Kameido Tenjin - the wisteria spot in Tokyo

One of the beautiful blooms in early May in Japan is wisteria. If you live in Europe, you might not be familiar with this flower, since it's known to be found only in the East Asia and North America. In contrast of more wild wisteria found in the US, you find a lot of artificially planted wisteria in Japan, because we've liked to take a good care of this beautiful to plant to see it's best performance when it blooms (also there are wild wisterias in Japan).

Wisteria appears to be mystical when it blooms; numerous of small petals, colored in pale purple, composite like chandelier while spreading mildly sweet scent.

The most well-known wisteria spot in Tokyo is Kameido Tenjin, a Shinto shrine in the east side of the city Tokyo. Not only mass compositions of the chandelier-like bunches, but also there are traditional garden landscape with a large pond, where turtles and carps stay in cozy attitude. In some part of the shrine, the flowers are planted on the stage build on the pond and people walk on the pathways alongside of the stages, or connected between the stages.

The only con about this place in wisteria time is the crowd. Since there's not much wisteria spots in the city of Tokyo, and the place is not big in it's size and the pathways are narrow, it becomes very crowded. So, you may be stressed if you are the like me who try to avoid the crowds as much as possible. But, I still went there - the beauty of the wisteria overcame my stubbornness.

Rikugien - a beautiful Daimyo garden from the Edo era

It is too pitiful for myself to miss the scenery of Japanese gardens like Rikugien under the perfect May weather. Thanks Daimyos and the constrain of the feudel society from centuries ago, for leaving such beautiful garden. Here's why I appreciate in such way.

"Daimyo" is the Japanese word that means powerful feudal load. They were the head of the military bands during the civil war era (late 1500s - late 1600's) as well as the administration of their local territories. Once the Tokugawa's band conquers the entire country then started Edo Bakufu (Bakufu = feudal government) in 1603, Tokugawa provided all of the regional lands, outside of the capital city of Edo (now called Tokyo), to the survived Daimyos after the civil war period, as the local administration of the regions throughout the country, ruled by the central Tokugawa's Bakufu.

In return of the receiving such regional authority, Daimyos must contribute their royalty to Tokugawa. Daimyos are required to stay in Edo for one year in every two years. It means that they will stay at Edo for half of their remaining career as a Daimyo. The expense for traveling to and staying in Edo are at the Daimyos' own expense. This system is called "Sankin-koutai". The Tokugawa's objective for Sankin-koutai is to limit the power and freedom of Daimyos as a prevention from rebel. Daimyos had to build their mansions in Edo as accommodations. What came afterhand is that the Daimyos competed each others in building better mansions especially in it's size and beauty. Making of gardens in the property was the important tool to express their power in such competition. 

Rikugien is one of the remaining gardens among these. It is the garden of Daimyo, Yoshiyasu Yanagisawa, a head of the regional administraion of Kai (where is called Yamanashi pref. nowadays) then later became a high-ranked official in the Tokugawa Bakufu. The garden was built in 1702 and survived through numbers of tragedies such as great fire in the city of Edo, the great earthquake in 1923, and air raid during WWII despite it's large as nearly 90,000 meter in the heart of the city.

 

 

There are a few other Daimyo gardens in Tokyo, and I will introduce them with further posts. 

Visiting Rosanjin Exhibition

I went to the exhibition of Rosanjin Kitaoji at Mitsui Memorial Museum yesterday. Rosanjin is known as the last giant of the Japanese traditional art history. He was a multi-talented artist but most famously known of his ceramic works and as a gastronomist, while being an owner and producer of the luxury Japanese restaurant, Hoshigaoka Saryo. He also left more than several essays that many of them are gourmet-related.

The exhibition mainly consists of ceramics and wooden-based lacquerwares. A few of his calligraphic works are also there. Unfortunately, I do not have any photos from the exhibition to post, as no photos allowed in the museum. Instead, you can find part of the collections from the exhibition here (and here, too).

Mitsui Memorial Museum, located near Nihonbashi in the heart of Tokyo, mainly introduces masterpieces of the Japanese art through their exhibitions. They also have a vast of their own collection among the ceramics, religious sculptures, paintings, calligraphies, swords, and etc… If you’ll have a chance to visit the city in near future, the exhibition will be held until 6/26.

Lastly, this is my only Rosanjin-related ones from my tableware shelf. Five small plates that are the reproduction of Rosanjin’s works. They are small as 9.5cm diameter. I use it for serving small amusements as starters, such as olives and cheese. Or, going Japanese, they’d be salted squid, salted fish eggs, and tsukemono (pickled vegetables).

Sunday antique market at the Buddhist temple

It's typical in Japan that antique markets are held in Buddhist temples or Shinto shrines in weekends. Variety of things are sold at the markets: ceramics, lacquered wood carvings, kimonos / fabrics, calligraphy goods, religious sculptures, and etc... Today, I went to one of them at Arai Yakushi in Tokyo. This Buddhist temple has an antique market every 1st Sunday of the month. And, May sure is one of the best month to enjoy such event while enjoying mild spring weather.

This temple has a water well that is open to public. The water can be consumed for drinking. Here are some photos I took at the market. I didn't take much detailed photos of each booth, since to respect shopkeepers for not bothering their business by my paparazi-like attitude. But still, hope this informs the brief picture of how the Japanese antique markets look like, especially if you have never gone.

 

And, some more photos from the temple, outside of the shopkeepers' territories.

 

Lastly, this is the lunch I had near the temple afterward, tororo soba.

Tororo, the white foamy matter seen in lower left, partially coverd by cut seaweed is a kind of yam.

It is very sticky as okra, and becomes foamy once shuredded. 

Some other antique market sites in Tokyo city (23 wards) area, held at Shinto shirines / Buddhist temples are: Gogokuji (2nd Saturday of each month), Nogi Shrine (4th Sunday of each month), Yasukuni Shrine (Sundays, except for when the specific events are held, plus 3/27 and 4/3),  Hanazono Shrine (Sundays, except for when the specific events are held), Kasai Shrine (1st Saturday of each month). It's always better to go to the markets in morning, since shopkeepers tend to close their booths from early afternoon.