Whisper from TOTORO

pic above : I found a nice picture of kappa girl on the web.
He paints much better than me. This kappa girl has a fishing rod. Kappa's most favorite food is cucumber. So cucumber sushi is called "kappa maki"

pic right: kappa maki----cucumber roll--




There are many folktales, novels, manga and movies about kappa.
"Kappa no Coo and to natsuyasumi"(the summer vacation with Coo the kappa --河童のクーと夏休み--) is a recent animation.
You can see the trailer here.
pic right: Kappa of Coo













A famous sake manufacturer "Kizakura" makes kappa a mascot of its brand.
pic right: Kizakura

We had a dog more than 10 years ago.
Its name was HACHI, as you can see in my previous post.
Checkng old videos I took in those days, I found a funny clip.
My daughter, 7 years old then, was playing with my silver salt SLR camera PENTAX.
She took HACHI with it and caught a nice shot. Enjoy it.

Silver salt camera have quickly become old-fashioned in this short period.
At the same time, the small girl quickly grew up adult.

In this summer, American movie "HACHI" is released in Japan. It's a story of a faithful dog HACHI and his master staring Richard Gere. This story was once filmed in Japan in 1987--Hachi-ko monogatari--

HACHI really exsisted in Tokyo about 80 years ago.
HACHI was kept by a Tokyo University Prof, Ueno who lived at Shibuya. HACHI went to Shibuya station to meet his master every evening. One day Ueno suddenly died but HACHI didn't understand it and kept going to the station every evening after that. Seeing it, people felt sorry for his devotion. They collected contributions and built a bronze statue of HACHI in front of Shibuya station in 1934.
Still now, the stature is a very popular meeting spot around Shibuya station.


On the other hand, there is another story about HACHI, which questions its devotion. At the station, there was a food stall of Yakitori--skewered grilled chicken, sort of like shish kebab--. The customers of the shop sometimes gave yakitori to HACHI. He got a taste of it and went to the station every evening...... After death, he was dissected and stuffed. Some skewers were found in his stomach....

right: Stature of HACHI at Shibuya



Once my family kept a dog. My son named it HACHI.---picture right: HACHI
I didn't know why he named HACHI. Maybe he knew about the faithful dog HACHI. Hachi means "eight" or "bee".

LAWSON announced that the ones who make reservation of Ponyo DVD can get Ponyo playing cards. The DVD will be released on July 3rd.
Each face side has different picture. We can follow the story with these cards.
If you want this card, look at LAWSON site.
Compared to the price of Disney Japan official site--4725yen---, the LAWSON's price is cheaper about 500 yen ---4230yen---

When I went to Nagasaki, I visited Oura Cathedral. It is one of the main sightseeing spot in Nagasaki.
It was first built in 1864. It was built in memory of "Japan's Twenty-Six Martyrs" -- 26 secret Christians who were killed in Nagasaki in 1597. So the official name of it is "Twenty-Six Martyrs church".
photo upper: Oura Cathedral.
photo lower: Uragami cathedal

-------history of Christianity in Japan---
Christianity first reached Japan in 1549 with the arrival at Kagoshima of Francis Xavier, a Catholic missionary belonging to the Society of Jesus.
At its peak, in the early seventeenth century, it is estimated that there were about 750 thousand Christians in Japan.
Later, though, it came to be considered a danger to the feudal order and was eventually repressed and banned.
Christians were persecuted, and in 1613 foreign missionaries were banished from the country.
Even after Christianity was prohibited, quite a few believers carried on practicing their faith in secret.
After Japan established diplomatic relations with Europe and America in the latter half of the nineteenth century, propagation of Christian faith again began to flourish.
--------quoted from Space ALC---------

photo right: fumie
photo lowest: people are tramping fumie. officers are monitoring.

When this church was built by French priests in 1864--it was the church for foreign resident--, some Japanese came to see them and confessed that they were hidden Christians. The priests were much surprised. They had kept their religious faith for 250 years under relentless repression.
After Anti-Christian Edicts was lifted, those Christians built their own church in Uragami. It was destroyed by atomic bomb in 1945 and rebuilt in 1958. It is also one of the main sightseeing spot in Nagasaki.

Oura Cathedral has a exhibit room that shows the history of propagandism and repression in Nagasaki.
"Fumie" is one of it. Fumie means image trampling.
In Edo period, to seek Christians, Edo goverment made people tramp a board on that image of Jesus or Virgin Mary was carved. Those who couldn't tramp it were arrested and punished.