NEWS OF TRAVEL JAPAN

Tokyo is one of biggest urban cities in the world, and two large green-areas which contain The Imperial Palace and Ueno Park add an accent to the city. Among them Ueno Park provides a refreshing time to the people who visit there. In April a lot of cherry blossoms welcome people, Ueno Zoo and music halls make the people have fun and The National Museum makes the people come in touch with a historical treasure of Japanese culture through the year. Besides these there are the Mausoleum of Tokugawa shogunates and some buildings of Kanei-ji Temple in Ueno Park. From the current viewpoint, Ueno Park is indispensable to the citizens in Tokyo and foreign travelers, moreover, Ueno Park has a strange history that this place has been guarded by an invisible intermediary. I want to write about it dating back to the past. In the early part of the Meiji era The statue in the picture is Takamori Saigo, and it is near the entrance of Ueno Park. He was the general of the opposi...

It is said that Enryaku-ji Temple is a heartfelt hometown for Japanese people. In contrast, it has a long history that has shaken the Japanese society regarding the positive and negative aspects. Enryaku-ji Temple, which is the name of a temple group in Hiei-zan Mountain, on the north-east side of Kyoto. On looking at Hiei-zan Mountain from a spot around Ginkaku-ji Temple in Sakyo Ward, you will feel it’s like a sullen object. Actually, since the foundation of this temple by Saicyo, 788, this temple has been sullen among respectful, critical and devastating opinion. This temple is one of the representative temples before the Heian period(794―1192). Besides this temple there are two renowned representative temple groups, one is Koya-san temple group of the same age which was founded by Kukai and the other is Nara Temples in the Heijo period before the Heian Period. All those are world heritage sites, but the atmosphere of Enryaku-ji Temple is different from the other two temple g...

Hiromi Hakozaki, who is a Satsuma-biwa player, played biwa music at the machiya of Onishi-tune-shoten and explained how biwa instruments became its present form. I want to write about one of Japan’s specific sound instruments according to her explanation. Before my explanation I want to mention my impression after listening to her play, I said to her in this way. “The sounds of Satsuma-biwa is calm in terms that it allows a human physiological phenomenon like that blood pressure will be peaceful, but is very deep in terms that it lets the human spirit vibrate strongly.” Biwa v.s. Lute Biwa(Japanese lute) came far from Persia in the 8th century via The Silk Road. The picture above is an ancient Persian lute instrument(front and back) which is stored as a national treasure in Syosoin next to Todaiji or Kasuga Shrine in Nara City from the 8th century. There is an opinion that the lute in Syosoin is the original biwa(lute). And the long history for thirteen centuries in Japan tra...

 If you want to travel to a beautiful place where is hardly known to foreign travelers in Japan I recommend Soni-mura Village. Soni-mura Village is in the center of Kii Peninsula, on the eastern rim of Nara prefecture and next to Mie Prefecture. In other words it lies in the pass between the ancient capital place in Osaka and Ise Shrine .The village has good views of nature and an ancient tragic love story. In the village you will be able to have a supreme experience with the kind humanity of the Japanese people. An ancient Imperial tragic love story in about the fourth century Japan has two ancient Emperor’s chronicles from the time of gods, which were edited in the 8th century. One is “Nihon-shoki” of Emperor’s command and the other is “Kojiki” of nearly Emperor’s command, which is more literal than Nihon-shoki. Both two chronicles show the tragic love story regarding The Emperor of Nintoku who is thought to have lived in approximately the fourth century. Nint...