Tohoku Culture Paper 4: Sakata-Kuromori

  Kabuki is a traditional Japanese style play where actors dress in Japanese style clothing called kimono’s and wear white makeup on their faces. Usually during Kabuki plays, actors exaggerate their words and try to speak in old fashion Japanese. The Kabuki plays have been around since the 1600s and they are often compared to another similar play style called Noh. Recently I was able to go a Kabuki performance for JAS 435 exploring Tohoku Culture at Sakata-Kuromori. At Sakata-Kuromori, a series of Kabuki plays are performed on this day, and numerous people come to this area to watch people perform Kabuki. This was not my first Kabuki play, but compared to the one I went to in America, the actors at this Kabuki play spoke in Japanese instead of English. In addition, the first performance that I saw featured child actors instead of adults.

 According to the website Japan-Guide, the Kabuki tradition first appeared during the Edo period. At first only female actors performed Kabuki but eventually women were banned from acting in Kabuki and replaced by men because a lot of the female kabuki actors were actually prostitutes. Due to the lack of females, men had to play female roles and men that played female characters had become known as “onnagata.” Before the Japanese government had begun trading with the west, Kabuki and other similar traditional Japanese art forms such as bunraku or noh were the main forms of entertainment in Japan. Noh is another type of Japanese play where actors also wear traditional Japanese clothing but wear masks instead of white makeup. Bunraku is a type of Japanese play where puppets are used instead of people.

Tohoku Culture Paper 3: Yokote

    According to the Japan National Tourism Guide, Yokote is an area that is famous for the Kamakura festival held around winter time. At the Kamakura festival, tourist may see dome shaped houses made out of snow called Kamakura where they may be able to drink sake and eat food inside of the Kamakura. Recently I was given the opportunity to visit Yokote to go to the Kamakura festival as an optional field trip for my JAS 435 Exploring Tohoku Culture class. At Yokote, I was able to visit a Kindergarten where I could make a mini Kamakura with children, and I was able to go to the Kamakura festival.

  
 Below is a picture of a mini Kamakura from the Kindergarten. At the Kindergarten, there were multiple mini Kamakuras on the ground. There were also about four bigger Kamakura’s that people could reside in. Inside of the bigger Kamakuras, we could talk with some of the local people and drink sake or amazake with food. The local people were very friendly and they were interested to learn about the backgrounds of their foreign guests. Even though my Japanese is not that good, I was somehow able to communicate with the locals. The sake that I drank was very warm and although I do not remember the name of the mochi-like food I ate, it was also very good. The amazake was also very warm and it can be described as a milk-like drink filled with rice that does not contain alcohol. 

One of the many mini Kamakura at the Kindergarten

Tohoku Culture Paper 2: Dewa Sanzan

Dewa Sanzan is a term to refer to the three mountains of Dewa Sanzan. These mountains are important to the Japanese Shinto region and they were visited by famed Japanese poet Matsu Basho during one of his pilgrimages. Recently I was able to go to visit one of the three mountains for JAS 435 Exploring Tohoku Culture. The mountain that I visited was Mount Haguro. I was unable to go to the other two mountains Mount Yudono, and Mount Gassan because they were closed during the winter time.

Mountain with Yamabushi statues

 At Dewa Sanzan, Japanese mountain hermits called Yamabushi practice the religion Shugendō. Occasionally Yamabushi can be seen playing music with a conch shell. Shugendō is a Japanese religion made from aspects of Chinese Yin-Yang mysticism, Taoist magic, and other Asian religions. Besides Yamabushi, worshippers of Shugendō may also be known as Shugenja, Shugyōsha, or Keza. Shugendō emphasizes that worshippers must practice physical endurance in order to achieve enlightenment. Worshippers practice things like fasting, meditation, recite sutras, seclusion, and occasionally sit under water falls or sit in the snow. Worshippers may also place stone or wood markers on the ground in order to prove that they traveled that location. When entering at temple, a follower of Shugendō may make a special hand gesture or recite a classical Japanese poem.

Tohoku Culture Paper 1: Hiraizumi

Here is my first paper from the Tohoku Culture Class I took during the winter semester. This paper was not that bad. Therefore I decided to put my whole paper online without the sources. For this paper, I had visited Hiraizumi.

Hiraizumi

Hiraizumi is a town located in the rural part of Japan known as Nishiiwai District, Iwate, Japan. Hiraizumi is known for being the home of the Fujiwara clan: Japan’s most powerful clan. During the Heian period, it had rivaled the wealth and culture of Kyoto, Japan’s capital during that time. Unfortunately during 1189, the town of Hiraizumi was attacked by soldiers of the man that would become Japan’s first shogun Minamoto Yoritomo. After the town was attacked, a lot of its historical buildings were destroyed and Hiraizumi was no longer a super power that could rival Kyoto anymore. The Japanese poet Matsuo Bashō had visited Hiraizumi during 1689 and wrote a haiku (Japanese poem) about Hiraizumi’s former glory. 

The summer's grass
'Tis all that's left
Of ancient warrior's dreams

When he had visited Hiraizumi, he wrote down those words above. These words comes from Basho’s text called “Oku no Hosomichi.” At the time of the writing, he was reflecting on the tragedy of how Hiraizumi was once a prosperous town many years before and how the city has become of shell of its former self. After the events of the Fujiwara clan, Hiraizumi had become a relic of the past. Part of the tragedy is because of the warrior Yoshitsune. Yoshitsune was exiled by his brother, Japan’s first shogun, Yoritomo. Yoshitsune had then traveled to Hiraizumi to seek protection from the Fujiwari clan only to be betrayed by a member within the Fujiwara family. Since that day, Hiraizumi had lost its glory, and it seems like the town of Hiraizumi was waiting for something to happen so that people could visit Hiraizumi again.

In love with Sendai

It feels nice to finally post something because the winter semester was too short. Classes were more intense and because of my Tohoku Culture class, I was traveling a lot, had to write a lot of papers, and I did not have a lot of time. This semester I was cooking a lot, so here are pictures of food I made during the winter semester. Here are pictures of macaroni and cheese and pork adobo.

My roommate had moved to a different dormitory at the middle of this semester, so I got my own room. My room was really cold during the winter semester, so I was in the library normally. I wrote five papers for Tohoku Culture, but I am not too happy with all of them. I may post some of them on my blog in the near future.

Besides Sendai, this month I will be going to Tokyo, Okinawa, Okayama, and Hiroshima. My break is one month long, so I am very excited. As for my blog, I connected my British's friend Pimms Hubbel's blog to mine. Therefore please check out his blog. He will be going to America for the first time this month to visit a friend he met at Akita International University (AIU) during the Fall 2012 semester. 

Akita: A snowman's paradise

I admit that when I first saw snow at Akita International University (AIU) I was so happy to see it. Coming from Hawaii, I am used to warm weather, beautiful beaches, and the laid-back culture. I have seen snow in Japan a few times before coming to AIU, but this is my first time living in it. This is my fourth time in Japan and during those other three times, I had seen snow at Mt.Fuji three years ago and at some other part of Japan I do remember when I was eight-years old.

After living in the snow for several weeks, I realized how much I miss Hawaii's warm weather, and how much I dislike the snow. I find it frustrating how the snow blows at my face when there is a blizzard and how cold my room gets when I stay in my room for too long. In addition, most of the campus except for the library is cold so I usually go to the library to stay warm and save money for heating. According to my friends, the two worst months for snow at Akita are January and February. Below are pictures of the snow at AIU.

Snow outside of the library

My Appreciation for Family and my Hokkaido Trip

Thanks to the help of my Japanese relatives I have finally returned back to Akita International University (AIU). It feels nice to be back at AIU because I get to be reunited with my friends from this university, and I no longer have to worry about returning back to AIU. It is too bad that some of the other students will not be attending the winter semester, had to return to their home country, or leave for study abroad, but I am happy to be back.

I am looking forward to taking a class about Tohoku Culture and continue studying Japanese this semester. Anyways for this blog post, I would like to talk about my trip at Hokkaido with my relatives this past winter break.

On my last blog post, I mentioned that I came to Hokkaido by ferry from Akita with two other students. The ferry brought me to the Tomakomai port at Akita, and I then transferred from Tomakomai to Sapporo train station by riding a shuttle. At Sapporo train station, I met with my Japanese relatives at the west entrance and I stayed at their house for most of my winter break which was about two weeks.

The first night I stayed with them, I was very nervous to talk with them because although I studied Japanese for about three years, I was not comfortable speaking the language. I felt that my relatives would be disappointed with my limited vocabulary or grammar because I thought that they would assume my Japanese would improve dramatically while studying Japanese at Japan.

Despite my fears, my relatives were far from disappointed, and they treated me with great hospitality by providing me with my own room, and they taught me a lot of Japanese customs that most foreigners do not learn unless they stay with a Japanese host family. My Japanese uncle taught me how to eat sushi properly because apparently, a lot of Japanese people do not correct foreigners that eat sushi incorrectly by dipping the rice inside of the soy sauce. Whereas my Japanese auntie cooked for me and washed my dishes.