Posted in Art, History, Kyoto, Museums on Jun 25th, 2008 No Comments »
Visitors to Kyoto’s Heian Shrine may have noted a building with Chinese style yellow glazed roof tiles standing just to the left of the great torii gate. This is the roof of a small tower that sits on top of a huge storehouse of Chinese collectibles, ranging from Shang bronzes to Buddhist statues, furniture, paintings […]
Posted in Food, Japan, Kobe, Museums, Sake on May 21st, 2008 4 Comments »
The largest sake producing area in the whole of Japan can be found in Hyogo Prefecture, at the seaside of Nishinomiya and in the eastern part of Kobe. This area is called “Nada” and as there are five sake producing districts, one speaks about the “Five Nada Districts” (Nada Gogo). From east to west these […]
Posted in Architecture, History, Museums, Osaka, Technology on May 15th, 2008 No Comments »
The title says it all: this is a museum about the ancient Sayama Irrigation Pond (the oldest in the country) and the most important exhibit is a huge slice of mud of the dam built to create the reservoir 1,400 years ago (and enlarged over the centuries). This mud wall (62 meters long and 15 […]
Posted in History, Museums, Nature, Religion, Temples, Travel on Apr 14th, 2008 2 Comments »
In the Tama Hills in the western part of Saitama Prefecture stands an old temple famous for the valuable Buddhist scriptures it possesses. Now only a remnant of a much larger complex, the temple also boasts an Eleven-Headed Kannon. When I visit, the doors of the altar cabinet happen to be wide open and the […]
Posted in Architecture, Art, Business, Food, Japan, Museums, Photography, Web on Mar 31st, 2008 No Comments »
Japan Newbie has a nice piece on a kushikatsu restaurant in Juuso, Osaka, run by an elderly couple. The cook wears berets and the wife is extremely forgetful, but the taste is great.
The New York Times features Mori Minoru of Roppongi Hills fame in The Builder Who Pushes Tokyo Into the Clouds. Yes, Mr Mori […]
Posted in Art, History, Kobe, Museums on Mar 31st, 2008 No Comments »
As suits an international city, the Kobe City Museum is devoted to the themes of “International Cultural Exchange” and “Contact Between and Changes in Eastern and Western Cultures.” It has been accommodated in a former bank building with Dorian columns from the nineteen-thirties. The museum opened in 1982 after the merger of two museums that […]
Posted in History, Kobe, Museums, Nature, Temples, Travel on Mar 28th, 2008 2 Comments »
Although I had been living for a year in Kobe, I had not yet made my way to that part of the city where the hot springs of Arima are located. There was no need to play the tourist, I thought, but last weekend curiosity drove me if not to the baths themselves, at least […]
Posted in Food, Japan, Kyoto, Museums, Sake on Mar 23rd, 2008 1 Comment »
I am starting a new series where I will look into the regional varieties of Japanese sake. The first one is Kyoto!
[Fushimi sake district, Kyoto]
Kyoto Prefecture is in volume the second sake producing prefecture in Japan - after Hyogo’s Nada district. That is all thanks to the breweries in the southern part of the prefecture, […]
Posted in History, Japan, Museums on Mar 8th, 2008 1 Comment »
Fourteen hundred years ago, Asuka (now a quiet village) was the cultural and political center of Japan. Here for the first time a unified state was established, based on the introduction of the more advanced culture, technology and administrative systems of China and Korea. Buddhism was introduced as well and the first temples were built. […]
Posted in Festivals, Gardens, Museums, Nature, Tokyo, Travel on Mar 1st, 2008 2 Comments »
I have given you directions to the plum groves of Ogose, deep in Saitama and a long haul from Tokyo. But there is another great (or even greater) plum viewing area much closer to the metropolis: the Yoshino Baigo Park in Ome, which is part of Tokyo itself.
[Yoshino Baigo, Ome. Photo © Ad Blankestijn]
Ome […]
Posted in History, Museums, Osaka on Feb 26th, 2008 3 Comments »
Chikatsu-Asuka is an area in southern Osaka Prefecture rich in ancient history. There are 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. It was therefore the obvious choice for a museum dedicated to tomb culture. The new […]
Posted in Festivals, Museums, Nature, Travel on Feb 24th, 2008 No Comments »
In the past (let us say, the Heian-period) the Japanese preferred the plum blossom, strong as it is in the cold weather and possessing a fine fragrance, to the weaker cherry blossom that rains down at the slightest gust of wind. Later, Saigyo with his madness for pink sadness changed it all…
[Ogose Plum grove, […]
Posted in Gardens, Museums, Nature on Feb 20th, 2008 No Comments »
Thanks to its balmy climate (and the fumes from its hot springs), the plum trees in Atami are among the first to bloom in the wider Tokyo area. So for early flowering trees visit this resort town and after tearing yourself loose from the steaming baths, head for the area just west of the town […]
Posted in Museums, Sake, Travel on Oct 23rd, 2007 No Comments »
Nishinomiya, the second town in Hyogo Prefecture when you come from Osaka, was originally the “temple town” of the Nishinomiya Ebisu Shrine (still existing, but in a modern concrete incarnation - affectionately called Ebessan, the main festival of this shrine dedicated to the god of luck and good fortune is on January 10). From the […]
Posted in Museums, Writing on Oct 21st, 2007 No Comments »
The house Tanizaki lived in for the longest period during his sojourn in the Kansai, was a house he called “Isho-an” in what is now Uozaki in Kobe. Although it has been moved 150 meters from its original location due to the extension of a road (it stood at the bank of the Sumiyoshi River), it […]
Posted in Museums, Writing on Oct 13th, 2007 No Comments »
After the great Tokyo earthquake of 1923, “Edokko” Tanizaki Junichiro, Japan’s foremost 20th century author, moved to the Kansai. Fear of another quake and despair at a quick recovery of the metropolis were certainly factors, but in his literary work Tanizaki also was reaching a stage of maturity where he reached out to Japan’s tradition […]
Posted in Museums, Sake, Travel on Sep 7th, 2007 1 Comment »
Although Kobe attracts the more than respectable number of 25 million visitors a year, it ranks not very high on the wishlist of visitors from Europe or America. The reasons are simple: we come here for (traditional) Japanese culture and competition in the Kansai with heavyweights as Kyoto and Nara is just too severe. Moreover, […]
Posted in Museums on Aug 30th, 2007 No Comments »
Otaru developed in the 19th century as a port town for Sapporo and a logistics center for the Ishikari coal mines. It was also a fishing port for herring and in the early 20th c. it developed into a thriving commercial and industrial town. Those days of past economic glory are still reflected in the […]
Posted in Museums on Aug 24th, 2007 No Comments »
Established in 1971 to celebrate the centenary of the opening of Hokkaido, the Historical Museum of Hokkaido is an imposing, square pile of red brick sitting in natural surroundings close to the Nopporo Forest Park. Not surprisingly, Hokkaido’s modern history is more dense than its ancient one. The elaborate permanent exhibition (which is unchanging) is […]
Posted in Museums, Temples, Travel on Aug 22nd, 2007 No Comments »
The magnificent vermilion front gate, tower gate and impressively black-lacquered inner shrine (ICP) of the Katori Jingu Shrine were donated around 1700 by the fifth Tokugawa shogun, Tsunayoshi. Ancient cedars grow in the precincts, and the approach to the shrine is lined with cherry trees.
Many centuries ago, Katori stood at the coast of a large […]
Posted in Museums on Aug 19th, 2007 No Comments »
What is better than combining a visit to a cool highland destination with a great museum? Here are some suggestions for fusing art and nature this summer.
[Niki Museum in Nasu - Photo © Ad Blankestijn]
1. Utsukushi-ga-hara Open-Air Museum
This sister facility of the Hakone Open-Air Museum (also not a bad choice for a summer destination, […]
Posted in Architecture, Kyoto, Museums, Technology on Apr 25th, 2007 No Comments »
Kyoto is often seen as purely a historical city for tourists. Indeed, when you sit in a quiet Zen garden you tend to forget that it is also a hothouse of advanced research and industry.
That was already so in the past. In the last 30 years of the 19th century, after the capital was transferred […]
Posted in History, Museums on Apr 7th, 2007 No Comments »
The history museum of Hiroshima Prefecture stands in the Castle Park of Fukuyama, and not in the capital, Hiroshima. But Fukuyama was selected for a good reason: it is the site of Kusado Sengen, a medieval port city in the Ashida River delta that flourished in the Kamakura and Muromachi periods and in its heyday […]
Posted in Art, Kobe, Museums on Apr 2nd, 2007 No Comments »
In the Kansai, there are several small museums with great and rare collections, which are easy to miss as they are only open a few weeks each spring and autumn. One of these is the Kurokawa Institute of Ancient Cultures in Nishinomiya. The institute was established in 1950 by Kurokawa Koshichi, a financier from Osaka, […]
Posted in Art, Museums, News on Mar 28th, 2007 No Comments »
Ai-mitsu is one of the most tortured (and fascinating) Japanese painters from the middle of the last century - he died in China during the war. He is undeservedly unknown outside of Japan, so the Ai-Mitsu Exhibition starting March 30 in the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, and lasting until May 27, is a […]
