Category Archives: Photos

【News】 10,000 “matobi” bonfires (March 29, 2015)

-Lightings to welcome spring and ancestors’ souls (Kamikoani Village, Akita Prefecture)- Kotaro Yamada On the Spring Equinox Day, great big Chinese characters are lit up on fire in the villages alongside the Koani River in the northern part of Akita Prefecture. The seven-day period starting three days before Spring Equinox Day and ending three days after is called “higan”, which is a time when people in Japan pay their respects to ancestors. These special bonfires are called “matobi”, which literally means “10,000 bonfires,” and placed on the night of the spring equinox to entertain ancestors’ souls. This unique festival is held in Kamikoani and other villages in Akita Prefecture as … Continue reading

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【News】 Boys be strong and generous like great samurai worriers (March 23, 2015)

  Tetsuya Onda The entire wall is covered by Samurai warriors who vibrantly stare at you. Don’t worry. This is pretty much the norm for Musha-e-no-Sato studio at this time of the year and the warriors are printed on Musha-e Nobori, which are Japanese banners with paintings of armed Samurai worriers or Shoki (a traditional Chinese deity said to prevent plagues and ward off evil beings). Musha-e-no-Sato literally means “home to worrier prints.” The shop in Ichikai-cho, Tochigi Prefecture, is specialized in Musha-e artworks and runs through generations to generations from the Meiji Era. With the Boy’s Day several weeks away, its third generation owner and artisan of the studio, … Continue reading

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【News】 Dedicating new green Tatami mats for prayers (March 15, 2015)

-Re-covering tatami mats of Church’ (Amakusa-shi, Kumamoto Prefecture)- Tetsuya Onda Sakitsu Catholic Church in Amakusa-shi, Kumamoto Prefecture, is one of a few churches with Tatami flooring inside in Japan. In late February, there were 13 Tatami mat craftsmen working in the church, renewing the Tatami facings as volunteers in what they call “Tatami Dedication” activity. The members of Tatamiya Dojo, a group of Tatami mat craftmen, spent 3 days to renew all 60 Tatami facings. Tatamiya Dojo was established in 2007, headed by Yoshiaki Kagami, a 43-year-old Tatami artisan from Sagae-shi, Yamagata Prefecture, and joined by 15 Tatami manufacturers nationwide that decided to use only domestic straw matting, particularly those … Continue reading

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【News】 Revitalizing pine tree forest to protect younger generation (March 8, 2015)

Kotaro Yamada -Coastal forest restoration project (Natori-shi, Miyagi Prefecture)- Four years ago when the Great East Japan Earthquake struck Japan, 400-year-old coastal forest in the Tohoku region was lost to a massive Tsunami. And now, farmers of Natori-shi, Miyagi Prefecture, are trying to reforest the coast, pursing a long-term project that aims at restoring the 100 hectares coastal forest in Natori-shi, Miyagi Prefecture, by 2020, using locally-grown black pine trees. The revitalized forest will become a natural shield from destructive sand storms and salty winds, so Natori farmers are strongly determined to complete the task that will take several decades. “These pine trees are vital to farmers here,” said a … Continue reading

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【News】 Hokkaido University student’s trip from Hokkaido to Okinawa with two Dosanko horses to end (March 1, 2015)

Tetsuya Onda A 24-year-old undergraduate student in his sixth year in Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Hokkaido University, is now in the course of a long journey through Japan, surprisingly walking all the way from Hokkaido to Okinawa on foot with two Dosanko horses. The student, Kohei Yamakawa, says he wants more people to know that there are some extant Japanese indigenous horse breeds including some critically endangered. Kohei and his two Dosanko horses, native to Hokkaido, left Sapporo, Hokkaido, in August 2014 and now they are almost there at goal, the Yonaguni Island of Okinawa. Late February, Kohei and his mates, Yuki and Mitchy, were walking up the hill in … Continue reading

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