Notes: Lunar Japan, Geisha, Shinto, Art Island

NOTES

The Lunar Japan is not hidden, but easily missed.  Looking at the Japanese flag we see the rising sun, the logo of the industrial, political, global business side of Japan, but Japan’s hidden beauty is its lunar nature, the experiences that make us yearn to return as soon as when we depart. 

The Geishas are hostesses having completed advanced classes in dance, instrumental music, poetry, calligraphy, traditional Japanese tea ceremony, and other fine and performing arts. Their education takes several years.

Shinto, no founder, no dogma, no commandments.

Naoshima, Art Island, east of Hiroshima

Art House Project integrates art into nature. Stay at a hotel that’s also an art museum.

Source: penccil at Benesse House Museum

Kyoto, capitol for over 1,000 years.

Tokyo Car Culture for Albert

My California Cousin Albert has a far reaching interest in and a deep fascination for mechanical engineering, for example, at 15 he bought a 1968 Camero, pulled the engine and two days later it was back together.  So I know one day... he’ll find himself exploring Japan’s Car Culture.

Japan’s Car Culture CLICK HERE

Nijon Nights Click HERE

Lewis just installed running lights on his truck... so this one is for you.

The Great Wave off Kanagawa

Woodblock print by the ukiyo-e artist Hokusai from the late Edo Period circa 1830.

Hokusai: 36 Views of Mt. Fuji    Click HERE

Patricia found beautiful Hokusai thank you notes at her favorite stationary store in Shinjuku... Every detail from the wedding invitations to the thank you notes has behind it ... a story like the one above...

And the one below...

 ... 

Or the fascinating story below of how Ukiyo-e Woodblock prints were made during the Edo Period, click on the video below...

Ukiyo-e Woodblock Printmaking ... click HERE

The Wave Off Kanagawa influenced the French composer Claude Debussy

in his composition of La mer (The Sea) Three Symphonic Sketches for Orchestra.

Matthew’s is the most resonant story:  that The Wave Off Kanagawa is a representation of a snapshot of Japanese History when the Mongol invading army was destroyed on August 15, 1281 by a giant typhoon. In the wake of the Mongol disaster, there came in Japan a feeling that they were protected by the god (kami) of the wind (kazi).

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World Heritage Sites

Another Patricia Find....

CLICK HERE for UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE SITES IN JAPAN

5 Unforgettable Trains Trips

Patricia’s Latest Find...

CLICK HERE: Unforgetable Train Trips Into Japan

Most people believe that a guided tour is the best way to travel to a new country. Epiphany, I just realized that using the following article, one can explore Japan without a guided tour or any prior experience.

“This is the land of your ancestors...”

“This is the land of your ancestors. Your family lived here.”  Yuji Ishihara

Growing up in the San Luis Valley of southern Colorado, I walked the land of my Manzanares ancestors, cast my eyes up to see the same migrating Canadian Geese flying in long breath taking V-formations.

Yet long had I the dream of walking in the footsteps of my Ishihara/Kobayakawa ancestors, until in the year 2015, I boarded a flight to Niimi, Okayama, Japan, where I met Sohji and his father Yuji Ishihara.  To make short the story of a long adventure with Yuji, the genius of Niimi, we skip forward to the place where Yuji tells me of a very old Buddhist monk who carried in his memory the long history of the families of what was once the tiny village of Niimi.

After meeting the old Buddhist priest who knew of my family, Yuji took me to the Nichinan Shiaksho (city hall) near Niimi to research the Kobayakawa family records and examine the books of maps. In those historical records we found “the land of my ancestors.”

Yuji then drove to the map location, parked and walked to the edge of a rice field. With a different set of ears I heard Yuji say: “Your family lived here.”  I could see them, Jotaro and Taka Kobayakawa, and their ancestors quietly walking along the mountain margin of the cedar forest above rippling fields of rice.

Click HERE to see the Documentary Short: My Friend Yuji

We Were Married In Japan!

The document below, our wedding promises, was given us  by our Shinto Priest four days prior to memorize for the wedding ceremony. Promises was the perfect word because I felt the emotion of our engagement rather than the legalistic sense coming from the term wedding vows.

Why get married in Japan? #6  This is what Matthew was wanting to read: our Japanese wedding vows, which are wedding promises to the Japanese.


Another unexpected and wonderful consequence of a Japanese wedding is saying your wedding vows in Japanese! Hearing our wedding promises in Japanese was wonderful.  The term "vows" feels ... legalistic while in Japan the concept is one of promises, which reflects how we feel, not because the law says we have to but because our love inspires promises of the heart.