NEWS OF TRAVEL JAPAN

“The Last samurai”, a Hollywood movie, depicted deep interaction of minds between an American captain performed by Tom Cruise and a samurai commander performed by Ken Watanabe. The magnificent old wooden houses in the movie ,where they talked with each other on the first meeting, was the temple houses in Enkyo-ji Temple. I heard that the director of the movie was pleased with the cathedral on visiting there by chance and he instantly decided to use the temple houses in the movie. Actually, Enkyo-ji Temple, which is located in a suburb of Himeji City , Hyogo Prefecture, is a good place where people feel something spiritual. It is in a mountain, surrounded by deep forests and has some temple houses which were built more than one thousand years ago. Those show that great assets were donated in an ancient time. In Japan there are some similar place like Enkyo-ji Temple, Koya-san Temple , Enryaku-ji Temple and Chuson-ji Temple . The other three temples except Enkyo-ji Temple are re...

I went to Naoshima Island with my wife to see many contemporary art exhibits. It was our purpose. Nonetheless, it was an unexpected trip to see many works designed by Tadao Ando. Needless to say, he is one of the most popular designers of architecture on a global level. And to talk about the development of contemporary art on Naoshima, it isn’t enough not to refer to the strong wish of Tadao for not only contemporary art but also the revival of Naoshima Island. To say honestly, I didn’t like some works of Tadao, nor did I pay much attention to his works. I felt that his works were too individual and strong. However now, I think that his philosophy of architecture has a value for young people who hope to do their best in the 21st Century. Thus, the change in my opinion of the Tadao’s works shall be of use as a reference to anybody who likes or dislikes Tadao Ando. The works of Tadao on Naoshima Island The Benesse House Museum is the first work designed by Tadao on Naoshima I...

Familiarity of contemporary art Naoshima Island, Kagawa Prefecture, is popular as an island of contemporary art on a global scale. It is in the Setonaikai Sea with a palm sea-face and sun-light. When my wife and I boarded a ferry boat for Naoshima at Uno port in Okayama prefecture, many foreign travelers were on the same boat. After arriving at Miya-no-ura port on Naoshima Island we instantly found the big red pumpkin exhibit created by Yayoi Kusama. It is familiar with visitors, they had been taking commemorative photographs constantly. After several seconds of driving we entered the fields of the Benesse House. On the shore of the field the big yellow pumpkin exhibit by Yayoi was bright in the backland of the sea and the sky. It was popular with visitors as well. The familiarity of the two big pumpkin exhibits is the main essence of her contemporary art. According to such a view point with the familiarity we could see and appreciate many other out-field exhibits of contem...

Before the Meiji Era there wasn’t any internal-combustion engine by coal or gasoline, naturally there wasn’t a steam locomotive nor an automobile. People had to walk or ride a horse or ride a “kago”, a Japanese moving carriage to carry a person by more than two carriers who carried a bar set the carriage on their shoulder, to take a trip to a distant place. Roads that people moved along for a long distance were called “kaido”, a walking highway. Kaido developed in the early time of the Edo Period because not only were they an economic transfer network developed around Japan but also all samurai lords of clans across Japan and samurai officers serving their lords had to come and go between Tokyo and their home clans. Along a kaido there were many post towns which had a lot of hotels for samurais and normal people in any principle places. The kaido between Tokyo and Osaka was the most useful kaido and it was called the Tokaido kaido. The starting town of the Tokaido kaido was Nihonb...