Japan Video Topics 2009/06
Unfolding the story of the kyo-sensu Fan (4’23”)
The first folding fans were made in Kyoto (the kyo in kyo-sensu) about 1,200 years ago, much later spreading to China and then, via the Silk Road, to Europe. The Japanese, living in a country with long hot summers, quickly adopted this new design that allowed fans to be carried so conveniently when not in use. Over the centuries, craftsmen created a tradition of beauty in the making of their bamboo frames and hand-painted washi paper that lives on today in Japan, both in everyday life and in high culture.
Highly polished skills (3’08”)
Polishing is a key metal working technique, and the old metal-ware center of Tsubame City in Niigata is renowned throughout Japan for the quality and high level of its polishing work. Even simple jobs like restoring the shine to old pots and pans require refined manual skills as well as fine control over polishing machines, but there are also high-tech manufacturing tasks – such as finishing the leading edges of aircraft wings – where the trained hands of a traditional Tsubame craftsman achieve precision greater than any machine.
Matsuri-zushi – Festival Sushi (3’40”)
Sushi is world famous, but the kind of sushi known overseas is just one of many that are eaten inside Japan. Matsuri-zushi is a term describing sushi eaten at festivals and celebrations, and even this comes in many varieties, made using different local ingredients and methods. We look at two famous regional styles – Okayama's extravagant bara-zushi, and Chiba's futomaki-zushi, featuring intricate designs that combine several layers of seaweed-wrapped rolls.
Iriomote's Shichi Festival (3’42”)
Iriomote is a subtropical, mangrove-covered island at Japan's southernmost tip, known for its rare wildlife, beautiful scenery and distinctive local culture. The Shichi Festival, unique to a small western part of Iriomote, is a harvest festival with a history going back several centuries. It features a masked man representing Miriku, god of happiness, who leads the villagers in a parade to the seashore where they dance as boats are rowed out to greet blessings sent from over the sea by the harvest god.
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