My Favourite Japanese Gardens
I have always wanted to have a Japanese garden. The Japanese are true masters in turning nearly everything in their culture to an artform, and the garden is no exception. Many of the famous gardens in Japan are located within Zen monasteries, an influence that is often conjectural at best. There must have been important religious influences on early garden design as well, given the significance of natural objects in Shinto beliefs. Although its original meaning is somewhat obscure, one of the Japanese words for garden—niwa—came to mean a place that had been cleansed and purified in anticipation of the arrival of kami, the deified spirits of Shinto, and the Shinto reverance for great rocks, lakes, ancient trees, and other “dignitaries of nature” would exert an enduring influence on Japanese garden design. The individual elements of Japanese gardens can fill a book, and often has. This includes waterfalls, rocks, bridges, islands, flowers, water and of course, trees. Here are my favourite ones:
Ginkaku-ji
The temple of Jisho-ji is more popularly known as Ginkaku-ji, the Silver Pavilion. Both the pavilion and the garden were part of the retirement villa of Ashikaga Yoshimasa, the eighth Shogun of the Muromachi Period, who began construction in 1482. The complex became the very center of Japanese aesthetic concerns during the eight years of Yoshimasa’s residency, particularly in the areas of art collecting, flower arranging, and the tea ceremony.
Shoseien
Popularly known as Kikokutei Hall Garden, this is currently part of the Higashihongan-ji Temple (although separated from it physically). Its landscaping—attributed to Ishikawa Jozan and Kobori Enshu—dates to the Edo Period, but the large pond may originally have been part of the Heian estate of Minamoto no Toru, younger son of the Emperor Saga. It is one of a number of such Kyoto ponds that are all that remain of the great gardens of the Heian aristocracy.
Daisen-in
Founded in 1509 by the Zen priest Kogaku Sotan (1464-1548) upon his retirement as abbot of Daitoku-ji. The hojo, his residence, was completed in 1513, and the most famous of the gardens that surround that structure probably dates from the same period. While the theory that other early Zen gardens were intended to imitate Chinese landscape paintings or their Japanese equivalents is open to question, there can be little doubt that this was the intention at the Daisen-in. The garden that flanks two sides of the hojo is a miniature landscape whose vertical rocks suggest the mountains from which a waterfall and its resulting river flow.
Posted September 30th, 2010 by geisha | Comment (1)
Noh Masks: Neutral Theatre Brought To Life
In 1647 the shogun Tokugawa Iemitsu (the Shogun was the Japanese military ruler) ordered that no variations were allowed in Noh performance. At that time stage directions were written down, costumes and masks were clearly defined and actors were allocated fixed positions on stage.
Elaborate costumes are a very important part of creating a striking performance. If a play begins rather slowly it is likely that the audience will get bored, therefore the Noh actors choose bright and colourful costumes. Costumes can also help to communicate a special context, so a broad-brimmed hat made of bamboo would suggest country life. These expensive costumes were often gifts to a famous actor by his admirers, something that still happens today.
Stage props on the other hand were hardly needed at all. More important than the costume was the Noh mask. Masks are only worn by the main character, his mask would stylise the person it represents and show them in a truer light than reality could do by depicting only the absolutely essential traits of character. There are five categories of Noh masks: gods, demons, men, women and the elderly.
The masks used in Noh theatre generally show a neutral expression so it is up to the skill of the actor to bring the mask to life through his acting. The parts are all acted by men, so the task of performing as a young woman is one of the most challenging for any actor. The masks are comparatively small and they only cover the front of the face having only small holes for eyes, nostrils and mouth.
Noh masks have to be very light because they are worn throughout a performance that lasts for several hours. They are carved from one piece of cypress wood. After the masks has been carved to the desired thickness, holes for eyes, nose and mouth have been cut, it is then coated with layers of gesso mixed with glue. This coating is then sanded down, giving the mask its final shape. Finally it is painted in the colours prescribed for the particular character and some parts of it might be gilded. Some of the masks’ eyes are inlaid with metal leaving a tiny hole. The hair and the outlines of the eyes are traced with black ink.
Posted September 24th, 2010 by geisha | Comment (0)
The Relevance of Tea
Nihon-cha (Japanese tea) contains catechin (giving astringency), caffeine (giving bitterness), and tannins (giving sweetness). Tea is said to be effective in preventing colds and cancer. The tea used in the tea-ceremony is called matcha. From the sprouting of the new buds in mid-April, the whole tea field is covered so that the leaves can grow protected from direct sunlight. Owing to the protection from direct sunlight the nutrients from the roots collect in the leaves, and unique types of amino acids called tannins (which only green tea possesses) increase. You can see this kind of tea field in Yamashiro Area of southern Kyoto. Ordinary tea is called sen-cha, with the soft tips of the leaves being brewed to make tea. Aside from the ryoku-cha (green tea) mentioned above, the free tea served in some restaurants called houji-cha is made from soft stalks and hard leaves.
Posted September 17th, 2010 by geisha | Comment (0)
The Perfect Tempura
I have been craving for more Japanese food so after some feasting at my local haunts, I headed for the Japanese supermarket with a mission: to create an authentic tempura- which is an archetypal Japanese food. All the essential qualities of Japanese cuisine are reflected in its preparation: the use of absolutely fresh ingredients, the artful presentation, and the perfection of technique by a skilled chef. The result is one of the triumphs of Japanese cooking — a fried food that is light and fresh-tasting rather than heavy and greasy. It’s a cooking style in which the essence of the ingredient itself completely defines the taste.
It comes as a surprise to most foreigners to learn that tempura was not originally a Japanese dish; it actually owes its origins to the visiting Portuguese missionaries of the sixteenth century. But tempura, like many imported ideas, gradually adapted itself to Japanese needs and tastes. By the late nineteenth century tempura was a popular fast food in Tokyo, sold from sidewalk stalls and roaming pushcarts, and today’s modern tempura (made by deep-frying vegetables, fish and shellfish) is no longer a foreign food at all, but a completely Japanese cuisine.
Preparation
Seafood and vegetables are the raw materials of tempura, and only the freshest specimens are used. It’s not unusual to see live shrimps jumping around on the preparation counter, or buckets of slithering eels being carted through the kitchen. In addition to using the freshest ingredients, the next most important factor in good tempura is the quality of the batter, which is made from eggs, flour, and ice water. The batter shouldn’t be mixed too thoroughly, but should be lumpy and full of air bubbles. To achieve this consistency the batter is made up in small batches immediately before it’s used, and each batch is thrown away when it starts to settle.
The vegetables and seafood are cut, washed, dried, and dipped in the batter to give them a thin, almost transparent coating. After this they’re dropped one at a time into the oil (a combination of vegetable and sesame oil), which must be constantly kept at exactly the right temperature. Finally, the tempura must be cooked for just the right amount of time, pulled out of the oil the precise moment it’s done. If all goes well, the final product is perfect tempura — crisp, golden brown, hot, and delicious.
A few tempura restaurants offer variations on the basic recipe, adding extra ingredients to the batter to change the texture or flavor. One variation is to add chopped noodles to the batter for a rougher and crisper coating.
As you can see, making tempura is a delicate process, and lots of things can go wrong. It’s possible to find many different levels of quality in restaurant tempura, ranging from fairly bad (too greasy) to absolutely perfect (heavenly). As a general rule, tempura tends to be better at specialty restaurants rather than at all-purpose Japanese restaurants.
Eating
Before you dig in, remember some etiquette. The first rule of eating tempura is to get it while it’s hot. If you’re sitting at the counter, the chef will transfer each piece directly from the vat of hot oil to the counter in front of you, placing it on a sheet of white paper to drain off the excess oil. Even if you’re sitting at a table, every effort will be made to get your tempura to you as hot as possible. You can show your appreciation by eating it as soon as you can (although you might want to wait a minute or two to avoid burning your mouth).
When you use the dipping sauce, it’s a good idea to dip the tempura quickly and avoid lengthy soaking. The sauce may come with a small mound of grated radish, which can be mixed in. Some tempura fans forgo the dipping sauce entirely, using just a bit of salt or lemon for seasoning.
Posted September 13th, 2010 by geisha | Comment (1)
Manga: A History
Japan has become the world leader in comics. Japanese manga, as comics are called here, have been publicized the world over on television and in newspapers and the most popular works have been introduced abroad both through legal and pirate translations. But despite these efforts, they remain insufficient for foreign audiences wishing to acquire a comprehensive understanding of the genre. Here’s an overview of the basics of Manga.
The manga industry in Japan is of such a massive scale as to completely overshadow the industries of the two other great comic-producing nations, the United States and France.
There are a great number of magazines in Japan devoted exclusively to manga but it is difficult to give an exact accounting of their number given that it is not at all uncommon for smaller publishing houses to bring out one new magazine after another under different titles. The core of the manga publishing industry consists of some 13 weekly manga magazines published by the major publishers alone, along with 10 biweeklies, and approximately twenty influential monthlies. At any given time there are at least ten magazines which boast over one million copies of each issue. At most there is one non-manga magazine in Japan which can claim a readership of over one million.
Yearly sales of manga throughout the 1990′s have been in the neighborhood of 600 billion yen, including 350 billion in magazine sales and 250 billion in paperbacks. These figures do no not include sales of manga appearng in general magazines and newspapers. The total sales of published material in Japan (including magazines and books but excluding newspapers) is two trillion five-hundred billion yen, of which manga sales account for nearly one quarter. Given a total Japanese population of 120 million, we can calculate that the average Japanese spends approximately 2,000 yen per year on manga in one form or another.
The three largest publishing houses producing manga are Kodansha, Shogakkan, and Shueisha. In addition there are some ten odd publishing firms which come in at a close second, including Akita Shoten, Futabasha, Shonen Gahosha, Hakusensha, Nihon Bungeisha, and Kobunsha. This is not even to mention the countless other small-scale publishing firms. The larger publishers mentioned above also publish magazines and books in areas outside of manga.
It is estimated that there are around 3000 professional manga artists in Japan. All of these individuals have published at least one volume of manga, but most of them make their living as assistants to famous manga artists or have some other supplementary source of income. Only 300 of these, or ten percent of the total, are able to make an above-average living from manga alone. In addition, there are also a great number of amateur manga artists who produce small magazines intended for private circulation, called dojinshi.
Posted August 26th, 2010 by geisha | Comments Off
The Most Famous Mountain In The World
Mt. Fuji is one of the symbols of Japan and at 3,776m it is the country’s highest mountain. Although it has lain dormant since 1707, it is still classified as an active volcano. Best viewed in winter or early morning when the air is clear, Fuji-san stands alone and is always a spectacular sight. It has been the subject of countless works of art, such as the ‘Thirty-six Views of Mt. Fuji‘, a series of (woodblock prints) by Hokusai. Many tourist spots have grown up around the mountain and many of those, such as Miho no Matsubara in Shizuoka Prefecture, are famous simply because of their view of the mountain. People often predict the weather from the shape of the clouds hovering above the summit.
Fuji-san has long been regarded as sacred by some sects and climbing it started as a religious pilgrimage. The official season for climbing the mountain is July and August during which some 200,000 people make the pilgrimage, although these days mostly for fun. There is a saying that every Japanese should climb Mt. Fuji but only a fool climbs it twice. Certainly the time I ventured up the slopes the biggest problem wasn’t the steep climb but rather the rush-hour crowds of grandparents and kids determined to make progress slow for everyone. To be honest, with its surface of black volcanic sand and rock, the mountain is at its best from a distance but the view of the sunrise from the summit can make the climb worthwhile. The summit is around 20 degrees colder than the base so warm clothes are a must. There is a bus from Tokyo’s Shinjuku station to Go-gome (5th station) on the mountain (2 hours 30 minutes), from where it’s a 5km, 5-hour climb. There are several simple lodges along the way where you can get your climbing stick stamped and have a rest or a bite to eat. A 10pm start, allowing for the crowds and an occassional rest-stop, should see you at the summit in time for a memorable sunrise.
Posted August 19th, 2010 by geisha | Comment (1)
Gifu Wagasa: A Dying Tradition
Still known today as a center for the production of traditional Japanese umbrellas, manufacture of wagasa began in the Kano district of Gifu City in the middle of the 18th century. At that time the state had feudal organization and the local lords had a great deal of economic and political autonomy within the domains to which they were assigned. The feudal lord who was transferred in to rule the feudal domain around Gifu had to contend with a local economy that was devastated by floods. He saw an opportunity to stimulate local industry and to provide the means to supplement the living of the impoverished lower samurai (warrior elite) by encouraging them to make umbrellas.
The local area had a long history of paper making. Mino-washi, a local product, was a strong handmade paper due to the long fibers it contained. Good quality bamboo was to be found in the valley of the Kiso River, and it was easy to obtain sesame oil and lacquer from the local mountains, indispensable for water proofing. These advantages made the area well suited to umbrella making, since the basic construction of Japanese umbrellas involves affixing paper over a frame of bamboo-strip ribs, and then applying oil and lacquer for waterproofing.
Production peaked at the beginning of the 20th century, when over a million umbrellas per year were manufactured. Since then the metal-and-cloth Western-style umbrella has become generally used, and the number of people who use Japanese umbrellas has dwindled. These days the local craftworkers make only few tens of thousands of wagasa a year.
The traditional Japanese umbrella uses only natural materials and, requiring several months to undergo the various separate processes that are needed for completion, the skilled hands of a dozen seasoned craftworkers contribute to the finished item. In addition to the usual type of rain umbrella, Gifu Wagasa also come in various other types including large red outdoor parasols that are used to provide shade on outdoor occasions, such as tea ceremonies. Then there are smaller colorful buyo-gasa that figure in performances of traditional Japanese dance, Gifu Wagasa are an indispensable part of traditional Japanese art and culture.
Posted August 12th, 2010 by geisha | Comment (0)
The Art Of The Japanese Hot Stone Massage
Have you ever felt during a massage that the masseuse was just not strong enough to push through the ridges of tension in your shoulder blades, and at the same time not gentle enough to melt the tension in your neck or legs? Then try Japanese Hot Stone Therapy, a post-modern combination of gentle massage with ancient tools of muscular penetration. Japanese Hot Stone Therapy is based upon ANMA, the oldest form of East Asian Massage. It was developed over 7000 years ago and is a kneading, rotation, and vibration based technique. Japanese Hot Stone Massage is much more than placing stones along side of the body, or sliding stones over the body. An expert will “hook” into a muscle with the stone and then gently rotate and/or knead the muscle…then apply pressure and use a rapid vibration technique to further relax the muscles and drive the heat deeper. It is quite an experience to feel the deeply relaxing, penetrating heat from the basalt stones alternating with the toning and refreshing coolness of the marble stones. The use of extremes of temperature has long been scientifically and medically proven to be of benefit to the body. Those who wish to relax and tone their muscles with a minimum of effort see this in the use of ice packs for muscle trauma and the use of saunas. Stone massage makes you feel deeply relaxed, allowing you to let go of all the stress that is held within your body.
Posted August 5th, 2010 by geisha | Comment (0)
Crazy about Meiji Choco
Chocolates are delicious snacks for all ages. Whether you like it really sweet or slightly bitter, Meiji Chocolates have something in store for you. Their chocolates are interesting. They have Apollo, Choco Baby, the Meiji Chocolate bars that come in milk chocolate and dark chocolate and they also have samplers of their chocolates, the fancy ones. They are exported so you could try finding them in your local shop.
Meiji Chocolates really experiment on their varieties of chocolate. Apollo, for example, is a sweet concoction that is popular for its strawberry-choco variant. It has a conical shape with ridges. It is also available in chocolate-vanilla.
Chocobaby is neatly packaged in a plastic dispenser with a flap. And it has little chocolate beads in it. Think something like Tic-tacs or mints. And the nice thing about the container is that you could actually use it for other things like placing your pins there and other little things that you would not like lying around. (Make your own container from this!)
One time there is a feature on Pocky. Meiji happens to have Yan-yan. They are not as thin as the Pocky biscuits but the fun thing about eating them is that you are the one who will dip the biscuit sticks in the chocolate, peanut butter or whatever dip your Yan-yan has.
It seems like Meiji Chocolates are not just popular in Japan. They are also known internationally. Who could resist the yummy snacks and the cute packaging they have? Eating them could be quite an experience. If you could find a sampler of Meiji chocolates, that is good for you so that you could figure out which ones you like a lot. And if you happen to like them all, you could have a little bit of all them as you wish.
Posted July 30th, 2010 by geisha | Comments Off
The Japanese Fighting Dog
Unbeknownst to many is the Tosa Inu, the star if an age-old Japanese tradition of dog fights. Dog-Fighting has been a popular sport in Japan since ancient times. Like Sumo wrestling, it was an elaborate, ceremonial affair, a sport conducted mainly by the Samurais, and the fighters, especially the winners, were feted and accorded much prestige.
The Tosa Inu is also known as the Japanese Mastiff or Japanese fighting dog is probably the only dog in the world which is still used quite legally to this day for dog fights. However, the Japanese developed a type of fight according to their mentality that bears no comparison with the notorious pit dog fights held illegally in other parts of the world. Considered a National Treasure in Japan, the sight of a Tosa Inu arrayed in full ceremonial fighting regalia and traditionally brought into the fighting arena by two handlers, makes an impressive and unforgettable impact.
The Tosa Inu is a massive, regal dog, standing well over 30 inches at the shoulders and weighing up to 150 pounds; the much larger Tosa Inus, weighing 200 pounds and more, are now extinct. Females are somewhat smaller than males, and they are never used in fighting.
Despite their notoriety as fighting animals, the Tosa Inus make incredibly affectionate and loving companions. They are devoted to their families and are very patient and tolerant with the children. Extremely intelligent, with excellent guarding instincts, they are dogs one can depend on. Apart from guarding, they have been successfully used as Search and Rescue Dogs and in Therapy Training.
Posted July 21st, 2010 by geisha | Comments Off
