土曜日, 5月 20, 2006
a note: I've changed the setting so that it only shows the post from one day. this is to cut down the time it takes to view the blog because it's so image heavy.
the post from wed has been inserted. thursday now has pix, but not commentary because firefox got mad when i was posting.
friday's post will be VERY image heavy. I took about a gig's worth of pix, but they'll be shrunk down to a much smaller size and a lot of them suck. but, expect a lot of pictures. and i'm actually in some of them. (amazing!)
Also, a quick kanji lesson for the Japanese impaired:
---
the first video is when the higher level sumo compete, they come in (this is the group from the west) and get in a circle in to dohyo(the platform thing) and do this little ritual-thingy
This was one of the most awesome matches of the day. they're all really fast- most within 10 seconds, so this was a long one. they were kinda evenly matched...until...(que video watching)
oh, another one that i have pics of---the winning sumo just kinda fell over and pushed the other guy out of the ring. it was amazing.
before the sumo wrestle, they do this stuff to pump up themselves/scare the opponent/make the croud cheer, etc. But, if they're really awesome and have won a lot of tournaments, after they're announced people come in and parade around the ring with banners from the tournaments they've won (or done well in.. i'm not exactly sure)
this was from the second to last match so they were really good sumo so they both had a lot of banners.
Finally, after all the bouts of the day have been decided. The judges (there are 5 per match, plus they sub in the one in the middle(the 5th guy) each round or so so there are probably like 10 judges there or someting... they decided on a lower ranking sumo who performed really well that day to presnt a bow to.
this goes back to when the emperor or shogun or someone...i need to check... presented the bow. so, to show his gratitude, the sumo would do a bow dance. this is still done.
yay. sumo video.
------
Friday:
At 11:30 on Friday, we met and took the metro to the JR station. They had awesome shops between the two. Look! They were selling Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince! (that’s what it says behind the guy, if it’s too blurry/small for you to see).
Oh, and apparently they have bagels at a bunch of the major metro stations. Craaazy!
More metro art! This one is very oceany….. with a funny orange-sun
Ok, outside at the train station they had this ad. For those of you who don’t speak Japanese- it’s an ad for toys r us. And like in the US where the R is backwards, this one just has the “r” equivalent letter in another alphabet. It’s amusing.
Ok, so we got to the place where sumo/Edo-Tokyo museum was. There was a sumo-style restaurant there.
It had lots of random sumo reproduction things, like this portrait.
When a sumo becomes a yokozuna, he gets his portrait in his apron put up in the Sumo arena. I’m not sure if this is the current one or not, but look, isn’t it nifty?
Look! I’m in a picture! It’s a sumo statue.
Ok, in this statue, the sumo look really fat, but they’re not big fat men, they’re very… large muscular men. I mean, they’re chubby, but it doesn’t jiggle or anything. Ken, the guy that was leading us around said it’s solid, like a tree. Later, there are videos. You’ll see the not-jiggly-ness.
The special sumo menu!
Sumo eat a special kind of food called Chanko. There’s a pic of it later. Basically, it’s vegetables, tofu, tuna, pork, and chicken in a broth that’s steamed and they eat it with egg, and rice and pickled veggies. It looks frickin’ sweet.
Oh, no Sumo-king in our section! Ah ha ha ha ha ha….ok, it wasn’t that funny, but it’s still cute.
My vegetarian chanko!
Look at it in all it’s vegetable-cooking glory! Oh, I forgot to mention. It comes with it’s own little stove thing. So you cook your meat/vegetables to your satisfaction. In the top right, as you can see is the tuna. You don’t cook that….um..because you’re in japan. That’s when you give it to the kid beside you.
The tofu was really good. The non-vegetarians even said so.
Look a the little carrot! Isn’t it so cute?!
Ok…. Edo-Tokyo Museum Entrance….
It’s a bit interesting, wouldn’t you say? There’s a pic of it later…. Where it looks…more interesting…
No running and frolicking!
This is a “portable shrine” called a Mikoshi. They’re used on certain Shinto festivals. Gods are called upon to sit in them and then paraded throughout the city and then are brought back to the Shrine. (It’s Shinto if it’s shrine, Buddhist if it’s temple)
Another Mikoshi
This was a statue in front of the play-house (where plays are held, not like a place to play..) anywho, I have no idea what it means, but it’s pretty awesome.
Here’s the play-house, theatere if you will. Apparently, on the hour, it activates and stuff happens, but I couldn’t stay long enough to see it.
Inside the museum, they had tiny models of pretty much any kind of housing from edo Tokyo you ever wanted to see.
Look! Another!
This is Edo as depicted in the mid 1600’s, during the Kan’ei period.
This is taken directly off a museum sign thingy:
"The History of Edo/Tokyo
Some four centuries ago, in 1590, Tokugawa Ieyasu established his base in Edo. The Gohojo clan had a branch clastle here, but otherwise the area was but a lonely village overgrown with reeds. After Ieyasu's arrival, Edo was to become the political and economic center of Japan. Eventually Edo would develop into one of the most important cities of the world.
In 1603 the Tokugawa bakufu was founded, and the nation came under centralized rule. At the top of the political heirarchy wtood the shogun, below whom were a large number of warriors. Below these came the townspeople, who were the economic backbone of what had in effect become the castle town of the entire land. Approximately one million people lived in Edo, and succeeded in producing a brilliant urban culture.
After the Meiji Restoration (1868) Edo was renamed Tokyo. The city rapidly transformed itself into the Capital of a modern State. But vestiges of the old city of Edo could still be found. Rural inhabitants continued to move to the city, providing a constant source of new vitality in the formation of Tokyo culture.
Overcoming teh disasterous effects of teh 1923 earthquake and the air raids of WWII, Tokyo continued to grow into the international metropolis of some ten million people it has become today."
It’s a wooden figure of Tokugawa Ieyasu made in 1601! –he was the leader of the Tokugawa Shogunate around the turn of that century. Nice hat, don’t you think?
More mikoshi!
The next three pictures are of the residence of the daimyo Matsudaira Tadamasa (mid 17th century)
Here’s some information from the museum:
“Matsudaira Iyo-no-kami Tadamasa (1597-1645), daimyo if Echizen-Fukui domain, build his ‘upper residence’ in front of the Otemon castle gate of Edo castle. This residence was a magnificent Momoyama-style compound, constructed on a huge lot. In 1657, however, during the disasterous ‘Meireki Fire,’ this daimyo's mansion burned to the ground. Thereafter, such luxurious residences were no longer build.”
The next few pictures are of the Edo Riots. Here’s some information about them from the museum…. Verbatim:
~*~*~*~
“Famines and riots
Great famines took place in Japan during the 1730s, 1780s, and 1830s; smaller famines struck the land on many other occasions. Citizens of Edo were greatly effected by these disasters, for when rice prices skyrocketed the cost of everything else went up as well. To make matters worse, merchants bought up what little rice there was, causing further hardship. In response to such events, the Edo citizenry exploded in anger. Its wrath was mainly directed at wealthy merchants who monopolized the rice supply and often had connections to the bakufu. Protestors stormed such business demanding the release of rice. When their requests were turned down, the people took to rioting, destroying buildings, property, and merchandise.
Major riots took place in Edo in 1733, 1787, and 1866. Artisans and street vendors living in "longhouse" tenements played the leading role in the uprising of 1787. In order to prevent the recurrence of such riots, the bukafu enacted measures allowing wards to grant financial help and food to the needy in times of distress.
Edo during the last years of the Edo period
The opening of Japanese harbors at the very end of the Edo period provoked major changes in the structure of the Japanese economy. Prices skyrocketed, causing much suffering for the Edo citizenry.
In the midst of this turmoil, in the tenth month of 1855, Edo was hit by a major earthquake. To make matters worse, epidemics swept through the city. These events enveloped the capital in an air of uncertainty. In cheaply printed flyers that circulated throughout the town, current events were satirized, and the term "world renewal" (yonaoshi) began to be heard. The public keenly sensed the weakness of the government and the instability of the society in general. Many people hoped that things would finally changed in a major "world renewal."
During the last decade of the Edo period the price of rice rose dramatically. By 1866 it was some five times more expensive than it was before this bout of inflation began. That year, two major riots broke out in Edo, on in the fifth month and one in the ninth. As before, poor renters rose up in rebellion, demanding the release of rice and money, and the construction of relief stations. Both rich merchants and the warrior class became the target of such demands. Before the gates of the town magistrates' office, a sarcastic placard was posted reading "the government is sold out." A real "world renewal" seemed to be underway. During the same year, large-scale peasant revolts (ikki) took place in the Tama area near Edo. Immediately thereafter, the Bakufu collapsed, leading to the Meiji Restoration.”
~*~*~*~
Edo Riots! Doesn’t the thing they’re holding look like the squid enemy from Mario?! Does that mean that the people at Nintendo think peasant uprisings are the enemy? Does that make Nintendo “the man?”??!!!!!
And here are some more squid-y things
Squid thing!
They had an explanation of how block printing was done in Edo. It was really involved for multi-tonal images. Movable wooden type wasn’t implemented until later- and then only for books that were rare or were likely to be banned.
And even more mikoshi. Sorry I took a lot of pix of them… I think I just like shiny things or something…
In traditional festivals they use a variety of drums(taiko) and other instruments.
Here is a atarigana (the gold thing) that kinda makes a chingy sound when hit by the mallet next to it.. and on the right is a Shinobue (Japanese transverse flute). Both of these are used in festivals as well.
Here are miniature replicas of samurai armor and banners held when they march.
Koinobori, I suppose they’re equivalent to wind socks but they’re always shaped like fish, usually, carp. I’d never seen one that wasn’t carp-shaped until I came to the museum.(the little red one at the bottom left)
They’re used in the celebration of Children’s day on May 5th.
It’s a boat!
Here’s a model of a fabric-maker’s place of business. It’s huuuge, (ok, well this one is very tiny because it’s a model. But had it been full scale, it would have been “huuuuge”)
This is the shorter side of the model. It was about 2 feet tall and 3-4 across here, on the other side it was like 6 feet across. Crazy. Ooh, look, little people (where do they all belong? Where do they all come from?!)
Inside the playhouse, they had models dressed up in kabuki garb.
Guess what! It’s another mikoshi!
Ok, last mikoshi for now, but here’s something interesting. The white thing is a staff thing that the guy who’s leading the mikoshi around carries to indicate the direction they need to go. Kind of like the guys on the runway that signal to the airplanes…only… Shinto.
It was pretty cloudy….
Anyway, these are the areas where they had vending machines outside the museum to escape the rain. Modern….
Is it the Edo-Tokyo Museum or a Transformer: Robot in Disguise?!
The entrance….
All right. It’s sumo time!
Here’s my ticket! Worst seats in the house for a mere 3600yen. Sweet.
Who are the people in your neighborhood? (in your neighborhood, in your neighborhood?)
They’re the people that you meet when you’re walkin’ down the street each day!
Like Sumo Wrestlers!!
Now for some sumo info. This is straight out of the guide book they handed out at the event.
“According to Japanese legend the very origin of the Japanese race depended on the outcome of a sumo match. The supremacy of the Japanese people on the islands of Japan was supposedly established when the god, Takemikasuchi, won a sumo bout with the leader of a rival tribe. Apart for the legend, however, sumo is an ancient sport dating back some 1500 years.
Its origins were religious. The first sumo matches were a form of ritual dedicated to the gods with prayers for a bountiful harvest and were performed together with sacred dancing and dramas within the precincts of the shrines. The Nara Period (8th centry) sumo was introduced into ceremonies of the Imperial Court. A wrestling festival was held annually which included music and dancing in which the victorious wrestlers participated. Early sumo was a rough=and-tumble affair combining elements of boozing and wrestling with a few or no holds barred. But under the continued patronage of the Imperial Court rules were formulated and techniques developed so that it came more nearly to resemble the sumo of today.
A military dictatorship was established in 1192 and a long period of intense warfare ensued. Sumo, quite naturally, was regarded chiefly for its military usefulness and as a means of increasing the efficiency of the fighting men. Later in the hands of the samurai, jujitsu was deceloped as an offshoot of sumo. Peace was finally restored when the different warring fractions were united under the Tokugawa Shogunate in 1603. A period of prosperity followed, marked by the rise to power of the new mercantile classes.
Professional sumo groups were organized to entertain the rapidly expanding plebian class and sumo came into its own as the national sport of Japan. The present Japan Sumo Association has its origins in these groups first formed in the Edo Period.”
Here’s the sumo arena.
The sumo ring is called the dohyo and it’s made of straw rice bags in a circle with one offset in each of the cardinal directions. The dohyo is 18 feet square and 2 feet high and is made of clay and covered with a layer of sand.
Above it, suspended by cables, is a roof that looks like a Shinto shrine with 4 different tassles resembling the 4 seasons of the year.
When the higher level sumo(maku-uchi) enter the ring, they do a dohyo-iri (dohyo entering) ceremony. They come in in reverse order of their rank.
The sumo, before the 15-day tournament even starts, are divided arbitrarily into east(higashi) and west(nishi). This is the west group entering. The ritual can be seen in one of the video clips.
Here are sumo facing off. They basically go through a long ritual of foot stomping, staring down, salt throwing, indimidation period. It used to not have any time limit but in 1928, they imposed a 10 min limit, then it was pared down to 7, then 5, and now it’s at 4. They tend to take most of the time. Which is probably good because the actual sumo bout seems to take approximately 10 seconds. Seriously.
Ok this was the other really neat sumo win. The sumo basically launced himself at the other guy.
Here is some more of the ritual face-off thing.
This model includes REAL Foot-Stomping Action!
Here is the order of events from the day. (in the upper ranks)
Here’s one more picture of the arena. It got really full (at least in the pricy sections below)
Allright, to demonstrate the short-ness of these sumo bouts, here is a time-elapsed sumo bout. I did 3 total, and beginning to end, they all take fewer than 16 frames. They’re very big pictures. Sorry.
Oh, I met a sumo in the gift-shop!
Here’s another time-elapsed pic.
This was the final bout of the day, between the current yokozuna, on the far side, and another high-ranking sumo. The Face-Off:
The Bout!
Yeah, the Yokozuna kicked his ass.
Here’s the outside of the arena-place, There was this statue of a guy with a hat and a stick and he was on a turtle… all I could think of was rincewind in discworld… but where are the elephants?!
Then we went out for some very shitamachi(down town) food. This is called Manjo.
It rained. Like it does all the time. And for some reason this is in black and white. I don’t know how I didn’t notice when I took it. But meh. Pretend I was being artsy or something. *shrug*
It’s down-town Asakusa by night!
And a happy Koban (police-box)
Here is the entrance to the sensoji shrine.
It has shops from the entrance to where the actual shrine starts. It’s sooo commercial, unlike the one we went to before.
My Metropolitan Tokyo professor was talking about how Tokyo is such an ugly city. He said there were 4 stages of how it got to be this way.
First, after WWII, the people were asked to deal without beauty in order to rebuild the city.
Then, there was a policy-freeze and it was “the way things were done”
Next came the “addiction” phase, where people can’t do it any other way.. not efficient enough, etc.
Finally, came the decoration phase. People realized it was ugly, but they were stuck with it, so they just decorated it. This is an example. I think it’s awesome, but meh.
The real entrance to the shrine:
Here’s the Pagoda next door.
Look! A traditional streetlight.
here was the entertainment part of Asakusa….
…Where we went bowling…
Look at the little-kid bowling balls! They’re sooo cute!
I bowled pretty well… like an 85. I think that’s a major improvement over what I used to do…
So, to get home to Akasaka from Asakusa (try saying that three times fast), I had to take the Ginza line from the end G-19 to the second stop G2. That took about 30 min.
But look! It’s the don’t get caught in the doors kitties!
So… Asakusa….
We were really tired by this time…
But the other side of the train takes good pictures so they don’t look retarded.
Two of the girls fell asleep. One was pretending. Guess which one that was…
Here’s a starbucks ad in the metro.. I assume they’re implying it’s good to the last drop. (isn’t that someone else’s slogan in the US?)
It’s a coffee add again. And it has tommy lee jones. And it’s for rainbow mountain coffee. I seriously don’t get it. But the cans look like that. Oh, and coffee comes in vending machines hot from cans.
--oh, this happened earlier in the day but I put it last to torment howe-san.
They have a public transportation penguin named suica. Which means watermelon but also stands for “Super Urban Intelligent Card” which is basically a card you can connect to your credit card and use for JR lines, Tokyo metro, and random conbinis.
Look! Suica Stuff!
[fin.]
the post from wed has been inserted. thursday now has pix, but not commentary because firefox got mad when i was posting.
friday's post will be VERY image heavy. I took about a gig's worth of pix, but they'll be shrunk down to a much smaller size and a lot of them suck. but, expect a lot of pictures. and i'm actually in some of them. (amazing!)
Also, a quick kanji lesson for the Japanese impaired:
日曜日 = Sunday
月曜日 = Monday
火曜日 = Tuesday
水曜日 = Wednesday
木曜日 = Thursday
金曜日 = Friday
土曜日 = Saturday
---
the first video is when the higher level sumo compete, they come in (this is the group from the west) and get in a circle in to dohyo(the platform thing) and do this little ritual-thingy
This was one of the most awesome matches of the day. they're all really fast- most within 10 seconds, so this was a long one. they were kinda evenly matched...until...(que video watching)
oh, another one that i have pics of---the winning sumo just kinda fell over and pushed the other guy out of the ring. it was amazing.
before the sumo wrestle, they do this stuff to pump up themselves/scare the opponent/make the croud cheer, etc. But, if they're really awesome and have won a lot of tournaments, after they're announced people come in and parade around the ring with banners from the tournaments they've won (or done well in.. i'm not exactly sure)
this was from the second to last match so they were really good sumo so they both had a lot of banners.
Finally, after all the bouts of the day have been decided. The judges (there are 5 per match, plus they sub in the one in the middle(the 5th guy) each round or so so there are probably like 10 judges there or someting... they decided on a lower ranking sumo who performed really well that day to presnt a bow to.
this goes back to when the emperor or shogun or someone...i need to check... presented the bow. so, to show his gratitude, the sumo would do a bow dance. this is still done.
yay. sumo video.
------
Friday:
At 11:30 on Friday, we met and took the metro to the JR station. They had awesome shops between the two. Look! They were selling Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince! (that’s what it says behind the guy, if it’s too blurry/small for you to see).
Oh, and apparently they have bagels at a bunch of the major metro stations. Craaazy!
More metro art! This one is very oceany….. with a funny orange-sun
Ok, outside at the train station they had this ad. For those of you who don’t speak Japanese- it’s an ad for toys r us. And like in the US where the R is backwards, this one just has the “r” equivalent letter in another alphabet. It’s amusing.
Ok, so we got to the place where sumo/Edo-Tokyo museum was. There was a sumo-style restaurant there.
It had lots of random sumo reproduction things, like this portrait.
When a sumo becomes a yokozuna, he gets his portrait in his apron put up in the Sumo arena. I’m not sure if this is the current one or not, but look, isn’t it nifty?
Look! I’m in a picture! It’s a sumo statue.
Ok, in this statue, the sumo look really fat, but they’re not big fat men, they’re very… large muscular men. I mean, they’re chubby, but it doesn’t jiggle or anything. Ken, the guy that was leading us around said it’s solid, like a tree. Later, there are videos. You’ll see the not-jiggly-ness.
The special sumo menu!
Sumo eat a special kind of food called Chanko. There’s a pic of it later. Basically, it’s vegetables, tofu, tuna, pork, and chicken in a broth that’s steamed and they eat it with egg, and rice and pickled veggies. It looks frickin’ sweet.
Oh, no Sumo-king in our section! Ah ha ha ha ha ha….ok, it wasn’t that funny, but it’s still cute.
My vegetarian chanko!
Look at it in all it’s vegetable-cooking glory! Oh, I forgot to mention. It comes with it’s own little stove thing. So you cook your meat/vegetables to your satisfaction. In the top right, as you can see is the tuna. You don’t cook that….um..because you’re in japan. That’s when you give it to the kid beside you.
The tofu was really good. The non-vegetarians even said so.
Look a the little carrot! Isn’t it so cute?!
Ok…. Edo-Tokyo Museum Entrance….
It’s a bit interesting, wouldn’t you say? There’s a pic of it later…. Where it looks…more interesting…
No running and frolicking!
This is a “portable shrine” called a Mikoshi. They’re used on certain Shinto festivals. Gods are called upon to sit in them and then paraded throughout the city and then are brought back to the Shrine. (It’s Shinto if it’s shrine, Buddhist if it’s temple)
Another Mikoshi
This was a statue in front of the play-house (where plays are held, not like a place to play..) anywho, I have no idea what it means, but it’s pretty awesome.
Here’s the play-house, theatere if you will. Apparently, on the hour, it activates and stuff happens, but I couldn’t stay long enough to see it.
Inside the museum, they had tiny models of pretty much any kind of housing from edo Tokyo you ever wanted to see.
Look! Another!
This is Edo as depicted in the mid 1600’s, during the Kan’ei period.
This is taken directly off a museum sign thingy:
"The History of Edo/Tokyo
Some four centuries ago, in 1590, Tokugawa Ieyasu established his base in Edo. The Gohojo clan had a branch clastle here, but otherwise the area was but a lonely village overgrown with reeds. After Ieyasu's arrival, Edo was to become the political and economic center of Japan. Eventually Edo would develop into one of the most important cities of the world.
In 1603 the Tokugawa bakufu was founded, and the nation came under centralized rule. At the top of the political heirarchy wtood the shogun, below whom were a large number of warriors. Below these came the townspeople, who were the economic backbone of what had in effect become the castle town of the entire land. Approximately one million people lived in Edo, and succeeded in producing a brilliant urban culture.
After the Meiji Restoration (1868) Edo was renamed Tokyo. The city rapidly transformed itself into the Capital of a modern State. But vestiges of the old city of Edo could still be found. Rural inhabitants continued to move to the city, providing a constant source of new vitality in the formation of Tokyo culture.
Overcoming teh disasterous effects of teh 1923 earthquake and the air raids of WWII, Tokyo continued to grow into the international metropolis of some ten million people it has become today."
It’s a wooden figure of Tokugawa Ieyasu made in 1601! –he was the leader of the Tokugawa Shogunate around the turn of that century. Nice hat, don’t you think?
More mikoshi!
The next three pictures are of the residence of the daimyo Matsudaira Tadamasa (mid 17th century)
Here’s some information from the museum:
“Matsudaira Iyo-no-kami Tadamasa (1597-1645), daimyo if Echizen-Fukui domain, build his ‘upper residence’ in front of the Otemon castle gate of Edo castle. This residence was a magnificent Momoyama-style compound, constructed on a huge lot. In 1657, however, during the disasterous ‘Meireki Fire,’ this daimyo's mansion burned to the ground. Thereafter, such luxurious residences were no longer build.”
The next few pictures are of the Edo Riots. Here’s some information about them from the museum…. Verbatim:
~*~*~*~
“Famines and riots
Great famines took place in Japan during the 1730s, 1780s, and 1830s; smaller famines struck the land on many other occasions. Citizens of Edo were greatly effected by these disasters, for when rice prices skyrocketed the cost of everything else went up as well. To make matters worse, merchants bought up what little rice there was, causing further hardship. In response to such events, the Edo citizenry exploded in anger. Its wrath was mainly directed at wealthy merchants who monopolized the rice supply and often had connections to the bakufu. Protestors stormed such business demanding the release of rice. When their requests were turned down, the people took to rioting, destroying buildings, property, and merchandise.
Major riots took place in Edo in 1733, 1787, and 1866. Artisans and street vendors living in "longhouse" tenements played the leading role in the uprising of 1787. In order to prevent the recurrence of such riots, the bukafu enacted measures allowing wards to grant financial help and food to the needy in times of distress.
Edo during the last years of the Edo period
The opening of Japanese harbors at the very end of the Edo period provoked major changes in the structure of the Japanese economy. Prices skyrocketed, causing much suffering for the Edo citizenry.
In the midst of this turmoil, in the tenth month of 1855, Edo was hit by a major earthquake. To make matters worse, epidemics swept through the city. These events enveloped the capital in an air of uncertainty. In cheaply printed flyers that circulated throughout the town, current events were satirized, and the term "world renewal" (yonaoshi) began to be heard. The public keenly sensed the weakness of the government and the instability of the society in general. Many people hoped that things would finally changed in a major "world renewal."
During the last decade of the Edo period the price of rice rose dramatically. By 1866 it was some five times more expensive than it was before this bout of inflation began. That year, two major riots broke out in Edo, on in the fifth month and one in the ninth. As before, poor renters rose up in rebellion, demanding the release of rice and money, and the construction of relief stations. Both rich merchants and the warrior class became the target of such demands. Before the gates of the town magistrates' office, a sarcastic placard was posted reading "the government is sold out." A real "world renewal" seemed to be underway. During the same year, large-scale peasant revolts (ikki) took place in the Tama area near Edo. Immediately thereafter, the Bakufu collapsed, leading to the Meiji Restoration.”
~*~*~*~
Edo Riots! Doesn’t the thing they’re holding look like the squid enemy from Mario?! Does that mean that the people at Nintendo think peasant uprisings are the enemy? Does that make Nintendo “the man?”??!!!!!
And here are some more squid-y things
Squid thing!
They had an explanation of how block printing was done in Edo. It was really involved for multi-tonal images. Movable wooden type wasn’t implemented until later- and then only for books that were rare or were likely to be banned.
And even more mikoshi. Sorry I took a lot of pix of them… I think I just like shiny things or something…
In traditional festivals they use a variety of drums(taiko) and other instruments.
Here is a atarigana (the gold thing) that kinda makes a chingy sound when hit by the mallet next to it.. and on the right is a Shinobue (Japanese transverse flute). Both of these are used in festivals as well.
Here are miniature replicas of samurai armor and banners held when they march.
Koinobori, I suppose they’re equivalent to wind socks but they’re always shaped like fish, usually, carp. I’d never seen one that wasn’t carp-shaped until I came to the museum.(the little red one at the bottom left)
They’re used in the celebration of Children’s day on May 5th.
It’s a boat!
Here’s a model of a fabric-maker’s place of business. It’s huuuge, (ok, well this one is very tiny because it’s a model. But had it been full scale, it would have been “huuuuge”)
This is the shorter side of the model. It was about 2 feet tall and 3-4 across here, on the other side it was like 6 feet across. Crazy. Ooh, look, little people (where do they all belong? Where do they all come from?!)
Inside the playhouse, they had models dressed up in kabuki garb.
Guess what! It’s another mikoshi!
Ok, last mikoshi for now, but here’s something interesting. The white thing is a staff thing that the guy who’s leading the mikoshi around carries to indicate the direction they need to go. Kind of like the guys on the runway that signal to the airplanes…only… Shinto.
It was pretty cloudy….
Anyway, these are the areas where they had vending machines outside the museum to escape the rain. Modern….
Is it the Edo-Tokyo Museum or a Transformer: Robot in Disguise?!
The entrance….
All right. It’s sumo time!
Here’s my ticket! Worst seats in the house for a mere 3600yen. Sweet.
Who are the people in your neighborhood? (in your neighborhood, in your neighborhood?)
They’re the people that you meet when you’re walkin’ down the street each day!
Like Sumo Wrestlers!!
Now for some sumo info. This is straight out of the guide book they handed out at the event.
“According to Japanese legend the very origin of the Japanese race depended on the outcome of a sumo match. The supremacy of the Japanese people on the islands of Japan was supposedly established when the god, Takemikasuchi, won a sumo bout with the leader of a rival tribe. Apart for the legend, however, sumo is an ancient sport dating back some 1500 years.
Its origins were religious. The first sumo matches were a form of ritual dedicated to the gods with prayers for a bountiful harvest and were performed together with sacred dancing and dramas within the precincts of the shrines. The Nara Period (8th centry) sumo was introduced into ceremonies of the Imperial Court. A wrestling festival was held annually which included music and dancing in which the victorious wrestlers participated. Early sumo was a rough=and-tumble affair combining elements of boozing and wrestling with a few or no holds barred. But under the continued patronage of the Imperial Court rules were formulated and techniques developed so that it came more nearly to resemble the sumo of today.
A military dictatorship was established in 1192 and a long period of intense warfare ensued. Sumo, quite naturally, was regarded chiefly for its military usefulness and as a means of increasing the efficiency of the fighting men. Later in the hands of the samurai, jujitsu was deceloped as an offshoot of sumo. Peace was finally restored when the different warring fractions were united under the Tokugawa Shogunate in 1603. A period of prosperity followed, marked by the rise to power of the new mercantile classes.
Professional sumo groups were organized to entertain the rapidly expanding plebian class and sumo came into its own as the national sport of Japan. The present Japan Sumo Association has its origins in these groups first formed in the Edo Period.”
Here’s the sumo arena.
The sumo ring is called the dohyo and it’s made of straw rice bags in a circle with one offset in each of the cardinal directions. The dohyo is 18 feet square and 2 feet high and is made of clay and covered with a layer of sand.
Above it, suspended by cables, is a roof that looks like a Shinto shrine with 4 different tassles resembling the 4 seasons of the year.
When the higher level sumo(maku-uchi) enter the ring, they do a dohyo-iri (dohyo entering) ceremony. They come in in reverse order of their rank.
The sumo, before the 15-day tournament even starts, are divided arbitrarily into east(higashi) and west(nishi). This is the west group entering. The ritual can be seen in one of the video clips.
Here are sumo facing off. They basically go through a long ritual of foot stomping, staring down, salt throwing, indimidation period. It used to not have any time limit but in 1928, they imposed a 10 min limit, then it was pared down to 7, then 5, and now it’s at 4. They tend to take most of the time. Which is probably good because the actual sumo bout seems to take approximately 10 seconds. Seriously.
Ok this was the other really neat sumo win. The sumo basically launced himself at the other guy.
Here is some more of the ritual face-off thing.
This model includes REAL Foot-Stomping Action!
Here is the order of events from the day. (in the upper ranks)
Here’s one more picture of the arena. It got really full (at least in the pricy sections below)
Allright, to demonstrate the short-ness of these sumo bouts, here is a time-elapsed sumo bout. I did 3 total, and beginning to end, they all take fewer than 16 frames. They’re very big pictures. Sorry.
Oh, I met a sumo in the gift-shop!
Here’s another time-elapsed pic.
This was the final bout of the day, between the current yokozuna, on the far side, and another high-ranking sumo. The Face-Off:
The Bout!
Yeah, the Yokozuna kicked his ass.
Here’s the outside of the arena-place, There was this statue of a guy with a hat and a stick and he was on a turtle… all I could think of was rincewind in discworld… but where are the elephants?!
Then we went out for some very shitamachi(down town) food. This is called Manjo.
It rained. Like it does all the time. And for some reason this is in black and white. I don’t know how I didn’t notice when I took it. But meh. Pretend I was being artsy or something. *shrug*
It’s down-town Asakusa by night!
And a happy Koban (police-box)
Here is the entrance to the sensoji shrine.
It has shops from the entrance to where the actual shrine starts. It’s sooo commercial, unlike the one we went to before.
My Metropolitan Tokyo professor was talking about how Tokyo is such an ugly city. He said there were 4 stages of how it got to be this way.
First, after WWII, the people were asked to deal without beauty in order to rebuild the city.
Then, there was a policy-freeze and it was “the way things were done”
Next came the “addiction” phase, where people can’t do it any other way.. not efficient enough, etc.
Finally, came the decoration phase. People realized it was ugly, but they were stuck with it, so they just decorated it. This is an example. I think it’s awesome, but meh.
The real entrance to the shrine:
Here’s the Pagoda next door.
Look! A traditional streetlight.
here was the entertainment part of Asakusa….
…Where we went bowling…
Look at the little-kid bowling balls! They’re sooo cute!
I bowled pretty well… like an 85. I think that’s a major improvement over what I used to do…
So, to get home to Akasaka from Asakusa (try saying that three times fast), I had to take the Ginza line from the end G-19 to the second stop G2. That took about 30 min.
But look! It’s the don’t get caught in the doors kitties!
So… Asakusa….
We were really tired by this time…
But the other side of the train takes good pictures so they don’t look retarded.
Two of the girls fell asleep. One was pretending. Guess which one that was…
Here’s a starbucks ad in the metro.. I assume they’re implying it’s good to the last drop. (isn’t that someone else’s slogan in the US?)
It’s a coffee add again. And it has tommy lee jones. And it’s for rainbow mountain coffee. I seriously don’t get it. But the cans look like that. Oh, and coffee comes in vending machines hot from cans.
--oh, this happened earlier in the day but I put it last to torment howe-san.
They have a public transportation penguin named suica. Which means watermelon but also stands for “Super Urban Intelligent Card” which is basically a card you can connect to your credit card and use for JR lines, Tokyo metro, and random conbinis.
Look! Suica Stuff!
[fin.]
