Mysterious life of some beautiful Japanese women - remembering Geisha

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Some of the irresistible pictures flashing into the mind while thinking of Japan were of the girls beautifully cladded with traditional Japanese cloths, having a bunch of cloths at her back, the face almost like white washed, lips reddened like hibiscus flower, the bunched hair tied at her back attractively and walking as if her legs are tied.

This terribly beautiful Japanese woman images persisted and dominated my thoughts of Japan while I was in India. The other image was of westling men with huge physical figure.I always wondered how these giant wrestlers and beautiful women make a perfect combination in a wonderful part of the earth – Japan. I was not knowing that these beautiful women are called geisha in Japan. To my surprise now, It was after almost three months of stay in Japan, I came to know about the term geisha and became interested to read more about such wonderful entertainers of Japanese culture.

Geisha are entertainers, skilled in singing, dancing, story telling, and flirting with customers, Geisha were conversationalists employed at parties and other social affairs to entertain men in a male dominated Japanese society.

The Japanese word Geisha consists of two kanji, 芸 (gei) meaning art and 者 (sha) meaning person or and the translation of geisha into English would be artist or performing artist.

Another term used in Japan is geiko, a word from the Kyoto dialect. Full-fledged geisha living in Kyoto are called geiko. This term is also commonly used in the region to distinguish geisha practiced in traditional arts from prostitutes who have co-opted the name and attire of geisha.

Often there is a confusion between geisha and prostitutes. Prostitutes wear the bow of their sash, or obi, in front of their dress- kimono. Geisha wear their obi at the back. A full time geisha usually had the luxury of a professional aide to help them in the difficult process of dressing; their clothing is made up of several layers of kimono and undergarments, and an obi is more than a simple band of cloth. Dressing could take over an hour, even with professional help. Prostitutes, however, had to take off their obi several times a day, so theirs were far less complex, and tied at the front for ease of removal and replacement.

Geisha are expected to be strictly entertainers and not engage in sex business, but the distinction between entertainment and sex has always not been maintained precisely and some of them became the mistresses of men who purchased their contracts from the masters who held them in bondage. In old times, eventhough the Tokugawa government directed the geisha not to engage in prostitution, the problem and mysterical confusion of geisha and the prostitutes persisted.

Interestingly there remains some confusion, even within Japan, about the nature of the geisha profession. Geisha are frequently depicted as expensive prostitutes in Western popular culture. Geisha are entertainers, their purpose being to entertain their customer, be it by reciting verse, playing musical instruments, or engaging in light conversation. Geisha engagements may include flirting with men and playful innuendos; however, clients know that nothing more can be expected. In a social style that is uniquely Japanese, men are amused by the illusion of that which is never to be. Geisha do not engage in paid sex with clients.

Apprentice geisha are called maiko. It is the maiko, with her white make-up and elaborate kimono and hairstyle, that has become the stereotype of a geisha to the outside world, ratther than the original geisha. A woman entering the geisha community does not have to start out as a maiko, having the opportunity to begin her career as a full geisha. In fact, a woman above 21 is considered too old to be a maiko and becomes a full geisha upon her initiation into the geisha community. However, those who do go through the maiko stage enjoy more prestige later in their professional lives.

Young women who wish to become geisha now most often begin their training after completing junior high school with many women beginning their careers in adulthood. Geisha still study traditional instruments like the shamisen, shakuhachi (bamboo flute), and drums, as well as traditional songs, Japanese traditional dance, tea ceremony, literature and poetry. By watching other geisha, and with the assistance of the owner of the geisha house, apprentices also become skilled in the complex traditions surrounding selecting and wearing kimono, and in dealing with clients.

Kyoto is considered by many to be where the geisha tradition is the strongest today, including Gion Kobu. The geisha in these districts are known as geiko. The Tokyo hanamachi of Shimbashi, Asakusa and Kagurazaka are also well known.

In modern Japan, geisha and maiko are now a rare sight outside hanamachi. In the 1920s there were over 80,000 geisha in Japan, but today there are far fewer, estimated to be from 1,000 to 2,000.

Young girls were sold into the geisha life by their families until the mid-20th century and were often subject to the ritual of 'mizu-age,' whereby their virginity was sold to the highest bidder. Such practices were eradicated after World War II and the geisha profession went into a steady decline.

Although the profession of geisha has declined greatly in modern times, some geisha have been successful working in the political world. These geisha are engaged to entertain at parties of leading politicians, where the sake (Japanese alcohol) flows freely and some times in important political negotiations are conducted. Although geisha are supposed to remain silent about what they hear at these affairs, it is interesting that the leading political parties tend to patronize their own groups of geisha. Political canvassing and eaves dropping business is not limite to some countries and Japan is not an exception !

An article about Japanese geisha can not be concluded without mentioning MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA.

Arthur Golden’s best selling novel – memoirs of a geisha depicts a world where appearances are paramount; a world where a girl's virginity is auctioned to the highest bidder; where women are trained to beguile the most powerful men; and where love is scorned as illusion. It is a unique and masterpiece work of fiction, at once romantic, erotic, suspense at the same time unforgettable with haunting memories.

In ‘memoirs of a geisha’, Nitta Sayuri tells the story of her life as a geisha. The story begins from a poor fishing village in 1929 when, Sayuri, as a nine year old girl with unusual blue gray eyes, has taken from her home and sold into slavery to a renowned geisha house. The readers witness her transformation of her life as she learns the rigorous arts of the geisha: dance and music; wearing kimono, elaborate makeup and hair; pouring sake to reveal just a touch of inner wrist; competing with a jealous rival for men's solicitude and the money that goes with it.

Ukiyo-e Japanese woodblock prints or woodcuts and paintings

Ukiyo-e , meaning -pictures of the floating world is a genre of Japanese woodblock prints or woodcuts and paintings produced between the 17th and the 20th centuries, featuring motifs of landscapes, tales from history, the theatre and pleasure quarters. It is the main artistic genre of woodblock printing in Japan.

The floating world (ukiyo) refers to the impetuous urban culture that bloomed and was a world unto itself. Although the traditional classes of Japanese society were bound by numerous strictures and prohibitions, the rising merchant class was relatively unregulated, therefore "floating." (pictures and headings from wikipedia)

The immediate precursor of the Ukiyo-e was the genre painting, that flourished in the late 16th and 17th centuries. It is debatable what criteria should be used to distinguish the earlier genre works from the ukiyo-e, eventhough one major difference is in the fact that the former were painted by members of the aristocratic schools such as the Kano~, whereas the ukiyo-e were done by townsman artists.

The establishment of ukiyo-e as an independent art form was to great extent the work of Hishikawa Moronobu who was the son of a Kyoto embroiderer. He grew up in the ancient imperial capital Kyoto and moved to Edo where he perfectly captured in visual form, Edo's vital and and engaging spirit. Throughout the Tokugawa period, the art of ukiyo-e remained, first and foremost the art of Edo.

Moronobu possessed two qualities apart from his natural artistic ability, that made him a successful pioneer in ukiyo-e. He had an intimate and personal interest in townsman life and he was assertive to demand recognition as an independent artist.

Moronobu's great innovation was the make shift of painting to Woodblock printing. The earliest ukiyo-e done by Moronobu and others were simply black and white prints known as 'primitives'. Slowly artists began to have colors generally red or reddish brown and green painted in by hand on their prints. The multicolored print, known as nishiki-e or brocade picture necessitated cooperation from three people - the artist, the wooblock carver, and the printer and became a joint artistic endeavor.

From the beginning, ukiyo-e artists were interested in two subjects - Women of the pleasure quarters and kabuki actors. Throughout the Tokugawa period the overwhelming majority of prints they produced were of these two subjects of nightlife. The ukiyo-e representations of pleasure women and actors usually stress the sensual and erotic, in contrast to the earlier genre paintings in which people were for the most part portrayed objectively and with little infusion of emotion on the part of the artist.

Many artists of the ukiyo-e school are noted for their depiction of feminine beauty. But the most celebrated among them is Kitagawa Utamaro. Utamaro-san's typical beauties are long and willowy and have about them a languid and sensual air, often portrayed in great intimacy, with one or both breasts opened and with hair and clothing casually displayed.

Utamaro san in his celebration of the beauty of the female body, represented something new in the Japanese cultural tradition. Until this age of townsman culture and establishment of the artistic theme of erotic love, the Japanese had devoted little attention to the human body, either male or female, as an object of beauty.

One of Utamaro san's contemporaries was a mysterious genius Toshusai Sharaku. He did mostly kabuki actors. The less-well-known sōsaku hanga movement, literally creative prints, followed a Western concept of what art should be: the product of the creativity of the artists, creativity over artisanship.

Traditionally, the processes of making ukiyo-e — the design, carving, printing, and publishing — were separated and done by different and highly specialized people (as was also traditionally the case with Western woodcuts. Sōsaku hanga advocated that the artist should be involved in all stages of production.

The movement was formally established with the formation of the Japanese Creative Print Society in 1918, however, it was commercially less successful, as Western collectors preferred the more traditionally Japanese look of shin hanga.

Ukiyo-e are still produced today and are influential in many ways, inspiring, for example, manga and anime.

Popular Japanese music and Stage performances

Japanese music is the highly eclectic musical culture of the Japanese islands. Over the years, Japan has borrowed musical instruments, scales, and styles from many neighboring areas.

Japanese music to a great extent evolved through the centuries in conjunction with the literature. This was particularly true from the medieval period on, when music was used as an accompaniment both to plays of the no~ theatre and to the reactions of itinerant storytellers, who strummed their lutelike biwa as they chanted excerpts from such works as The Tale of the Heike.

Probably, the first public performance of Western music in Japan in modern times was the playing by Perry's naval band during its visit to Edo in 1853. And as in the case of the conversion to Western style clothing, it was the Japanese military that led the way in the adoption of Western music.

It was in the public schools, that the most important measures were taken to advance knowledge and appreciation of Western music among the Japanese.

The pop/rock music scene has gone through a few different stages over the years. The rockabilly sounds of the late 50's became popular in the cities of Japan just after they revolutionised the US music scene. Young guys and girls flocked to see the stars of the day do their best impersonations of Elvis and Gene Vincent at the Western Festival in Tokyo in Februaury 1958.

I could read in Japan zone that Think about it - Sony Music Entertainment is one of the biggest record companies in the world; Yamaha is the largest manufacturer of musical instruments in the world; Japan has the sixth-largest population in the world; the music industry generates billions and billions of dollars worldwide every year. Yet how many Japanese artists have had a No. 1 hit in the US or European charts? One. Yes, one - and that was way back in 1963 (Sukiyaki by Sakamoto Kyu).

I could see the list of popular singers who have established themselves in the Japanese music world - Glay, Hamasaki Ayumi, Fukuyama Masaharu, Kitajima Saburo, Komuro Tetsuya, Morning Musume, Utada Hikaru, Go Hiromi, The Alfee, Matsuda Seiko, hitomi, Hotei Tomoyasu, Yazawa Eikichi and the list go on....

I could not see the name Hasegawa Shingo. Infact I was searching for his name in the list of top performing singers in Japan. This is beacause, many days, after taking my lunch at McDonalds or KFC, I have seen Hasegawa Shingo san performing at Ito Yokado. For me, a new comer in Japan, his songs, eventhough without knowing the meaning of what he sing, sounded good. His performance is also attractive and he pulls the crowd.

Ladies are especially found great fan of Hasegawa Shingo. Sometimes he whirls a towel to the audience and many are crazy to catch it and keep it with them. When I searched in google for his name, I could see one result in ebay with this caption - Find more items similar to: Import - HASEGAWA, SHINGO- YUBAENOMACHI/YOGIRINOKUTSUOO See all items in: Music > CDs

I am not sure, whether he is the same Hasegawa shingo san or not. If any of the readers know, please share it with me.

Hasegawa Shingo san performing at Ito yokado. He pulls the crowd and keeps them with him throughout the show. He knows the necessary stage tricks to cheer up his audience.

Music loving Japanese people are interested to watch his shows hosted at Ito Yokado. I have seen atleast a couple of times and many times missed his shows. He take care to shake hands of his audience and one day I also had that opportunity. Over the period, it has become usual practice for me to watch his performances at Ito Yokado.

Hasegawa Shingo is one of the known performing artist, who dance well and take his audience along with his music. His ability to dance and sing makes him a popular figure in the shows. He looks young, though I have no previous experience of introduction with Hasegawa Shingo san.

Music loving Japanese people encourages him throughout his performance by clapping and singing along with him. People enjoy him performing and he enjoy them listening and watching him and many time I enjoy both Hasegawa Shingo san and the public watching him.

Hiroshima marks Atomic bomb anniversary with hope for US change

The mayor of Hiroshima on Wednesday urged the next US president to work to abolish atomic weapons as the city marked the 63rd anniversary of the world's first nuclear attack.

Some 45,000 people, including Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, gathered at a memorial to the dead within sight of the A-bomb dome, a former exhibition hall burned to a skeleton by the bomb's incinerating heat.

They stood up and offered silent prayers at 8:15 am, the exact moment in 1945 when a single US bomb instantly killed more than 140,000 people and fatally injured tens of thousands of others with radiation or horrific burns.

Delivering a speech at the memorial, Hiroshima mayor Tadatoshi Akiba noted the United States was one of only three countries which oppose a UN resolution submitted by Japan calling for the abolition of nuclear arms.

"We can only hope that the president of the United States elected this November will listen conscientiously to the majority, for whom the top priority is human survival," he said.
Akiba said the effects of the atomic bombing on the minds of survivors had been underestimated for decades, adding that "the voices, faces and forms that vanished in the hell" had never left the hearts of survivors.

With the average age of survivors now over 75, he said the city would launch a two-year scientific study of the psychological impact of the experience.

"This study should teach us the grave import of the truth, born of tragedy and suffering, that the only role for nuclear weapons is to be abolished," the mayor told the service.

On the eve of the anniversary, children gathered in front of the Atomic Bomb Dome for a lantern march. Survivors burned incense before dawn broke.

An altar at the Peace Memorial Park quickly filled up with a mountain of flowers. A group of South Koreans performed a traditional dance to honour the dead, who included a number of Koreans.

"Children who evacuated buildings or went to work at factories on that day have not returned 63 years on... the atomic bomb deprived them of normal life," 11-year-old school girl Honoka Imai told the service.

A Chinese representative, a diplomat, attended the annual ceremony for the first time in a move welcomed by the city, which each year invites representatives of the world's eight declared nuclear powers to the event.

Previously India, Pakistan and Russia were the only nuclear powers that had sent representatives to the ceremony. The other declared nuclear states -- Britain, France, North Korea and the United States -- have never come.

Three days after the Hiroshima bombing, the United States dropped a second nuclear bomb on Nagasaki, which killed another 70,000 people in the southern port city.

Japan surrendered in World War II on August 15. The nation has since been officially pacifist and turned into one of the closest US allies, hosting more than 40,000 US troops.

Dozens of atomic survivors and activists protested in Nagasaki this week as a US nuclear-powered submarine arrived in Japan, just days after it emerged another sub may have suffered a small radiation leak earlier this year.

( News in AFP by Toru Yamanaka )

Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park

Social Security, Health Care, and Public Hygiene in Japan

For the last two months, except on Sundays I have been attending a physiotherapy course for the lumbar disc prolapse at my L5/S. The treatment is an automated physiotherapy machine, where my body will be stretched and bring back to normal position repeatedly for 10 minutes. My evenings are booked by my back!

One of the major problem as a foreigner I faced was the language to communicate my condition. I knew only one word in Japan that ‘Itai desu’ meaning I have pain. My exact condition on the first weeks of June was the numbness in left leg. From Tabe-san I learned the equivalent word for numbness in the leg as ‘shibireru’. That helped me to a good extent to effectively convey the exact condition and pain I was suffering. The sciatic pain which happens due to disc pro-lapse was severe in my case too.

I have always been communicating through this blog about the helping mentality of Japanese people. From the day one of my landing in Japan, starting from my boss (I could not ask his permission to mention his name here), I have been experiencing that helping mentality. When I told to my friend at office that I have this sciatic pain and want to consult doctor, my friend Aoki-san came with me all the way to Toyo-cho to communicate for me. My surprise ! This is the real altruism ! She could convey to doctor exactly in what situation I was. This reinforced my feeling that Japanese people have a kind of empathetic feeling. It is not sympathy or simply helping somebody for charity. They feel that the person is in real need of help and before we ask, they guess and offer their help. Remarkable character of Japanese people.

Doctors are called as ‘sensei’ in Japanese, means ‘master’ with great respect. Japanese people have strong faith and respect in doctors and teachers and both are called as ‘sensei’ The hospital I am going is SUGIMOTO ORTHOPAEDICS in Toyo-cho. It is near to a public park. I like this park which is with full of flowers and children playing on the ground and is on the road side.

Japan has a national health insurance system to ensure that anyone can receive necessary medical treatment. Under this system, every citizen belongs to a public medical insurance system, such as an employees' health insurance or a national health insurance. I have also received one such insurance card and am effectively using it for my daily physiotherapy treatement.

This medical care system is highly regarded internationally because, along with improvements in the living environment and better nutrition, it has contributed to Japan achieving the highest life expectancy and healthy life expectancy in the world, as well as a high standard of healthcare. Currently, reform of the whole system is being undertaken in order to sustain this medical insurance system in the future.

My orthopedic doctor is also mastered in Accupuncture as the certificate displayed at the entrance of the clinic. Traditional Chinese medicine was introduced to Japan with other elements of Chinese culture during the 5th to 9th century. Since around 1900, Chinese-style herbalists have been required to be licensed medical doctors. professionalized and, except for East Asian healers, was based on a biomedical model of disease.

Japan has near to 10,000 general hospitals. Health is taken extremely serious in Japan, as the high status of doctors in society would hint it. Most often, even minor ailments like colds are treated with care.
Statistics Bureau, Director General for Policy Planning & Statistical Research and Training institue

Japan - Socialism and status of Communist parties

Personally, I have great interest in knowing more about Japanese communism. I was wondering the state of communist parties in Japan as Japan is a blind follower of United states. The influence of US on Japan and its political structure must have wiped out the possibility of flourishing the prsopects of communism in Japan.

Being from a person from communist ruled state in India, Kerala, I was interested in Japan and its activities in a capitalist economy. My grandfather was a communist, but my father was against communism as he told us that communism ends up all individual achievements and competition in the world. As he told, in a communist ruled country, people will not put their effort to achieve the goals. Everything will be decided by the state. I have read Communist manifesto when I was doing my graduation. I was in favor of communism infact and was a great fan of Carl Marx. More than communism, Marxism attracted me for its practical approach, eventhough finding differences between both are quite difficult.

The Japanese Communist Party (JCP) advocates the abolition of capitalism and the establishment of a society based on socialism, democracy and peace, and opposition to militarism. JPC proposes to achieve these objectives by working within the framework of capitalism in order to achieve its goals, while still struggling against what it describes as imperialism and its subordinate ally, monopoly capital.

Although it is a Leninist party, the JCP does not advocate socialist revolution, it proposes a democratic revolution to achieve democratic change in politics and the economy, and the complete restoration of Japan's national sovereignty, which it sees as infringed by Japan's security alliance with the United States.

The JCP is one of the largest non-ruling communist parties in the world, with about 400,000 members belonging to 25,000 branches. The JCP has maintained its position partly because of the collapse of the old Japan Socialist Party, once the country's main opposition party but reduced to 5.5% of the vote.

Although the socialist and other left wing movements had very little practical success in the period before world war II ,they constitute an important subject of study. This study will help us to understand the origins of the left wing in Japan today. Socialistic movements have exerted a powerful influence on Japanese writers, artists, and intellectuals in general.

One reason for the poor performance of socialist movement in the prewar period was the frequent governmental suppression to which they were subjected. It is the history in Japan that the first Socialist Part, founded in 1901 was banned on the same day it declared its birth !

Such treatments by authorities soon led to some socialist leaders to despair of ever achieving their goals by parliamentary means and to embrace more radical ideologies, such as syndicalism and anarchism. While in many other parts of the world, these suppression by the establishment gave more strength and vigor to socialistic movements, Japan's socialist movements did not get into the mainstream.

Communism and socialistic movements in many parts of the world suffered severe set backs. But including my own state Kerala and the eastern states of India, West Bengal and Tripura to some extent still embrace communism and beholds memories of a good tomorrow where rich and poor will not be there in the earth.

Red salute to the comrades !

Address of Japanese Communist Party:
The Central Committee of the Japanese Communist Party
4-26-7 Sendagaya,Shibuya-ku,Tokyo 151-8586

Earth quake hits Japan again on 24th July

Nihon ni Jishin wa itsumo okirimasu ka.

This is one of the Japanese sentence I learned during my first few months in Tokyo. The translation is: 'Is the earth quake commonly occur in Japan ?' Sometimes in order to remember this sentence I used to ask my friends and they used to answer 'hai' means Yes.

Japan is one of the world's most earthquake-prone countries.

On early hours of July 24th, Thursday I could see the hanging fancy lights in my bedroom oscillating and the doors started giving vibration and noise. Sitting on the floor I thought it was my feeling only. But I could really see the oscillation of the hanging lights on the roof. It reminded me the incidents happened in 1993 September in Aurangabad, Maharashtra, India, which was my first experience with earth quake. The next day we could read and watch the agonies of more than 100,000 Indian people from Latur and neighboring districts.

A kind of fear gripped me and I just went to the balcony to see whether anybody is there outside. I could not see anybody outside. Then I realized, Jishin wa itsumo okirimasu ! Earth quake happens frequently in Japan. Probably people do not take small vibrations seriously.

Next day morning, news papers were with full of news on the earth quake that a powerful earthquake rattled parts of northern Japan early Thursday, injuring more than 100 people, triggering landslides and cutting power to thousands of people, officials said.

Associated Press reported: Japan's Meteorological Agency said there was no danger of a tsunami from the temblor, which had a preliminary magnitude of 6.8. It struck shortly after midnight about 65 miles underground and centered just off the coast of Iwate, 280 miles northeast of Tokyo.

At least 109 people were injured, including 16 seriously, according to the National Police Agency. Japan's Kyodo News agency said 131 people were injured, citing its own tally.

The earthquake caused strong shaking of up to 40 seconds in large parts of northern Japan, official said.

"Everything has fallen off the shelves, scattered all over the floor," grocery store owner Tomio Kudo told national broadcaster NHK from the town of Hirono, where the shaking was most violent. "Even a big refrigerator has moved about 30 centimeters (1 foot)."
Several nuclear power plants in the region continued operations after inspection by plant workers found no problems, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said in a statement.
The quake caused a blackout at more than 8,000 homes, it said.

Japan's "bullet" super-express trains were suspended in some areas, according to operator East Japan Railway Co. The earthquake also triggered landslides at several locations, the police agency official said. Details were not immediately available.

Relief workers and local officials hit the streets to take a closer look to the affected areas in daylight Thursday. A team of government officials headed by Disaster Minister Shinya Izumi also arrived in Iwate.

"We must grasp the extent of damage as quickly as possible so that we can immediately take necessary steps," Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda told reporters.

Police said some of the more serious injuries included a woman in Hirono who broke a leg falling down stairs and another woman in Aomori city who broke her hip fleeing out a window.

A 6.8 magnitude earthquake is capable of causing serious, widespread damage. Last month, a 7.2-magnitude earthquake struck sparsely populated rural areas in northern Japan, killing at least 12 people, leaving 10 others missing and injuring more than 300.

Meteorological Agency official Takashi Yokota warned of possible aftershocks from Thursday's quake.

Watch this video news from Reuters:

Remembering Akira Kurosawa

During 1990s, at the time of my graduate studies, there was a screening of Japanese movies in my college campus. It was then I first heard about Akira Kuroswa, the great world famous movie director. The name glued to my memories along with the flashes from his movies. It was such a memorable experience for me and my friends at that time, that we became fan of Japanese movies, eventhough hardly we get anything to watch after that film festival.

Akira Kurosawa stands great with his masterpiece art works. Kurosawa-san is widely regarded as one of the greatest directors in cinema history. It is a testimony to his genius that he could break the language barriers and was able to entertain and communicate with millions of cinema lovers all over the world surpassing cultural limitations.

Among the most post-worldwar II films, both in Japan and abroad, have been those of Kurosawa-san, including Rashomon, Ikiru, and Seven Samurai (Shichinin no Samurai). Kurosawasan has been called the most western of Japanese film directors, and it is true that in content, his films especially those action oriented such as Seven Samurai or deal with events by means of an existentialist kind of psychological probing such as Rashomon, are more readily and universally comprehensible than the films of many other Japanese directors.

The three films screened during the film festival were Rashomon, Ikiru and Seven Samurai.

Most of my friends liked the Rashomon in its presentation. Rashomon tells the story of a brutal ambush, rape, and murder, viewed from four different angles - the attacker, the woman, the dead husband, and a witness. Rashomon is an excursion into the nature of truth in storytelling, and how people lie to protect their image and interest. Depending upon which version of story about the incident, the husband was killed in a duel with the bandit to uphold his wife's honor, or he killed himself in mortification over the ravishment of his wife, or he was killed when incited to duel with the bandit by the wife after first seeking to disassociate himself from her behavior.

Ikiru is about the existential search for meaning in life of an aging bureaucrat, who finds out he has only six months to live, and the way his colleagues, relatives, and acquaintances interpret his actions. The theme of this movie was a discussion subject for many days among my friends.

And seven samurai is the incomparable tale of seven honorable samurai who come to the defense of a farming community against bandits. Set in medieval Japan, this film is still one of the most acclaimed epics of the 20th century. Read with the story of film the fact that Kurosawa's father worked as the director of a junior high school operated by the Japanese military and the Kurosawas descended from a line of former samurai.

It may be a coincidence that I got a chance to visit Kurosawa-san's land !

What is Sento Kun and do you like Sento kun ?

Here is an interesting social debate after the mascot Sento kun.

Today I heard from one of my friend about the funny mascot Sento Kun. I think atleast in Japan, there is no need to ask do you know what is Sento Kun?

The city named Nara was the old capital of Japan. Japan will celebrate the 1300th anniversary of the Nara-Heijyoko Capital. This functionw will be held in 2010. Sento kun is the character selected as a symbolf for the function to celebrate the 1300th anniversary of the transfer the national capital to Heizei, in Nara. To transfer the national capital means “sento” in Japanese language. 'knn' means boy. So this character is called “sento-kun.”

Many Japanese people criticize it because it is not so cute and it is strange looking. Sento kun was selected from 21 plans submitted. It combines the horns of deers, which is the symbol of Nara, and the body of a boy.

Many of the Japanese are happy about the mascot character for the Commemorative Events of the 1300th Anniversary of the Nara-Heijyoko Capital to be held in 2010.
For some Japanese Sento kun is creepy, ugly and for some it is sacrilegious as the face resembles to Buddha. Many had reported saying that Sento kun makes them terrified and they want to see a new character as soon as possible.

Nara citizens started appealing to the public for new character. More 34000 people voted for their favorite characters. However, some people say that new candidates don’t have a great impact than Sento Kun.

The character was designed by a sculptor and professor at Tokyo University of the Arts, Satoshi Yabuuchi, who is one of twelve guest designers invited by the Association for Commemorative Events of the 1300th Anniversary of the Nara-Heijyokyo Capital.

The name SENTO-Kun was selected from more than 14,000 public applicants by the association of the event on April 15th. Ever since the announcement of the official mascot character in February many Japanese, including media and religious groups have expressed their negative opinions about SENTO-Kun.

Japanese people says ‘Nara prefecture has become the laughingstock. .. It’s really grotesque.’ Some even think that it is blasphemous towards Buddha and they blame that ‘People who does not have any problem with this figure must be people who have nothing to do with faith.

Some people have positive views about Sento-kun. They see it as kimokawaii - creepy but cute or even as adorable.

An online community was created on Mixi to call for a withdrawal of the mascot selection by the event association immediately after the debut. Now the community has over 1000 members, and it launched a website called “Sen Sanbyaku-nen Kinen wo Sukuu Kai means The 1300th Anniversary Support Group”. Besides the unpopularity of the mascot character design, the group criticizes the Association of Commemorative Events for spending over 5,000,000 yen in tax money to buy out the copyright from Mr. Yabuuchi. The group gathered petitions on the streets to call for a withdrawal of the mascot character design, and conducted a questionnaire survey on the design.

There’s a hot debate on the inappropriate method of character selection as well.

Neither the Governor of Nara-prefecture nor the Association has any intention of changing the mascot character, and the Association issued a statement asking for support from the public for Sento-kun and for the event.

These debates around Sento-kun certainly helped to attract public attention to the event.

A Nara-based Buddhist group announced that it had created its own mascot to mark the 1,300th anniversary of Nara becoming capital of Japan.

The mascot’s name is Namu-kun, and despite what you may think, he is a boy. He is made to look like Prince Shotoku, a leader whose palace is supposed to have been located in Nara. Some feel that this mascot is more justifiable to Buddhism than the unpopular Sento-kun, an antlered Buddha-thing that the Nara government officially named its mascot back in March.

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Remember Pearl Harbor !

As part of my learning process, I was reading through 'The Fruits of Modernity' in 'Japanese culture by Paul Varley, an outstanding book, in which the author in around 383 pages tell us the Japanese history and culture. The narration of facts attracted me much. This book neatly surveys over 2000 years of the arts, religion and cultural peculiarities of one the most cultivated of nations - Japan. Varley's Japanese Culture remains the best book of its kind on the market.

I was surprised by the braveness and obsession (we can use this word) Japanese showed during the time of second world war. I was excited by the narrated stories in the book. During 1941, as Japan penetrated its powers through the south east asia, the United staes reacted by freezing Japanese assets in America and by joining Britain and Holland in imposing an embargo on all exports to Japan. This intractable American opposition to the Japanese aggression in 1941 made Pearl Harbor all but inevitable.

To the Americans, the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, in which more than two thousand Americans died, was an dastardly act that inspired a thirst for revenge. This revenge account for much of the brutality with which US subsequently conducted the pacific war.

To the Japanese on the other hand, there was nothing infamous or dastardly about Pearl Harbor. Japanese regarded it as a brilliant victory. Japanese public was ecstatic. Many writers publicly expressed that the anticipated war had finally begun and that Japan had delivered a devastating blow at the enemy, identified primarily as the United States and England.

Choosing the classical waka form of verse, a poet proclaimed that "The time has come, To slaughter America and England." And see this one:

Remember December eighth !

On this day the history of the world was changed.

The Anglo-Saxon powers

On this day were repulsed on Asian land and sea.

It was their Japan which repulsed them,

A tiny country in the Eastern sea,

Nippon, the Land of the Gods

Ruled over by a living god.

Whatever be the American and western point of view holds on Japanese aggression during second world war, we Indians while studying through highschool history books, had felt great proud about Japan. It was Japan who helped the Subhash Chandra bose, the great freedom fighter of India, to capture many eastern areas of British ruled India. Japan promised a new hope for Indian freedom fighting at the time of world war. Indian people hate to see Japan's surrender to US.

Now, the business had changed the world scenario and the historical faults of nations are no more important. But still the aggressiveness with which Japanese fought the war is remarkable.

As Paul Varley comment on his book, Japan and Japanese never give up. They keep on trying and exploring and if in war, Japan fights to its last soldier !

Is there any Indonesian Restaurants in Tokyo?

Is this a question !

There are many Indonesian restaurants in Japan, especially in Tokyo. Indonesian migrant population in Japan is more compared to other south east asian countries like India. Japan also have interests in Indonesia as it is an oil rich area. During second world war, when allied forces, stopped oil supply to Japan, Japan dared to attack Indonesia and captured it as a source of petroleum. That is now part of history. Our topic is Indonesian Hotels in Tokyo.

This is the second time I was going to an Indonesian hotel in Tokyo. The first time I went with my Indonesian friend was to Surabay hotel in Odaiba, near water park. This time, we went to another SuraBaya hotel in Toyosu. This hotel is inside the Lalaport shopping complex in Toyosu.

Many varieties of food were displayed infront of the Surabaya hotel. Indonesian Surabaya hotel is near to and Indian hotel Bombay Talkie, inside the shopping mall.

The taste of food is similar to the traditional taste of food at Surabaya, my Indonesian friend told. Surabaya is a district in the East Java province. Surabaya is the capital of East Java. The distance from Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia is around 900 km, and takes around 70 minutes by air. East Java is famous for its cultural and religious mix up. Majority of Hindu people in Indonesia are from Java. They keep the traditional customs and rituals of Hindu religion till date.

'nashi goreng'

The food we have tasted also were not much different from many of the food varieties I have experienced in India. I took 'nashi goreng' in Indonesia, meaning fried rice with oil fried chicken and half boiled egg with fried fish snack. Nashi goreng is one of the popular food in Surabaya. The coutesy of the staff at restaurant was commentable. They are attentive and polite. Some Japanese staff are also there.

I enjoyed the nashigoreng and would love to revisit Surabaya restaurant again !