deep kyoto

Here’s a little shop that could be useful to know about in the run-up to Valentine’s Day. Chocolatier Double Sept opened up on Yanaginobanba Dori late last year. Walking by one night, tired and cold after a long evening’s Christmas shopping, we were tempted inside by the promise of steaming cups of hot chocolate. Really, on these chilly, wintry nights, what could be cheerier? There are a variety of options on the menu: dorodoro is thick, or you could have it with spices, or marshmallows, or with a drop of spirits to really warm your cockles. We just went for the normal variety though and that was just fine.

Mewby enjoys her hot chocolate.

There is also ginger ale and beer (Heineken) on the drinks menu. “Is it chocolate beer” I asked.

“No,” said the owner, “I just thought it might be nice for people to sit and have a beer and a piece of chocolate.”

Not a bad idea. There are a lot of different kinds of chocolate to try. Pick out the ones you want to make your own bespoke box.  You have your standards: milk, caramel, cinnamon, coffee and mint… And you have your stronger flavours: rum, cognac, cointreau, tequila, whisky… And this being Kyoto, there is of course a matcha green tea flavoured chocolate too.

The owner of the store, Mr. Kitagawa, is a friendly chap. Here he is explaining to us how his store got his name.

As I said his name is Kitagawa which is written in Chinese characters as 喜多川. The first character 喜 can be read as ki or yorokobu and means happiness or joy. This character is written differently in the sousho cursive style and so can be read as 「七十七」 or 77. That is why a person’s 77th birthday is written as 喜寿 (kiju) and is held to be an auspicious celebration. Kitagawa-san wanted to include this meaning of happy celebration in the name of his shop and so it is called Double Sept.

Double click the flickr set below to check out some more pictures of (oh so tasty!) chocolates. I bought Mewby a box for Christmas.

Chocolatier Double Sept is open from 14:00 – 21:00. You can find it on the east side of Yanaginobanba, going south from the Starbucks on Shijo. Here is a most convenient map.

Tel: 075-341-7739

“Ur食堂LIVE!”, is a night of intimate  performance and carefree entertainment in a casual restaurant atmosphere.

Click to see a video of ryotaro and Nadia Porcar

The length of each performance depends on the artist, but rest assured there will be plenty of opportunity to eat, drink, and enjoy convivial discussion.

Here are the details:

Wednesday February 2nd (that’s tomorrow folks!) 18:00 – 24:00

The performers:

French singer and filmmaker Nadia Porcar.
ryotaro
Mitsu Salmon
trace elements with DoDo

And that’s NO CHARGE ladies and gentlemen, NO CHARGE!

Location: To find Urbanguild, from Sanjo Dori go down Kiyamachi Dori (this is the narrow street running alongside Takase stream) Urbanguild is on the east side (left hand side as you walk down from Sanjo) after approximately 150 metres. It’s on the 3rd floor of New Kyoto Building – access by elevator or stairs. Here’s a map.
Tel: 075-212-1125

Related: The Legend of Urbanguild

UPDATE: I’m not sure how I managed to mess this up, but if you read this month’s Kyoto Visitor’s Guide you will find that though the order of events and the days are correct, the dates are reversed. Please note the corrected dates below!! And my apologies to all concerned for the confusion!

If you missed Yoshida Koichi’s performance at the “Voices for Umekoji” event last Friday, here’s your chance. Koichi will be playing with his wonderful band Yugao in two shows on the 5th and 6th of February.

Yugao (夕顔 or moonflower) are shakuhachi player Yoshida Koichi, jazz pianist Ikeda Ippei, classical cellist William Prunkl and also their regular guest Fujisawa Bayan on tabla. Together they play an extraordinarily eclectic blend of traditional Japanese honkyoku, jazz, classical, world and New Age music. Having seen them play I can say that it is remarkable how well these instruments complement each other. The sound that they make together is unique and unforgettable: at times haunting and sorrowful, and at others joyful and wild! Here are the details of their shows (please note the special reduced price for foreign guests!):

@Parker House Roll
Date: Saturday February 6th 5th
Time: Doors open 6:00pm / Show starts at 7:30
Tickets: 2,000 yen in advance / 2300 on the door / 1,700 for foreign customers (for reservations call 090-8531-5515 ~ Japanese only)
Location: Parker House Roll is on the east side of Karasuma Street north of Gojo, south of Matsubara and opposite a Family Mart convenience store. Here’s a map.
Telephone: 075-352-8042

@Zac Baran
Date: Sunday February 5th 6th
Time & ticket prices as above.
Location: Zac Baran is a legendary cafe/bar/music spot on the north side of Marutamachi a short walk east of Higashioji Dori. Here’s a map.
Telephone: 075-751-9748６

A word from our sponsor! Tadg says…

Dear Friends,
This Saturday, January 29th, sees the return of the magnificent Wild Cards with their amazing Americana repertoire and some of the best musicians in Japan! Starting around 8.30pm, it should be another party night!
We have got in a new collection of some of the best beers on the planet, all of these beers are top rated and award winning. We also have a great selection of food at great prices.

Here’s the Beers!

Tadg & Mika Mc Loughlin

The New Beer Menu
Rogue Chatoe wet hop 6.5%
235ml..\750 470ml \1,000

St Rogue red amber ale 7%
235ml..\750 470ml \1,000

Juniper Ale, Pale 7%
235ml..\750 470ml \1,000

Rogue Imperial IPA 95

Above and beyond an India Pale Ale–I2PA is radically hopped with an intense aroma and hop bitterness. Unfiltered and aged for 9 months before it leaves the brewery–not for the faint of heart.This ale is sold in a snifter glass \950.

Rogue Imperial Stout
This amazing stout is nearly three times the strength of ordinary stout, weighing in at a massive 11.8% and is sold in a snifter \950, this is legendary.

Shiga Kogen (one of the best breweries in Japan/the World!)

The fabulous Wild Cards! Click to view a video.

Shiga Kogen Porter
235ml..\800, 330ml, 1000, 470ml \12,00

100 anniversary Pale Ale
235ml..\800, 330ml \1000, 470ml \12,00

American Miscellaneous
Stone IPA
This IPA scores 100 on Ratebeer. It don’t get much better than this.
235ml..\750, 330ml, 950, 470ml \12,00

Big Eye Sculpin
Another legendary IPA scores 100% on rate beer
235ml..\750, 330ml, 950, 470ml \12,00

Ise Kadoya (one of our favorite breweries)

Oyster stout
235ml..\750 470ml \1,000

Weitzen Bock
235ml..\750 470ml \1,000

Blond Ale
235ml..\750 470ml \1,000

Tavern French Cider on tap!
235ml..\750 470ml \1,000

Deep Kyoto personally recommends the St Rogue Red Amber Ale, the Juniper Pale Ale and is looking forward to trying the rest! To find Tadg’s walk straight up Kiyamachi from Sanjo, before you get to Oike you should see the Empire building on your right. Tadg’s is on the 8th floor. To the right is a most convenient map. Click on it for a better look.

One Night of Musical Protest Against the Kyoto Aquarium

Good crowd, good setting, and some great performers. And a good feeling of being among old and new friends. Very heartening to see this kind of concern being shown by Kyoto residents, especially gaijin. – Ken Rodgers

The evening began with a short shakuhachi recital from Koichi Yoshida...

I wrote briefly about the event last week but it’s time for a more thorough report. For those who didn’t attend – you really missed something splendid! With three bi-lingual presentations from the anti-aquarium campaign groups, an ad hoc question and answer session, 7 fantastic musical performances and a short movie, we certainly realized our goals of raising awareness about the Kyoto Aquarium problem whilst providing some fine entertainment. There must have been 100 people attending altogether and the atmosphere was amazing. The campaigners who participated told me later that they felt cheered by the positive response they received from all those who came. Umekoji Park Project also held a whip-round that raised １５,７３２円. It might not seem like much but believe me, it helps! We also launched our “Boycott Kyoto Aquarium” postcard campaign. Everybody who attended was given a postcard to send to the mayor declaring in both languages that they would boycott the aquarium. In future weeks we are going to hand out 1000 of these postcards at Kyoto’s most famous tourist locations and pretty soon they will be available for download on our website too. Those of you who have already received one – please do send it! Let the mayor know how you feel!

This postcard will soon be available as a downloadable pdf. It's a simple and powerful design I think.

The Presentations

Nishimoto Masanori presents a chronology of events...

Later, I hope to get videos of the presentations from Enokida-san of the Citizens’ Network and I shall post them on our campaign website when I do. For the time being, here’s a very brief summary. Nishimoto-san of the Institute of Biodiversity presented a slideshow detailing the events leading up to our current situation. There were some interesting nuggets of information in there: an independent survey of Kyoto opinion showed that 70% were against the aquarium for example. Of the 500 aquariums in the world 100 are in Japan. To get the tropical fish they display in aquariums they use dynamite (!) and cause irrevocable damage to marine eco-systems… You can read more about it here but the main point I took away from Nishimoto’s presentation was that his group haven’t just been saying “no!” to the aquarium, they have been making alternative suggestions for a more appropriate use of this public land and have been doing their level best to work positively with the city government – and yet they have been consistently ignored by a city administration in thrall to corporate greed.

Kawagoe Yoshio points out corporate and city hypocrisy.

The second presentation was by Kawagoe Yoshio-san of the group 京都・水と緑をまもる連絡会 (The Liaison Group to Protect Nature and Water in Kyoto). Kawagoe-san is a keen conservationist, a stalwart of the campaign and also the designer of our “Boycott” postcards. He didn’t mince any words. Orix and the city mayor have claimed noble motives for their aquarium in saying that they want to teach young people about the marine enviroment. Looking at the plans though, we can see clearly that the main attraction is to be the dolphin pool and the dolphin shows they will put on there.

To borrow a phrase from Jen L. Teeter, you can clearly see here that the dolphin is the central feature of this three storey catastrophe...

There is nothing educational about watching dolphins jumping through hoops. It is purely about making money through entertainment. In other words, Orix and the Mayor Kadokawa are being dishonest, and it’s no use saying “shikattaganai” or “it can’t be helped“. They are bare-faced lying to us and we shouldn’t stand for it any longer!

Finally, Murakawa Tomoko-san of the campaign group Umekoji Park Project gave a presentation about her group’s activities and in particular about the ongoing court case. 71 local plaintiffs have taken the city to court for misuse of public land. As a matter of fact the next hearing is tomorrow and I’ve been asked to tell you all that they would greatly appreciate a few sympathetic foreign faces. The press will be there so a few foreign faces at the hearing would show that this is an issue of wide concern.  If anyone is free, here are the details:

The hearing is tomorrow January 27th. Supporters will meet outside the courthouse at 11:15. The hearing starts at 11:30 am. The place is Kyoto Chiho Saibansho Room 203. Even if you can’t really understand the proceedings the hearing itself will only take 30 minutes and your support would be invaluable!

Murakawa Tomoko-san's presentation

Throughout the presentations were translated into English by our friend Jen L. Teeter. Frankly without Jen’s help this event couldn’t have succeeded as well as it did. I think Ken Rodgers put it best when he said “Over the years I have been to quite a number of environmental events in Kansai & beyond and I thought that this one was definitely one of the most effective sets of bilingual presentations that I have seen ― basically due to Jen’s rapid, accurate and obviously caring and confident translation. Serious topics, but Jen retained a fine sense of humor (sometimes just in her tone of voice…) that really enlivened the atmosphere.” Here’s a shout out of praise from me for Jen’s husband Taka too, who helped out with translations at several crucial moments. Together they make a great team!

The Music

Another important aim of the evening that was definitely realized was that everyone had a damn good time! Throughout the night we had some fantastic and energizing performances from a variety of musicians. The flow of the music seemed to work really well too. The evening began with a short but haunting shakuhachi recital from Yoshida Koichi, then after the initial presentations were done Yoshida Koichi came back and accompanied Udonya Mentei’s Super Band in a rousing performance of soul stirring Japanese folk.

Udonya Mentei's Super Band - I don't know what "enyakorose!" means but I was singing along anyway!

Soul-pop-jazz singer Okuda Satoko then took it down a notch with her happy tunes and purrrfect vocals before Nishino Takahito came on and blew us all away with a taiko drum performance of pure passion.

Okuda Satoko - a lot of the guys told me later they particularly liked her performance...

Andy Couzens made a flaming red video backdrop for Nishino-san’s performance that worked perfectly! His other video, which he constructed largely out of Kawagoe-san’s postcard designs also seemed at times to spookily match the music it was played too…

Nishino Takahito - on fire!

The presentations over, the mood was bubbling over at this point and then on came the eccentric rock duo Booo Booo zz to play some good ole noisey metal.　They told me later they had never played at an event before where they had received such a positive reaction from the audience! I think they sold quite a few CDs too!

Booo booo zz!

raw elements and DoDo then followed with a big band sound you could jump up and down to. Watching ryotaro jumping about the stage, it was pretty clear that he was really enjoying himself too!

raw elements & DoDo

Finally Das Capital Punishment took to the stage and suddenly seats were removed and everyone was dancing. Much praise to Jet Vel and Hide for their tarantistic dance-inducing beats! An excellent end to an excellent night.

Das Capital Punishment

One last word of thanks must go to my friend Sean Roe, who dj-ed throughout the event and also helped to organize it. Without the benefit of his experience it simply wouldn’t have happened. Cheers Sean!

Incidentally, all of the pictures used in this post were taken by our multi-talented friend Sean Roe. If you want to see my pictures, see below.

Not a great picture – but you get the idea. Urbanguild was PACKED! The atmosphere was fantastic. The bands were superb. I want to say a big thank you to the presenters (Kawagoe-san, Nishimoto-san and Murakawa-san), to Jen. L. Teeter for her translation skills, to Andy Couzens for his videos (awesome!), to Sean for making it happen, to the wonderful musicians and to all the people who came and danced and whooped and hollered and made it one of the best nights EVER.
Later I’ll post some videos and pictures of the night. (Look forward to it. It was sooo good!) Right now though I have to get down off this post-event high! Don’t forget to send your postcards, people!
Goodnight!

Amallsのskcaj featuring Sean Roe (left) and Andy Couzens (right), at Urbanguild September 2010.

Andy Couzens will be providing video artwork for the “Voices for Umekoji” event this Friday. As a late addition to the program he didn’t get a mention on any of our promotional material, which seemed awfully unfair – so I decided to interview him and put him up here. Enjoy!

DK: From where do you hail?

AC: I’m from a place called Stanwell, which is next to Heathrow Airport. I lived a lot in South London.

DK: When and why did you come to Kyoto?

AC: I moved here in 2005 with my wife and son, we have since had a daughter. After living in London I needed to find a smaller city. Kyoto was always the likely candidate. If I get the urge for big, I can get it in 30 minutes.

DK: But what made you move all the way out to Kyoto (as opposed to say – Slough) when you already had a wife and child? Is your wife Japanese? Was there something about Japan specifically that pulled you out here?

AC: Yes, my wife is Japanese. I was impressed that Japanese kids could walk along the streets here, whereas in the UK we pretty much lock our kids up if someone as much blinks in a weird way. As for Slough, growing up 2 miles from Ali G country, I didn’t fancy going on a tour of British comedy haunts.

DK: What are your main artistic and creative pursuits?

AC: I have always enjoyed drawing and when I was about 9 a local artist took me under his wing and taught me the basics to oil painting. I have a love hate relationship with paint as a medium for myself. When I was studying art I fell for artists like Bill Viola, Gary Hill and Bruce Nauman. Sound and Video are perfect for me as I can use them to exploit my training in other mediums.

Amallsのskaj at Urbanguild December 2010

DK: What training have you had in other mediums?

AC: I studied drawing, painting and sculpture mainly. During my first few still life classes, the tutor asked us to only draw the negative space, which is the area around the objects you’re looking at, this had a profound effect on how I viewed the world. I like how when you look for negative space in your everyday environments the world is automatically converted into the series of abstract forms it actually is. We do it involuntarily all the time, when we zone out at work, on the train etc. Also, I worked at The End nightclub in London for over four very interesting years. It had one of the greatest sound systems in the world. I heard many of the so called superstar DJ’s, but I wasn’t so into the whole club scene. It was basically a beautiful sweaty circus. But the amazing experience of being exposed to such an overload of the senses 5 or 6 times a week pushed my ears and eyes towards that confused state that my work seems to now exist in. I want people to both zone in and zone out while they view it.

DK: Could you give me a brief history of Amalls no skcaj?

Andy in action with Amallsのskaj

AC: Amallsのskcaj started as GG Jackson, it was a collective of three that only ever played twice. We formed as a tribute to Michael Jackson. Michael Migliacci left Japan last March, but Sean Roe and I decided to continue playing together and renamed ourselves Amallsのskcaj. We try only to draw from the MJ palate, so all sounds and about 90% of the video is sourced from Jackson. We have only ever played live, we have never rehearsed and we rarely discuss what we will play or do. It is a complete improvisation in sound. The video I make before, but I try to only use each video once. On the occasion that I can’t produce another I will make at least a small adjustment. We just decided that, as we began as GG Jackson which had a starting point of Billie Jean, we should just continue focusing on taking Michael Jackson and presenting him probably in a way that is maybe more representative of the madness of the King of Pop than anything you will find on his unmolested treatments – ahem! I mean recordings. My own wish is to be invited to play at an official MJ convention. I attended one once at Hammersmith Palais, but that’s another story.

DK: How do you like the arts scene here?

Andy Couzens

AC: I love it! It’s such a welcoming and nurturing environment. People generally come to events with an open mind and leave with it opened further. There are always some very interesting one-off collaborations. Urbanguild is of course an intergral part of it all. The fifth Beatle as it were.

DK: How has your creative work changed or developed since coming to Japan?

AC: I had always dabbled here and there, but meeting Michael Migliacci and the friendship that blossomed from that meeting actually focused me on pulling my finger out. I owe him a lot, but he owes me money.

DK: What’s your day job?

AC: I’m a children’s edutainer.

DK: Really? Have you done any work with dolphins?

AC: I have neither worked with nor had anything akin to a relationship with a dolphin beyond crying during that- movie-about-dolphins-that-I-can’t-for-the-life-of-me-remember-the-name-of-right-now. I have to admit that I am more than a little confused as to the thinking behind placing dolphins in a watery prison in the landlocked city of Kyoto!

As are we all, Andy! Come see Andy’s video artwork at “Voices for Umekoji” at Urbanguild this Friday! For advance tickets (1500 yen – includes one free drink) click the ATTENDING or MAYBE ATTENDING on the Facebook event page OR buy your tickets at Tadg’s Irish Bar and Urbanguild.

See also:
Voices for Umekoji
Dolphin Dance Project
The Committee to Protect Kyoto
Stop the Kyoto Aquarium Petition

When the Dolphin Dance Project begins, it is welcomed by a pod of more than 300 dolphins as one of their own. The boat is surrounded by dolphins, leaping, playing – they ride the bow wave of the boat, even turning on their side to see us better. Mothers and aunties bring their babies to have a look. Even our local boat captain and videographer were amazed.
- From the Dolphin Dance Project site.

Watching this video, what’s really amazing to me is the incredibly trusting nature of these dolphins. I wonder why they don’t consider the boat and the humans in it as potential predators? There’s something amazing and quite moving about this trust, but it is also quite sad when you think how easily and how often this trust is betrayed.

This image from Dolphin Dance Project.

One of the many arguments against the building of the Kyoto Aquarium is the issue of cruelty to animals, specifically dolphins. The building of a dolphinarium for “edutainment purposes” is a central aspect of the building plans and having seen those plans I can tell you that the space allotted for the dolphins is clearly both constrictive and cruel. Research has proven that dolphins are both intelligent animals capable of self-awareness, abstract thought, and creativity. They are also emotional animals that exhibit profound familial and social bonds. Some scientists have even suggested they should be considered “non-human persons” and afforded rights equivalent to our own. In other words, we ought to treat them better than taking them out of their natural habitat, confining them in pools and using them purely for our own entertainment.

Here's a screenshot from the architects plans(click to see it larger). Note the dolphin ふれあい pool on the left where children may touch the dolphins.

Many of the postcards designed by Kawagoe Yoshio-san for the anti-aquarium campaign, depict dolphins, and frequently with a message that reads “君とは海で会いたい!” – I want to meet you in the ocean! This message that we should encounter wild creatures such as dolphins in their natural habitat and not in an entirely artificial environment is a strong one. So it seemed serendipitous that Chisa Hidaka the director of the Dolphin Dance Project should offer to show her short movie “Together” at the “Voices for Umekoji” event on Friday. The message is essentially the same.

Chisa Hidaka

Dancer and choreographer, Chisa Hidaka, initiated the Dolphin Dance Project in order to promote inter-species understanding. Having encountered dolphins in the wild, Chisa became intrigued by the similarities between dolphin play and human dance and began a project of filming inter-species improvised dance as a means of profound communication. The debut film, ‘Together: Dancing with Spinner Dolphins,’ won ‘Best Experimental Film’ at its world premiere at the Big Apple Film Festival. This film shows a human dancer and a wild spinner dolphin dancing playfully together beneath the waves. Though short, it is beautiful to watch and leaves you wanting more. Happily ‘Together’ is but a pilot for a longer film to be shot in 2011. ‘Sharing the Dance’ will be a full-length documentary about the making of a group dance with several human dancers and a pod of wild dolphins.

We are very proud to be showing the movie “Together” at our event on Friday! Here’s the trailer!

Wild dolphins are incredibly precious! They are rare – maybe unique – in being creatures who are truly wild and yet who are willing to reach across the species divide to approach humans voluntarily, out of their own curiosity and interest to interact. What happens if we respond to this invitation by offering ourselves as their equal? The possibilities for paradigm-shifting experiences are profound. We are given the opportunity to experience ourselves not as the dominant species destined to rule the world, but a creature who shares likeness and equality with another species on the planet. Wouldn’t such an experience radically change our assumptions about how to treat the Earth, her creatures and her resources?
-Chisa Hidaka

Event details here: http://www.deepkyoto.com/?p=4964
Useful links:
http://www.dolphin-dance.org
http://www.kyoto-mamoru.org./

Go-Shirakawa. This public domain picture from the Museum of the Imperial Collections (三の丸尚蔵館)

Here’s this month’s poetry column from our friend Keiji Minato…

Ryojin-hisho (『梁塵秘抄』), compiled by Goshirakawa-Joko (後白河上皇; the ex-emperor Goshirakawa）in the late 12th century, is an anthology of popular songs called “Imayo Kayo” (今様歌謡; directly translated it means “contemporary-style popular songs”) at that time. They were mainly performed by itinerant female dancers and singers. The ex-emperor was so much into the type of song that he trained himself as a disciple of famous singers, who were regarded very low in the social hierarchy, or rather totally outside of it, and spared no efforts to sing them in genuine styles and record lyrics. As many critics argue, his enthusiasm probably resulted from the change of the power structure in the political system, in which the royal family and old aristocrats were being replaced as the dominant force by the military caste: the old power holder psychologically needed to recapture cultural power from the bottom of the society. Such historical consideration is quite interesting, but here let’s look at the lyrics themselves from the anthology.

The songs take up a wide variety of topics, and their styles also widely vary from comic to philosophical. One of the important themes is religion:

仏は常にいませども、現ならぬぞあわれなる、人の音せぬ暁に、ほのかに夢に見え給ふ (26)
[ Hotoke wa tsune ni imase domo / Utsutsu naranu zo aware naru / Hito no oto senu akatsuki ni / honoka ni yume ni mie tamau ]

Buddha is always around, but we sadly cannot see him in reality. Only at the dawn with no human sound, he faintly shows himself in our dream.

In the process of Buddhism getting into Japan a lot of waka (5-7-5-5-5 sound unit poems) and songs like the above were composed so that people got used to the Buddhist ideas and worldview. Of course, it is impossible to expound deep philosophy in such short forms. As the poem above, most of them are aesthetic expressions so as to strike the emotional chords of even those who cannot understand highbrow concepts.

Other songs take up more down-to-earth human feelings. The most famous one from Ryojin-hisho is the following:

遊びをせんとや生れけむ、戯れせんとや生れけん、遊ぶ子供の声きけば、我が身さえこそ揺るがるれ (359)
[ Asobi o sentoya umare ken / Tawabure sen toya mumare ken / Asobu kodomo no koe kikeba / wagami sae koso yurugarure ]

We are all born to play, born to have sport. Listening to the voice of children who play, even my body will shake itself.

Although most readers agree that its speaker is a yujo (遊女; a performer-cum-prostitute), they are divided into two camps regarding its emotional content. Many read the yujo’s regret for her life, especially in the last part “揺るがるれ.” This reading has a strong appeal even to the modern reader, and is probably why the song is so popular. On the other hand, some think it as an expression of a more natural, spontaneous reaction, and argue that the first camp wrongly reads modern moralistic feelings into the song. In my opinion, you do not have to choose one over the other. I am sure this great poem shows different sides of life according to what frame of mind you have when you read it.

Small creatures often appear in the Ryojin-hisho songs and play important roles:

舞へ舞へ蝸牛、舞はぬものならば、馬の子や牛の子に蹴ゑさせてん、踏破せてん、真に美しく舞うたらば、華の園まで遊ばせん。
[ Mae mae katatsuburi / Mawanu mono naraba / muma no ko ya Ushi no ko ni kuesase ten / humiwarase ten / makoto ni utsukushiku mou taraba / hana no sono made asoba sen]

Dance, dance, Snail. If you do not dance we’ll make a young horse or cow kick you, stamp and crush you. If you dance so beautifully, we’ll let you go free to a flower garden.

The poem shows the same type of childish brutality as in Mother Goose songs, which is saved by the beauty of the last part and gives us strong catharsis. Such a technique is often used in Imayo-kayo probably because they are originally for performance, sung with a dance (What a pity that the music and dance parts were lost in history!). Common techniques in Ryojin-hisho also include exaggeration and enumeration as in the following song:

我をたのめて来ぬ男、角三つ生ひたる鬼になれ、さて人に疎まれよ、霜雪霰降る水田の鳥となれ、さて足冷かれ、池の浮草となりねかし、と揺りかう揺り揺られ歩け(339)

Man who gave me hope but does not come, you become a demon with three horns shunned by people. Become a bird in a rice paddy with frost, snow, hail falling and stand on cold feet. Become floating weed and wander around endlessly rocked.

A Japanese demon (鬼; oni) usually has two horns. Rice paddies, which have water in summer, usually do not have cold water in it. Clearly, these expressions playfully exaggerate the speaker’s feelings toward the man. Such witty words are much better to bring him back than just nagging at him. The same kind of playfulness sometimes appears even in songs about religion:

熊野へ参らむと思へども、徒歩より参れば道遠し、すぐれて山峻し、馬にて参れば苦行ならず、空より参らむ、羽賜べ若王子(258)
[ Kumano e mairan to omoe domo / Toho yori maireba michi toshi / Sugurete yama kewashi / Uma nite maireba kugyo narazu / Sora yori mairamu / Hane tabe Nyakuoji ]

I am thinking of going to Kumano, but it is too far on foot, with such steep mountains. Going on a horse, however, isn’t an act of merit. I will go flying. Give me wings, God of Nyakuoji.

The Ryojin-hisho. Click to buy on amazon.co.jp

In Kumano there are important shrines (Kumano Hongu Taisha; 熊野本宮大社, Kumano Hayatama Taisha; 熊野速玉大社, Kumano Natchi Taisha; 熊野那智大社), and emperors and ex-emperors often went there from Kyoto over steep mountains. Goshirakawa-Joko, the compiler of Ryojin-hisho, was also a devout worshiper and visited Kumano 34 times in his lifetime. In the song above, the speaker turns down the idea of going on a horse as too easy and not giving a merit, but right after that he/she asks a god for wings to fly! It might not sound serious, but I think it somehow successfully expresses his/her real longing for Kumano.

Ryojin-hisho was once thought to be lost not long after its compilation. It was dramatically rediscovered in the late 19th century, and surprised and greatly moved poets in the modern era. The variety of form and content testifies to the fact that there used to be a wider range of poetic expressions than public forms of poetry like waka, renga, and Chinese types of poetry in Medieval Japan. Its return in a new age does not seem just a coincidence, does it?

* Sasaki Nobutsuna, ed. Ryojin-hisho. Iwanami-bunko (22-1). Tokyo: Iwanami-shoten, 1933.

This text and translations by Keiji Minato. Keiji writes a guest blog for Deep Kyoto once a month introducing Kyoto’s poets and poetry. You can find former articles by Keiji Minato here.

Of Related Interest:
Irish Haiku!
One Hundred Poets on Mount Ogura, One Poem Each
Introducing Keiji Minato
Songs and Stories of the Kojiki retold by Yoko Danno
Japan International Poetry Society

This is how things look at Umekoji Park today…

As you can see, having got this far it is going to take A LOT to stop construction of the Kyoto Aquarium. Local residents are still in an ongoing battle with the city administration in the courts. But they need our support. So we need a LOT more people to get involved! Hence our event on Friday the 21st – to raise awareness about this issue among both local people and foreign residents and to tell people what they can do. There’ll be some great music too! Advance tickets (500 yen cheaper!) are available at Urbanguild and Tadg’s Irish Bar. More details here. Sign our petition! Join our event!

For more background information in English:

Raw Feelings for a Fish Tank (Chris Rowthorn writing in Kansai Scene)
Fury at Kyoto Aquarium Plan (my piece for Japan Today)
Why you can’t read my KVG article on the Kyoto Aquarium online…
Our Protest Against the Kyoto Aquarium at Kiyomizudera
Think Outside The Tank (a selection of local opinions)