Special Feature/ Oriental Arcadia, Searching for Its Journey
Kindness and Gratitude Heart to Return Favors The Origins of Tsuru no Ongaeshi According to Soto Zen Rinnō-ji Buddhist Temple on Mt. Kongo, which has a deep connection with the Date clan and Kyokudōsō Zanoshō, Kakufuzanchinzō Temple in Urushiyama, Nanyō City is an ancient temple that was founded in 1460 (Kanshō 1). It is a temple that generations of the ...
2022年03月
03-2022
Coexistence: Nature and Humans Gratitude for Life and the Collective Body Somokuto (lit. plant towers) are stone monuments built to memorialize and show gratitude for the trees and vegetation we harvest. There are monuments with the inscriptions 草木塔(somokuto), 草木供養塔(somokukuyouto), and 草木国土悉皆成仏(somokukokudoshikkaijoubutsu) on them, as well as Sanskrit or scriptural text. They are 50 to 80 centimeters tall, and many are ...
2022年03月
03-2022
Living with Nature: Mountain People and Their Traditional Culture The Matagi Culture of Oguni The town of Oguni is surrounded by majestic mountains. In the north there is the Asahi Mountain range, and the Iide Mountain range in the south-west. 90 percent of the land is forest, of which 80 percent is beech forest retained from a primitive landscape. Slow ...
2022年03月
03-2022
To the unknown worldTake a stepCome across Arcadia Who is Isabella L.Bird? An English woman traveled to the Okitama region in July of 1878. Her name was Isabella L.Bird. She was born the eldest daughter to a pastor in Yorkshire, England. She was brought up in an intelligent family which raised high-ranking priests of the Anglican Church. Her father, a ...
2022年03月
03-2022
In the Okitama region where there are many famous cherry blossom (sakura) spots, there is a giant cherry tree said to be 1,200 years old. It has signaled to the locals of the oncoming of spring since the days of old. Sakanoue no Tamuramaro, who received the first title of Sei-i Taishogun, makes an appearance in the legend of the ...
2022年03月
03-2022
Carved into the Land The History of FermentationThe People’s Memories The Basis of Japanese Food, Tracing the Origin of Fermentation As Japan’s traditional food culture, “Japanese food” is registered as a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage. Rather than the food itself, the registration was evaluated for the “practice” related to the “food” based on the temperament of Japanese people who respect ...
2022年03月
03-2022
Pray to the Sacred Fires to Call on Cheers, Laughter, and the Power to Live On A Fire Festival of Prayer Passed Down by the LocalsYahahaero One of the festivals held in many villages in Japan is the First Full Moon Fire Festival. It is called “Dondoyaki” nationwide, “Dontoyaki” in the Tohoku region, “Sagicho” in Kyoto and Hokuriku, and “Dosojinsai”, ...
2022年03月
03-2022
A Hometown Scenery that Leaves an ImpressionFlower Nagai Line The Founding of the Flower Nagai Line The “Flower Nagai Line” is a Yamagata railway that runs along the northern point of the Okitama valley in the southern part of Yamagata. Starting from Nanyo City’s Akayu station, it goes through Kawanishi and Nagai City to Shirataka Town’s Arato Station. It passes ...
2022年03月
03-2022
Technology that Connects People’s Lives and Occupation A Town that Makes Japan’s Red It is unknown when the safflower was brought to Yamagata, but it has been grown here since before the Edo Period. According to Murakagami, safflowers are grown in 35 villages of the 218 in the Okitama Region, and 14 of those villages are in the Shirataka Town ...
2022年03月
03-2022
A mountain ruled by Kami and the prayers of the people A village in the Heart of Mt. Iide In the Iide Mountains straddled by the three prefectures of Yamagata Prefecture, Fukushima Prefecture, and Niigata Prefecture lies the Town of Iide. Water flowing from 2,000-meter-tall mountains create fertile land in the north-eastern area perfect for growing good quality rice. The ...
2022年03月
03-2022
Mystical Village Deeply-rooted in Water InheritedBelief Ancient Home of a Dragon The towering Asahi Mountain to the west of Nagai City was formed from cooled magma pushed up by the shifting of tectonic plates. It’s mostly made up of granite. Every time the earth rose cracks formed on the surface. Weathering and erosion carved out valleys and rivers, and created Mifuchi ...
2022年03月
03-2022
Historic Tohoku, The Base of Kumano Belief Japan’s Leading Three Kumano Shrines, One of the Holy Lands At the northern-most point of Miyauchi neighborhood of the city of Nan’yo where the vast Okitama basin can be seen lies Kumano Taisha shrine surrounded by scenic beauty. Kumano Sanzan (Kumano Hongu Taisha, Kumano Hayatama Taisha, Kumano Nachi Taisha), Nagano Prefecture’s Town of ...
2022年03月
03-2022
