) (literally “gate pine”) is a traditional New Year decoration which is placed in pairs in front of homes shortly after Christmas, with the intention of welcoming ancestral spirits or kami and acting as temporary housing for them; in particular Toshitokujin, who will bring a bountiful harvest and confer the blessings of ancestors on everyone

A Kyoto-style kadomatsu.

Designs vary depending on the region; however, by and large they are made of pine, bamboo, and sometimes sprigs from ume (plum) trees, which represent longevity, prosperity and dedication.

Simenawa adorn every village street at New Years.

Shimenawa (標縄 ) or “enclosing rope) are lengths of sacred ropes, made of rice straw, used for purification in Shintō, which at New Years are hung across the tops of gates marking then entryway to a house or the front door of a home to indicate a pure space and thus to ward off evil. Often shimenawa are decorated with shide (紙垂 ), zigzag shaped paper streamers, another symbol of purification.

Omamori (お守り) are charms, good luck charms, dedicated to particular Shintō and Buddhist deities. The word mamori means protections, and Omamori means “honorable protector.” On Dondo-yaki, the town or village gathers at some central place and burn all these sacred symbols for the greeting of the New Year in a traditional bon fire. By burning these decorations, they are then sent off to the gods as gifts.

Another tradition of Dondo-yaki is connected to the art of Shodō, or Japanese calligraphy. Kakizome (書き初 ) or “first writing” is a term for the first calligraphy written at the beginning of a year, traditionally done on January 2). Kakizome are done using ink made from the first water drawn from a well on New Year’s Day. Seated and facing in an auspicious (favorable) direction, the calligrapher writes poetry that contains equally auspicious words and phrases, such as “long life,” “spring,” or “endless youth.” In Japanese schools, children are assigned kakizome as homework over the winter holidays. Usually the assignment consists of writing auspicious kanji (characters) rather than entire poems. At the Dondo-yaki celebration, the kakizome papers are burned in the same fire as are the New Years decorations. Tradition says that if the burning paper flies high, then the person who created the calligraphy will be able to write even better in the coming year.

Aside from the religious traditions associated with Dondo-yaki, what makes the occasion so special and fun, is the sense of community. In Ichinokura, for example, the entire town comes together for the celebration. The sense of community, so common throughout mainstream Japan, is incredibly strong and something that the West could take note of. People come to celebrate the New Year with music, dance, games, conversation, and food; everything, including the food, is free! The event is planned and organized on a community level with the entertainment, food and labor provided by the residents of the town.

Keeper of the "Sacred Fire"

The Ichinokura Shobo Dan. Our equivalent
to American volunteer fire departments. They are
all Ichinokura residents who volunteer for fire
service and work alongside Tajimi firemen
whenever there is an emergency call for service.

On days like this, the local police station is closed. Then
again, it's closed everyday - the local crime rate
is so low, we don't need police!

Ichinokura Taiko Dan, taiko group.

Want to eat? Just bring your own bowl and hashi (chopsticks) – there is no charge for the rice cakes, Japanese barbeque, grilled fish, zenzai (red bean soup) and other fantastic delicacies. Zenza, also known as oshiruko (お汁粉 ) is a traditional Japansese dessert. It is a sweed porridge of azuki beans, boiled and crushed, served in a bowl with mochi (rice cakes), dumplings, or even chestnuts, and perhaps topped with sweetened condensed milk. It’s loved by many Japanese, especially during the winter and the New Year celebration. Want saké, bring a cup: there’s plenty of New Years saké for everyone.

Cold but happy members of one of the
local food committies.

Grilling rice cakes on a cold winter morning -
very tasty and warming!

Grilled fish! Yum!

Almost everyone in town turns out
for the free food and entertainment.

There's plenty of sake to go around!

If you are going to visit our beautiful prefecture of Gifu-ken at New Years, please make sure to visit one of our local Dondo-yaki celebrations and enjoy some of the true spirit of Japan and the Japanese people. Oh, and bring a bowl, hashi, and a large cup!

[i] For more information on Shinto and traditional Japanese festivals, customs, and celebrations, there is a wealth of information available in Glimpses of an Unfamiliar Japan, Volumes I and II, by Lafcadio Hearn.

Copyright 2010 by Tokugawa Hayato and Shisei-Do Publications. All Rights reserved.

THE POTTERIES OF SETO

I happened to find the following article quite by accident while doing research for several projects for our publishing company, Shisei-Dō Publications, here in Japan. The following article by Basil Hall Chamberlain[i] was part of his A Handbook for Travelers In Japan, (Also known as the Handbook to the Japanese Empire) first published in 1891 (this is from the 1894 revised editon) as part of the then extremely popular and famous travel guides published by John Murray[ii].
This brief article relates to the famous pottery region of central Honshū, which includes Mono, Tajimi, Ichinokura, and surrounding area, our home. Several references are made to places we noted in previous essays on this blog and we invite you to read them as well. For us it was fun to read about our area as recorded in the middle of the Meiji Era. We hope you will find this essay by Chamberalin both informative and entertaining.


ROUTE 31.

THE POTTERIES OF SETO.

The province of Owari of which Nagoya is the capital, and the adjacent province of Mino, have for many ages been flourishing centers of the porcelain industry, the most famous seat of which is at Seto, where Katō Shirozaemon, the first great master of Japanese ceramic art, set up his kiln about the year 1230 on his return from six years of diligent study in China. Thenceforth Seto became the headquarters of the manufacture of dainty little jars, ewers [pitchers], and other utensils for the tea ceremonies (cha-no-yu), so that the word seto-mono literally “Seto things,” has come to be employed in Japanese as a generic name for all pottery and porcelain, much as the word “china” is used in English. Seto has remained the chief porcelain manufactory of Japan. Many of the pieces now turned out – especially the monster blue-white vases – are intended only for the foreign market. This locality suffered terribly from the great earthquake of 1891; for though the houses remained standing, the kilns and entire stock were smashed.
Persons whose time is limited can witness the process of porcelain manufacture at Matsumora’s establishment in Nagoya. Those with a day to spare should visit Seto, 5 ½ ri (13 ¼ miles) from that city along a flat and excellent jinrikisha road.

Seto (no inns) is a general name for the four hamlets of Kita Shingai, Minami, Shingai, Gō, and Hora, situated on low hills that surround an almost circular valley. About eighty households are engaged in the manufacture of porcelain, and seventeen or eighteen in that of common pottery. The clay is found in the immediate neighborhood, the silica being brought from Sannagi in the northwest corner of Mikawa, about 3 ri distant. A large proportion of the common pottery that goes under the name of Seto ware comes from Akuzu, about 1 ri further up the valley to the east. The establishments best worth visiting are those of Katō Mokuzaemon, Katō Shigejū, and Katō Masukichi in Kita Shingai, and Katō Gosuke in Minami Shingai, the latter being noted for his translucent white ware, chiefly sake cups. The Tōki-kwan at Minami Shingai is a bazaar for all the wares of the neighborhood. There are numerous smaller houses, - indeed the villagers carry on no other trade. Katō Gosuke owns another and larger manufactory at Tajimi, a village about 2 ½ ri from Seto, not accessible by jinrikisha [rickshaw], here is produced the finest porcelain in Mino, with delicate decorations in pale blue, obtained from the native cobalt known under the name of konjō. A darker shade is derived from an impure cobalt imported from China, and called by the potters kyūgosu. Our word cobalt has been corrupted by them into koharu, and this term is employed to denote the pigment obtained from Europe.

In the near vicinity of Nagoya are various smaller villages devoted to the production of minor kinds of porcelain and pottery, such as the Ofuke-yaki, Yosamu-yaki, Fujimi-yaki, Toyoraku-yaki,, and Inugayama-yaki. Course earthenware is made at Taokonabe, 10 ri to the south of Nagoya, near Taketoyo.

NOTES

[i] While many companies have published wonderful travel guides to all places imaginable, the contribution of Murray’s, particularly to 19th century readers, was outstanding. The Murray family publishing dynasty was actually founded in 1768 by John Murray, a former officer in the Royal Marines, who never cold have imaged that six generations of his descendants (all named John Murray) would create one of the greatest of British publishing houses ever. The line of literary giants who passed through their doors and onto their presses included Jane Austen, Lord Byron, Walter Scott, Washington Irving, Charles Darwin, Herman Melville, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and on and on.
It was the third “John Murray” who launched the famous “Murray’s Handbooks” in 1836, the immensely popular series being the forerunner of the Lonely Planet” series of our time.
[ii] Basil Hall Chamberlain (October 18, 1850 – February 15, 1935) was a professor at Tokyo Imperial University and one of the foremost British Japanologists in Japan during the Meiji Era of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, contemporaries of E.M. Sato, And W.G. Aston as well as a close personal friend and confident of Lafcadio Hearn. He also is noted for some of the earliest translations of haiku into English, although he is best remembered for is popular one-volume encyclopedia Things Japanese, first published in 1890.

Copyright 2009 by Hayato Tokugawa and Shisei-Do Publications.

GETTING READY FOR THE YEAR OF THE TIGER

GETTING READY FOR THE YEAR OF THE TIGER

According to Japanese tradition, each year reflects the character of a diffent sign of the Chinese zodiac and with the coming new year (only two months away) in the village of Oroshi-cho, Toki-shi (Toki city) in the Mino district, production at the Hozan Gama or Hozan kiln is in full swing making ornaments for the coming Year of the Tiger (2010). This year they are using a different and quite unique method of producing over twenty different kinds of cute and exclusive ceramic tigers. The process involves making sheets of clay (just as one would roll out sheets of cookie dough for cutting). Then the sheets are folded in the same way as origami, placed in the kiln, dried, glazed, and “fired” again – totally different from typical ceramic processes.

According to the head of the ceramic factory, Ito Hitoshi (56) they have immediate plans to produce and ship over 6000 ceramic tigers by the middle of this month. “It is said that oriental zodiac items invite good luck and good fortune for the new year, and we are hoping 2010 is a happy and good year for Japan’s economy and its people and we will continue to create more tigers with this exact feeling in mind.”