Fusou Note - 扶桑雑記 -

Mochi-pounding ceremony

2011-01-16T21:19:00.007+09:00

Yesterday, I visited Tanaka Jinja Shrine in Kyoto where mochi-ponding ceremony was held. People living around the shrine were gathering on the grounds of the shrine.

He is cooking glutinous rice (mochi-gome) in front of torii gate of the shrine.

After steaming glutinous rice, it is pounded with wooden mallets (kine) in a big mortar (usu). When I was shooting a video, mochi almost leaped out of the mortar, but an assistant of the mochi-pounder nicely caught it before it touched the ground.

After the mochi-pounding, they put small pieces of it into red bean soup (shiruko) and served it to the people gathered there.

Truth of the Japanese Coast Guard

2010-11-06T01:22:00.002+09:00

The following video clip that was leaked onto YouTube yesterday has been popular on Japanese twitterverse today.

The Senkaku boat collision video leaked on Youtube

2010-11-05T01:57:00.005+09:00

It seems the Senkaku boat collision video was leaked on Youtube.

Video recorded from Japanese coast guard patrol ship, Hateruma.

Video recorded from Japanese coast guard patrol ship, Mizuki.

[UPDATE] The person who uploaded the video clips has deleted his/her videos and account. Since Japan Probe is keeping links to copies of the video clips, please visit that site to watch the videos.

A bird feeding fishes

2010-08-27T02:14:00.002+09:00

Amazing video. A bird is feeding fishes. The fishes are perhaps carps.

Yakuza and the DPJ

2010-01-18T20:24:00.002+09:00

I just noticed that the December 2009 issue of the FCCJ's Number 1 Shimbun had a report entitled "Jake Adelstein and Tokyo Vice" by Gavin Blair. The report mentions an Adelstein's claim that the Japan's largest yakuza group, Yamaguchi-gumi, is supporting the DPJ.

Something that definitely falls into the controversial category is Adelstein’s claim that the Yamaguchi-gumi – Japan’s largest criminal organization – switching its traditional support for the LDP over to the DPJ about a year before the Democrats’ election victory. While somehow reminiscent of the Murdoch press in the U.K. shifting allegiance from the Conservatives to Labour (and recently back again) when either side emerged a likely winner, there may have been more to it than simply backing the winning horse, according to Adelstein. He quoted two Japanese weeklies – Asahi Geino and Shukan Jitsuwa – as reporting that the switch to the DPJ had been decided at top-level Yamaguchi-gumi meetings.

According to this passage, Adelstein seems to have quoted only vulgar weekly journals such as Asahi Geino and Shukan Jitsuwa, whose credibility is questionable. Also, Gavin Blair, the writer of the article, reported that the alleged Yamaguchi-gumi's support was definitely controversial. However, as long as I know, it is not controversial. Japanese news media already reported it in 2007. I remember this, because it was a big surprise for me that the whole Yamaguchi-gumi decided to support a single political party. There had been a few times that Japanese media reported that individual politicians had connections with some members of yakuza organizations. When such connections were revealed and reported by the media, they were always big scandals for the politicians that may lead to political death of them. Therefore, it was a big surprise that it was revealed that a whole yakuza organization officially decided to support a single political party.

Since Japanese media do not keep their articles on the web for a long period, the news articles have already been removed from the web. However, I could find a cache of an article. According to the article, a member of Yamaguchi-gumi was arrested for buying votes for a DPJ candidate in the election of the House of Councillors in 2007, and it was revealed that the headquarter of Yamaguchi-gumi had issued an official notice that ordered member organisations to support the DPJ.

Nintendo Wii kids

2010-01-11T21:22:00.002+09:00

Their parents would also be happy.

Auspicious painting for the New Year

2010-01-10T20:46:00.005+09:00

This painting is a typical auspicious Japanese painting for the New Year. Depicted on the big turtle are a family of cranes and "the three friends of winter": pine, bamboo and ume plum. In pre-modern period, it was believed that cranes and turtles had extremely long lives, as there was a saying: "cranes live for 1000 years and turtles live for 10000 years (鶴は千年、亀は千年)". Thus, the turtle and the cranes are symbols of longevity. Of the "three friends of winter", the pine symbolizes endurance and longevity, the bamboo reflects strength and flexibility, and the plum evokes purity of character.

SION, a Japanese blues singer

2009-10-12T02:05:00.006+09:00

Sion's songs were my favorites in the late 1980s. He was as hungry as me in those days. The following is "Sorry Baby" by Sion:

Another clip of Sion, "街は今日も雨さ" (It's still raining in this town).

Itō Jakuchū's paintings of the whale and elephant are on display at Miho Museum

2009-09-17T23:55:00.005+09:00

Last December, I wrote about newly found screen paintings of whale and elephant by an Edo-period Japanese painter, Itō Jakuchū (伊藤若冲; 1716-1800). When I walked around Shin-monzen, the antiques district in Kyoto, last Sunday, I saw many posters of the Jakuchu's whale and elephant.

According to the posters, the screens together with many other paintings by Jakuchu are on display at Miho Museum in Shiga prefecture from Sep. 1 to Dec. 13. You can see bigger photos of the whale-elepahnt paintings from this page in Miho Museum's Website.

Paddling in the water

2009-09-13T15:00:00.004+09:00

I often go to the riverside of Kamo River in weekends. Kids were paddling in the water last Sunday.

Barbershop posters about politics

2009-08-03T00:07:00.013+09:00

Barbershop is often supposed to be a place to talk about politics in irresponsible manner. Japanese call such argument Tokoya-no-seidan (床屋の政談); tokoya means "barbershop", and seidan means "argument about politics". Thus, tokoya-no-seidan means "barbershop argument about politics".

I don't know whether it has anything to do with the fact that barbershops are supposed to be such places, but I came across a barbershop that has posters of the LDP-leader Aso and the DPJ-leader Hatoyama on the sliding door of the shop.

They are apparently related to the posters of LDP and DPJ shown below. These posters are often seen on the street in Japan nawadays.

They are, however, significantly different from each other in the slogans written on them. The DPJ poster that features Hatoyama has a slogan saying "Seiken Koutai (政権交代)", which means "change the government". The similar poster on the door of the barbershop has a slogan "haegiwa koutai (生際後退)", which means "receding hairline". In Japanese, both change (交代) and recede (後退) are pronounced as "koutai", thus the slogan on the barbershop poster is a pun of the DPJ slogan.

The LDP poster that features Aso has a slogan saying "Mazu wa keiki da (まずは景気だ)", which means "The primary issue is the situation of economy". The similar poster on the door of the barbershop has a slogan "Mazu wa ke-e kiru" (まずは毛きる)", which means "The primary issue is cutting the hair".

American soldier's dog tag unearthed in Miyazaki

2009-07-31T01:05:00.003+09:00

According to today's Miyazaki Nichi-nichi Shimbun, an American soldier's dog tag together with 30 bullets of 20-mm machine gun and 4 incendiary bombs were unearthed from a construction site in the Hyuga city, Miyazaki prefecture, on July 3. They are likely to be remains of B29 crashed at the site 64 years ago. According to the report, the name carved on the surface of the stainless-steel dog tag reads "JULIAN W STEELE".

UPDATE
According to this page in Japanese, all of the crews including Mr. Steele stayed alive after the crash, sent to Tokyo, where they were detained in a camp. All of them could return to the US after the war.

UPDATE 2
You can see a picture of the crews here.

Runaway Girl by ROGUE

2009-07-28T01:45:00.003+09:00

ROGUE was a Japanese rock group led by a vocalist/guitarist Okuno Atsushi in the late 1980s. It was one of my favorite rock groups in the late 1980s, partly because it was from my hometown, Maebashi.

After the breakup of the group in 1990, Okuno Atsushi had been working as a solo singer and an actor until last year.

Recently, I was shocked to learn that he had had cervical vertebrae damage when he had accidentally fallen off a building while he had been voluntarily helping his friend who is a scrapping worker. The accident took place last September, and, after that, his left arm and legs have been paralyzed; he can move only his right arm. I wish that he would recover from the injury, and some day he would be able to sing songs or write new songs.

Whale-related school bullies in New Zealand

2009-07-05T23:05:00.000+09:00

According to New Zealand Herald, a Japanese-born boy was seriously injured as a result of school bullying. He had been racially abused by the students who turned around and picked up him and dropped him on his head.

A 14-year-old suffered a potentially fatal blood clot in his brain after he was attacked by school bullies in what appears to be a racially motivated attack.

The teen, Japanese-born Ryotaro Wright, needed emergency brain surgery in Waikato Hospital after the attack at Forest View High School in Tokoroa this week. Doctors say he was close to death.

Four students have been suspended and police are investigating.

Ryotaro's father Llewellyn said yesterday his son had been racially abused by four students over the past few weeks, including being called "whale muncher".

According to the school's web page, Ryutaro was awarded Premium Student Achievement Award last year. I hope that he will get well soon.

The world's oldest molded fruit being kept in Japan

2009-05-18T20:27:00.009+09:00

Japan Probe has posts concerning heart-shaped melons and watermelons being sold in Japan. They seem to be made by putting young fruits into heart-shaped molds and growing them in the molds.

Those posts remided me of an article [Japanese] concerning an ancient molded fruit being kept in a Buddhist temple in Japan. According to the article, Hōryūji temple in Nara has an ancient gourd pot called Hasshin Hyōko (八臣瓢壷), or a gourd pot of eight retainers. It has, on its surface, relieves of a hermit and eight famous retainers who served for ancient Chinese emperors. Research on the gourd pot has shown that the relieves were not carved by edged tools but made by growing the gourd in a mold template.

A number of molded gourds were made in China during the period of Qing Dyanasty (16-19th century), since the fourth emperor Kangxi (1654-1722) was fond of using molded gourds for his daily life. Accordingly, quite a few molded gourds made after the 17th century are being preserved in museums in China and Taiwan. The Hasshin Hyōko is, however, apparently older than those gourds, because a list of the treasures of the temple, which was edited by a Buddhist monk Kenshin (顕真) in 1238, included the very gourd pot Hasshin Hyōko. Thus, it is certain that the temple already had it in 1238. According to the above mentioned article, iconography of the relieves suggests that it was made in around 9th century. Although exact age is unknown, it is most likely that it is the oldest extant molded fruit in the world.

Purple Haze Ondo by HIS

2009-05-16T21:38:00.006+09:00

Three Japanese musicians, Hosono Haruomi (a basist who is a former member of YMO), Imawano Kiyoshiro (a rock musician) and Sakamoto Fuyumi (an enka singer), transiently formed a music unit named HIS in 1991. The name was after their initials (Hosono, Imawano and Sakamoto). HIS played Jimi Hendrix's Purple Haze changing its tune into ondo; ondo (音頭) is a genre of Japanese dance music, which is commonly used in bon odori dance.

[HT to nairon3]

HIS's "Purple Haze Ondo" was not a sole attempt to perform western music in the goofy tune of ondo. The following is "Yellow Submarine Ondo" by an enka singer Kanazawa Akiko. It was a minor hit in Japan in 1982. It might make you giddy as it did the Japanese in 1982.

Funeral service for Imawano Kiyoshiro gathered 43,000 people

2009-05-10T00:53:00.013+09:00

Funeral service for Imawano Kiyoshiro was held yesterday in the Aoyama Funeral Pavillion. According to Sankei [Japanese], the service gathered as many as 43,000 people. UMI BLOG has a report on the funeral.

Today, I spent a whole day watching Imawano Kiyoshiro's videos on youtube. I remembered again how much I had been addicted to his songs when he was a vocalist of RC succession and how much the messages in his songs have been affecting my real life. Although I provided many links to youtube videos yesterday, I'd add two more video clips of Kiyoshiro.

Jiyu (自由, Freedom),

[HT to taikutyuotoko]

Akirete Mono mo Ienai (あきれて物も言えない, Speechless being disgusted),

[HT to dubwiser33]

Imawano Kiyoshiro passed away

2009-05-08T19:27:00.011+09:00

Imawano Kiyoshiro (忌野清志郎), a Japanese rock musician who represents the J-POP scene in the early 1980s, passed away on May 2, 2009 at the age of 58. I liked his songs so much that I used one of his songs, Transistor Radio, as a BGM in my wedding party.

The followings are random clips of his songs from YouTube.

"Ue o Muite Arukou": This song was the first one that I saw him singing as a rock musician on TV. It was perhaps in 1979. The song is a cover of Sakamoto Kyu's "Ue o muite aruko" known by an alternative title "Sukiyaki" in some western countries.

"Sweet Soul Music": Kiyoshiro's homage to Otis Redding. He also sang a song entitled "Otis ga oshiete kureta (Otis taught me)".

"Slow Ballad": This song was released in 1976, but Kiyoshiro's records sold so badly at the time that they became out of press in a few years. They were re-issued after he became famous, and this ballad is now a standard number in J-POP.

"Kimi ga Boku wo Shitteru": Originally released in 1980 as a rock version. The following video clip is an acoustic guitar session with Nakaido Reiichi (also known as Chabo) aired on TV in 1994.

"Hippie ni Sasagu": The title means "Dedicated to Hippie". He made this song for his first manager, who was also a friend of his, whose nickname was Hippie and who passed away before Kiyoshiro's songs became popular to the public. In the later part of this song, he just crys out loud for about 2 minutes for his late friend.

"Music funeral" for Kiyoshiro is being held at the Aoyama Funeral Pavilion from 13:00 to 18:00 tomorrow (May 9). R.I.P., Kiyoshiro.

Mud-slinging among Korean researchers

2009-04-07T21:47:00.005+09:00

This week's Nature has a news article entitled "Retracted paper rattles Korean science", which anounces a retraction of a paper published in Nature in 2000. The data presented in the original paper promised an advance in diabetes treatment using gene therapy.

The paper's authors, led by Hyun Chul Lee of Yonsei University in South Korea, claimed to have created a treatment for type 1 diabetes, a condition in which the immune system destroys the insulin-producing cells needed to regulate glucose levels. Lee's team constructed a recombinant virus that contained a gene for an insulin analogue, which was expressed in response to blood glucose levels. By introducing the gene construct into diabetic rats and mice, they succeeded in alleviating symptoms, according to the paper published in 2000. Their result, however, has not been reproduced.

According to the news article,

Now, having yet to repeat the experiment, Lee has asked Nature to retract the paper (see page 660). I don't know the reason why the experiments are not reproducible, says Lee. He suggests that the original gene construct, pLPK-SIA, a combination of the virus vector, the insulin analogue and a promoter that regulates the expression of the analogue in response to glucose levels — might have mutated after the original experiment.

According to Lee, the reason they cannot repeat the experiment is that some unknown mutation might have occured to their gene construct. However, an anonymous researcher who had worked in Lee's laboratory to repeat the experiment is claiming that the laboratory did not have the gene construct in the first place.

The background to the retraction is contentious. A researcher who joined the laboratory in 2001 tried and failed to initiate preclinical trials in bigger animals such as dogs and monkeys. But the researcher, who does not want to be identified for fear that acting as a whistleblower could harm his career, says he didn't find any pLPK-SIA in the laboratory, so with another researcher in the lab he tried to remake it according to the methods section from the original paper. Lacking essential ingredients, they eventually gave up.

A co-author of the paper who had created the gene construct were working in Canada, but she did not give the construct to the anonymous researcher.

The anonymous researcher says one of the paper's authors, Su-Jin Kim, who created the gene construct before moving to the University of Calgary in Canada, refused to send him samples. Kim says she deferred on this matter to her new boss, Ji-Won Yoon. The researcher, however, says that in e-mail exchanges, Yoon told him to ask Kim for samples. Yoon, also a co-author on the Nature paper, died in 2006.

It seems that the anonymous reseacher and Lee are now mud-slinging at each other.

Lee fired the anonymous researcher in August 2005, citing unhappiness with his work. Lee says that in 2008 the researcher threatened to disclose faults in the paper unless given money, grants and a new job. The researcher admits that he asked for a new position as compensation for losing what he calls four-and-a-half years trying to reproduce the results. He alleges that he was fired after advising Lee to retract the paper, which Lee denies.

In April 2008, Yonsei University started an investigation.

On 30 December the committee recommended a retraction based on multiple points, including the apparent duplication of figures and the fact that it could not confirm the key construct existed when the experiment was carried out. Won-Yong Lee says that the committee members examined Kim's lab notes and thesis, and alleges that the duplication was more than a simple mistake, including the reuse of data as well as cutting, pasting and otherwise adjusting figures.

Kim is now trying to stop the university from releasing its full report.

The committee says that Kim and Yoon tried to reproduce the experiments; Kim, who is now at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, says she did not, and didn't know there was a problem until last year. She says she has some of the pLPK-SIA and that the problems with figures were probably a mistake made when forwarding to colleagues, or in labelling. She faults the committee for choosing to rely on the memory of witnesses who were testifying about experiments that took place 8–10 years ago. Kim refused to sign the retraction letter, calling the original experiment a success, based on lab notes. She also filed an injunction, currently under consideration in the Seoul District Court, to prevent the university releasing its full report.

According to the news article, Kim says she will resolve the situation by reproducing the experiment.

Demonstration of a university worker in an oil drum

2009-03-08T17:25:00.006+09:00

Last December, Kyoto University decided not to renew the contract of about 100 temporary office workers. A worker who is against the decision holded a demonstration in front of the main building of the university on February 26th, the day of its entrance examination, ...in an oil drum bath.

Disabled people and musicians in Tokyo in 1805

2009-02-14T14:28:00.015+09:00

Kidai Shōran (煕代勝覧) depicted several disabled people in the City of Edo (present Tokyo) in the early 19th century.

In the Edo period (1603-1867) when knowledge on nutrition was lacking, considerable number of Japanese suffered from beriberi, or kakke (脚気) in Japanese. Beriberi is a nervous system ailment caused by a deficiency of vitamin B1 in the diet. Since wealthy people used to eat white rice lacking vitamin B1 as a staple food, beriberi was more rampant among them rather than among poor people, who used to eat brown rice. Symptoms of beriberi include weakness and pain in the legs, and those who suffer from them are unable to walk on their own. One such person is depicted in Kidai Shōran.

A man on a wheeled board is rowing it with sticks in his hands. It seems that the wheeled board was a common device for disabled people in pre-modern Japan; I have seen an another painting scroll, which was painted in the 15-16th century, that depicted a person on a similar vehicle. The decent clothes of the man in the illustration suggest that he is a relatively wealthy person - perhaps a retired merchant.

Another illness from which considerable number of people suffered was that of teeth. There were doctors who took care of teeth, but their remedy was basically just extracting the decayed teeth. How did those who lost teeth take their meal? Kidai Shoran depicts a solution for them - dentures. The scroll does not depict a denture itself but depicts a denture shop.

The sign on the shop reads from right to left, in accordance with Japanese writing custom at the period, "御入歯" (On-ireba), which means "denture" in English. Denture in the Edo period was wooden one as reported in the Japan Times last year. The following photo and quote is from the JT article.

A ditch in Yokkaichi, Mie Prefecture, has yielded a common form of early false teeth — an 18th century set of wooden choppers, indicating Japan, like other parts of the world, turned to wood in the days before gold and ceramic crowns.

The highly sophisticated carved wooden dentures found in Yokkaichi indicate elderly people of that time, before modern dentistry, were able to overcome tooth loss and the subsequent difficulty in eating.

The partial plate includes eight life-size teeth. It was carved out of boxwood and measures some 6.2 cm wide, 2 cm high and 5.5 cm deep.

The quality compares favorably with similar wooden teeth discovered elsewhere, demonstrating that the Japanese dental artisans' wooden teeth were among the best in the world, experts say.

Loosing teeth is not so a serious problem as other disability that may affect one's survival. Loosing eyesight was one serious problem in pre-modern period when social security system was lacking. The following illustration shows a sightless person in the Edo period. He is carrying a biwa lute (琵琶) on his back.

Sightless people in the Edo period used to join an organization which were run by sightless people themselves, in which they learnt techniques of massage to earn their living as masseurs. Also taught in the organization was how to play music instruments such as biwa lute and koto harp (琴, which was also called sō (箏)). If one was found to be talented in playing music, he was trained to be a musician so that he could earn his living either as a biwa player or as a koto player. Since Tokugawa Shogunate gave sightless people privilege to monopolize the businesses of masseurs and the biwa/koto players, sightless people could have relatively good income to make their living, and many famous sightless musicians appeared in succession during the Edo period. This webpage has a good article on the history of koto music in Japan; it mentions several famous sightless musicians in the Edo period. (Yatsuhashi Kengyo, Ikuta Kengyo, Yamada Kengyo and Kitajima Kengyo mentioned in the article are all sightless people, although it is not clearly stated in the text.)

The following video clip shows a koto music, "Rokudan no Shirabe" (Melody of Six Movements), composed in the mid-17th century by a sightless koto master, Yatsuhashi Kengyo (1614-1685).

Koto players usually stayed in their home, and there they earned their living by playing koto or by teaching people how to play it. In contrast, biwa players wandered through the country carrying their biwa lutes, as shown in the illustration mentioned above. They were like Celtic bards. Their major repertoire was the Tale of Heike, a historical epic of the 12th-century Genpei War. They chanted the historic epic accompanying themselves on the biwa lute. Some records say that it took 90-120 hours to chant the whole story of the Tale of Heike. Since it was a hard task for both the players and audience, biwa players usually performed several climax parts of the epic in a performance. The following video clip is a performance of the Tale of Heike by Nobuko Kawashima. Editing of the clip is rather poor but you would see how biwa performance was like.

As anyone would guess, it required a good memory to remember the whole text of the Tale of Heike. Some sightless people in the Edo period, however, went further to remember tons of classic Japanese texts. The one staying on top of them is a sightless scholar, Hanawa Hoki-ichi (塙保己一) (1746-1821), who finished a 670-volume compilation of Japanese old documents, Gunsho Ruiju (群書類従), in 1819. You can read a concise biography of Hanawa Hokiichi in this webpage. Motoori Haruniwa (1763-1828), a pioneer of Japanese linguistics, is also a famous sightless scholar in the Edo period.

Let's return to the subject of music. Kidai Shōran (煕代勝覧) depicts another kind of Edo musicians. The people in the following illustration are Buddhist monks playing shakuhachi flutes in front of an umbrella shop. They are wearing baskets on their head.

They look mysterious, don't they? They are komusō (虚無僧), who are monks of the Fuke school of Zen Buddhism. Literal meaning of Komusō is "monks of nothingness". The following quote is from Wikipedia.

Komusō were characterised by the straw basket (a sedge or reed hood named a tengai) worn on the head, manifesting the absence of specific ego. They are also known for playing solo pieces on the shakuhachi (a type of Japanese bamboo flute). These pieces, called honkyoku ("original pieces") were played during a meditative practice called suizen, for alms and as a method of attaining enlightenment.

Since the Tokugawa shogunate granted komuso the privilege of traveling through Japan without hindrance, there were many komuso who were wandering throughout the country. It is believed that at least some of komuso were working as spies of the Tokugawa Shogunate seeking for intelligence of feudal lords who would possibly rebel against the Shogunate. In the late 1970s, NHK aired a TV drama series entitled "Naruto Hichō" (鳴門秘帖, or "Secret Note of Naruto"), main character of which was a komuso who were trying to get intelligence of a feudal lord who was trying to raise a rebellion against the Shogunate. I was totally absorbed in the drama when I was a child.

After the Meiji Restoration, Meiji Government banned the Fuke school of Buddhism suspecting possible connection of Komuso with the Tokugawa Shogunate. Later in 1888, however, a Buddhist temple for Komuso, Myōanji temple [Japanese], was allowed to be constructed in the ground of Tofukuji temple, which is a temple complex in Kyoto. So you can see Komuso in present Japan if you are lucky.

Japanese old instruments are not commonly practiced by the Japanese now, but there are some good players. The following video clip is from a performance by a biwa player Yukihiro Goto and a shakuhachi player Akihito Obama.

I will write about carts and vehicles depicted in Kidai Shoran in next update. The update will be slow as always. Please be patient!

Related Posts:
(1) Tokyo in 1805
(2) People in Tokyo in 1805
(3) Disabled people and musicians in Tokyo in 1805 (This post)

People in Tokyo in 1805

2009-02-06T21:58:00.020+09:00

Kidai Shoran (煕代勝覧) painted at c.a. 1805 depicted various people in the Edo period (1603-1867).

These people are commoners. The left panel shows two men and a male child. The left guy in the panel is wearing only kimono, and the right guy in the same panel is wearing a haori (羽織) jacket over his kimono. Wearing haori jacket was considered to be more formal than wearing only kimono. The style of wearing kimono without haori jacket was called kinagashi (着流し) and considered to be a casual style. On the right panel, two people are chatting with each other in a store in the kinagashi style. The man on the left is a merchant. Can you find an abacus, a necessity of merchants, in front of him? Japanese people had been using abacuses, or soroban (算盤) in Japanese, for calculation before electric calculators became popular in the late 1970s.

When people wore kimono, they considered it important to keep the lower part of kimono around the legs neat. Unintentional exposure of legs was regarded as clumsy and a bad manner even when they were working. When people do muscular labor, however, it is impossible to keep their legs unexposed. In such situations, they intentionally exposed their legs from the beginning by rolling the lower part of their kimono up above their waists. The lower part of the kimono was fixed at the waist by inserting it under the belt on the back. The man in the left panel is doing that. This style was called shirippashori (尻っぱしょり) and often regarded as manly and "cool". The man on the right is wearing a short kimono instead of doing shirippashori. Both men are wearing hachimaki (鉢巻), or Japanese-style headbands. They are for avoiding sweat to enter into their eyes.

The left panel shows a mother in a green kimono and her daughter in a yellowish one. They are wearing kimono in a formal way at the period; the mother, or a married woman, has a knot of the belt, or obi (帯), in front, whereas the daughter, or an unmarried woman, has the knot on her back. Since the knot in front interferes with the movement of the upper body, the habit of married women to make knots in front was gradually changed to make the knot on the back in the late Edo period. So women today make the knot on their back regardless of their marital status. Also seen in the illustration in the left panel is that the daughter is wearing a kimono with long sleeves, or furisode (振り袖). This habit that unmarried women wear long-sleeved kimono is still seen in Japan. The middle and right panels show women wearing scarves called okoso-zukin (御高祖頭巾). Okoso-zukin started to be in fashion among women in the 1720s-1730s, and it had been popular among women until Meiji period (1868-1912). The following photo was taken in the early Meiji period.

The women in the following illustration is carrying something wrapped in furoshiki (風呂敷).

They seem to have bought many goods. Furoshiki is just a large square cloth, but it is convenient for wrapping and carrying goods of various sizes. You can see how various goods are wrapped in furoshiki here.

The men in the above illustrations are samurai in full dress, indicating that they are on duty. They are wearing kamishimo jackets on the upper bodies and hakama trousers on the lower part of their bodies. Kamishimo was a jacket evolved from jinbaori (陣羽織) jacket worn over yoroi armor. The shoulder line of kamishimo was kept straight by inserting baleen. Both men are wearing swords on their waists. Samurai always wore two swords; one was a long sword, which is called katana (刀), and another was a short sword called wakizashi (脇差). Can you find two swords on the waist of each samurai?

These samurai are wearing hakama trousers. They are wearing haori jackets instead of kamishimo jackets, indicating that they are off duty. The samurai in the above illustrations would look to be relaxed when compared to the samurai in the previous illustrations, wouldn't they? Even when they are off duty, however, samurai almost always wore hakama when they went outside. It was a preparation for a possible accidental fight. If they fight in kinagashi style without hakama trousers, they would have to expose their legs during the fight, which was regarded as clumsy as I mentioned earlier.

These people are servants of samurai. Have you noticed that each guy is wearing only a single sword? Although I am not sure, their swords are probably wakizashi, or short swords, which were not regarded as katana. They are doing shirippasyori by folding the lower part of their kimono since they have to work around for their masters.

This is a tea stand on the street. On the right bench are two commoners. The man on the left bench is perhaps a samurai. The waitress serving tea is wearing a small red apron. We can still find similar tea houses in the grounds of some Buddhist temples in Kyoto.

Here I stop writing today. I will write more about people in Kidai Shoran in the next update. The update will be slow as always. Please be patient!

Related Post:
(1) Tokyo in 1805
(2) People in Tokyo in 1805 (this post)
(3) Disabled people and musicians in Tokyo in 1805

Tokyo in 1805

2009-02-01T18:40:00.019+09:00

Kidai Shōran (煕代勝覧) is a 12-metre-long picture scroll which describes a street in the City of Edo (present Tokyo). It was painted approximately 200 years ago, ca.1805. The street corresponds to a part of present Chuo-dori street, which is between JR Kanda Station and Tokyo Metro Nihonbashi Station shown in red in the above map. The painting provides the exact location of buildings along the street and daily lives of people there at the time.

The above illustration is from the right-most part of Kidai Shōran. The bridge at the right side was called Imagawa-bashi (今川橋), or Imagawa Bridge. There is no bridge at the site now, but the name of the bridge remains as a name of a crossing. The following google street view shows a southward view from the Imagawa-bashi crossing, which corresponds to the leftward view from the bridge in the above illustration.

View Larger Map

Can you differentiate samurai from commoners in the illustration? Samurai have swords on their waists.

The fashion and stuff in the Edo period may look strange for those who are unfamiliar with them. I'll get into some details of them in the posts to follow. Please don't expect, however, quick update in this blog; it takes much time for me to write anything in English.

Related post:
(2) People in Tokyo in 1805
(3) Disabled people and musicians in Tokyo in 1805

NYT article on Japan in an alternative universe

2009-01-28T21:20:00.012+09:00

On the Occasion of Barack Obama’s Inauguration, New York Times had an article entitled "Japan’s outcasts still wait for acceptance" by Norimitsu Onishi .

English-language news media often publish inaccurate or sometimes hilariously exaggerated articles on Japan. However, since majority of Japanese do not read English-language media, they do not know that such articles have been published in foreign media. As a result, misconception caused by exaggerated articles is rarely corrected. When Mr. Onishi wrote the NYT article, he was perhaps expecting that his report would become one such article. The article, however, had so much exaggeration that Mr. Okumura at GlobalTalk 21 has been posting a series of counterarguments. ~~So far four~~ Six relevant articles (plus one) have been posted there. They are must reads for those who are interested in the issue of outcasts in Japan.

Introduction,
First Installment,
Second Installment,
Third Installment,
Fourth Installment
Interlude
Coda without a finale

Screen paintings of whale and elephant by Itō Jakuchū

2008-12-24T18:22:00.013+09:00

A pair of folding screens by a Japanese painter, Itō Jakuchū (伊藤若冲; 1716-1800), was found in a private home in Kanazawa city. Itō Jakuchū's paintings usually depict animals, birds and plants in bold composition. Like his other works, the newly-found screens uniquely contrast a black whale spouting water on the left-side screen and a white elephant sitting on the beach on the right-side screen.

The design of the newly-found screens is similar to a Jakuchu's missing work.

Folding screens in the above photograph were listed in an auction catalogue of Osaka Art Club (大阪美術倶楽部) issued in 1928. Notice that, whereas the tail of the elephant and the plants over the back of the elephant are drawn on the newly-found screen, they are missing on the one in the old auction catalogue. According to the catalogue, the screens had been owned by Baron Kawasaki in Kobe, Hyogo prefecture. They were knocked down to an anonymous person for 3,100 yen, which roughly corresponds to present five million yen, or 50,000 US dollars. After the auction, no one but the unknown owner has seen the screens.

According to Yomiuri Online, the pair of the newly-found screens has signatures saying: "Painted by Beito-ou, 82 years old (米斗翁八十二歳画)"; Beito-ou (Uncle Beito) was a Jakuchū's pseudonym that he used in his last years. Perhaps, in the last years of his life, he painted again the composition of the black whale and white elephant that he had once painted.

The followings are some of other Jakuchu's works for your eyes' pleasure.

I will never visit Papua New Guinea

2008-12-16T00:01:00.016+09:00

So I decided reading this report.

Brave Italian photographer Iago Corazza travelled the country, the island at the end of the world, and took photos of its fascinating inhabitants, who still live a Stone Age existence.

“You find people here who can describe the taste of human flesh,” the photographer said of his travels.

Anthropologist Olga Ammann describes it more succinctly in the book. She quotes people who have eaten other humans: “The meat of white people smells too strongly and is too salty.

The Japanese are meant to taste the best, according to her study - the only thing that beats it is the meat of their own women.

Update: According to comments on 2-channel concerning this topic, it seems that cannibalism of native tribes had been a problem for the Japanese soldiers that stationed in Papua New Guinea during WWII. In the translation below, notes in parentheses are mine.

541 : Anonymous @ 9th Anniversary: 2008/12/15 (Mon) 23:28:32 ID:UExy4qZp0 (2-channel is cerebrating its 9th anniversary.)

An old man who was in the same line of business as mine once told me a story. He had been a ground man stationed in the Rabaul base. (The Imperial Japanese Navy had a base of naval air-force in Rabaul on the New Britain Island in Papua New Guinea.)

Newly assigned fleshy rookies were the most common targets. They were advised not to act alone in the night even if they were in the base.

Even though they were so advised, still some guys were abducted. When someone is abducted, there comes a sound of drums from far away. Since they couldn't neglect it, they used to organize rescue parties but in most cases they were too late; The abductee being bound on a log had already been barbequed like a pig roasted whole.

When they realized that they were too late, they just looked on the event. Perhaps their feeling was atrophied, since death was too common among them in those days. Well, anyway they couldn't kill civilians for retaliation.

------------
546 : Anonymous @ 9th Anniversary: 2008/12/15(Mon) 23:36:00 ID:uHZTJRP00

The day has finally come!
The day that Japan, which has been a food-importing country, can become a food-exporting country!

--------------
558 : Anonymous @ 9th Anniversary: 2008/12/15(Mon) 23:40:54 ID:RJG5I8ce0

Oh, what my granddad told me was true... orz.
He told me that this was scarier than the war when he served in the war. I am sorry, my granddad, for taking your story as a half-truth.

The followings are original texts of the above quote. They were found on this thread on 2-channel.

541 ：名無しさん＠九周年：2008/12/15(月) 23:28:32 ID:UExy4qZp0
昔ラバウル基地で整備兵してたという同業のじいさんに聞かされたことがある。

配属されたばかりの肉付きの良い新兵が特に狙われやすかったみたいで、夜間はラバウル基地内でも決して一人で行動するなと注意されてたらしい。

それでもやはりいくら注意してても攫われる奴はいるもので、誰か捕まると遠くの方からドンドコドンドコ音が聞こえて来るそうな。
ほっとくわけにも行かずに救助隊を編成して一応救助に向かうわけだが、大抵すでに手遅れ、一本の棒に手足括り付けられ豚の丸焼きのように焼かれていたんだと。

まあ当時は死人が珍しくなく感覚が麻痺してたのか、手遅れだとなると後は興味本位で見物してたとか・・・
民間人を報復で殺すわけにもいかんしね。
---------
546 ：名無しさん＠九周年：2008/12/15(月) 23:36:00 ID:uHZTJRP00
来たな。ついに。
日本が食糧輸入国から輸出国へと変わる、チャンスのときが。
---------
558 ：名無しさん＠九周年：2008/12/15(月) 23:40:54 ID:RJG5I8ce0
これか！爺さんの言ってた事は本当だったか・・・orz
従軍した時の、戦争よりも怖かった話として語ってたんだが「話半分・・・」と思って聞いてしまって悪かったなぁ。ゴメン爺ちゃん。

Wife and sister of Emperor Akihito

2008-12-11T00:21:00.013+09:00

Last month, I came across two elderly ladies related to the Japanese Imperial Family.

The first one was Empress Michiko. When I was walking along a road in Kyoto on November 2, I noticed policemen standing at every corner. I asked one of them if any incident had taken place there. He told me in an undertone: "Emperor is coming here soon". So I decided to wait for the Emperor and his party there. According to the policeman, the Emperor was staying in Kyoto for attending an event for celebrating the thousand-year anniversary of the Tales of Genji, and at the time the Emperor Akihito was to visit the tomb of Emperor Go-Nijō (reign: 1301-1308).

After a while, the party on vehicles passed in front of me. I could see Empress Michiko in one of the vehicles but I could not spot the Emperor who should have been in the seat next to the Empress. It seemed that the Emperor canceled the visit to the tomb as he wasn't in good health. Empress Michiko was smiling in the vehicle as always.

The second one was Atsuko Ikeda who is a younger sister of the Emperor. On November 22 - 24, I visited Ise Jingu shrine in the Ise city in Mie prefecture. Ise Jingu is a complex of shrines that is composed of many shrines centered on two main shrines, Naikū (内宮, or inner shrine) and Gekū (外宮, or outer shrine).

After staying in a hotel near Gekū, I visited Gekū in the early morning of November 23. There were again many policemen in the shrine area. They were all in the special uniform as the guards for the Imperial Palace and properties related to the Imperial Family. At first, I thought it was normal circumstances in the Ise Jingu since it is the place that the Emperor administers. However, when I entered the space in front of the main building, I realized that I happened to visit there in the midst of a special ceremony. Asking a guard in ancient uniform who was standing by torii, I learned that the ceremony was Niiname-sai (新嘗祭), or harvesting ceremony, that is held only once a year. The following quote is from the Web page of Ise Jingu shrine.

The Niiname-sai ceremony in Jingu is composed of both Omikesai and Hoheisai. These ceremonies are conducted in the name of the Emperor. The Niiname-sai is held parallel to the ceremony at which the Emperor officiates and offers the newly harvested rice to Amaterasu Omikami in the Imperial Palace. By partaking of the food offered he ritually receives the deity's blessings.

In front of the main building were sitting a priestess in ancient white clothes, a dozen or so of priests in the same white clothes and two people in authentic clothes for court nobles in the Heian period (8th-12th century). The latter two were emboys sent by the Emperor to report this year's harvest to the deities of the shrine. The priestess was the Emperor's younger sister, Atsuko Ikeda, who is saishu (祭主), or the most sacred person of the Ise Jingu shrine. Secularly, she is a wife of a zoo owner, Takamasa Ikeda, who is a direct descendant of the feudal lord of Okayama and the eldest son of former Marquis Nobumasa Ikeda. Mr. Ikeda liked to raise animals so much that he opened his own zoo named "Ikeda Zoo" in Okayama. Mme. Ikeda has been working as the wife of the zoo owner, and at the same time she has been working as the chief priestess of Ise Jingu shrine; Chief priestesses of the shrine has traditionally been chosen from women related to the imperial family.

Mme. Ikeda looked to have difficulty in sitting and standing during the ceremony as she is 77 years old. Those who were born to the imperial family seem to have some obligations even after they were detached from the royalty through marriage to commoners. Mme. Ikeda succeeded her ailing elder sister as the chief priestess in 1988. If it would have become impossible for Mme. Ikeda to work as the priestess, a daughter of the Emperor Akihito, Sayako Kuroda, may be succeeding.

Sayako Kuroda was reported to be fond of anime. In her marriage party, she wore a dress that was designed after the dress of the heroin of Hayao Miyazaki's anime, The Castle of Cariostro. She would be able to enjoy the role as a priestess to some extent if she succeeded.

Kamo River in fall

2008-11-17T23:21:00.004+09:00

Last Sunday, I strolled along the Kamo River in Kyoto. The trees with red leaves are cherry trees that I saw in this spring.

Prefabricated Japanese-style rooms for Western-style houses

2008-11-17T13:30:00.012+09:00

MSN Sankei's IZA [Japanese] has an article regarding prefabricated Japanese-style rooms.

Traditional Japanese-style rooms have tatami mats on the floor and sliding doors called shoji and fusuma that surround the rooms, but newly constructed houses in Japan don't necessarily have Japanese-style rooms, as life-styles of young people are getting Westernized. When they want to have Japanese-style rooms after they purchased houses, they have to spend much money to re-form rooms. The prefabricated Japanese-style rooms are for such people. By purchasing the prefabricated ones, they can construct Japaense-style rooms in Western-style rooms. According to the article, the companies that developed the prefabricated rooms also have plans to sell them to foreign costumers.

You can see some more photos of the rooms in the following pages. Unfortunately, they are only Japanese-language Websites; ~~I could not find any English-language Websites for the prefabricated Japanese-style rooms.~~ JETRO has an English language description on the prefabricated room.

Wa-Koubou, GUU (和工房寓):
--- room 1
--- room 2
--- room 3

Sakamoto Otozou Shouten (坂本乙造商店):
--- Room 1 (You can scroll down the page by putting the mouse pointer on the arrows at the right side)
--- How to build room 1
---- Room 2 (narrow one, 1840 mm x 1845 mm)
---- How to build room 2

Nocturne by Ayaka Hirahara

2008-11-09T23:19:00.010+09:00

Lyrics

Love, true love is to ask nothing in return
You are my destined soul mate
Your love, adoring eyes
We can see the light because we know the darkness
Everything has meaning, even campanula in the wind

Each one of us has pain and sorrow
Sheds a secret tear
But drops of your tears will fall to the earth and
Welcome new life into the world again and again with love

Love, true love is to ask nothing in return
Fated love that is meant to last
My love, your gentle gaze
A drop of your soul within me that I adore
Everything has an end, but we'll be united

My love, your gentle gaze
A drop of your soul within me that I adore
Everything has an end, but we'll be united

-------
The melody of the song is based around the melody to Nocturne by Chopin.

This song is now being used as the ending music of a TV drama, "風のガーデン (Garden of the Wind)", which happened to become a posthumous work of a Japanese actor Ken Ogata who passed away on October 5th.

Narrative of an old historical figure in Japan - Aoto Fujitsuna

2008-10-28T22:47:00.024+09:00

Perhaps any nation has a lot of narratives concerning old historical figures that have been used for ethical education. What is shown in the above Japanese-style painting is one such narrative in Japan. A samurai is looking for something in a river with his servant. The servant is carrying a torch, indicating that it is in the evening. When elderly Japanese see this painting, they can soon make a good guess that the samurai on the bridge is Aoto Fujitsuna (青砥藤綱).

------
Fujitsuna was a lord of small manors in Kanto area in the Kamakura period. Although he was wealthy thanks to his fertile manors, he lived a frugal life having simple clothes and diet. Instead of using his wealth for himself, he used it for giving foods, clothes and money to poor people.

Japan in the Kamakura period was governed by successive regents from Hojo clan. One day, concerning one of the manors of a regent, a conflict took place between the regent and a local officer. At the time, judicial decisions were made by a council that consisted of members chosen from lords. Fujitsuna was one of the members. In the council, almost all members supported the regent fearing his strong power, although the account by the local officer was reasonable. However, Fujitsuna stated the facts reasonably without fearing the power of the regent. As the result, the regent lost the case.

The local officer who was pleased with the unexpected winning gave Fujitsuna 300 kan of money putting them in tawara (a big bag made of straws). Seeing the money, Fujitsuna became upset. He returned the money to the local officer, saying: "The reason I stated my honest opinion in the council was just for the benefit of the regent. I never showed favor to you. Since I prevented the regent from falling in a bad reputation, the regent should give me a token of his gratitude. There is no reason for you to give me anything."

One evening, when Fujitsuna was walking on a bridge, he accidentally dropped coins of 10 mon. The coins rolled down into a river. Ten mon probably corresponded to about present 100 yen, or about one dollar. Samurai of his rank did not care about such a small amount of money. However, he ordered his servants to look for the money in the river. He handed 50 mon to a servant and made him to buy flaming torches. Lighting the torches, they finally found the 10 mon in the river.

People who heard of the event laughed at Fujitsuna, saying: "He bought the torches paying 50 mon in order to regain 10 mon. It was too small benefit from the large loss, wasn't it?" Hearing it, Fujitsuna, contracting his brows, said: "It only shows that you are interested in neither public interests nor charity. If I had not looked for the 10 mon in the river, it would have been lost forever. The 50 mon that I payed for the torches profited the merchant. There was no loss at all. It was a benefit to the public, wasn't it?" People got speechless with admiration.

One day, the regent had a dream in which a deity of Hachimangu shrine recommended him to patronize Fujitsuna as he is a man to be depended on. Accordingly, the regent decided to give Fujitsuna eight large manors. However, Fujitsuna rejected the offer, saying: "You decided to give me the manors according to the dream that you had. It follows that someday you might kill me according to a dream that you would have. I have not render any outstanding service. It would make me like a public enemy to accept such an offer when I have not achieved anything that matches the reward."

Other lords and officers who heard of his reply were ashamed of themselves. Since they never accepted bribes thereafter, the Shogunate could stably govern the country for a long period.
--------

The above narrative first appeared in Taiheiki (太平記), a historical epic written in the late 14th century. Since then, it was used for the ethical education of people in the pre-modern Japan. Since the narrative was also adopted in the textbook of ethics after the Meiji Restoration and the textbook had been used in public schools until 1945, elderly Japanese are familiar with the story.

Note: If you read old Japanese language, you can find the original Japanese text of the Fujitsuna's story here in Volume 35 of Taiheiki. To find the Fujitsuna's story, search 青砥 (Aoto) in the webpage. Aoto Fujitsuna appears as Aoto Saemon (青砥左衛門) in Taiheiki. Saemon is after the Fujitsuna's title Saemon-no-jo (左衛門尉) as an officer of Saemon-fu (左衛門府).

Plagiarism in science

2008-10-09T20:42:00.007+09:00

Nature has an astonishing news article reporting that there are many scientific papers that are duplicates of other papers.

When Eric Le Bourg, a French biogerontologist, came across a paper in a Korean journal recently, he almost fell off his chair; the entire article — text and graphs included — had been taken from one of his earlier articles. "It was plagiarism from beginning to end," he says. "I was astonished; it was pure cut and paste."

Such blatant copying of an entire article is not unknown, says Harold Garner, a researcher at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. Garner's team has used its eTBLAST text-matching software to build Deja Vu, a continually updated database that already holds some 75,000 abstracts listed in Medline that seem highly similar. His team has so far found dozens of near-100% clone papers.

Garner estimates that among the 181 papers they have identified so far as duplicates, 85% of the text is similar on average, but one-quarter share close to 100%. For a full list of the most similar pairs of articles, click here.

Le Bourg's paper was published in Experimental Gerontology. The duplicate by Hak-Ryul Kim at the biology department of Korea University was published a year later in the Korean Journal of Biological Sciences. According to the Nature article, Le Bourg and the editors of Experimental Gerontology contacted authorities at Korea University but got no response.

The last paragraph of the article is worth noting.

When confronted with their plagiarism, some researchers can be brazen. One offender, whose paper shared 99% of its text with an earlier report, wrote to Garner: "I seize the opportunity to congratulate [the authors of the original paper] for their previous and fundamental paper — in fact that article inspired our work."

Scientists tend to be reluctant to openly point out wrong doings of other scientists. But an offender's comment like this would be enough to break their mental barrier.

Sumiko Yamagata - a Japanese folk singer in '70s

2008-10-07T22:45:00.006+09:00

The followings are video clips of Sumiko Yamagata from a TV drama "おさななじみ" (Childhood Friend) aired in 1973. She debuted as a singer in the year when she was 17 years old.

Kaze ni fukarete ikou (風に吹かれて行こう, Let's go in the wind)

Kono hiroi nohara ippai (この広い野原いっぱい, Full in this large field)
Natsu ni nattara (夏になったら, When summer has come)

She is still releasing new CDs but she rarely appear on TV after she got married in 1978.

WaiWai column had been violating the copyrights of 32 publishing and newspaper companies

2008-09-27T21:02:00.003+09:00

Mainichi issued a statement admitting that WaiWai articles had been violating the copyrights of 32 publishing and newspaper companies .

In the column, articles were used without the consent of their publishers -- including publishing and newspaper companies. Our follow-up investigation has found that we used and translated articles published by 32 publishing and newspaper companies without their permission.

We allowed another publisher to run some of these WaiWai articles in publications it printed, and received fees for the reprint. We are now in the process of repaying these reprint fees.

We are continuing to apologize to the publishers for violating their copyrights.

Mainichi also admitted that the printed edition published before 2001 also used articles of other publications without permission from copyright holders.

The defunct printed edition of the Mainichi Daily News, which was published before the Mainichi Daily News became an online newspaper, also used and translated articles from other publications without permission from their copyright holders between October 1989 and March 2001. We are continuing to offer explanations and apologies to the publishers of these articles.

This is essentially a retraction of a portion of their previous statement issued on July 20th. According to the explanation in the previous statement, publication of problematic articles had started after the task of writing WaiWai articles fell into the hands of just one editor after the print edition of the MDN was suspended at the end of March 2001. The following is the relevant portion in the statement issued on July 20th.

At the time the print edition was suspended, the MDN had a staff of 15 foreign and three Japanese staff writers. Following the shift online, the staff was downsized to five foreign and three Japanese staff writers, with the Japanese staff subsequently being reduced to two. The task of writing articles for the WaiWai column essentially fell into the hands of just one editor.
(....)
The column editor assumed that different standards for accuracy applied to news stories and those carried in the WaiWai column. For this reason, both the print and web versions carried the following disclaimer: "WaiWai stories are transcriptions of articles that originally appeared in Japanese language publications. The Mainichi Daily News cannot be held responsible for the content of the original articles, nor does it guarantee their accuracy. Views expressed in the WaiWai column are not necessarily those held by the Mainichi Daily News or the Mainichi Newspapers Co." He did concede this might have been inadequate, though, considering that web readers did not necessarily differentiate between news articles translated from the Mainichi Shimbun and the stories in the WaiWai column.

Moreover, his knowledge and understanding of copyright laws were insufficient. When he first began writing WaiWai stories, he was told by a senior native English-speaking colleague that quoting from Japanese magazine articles was acceptable inasmuch as it was not straight translation but augmented with commentary and explanations. He took this advice at face value without further inquiry and continued to produce large volumes of magazine article translations. There were cases where personal interpretations that were not in the original article crept into the WaiWai story as a means of attracting reader attention.

Real Aso?

2008-09-24T23:04:00.010+09:00

According to the profile of Aso Taro posted on Mainichi [japanese], he is called 'a man of 1.5 meter radius (半径 1.5メートルの男)'. The meaning is..., if you get closer than 1.5 meter to him, you'll be fascinated by his magnetism. I don't know whether it's true or not, but the following video of Aso was really fun to watch.

[HT to manchingsakura]

Your Neighbor Guerilla

2008-09-18T10:12:00.004+09:00

On September 12th, U.S. naval base in Yokosuka was attacked by rocket bombs. According to Breitbart.com (via JapanProbe),

Two explosions were heard in a residential area in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture late Friday in what is believed to be a guerrilla attack against the U.S. naval base in the port city, police said.

No one was hurt in the incident, which took place in a hilly area of the city at around 10:30 p.m., the police said.

The police said there were the traces of two rocket bombs being launched. Metal pipes, batteries and lead wires were found on the scene, they added.

The U.S. nuclear-powered aircraft carrier George Washington is scheduled to arrive at its new home port of Yokosuka on Sept. 25, replacing the carrier Kitty Hawk.

Activists opposed to the George Washington's deployment have been campaigning against its impending arrival.

On Sept. 17th, Jiji press [Japanese] reported that a group that called themselves "revolutionary army (革命軍)" sent a letter saying that they attacked the U.S. base. Japanese Police considers the group to be the anti-mainstream faction of Kakurokyo (革労協, 革命的労働者協会 or "Revolutionary Laborer's Association"), since rocket launchers found near the Yokosuka base were similar to those used by the group in the attack against Camp Zama last year as Mainichi reported [Japanese]. The anti-mainstream faction of Kakurokyo that is also called Sekisaisha-ha (赤砦社派, or "Red Fortress Co. Faction") has attacked the U.S. bases several times before. The following is a list of the guerrilla attacks that Sekisaisha-ha involved (from Japanese Wikipedia).

July 3rd, 2000: Sekisaisha-ha attacked the U.S. Yokota base by rocket bomb.

April 12th, 2002: With a time ignite device, Sekisaisha-ha set fire to a train of Keisei Electric Railway.

Nov. 2002: Sekisaisha-ha attacked the U.S. Army Camp Zama by rocket bombs.

Launcher of rocket bombs used by Sekisaisha-ha in the attack against Camp Zama

Feb. 24th, 2003: Sekisuisha-ha attacked the building of the Defense Agency of Japan by rocket bombs.

May 12th, 2003: Sekisaisha-ha attacked the U.S. Yokota base by rocket bombs.

April 3rd, 2003: Sekisaisha-ha attacked the U.S. Atsugi base by rocket bombs.

Feb. 17th, 2004: Sekisuisha-ha attacked the building of the Defense Agency of Japan by rocket bombs.

Nov. 7th, 2004: Sekisuisha-ha attacked the JSDF Asaka base by rocket bombs.

Launchers of rocket bombs used by Sekisaisha-ha in the attack against the JSDF Asaka base

Feb. 12th, 2007: Sekisuisha-ha attacked the U.S. Army Camp Zama by rocket bombs.

So far no one has been injured by the rocket bombs, and in many cases the bombs did not reach targets. However, it needs serious attention since they are launching bombs anyway. It is worth noting that they committed murders many times in the past. I am writing the background of this group below since there is little English-language information on the group on the Web.

According to Japanese Wikipedia, Kakurokyo is an anarcho-syndicalistic group that blasted a dormitory of the Metropolitan Police with two bombs in 1990. The explosion killed one policeman and injured eight policemen. The group split into two factions in 1999; One is the mainstream faction Gendaisha-ha (現代社派) and the other is the anti-mainstream faction Sekisaisha-ha. The two factions waged bloody conflict with each other from 1999 to 2004. The following is a chronicle of the conflict picked up from Japanese Wikipedia.

June 4th, 1999: Members of Gendaisha-ha attacked the leader of Sekisaisha-ha, Shigeki Yamada. Yamada was fatally injured but fortunately saved from death.

June 8th, 1999: Seventeen members of Sekisaisha-ha were arrested on a charge of assembling with offensive weapons. They were keeping weapons in the campus of Meiji University.

June 13th, 1999: Sekisaisha-ha declared 'war' against Gendaisha-ha.

July 2nd, 1999: On the road in Matsudo, Chiba prefecture, Sekisaisha-ha killed a director of Meiji University Coop, Yoshihiko Nagata, by repeatedly hitting his temples with hammers. He was one of the leaders of Gendaisha-ha.

July 21th, 1999: Gendaisha-ha attacked a staff member of Meiji University Coop, Ichiro Aikawa, who was a member of Sekisaisha-ha. He died on the next day.

July 22nd, 1999: Thirty-seven members of Gendaisha-ha were arrested on a charge of assembling with offensive weapons when they gathered in the campus of Meiji University.

Feb. 8th, 2000: Attackers of Gendaisha-ha assaulted the office of Sekisaisha-ha in Fukuoka prefecture. A sekisaisha-ha member Toshikazu Kataoka was killed. On the next day, Sekisaisha-ha assaulted the attackers of Gendaisha-ha in a train car in Kanagawa prefecture. The two attackers were repeatedly stabbed by broad-bladed kitchen knives in public. One was killed on the spot, and the other was fatally injured but saved from death.

Aug. 30th, 2000: Gendaisha-ha killed the chief secretary of the Meiji University Coop Labor Union, Emiko Katayama, by repeatedly stabbing her with knives in the JR Uguisudani Station in the rush hour. She was one of the leaders of Sekisaisha-ha.

Dec. 10th, 2000: Sekisaisha-ha killed a Gendaisha-ha member in Kiyose, Tokyo. He was a committeeman of the general affairs section of Kakurokyo

Feb. 16th, 2001: Four members of Gendaisha-ha were arrested on a charge of assembling with offensive weapons just in front of the house of a Sekisaisha-ha member, when they arrived there for assaulting the Sekisaisha-ha member.

May, 16th, 2001: Sekisaisha-ha members killed a Gendaisha-ha member in Yachimata, Chiba prefecture. He was a committeeman of the general affairs section of Kakurokyo.

June, 2nd, 2004: Three members of Sekisaisha-ha were attacked on the road in Taitoh Ward, Tokyo, by the Gendaisha-ha members armed with broad-bladed kitchen knives and hammers. A student of Chiba University who was the chairman of All-Japan Federation of Students' Self-Governing Associations (AJFSSGA) and a student of Komazawa University who was the former secretary of AJFSSGA were killed there.

After the last incident in 2004, it is believed that the conflict between Gendaisha-ha and Sekisaisha-ha reached a settlement. So, they may start to attack facillities of the U.S. military and JSDF more often than before.

Kamikaze bacteria that sacrifice themselves to help their brethren

2008-09-09T19:27:00.010+09:00

Yesterday I saw a bottle of liquor named "Kamikaze" in a supermarket in my neighbor. It seemed to be a vodka made in Switzerland. After returning home, I tried googling information on the liquor, wondering why a Swiss company named one of their products Kamikaze.

Although I couldn't find information on the liquor after all, I came across other Kamikaze that are being investigated in Switzerland. According to a news article in Nature, scientists in Switzerland (and in Canada) are investigating Kamikaze bacteria - suicidal bacteria that sacrifice themselves to help their brethren to get a foothold in the gut. The article was pretty interesting.

Kamikaze bacteria illustrate evolution of co-operation

Bacteria can commit suicide to help their brethren establish more damaging infections — and scientists think that they can explain how this behaviour evolved.

The phenomenon, called self-destructive cooperation, can help bacteria such as Salmonella typhimurium and Clostridium difficile to establish a stronghold in the gut.

By studying mice infected with S. typhimurium, researchers from Switzerland and Canada have now demonstrated how this 'kamikaze' behaviour arose.

The team, led by Martin Ackermann of ETH Zurich in Switzerland, studied how S. typhimurium expresses the Type III secretion systems virulence factors (TTSS-1) that inflame the gut. This eradicates intestinal microflora that would otherwise compete for resources — but also kills most of the S. typhimurium cells in the vicinity. After this assault, the way is clear for remaining S. typhimurium to take advantage and further colonise the gut.

But in the middle of the gut cavity, or lumen, only about 15% of the S. typhimurium population actually expresses TTSS-1. In contrast, in the tissue of the gut wall, almost all bacteria express TTSS-1. As more bacteria invade the tissue, gut inflammation increases and kills off the invaders (especially those within the tissue) - along with the other competing gut flora.

"We thought it was a very strange phenomenon," says team member Wolf-Dietrich Hardt, also at ETH Zurich. "The bacteria in the gut lumen are genetically identical, but some of them are prepared to sacrifice themselves for the greater good. You could compare this act to Kamikaze fighter pilots of the Japanese army."

Kamikaze genes

This self-destructive cooperation relies on the genes controlling this suicidal behaviour not always being expressed. This 'phenotypic noise' means that only a fraction express TTSS-1, allowing the kamikaze genes to persist in the population. If every cell expressed the genes, they would all commit suicide, benefiting none of the population.

The team concluded that acts of self-destructive cooperation can arise, providing that the level of "public good" — in this case, the inflammation of the gut — is high enough. Crucially, cooperative individuals must also benefit from other cooperative acts more often than individuals who are not cooperating, a situation the scientists call 'assortment'.

In the case of gut bacteria, assortment can arise if the minimum number of pathogens required to infect a host is relatively small — as few as 100 cells, in cases such as Escherichia coli.

Change of strategy

The findings, published in Nature, chime well with long-established theories on the evolution of altruism and co-operation.

If a gene for sibling altruism is always expressed, it will tend to disappear, because those members of a clutch or litter who possess it may sacrifice themselves for those who do not. However, if the gene is present but not always expressed, it can persist, because some of its carriers may survive to pass it on to subsequent generations.

The research could also aid the design of more potent strategies against pathogenic bacteria. The Salmonella bacterium causes one of the most common bacterial infections in western countries, and is highly dangerous among the elderly and frail. "There is no doubt that a vaccine for Salmonella in humans is needed," says Hardt. "And many strains infecting livestock are becoming resistant to antibiotics.

"But based on our results, I would suggest that the usual strategy of targeting the vaccine against a virulence factor might not be the best strategy, if only a small fraction of the bacteria express it."

[The Nature article is via RichardDawkins.net. Photo is from this page]

Update: That liquor seems to be a bottled one of a cocktail called Kamikaze.

Japan’s Prime Minister, Yasuo Fukuda, resigns - Links

2008-09-02T00:51:00.007+09:00

Japan’s Prime Minister Resigns - NYTimes.com
Fukuda quits as leader of Japan after 11 months - International Herald Tribune
The Associated Press: Unpopular Japanese prime minister resigns
Japanese PM Yasuo Fukuda resigns - guardian.co.uk
Japan's prime minister Yasuo Fukuda resigns - Telegraph
Fukuda resigns as Japan PM - Al Jazeera
Japanese PM, Yasuo Fukuda, in shock resignation after just one year in job - Times Online
Japan PM Fukuda resigns - ABC News
Fukuda Quits as Japan Prime Minister Citing Gridlock (Update1) - Bloomberg.com: Worldwide
Beleaguered Japanese PM resigns - CNN.com
Japanese PM decides to resign - People's Daily Online
UPDATE 1-Japan PM Fukuda resigns over deadlock | Markets | Markets News | Reuters

Update

In the few short days since Fukuda's press conference, Japan has witnessed the birth of a new buzz phrase online. For details, see Pink Tentacle.

[Ascii art is from ITmedia News]

Spoof of Queen

2008-09-01T01:15:00.005+09:00

A spoof of Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody by Gutch Yuzo.

The lyrics are taken from a Japanese kid's song "Puppy Policeman (犬のおまわりさん)" and have nothing to do with the original lyrics of Bohemian Rhapsody.

The clip is from a Japanese kid's show, Hotch Potch Station, that was aired by the NHK Educational TV in the late 1990s. The show achieved the highest audience rating for kid's show in Japan. Perhaps parents were more enthusiastic to watch the show than their children.

The followings are some other clips from the same show.

Kiss: Detroit Rock City
Michael Jackson: Beat It
Rolling Stones: Honkey Tonk Women

Harvesting myoga

2008-08-25T21:26:00.013+09:00

Last Sunday, I harvested myoga (みょうが, 茗荷) grown on my balcony. Myoga (Zingiber mioga) that is used in Japanese cuisines is a close relative of ginger (Zingiber officinale). Unlike ginger whose edible part is rhizomes, myoga plants do not have fat roots. The part of the moyga plant that the Japanese eat is flower bud. Can you see the flower of myoga in the photo below?

Close-up view.

I could harvest eleven myoga from three containers last Sunday.

Raw myoga is used as trimmings for tofu, noodles and sashimi, but this time I made sweet pickle (amazu-zuke, 甘酢漬け) of myoga.

Recipe

1. Mix the followings in a container to make pickling solution. A half-cup (100 ml) of vinegar, 2 tablespoons of sugar and 1 teaspoon of salt. Dissolve the ingredients well.

2. Slice each myoga longitudinally into two halves.

3. Boil the sliced myoga for 40 seconds in boiling water.

4. Drain the hot water off the myoga.

5. Put the boiled myoga into the pickling solution while myoga are still hot.

6. Store the myoga in pickling solution overnight in refrigerator. You can eat the pickle next day. The myoga in pickling solution can be stored for a month in refrigerator. Pickled myoga is usually served as thin shreds since it has rather pungent taste.

Myoga plants can be grown pretty easily in garden and in containers. Roots of myoga are sold in February to April in many homecenters and gardening shops in Japan. Just by putting the roots in soil, you can harvest myoga in summer every year, since myoga is a perennial plant. One essential thing that you should know to grow myoga plant is that it hates direct sunlight, so you should keep the plant in the shade. I am growing the myoga plant in the northern balcony of my apartment.

B.B. Queens - Odoru Ponpokorin

2008-08-24T01:27:00.004+09:00

Smash hit of B.B. Queens in 1990 when Japanese economic bubble was at its peak. This song is symbolic of those lighthearted days.

The male vocalist in B.B. Queens, Fusanosuke Kondo, is a blues singer who usually sings songs like this one (cover of "Sweet Little Angel").

[HT to gorogoro117]

Diary of Nobuo Tatsuguchi

2008-08-12T10:31:00.010+09:00

This story describes the last days of a Japanese soldier on Attu Island. It's a rather old article dated 2005, but even after reading it many times it's still moving.

The diary of Nobuo Tatsuguchi, an American-educated Japanese doctor who was killed during World War II, quietly recorded the tragedies of the war, his own suffering and the last moments of Japanese troops on Attu Island at the western tip of Aleutians in the Bering Sea.

Taeko Tatsuguchi, his 92-year-old widow in Los Angeles shared her memories of her late husband and the war with Kyodo News.

''He was a faithful Christian doctor and a gentleman who devoted himself to God and communities,'' said Taeko.

Nobuo Tatsuguchi was born in Hiroshima on Aug. 31, 1911, as the second son of a Christian dentist who had been educated in the United States. Tatsuguchi also studied medicine at the College of Medical Evangelists, now Loma Linda University, in southern California.

As background information, I'd put below an outline of the Battle of Attu from Wikipedia.

On 11 May 1943, the operation to recapture Attu began. A shortage of landing craft, unsuitable beaches, and equipment that failed to operate in the appalling weather caused great difficulties in projecting any force against the Japanese. Many soldiers suffered from frostbite - because essential supplies could not be landed, or having been landed, could not be moved to where they were needed. Army vehicles would not work on the tundra. The Japanese defenders under Colonel Yamasaki did not contest the landings, but rather they dug in on high ground away from the shore. This resulted in bloody fighting: there were 3,929 U.S. casualties: 580 were killed, 1148 were injured, 1200 had severe cold injuries, 614 succumbed to disease, and 318 died of miscellaneous causes - largely from Japanese booby traps and from friendly fire. The Japanese were defeated in Massacre Valley (with some soldiers led by Sergeant Morgan Sinclair). The death count for the Japanese was 2035. The Americans then built Navy Town near Massacre Bay.

On May 29, the last of the Japanese forces suddenly attacked near Massacre Bay in one of the largest banzai charges of the Pacific campaign. The charge, led by Colonel Yamasaki, penetrated U.S. lines far enough to encounter shocked rear-echelon units of the American force. After furious, brutal, close-quarter, and often hand-to-hand combat, the Japanese force was killed almost to the last man: only 28 prisoners were taken, none of them officers. U.S. burial teams counted 2,351 Japanese dead, but it was presumed that hundreds more had been buried by naval, air, and artillery bombardments over the course of the battle.

The photo at the top of this post is from this page. According to the page, "The Japanese soldier to whom the film belonged was more than likely killed in the Battle for Attu some time during May of 1943, as there were only 28 surviving Japanese soldiers". Although the owner of the film tried to get the photos to the surviving families of the soldiers seen in the photos, it has not been successful to find the families.

Also, You can read a translated text of the diary of Nobuo Tatsuguchi here.

American crawfish and weed in Japan

2008-08-10T12:32:00.013+09:00

According to Shinano Mainichi Shimbun, shipping of amerika-zarigani is now at its peak around the Lake Suwa. "Amerika-zarigani "or simply "zarigani" is a Japanese name for red swamp crawfish (Procambarus clarkii) that is native to North America.

When I was a kid, it was one of the pastimes to fish amerika-zarigani in the pond in my neighborhood. According to Japanese Wikipedia, this crawfish was first introduced into Japan from America in 1927 as a food for cultured bullfrog. The crawfish escaped from the cultivation pond and propagated in the nature. Now we can see amerika-zarigani everywhere in Japan. Although I didn't think of eating that crawfish when I was a kid, according to the Shinano Mainichi Shimubun article it is used for French cuisines in some restaurants nowadays.

Another common organism in Japan that has "amerika" in its name is the weed "devill's beggarticks" (Bidens frondosa) that is called amerika-sendangusa in Japan. After the Japan's surrender in WWII, American occupation force came to Japan. At the time, seeds of amerika sendangusa also came to Japan being attached to the soldiers and cargoes. The seeds of the plant have hooked barbs that attach onto clothing. When I was a kid, it was also a pastime to play with the seeds of america-sendangusa throwing them onto the clothes of friends each other.

WaiWai Correspondents' Club, Part 2

2008-08-07T03:17:00.013+09:00

About a month ago, the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age published reports concerning the WaiWai issue. Both articles that were similar to each other were written by a reporter Justin Norrie. I had something to say about those reports, but, since I am not good at commanding English as you readers may easily notice, I had not been able to write about them. I just noticed that Jun Okumura at GlobalTalk 21 has written about the article published in the Age. In the post, he wrote many of the things that I wanted to write. Please take a look at his post here.

I'd append here some additional comments concernig the Justin Norrie's article.

In the article, Mr. Norrie wrote:

In the past month the 39-year-old, originally from Melbourne, has become one of the most reviled figures in Japan, (...)

There seems to be a factual error. The editor of the WaiWai column, Ryann Connell, is not 39 years old, but 53 years old. According to his profile page written by himself, he was born March 25, 1955 (this page has a link to the cache of his profile page. Click the link at the top of the linked page to see the cache).

Then the article says:

When contacted this week, Connell said he was unable to comment. But The Age believes he has received death threats and is under strict police instructions to stay at home until things die down.

Connell was unable to comment, then how The Age was able to "believe" Connell had received death threats?

Mr. Norrie's another article in the Sydney Morning Herald has a similar paragraph.

When contacted this week, Connell said he was unable to comment on "any aspect of the case". But the Herald understands he has received several death threats and is under strict police instructions to stay inside his suburban Tokyo home until the matter dies down.

Connell was unable to comment on "any aspect of the case", then how the Herald was able to "understand" Connell had received several death threats? No one but the Herald and The Age can understand.

His reports on the WaiWai issue were so interesting that I tried to find other articles written by him. Of the articles found, this one titled "Boyos abroad raising the flag, shaming the nation" was especially interesting. He wrote in the article:

In the run up to Australia Day this year, organisers of the Big Day Out music festival triggered a nationwide round of chest-beating by declaring the national flag unwelcome at the Sydney event. Their aim, they said, was to prevent aggressive displays of nationalism and ethnic violence.

While the festival passed peacefully, the anticipated outbursts of drunken thuggery and cultural friction were unravelling 8500 kilometres away, on the freezing streets of Hokkaido, in northern Japan.

At Niseko, a small ski resort town dubbed "Little Australia" in honour of the Antipodean property developers and skiers who have driven its revival, the Japanese owners of Cafe Pow Pow had thoughtfully thrown a barbecue to mark the special day for their patrons.

They had supplied Australian wine, beer, meat pies and fish and chips - even fireworks. Before long their guests quaffed the lot and - amid the occasional refrain of "Aussie! Aussie! Aussie!" - began throwing punches and glasses around the bar, then out in the street, in one of at least three brawls across the town that night, witnesses recalled.

"This fighting is common for Australians," a female bar worker at Pow Pow told the Herald. "They get drunk, take off their clothes, sometimes smash glasses and have fights - like it's fun."

The Australia Day skirmishes received no media attention.

Australian residents in Niseko had something to say about the report. The Australian Alpine Club Niseko wrote in their blog post titled "lost in translation?",

Justin Norrie, the Tokyo correspondent for the 'Sydney Morning Herald' recently wrote about alleged bad behaviour by Australians in Niseko, apparently evidenced by a brawl at Cafe Pow Pow on Australia Day this year. Bar staff from Cafe Pow Pow were quoted and the reporter observed that "[T]he Australia Day skirmishes received no media attention." The story has since been widely circulated on the internet.

A slight problem with the story is that according to Cafe Pow Pow and some who frequented the establishment on Australia Day, no such event occurred. This might explain why it received no media attention.

Haha.

Update:
The following article was also interesting.
Australia also should "Rail at Australian's Tabloid Trash" about Japan.

Google maps street view has become available for Japan

2008-08-05T23:52:00.006+09:00

Google has started the service of google maps street view for Japan. The street view is now available for Tokyo, Sendai, Sapporo, Hakodate and Osaka-Kyoto-Kobe area.

This is a link to a road in Akihabara area.

WaiWai Correspondents' Club

2008-08-04T20:38:00.014+09:00

The latest issue of Number 1 Shimbun, a Monthly journal issued by the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan, has an article entitled "Wai oh Why?". The editorial of the issue says,

No. 1’s primary focus should be on stories that directly concern and are of interest to journalists – we’re a press club, after all.

For example, in this month’s issue, we’re running a fascinating story by Gavin Blair about the Byzantine machinations surrounding the Mainichi Shimbun’s closure of the WaiWai Web site.

The article shows how much ill-informed foreign correspondents in Japan are. The article describes the fuss on the WaiWai column as follows.

By June, Mainichi had issued an apology, removed all the archived stories, asked search engines to do the same, and promised to punish those involved.

Still, the protesters were not satisfied, bombarding companies that advertised with the Mainichi with demands to withdraw their sponsorship and calling for further punishment of its editors and Connell.

I don't think this is a correct description on the fuss about the WaiWai column. The initial apology from Mainichi issued on June 25 did not mention that the WaiWai column contained wrong information, although it was what many Japanese demanded. The apology from Mainichi stated,

Some of the articles in the "WaiWai" column carried in the Mainichi Daily News, the English Web site of the Mainichi Newspapers Co., Ltd., were inappropriate and made many people uncomfortable. (...)
WaiWai was meant to introduce aspects of Japanese society and social behavior by quoting magazines and other print media published in Japan. In late May, we received criticism saying the content was vulgar. The Mainichi Daily News Editorial Department deemed that some of the articles had inappropriate content and deleted those articles.

What many Japanese demanded of Mainichi was to clarify to the foreign readers that the WaiWai column contained wrong information about Japan, as I wrote previously. However, Mainichi's initial apology only stated that the WaiWai column contained "inappropriate" articles. It did not explain how the articles were "inappropriate". In addition, the apology could be taken by foreign readers as a statement suggesting that the articles contained correct information on Japanese society and social behavior, since it stated: "WaiWai was meant to introduce aspects of Japanese society and social behavior by quoting magazines and other print media published in Japan". The apology as a whole suggested that the only reason that Mainichi deleted the articles was that they were "vulgar". This apology indicated that Mainichi did not understand what in the WaiWai column made many Japanese upset. In addition, although the Mainichi announced punitive measures for people who had been responsible for the publication of the WaiWai articles, the Digital Media Division President was promoted the head of the Mainichi Shimbun Corporation on June 25, despite the fact that he had been the most responsible person for the WaiWai issue. Thus, the fuss continued until Mainichi issued more comprehensive apology on July 20.

After delivering misinformation on the fuss, the article in the Number 1 Shimbun suddenly changes the topic to a minor group who made a demonstration in front of the Mainichi's headquarters.

The Zainichi Tokken o Yurusanai Shimin no Kai - Citizens' Group against Special Rights for Zainichi (Japan-born Koreans) – organized a demonstration in front of the Mainichi's headquarters on July 2 after WaiWai had been purged and punishments announced.

Several days before the demonstration, the Zainichi Tokken o Yurusanai Shimin no Kai (Zaitokukai) announced on various boards at 2-channel that they will demonstrate in front of the Mainichi's headquarters. However, majority of 2-channelers who had been criticizing Mainichi responded to the call by warning other readers that attending the demonstration by the Zaitokukai would be perceived by other people as if the anti-Mainichi movement was organized by the particular organization. Many 2-channelers advised other readers not to attend the demonstration. Thus the demonstration on July 2 was a very small one. The attempt to attribute the anti-WaiWai movement to that minor group is just a delusive attempt to create the "Byzantine machinations" from nothing.

The author of the article seems to be fond of the WaiWai column featuring a tale of fishermen. He wrote,

It would be a shame to say goodbye to WaiWai without recalling at least one of its infamous stories in a little more detail. One, which combined the elements of humor, debauchery and a total lack of credibility, was the tale of fishermen having their way with various creatures of the ocean. Originally told by comedian Taro Makeburu, a former fisherman, to a Jitsuwa Knuckles columnist, it contained some of the following pearls: (...)

A small tidbit. The comedian mentioned in this article was not Taro Makeburu (負古太郎) but Furutaro Make (負古太郎). Furutaro Make was a member of the comedian group, Takeshi Gundan, lead by Takeshi Kitano. His name is a parody of a Japanese actor Shintaro Katsu (勝新太郎). The kanji for "winning (katsu, 勝)" and "new (shin, 新)" in the Shintaro Katsu's name is changed into kanji of opposite meanings, "losing (make, 負)" and "old (furu, 古)", respectively, in the Make Furutaro's name. Just by seeing his name in the beginning of that article, Japanese can know that a bunch of jokes will follow in the article, but the authors of the WaiWai column and the Foreign Correspondents' Club's article had neither knowledge on the Takeshi Gundan's comedian nor ablility to investigate that background.

This WaiWai article fortunately contained a joke about moray that even foregin people could doubt the credibility of the article. Apparently that is the reason the Foreign Correspondents' Club's article mentioned that particular WaiWai article. However, can readers with little knowledge on Japan and Japanese people judge that the story on the bestiality restaurant is a fiction when he/she read it? The Foreign Correspondents' Club's article that intentionally avoided to mention problematic articles looks to be a desperate attempt to cover up the harmful nature of the WaiWai column.

As a minor note, the Foreign Correspondents' Club's article provided in the end a link to transcripts of WaiWai articles that is violating Japanese copyright laws; The Foreign Correspondents' Club, as an organization, seems to be trying to encourage and promote the violation of the laws. It's sad that this kind of people are working as foreign correspondents in this country.

Green algae in Quingdao city have found the way to go

2008-08-03T03:24:00.016+09:00

In the Beijing Olympic, Quingdao (青島, Tsingtao) of China is hosting several events of the sailing competitions which will take place along the coastline by the city.

On July 1, Sankei MSN News reported that an algal bloom choked the coastline of the city and was threatning to impede the competition. In order to remove the green algae, 400 boats and 3000 people were mobilized for cleaning up the algal bloom. Perhaps, nutrients in the wastes flown out of the city caused the heavy algal bloom.

According to Asahi Shimbun on Aug. 1, the Quingdao City Communist Party stated that the algae were found to be green laver (Enteromorpha sp.) that is used for food in Korea and Japan and that they plan to export the algae to South Korea as a test for commercializing them.

I hope they never export the algae to Japan.

Left-wing extremists plan to recruit new members through demonstration at Yasukuni

2008-07-25T19:00:00.011+09:00

Japan Probe has a post titled "Pacifist group plans demonstration at Yasukuni". When I saw the Website of the "pacifist group", Anti-War Joint Action Committee, my blood froze. All of the member organizations of the committee were Chukaku-ha's organizations.

Chukaku-ha is a faction of left-wing extremists that is still holding the policy of armed revolution. It repeated bloody conflict with another left-wing faction Kakumaru-ha in the 1970s. Then, in the 1980s and 1990s, they repeated terror attacks to various places with explosives and firebombs. You can read a short summary on Chukaku-ha here on Wikipedia.

In the late 1970s, one of my acquaintances was seriously injured by this group. Late at night, when he was sleeping in his apartment room, a group of masked men broke into his room. They hit his right thigh with a hammer to break his thighbone and stabbed his left arm with an ice pick. Next morning, Chukaku-ha scattered bills stating that they annihilated a Kakumaru-ha member. The name of my acquaintance was written on the bill as the annihilated one. However, he had nothing to do with any left-wing groups. It seemed that they attacked him believing some misinformation. Suspects of that incident have not been arrested.

I found by google search that the following pages have a chronicle of incidents that Japanese left-wing radicals were involved in.
http://www.bordersphere.com/chrono/c.php4?s=1970
http://www.bordersphere.com/chrono/c.php4?s=1980
http://www.bordersphere.com/chrono/c.php4?s=1990

From the chronicle, incidents relating to Chukaku-ha are picked up below. Although only several incidents of the infighting between Chukaku-ha and Kakumaru-ha are shown in the list, to my knowledge far more number of bloody incidents took place in the infighting in the 1970s. The list is apparently incomplete.

Aug.4, 1970
Toshio Ebihara, a student of Tokyo Educational University [Tokyo Kyoiku Daigaku] and also a member of Kaku-maru-ha, was lynched to death by the members of Chukaku-ha in Hosei University. It was the first victim of the intra-sects violence [uchi-geba].

Nov.9, 1972
Kaku-maru-ha killed a student of Waseda University, Daizaburo Kawaguchi, by lynching, claiming him to be a member of Chukaku-ha, and left his body in front of Tokyo University Hospital. This opened a long bloody strife between the two sects.

Mar.14, 1975
Kaku-maru-ha killed the leader of Chukaku-ha, Nobuaki Honda, in his apartment in Kawaguchi City in Saitama Prefecture.

May.20, 1978
On the day of the inauguration of the Narita International Airport, Chukaku-ha cut the communication cables used for the Tokyo area flight control, in several locations in Tokorozawa City, Saitama Prefecture. This disorganized the flight schedule.

Feb.27, 1983
The Anti-Narita Air Port Alliance disintegrated into two factions, Kitahara-ha and Atsuta-ha; this dismembered the supporting sects: Chukaku-ha went with the former and The Fourth International went with the latter.

Sep.19, 1984
Chukaku-ha attacked the headquarter of the Liberal Democratic Party with a kind of flame thrower; seven floors, between the third to the ninth, were burnt.

Nov.27, 1984
Chukaku-ha set fire to the homes (and/or offices) of the governor Koichi Hamada and three Congressmen of Chiba Prefecture. (This was related to the Narita Airport affair.)

1985
Beginning from this year, New left Sects began to use the “projectile weapons” for the struggle against the Narita Airport expansion: arrow shaped bomb (Chukaku-ha), shell bomb (Kaiho, Hazama-ha) , M53 trench mortar (Bund, Senki-ha), etc.

Apr.12, 1985
Chukaku-ha attacked both Narita and Heneda Airports with eleven arrow shaped bombs, from a truck parked one kilometer away, with a time firing device.

Feb.8, 1986
With a time ignite device, Chukaku-ha set fire to several workings of Kajima Construction Company in Chiba City and Yamato City, that were used for the construction of Narita Airport.

May.4, 1986
Chukaku-ha shot five arrow shaped bombs to Geihin-kan [The National Guest House] where the Summit was taking place, from a building in Shinjuku Ward, located five kilometers away; one fell in front of the Canadian embassy.

Sep.1, 1986
Chukaku-ha attacked and killed the secretary general of the Japan National Railroad Workers Union in Osaka area, in his home in Itami City, Hyogo Prefecture. (It was part of the war between Chukaku-ha and Kaku-maru-ha.)

Nov., 1986
In a hideout of Chukaku-ha in Iwate Prefecture, the police discovered a powerful bomb, made from pressure cooker, being developed.

Mar.3, 1988
Chukaku-ha attacked and killed the secretary general of the East Japan Passenger Railway Workers Union of Takasaki area in his home. (It was part of Chukaku-ha vs. Kaku-maru-ha war.)

Jul.4, 1988
Chukaku-ha set fire to seven companies that were engaged in the second term construction of Narita Airport, by time ignition device; twenty nine trailers and trucks were burnt.

Sep.29, 1988
Chukaku-ha set fire to two cars parked in the dormitory of the Supreme Court in Shibuya Ward in Tokyo, by time ignite device.

Oct.25, 1988
Employing time ignite devices, Chukaku-ha set fire to three vehicles in a construction site of the Japan Road Public Corporation [Nihon Doro Kodan], in Koyama-cho in Shizuoka Prefecture.

Nov.3, 1988
Chukaku-ha set fire to two big trucks of a transportation company in Taiyo-mura in Ibaragi Prefecture.

Jan.29, 1989
With a time-bomb, Chukaku-ha exploded the storage of a home of the chair man of the committee for deciding uses of public land (of the Ministry of Construction); it destroyed parts of the home and other seven homes near by.

Feb.28, 1989
Chukaku-ha attacked and killed the secretary general of the eastern section of JR Union (of Kakumaru-ha).

Mar.7, 1989
In Tsukuba City Ibaraki Prefecture, Chukaku-ha‘s time ignite device burnt two storage buildings of Nihon Hoso, the company that was in charge of building roads for Narita Airport.

Mar.12, 1989
With time ignite device, Chukaku-ha burnt three large trucks in a parking lot for a construction company in Tomizu City, Chiba Prefecture.

Mar.20, 1989
With time ignite device, Chukaku-ha burnt a large truck, an excavator, and a resting room for the workers in the site of constructing an overflow in Narita City in Chiba Prefecture.

Apr.29, 1989
Chukaku-ha set a time bomb in a private car in a parking lot of the Imperial Household Agency in Chiyoda Ward in Tokyo; it destroyed the car and a bike as well as the window glasses of the dormitory.

June 5, 1989
With time ignite devices, Chukaku-ha burnt seven large trucks in a parking lot of a transportation company in Numanan-cho in Chiba Prefecture.

Jul.24, 1989
With a time ignite device, Chukaku-ha burnt parts of the home of the secretary general of the committee of land expropriation of Chiba Prefecture.

Aug.23, 1989
With a time ignite device, Chukaku-ha burnt parts of the resting room for the workers in a golf club in Shibayama-cho in Chiba Prefecture.

Sep.8, 1989
With a time ignite device, Chukaku-ha burnt the office, storage, and five vehicles of a construction company in Narita City in Chiba Prefecture.

Nov.16, 1989
With a time ignite device, Chukaku-ha burnt the house of the secretary general of the Chiba Prefectural Parliament; parts of two neighboring houses, too, were burnt.

Dec.7, 1989
With a time ignite device, Chukaku-ha burnt a half of the home of an official of Chiba Prefecture’s Planning Department, in Chiba City.

Jan.8, 1990
Aiming at the residence of Prince Tokiwa, Chukaku-ha shot shell bombs from a time set launcher installed in a car parked in a construction site in Shibuya Ward in Tokyo; they fell in the parking lot of Japan Coca Cola headquarter and the residence hall of the Imperial Household Agency across the street from the target. About the same time, similar shell bombs were shot from a shrine near Kyoto Imperial Palace; they fell near the palace.

Jan.16, 1990
With a time ignite device, Chukaku-ha burnt the office and three other buildings of Mitsui Construction that was involved in the construction of Narita Airport, in Atsugi City in Kanagawa Prefecture.

Jan.23, 1990
With a time ignite device, Chukaku-ha burnt the passenger seats of the six lines of JR and a line of Keisei line around Tokyo area.

Feb.19, 1990
With a time ignite device, Chukaku-ha burnt part of the home and the car of the director of information administration of the Ministry of Transportation in Yachiyo City in Chiba Prefecture.

Feb.27, 1990
With a time ignite device, Chukaku-ha burnt part of the home of the president of Shimizu Construction that was involved in the construction of Narita Airport, in Setagaya Ward in Tokyo.

Mar.7, 1990
With a time ignite device, Chukaku-ha burnt part of the home of the managing director of the New Kansai Airport Corporation, in Habikino City in Osaka.

Mar.14, 1990
With a time ignite device, Chukaku-ha burnt cars parked in an underground parking lot of a building in Akasaka Ward in Tokyo; the cars belonged to the Nuclear Energy Development Corporation. A fireman of the Tokyo Fire Defense Agency was killed during the rescue mission.

Mar.19, 1990
Allowed by the New Narita Legislation [Narita Shin-po], the government (the Ministry of Transport and the Airport Public Corporation) forcibly removed the base of Chukaku-ha located in the site of Narita Airport expansion.

Mar.19, 1990
With a time ignite device, Chukaku-ha burnt three shrines (Hikawa Shrine in Numabukuro, Nakano Ward, Shinmei Shrine in Funabashi, Setagaya ward, and Shirahige Shrine in Higashi Muko-jima in Sumida Ward) in Tokyo area

Mar.22, 1990
With a time ignite device, Chukaku-ha burnt a garage of the residence of Japan Airline’s President at large (kai-cho), and a garage of the residence of All Nippon Air’s president.

Apr.12, 1990
With a time ignite device, Chukaku-ha burnt the entire home of the managing director of the Nihon Hikoki in Kamakura in Kanagawa Prefecture; his wife was killed and the director was heavily injured.

The chronicle ends here in 1990. For the incidents that took place after 1990, several news articles are available online.

Tokyo Police Posts Bombed as Emperor Rite Nears. (Nov. 3, 1990; New York Times)
Chukaku-ha leftists admit torching buses in Chiba. (June 4, 1998; Japan Times)
Guerrillas blamed for morning attack: Transport Ministry official's car, house damaged but no injuries reported. (Aug. 27, 2000; Japan Times)
Chukakuha radicals claim responsibility for explosion. (Jan. 25, 2001; Kyodo)

How beastiality restaurant was made real in the WaiWai column

2008-07-23T13:31:00.012+09:00

The Website of Mainichi Daily News (MDN) has the results of the investigation of problems of the WaiWai column. The most criticized about the Mainichi's WaiWai column was that it contained wrong information about Japan as stated by one of the members of third party organization.

The WaiWai column lent credibility to articles that Japanese readers would ordinarily take with a grain of salt. Foreign readers cannot tell whether or not the Japanese magazines that originally published the articles are reputable and can be taken at face value. There was a danger, therefore, that the column could invite great misunderstanding. It is frightening to think that the responsibility for such a column was left completely in the hands of an individual staff writer. A company that gives precedence to the number of web hits over consideration of what information should be conveyed cannot be properly called a newspaper.

Claims have been made that the column shed light on certain aspects of Japanese society. This claim is unsupportable, for rather than shedding light, it provided something close to misinformation.

The results of the investigation did not include any detailed description of the examination of individual articles probably because quoting the articles should results in violation of copyright laws; The articles had already violated the laws by translating articles without permission of copyright holders. This was vaguely stated in the Mainichi's investigation document; "Issues relating to the translation and summarization of copyrighted material are being discussed with the publishers of the source magazines."

Some Japanese bloggers and 2-channelers are trying to collect source magazines that were used for WaiWai articles, in order to examine how original articles were changed and modified when they were translated for the WaiWai column. Recent finding of the source magazine for the WaiWai article titled "The Cook, the Beast, the Vice and its Lover" revealed how that WaiWai article was made.

The WaiWai article start with the following summary describing about beastiality restaurant.

A disgusting and twisted restaurant in the Tokyo entertainment district of Roppongi is enticing warped rich folk with the opportunity to figuratively have their cake and eat it, too — with animals, according to Jitsuwa Knuckles (9/25).
(You can read the transcript of full article at the following URL.
http://logipundit.wordpress.com/2007/09/27/beastiality-restaurant-opens-in-tokyo/)

When Japanese see the name of the source magazine, they can automatically notice that the story is fictional as I wrote before, but foreign readers may take the story at face value. However, it was not the only problem of the WaiWai article.

Finding of the source magazine revealed that the original article was written as one of the articles featuring urban legends; The articles had a header stating that the contents were urban legends.

The header says "エロバカ都市伝説: 各地に広まった身近な都市伝説を徹底収集" which means "Vulgar and foolish urban legends: thorough collection of familiar urban legends dispersed in various places". The author of the WaiWai article omitted this information when he wrote the article. Considering the nature of the source magazine, I don't think the contents of the articles were actual urban legends but think they were creation by the writer. Anyway, the writer of the original article was at least responsible enough to suggest that its content was not factual, stating that it was an urban legend. However, the author of the WaiWai article shamelessly omitted the header so that readers can take the story at face value.

Also, in the original article the person who invited a commenter to the restaurant was a congressman, but in the WaiWai article that person was changed to a lawyer. Why did the author of the WaiWai article make this change? Did he have ill-feeling toward lawyers? No one but the author knows.

Members of Japanese Communist Party are increasing by 1000 every month since last year

2008-07-17T18:30:00.012+09:00

According to Yomiuri Online, members of the Japanese Communist Party (JCP) are increasing by about 1000 every month since last year. The number of the JCP members was 500,000 in 1990, but it decreased in the 1990s, reaching 380,000-400,000 in the early 2000s. However, it has started to increase again since last year. Most of the new members are young people in their 20s and 30s who are the so-called "working poor".

As a related note, Sankei Shimbun reported on May 14 that a classic proletarian novel "Kanikousen (蟹工船)", or Crab-canning Boat, is selling surprisingly well this year. Kanikousen depicts hardship of laborers working on a crab-canning boat. Although the laborers in the novel initially endure the hardship, they go on strike in the end. The author Takiji Kobayashi (小林多喜二) who published this novel in 1929 was killed by the Special High Police, a police section of the Imperial Japan that was specialized to political crimes, in 1933 as a member of the communist party that was illegal at the time.

The JCP was legalized after WWII, but, in the early 1950s, it tried to achieve armed revolution of Japan, resulting in the loss of support from Japanese mass. It abandoned the policy of armed revolution in the late 1950s, but that change in policy resulted in the withdrawal of many members. One of the members who withdrew from JCP at the time was Susumu Nishibe (西部邁) who is now known as a conservative critic. Present JCP is a party supporting parliamentary democracy. A number of politicians supported by JCP were elected as governors and mayors in the 1970s, but influence of JCP in Japanese politics had been declining.

Anna Tsuchiya cannot appear in NHK?

2008-07-14T18:12:00.009+09:00

Previously, I linked some of Anna Tsuchiya's music videos here and here. She is a fashion model, an actress and a singer. And she has recently made a debut as a voice actress in an anime "Sore Ike Anpanman: Yousei Rinrin no Himitsu", or "Let's go, Anpanman: the secret of fairy Rinrin", that is being screened in Japan since July 12. Her role in the anime is the heroine, Fairy Rinrin.

Also, this week's issue of Shukan Gendai reported that Anna caused trouble in the filming of an NHK documentary that was planned to be aired on NHK BS this summer. She was on location for the documantary when she started quarreling with the director of the documentary. She finally hit him in the face causing light injury on his eye. The filming was immediately cancelled. Perhaps, NHK would never offer jobs to Anna in the future. It seems she behaves like her roles in the films such as Kamikaze Girls and Sakuran even in her real life. The photo at the top of this entry and the youtube video to follow are from Sakuran.

Japanese weeklies and tabloids

2008-07-05T00:08:00.024+09:00

Concerning the closure of the Mainichi's WaiWai column, it may be worthwhile to describe how an average Japanese person (it's me) look on Japanese Weeklies and Tabloids. The following is a list of some Japanese weeklies and tabloids categorized into three groups.

(A) Shukan Shincho, Shukan Bunshun, Yomiuri Weekly, Sunday Mainichi, Shukan Asahi

(B) SPA!, Shukan Gendai, Shukan Post

(C) Asahi Geinou, Shukan Jitsuwa, Jitsuwa Knuckles, Tokyo Sports

Magazines in group A have relatively reliable articles. Writers in these weeklies actually gather news materials and data to write their articles. They care not to be sued. These weeklies are both for males and females of all ages.

Magazines in group B has lower reliability than those in group A.

SPA! is a subculture magazine, main target of which is males in their 20s and 30s. Articles are mainly for entertainment; they may contain fictional stories. This magazine tend to publish controversial articles. I remember that I read an extremely disturbing interview to Issei Sagawa in this magazine in the early 1990s. In the interview, the interviewer, Taku Hachiro, made a talk with Sagawa in a yakiniku (barbecue) restaurant. In the middle of the dinner, Taku asked to Sagawa, "This meat is really good. Which do you think is better?". Sagawa replied, "Err...either one has its own taste. So I cannot say which is better." I also remember that SPA! had been advocating AUM Shinrikyo cult just for entertainment when many people were concerned about its cultic nature in the early 1990s. Also I remember column series published in the late 1980s that positively introduced Toyama Koichi as a left-wing extremist highschooler. Toyama Koichi's video circulated in the Japanese blogosphere last year when he stood as an anarchist candidate in the election for the Governor of Tokyo. I was really astonished when I noticed that he was that guy who had been known by the readers of SPA! in the late 1980s as an anachronistic left-wing extremist highschooler wearing a helmet and carrying a gebabou stick.

Main target of Shukan Gendai and Shukan Post is males older than 30. These magazines regularly contain nudity. Their writers usually gather news materials and data by themselves to write their articles on politics and economy. My impression is that they often twist news materials to make them meet their agenda. Articles on politics are always with anti-government taste. Articles related to sex contain fictional stories for entertainment.

Magazines in group C have little reliability. It is highly probable that anyone who sues these magazines for libel will lose the case. Any article published in them usually does not constitute defamation of character since few Japanese believe what are written in these magazines. A rare case that a plaintiff won was Professor Uekusa's case. Asahi Geinou reported several incidents of molesting by Prof. Uekusa in 2004-2006 after he was arrested for molesting in other cases. However, all of the molesting reported by Asahi Geinou were revealed to be groundless. Writers of Asahi Geinou made up the incidents just for entertainment using the name of Prof. Uekusa. The judicial decision was that the fictional reports in Asahi Geinou were defamation of character; some might believe the reports even though they were written in Asahi Geinou, since everyone at the time knew that Prof. Uekusa was a pervert.

Although Asahi Geinou has "Asahi" in its name, it has nothing to do with Asahi Shimbun, a major Japanese newspaper. I suppose that the name of the magazine itself is a joke, openly pretending to be related to Asahi Shimbun when everyone knows the magazine has nothing to do with Asahi Shimbun.

Shukan Jitsuwa and Jitsuwa Knuckles are called jitsuwa-kei (実話系) weeklies since they contain "jitsuwa" in their titles. Literal meaning of Jitsuwa is "true story", but stories in jitsuwa-kei weeklies are fictions related to extreme violence and sex written in the style of news reports and inside reports. They also have fictional inside reports of yakuza organizations. You can see cover illustrations of Jitsuwa Knuckles in this page (scroll down the page to find the cover illustrations).

Magazines in group C are not sold in usual bookstores. I know neither where they are sold nor who buy them. The blow job story and the beastiality restaurant story mentioned in the previous post originally appeared in Asahi Geinou and Jitsuwa Knuckles, respectively, both of which belong to group C.

Of the tabloids belonging to group C, Tokyo Sports has different taste than other magazines. It is a daily newspaper that is famous for its hoax articles. Some say that what are credible in Tokyo Sports are only dates of issues. It's sold in kiosks in JR stations with regular newspapers.

The problem of the WaiWai column was that it took stories from magazines in group B and group C out of literal and social context without putting a proper disclaimer. Especially problematic were articles from group C. The WaiWai should have put a disclaimer stating that they were fictions in the form of news reports and inside reports.

Mainichi Shimbun vs Japanese women

2008-07-02T22:52:00.009+09:00

On June 21, the Mainichi Daily News decided to cease publishing the infamous WaiWai articles, responding to the criticism from Japanese people. Many of the articles in the WaiWai column had been taken from fictional stories from tabloids and skin mags published in Japan. Complaint from Japanese people was that, whereas many of the original Japanese articles were fictional stories, the MDN did not mention in their WaiWai articles the nature of the original articles. Since foreign readers do not know the nature of the magazines, they might think that the stories in the WaiWai articles were based on fact.

Foreigners who have enough knowledge on Japan also seemed concerned about the circulation of wrong knowledge derived from WaiWai articles. For example, Yudan Taiteki wrote in a thread on The Japanese Page,

by Yudan Taiteki on Tue 05.01.2007 5:12 pm
(...)
The one that I'm tired of seeing over and over again is this idea that it's normal for Japanese moms to give their sons oral sex during exam study time to decrease their stress. This concept is so absurd that you would think nobody could possibly take it seriously, and yet it seems like every few months I see someone bring it up as an example of how "messed up" Japanese people are. It apparently originated from a Waiwai article that was taken at face value despite a complete lack of sourcing (and plausibility), but because it fit in with this idea of Japan being a bizarre place, it was accepted without question.

Responding to this comment, doinkies and two_heads_talking wrote,

by doinkies on Wed 05.02.2007 1:30 am
I find it preposterous that there are actually doinks out there who think everything in WaiWai is real... :@ But since Mainichi never says that the WaiWai articles really come from tabloids, I suppose people think they are real news articles. -_-

Another thing WaiWai often does is post articles about some odd, weird or gross item or business and say that said item or business is "wildly popular" in Japan, but never actually give the numerical data to prove this claim. I suppose it's because if they did, then people would instantly see that their stories are nothing but exaggerations.

and

by two_heads_talking on Wed 05.02.2007 9:40 am
(...)
I had never heard that as Japanese, but I had heard it from nearly every other asian country.. mainly china, thailand and vietnam. I never much believed it, but figured it was one of the "urban legends" that just gets a face life depending on which race is used to fuel it..

One doink who thought that what was written in the WaiWai article was true was an Australian writer, Ben Hills. In his book, “Princess Masako: Prisoner of the Chrysthanthemum Throne”, he mentioned the oral sex thing as a fact that was reported in the Mainichi Shimbun. Also there are tons of articles in Wikipedia that cite WaiWai articles.

The MDN issued an apology to readers for publishing "vulgar" articles, but it did not clarify the nature of the magazines that they used when they wrote the WaiWai articles, even though the latter was what had been requested by people.

Also made Japanese people upset was that, although the Mainichi announced punitive measures for people who had been responsible for the publication of the WaiWai articles, the Digital Media Division President was promoted the head of the Mainichi Shimbun Corporation on June 25, despite the fact that he had been the most responsible person for the WaiWai issue.

The most angry people against the Mainichi are Japanese women . They are trying to spread the information on how Mainichi had been making fun of Japanese women on the Mainichi's English-language Website. Also, they are making phone calls to the sponsors of the Mainichi, requesting to cease to provide on-line ad on the Mainichi's Website. Their effort seems to be successful right now. In the ad spaces on the Mainichi's site, I can find only internal links to Mainichi's own pages since last night. Also, even Japanese tabloids that WaiWai had been referring have started to make fun of Mainichi.

The Mainichi Shimbun is known among Japanese netizens to be the most active newspaper company in promoting the legislation of Internet censorship. Result of this "battle" may affect the fate of the Internet culture in Japan.

Update: It seems some doinks are actually doing that. Even this may become wildly popular among them in the near future.

Cheap Hippies by Rebecca

2008-06-27T00:38:00.003+09:00

From a TV show aired probably in 1986. This song reminds me of the lighthearted atmosphere of the Japanese society in the days just before the era of the Japan's Bubble Economy. I liked NOKKO's powerful lyrics and performance in those days.

(HT to hakuno1020)

Punk Rock Violin by Aria Aizawa

2008-06-14T01:01:00.010+09:00

Aria Aizawa describes her performance as Punk Rock Violin.

Her performances in all over Japan.

Aria with her band.

Sambomaster - Utagoe Yo Okore (Raise the voice of song)

2008-05-30T00:48:00.008+09:00

I like this cool band.

(HT to ServantSab3r)

Their song "Sekai wa sore wo ai to yobundaze (That is what the world calls love!)" was used in the ending of the legendary TV drama "Densha Otoko" aired in 2005.

(HT to watzy)

Seven percent of Japanese eat the same food as dogs eat

2008-05-24T16:43:00.025+09:00

Japan probe has a hilarious story about a report in the Telegraph, UK.

Japanese midfielder Shunsuke Nakamura decided to continue playing football with the Scotish Premier League champions Celtic, instead of returning Japan next season. Fans of rival teams, who are not happy about the decision, are targeting Nakamura with banners and chants saying "Nakamura ate my dog".

According to the Telegraph,

Celtic fans have been getting agitated about a banner brandished by Rangers fans bearing the legend 'Nakamura Ate My Dog'.
(...)
Dog, of course, is a Korean staple - at least, it was in more impoverished times - and the consequence of poor agricultural soil, although a recent survey revealed that seven per cent of Japanese respondents admitted to eating dog food, albeit a top-end brand associated with the British Royal Family. (emphasis mine)

The dog food survey mentioned in the report can be found at What Japan Thinks with the title: "7% of Japanese dog owners eat dog food". However, the title of the blog entry was a joke based on the answer to question 2 in the survey, where 7.1% answered that they feed dogs the same food as humans eat.

Q2: What sort of dog food do you usually buy?

Commercial ordinary dog food 78.1%

Commercial premium dog food 23.3%

Specially hand-made food 4.1%

Same food as humans eat 7.1%

Other 2.4%

Actually the author of What Japan Thinks wrote in the main text an excuse for the sensationalist title.

Please excuse the sensationalist but accurate story title; I’ve found recently that it’s the silly stuff that attracts the punters, and some serious but important surveys have had very little traffic. In fact, there’s a new premium dog food on the market that advertises itself as being not just edible, but in fact tasty for humans too!

It seems the reporter of the Telegraph found the title of What Japan Thinks when he googled to see if Japanese people eat dogs. He was able to find correct information that Japanese do not eat dogs, but perhaps he did not have enough time to read the main text of What Japan Thinks.

By the way, I guess 0.05% or so of Japanese has ever tried dog food.

When I was a high school student, I saw on the street one of my friend coming from the opposite direction. He was eating something in a plastic bag. When we get closer, I was astonished to find that he was eating dog food. He told me that he went to buy dog food for his pet but he was so hungry that he could not help picking up the food on his way home. He gave me one but I didn't dare to eat it.

Although I have never eaten dog food, I have eaten shika-senbei (deer-cracker sold in Nara Park) when I was a high school student. It tasted like taste-less cardboard.

(The videos are via 空)

Russian POP music, Leningrad and Vitas

2008-05-19T20:47:00.015+09:00

I happened to find a nice Russian band, Leningrad, while browsing YouTube. The following song is "Raspizdyay" by Leningrad. Although I don't understand a single word of Russian language, I like this song.

(HT to dikodin)

According to Wikipedia, the band, Leningrad, is a Russian ska punk band from Saint Petersburg (formerly Leningrad).

Also found were a sorcerer-like Russian singer, Vitas. I couldn't stop replaying the video again and again when I first found it.

(HT to punjasmine)

The title of the above song is "Opera #2". You can watch many promotion videos of his songs on YouTube, e.g. "Opera #1", "Opera #2" and "Lucia Di Lammermoorr".

Olympic Torch in Shenzhen, China

2008-05-11T11:03:00.007+09:00

Meine Sache has a video and photographs of the Torch relay held in Shenzhen on May 5th, 2008. The article is in Japanese language, but the photographs on the page are worth taking a look at. It seems the original article on Asia Sentinel website has been removed.

Country names in Kanji

2008-04-29T23:30:00.008+09:00

When I was walking on the Teramachi-dori in Kyoto, a couple of Westerners were watching something being displayed on the outer wall of a shop. What they were watching were T-shirts with names of (mainly) Western countries printed in Kanji, or Chinese characters.

Can you say the country names printed on the T-shirts? For your convenience, I have reproduced them below.

Turkey: 土耳古
Belgium: 白耳義
Austria: 墺太利
Switzerland: 瑞西
Australia: 濠太刺利
Holland: 阿蘭陀
Brazil: 伯刺西爾
Spain: 西班牙
Italy: 伊太利
Germany: 独逸
America: 亜米利加
England: 英国 (abbreviation of 英吉利)
France: 仏蘭西
Canada: 加奈陀

These country names in Kanji were devised when Japanese scholars translated European literatures in the late Edo period (19th century). These country names in Kanji had been used until 1940s, but they are rarely used now.

Violence in Seoul

2008-04-28T21:58:00.018+09:00

The following video shows the activity of Chinese during the torch relay in Seoul. Chinese group attacked a person who had a Tibetan flag.

Today's news report on Fuji News Network (FNN) aired a scene of violence in Seoul that happened to be recorded by a security camera.
http://www.fnn-news.com/news/headlines/articles/CONN00131771.html

They started quarreling in a bar and a Korean was killed in the one-sided violence. The arrested murderer was Chinese. According to the news report, the Chinese explained that the reason he killed the Korean was that the Korean's use of words was impolite.

The video above reminded me of another video that recorded one-sided violence in China. Two victims in the video were killed in the violence. It is so disturbing that I have not watched it till the end. However, I could notice that the kicking style of the two Chinese murderers, the one in the FNN video and the one below, are similar to each other.
http://www.youmaker.com/video/sv?id=7f35bab2c4da430a88b7f0757fd4e1b7001

Update: ROK Drop has more videos and links that show the activity of Chinese youth during the torch relay in Seoul.

Update 2: According to this report in Korean, the victim and the murderer in the second video are naturalized citizens of South Korea. Both of them were formerly Chinese nationals of Korean descent.

Pre-Olympic game in Seoul

2008-04-28T13:02:00.002+09:00

Torch relay for the Olympic Beijing 2008 was held in Seoul yesterday. Jiji press distributed a photo of a pre-Olympic game held there. A Chinese high-jumper and a wrestler is attacking a Korean protester.

Torch relay for the Olympic Beijing 2008

2008-04-27T22:53:00.015+09:00

Yesterday, torch relay for Beijing 2008 was carried out in Nagano. Young PRC citizens living in Japan gathered in Nagano. They shouted their country name, "Zhung guo (中国)," waving PRC's flag, and followed Japanese carrying Tibetan flags.

Near the end of the video, a Japanese guy is claiming policemen to arrest one of the Chinese guy who allegedly attempted to rob his Tibetan flag.

Compare the above video with that of the Athens 2004.

It was a good decision that Zenkoji temple in Nagano refused to serve as the starting point of the torch relay.

Japanese Buddhists' Silent Protest held at the Zenkoji temple.

Freddie Mercury sang in Japanese

2008-04-20T23:29:00.020+09:00

"Teo Torriatte (Let Us Cling Together)" by QUEEN. Freddie sings in Japanese at 1:58 and 3:02. Lyrics were as follows.

When I'm gone no need to wonder
If I ever think of you
The same moon shines
The same wind blows for both of us
And time is but a paper moon
Be not gone

Though I'm gone it's just as though
I hold the flower that touches you
A new life grows
The blossom knows there's no one else
Could warm my heart as much as you
Be not gone

Let us cling together as the years go by
Oh my love my love
In the quiet of the night
Let our candle always burn
Let us never lose the lessons we have learned

手をとり合ってこのまま行こう
(Teo toriatte konomama ikou)
愛する人よ
(Ai suru hito yo)

静かな宵に光をともし
(Shizukana yoi ni hikari wo tomoshi)
いとしき教えを抱き
(Itoshiki oshie wo idaki)

Hear my song still think of me
The way you've come to think of me
The nights grow long
But dreams live on
Just close your pretty eyes
And you can be with me
Dream on

手をとり合ってこのまま行こう
(Teo toriatte konomama ikou)
愛する人よ
(Ai suru hito yo)

静かな宵に光をともし
(Shizukana yoi ni hikari wo tomoshi)
いとしき教えを抱き
(Itoshiki oshie wo idaki)

When I'm gone they'll say we were all fools
And we don't understand
Oh be strong don't turn your heart
We're all you're all we're all for all for always

Let us cling together as the years go by
Oh my love my love
In the quiet of the night
Let our candle always burn
Let us never lose the lessons we have learned

The following is "La Japonaise" sung by Freddie Mercury and Montsy Caballè.

Lyrics:
Subarashii asa ga akeru
(素晴らしい朝が明ける)
Yoake ga yobikakeru
(夜明けが呼びかける)
Kokoro no izumi ga wakideru
(心の泉が湧き出る)
Yume no yo
(夢のよう)

I feel the power of a stranger inside me
A force of magic surrounds me
This fountain within me is overflowing

Peaceful and inviting
Beautiful and enticing
Yoake kisetsu yume kibo
(夜明け, 季節, 夢, 希望)
Umi to hikari ga yondeiru
(海と光が呼んでいる)

Rising sun you bless my morning with a smile
A magic pearl from the seas
Born in a willow breeze
Loyal friend my guardian angel in the sky
You've served me well all these years
Greeting with both hands
Trusting with no fears
Till the end

Toi kuni no anata ni miserarete
(遠い国のあなたに魅せられて)
Amarinimo utsukushii yume no yo
(あまりにも美しい夢のよう)
Itsumademo ii
(いつまでもいい)

Ai no hikari kibo to yume
(愛の光, 希望と夢)
When everything is golden and everything is oh
Fuji no yuki, Kyoto no ame, Tokyo no yoru
(富士の雪, 京都の雨, 東京の夜)
And everything is ah

Fire and beauty
My only living treasure on this earth

Kibo hikari yume (oohh yume oooh)
(希望, 光, 夢)

Asa ga hohoemikakeru
(朝がほほえみかける)
Itsumo kimi dake wa kokoro no tomo
(いつも君だけは心の友)
Toi kimi no omokage shinonde
(遠い君の面影偲んで)
Amarinimo utsukushii yume no yo
(あまりにも美しい夢のよう)

When everything is golden
And everything and everyone is ahh

Yoake, kisetsu, yume, kibo (oohhhhh)
(夜明け, 季節, 夢, 希望)

Yoake, kisetsu, yume (oohhhhh)
(夜明け, 季節, 夢)
Hikari, kisetsu, yume, kibo
(光, 季節, 夢, 希望)
Hikari, kisetsu, yume, kibo
Hikari, kisetsu, yume, kibo

(HT to TITANHEADROOM and Stifler2005652007)

Riverside stroll in spring

2008-04-13T18:46:00.014+09:00

I walked along the Takano river and the Kamo river in Kyoto last saturday. The following is the course of the stroll.

The following is Takano river near the Demachi-yanagi station. Flowers of the cherry trees on the bank have almost fallen away, but rape seeds are in bloom on the shoals.

We can see many sagi (white egrets) in this area, but I saw the birds with black and white feathers (photo below) for the first time. It seems they are tufted ducks that are called kinkuro-hajiro in Japanese.

Riverside way near the Kyoto Prefectural Botanical Garden is called Nakaragi-no-Michi, or the Path of Nakaragi. There are many weeping cherry trees on the bank. The path was like a flower tunnel.

"Height" of seated statues in the medieval period

2008-04-10T22:42:00.008+09:00

I wrote about the sculpture of Dainichi that was sold at Christie's for $14 million here and here. Concerning the sculpture, I recently noticed that an interesting discussion was going on at the bulletin board of the Japanese Medieval History Archives (in Japanese). The discussion was on an article in the International Herald Tribune. The IHT article was a detailed one that mentioned another sculpture of Dainichi, Kotokuji Dainichi, preserved in Ashikaga and that discussed which of the statues, the Kotokuji Dainichi and the one sold at the Christies, was the true sculpture that Ashikaga Yoshikane commissioned. The following is from the IHT article.

One well-known statue by Unkei, in particular, which is preserved in the town of Ashikaga in Tochigi Prefecture and is also a seated figure of Dainichi presents a distinct kinship to the newly "discovered" sculpture. Known as the Kotokuji Dainichi, Unkei's statue in Ashikaga has traditionally been assumed by Japanese scholars to be the statue which, according to a document of the later Muromachi period, was commissioned in 1193 by a Buddhist devotee from the town of Ashikaga, a certain Ashikaga Yoshikane.

Yamamoto Tsutomu, who had discussed Unkei's Kotokuji Dainichi in an essay on the Dainichi Nyorai, was gripped. When X-rayed, the newly discovered sculpture was shown to contain three dedicatory objects inside the hollow torso. These were a wood placard topped by a finial in the shape of a five-element pagoda, in turn containing a small rock crystal pagoda, and a rock crystal lotus bud mounted on a bronze lotus chalice pedestal. The five-element pagoda, Gorin-to in Japanese, literally "five-wheel pagoda," appeared in the late 12th century which contributed to circumscribe the period of the discovered sculpture. Most significantly, X-rays revealed that Unkei's Kotokuji Dainichi contained similar dedicatory objects.

The author seems to be a pundit of art. However, his argument get to be miserable when he become arrogant, as follows.

What truly excited Yamamoto was that the newly discovered sculpture fitted rather better the Muromachi period description of Unkei's Kotokuji Dainichi because its dimensions made it more plausible. It was 66 centimeters, or roughly two feet, high, while the piece in Ashikaga is only 32 centimeters high. True, the dimensions stated in the Muromachi period document, "three shaku," are understood by Japanese art historians to be equivalent to "three feet."

Whether wrong by two-thirds or just one-third, such loose evidence might perhaps be thrown out in a court of law. But to art historians who like to take the broad-minded approach, this is good enough. So, to quote Christie's very lengthy but very carefully worded entry, "Yamamoto concluded that the Muromachi document must point not to the Kotokuji statue but to this previously unknown masterwork."

According to a commenter at the bulletin board of the Japanese Medieval History Archives, it is commonsense among Japanese art historians that the size of Buddhism sculptures was described in documents in the medieval period as the height of the sculpture when it rose to its feet. As for seated figures, there was a commonly used method in the medieval period to convert the height of a seated figure into the true "height" of the statue. First, the distance from the bottom to the hairline on the neck was measured, then the distance was doubled. The doubled distance was regarded as the "height" of the statue. The distance from the bottom to the hairline was called hassaiko (髪際高). The hassaiko of the sculpture sold at Christie's was 45.5cm. Thus, its "height" (45.5 cm x 2 = 91 cm) is almost equal to "three shaku (= 90.9 cm)" described in the Muromachi period document. It is apparent that the sculpture was made as a seated figure of three-syaku Dainichi.

The author of the IHT article may have relatively rich knowledge about Japanese art, but not to the extent that he can make little of Japanese art historians.

This Webpage shows an article (in Japanese) of the Japanese art historian mentioned in the IHT article, Tsutomu Yamamoto, describing the details of the sculpture. Of course, the article mentioned the hassaiko of the sculpture that was used to calculate the "height" of seated statues in the Muromachi period.

Staged video and photo of riot in Tibet

2008-03-30T18:22:00.010+09:00

Here is an analysis of a video of riot in Tibet. In the beginning of the video, an attacker hit a motorcyclist with stones. Curiously the stones used by the attacker had been around the motorcycle before the attack started, whereas there was no stone in other places on the street. The victim of assault walk away with the attackers...

This article in the Secret Tibet and this article in buddhism.kalachakranet.org are also interesting.

A religious organization, Sinnyoen, was the true bidder of the sculpture attributed to Unkei

2008-03-28T00:12:00.004+09:00

As I wrote in the previous entry , a Wooden Buddha sculpture attributed to Unkei was sold for $14,377,000 at Christie's last week to Mitsukoshi Co. Ltd. However, Japanese news reports at the time reported that Mitsukoshi bought the sculpture being asked by an anonymous person to buy the sculpture.

On March 25th, a religious organization, Sinnyoen, held a press conference in the Ministry of Education to announce that the organization was the client of Mitsukoshi. According to a report [Japanese] on Jiji.com, Sinnyoen is planning to allow Japanese government to investigate the sculpture and after that they will publicly exhibit it at a museum that they are now constructing.

Wooden Buddha sculpture attributed to Unkei

2008-03-19T23:17:00.017+09:00

This morning I was excited reading a newspaper reporting that a Dainichi Nyorai (= Maha Vairocana) sculpture attributed to Unkei (1151 – 1223) was being sold at an auction in New York. What excited me in the report was the description that the Dainichi Nyorai sculpture was formerly in a temple in Ashikaga city. The reason it excited me is that an old document concerning the origin of a shinto shrine, Kabasaki Hachimangu Shrine, in Ashikaga city describes that in the beginning of the Kamakura period (1185-1333) Ashikaga Takauji's ancestor, Ashikaga Yoshikane (1154?-1199), brought an sculpture of Dainichi Nyorai to Ashikaga. I thought it was possible that the sculpture being sold at the auction could be the one that Ashikaga Yoshikane commissioned, although it was not sure at the moment since the newspaper did not describe where in the Ashikaga city the sculpture had originally been rested.

It seems a Japanese was able to buy the sculpture. The following is from Reuters.

Wooden Buddha sculpture sold for $14.3 million
Tue Mar 18, 2008 6:02pm EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters Life!) - A wooden Buddha sculpture set a new world auction record for Japanese art when it was sold for $14,377,000 at Christie's on Tuesday to Mitsukoshi Co. Ltd.

The newly discovered 26-inch (660 millimeter) sculpture of Dainichi Nyorai, the supreme Buddha, attributed to the sculptor Unkei, soared to nearly 10 times its low pre-sale estimate of $1.5 million at Christie's sale of Japanese and Korean art.

"History was made today," said Katsura Yamaguchi, Christie's International Director of Japanese and Korean Art.

"We witnessed enormous interest from clients worldwide who traveled from near and far to ... participate in this landmark sale," he added.

The previous record for Asian art at auction was $12.6 million. Tuesday's price, which included Christie's commission, also established a new record for Asian art sold at auction in New York.

The seated, Cyprus wood Buddha is believed to be the work of Unkei, considered one of the great carvers of the early Kamakura period of the 1190s, Christie's said. Part of a family collection in the northern Kanto region, before which it was kept in a temple in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, its existence was unknown until it was sold to a Buddhist dealer and then bought by the consignor.

NHK's night news reported the sculpture was originally in a Buddhist temple housed by Kabasaki Hachiman Shrine, as I thought. It is most likely that the sculpture was the one that Ashikaga Yoshikane brought there from Kamakura.

This page describes the details of the statue.

The statue is believed to have come from a temple during the Meiji period (1868-1911) when the government officially adopted Shinto as the state religion. Upon leaving the temple, it was a part of a prominent family collection in the northern part of the Kanto region. The statue’s existence was unknown until it was later sold to a Buddhist dealer and bought by the current owner. Suspecting the figure was hollow inside, the owner approached the curator at the Tokyo National Museum and it was discovered by X-rays that the figure contains three dedicatory objects, sealed inside the torso for over 800 years.

The three objects, a wood five–stage pagoda, crystal ball supported by a bronze stand, and a crystal five-stage pagoda, represent Buddhist symbols and are tied together with bronze wire. The wooden plague is likely to be inscribed with the date of the dedication and the name of the temple or donor, as well as the sculptor’s identity.

Ashikaga Yoshikane's name or his Buddhist name, Banna, might be written on the wooden plaque.

Tibet

2008-03-18T01:58:00.013+09:00

Liaison Office of H.H.the Dalai Lama for Japan & East-Asia has a news release on the Tibet uprising. ROK Drop and One Free Korea have good information, videos and links on the uprising.

Threat Level from Wired.com also has good links. (via Coming Anarchy)

The website of Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy has posted photographic evidence (*) on the bloody crackdown of the protest. (*) Viewer discretion is advised, since it cantains disturbing pictures.

Weeping Ume trees in Jyōnangu

2008-03-16T00:41:00.021+09:00

I visited Jōnangu (城南宮) to see Ume plum blossoms yesterday. Jyōnangu was a detached palace called Toba Rikyu (鳥羽離宮) or Jōnan Rikyu (城南離宮) that was originally constructed by Emperor Shirakawa (1053 – 1129). He ruled Japan as a cloistered emperor at the detached palace. It was also the place where the cloistered Emperor Go-toba (1180 – 1239) staged a rebellion called Jōkyū War in an attempt to overthrow the Kamakura shogunate in 1221. This detatched palace was also a stage of the Battle of Toba-Fushimi in 1868 at the very beginning of Meiji Era. In the battle, troop of Satsuma clan took up thir position here putting cannons at the ruins of the detached palace.

Weeping ume trees were in full bloom in the garden of Jōnangu.

Many Mejiro, or Japanese white-eyes, were pecking around at the core of flowers. Were they sucking nectar in the flowers?

The following is Serikawa shrine in the lot of Jōnangu. Sugawara no Michizane (845-903) who favored ume blossoms is enshrined in the shrine.

Tali's Page

2008-03-12T19:36:00.014+09:00

In 1996, I had an opportunity to have a foreign colleague in our workplace for the first time. The new colleague from the UK seemed to be interested in Japanese culture. However, my English vocabulary was so poor that I could make only trivial conversation with him. So I decided to try to increase my vocabulary by reading Japan-related English-language Websites.

At the time, there were not so many Japan-related websites. One of the sites that I found at the time was "Tali's Page" run by an Israeli girl Tali Cohen. According to the site, Tali was interested in Japanese culture after reading a translation of an old Japanese novel "The Tales of Genji". Her ambition was to become a geisha (!). She had been writing various essays related to Japanese culture, all of which were so pleasant to read that I frequented her site to read her essays using an English-Japanese dictionary.

However, one day in the June of 1997, I was bewildered finding that the top page of her site had been suddenly changed to an unfamiliar one. The new top page was announcing the followings.

This was the site of the homepage of Tali Cohen, a vivacious and very special girl whose grand ambition was to become a geisha. Her homepage was built around this theme, and it delighted all who visited it.

On the evening of June 6, 1997, Tali was struck by a hit-and-run driver. Medical help was called but she died in the ambulance on the way to the hospital as a result of massive internal injuries. She was four months short of her twentieth birthday. Her ambition of becoming a geisha was never realized.

After a year or so, Tali's Page was deleted from the server. But fortunately someone has been keeping a mirror site. Some of the essays there still make me get in tears. What saddens me most is that she is still asking a question in an essay on cherry trees,

I am a flower, but can I be a cherry blossom? an almond blossom? Can I ever be so delicate that I would symbolize the transcendence of life and its momentary glory? You ... my guest ... can you ever think of me as such a flower. I would bloom for only a week or so and then gently expire in a shower of snow-white petals. Is that the sort of flower I should be? Only you can tell me. Am I a blossom in your eyes?

Cherry trees will start to bloom in about two weeks. I remember her site in this season every year. You can read Tali's Page from here.

May her memory be blessed!

(The photo at the top was taken in the Kyoto Prefectural Botanical Garden on April 10, 2005.)

Who shot Capt. Watson?

2008-03-09T01:04:00.001+09:00

After a Japanese coast guard threw a flash grenade, Paul Watson whips out a bullet buried in the Kevlar vest.

The flash grenades are commonly used in crowd control. They are designed to rupture in mid-air and produce a loud bang. You can see in the following video the Japanese coast guard throwing flash grenades.

Perhaps he was attacked by one of the invisible ninjyas.

Ume blossoms that Ogata Kōrin painted

2008-03-08T12:27:00.011+09:00

This ume tree is on a small stream in Shimogamo Jinjya Shrine. It is said that this tree is one of the trees that Ogata Kōrin (尾形光琳, ca. 1657 - 1716) painted in "Kōbai-Hakubai-Zu Byōbu (紅梅白梅図屏風)", or "Folding Screen of Red and white Ume Blossoms". His birthplace was in the walking distance from this shrine.

Ogata Kōrin is known by his decorative style of painting. As described in Wikipedia, the characteristic of his style is a bold impressionism, which is expressed in few and simple highly idealized forms, with an absolute disregard for both realism and the usual conventions. Notice the stylized expression of the stream in the byōbu above. The school of painters who followed Kōrin's style is called Rinpa (琳派) school. The influence of Rinpa (also spelled as Rimpa) was strong in the Japanese art scene in the 18th and 19th century, and even today Rinpa style paintings and designs are popular.

Rinpa shool arts also influenced some European artists. It is believed that an Austrian Symbolist painter Gustav Klimt was inspired by the Rinpa school arts when he painted his highly decorative works.

Mild acid made from rotten butter?

2008-03-07T23:32:00.007+09:00

Sea Shepherd attacked a Japanese whaling ship again on March 3, 2008. The BBC's news report relating to the attack said in the first sentence,

Japan has summoned senior diplomats to complain about an activist attack on its Antarctic whaling fleet using mild acid made from rotten butter.

The acid that Sea Shepherd threw to the Japanese ship was not made from rotten butter. Does BBC believe that Sea Shepherd has a factory where they are extracting butyric acid from rotten butter? Do they believe that butyric acid made from rotten butter is less harmful than that synthesized chemically? No. They are trying to make butyric acid look harmless by emphasizing that the substance is contained in rotten butter. But the fact is one can kill a human by administering 40 ml of the substance onto the skin.

Last year, Ampontan's article entitled "BBC: Inciting racial hatred of the Japanese?" revealed how BBC is biased in reporting Japanese whaling. BBC's news reports seem to be getteing worse. They are promoting violence that may kill people by spreading misinformation from Sea Shepherd to the world.

Kim Okgyun's Korean Map published in Japan in the late 19th century

2008-03-04T13:16:00.051+09:00

When I was browsing old maps linked from the blog "Dokdo or Takeshima?", I happened to notice that there was a Korean map published in Japan in 1894 that had originally been brought to Japan by Kim Okgyun (金玉均, 김옥균). You can see the high-resolution photos of the map, Chosen Yochizu (朝鮮輿地図, or Map of Chosen), here on the Takeshima Issue Website (Japanese page and Korean page).

The map is accompanied by documents pasted on its folding case.

The following is my translation of the right-side document in the above photograph.

--- Chosen Yochizu (Map of Chosun) ---
This drawing is a large detailed survey map of that country that Kim Okgyun brought here when he left his country the other year. While he was alive, he always kept this map with him. However, when he sailed to Shanghai the other day, he somehow left this map to a noble of our country. Being affected by current events, we traced the map on a smaller scale through the courtesy of the person. In the drawing, positions of the eight provinces, various counties, prefectures, districts, army bases, naval bases, division headquarters, scenic spots, representative villages, mountains, rivers, capes, promontories, bays, ports, and islands are shown as plain as day. This is what he surveyed by using the national power before. In addition, regions around Seoul, Wonsan, Busan, Incheon and Hangang are shown separately in insets for convenience's sake. Also, a table of distances from Seoul to representative places is printed on the periphery of the drawing. Whereas Chosun often become the talk of the town these days, there has not been a map like this. This is indeed a drawing of matchless clearness. Since our company, hoping to contribute to our country, will distribute this map with as cheap price as possible, please buy it in the bookstores and take a look inside.
------ Price: 30 sen, Postage: 4 sen -------

(I will attach the original Japanese text and its translation to contemporary Japanese language at the end of this entry.)

Kim Okgyun who brought this map to Japan was a Korean politician in the late 19th century (1851-1894). He served under the national civil service under King Gojong, and actively participated to advance Western ideas and sciences in Korea. Between the years of 1881 to 1884, he was one of the leaders of the Kaehwadang (Enlightenment Party), a group of nobles and officials who sought assistance from foreign states, particularly Japan, for the reform and strengthening of Korea.

On December 4th 1884, he lead a coup d'etat called Kapsin coup in which he got rid of leaders of conservative force and organized a new government. However, the new government fell in 3 days by Chinese garrison, and he was exiled to Japan.

In 1894, he went to Shanghai to accomplish his uncompleted plan with China, but got assassinated in Shanghai by Hong Jongwu sent by Queen Min on March 28. Chinese authorities protected the assassin while returning Kim's body to Korea. The Korean government dismembered his body, placing his head on display at Yanghwajin. Each pair of his arm and leg was separately placed on display in the Gyeongsang and Hamgyŏng Provinces. A Japanese who respected Kim Okgyun brought his hair and a fragment of his clothes to Japan and held a funeral at the Sensoji Temple, Asakusa. There is a tomb of him in the Aoyama Cemetery, Tokyo.

In this connection, it may be worth mentioning that Fukuzawa Yukichi (1835-1901) who appears on the Japanese 10,000 yen banknote was an ardent supporter of Kim Okgyun while he was staying in Japan. Fukuzawa was so deeply disappointed by the Kim's assassination that he wrote "Datsu-A Ron (Argument for Leaving Asia)" in the next year (1885). Sparkling Korea has an English-language translation of "Datsu-A Ron" here (Part 1) and here (Part 2). The article concerning Fukuzawa in occidentalism is also worth reading.

According to the document attached to the map, Kim Okgyun brought the map with him when he was exiled to Japan in 1884. The map was probably drawn while he was a leader of the Enlightenment Party in 1881-1884, since the document attached to the map says that it was edited by using the national power (国力) of Chosun.

The Kim Okgyun's map is truly a detailed map of Korea. However, it is worth noting that the map printed a non-existent island, Argonaut, on the eastern sea of Korea. The Japanese in the Edo period used to call Ulleungdo and the Liancourt Rocks as Takeshima and Matsushima, respectively. However, because of the mapping confusion of Ulleungdo by Western explorers, a non-existent island, Argonaut, and Ulleungdo tended to be labeled as Takeshima and Matsushima, respectively, in the maps edited in the late 19th century (see this entry for detail). Like those maps, Kim Okgyun's map labeled the non-existant island and Ulleungdo as Takeshima (竹島) and Matsushima (松島), respectively. The follwoing figure shows the comparison of the Kim Okgyun's map and the Navy maps of Britain and Japan edited in the late 19th century.

Notice that, in the Kim Okgyun's map, a river with its name is drawn on the non-existent island Argonaut (Takeshima) whereas Matsushima is drawn in the correct shape and location of Ulleungdo. Also, it seems that a name of a mountain is written on Argonaut (Takeshima) though it is not readable in the photograph. The confused knowledge of Westerners concerning Ulleungdo was apparently incorporated in the Kim Okgyun's map. These confusions suggest that Kim Okgyun's group was not able to obtain correct knowledge on the islands on the eastern sea when they surveyed their country.

Although the Kim Okgyun's Map is a precious map that tells us how the geography of Korea was perceived by the reformists in the Chosun government at the time, it seems that the map has never attracted enough attention. This is probably because the National Diet Library of Japan, the owner of the copy of the map, attributed the map to Shimizu Tsunetaro (清水常太郎) rather than to Kim Okgyun. I don't know exactly why the library attributed the map to Shimizu, but I can notice that Shimizu's name is written on the left side of the document attached to the folding case.

Notice that a name, Shimizu Mitsunori (清水光憲), is witten on the left side of the document. I guess that a librarian attributed the map to Shimizu Tsunetaro seeing this name on the document, since Shimizu Mitsunori was commonly known by the name Shimizu Tsunetaro. However, If you can read Japanese language, you will be able to notice that the left-side document is just advertisements of other publications from the publisher Nakamura-shobi-do (中村鍾美堂). The Shimizu's name is found as the author of the maps of prefectures in Japan (日本管轄分地図). You can also find another name, Matsumoto Kendo (松本謙堂) , to the left of the ad of the Shimizu's map, as the author of two other geography books for Chosun and China (朝鮮地誌要略 and 支那地誌要略). Thus, the document on the left has no information on the author of the map in the folding case. Although the map is apparently edited by Japanese editor(s), the editor's name is not given on the document. I suppose that the map should have been known as a map by Kim Okgyun rather than that by Shimizu Tsunetaro that is perhaps a wrong attribution by a librarian.

Original text.

------- 朝鮮輿地図 -------

此図ハ前年金玉均氏カ本国ヲ去ル時携帯シ来レル彼邦無二ノ明細分間大絵図ニシテ氏生前姑クモ座右ヲ離サザリシガ先般上海に航スルニ及テ何思ケン当地ノ或貴顕ノ方ニ遺シ置ケリシヲ時事ニ感ズル所アリ乞テ之ヲ縮写シ図中八道諸州府県郡兵営水営諸鎮名勝名邑山川岬角港湾島嶼ノ位置一見掌ヲ指スガ如シ彼レ曽テ国力ヲ以テ調査シタルモノ之ニ加フルニ便覧ノ為メ京城元山津釜山浦仁川漢江等付近ノ箇所五区ニ分チ特ニ切図トナシ尚京城ヨリ諸名区ニ至ル里程表ヲ加エ併セテ図ノ縁辺ニ付記セリ坊間往々朝鮮国アルモ未タ如此モノ有ラズ実ニ天下無比ノ明細図也弊堂聊カ報国ノ心ヲ以テ務メテ廉価ヲ旨トシ内国人士ニ頒タント欲ス乞フ各所ノ書店ニ就テ購覧アラン事ヲ

----- 正価金三拾銭　郵税金四銭 -----

Translation to the contemporary Japanese language.

------- 朝鮮輿地図 -------

この図は、以前、金玉均氏が本国（朝鮮）を去る時に携帯して来たかの国（朝鮮）無二の明細な測量図であり、氏は生前片時も座右を離さなかったが、先般、上海に渡航することになった時に、何を思ったのか当地（日本）の貴顕の元に遺し置いた。それを、時事に思うところがあり、頼んで縮写した。図中、八道、諸州、府、県、郡、兵営、水営、諸鎮、名勝、名邑、山、川、岬角、港湾、島嶼の位置を、一目で掌（たなごころ）を指すように知ることができる。これは、彼が、かつて国力をもって調査したものである。さらに、便覧のために、京城、元山津、釜山浦、仁川、漢江などの付近を五つに分け、特に別図とし、さらに、京城から代表的な場所に至る里程表を加え、図の周囲に一緒に付記した。世間ではしばしば朝鮮国が話題になるが、まだこのようなものは無い。まことに天下無比の明細図である。弊堂（中村鍾美堂）は、いささか報国の心をもって、つとめて廉価を心がけ、内国人士に頒布したいと願っている。各所の書店に行って購入され、ご覧になっていただきたい。

----- 正価金三十銭　送料金四銭 -----

Update (Mach 6, 2008)

When I was serching on the Web with the keyword "清水光憲" today, I found that the Web Takeshima Research Institute has already pointed out the same thing in this article on Feb. 29. The article has many interesting descriptions. According to the article, Kim Okgyun had actually visited Ulleungdo in 1883 as the government officer for opening up southeastern islands (東南諸島開拓使). The article also says that the name of the mountain and the river written on Takeshima are 中峰 and 猪田川, respectively, and that the latter name is perhaps a typo of 楮田川 since there were 楮田 (fields of paper mulberry) on Ulleungdo.

Kitano Tenmangu Shrine

2008-03-03T23:02:00.008+09:00

Ume blossoms in Kitano Tenmangu Shrine. It's unfortunate that internet cannot transmit fragrance!

Argonaut, Dagelet and Ulleungdo

2008-03-03T19:22:00.025+09:00

(This entry is a supplement for the entry concerning the Kim Okgyun's Korean map. )

The following is an excerpt of this page on the Tanaka Kunitaka's Takeshima site written in Japanese. The linked maps are also from the Tanaka's site.

**********

Maps in the 19th century tended to print two islands on the eastern sea near the Korean peninsula. The two islands are both Ulleungdo. This duplication of Ulleungdo was caused by two independent findings of Ulleungdo by Westerners. Ulleungdo was initially found by a French, Lepaute Dagelet, and it was named "Dagelet" in 1787. An English explorer, James Colnett, also found Ulleungdo and named it "Argonaut" in 1789. Since Dagelet and Colnett assigned different latitude and longitude to "Dagelet" and "Argonaut", maps made by Westerners tended to print two islands in the area. Affected by these Western maps, Japanese map also tended to print Argonaut in addition to Ulleungdo on the eastern sea of Korea.

The followings are examples of the maps which printed the two Ulleungdo as "Dagelet"and "Argonaut".

Map I : Arrow Smith’s map published in 1811.
(Colnett’s ship, Argonaut, lost her rudder just after he found Ulleungdo. The description in the map "Argonaut lost her Rudder" indicates this incident.)
Map II : Thomson’s map published in 1815.

German Doctor Phillip von Siebold (1796-1866) who had lived in Japan for 5 years had the knowldge that there are two islands which Japanese call "Takeshima (Ulleungdo)" and "Matsushima (Liancourt Rocks)" between Korea and Oki islands. Thus he assigned these Japanese names to the two islands, "Argonaut" and "Dagelet", on his map. His map caused much confusion to both Japanese and Westerners since he assigned the Japanese names for Ulleungdo and the Liancourt Rocks to the duplicated Ulleungdo.
Map III : Siebold’s map published in 1840.

Liancourt Rocks were found by a French ship, Liancourt, in mid-19th century. The first Western map that described the Liancourt Rocks was published in 1849. Liancourt Rocks were also called Hornet Rocks, since English ship "Hornet" found these rocks in 1855. Thus, maps published in late-19th century tended to describe three islands, "Argonaut", "Dagelet" and "Liancourt (= Hornet)", between Korea and Oki islands (Okinoshima).

Map IV : Wilhelm Heine’s map published in 1855.
Map V : A map compiled by U.S. commodore Matthew Perry (published in 1856).
Note that Argonaut is labeled "nicht Vorhanden (not exist)" in the above maps. It had been known by this time that the longitude and latitude assigned to Ulleungdo (Argonaut) by Colnet was inaccurate and that there was no island at this map position.

Map VI : James Wyld’s map published in 1868.

These Western maps were imported into Japan. So Japanese maps affected by Western maps also describe three islands between Korea and the Oki islands.

Map VII : Katsu Kaishu’s map (大日本沿海略図 by 勝海舟) published in 1867.
Map VIII : Hashimoto Gyokuran’s map (大日本四神全図 by 橋本玉蘭) published in 1870.
In the above maps, the duplicated Ulleungdo (Argonaut and Dagelet) are labeled as Takeshima (竹嶋, 竹シマ) and Matsushima (松島, 松シマ), respectively, in accordance with Siebold’s map (Map III).

Description on the island called "Argonaut" gradually disappeared from maps because there is no island at the map position of “Argonaut”.

MAP IX : Rittau’s map published in 1880.
Ulleungdo is labeled as Matsusima according to the Siebold’s map (Map III). Argonaut is not printed.

MAP X Japanese Navy Map published in 1881.
Ulleungdo is labeled as "Ulleungdo (Matsushima)" (鬱陵島 (松島)). Argonaut is not printed.

In short, Ulleungdo and the Liancourt Rocks were called "Takeshima" and "Matsushima", respectively, in Japan in premodern period, but these names were used for the name of duplicated Ulleungdo, Argonaut and Dagelet, in Western maps. Japanese government officially decided in 1905 to rename the Liancourt Rocks, which were formerly called Matsushima, "Takeshima", since the name "Matsushima" became popular as the name of Ulleungdo (= Dagelet).

Hina-matsuri

2008-02-29T20:12:00.013+09:00

On March 3, many Japanese celebrate Hina-matsuri, or dolls festival, by displaying Hina-ningyo, or Hina dolls, in their rooms.

Today, I hang a scroll of a Japanese painting of tachi-bina, or standing hina dolls, in the tokonoma of the living room.

The hanging scroll was painted by Kunii Ōbun (国井応文, 1833-1887) who was the leader of the Maruyama school painters in the late Edo period and in the early Maiji period as a grand grand son of Maruyama Ōkyo (1733–1795).

Anna inspi' Nana (Blackstones) - Rose

2008-02-25T22:20:00.003+09:00

One more Anna Tsuchiya's clip.

The Daily Telegraph called Japanese Japs in the headline

2008-02-21T16:26:00.015+09:00

The Daily Telegraph published an article with the headline, "Japs turn backs slaughter". The term "Japs" has already been removed from their website.

The followings are from Propaganda Buster.

This is the 21st century and we have a newspaper using racist terms. The Daily Telegraph, a newspaper in Australia on their online website used a racist and offensive term in reference to the people of Japan. A Japanese person complained to the newspaper about that term. The Daily Telegraph removed the term from their article headline, but not entirely from their website. Proving once again, racist are stupid.

Take a look at the screenshots in the Propaganda Buster's video.
日本語字幕付きは、こちら. (HT to lovewhale1)

Update: The Daily Telegraph is still displaying the term.

Click the above thumbnail to see the screenshot.

Propaganda Buster talks on Japanese whaling

2008-02-18T22:00:00.017+09:00

The following videos by Propaganda Buster are now popular in Japanese blogosphere.

From the first video.

People from all over the world, mostly euro-trash from northern Europe swarm down on a tiny to town in Japan, the town of Tiji to protest the Japanese in their dolphin hunting.
(...)
How come they only protest in Japan? Because the people in Japan are polite and the Euro-trash take advantage of the polite Japanese culture. How come this same Euro-trash can not be found in a Texas steak house protesting a Texas trying to eat his or her steak? Where are the protested in Little Italy in lower Manhattan, New York City, when an Italian is eating veal parmesan? Veal, the meat from a calf. Where are these brave protesters when Native Americans in Alaska go on a whale hunt?

From the second video.

A ship (Arctic Sunrise) belonging to the radical conservationist group, Greenpeace rams into the Japanese whaling vessel (Nisshin Maru) and then blames the Japanese ship. Also the international insurance company located in London, the United Kingdom, Lloyds of London, accused the Japanese of ramming the Greenpeace ship. Seeing the photographs and video, clearly demonstrate that the Greenpeace ship here was the aggressor in purposely ramming the Japanese ship. However world opinion sided with Greenpeace. Proving once again the round eyes are the racist selecting an Asian nation to harass.

America has great people!

日本語字幕付きバージョンは、こちらとこちら. (HT to lovewhale1)

Akihiro Miwa - Yoitomake's song

2008-02-15T22:47:00.028+09:00

Japan Probe showed the ranking of photos that older Japanese people take with cameras on their cellphones. Akihiro Miwa's picture was ranked 5th in the survey. They say it's lucky to have his picture. Who is Akihiro Miwa?

Akihiro Miwa (1935- ) is a transvestic celebrity in Japan. He started his carrier as a professional cabaret singer in the 1950s. It is said that in those days Yukio Mishima told to Akihiro Miwa: "You only have one flaw. That you don't love me."

While he was very popular in the 1950s, people soon lost interest in him. By the early 1960s, he was an almost forgotten singer. Anyway, he continued shows in suburban cabaret. Japan was still a poor country in the 1960s. He was distressed in those days, asking himself: "What am I doing wearing gaudy dresses taking money from poor people? Am I just a clown wearing peacock-like costumes?" One day, he wrote rylics for poor laborers based on his own experience in his childhood. Putting a melody to them, he started to sing the song wearing plain clothes. His song touched the audience's heart and moved them to tears every time he sang the song. The song became a smash hit in 1966. After that, he returned to the major stages in show business.

Title of the song is "Yoitomake's song". The word Yoitomake that is not used today was a slang for day laborers or navvies that was often used as a derogatory term. The following is the rylics of the song.

------

ヨイトマケの唄 / Yoitomake's song

父ちゃんのためなら　えんやこら /For the sake of my husband, ENYAKORA!*
母ちゃんのためならえんやこら /For the sake of my wife, ENYAKORA!
もひとつおまけにえんやこら /One more time additionally, ENYAKORA!

*) "Enyakora!" is a shout that laborers make when they pull or push heavy loads.

今も聞こえる　ヨイトマケの唄 / I can still hear Yoitomake's song.
今も聞こえる　あの子守唄 /I can still hear that lullaby.

工事現場の昼休み /During the lunch time in a construction site,
たばこふかして　目を閉じりゃ /When I close my eyes, smoking a cigarette,
聞こえてくるよ　あの唄が /I can hear that song,
働く土方の　あの唄が /That song of muscular laborers,
貧しい土方の　あの唄が /That song of poor laborers.

子供の頃に小学校で /When I was a child, in a school,
ヨイトマケの子供　きたない子供と /"Yoitomake's son! Dirty child!"
いじめぬかれて　はやされて /So I was bullied. I was teased.
くやし涙にくれながら /Shedding tears in my mortification,
泣いて帰った道すがら /I returned home crying. On the way home,
母ちゃんの働くとこを見た /I saw my mom working.
母ちゃんの働くとこを見た /I saw my mom working.

姉さんかぶりで　泥にまみれて /Covering her head with a scarf, getting muddy,
日にやけながら　汗を流して /Being burned by the sun, being drenched in sweat,
男に混じって　ツナを引き /With male navvies, she was pulling a rope.
天に向かって　声をあげて /Letting her voice out toward the sky,
力の限り　唄ってた /She was singing a song at the top of her voice.
母ちゃんの働くとこを見た /I saw my mom working.
母ちゃんの働くとこを見た /I saw my mom working.

慰めてもらおう　抱いてもらおうと /Wishing to be consoled and hugged by my mom,
息をはずませ　帰ってはきたが /I was returning home, but
母ちゃんの姿　見たときに /When I saw my mom,
泣いた涙も忘れ果て /I forgot that I was crying.
帰っていったよ　学校へ /I returned to the school,
勉強するよと言いながら /Muttering "I'll study hard in the school."
勉強するよと言いながら /Muttering "I'll study hard in the school."

あれから何年たった事だろう /How many years has it passed after that?
高校も出たし大学も出た /I graduated high school and finished collage.
今じゃ機械の世の中で /Now, it's an age of machinery.
おまけに僕はエンジニア /Moreover I am an engineer.
苦労苦労で死んでった /You lived and died in hardships.
母ちゃん見てくれ　この姿 /Please see my present status, mom.
母ちゃん見てくれ　この姿 /Please see my present status, mom.

何度も僕もぐれかけたけど /I almost went astray many times, but
やくざな道は踏まずに済んだ /I fotunately didn't fall into evil ways.
どんなきれいな唄よりも /More than any other beautiful songs,
どんなきれいな声よりも /More than any other beautiful voices,
僕を励ましなぐさめた /That song encouraged and consoled me.
母ちゃんの唄こそ　世界一 /My mom's song is indeed the best in the world.
母ちゃんの唄こそ　世界一 /My mom's song is indeed the best in the world.

今も聞こえる　ヨイトマケの唄 /I can still hear the Yoitomake's song.
今も聞こえる　あの子守唄 /I can still hear that lullaby.

父ちゃんのためなら　えんやこら /For the sake of my husband, ENYAKORA!
子供のためなら　えんやこら /For the sake of my children, ENYAKORA!

--------

I believe this song encouraged many people in the 1960s helping the start of the rapid economic growth of Japan afterward.

(HT to ganbaganba)

You can also watch his performance in the 1950s that Mishima loved here on Youtube.

Anna Tsuchiya - Taste my skin

2008-02-14T23:23:00.005+09:00

One more clip of Tsuchiya Anna.

TPR

2008-02-13T19:30:00.009+09:00

This entry is just for my personal note.

TPR is an abbreviation of 'thermo plastic rubber' that has most of the desirable properties of rubber, e.g. flexibility, while at the same time they can be injection molded like a plastic. Shown in the photo is an example of a consumer goods that utilizes TPR.

Detailed Product Description (from the manufacturer's webpage)
Children's sock shoe, very cute style and fashion design.
Upper Sock:100% cotton
Outsole: Transparent TPR Rubber

References: here, here and here.

Anna Tsuchiya - sweet sweet song

2008-02-09T01:34:00.003+09:00

I'm a big fan of Tsuchiya Anna (土屋アンナ) since I first saw her in a film "Shimotsuma monogatari (aka. Kamikaze Girls)". She is an American-Japanese who has a Russian-American father and a Japanese mother.

Kinkakuji, or the Golden Pavilion, in snow

2008-02-05T23:35:00.000+09:00

This photo was taken on February 2nd of 2005.

Kinkakuji was constructed in 1397 as one of the buildings of the residence for Ashikaga Yoshimitsu (1358-1408), the third Shogun of the Ashikaga Shogunate. This residence was called Kitayama-dono, or the Residence in the Northern Mountain, at the time. When Yoshimitsu was the ruler of Japan, this residence was considered to be another palace by samurai and court nobles even though there was an imperial palace in the central part of Kyoto where the Emperor resided; Yoshimitsu surpassed the Emperor in authority at the time.

Some historians argue that Yoshimitsu had a plan to make his second son the emperor of the country who would govern religions and court nobles and at the same time to make his first son the next Shogun who would govern politics and samurai. However, Yoshimitsu died before realizing his plan.

After Yoshimitsu's death, all of the buildings but the Golden Pavilion were dismantled by his first son, the 4th Shogun Yoshimochi, who disliked sharing his power with his younger brother. The Golden pavilion was converted into a Buddhist temple. The younger brother, Yoshitsugu, losing his power, tried to rebel against Yoshimochi, but failing in the rebellion he was killed in 1418.

The original building of Kinkakuji had been a National Treasure of Japan. However, a trainee monk set fire to the building and it was burnt down to the ground in 1950. After setting the fire, the monk committed suicide on the hill at the back of the building. This incident stimulated the creation of several novels and films. The most famous one would be Mishima Yukio's work, 'Kinkakuji (The Temple of the Golden Pavilion)'.

The present Kinkakuji is a reconstruction in 1955. However, since gold lieves of standard thickness were used at the time to cover the building, it became messy-looking after several decades. By the early 1980s, the undercoat of brown urushi, or Japanese laquar, was seen from the outside in many parts of the outer walls. So large-scale repairs of the building were made in 1987 using gold lieves of 5 x thickness that weighed 20 tons in total. Thus the glitter of the present building would remain for centuries this time.

A good move to keep security in the public sea

2008-02-04T12:30:00.002+09:00

Today's Sankei Shimbun reported that the Metropolitan Police Department's Public Security Bureau has started the investigation on the forcible obstruction of business, inflicting bodily injury and other suspicions to Japanese whalers commited by anti-whaling activists. After identifying suspects, they will request the country where the suspects reside to hand over them based on the Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts against the Safety of Maritime Navigation (SUA). According to the report, one sailor attacked by the activists last february got his face
burned by butyric acid.

On the toxic nature of butyric acid

2008-02-01T01:11:00.003+09:00

Sea Shepherd threw glass bottles filled with butyric acid onto a Japanese whaling ship on the 15th of January. Paul Watson confirmed that the group launched butyric acid at the Yushin Maru No.2 as reported in The Australian.

Whale activists admit to stink bombs
By Melissa Jenkins | January 19, 2008

ANTI-whaling activists admit to throwing about 12 stink bombs onto a Japanese whaling ship after two of its crew were released, and are planning more attacks.

Two members of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, who were being detained on the whaling boat Yushin Maru No. 2, were yesterday handed to an Australian customs' vessel then returned to their ship, the Steve Irwin.

The Japanese Whaling Association (JWA) has accused the activists of throwing acid onto the sister vessel of the Yushin Maru No. 2 -- the Yushin Maru No. 3 -- overnight.

Captain of the Steve Irwin Paul Watson denied any attack on the Yushin Maru No. 3, saying he had not even seen such a boat.

But he confirmed the group launched a “retaliatory strike” of butyric acid “stink bombs” at the Yushin Maru No. 2, about one hour after activists Benjamin Potts and Giles Lane were transferred to the Australian customs boat, the Oceanic Viking.

Butyric acid is a non-corrosive substance and smells like rancid butter.

“We sprayed them with butyric acid, which is a noxious stink bomb, and the smell stays there for a few days. While it is on the deck it is pretty hard to do any work, like kill a whale,” Mr Watson said.

In the above report, the reporter Melissa Jenkins described that butyric acid is a non-corrosive substance and smells like rancid butter. According to her description, butyric acid is just a foul-smelling, non-corrosive substance that can hardly injure people, which echoes the view of Sea Shepherd. The following is a comment posted on www.news.com.au by a person who professed himself to be a strategist for Sea Shepherd.

As a strategist for Sea Shepherd I wish to bring to the public and media attention that the "ACID" used is an organic acid - Butyric Acid...a flavouring used in the Food Industry. It is more commonly known / identified as rancid butter...it is thrown on the flensing decks (not at people) where it permeates the timber. When whale meat is cut up on the deck it contaminates it rendering it unsaleable / useless. The other feature is that it stinks. Exageration and misrepresentation that it is "Acid" infers that it is akin to dangerous ionic acids such as Sulphuric or Hydrochloric acids which it is not. It is consumed daily by human beings and approved for food use & is biodegradeable. It is not in our charter to harm human beings or other creatures of the world we have a clean record on this account, IF the weak Gov't stood up to their election promise we would not be there.
Posted by: Tim Horwood of Belgrave 9:45am January 16, 2008
Comment 79 of 262

According to his description, butyric acid seems to be a harmless substance that is not so highly acidic as sulphuric or hydrochloric acids, consumed daily by human beings, and biodegradable.

These descriptions by Sea Shepherd and Australian media looks to be scientific. However, contradicting these notions, Japan Whaling Association claimed that two Japanese crew were injured when Sea Shepherd members threw the acid at Japanese sailors on Nisshin Maru last February.

Not only did Sea Shepherd deliberately ram the Kaiko Maru this year as well, they also threw acid at Japanese sailors and shattered glass bottles on the Nisshin Maru deck, resulting in injuries to two Japanese crew.

Other Japanese source says that butyric acid from a broken bottle splashed the face of one of the sailors. Fortunately, he did not injured heavily since he could soon washed the acid away. But his whole face was inflamed after the incident. He should have been blinded if he had not promptly closed his eyes when the acid splashed his face.

These comments from Japanese side sharply contradict the report and comment in the Australian media. Are the Japanese whalers deliberately exaggerating the fact?

When something is uncertain, bloggers usually search information on the Web. However, those who are working with chemical substances know that MSDS is the best source to consult first on the toxicity of chemical substances. MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheet) is a form cantaining basic data regarding the properties of a particular substance.

MSDS for butyric acid says the follwoings.

Harmful if swallowed or inhaled. Corrosive. Extremely unpleasant smell may cause nausea. Liquid may burn skin and eyes. Readily absorbed through the skin. Severe skin, eye and respiratory irritant.

Although the reporter of The Australian wrote "Butyric acid is a non-corrosive substance", MSDS tells us that it is "Corrosive".

Also, MSDS says that acute dermal toxicity (LD50) of butyric acid is 530mg/kg [rabbit], which roughly means you can kill a rabbit that weigh 1kg by administering 0.53 g of the substance onto the skin. By simple calculation, it is roughly estimated that a human who weigh 70 kg can be killed by administering about 37 g of butylic acid onto the skin. It is obvious that the amount of butyric acid thrown onto the Japanese ship is enough to kill more than several people.

MSDS says that butyric acid is readily absorbed through the skin and then degraded into other substances and that the biodegradation products are more toxic than butyric acid itself.

The high toxicity of butyric acid seems to be conferred by the toxicity of the biodegradation products rather than its acidity.

MSDS also tells us that CERCLA (the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act) in the US classifies butyric acid in "Hazardous substances".

During the piracy attack by Sea Shepherd, many of the bottles dropped on the sea failing to reach the ship. Those bottles will arrive at the seashore somewhere someday. If a child opened the bottle, what would happen?

The Australian government must know the toxic nature of butyric acid since MSDS is available to anyone. Purchase, storage and usage of harmful substances are usually regulated by law. The fact that Australian government has not detained the Sea Shepherd members might indicate that she is supporting Sea Shepherd to attempt murdering Japanese sailors and polluting environment, as Japan Whaling Association suggested. But I still hope the Australian government and media to cope rationally with this issue.

NOTE: MSDS is distributed in many places. I obtained one from www.sciencelab.com. Search "butyric acid" using the search box on the top page. You can find a link to the PDF file below "n-Butyric Acid, Reagent". Also, you can see a shortened version of the MSDS here.

Ginkakuji, or the Silver Pavilion, in snow

2008-01-31T13:44:00.000+09:00

The photo was taken on January 20th of 2001. I was living near Ginkakuji at the time.

Ginkakuji was first constructed as a villa of the 8th Shogun of Ashikaga Shogunate, Ashikaga Yoshimasa (1436-1490), in Higashiyama (=Eastern mountain) area of Kyoto. He lived in this villa from 1482 to 1490. After his death, the villa was converted into a Buddhist temple.

Ashikaga Yoshimasa was well versed in art. Under his patronage, Japan saw the growth of Higashiyama culture that is the direct origin of representative Japanese cultures such as tea ceremony, flower arrangemant, Noh and Japanese brush painting. Also, he had a huge collection of East Asian arts. Momohato-zu (A pigeon on a peach tree) painted by the 8th Emperor of the Sung Dynasty, Hui Tsung (1082-1135), was one of his collections at the time.

As a ruler, he is counted as one of the worst Shogun. Indulging in art, he left politics in retainers' hands, which caused the outbreak of Onin war in 1467. An old record Onin-ki, or the Record of Onin war, says that, even when the battle ruined the whole city of Kyoto, he continued a feast drinking sake showing no concern about the wretched state of the city and the people. After the Onin war, Japan gradually entered the Sengoku period, or Warring States period. Ginkakuji was the place to hide himself from the horrible state of the country which was caused by his incompetence in politics.

Those who rebuilt Japan after WWII

2008-01-30T02:26:00.001+09:00

From a photo album of my father who passed away two years ago.

These photographs were taken in a dormitory of a college in 1946 or 1947. Those who rebuilt Japan from ruins were people like them. They were 17 years old when the war ended in 1945.

Commercial ordinary dog food	78.1%
Commercial premium dog food	23.3%
Specially hand-made food	4.1%
Same food as humans eat	7.1%
Other	2.4%