The soothing color of ancient wood

Gangoji is one of the oldest temples of Japan. Founded by Soga no Umako in 593 in the Asuka area, it played an important role in spreading Buddhism which initially was seen as a form of foreign magic to protect the state. In 718 the capital was transferred to Nara (Heijokyo) and Gangoji followed - although it left a small temple with a battered statue behind in Asuka which still exists today. The new temple stood just south of Kofukuji and was counted among the Seven Great Temples of age.


[Main Hall of Gokurakubo, Gangoji, Nara]

It must have been a splendid temple, but all that remains of it today are the foundation stones of a pagoda, standing forlorn in a quiet garden somewhere in the middle of the old town of Nara (a small model of that pagoda can be seen in the Gangoji Museum). And there is a famous statue of a stern Yakushi Nyorai, now housed in the Nara National Museum.


[Zenshitsu of Gokurakubo, Gangoji, Nara]

And part of the elongated hall for the monks has been preserved. You can see such halls where the monks lived also in Horyuji. In the case of Gangoji, it long ago lost its function and was incorporated into a sub-temple, Gokurakubo, the "Paradise Quarters." Gokurakubo today is the only functioning part of Gangoji, so it has taken over the name, but originally it was just an offshoot that became more important than the original temple.


[Stone statues in front of the Zenshitsu, Gangoji, Nara]


Gokurakubo was set up in the 8th c. after the Sanrin priest Chiko in his later years was directed in a dream to rely on faith in Amida alone. It became one of the earliest centers of faith in the Buddha Amida and his Western Paradise in Japan. In the following centuries, Amidism became very popular among the ordinary people, so Gokurakubo grew and survived as a living temple, while the rest of Gangoji fell away in the shadow of the centuries.


[Peeping into the Paradise Quarters, Gangoji, Nara]

But it, too, was rebuilt: the main hall dates from the Kamakura period (1244), but incorporates as its rear part the above mentioned monks' hall of the original temple. So some elements of the temple from 718 survive here: some pieces of wood, especially part of the roof tiles are thought to be original - you can detect them by looking at the color, they are a bit brownish. This part of the hall is called Zenshitsu, or Meditation Hall. Other treasures in the temple are a serene Amida statue, an Amidist mandala developed by Chiko - this mandala was the main devotional image of Gokurakubo.


[Zenshitsu, Gangoji, Nara - can you spot the older tiles?]


I first came to Gangoji in December 1988, already more than twenty years ago (the photos used here were taken at that time). My wife and I had traveled to Nara from Tokyo that day, put our luggage in the hotel and then came to Gangoji. I just had a busy and rather annoying period in my work in Tokyo behind me. It was a fresh but sunny winter day, and standing there in front of the serene temple with its deep, soothing browns and grays was such an uplifting experience that all shadows in my mind fell away. That is why I love to visit temples in Japan - it is a perfect antidote to the modern world and its anxiety. In the ensuing weeks, my wife and I would visit all famous and many not-so famous temples in Nara, studying the ancient statues, and we saw many more great things, but the feeling on this first, bright day, was the best of them all.

See all my Gangoji photos on Flickr!
Access: 15 min on fot from Nara Kintetsu st., 10 min south of Kofukuji, right in the middle of the old town of Nara
Entry: 400 yen. Hrs. 9:00-17:00 (in winter 16:30), closed 12/28-1/4 and 8/21-8/25.
Tel. 0742-23-1377

P.S. Nowadays there is an excellent shop selling local sakes opposite the gate of Gangoji!

Sushi and Beyond by Micheal Booth (Review)

Sushi and Beyond: What the Japanese Know About Cooking by travel writer and journalist Michael Booth is a funny and easily digestible book. Booth's interest in Japanese food starts when a Japanese friend after an argument about the quality of Japanese cuisine, hands him the classic Japanese Cooking: A Simple Art by Shizuo Tsuji. Booth becomes hooked on Japanese food and to take the culinary pulse of the island nation, decides to travel to Japan. Taking his wife and two young sons with him, for several months he eats his way through the length of the country, staying in Tokyo, Sapporo, Kyoto, Osaka, Fukuoka and Okinawa.

The resulting book is above all funny. Booth writes a racy and humorous style and I was reminded of Dave Barry Does Japan. This also has a negative side for it unfortunately means that the rather hackneyed "Westerner meets exotic Japan" newbie theme gets a lot of space. We have the obligatory sumo stable and chanko nabe, weird crawling things in Tsukiji market, a seafood lunch with female abalone hunters, drinking coffee in a dog cafe, feeding cows beer and of course viewing the giant tapeworm in the Meguro Parasitological Museum. And not only that, we also get treated to Japan as the height of freakishness: eating snake stew in Okinawa, enjoying cod sperm, whale ice cream and other unspeakable things the Japanese ingest almost daily (do they?).

But is it a good book about Japanese cuisine?

I am afraid not. Booth is new to Japan, so he remains stuck in the old exoticism rut. He has prepared himself admirably about Japanese food by reading the above mentioned book by Shizuo Tsuji and a couple of others, but he is no specialist in Japanese culture and makes some major errors there (for example what he says about Shinto). And above all, he does not speak or read Japanese so has to rely on the kindness of others or on the English abilities of his informants, which in this domestic sector are not large.


[Shirako, sperm sacs of the cod fish, photo by puss_in_boots]

This shuts him effectively out - he is treated as an honored guest, and that is what he remains throughout the book, a visitor dipping into chanko-nabe and ramen, tako-yaki and yudofu, and enjoying the heights of kaiseki. There are visits too, to a kelp processing plant, a farm growing wasabi, a cattle farm, a miso factory. There are also a sort of interviews, with such food luminaries as Mr Hattori and Mr Tsuji, heads of the largest competing culinary academies, one in Tokyo, the other in Osaka. That these important persons go out of their way to entertain Booth shows he had some good introductions. He pays them back by writing episodes about them that read like PR brochures. Because he is not able to speak Japanese, he only gets standard answers and the standard polite treatment for foreigners.

I was hoping for some deeper insights into Japanese food, but there are no new ideas here, it is all superficial reportage, a series of humorous accounts of the different meals Booth enjoys.

That I still enjoyed this book has one reason: Booth writes very well and is funny and sympathetic. But don't expect anything new or insightful when you are past the newbie stage yourself. And for food, first read Shizuo Tsuji's Japanese Cooking: A Simple Art or that other good introduction, Lonely Planet World Food: Japan (Lonely Planet World Food Guides).

What are the best kofun in Japan?

What are the best kofun in Japan?

Before I answer that question, first some facts.

Kofun are burial mounds dating back to the 3rd-7th centuries. They are also called takatsuka or tsuka. Kofun were covered with a large mound of earth. The burial chamber is either a pit or an artificial cave. There are about 30,000 such kofun in Japan.



[Takamatsu Kofun, Nara. Photo Ad Blankestijn]

Kofun were constructed for tribal chieftains. Haniwa, clay images, were placed on the surface of the mounds - perhaps to spiritually guard the site, or to establish its sacred boundaries. Haniwa include houses, boats and humans, but are also often simple cylinders. The large tombs also contain burial goods as bronze mirrors (sign of authority), weapons and jewelry.

Kofun can be round or square, but the most typical form is the so-called keyhole shape (zenpo-koen-fun).

Almost 900 kofun, mostly in the Kansai area, have been designated as in some way associated with the Imperial House - often without solid historical evidence. These mounds are under control of the Imperial Household Agency and are unfortunately not open to archeological research and excavations, thereby obscuring an important window on Japanese history.



[Tumuli in Sakitama Historical Park, Gyoda. Photo Ad Blankestijn]

Interesting are also the 600 "decorated" tombs found mainly in Kyushu, dating from the 5th and 6th centuries.

Now the answer. Here are the five most interesting kofun or kofun clusters (note: I only include places where you can have a good view of the kofun. Very famous tombs as the Daisenryo in Sakai have not been included, as there is nothing to see):

1. *** Kofun in the Asuka area, south of Nara. It is possible to make a walking tour along these mounds from Asuka Station. You can also rent a bicycle.
Most important are the Takamatsuzuka Kofun (includes a small museum where replica of the wallpaintings are shown), the tombs of Emperor Temmu and Empress Jito, and the Ishibutai, an exposed stone kofun chamber. There is much more to see in Asuka, such as Asukadera, so you can easily spend a full day here.



[Ishibutai in Asuka. Photo Ad Blankestijn]

2. *** Saitobaru Kofun cluster in Miyazaki Pref. (1 hour by bus from Miyazaki City). In a beautiful park with a mysterious atmosphere, at the foot of the Kirishima volcanic plateau. 300 mounds of various shapes and sizes. There is a small museum as well. The unusual haniwa found here, as a house and boat, are housed in the Tokyo National Museum.


3. ** The Sakitama Historical Park in Gyoda (Saitama) consists of nine large-scale tumuli graves (kofun) built between the end of the fifth and beginning of the seventh century. Again in a beautiful park. There is a large museum and also interesting is that one of the kofun can be entered to see a replica of the burial chamber.

4. ** Boso Fudoki no Oka (Chiba), a scenic, historical park covering 32 hectares, laid out on a hill dotted with about 120 old tumulus graves. There are small grave mounds, not more than tiny knolls, lying in the shade of large trees, but also imposing, grassy mounds.


[Boso Fudoki no Oka, Chiba. Photo Ad Blankestijn]

The park is situated on a low ridge, with the wide Kanto plain at one’s feet, as if the dead have been honored with VIP seats.

5. ** Chikatsu-Asuka is an area in southern Osaka Prefecture with over 200 tumuli graves (kofun) from the 6th and 7th century, and also the famous Prince Shotoku is said to be buried here at Eifukuji Temple. The kofun are not very special here (difficult to see through the dense vegetation) but there is a huge museum dedicated to tomb culture, designed by none other than Ando Tadao. It features a huge sloping stepped roof and inside, a vaulted space like a blown-up tumulus grave. The museum displays both models and archeological items from the Kofun- and Asuka-periods.




[Saitobaru, Miyazaki. Photo Ad Blankestijn]

As a bonus, I mention the Hashizuka in southern Nara, which you can see when you walk the famous old route of the Yamanobe Road (a hike which gets *** stars).

For the Daisenryo, visit the Sakai City Museum instead. Full scale models of decorated tombs of northern Kyushu can be found in the Kumamoto Prefectural Art Museum.

Japanese youth culture as a hot export product

As the Japan Times informs us, three female "ambassadors of cute" appointed by the Foreign Ministry have started traveling abroad to introduce Japanese pop culture to young people overseas.

Is this a good thing? Will people still take Japan serious when they are flooded with manga, cosplay and "kawaii" characters? Isn't this degrading the whole of Japanese culture?

No, I don't think so. In the first place, there is not one monolithic thing called “Japanese culture,” but rather nowadays there are various cultures in diversifying Japan. Anime, manga and cosplay are part of “Japanese youth culture” and have proven surprisingly popular with young people around the world. In the 1960s youth culture came from the U.K. (Beatles etc), now it comes for a large part from Japan.

Different from whether we like the contents of that culture, I think in itself that is good: economically (Japan needs to shift more to exporting services and "soft" products rather than only “hard” industrial products), but also for Japan’s image. It is better to have an “anime” or even “kawaii” image than no image at all. So it is a good idea of the Japanese government to sponsor this.

Moreover, the young persons who now enjoy manga, will often continue later as serious students of other “Japanese cultures” – I know someone from The Netherlands who studied Japanese because of an initial interest in manga and now is at a Japanese university doing research in serious modern literature… In other words, thanks to the manga/anime boom there is more favorable interest in Japan, which is "capital" for the future and does not hurt Japanese credibility.

A final point: also with my work of exporting sake, I notice that the “cool” image that anime etc are giving to Japan helps “sell” other Japanese cultures, such as Japanese food culture / haute cuisine. Or in other words, thanks to manga etc. sake in the U.S. and Europe has a “cool” image (the manga image transferred to other Japanese cultures), very different from in Japan itself where due to the flooding of the market with cheap stuff to which alcohol has been added by the big breweries, sake is often (wrongly!) seen as “non-cool” and something only for older men.

P.S. The easy acceptance abroad of anime and manga with their different characters and story lines is by the way an interesting intercultural phenomenon…

Ionushi's Images

Ionushi aka Aurelio Asiain was already known to me because of his interesting blog (in Spanish) in which he mainly writes on Japanese literature. He often illustrates his posts with beautiful photo's but until today I did not realize he is also a great photographer with a huge amount of must-see pictures on Flickr. Most of them were taken in Japan.

I can do no better than show you, so here are five of my favorites:


Our memory is longer than mine
(Mysterious... like Heian time travel)




Come again under the red umbrella
(Mesmerizing colors)




This is a state of mind
(A wonderful mood, the empty boats are like thoughts going around)




There is poetry in some poets
(Outstanding portrait)




Those footsteps, deep into the silence
(Slowly echoing footsteps on wintry Mt Koya)


By all means, visit Ionushi's original Photostream at Flickr to enjoy more of these intelligent and subtle pictures - there are 2,245 of them!

Toyochiyo, top geiko of Gion in 1988

In April 1988 my wife and I for the first time attended the Miyako Odori performance in Gion. At that time it was much less commercialized (or should I say "less vulgarized"?) than it is now. We also did not have to face the immense throngs of people that are herded through the performance today.

We had tickets for the tea ceremony that is performed as an extra by a geiko before the start of the actual theater program. Twenty years ago it was still possible to observe this at ease in quiet surroundings (we were there last year when it was not even possible to drink the tea before being chased out again...).


[Tea ceremony by Toyochiyo during the 1988 Miyako Odori, Kyoto. Photo Ad Blankestijn]

During that long-ago visit we were lucky, because the geiko performing the tea ceremony was non other than Toyochiyo, at that time the top geiko of Gion Kobu (and therefore the top geiko of Japan!). I was able to take some good pictures of her. Assisting in the ceremony was the maiko Kotsuru. The dance performance that followed was also memorable.

A few days ago I put some of the scans of the slides I took in 1988 on Flickr and the feedback I got motivated me to do some research: where was Toyochiyo now?

Well, as I could read on her own website (only in Japanese), she is doing fine! In her profile on the site I read that in all she worked as a geiko in Gion from 1968 to 1989. She retired one year after we saw her, at the still young age of 36.

When still a geiko, she had obtained a license as Ikebana teacher, and she now was invited to join a group that toured the world to spread Japanese culture via ikebana demonstrations. In all, Toyochiyo visited more than 78 countries.


[Tea ceremony by Toyochiyo during the 1988 Miyako Odori, Kyoto. The maiko is Kotsuru. Photo Ad Blankestijn]

In 1999 she returned to Gion and opened a traditional Japanese tea and dessert shop "Kasai" in a 100-year old chaya (the place where geisha entertain their customers) in Hanami-koji. Visiting the restaurant is a golden chance to see a chaya from the inside. The menu features matcha, zenzai, warabi-mochi, etc.

Toyochiyo is very active promoting the culture of Gion by lecturing, both in Japan and abroad. In 2008 she lectured at Kyushu University about her research on the comparative cultures of geisha in Japan and Korea. Among her many accomplishments are the tea ceremony, calligraphy, song and dance, and ikebana. In that last capacity, she now acts as a free ikebana artist and teacher (i.e. not bound to any school) and organizes her own productions and events.

Her present name is Kiriki Chizu.　She also writes a (Japanese) blog on her website called "Gion Saijiki."

See my Flickr pictures.

All information about Toyochiyo divulged above has been made public on her own website www.c-kiriki.com

Time for Noryo Yuka!

"Noryo yuka" are wooden terraces built over a small canal running parallel to the River Kamo in Kyoto. Those structures are set up between May 1 and September 30 at the back of the many restaurants that sit between Nijo and Gojo streets so that patrons can enjoy dinner in the cool evening breeze. There are about 80 such dining platforms. It is an old custom, going back to Edo times.


[LIFE AS IT WAS IN OLD JAPAN -- Four Maiko Dining on "Yuka" Along the Bank of the Kamo River, KYOTO. From the Flickr Photostream uploaded by Okinawa Soba]

The Kamo riverside used to be a sort of no man's land where entertainers and prostitutes lived and plied their trade already since the 14th century. At those times, benches (called shogi) would be set up by food stalls for their customers and it is thought these developed into wooden terraces connected to restaurants. The terraces became a sort of permanent fixtures, but were pulled down in the rather stiff Meiji-period, to make place for modern developments.

The above picture shows a scene from about 1898 when the terrace was apparently still built in a low position above the Kamo River itself rather than on high stilts above the embankment. The picture was taken by famous photographer T. Enami.

And the wheel of time keeps turning. Besides Japanese food in all price-classes, you can today also have Thai, Korean, Chinese, and even Starbucks coffee on a "noryo yuka!" Kyoto is hot and humid in summer, but the sight alone of the river makes you feel cooler, not to speak of the many lanterns adding charm to the evening scene.

Enter via the streetside of the restaurant, so from Pontocho etc. Except May and September, the noryu yuka are not open in the daytime. Kyoto Visitors Guide has some suggestions for restaurants.

Pico Iyer's Joy of Less

In "The Joy of Less" in the NYTimes Pico Iyer writes about having found simplicity in Japan after the economic crisis. He is living in a small apartment near Kyoto with the partner he found in The Lady and the Monk and feels contented: "There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.”

[...] today, more than 21 years later, I still live in the vicinity of Kyoto, in a two-room apartment that makes my old monastic cell look almost luxurious by comparison. I have no bicycle, no car, no television I can understand, no media — and the days seem to stretch into eternities, and I can’t think of a single thing I lack.

Two remarks about this beautiful piece: I also don't need a bicycle, car or television, but couldn't live without a good internet connection and - what's more - I wouldn't want to live in Japan without having mastered the language. Come on, Mr Iyer, you have been here long enough to become serious about studying Japanese!

Also see this lecture by Pico Iyer in Santa Barbara: "Searching for Home/Self in a fast-Moving World."

Hybrid cutlery

Kottke.org has an interesting pointer to The Ragbag, where a grand unification of cutlery is proposed, from spork to spife to knork to the summum, the splayd!

What is even more surprising, things like the splayd do really exist: the splayd was invented by William McArthur in the 1940s in Sydney, Australia!

If you want to know how chopsticks can be hybridized, take a look at the Forkchops site and their products, although these are not really necessary - see my last remark below..

Or, if you are in a historical mind, read more about the history of our cutlery here. I learned via Robert D. Gill's Topsy-Turvy 1585 that our cutlery only stems from the 19th century - before that time, people ate with their hands and a knife to cut bread and meat.

Chopsticks or o-hashi are the most civilized instrument of all... and they are already "grandly unified" (considering that you are allowed to drink the soup directly from the bowl in Japan)!

[Many thanks to Kottke.org]

Temple Manners in Japan

Can you wear shorts in a temple or shrine in Japan? What about a short-sleeved T-shirt? Funny socks? Are there any other rules?

Most Japanese have a relaxed attitude towards religion, so there are not many strict rules.

Here are a few pointers to Japanese temple manners:


Don't be noisy and keep a respectful attitude - as you would in a museum. But you don't have to start whispering! Not all Japanese keep to this rule, though, you will see Japanese tourists who can be quite boisterous, not to speak of all the chattering school tours filing through major temples.

You usually have to take off your shoes when entering a temple hall and either leave them outside or carry them with you in a plastic bag. This is not for religious reasons, but for the very practical reason that temples have wooden floors and these would be damaged by all those tourists tramping through on heavy boots... The same rules exists in other wooden buildings, as Nijo Castle.


No other clothing rules - shorts and short skirts are OK. So are T-shirts etc. No color rules either, also your socks can have all the colors of the rainbow (and bare feet are in order as well)! You also can wear a cap or hat, but it is polite to take it off when paying your respects inside the main temple hall.


No photography inside temple halls - this rule is always clearly indicated on signs and very strictly reinforced (for example, in Sanjusangendo in Kyoto). I think it is more about image rights than about religion, though... Outside, in the gardens etc usually photography is O.K. although tripods are normally forbidden (for the same "image rights" reason a few famous gardens as Samboin in Daigoji, Kyoto, forbid all photography). It is polite not to aggressively take pictures of people praying, etc., but again, in Japan you won't find an angry mob against you if you transgress. P.S. A temple where you can take photos inside, even of the Buddhist images, is Todaiji in Nara.


Taking part in religious rituals at temples or shrines or not is totally up to you! You can just go and visit as you would any place of cultural significance, or if you prefer you can take part in small rituals as: ritually washing hands at the basin at the entrance to a shrine, clapping hands and bowing at the main hall of a shrine, lighting candles and/or incense in a temple. and saying a silent prayer in both. You don't have to be a Buddhist or Shintoist in order to take part in this, in Japan religion is more about daily practice and ritual than about belief. And, if you don't want to take part, that is perfectly O.K. as well!

A visit to a temple or shrine in Japan can be a very relaxing experience!

Large numbers in Japan

Large numbers in Japan are difficult as you do not count in units of thousand, but rather in units of ten thousand (with different names for those units the higher you get):

1 = ichi (一、one)
10 = ju (十、ten)
100 = hyaku (百、one hundred)
1,000 = (is)sen (千、one thousand)
10,000 = (ichi)man (万、ten thousand). You can also write 4man, or 4.5 man=45,000
100,000 = ju-man (hundred thousand) - ten man or 10 x 10,000 = 100,000
1,000,000 = hyaku man (one million) - hundred man or 100 x 10,000 = 1,000,000
10,000,000 = (is)sen man (ten million) - one thousand man or 1,000 x 10,000 = 10,000,000
100,000,000 = (ichi) oku (億、hundred million). Again you can say 4 oku or 4.5 oku = 450,000,000
1,000,000,000 = ju oku (one billion; in Europe people call this "milliard") - ten oku or 10 X 100,000,000
10,000,000,000 = hyaku oku (ten billion) - one hundred oku or 100 x 100,000,000
100,000,000,000 = sen oku (thousand billion) - one thousand oku or 1,000 x 100,000,000
1,000,000,000,000 = (it)cho (兆、one trillion; in Europe people call this "billion"!). Again you can say 4 cho or 4.5 cho = 4,500,000,000,000
10,000,000,000,000 = ju cho (ten trillion).
100,000,000,000,000 = hyaku cho (hundred trillion)
1,000,000,000,000,000 = sen cho (quadrillion; in Europe people call this "billiard")

We could go even higher (the next unit coming up is called "kei"　（京）, a one with 16 zero's or 10 quadrillion), but in practical use cho is the highest counting unit. But you see the changes with myriads and not thousands:　1 followed by four zeros is man, 8 zeros oku, twelve zeros cho, and 16 zeros kei etc.

So when you see "92 cho 2694 oku" it is 92,269,400,000,000 etc. Here the counting is clearly in "man" units, therefore you have four digits in front of the "oku". The US GDP is (in yen) 1401 cho 7171 oku = 1,401,717,100,000,000. Mindbogglingly large figures...

What is the richest prefecture in Japan?

Recently I bought a "map book" of Japan that also includes all sorts of interesting statistics and other data. One of them compares the GDP of Japanese prefectures (note we are not talking about tax income or prefectural budgets here, but about total wealth generated!).

It goes without saying that Tokyo (officially called to or metropolitan area rather than ken, prefecture) is the richest with a GDP of 92 cho 2694 oku yen (figures for 2005). I always find these figures mind boggling. Cho is a 1 with 12 zeros, so here we have 92,269,400,000,000 yen (if I am not mistaken!). This is the equivalent of US$ 968,224,731,085 or 685,436,924,578 euro.

Number two is Osaka with a GDP of 38,529,400,000,000 yen or US$ 404,258,194,535. Third is Aichi with 35,819,900,000,000 yen or US$ 375,826,084,663.

Kanagawa and Saitama have lots of industry, too, so these rank 4 and 5.

The GDP of Tokyo is smaller than that of Canada or Spain, but larger than that of South Korea, Australia or The Netherlands. It is however smaller than the GDP of New York. Hyogo, where I live, comes in at No. 8 with 18, 857,200,000,000 yen or US$ 197,825,984,286 - still larger than the GDP of such countries as the Czech Republic, Hungary or New Zeeland.

The poorest prefectures - all in the 2-cho yen area - are in descending order Saga, Tokushima, Shimane, Kochi and Tottori. Tottori has a GDP of 2,570,000,000,000 yen or US $ 26,970,540,432. This is still more than the budget of Iceland (but only half that of Luxembourg).

The GDP per head is also highest in Tokyo (4,778,000 yen or US$ 49,459), but Osaka now drops away for this is followed by Aichi and Shizuoka. The lowest GDP per head is in Okinawa (less than half that of Tokyo).