Japan Video Topics 2008/07
Night Festival in Chichibu (4'20")
Huge wooden floats, fantastically decorated and hauled by chanting groups, are a feature of many Japanese festivals. One of the most spectacular is the Chichibu Night Festival, held in early December in a hilly town north of Tokyo. Taking all year to prepare and weighing up to 20 tons, the floats are pulled to the sound of drums through streets filled with festival crowds. The floats begin from Chichibu’s 2,000-year-old shrine and are strenuously hauled through the sharp corners and steep inclines of the town to end at a park under a huge firework display.
Monkiri Asobi – The Art of Papercutting (3’59”)
Monkiri asobi is a style of papercutting in which symmetrical patterns are cut with scissors in paper folded in four. Unfolded, the paper reveals the full design. This pastime, now popular again after almost disappearing, originated over 150 years ago from a technique developed by craftsmen to save time when preparing the patterns for painting mon, or family crests. Later used for many other decorative purposes, mon were created in a vast range of artistic designs that tell us much about the interests, lifestyle and world view of people centuries ago
Miyadaiku - Guardians of a Tradition of Building in Wood (3'43")
Japan is filled with magnificent wooden structures – temples, shrines, pagodas – some over 1,000 years old, and many still in excellent condition. The craftsmen who built these enduring buildings are known as miyadaiku, and even today master carpenters continue to use and pass on the ancient skills, ensuring a future for this tradition. Miyadaiku apprentices learn their craft the old way, by directly imitating their master, and specialize in building and restoring Japan’s shrines and temples with their intricate, superbly finished woodwork and gracefully curving roofs.
Sushi from Tokyo Bay Again (4’11”)
Centuries ago, under the shoguns, the people of Tokyo (then called Edo) referred to the abundant seafood they enjoyed from Tokyo Bay as Edomae. This vast bay, fed by many rivers and lined with fertile tidelands, was a plentiful source of the finest fish and shellfish that were used for Edomae zushi, the origin of the sushi that is now enjoyed worldwide. The bay’s whole ecosystem came under threat from pollution and reclamation during the economic boom of the 60s and 70s, but environmental programs have now cleaned the waters and once again Tokyo can eat sushi from its bay.
|
