Arctelier 京こと:日本

カテゴリ：日本

• かっこいい！民家 Old Japanese farm houses
  [ 2008-12-12 09:42 ]
• 難波京発見 Discovering Naniwa-kyo
  [ 2008-12-09 11:10 ]
• 東京進出目指す企業を支援
  [ 2008-12-08 09:09 ]
• 全国銘木展
  [ 2008-11-09 22:35 ]
• 受験勉強の食べ物
  [ 2008-07-23 09:14 ]
• Cornell 関西 gathering
  [ 2008-07-04 15:30 ]
• 京都にいる国際的な友達
  [ 2008-06-30 08:32 ]
• 禅とは心の名なり、心とは禅の体なり
  [ 2008-06-03 13:29 ]
• 玉三郎の半衿
  [ 2008-05-26 20:47 ]
• 渋さの定義 definition of cool
  [ 2008-05-22 08:58 ]

かっこいい！民家 Old Japanese farm houses 2008年 12月 12日

Yesterday I visited the northern part of Osaka at Hattori-Ryokuchi 服部緑地, coveniently reachable by the Midosuji-sen 御堂筋線 subway (red line). Thanks Joachim from Sweden that told me about this, as well as the history museum on Naniwa-kyo earlier. It's the Open Air Museum of Japanese farm houses 日本民家集落博物館
http://www.occh.or.jp/minka/
http://www.occh.or.jp/minka/minkashurakuokugaitenji.html

日本民家集落博物館は、日本各地の代表的な民家を移築復元し、関連民具と合わせて展示する為に１９５６年（昭和３１年）に日本で最初に設置された野外博物館です。
大阪府豊中市の服部緑地公園の一角で梅、桜、竹、柿、その他多くの樹木や草花に囲まれた約3万6千m2の敷地内に、北は岩手県「南部の曲家」から南は鹿児島県「奄美大島の高倉」まで11棟の民家を集めています。いずれの民家も17～19世紀（江戸時代）に建築され、昭和30年代まで人々が生活を営んでおられたものであります。その他に奄美大島・山陰のクリ船、堺の風車なども展示しております。各民家は、地方固有の風土・習慣から生まれた特色を色濃く残し、景観的に優れたものであります。

I met some new friends there. At the house from Miyazaki-ken 宮崎県日向椎葉の民家, the friendly Ms. Fukui 福井さん、Ms. Sawada 澤田さん and Mr. Yoshida 吉田さん are there every Thursday morning, and they would love to practice English with visitors at the irori hearth 囲炉裏. It's a really nice experience in an open farm-house and in winter. Yesterday we talked about a wide range of things, and I even got o-nigiri from Ms. Sawada and Ms. Fukui. おにぎりまでご馳走さまでした。We had lunch over looking the big house from Shirakawa-go 飛騨白川の民家. Next time I should remember bringing o-nigiri (rice balls). It's one rare museum that I'd like to go back often, at least monthly. I plan to be there again on 1.22.

Other than that, Ms. Matsuda 松田さん is responsible for explaining the house from Shirakawa-go 飛騨白川の民家, and I met her when she was cleaning for the teahouse 北河内の茶室 to prepare for a chakai on Saturday. She's from Omotesenke 表千家 and we had shared a bowl of tea, an Uji tea called 新緑 and is a favorite of the Urasenke head 鵬雲斎大宗匠 Hounsai daishoshou. Most chakai 茶会 are hosted on Saturdays, but there will be one on Sunday on 3.15. Hopefully I can go with H. Ms. Matsuda would love to ask H about some mysterious constructs of the teahouse. She has a blog here:
http://blog.goo.ne.jp/ku-ma_1942/

難波京発見 Discovering Naniwa-kyo 2008年 12月 09日

After staying in Kyoto for nearly 3 years, yesterday it was my first time hearing about "Naniwa-kyo 難波京" near Osaka castle 大阪城, an ancient and Chinese-style capital in Asuaka period 飛鳥時代 that, as far as I understood, existed in parallel with the development of Fujiwara-kyo 藤原京 to Nara 平城京. Then everything moved to Nagaoka-kyo 長岡京, then Heian-kyo 平安京, which was nowadays Kyoto. The existence of Naniwa-kyo had been mysterious, except being documented in Nihon Shoki 日本書紀 about fires that happened. A local citiizen (forgot his name...) spearheaded the excavation throughout his life since he found a piece of tile 瓦 of Naniwa-kyo when he was a child.

After seeing the exhibition, I wondered why Osaka would have left no trace of Naniwa-kyo throughout its development. The city is a weird mix of STUFF here and there, unlike the grid spatial layout like Kyoto. And yet, it's not totally chaotic, e.g. the main road 御堂筋 Midou-suji, where big corporate buildings and departemnt stores like Daimaru and Sogo lined, had played important role in the "Westernization" of Osaka. Yet, overall Osaka feels chaotic to drivers and pedestrians. Within the chaos, the spontaneous and cheap 庶民文化 shoumin-culture blossomed. Whereas in Kyoto it would be a more organized and traditional 町衆文化 machishu-culture, like what one would see in Gion matsuri 祇園祭.


I really like the ancient buildings that are simply built out of big woods, giving a feel of the ancient forest. 1300-1500 years ago, Japan was just awakened by cultures, court system and building techniques from China and Korea. It is very interesting for me to see and ponder about the development of culture.

大阪歴史博物館
http://www.mus-his.city.osaka.jp/

東京進出目指す企業を支援 2008年 12月 08日

東京都は、東京へ進出する意欲のある地方の中小企業に、割安な価格で事務スペースを貸し出す取り組みを、来年度から始めることになりました。

この取り組みは、地方の中小企業の支援を進めようと東京都が新幹線の品川駅や羽田空港に近い港区のオフィスビルのフロアを借り上げて行います。環境や健康、情報通信など大都市のニーズの高い産業で、東京に事業拠点を持たない中小企業が対象です。事務スペースは１区画３．３平方メートルの広さで、２４の区画に仕切られ、１区画を１か月６万円で貸し出して営業活動などの拠点として活用してもらいます。さらに都内の企業の動向に詳しい「東京進出コーディネーター」も配置して、東京の企業との取り引き拡大など利用する企業の相談にも応じます。入居は来年４月から始まる予定で、都では来月３０日まで希望する企業を募集しています。東京都・地域産業振興課の小金井毅課長は「地方にも技術力のある企業が多く、こうした企業を支援し、東京の企業と結びつきを作ることで産業の活性化につなげていきたい」と話しています。

全国銘木展 2008年 11月 09日

間もなく年一回の全銘展が岐阜で開催します。興味がある方はどうぞお越しくださいませ！（Hのお父さんが担当です！）
http://www.ccom.or.jp/meiboku/

受験勉強の食べ物 2008年 07月 23日

本試験までは4日しか残ってません。It's now 4 days until the exam.

One good thing about studying for exam in Japan... is that there are a variety of potato chips and snacks to eat along with. Usually I won't eat so much chips... but somehow in exam time it's a must for both concentration and energy. I also notice how much HK people in general like Calbee and 出前一丁. When they come to Japan, they would ship packs (or boxes) of 地域限定 Calbee back. For me, my favorite these days is the garlic butter taste, which will last only until September. Before then, my favorite had been "hard salty taste" 堅あげうすしお味, which reminds me of the American traditional kettle chips. And Calbee uses American potatoes for the hard chips.http://www.calbee.co.jp/potatochips/search/productdetail.php?productid=20070119115111
It's now Wednesday and is 4 days until the exam on Sunday. I definitely feel weird at nights when I should be just sleeping... 2 nights ago I had a really bad dream about getting killed and I had to just wake up to avoid the stress of facing a big bad guy. Then last night I woke up at 3am feeling really hungry for an instant noodle.
http://www.nissinfoods.co.jp/product/p_1580.html?all_catg=all&b_type=3
This is the most generic type of instant noodle... made by the same company 日清 that also makes 出前一丁. But more instant than 出前一丁, the chicken ramen only needs hot water and be covered in the bowl for 3 minutes. It can also be eaten as-is as a salty snack, which I'd really like when I was a kid. I was fond of an instant noodle snack called mami-noodle --this tastes similar. Calbee Jagabee is an important light snack for me too... it's not as heavy as chips.
Besides crunchy snack, I also drink Hayachine yogurt 早池峰のむヨーグルト... And I ate all the food mentioned above at 3am last night... ended with a sip of cold tea 伊藤園お茶... also an indispensable drink during summer. (I personally prefer 宇治 Uji tea over 静岡 Shizuoka tea. But for bottle tea, there probably is not much difference. Cold tea in summer is much appreciated.)　If I am a better housewife, I should be making cheap big bottle of cold mugi tea 麦茶 during summer time though. Yet I really don't have time to go to supermarket these days to even buy the mugi tea bags. For hot Japanese green tea, I highly recommend new tea 新茶 from Kanbayashi 上林春松 (かんばやししゅんしょう), which I bought in Uji in May. It's now July and I don't see new tea anymore on Kanbayashi's site. It's now time for cold summer tea. And I should buy some vitamin/ mineral supplements... it'd be important (and convenient) on the exam day too --solving light eating/drinking need in one shot when I can't eat much. This gel was originally invented for marathon runners.
http://www.shunsho.co.jp/information/index.php
http://otya.co.jp/uji.html
京都新聞 news reported that the Kyodai 京大図書館 university library will be opening 24 hours, which will be the first in Japan. Originally no library would open for 24 hours concerning students' health. But Kyodai got a lot of requests and consider that there are many types of lifestyles these days... the library will be opening around the clock (only for Kyodai students). It'd be convenient for students to drop in for a study after their activities at night. Yet, for day-long exam, one's mind needs to work in a daytime mode rather than night-time.

Cornell 関西 gathering 2008年 07月 04日

Last night H and I went to the alumini gathering of Cornell in 大阪梅田. It's a fabulous group of people and I was the only one who's not from Cornell, and am not Japanese (but the only one who wore kimono.) I got to know this group from Harvard Club `Japan`, which is unfortunately only active in Tokyo. Yet Cornell is very active in Kansai! Last night I also learnt that Cornell interviews directly in Kansai. I think that's smart. And it's so far the best 元気な alumni club that I went to. 今後ともよろしくお願いします。
関西では暑くなったですが、せっかくの機会ですから着物で大阪まで行きました。

京都にいる国際的な友達 2008年 06月 30日

Had a fun day meeting Tom, Ellen, Luke (who just turned 1 year and 3 months old), Joachim from Sweden who is researching/teaching micro-system at Kyoto University and kyudo 弓道 practitioner, and Mike from New Mexico who is in architecture, who makes electronic music and who practices Aikido 合気道 and Iaido 居合道. All of them are really knowledgeable and interested in Japanese culture. As for H, it's really good for him to get exposed to international friends. He's learning English. We'll meet again on July 11 before Mike leaves for Tokyo. I'm also looking forward to seeing a free performance of Noh 能 with H & Joachim next Sunday.

I miss these places in Paris very much!
http://travel.nytimes.com/2008/06/29/travel/29gardens.html

禅とは心の名なり、心とは禅の体なり 2008年 06月 03日

From Zen Buddhist Landscape Arts of Early Muromachi Japan (1336-1573) by Joseph D. Parker, 1999. A book that I was recommended to read by Urasenke SF.

p. 188 The concept of playfulness is found throughout the Vimalakirti Sutra, a text important in early Zen history and is important to the Kitayama Japanese monks. We find the term “playfulness” (S. vikridita, C. yu-hsi; J. yuge), where it is an attribute of Vimalakirti, liberated through the transcendence of wisdom. Skill of Vimalakirti is manifested in the sutra through his power to move freely among the various Buddhalands of the Buddhist cosmos, a power seen in different beings throughout the Mahayana Buddhist tradition, and also in the ability to transform the various lands in size and location at will. These 2 types of playfulness are suggestive of 2 different aspects of this power: “unobstruction” (wu-ai) by physical and conceptual boundaries or limits; and “transformation” (hua) of the world. An example of this latter power is seen in one of the best-known passages in the sutra, a passage that has become representative of the entire sutra: Vimalakirti’s transformation of his house “into emptiness” so that Manjusri and his thousands of attendants and companions could be enthroned inside his “10-foot square room” without crowding and without the city, the land of India, or the world changing in appearance. It is in this power of Vimalakirti that we find another Buddhist context for Kiyo’s interest in the artistic play of illusory appearance of size: the transcendence of limitations of time and space.

Such playful transformations of size and spatial dimension are possible only when conventional conceptions of the world have been relativized through the recognition of the emptiness of illusory appearances. They are products of the play of enlightened beings, reveling in the perception of the many realities behind surface appearances and conventional, discriminatory conceptions. This perception is part of a continuing, playful process of prajna or wisdom vision of the myriad possibilities of a world defined by illusion.


瓢鮎図 如拙 京都　1410

達磨と二祖慧可（神光）の問答がある（『伝灯録』巻三、達磨章）。
光曰く、諸仏の法印、聞くことを得べけんや。
師曰く、諸仏の法印は人より得るに匪（あら）ず。
光曰く、我が心未だ寧（やす）からず、乞う師、与（ため）に安んぜよ。
師曰く、心を将（も）ち来たれ、汝が与（ため）に安んぜん（将心来与汝安）。
曰く、心を覓（もと）むるに了（つい）に得可からず（覓心了不可得）。
師曰く、我れ汝が与（ため）に心を安んじ竟（おわ）んぬ（我与汝安心竟）。
この問答によって、二祖慧可は達磨から付法される。すなわち、これが禅宗の始まりとなる。以降、禅宗においては常にこの心が問題となる。

玉三郎の半衿 2008年 05月 26日

今週の着付けlessonは長襦袢の半衿のつけ方です。
昔の日本人（女性だけ？）は毎度着物を着る前もすべきです。
大変ですね！
偶然に篠山紀信氏が37年間に渡って撮影した坂東玉三郎氏の写真集を見て、やはり細部へのこだわりの玉三郎は半衿までも毎度上手にあわせたです。
歌舞伎の長襦袢はほとんど赤ですね。
舞妓さん、芸者さんと同じです。
半衿だけはよく変ります。

半衿について：
http://kotohogi.fine.to/haneri/haneri.html
http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%8D%8A%E8%A1%BF

渋さの定義 definition of cool 2008年 05月 22日

昨日、生徒達とOMAの設計と銀座のデパートについて話しました。OMAの設計は渋いすぎるで、一般の方に対してはあまりfriendlyな設計じゃない。一方百貨店の方はかなり「売れる」ですけど、ほとんど同じの設計でしょう。両方の考え方は反対と思います。

設計士・学生達が先端的な、哲学的な「渋い」設計を気に入るですけど、お金持ちの施主様達がかなり「高級感を持つ」、より保守的な設計を欲しいだろう。一般のデパートはどうやって新しいイメージを欲しいでも、結局的にPrada, Comme des Garconsなどの程度はなりませんでした。

時代によって「渋さの定義」に対して考え方も違うと思います。先端的、哲学的な渋さは「高級なものを安くに見える」のは基本と思います。殆どのcostは素材の作り方と研究に入りました。例えばOMAの設計は、高いですけど、時々Supermarket見たいの感じがあります。銀座のデパードの設計は、実は安いものですけど、「高級感」に大変こだわりです。それは、設計士さんが見れば分かってます。

侘び茶道の美意識でも「高級なものを安くに見える」の方でしょう。いってみれば、昔の日本の考え方が今より渋い？

今日はまた町屋で着物の着付けをお稽古しました。色々な帯の結び方をまだ勉強中ですけど、皆さんもよく自分で着物を着れるになりました。町屋の中の畳の部屋で一緒に着物を着るとき、なんと不思議な感じがありました。二週間前よりようやく「着物を着る」と「町屋でくらす」に少し慣れてきた。

I was having a discussion with students about design of OMA versus design that "high class" department stores would want. One of the major difference in regarding "beauty" is that OMA's design is not cheap but it looks cheap... yet in nowadays commercial world "beauty" is better to "look expensive but actually cheap". In old days Japan, the notion of "beauty" is also subtle. E.g. tea houses look so cheap like a hut but every detail and materials are actually very expensive.

I personally think that "presenting expensive things as cheap" is cooler than "presenting cheap things as expensive". Yet general customers would prefer the reverse.

I thought about the question of "value", and found this site interesting:
http://www.wakeupfromyourslumber.com/node/5272