Space Battleship Yamato

Yesterday, after the annual house cleaning at the end of the year, I watched the film Space Buttleship Yamato on TV. Its rough story is, as Wikipedia puts it:

Set in the year 2199, an alien race known as the "Gamilas" ("Gamilons" in the English Star Blazers dub) are raining radioactive bombs on Earth, rendering the planet's surface dead and uninhabitable. Humanity lives in refuges built deep underground, but the radioactivity is slowly infiltrating the underground cities too. Earth's space fleet is hopelessly outclassed by the Gamilas and all seems lost until a message capsule from a mysterious crashed spaceship is retrieved on Mars. Blueprints for a faster-than-light engine are discovered inside the capsule, and an offering of help from Queen Starsha of the planet Iscandar in the Large Magellanic Cloud, who says that she has a device, the Cosmo-Cleaner D (Cosmo DNA), which can cleanse Earth of its radiation damage.

However, the story rather seemed a scheme of Iscandar to me. Iscandar is a
sister planet to Gamilas, and might have worked a plot to trap the Earth to
attack Gamilas so as that Iscandar could "cleanse" Gamilas without putting their
own hands on it.....

Or, ..... I should have seen the movie while young,
when I used to be less corrupted.

I wish you all a happy New Year!

Change. Changed? Changed!

I am not practicing regular verbs, but remembering the year 2009. Some have changed at school, in Japan, and in the world; some others haven't. I am just wondering how many changes I could have brought about, and hoping to generate more in the year of the Tiger, 2010.

A Basket Trip

I'm going to visit Izumi-Tottori High School near Izumi-Tottori Station along JR Hanwa Line in Han'nan City, the second southernmost high school in the second southernmost municipality in Osaka Prefecture. The station itself is, of course, the second southernmost just next to Yamanaka-dani Station, literally a gorge station in mountains.
At Otori Station, I change trains onto the rapid one bound to Hineno, and will change trains again there onto the local one bound for Wakayama. It's a trip. I can even call it a journey.
After Higashi-Sano Station, it's a countryside. Mountains are so near. As we go south, mountains come closer and closer. At Kumatori Station, they are so near that I can see even their trees.
After Hineno Station, it's a Wakayama here, not an Osaka. And here we are at Izumi-Tottori. We are in mountains, at least at the foot of mountains.

Taoism Art

I was walking along with kindergarten pupils who were, I supposed, heading to the Ten’noji Zoo. They were lively and were full of expectation, the expectation for something fun. By the overpass to the zoo, they turned left toward the zoo, and I turned right into the Osaka Municipal Museum of Art, where arts related to Taoism were exhibited.
Taoism is a religion that arose in China. The religion explains the road, “tao”, and assumes the perpetual youth and longevity to be an ultimate ideal. It has worshiped Laozi, a philosopher of ancient China, as its founder, and has developed itself by incorporating the ancient Chinese thoughts, beliefs, myths, even the Buddhism, and spinoffed Feng Shui, Horoscope, divination lore, and so on. It still is said to be the basis of the philosophy and the outlook on the world of Chinese people. This exhibition is trying to show that Taoism is deeply rooted in the culture of Japan as well.
I went into the exhibition room, and turned right after seeing three pictures of the three highest-ranked gods of Taoism, to find two strange pictures. The right side picture was a horse. The horse had markings on its back. An ancient Chinese saint saw the markings, and found a pattern in them:

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The left side picture was a turtle. The turtle had markings on its back. Another ancient Chinese sage saw the markings, and found another pattern in them:

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The saint and the sage foresaw a flood or something, and those were the start of the Chinese fortune-telling which employs certain kinds of marks.
Those stories reminded me of the words in the film “The Beautiful Mind.” The movie was about John Nash, who was a genius mathematician who developed paranoid schizophrenia. He later recovered from the illness, and won a Nobel prize. In the recovery process of the disease, he tried to avoid “reading patterns.” If he had been born in ancient China, he might have been able to start his religion. Anyway, some genius people might have an ability to read patterns in something natural.
One scripture, Yusui-Zehnjing, of Feng Shui suggested the importance of pattern reading too. Today, Feng Shui tells you the best place and the best direction to build your house, for example. The first founders of Feng Shui started with collecting pieces of information on the graves of great men, and tried to read patterns in the mountains and rivers around the graves. If the graves had made those men great, you could become great by building your grave after the pattern.
The development of Taoism seems to have been the repeat of pattern reading and “pattern applying.” If you want to export Taoism to a different culture, say Japanese culture, you have to apply your prototype pattern on the different nature and culture, and, it means, you have to read a new pattern there as far as you want to be successful with the new situation. In the later exhibition, you can find so many items with Taoism influence from all over Japan, from temples, from shrines, and even from modern arts. It seems virtually anything in Japan has had Taoism influence somewhat without our noticing that. I just wonder, however, without our noticing it, whether we can say we have Taoism in Japan.
I went out of the museum, and walked through the Ten’noji Park. Mild Autumn sunshine was pouring on the trees there. As some of the leaves have already started changing their colors, the majority of greens were designed with the minorities of reds and yellows. Unluckily, I could read no pattern in them.

Parallax

Another gaze gives us a cultural parallax. The question is which gives us the parallax, either being gazed or gazing. Or both of them? Anyway, the parallactic experience enables us to gaze our own culture differently.
Mr. Kevin Short argues that even "very ordinary and unspectacular" landscapes "have the potential ... to offer a truly fascinating and rewarding tourism experience, through which visitors can in a short time learn first-hand about the nature, lifestyles, history, and even spirituality of the country or region they are visiting." Not only "countryside landscapes" but also buildings and neighborhoods, I would say, have the same potential, even if they are not the historic ones which "Cultural tourism ... usually focuses on." (Kevin Short, 'Japanese countryside: Hidden gems and spiritual inspiration', "the Daily Yomiuri", October the 9th, 2009, p.16)

Bakumatsu Pilgrimage along Toba Highway

Rivers in Japan usually have rapid streams. However, rivers Katsura, Uji, and Kizu in Kyoto are weired by Mt. Yamazaki in north and Mt. Iwashimizu in south before crossing the border between Osaka, and form one big stream, Yodo river. The Japanese word “yodo” literally means “still water.” The three rivers' gathering point used to be a lower swampy marshland with a big boggy lake, Ogura Ike, literally “Big Whale Pond.” No wonder, the area where I got off the Keihan line is called Yodo, and its Yodo station is just the second station after the border between Kyoto and Osaka.
The Yodo castle ruin is just in front of the station, and you can find its stone walls and moats through the station's see-through walls. The station was packed with middle-aged men with tabloid dope sheets and red pencils in their hands, stereotypes of Japanese horse racing men. Yes, Yodo has a big turf.
Yodo station is at the one end of the turf, and our first stone monument for Toba-Fushimi battle is at the other. Still, it has 1.4 km on foot from the castle. The area used to be called Senryo-matsu, where 38 samurai and 3 men were buried, and was the last battlefield before the Shogunate armies were completely defeated to retreat to Osaka.
Yodo used to be an island-like area between the rivers Kizu and Uji. As you cross Kamo river to the north, you step onto Nouso, another island-like area between the rivers Uji and Katsura. Nouso, literally “storing place,” used to have warehouses to keep “taxes” from all over the country. Before Edo era, Yodo castle used to be placed in Nouso. Yodo-gimi, or Yodo queen, who was the youngest wife of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the last ruler before Tokugawa Shogunate, and who also was his only boy's mother, lived in the castle in Nouso.
Nouso has 2 more stone monuments at Myokyo-ji temple and Atago-chaya. From Senryo-matsu, we walked back to the other end of the turf, and “crossed” the area called Yodo-kobashi, or Yodo small bridge, and went into Nouso. There used to run Uji river here, between Yodo and Nouso. In Nouso, we looked around, and tried to find the next destination, Myokyo-ji temple. We thought we were walking along Toba ex-highway, but street being so narrow, we were not so sure. An elderly man, a typical retired baby boomer, with a guidebook in a hand and a PET-bottled water in another, was wandering around too, carrying a backpack on his shoulder. I knew he felt envious of my being accompanied by my daughter. I have been told so a couple of times. They should know the fact is that it was not she who accompanied me, but that it was I who accompanied her. She is a Bakumatsu freak
The narrow street in Nouso, where two cars hardly pass each other, has several narrower lanes on both sides. We could hardly figure out which one would lead us to Myoshin-ji. Abruptly, one car drove out of a tiny lane several meters away, and ran toward us. Stepping aside, we found a priest in the car. That’s it. That must be the one to Myoshin-ji. We headed toward the lane with a confidence.
After visiting the temple, as we walked north along Toba ex-highway, which is still busy with many cars rushing through the narrow street sandwiched in dense houses, we found a green bank running in parallel on our left hand. We turned left into a very narrow lane to escape from the horribly murderous traffic, and climbed the bank.
The cool winds blowing along the river Katsura took off our hotness. Across the bank, we found a broad river terrace under us. Some parts of the sandy terrace were cultivated by a couple of farmers. A sign says building a house is illegal. So, farming may not be illegal here. Before the rapid economic growth in Japan after World War II, the inlying area might have looked as pastoral as the terrace area. The top of the bank is a narrow paved street with occasional cycling bikes gusting past us. Yes, the atmosphere makes a trip a trip.
Another sign on the bank says the road is named “Katsura River Cycling Road,” which runs north all the way to Arashiyama for nearly 20 km. If you bike south ward on the other hand, it leads you to Kizu for about 25 km. Officially, this cycleway, about 45 km long in total, is Kyoto Prefectural Road Route 801. A cycleway which lasts for 45 km may be rare in Japan. A prefectural cycleway with the same kind of official route number with motor roads might be rarer.
Atago-chaya is 1.6 km from the castle, and 17 samurai and 18 men were buried there. All the monuments, including the ones you will find later, describe the war as Boshin-no-eki, Boshin War, and the Shogunate armies as “To-gun,” the East armies. “Boshin” is the name of the year, 1868, named under the combination of Oriental five elements and Oriental Zodiac, in a cycle of 60 years. 4 cycles and 28 years ago, in the year 1600, the Shogunate armies fought against Toyotomi's at the start of the Tokugawa Shogunate, and they used to be called the East armies too. After nearly 3 centuries, the West revenged on the East.
As we walked from Atago-chaya to the next stone monument along the cycling road with a guidebook in our hands, an old man on his normal bicycle talked to us.
“Are you looking for something?”
“Not particularly,” answered I, knowing the next one is still a couple of kilometers away.
“There is a stone memorial for medieval fish market over there, though,” in a kind of counter-curiosity, he replied.
“Thank you,” and there it was.
The Toba area used to be another river port town of Kyoto than Fushimi. This part the area used to be called Kusatsu-minato, or Kusatsu Port, or Kusa-port Port, or Grass-port Port, with a fish market along Katsura river. Before Kamo river system was developed during Edo Era, Toba port was even more prosperous than Fushimi, and was the front main entrance to the capital for water transportation. The start of railway system in Meiji Era brought the end to the port.
Hoden-ji temple is 3.4 km north from Atago-chaya, and Higan-ji temple's grave yard is 0.6 km north-east from there. 233 bones were buried in the grave yard. As you walk north for another 1.5 km, you will arrive at Oseki-chaya.
Chaya used to be a rest place along ancient or medieval highways. Oseki-chaya is still alive, and they serve popular Oseki mochi, Oseki rice-dumplings with sweet bean-jam on them, even today.
At some time in Edo Era, near Kusatsu River Port, which was busy as a water gate to the capital from Osaka, a young woman named Oseki started selling bean-jam rice-dumplings with the shape of a braided hat on her bamboo hat. The missy might have become a “fascia,” and retained her name on the dumplings. The dumplings kept being popular even after her death toward the end of Edo Era, and Kondo Isamu, one of the most well-known Bakumatsu characters on the Shogunate side, loved the bean-jam rice-dumplings.
As Toba ex-highway is busy and noisy and hot, we walked along the cycleway as much as possible, and occasionally went down the river bank to find stone monuments. For the last time, we walked out of the cycleway to find Oseki-chaya. We walked thorough newly built high-rise apartment houses, got into the busy street, and looked right and left. On our left side, or in the south, we found a traditional banner flying in the winds. That must be the one. And it actually was the one. We expected a traditional house which brings us back to Edo period. The building is, however, a kind of ultra-modern, with its 2 sides grass-walled, which make the inside surprisingly bright. One dumpling costs 150yen.
A young couple were already in the shop, sipping Japanese green tea. They were purchasing the dumplings as a souvenir.
“Can we eat the dumplings here?” asked I to a middle-aged woman (Oseki's offspring?).
“Yes, of course. We have 'Matcha Set' too.” I looked at my daughter to find her shaking her head. She doesn't like matcha, or Japanese green powdered tea, as it is green and bitter. She doesn't like green peppers too, as they are green and bitter.
“Only Oseki-mochi, please,” and I ordered two dumplings for each of us. They were not so bad. They tasted very classic, and might have kept unchanged since older times. We bought 4 more as a souvenir.
The area being the water entrance to the capital, several “detached” palaces of Japanese popes, or “retired-into Buddism” emperors were built in Toba. They disliked the aristocracy championed by Fujiwara clans, retired and moved out of the center of the capital, and pursued their own political hegemony economically based on overseas commerce, which, ironically enough, led to another non-imperial hegemony by Hei-ji clan. Hei-ji clan, who fought the first East-West war in Japan as the West, was defeated by the East, Gen-ji clan, and was swallowed by the sea water between Honshu and Kyushu islands.
This time, at the Meiji restoration, the West was well-prepared. They lined their forces from the east to the west so as to block the Shogunate armies entering central Kyoto via Toba ex-highway. They occupied Anrakuju-in temple, Jonan-gu shrine, Toba ex-detached-palace, and Koeda-bashi bridge from the east to the west.
As I climbed up the Katsura river bank toward the Koeda bridge, I realized how stupid the Shogunate army were while their enemy, the Royalists, embattled their forces tactically not only from the west to the east in Toba, but also to the farther east to blockade the Shogunate armies enter Kyoto via Fushimi along Takeda ex-highway.
From the top of the bank, I could see the reconstructed Fushimi Castle. At the foot of the castle hill, there is Gokoh-no-miya shrine, where the eastern part of the Royalist armies based in the Fushimi area. Meanwhile, the eastern part of the Shogunate armies based themselves in Fushimi bugyosho (the public prosecutors and police office). The office was located on the lower ground than to the shrine. Although their officialism-oriented mindset is understandable, they might well be blamed to be too naïve.
The western part of the Shogunate armies were, however, just ridiculous. They advanced along Toba ex-highway, just 2 to 3 meters wide, in thousands. They might have wanted to attack the Royalists like a snake, but was crashed just like a snail. The main battle in Toba was fought around Koeda-bashi bridge, and the Shogunate bodies were scattered between the bridge and Higan-ji temple in hundreds. After the defeat here, they retreated toward Osaka. On their way back to Yodo castle, the stragglers were slaughtered in tens. Some of them got back to Osaka, luckily, only to find their boss, the last shogun Tokugawa Keiki, having escaped to Edo in hell.
On our way back to Osaka, to take advantage of changing trains from Kintetsu line to Keihan line, we dropped off at Fushimi-momoyama-ryo station to buy some souvenirs. Fushimi is only 3 stations away form Takeda station on Kintetsu line, the nearest station to the Toba area. In the 3-station-long line, 6,000 Royalists fought against 15,000 Shogunates. Tactics pays.

Landslide, or Land-Divided?

A general election in Japan was held on August 30, 2009, for all 480 seats of the House of Representatives of Japan, the lower house of the Diet of Japan. In the election, the opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) defeated the ruling coalition (Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and New Komeito Party).
The opposition DPJ-SDP-PNP coalition won 227 seats out of 300 (75.7%) in constituencies, and 91 out of 180 (64.3%) in proportional representation. That looks like a landslide victory over the ruling LDP-NKP coalition, who won 64 (21.3%), and 76 (42.2%) respectively.
Meanwhile, the ruling coalition won 36 seats out of 115 (31.3%) in constituencies in the Western Japan excluding Okinawa, and 32 out of 67 (47.8%) in proportional representation in the Western Japan including Okinawa. The opposition coalition won 76 (64.3%), and 31 (46.2%) respectively.
The question is whether Japan will be divided along regional lines in its future as in UK and USA.

Anything can be a comodity.

So-called Koizumi Children have been consumed. Consumed by the electrate? Or consumed by ... ?

The Cooperation among Teaching Staffs

We need a significant amount of effort to get all teaching egos to cooperate, if we should continue to work on the projects we have started in previous high schools. There are some small gaps between the ideas and their practices, and the projects we have begun, laying out a full account of what we have done, are still in very rough shapes. It would take further more years, and a collective effort, to establish a certain systematical program with those projects. To complete them, we should come as close as we ever have to an active collaboration with other educationists. This is the beginning of a new program. It is very difficult so far for us to tell others what we are after, our grand design. We should knock on doors, ask questions, speculate out loud, fish for ideas, and get a dozen or so educationists interested enough in our problem to drop their own research long enough to solve little pieces of our puzzle. It will be a kind of factory.

Without Philosophizing, Chores Remain Chores

As often the case, my teaching career started at a “bottom” high school. There, and thereafter, I realized troubled kids are those who have troubles at home, and in the society at large.
Late one evening, I was talking with a student's parent. “I was illiterate when I was young. Later, I learned how to write and read, yet I can't help my child do homework. I wish I could.” Merely giving out homework might strengthen reproducing poverty, and strain some parental love.
Later on, I moved to a vocational high school. Some students chose the school because they can work right after the graduation. The choice had been nurtured by their domestic economy, namely poverty in this Japanese academic background-oriented society.
I saw a student's father only in their entrance ceremony. Her mother had left the family. Her father was almost always out form one construction site to another, and hardly came home with some money in his hand. The telephone service was sometimes stopped. Her younger brother was not attending his junior high school.
I sometimes paid home visits to dun her of the school tuition with an administrative staff, mostly only to find their room closed with nobody inside, even late at night. The visits were a kind of an alibi to show our efforts to the Board of Education.
My third type of encounter with poverty was teaching returnees from China. One female parent used to be an elementary teacher in China, but ended up making a cashier in Japan. Without Japanese fluency, they were regarded “illiterate.” Without Japanese licenses, they were treated as manual laborers, accordingly with low payment.
Students who have troubles, especially poverty, at home, have caused many troubles and problems on me. They actually and obviously increased my work load, which, on the other hand, would support their coming to school, going up social ladder.
During my career, I have read many books: some about buraku discrimination first, some others about Korean residents in Japan next, and then those about the poverty itself. Political Economical understanding helped me endure so called “chores” in educational institutions, a jargon which indicates routine works other than teaching.

Going around with sulfur in a hot humid laboratory

Two fans were stirring the June air in a chemistry laboratory. Don’t forget it that it was the Japanese June air in a century of global-warming.
After some introduction, Mr. Kaneda, a chemistry teacher, showed a demonstration experiment. The 20 students in the room, or 10 pairs of two, gathered around him in front of the lab in a half circle.
The teacher stroke a match, and lighted a Bunsen burner. The burner gave out and light-orange flame. “Not so good. It looks like the Olimpic Flame,” muttered him in a large voice. He turned a sleeve of the air vent till the burner provided a light-blue cone, which gives the heat of around 2,000 centigrade, according to him.
Mr. Kaneda put sulfur into a test tube, and carefully shuffled it with a test tube clamp so as that every part of its quarter bottom should get the heat all over.
“The sulfur liquefies, and becomes a light-yellow liquid. As you keep heating it in the heat of around 100 centigrade, it becomes dark black, and loses liquidity,” as he said, he poured the black matter into the water of a beaker. His Hermione-Granger-like skillfulness made the matter form a string of plastic sulfur in the water. The scene and the smell of the heated sulfur gave us the feeling as if we had been in a Potions class.
By the time, α-sulfur (in its orthorhombic system) and β-sulfur (in its monoclinic system) he had prepared revealed their crystal figures.
The students started their own performance, giving out the more of rotten-egg-like smell. With their Ronald-Bilius-Weasley-like clumsiness, their difference between α-sulfur and β-sulfur was not so crystal clear.

The World in a Jar

The weather forecast I saw yesterday predicted a 40% chance of precipitation in the morning, and a 60% chance in the afternoon. I got in my car with my umbrella to drive to Masaki Art Museum, located in Tadaoka, one of a few towns in Osaka prefecture. Driving south along Route 26, I crossed the municipal border between Izumi-otsu city and Tadaoka town easily, but found difficulty in getting to the town's center. Some former farm roads were so narrow and crooked, and a few of them were one-way streets. I should have approached via the waterfront industrial road.
I entered the museum, but could find no receptionist. I rang a small cast iron bell, and a lady popped out to accept my entrance fee, 600 yen, and to hand me the stub of an admission ticket numbered 15101. As I turned right to find the collection of Chinese ceramic vessels over the short hall way, I wondered if anybody gets a full admission ticket. Masaki Art Museum is a small private museum.
The exhibition is titled “Ko-chu-ten”, literally “Heaven in a Jar”, or “the World in a Vessel.” The first hall exhibits a collection of Chinese ceramic vessels. As you follow the exhibits, you learn how Chinese people decorated their vessels; historically, outside first, and inside next.
Exhibit No. 5 is called Seiji Shintei Ko, or Celadon Spirit-housing Jar, made before 316 in today's Zhejiang province. It was either a burial good or a spirit-summoning good, whose cap has almost everything: a variety of people, buildings, birds... The jar has its own “other world” on its cap.
Of course, not all the vessels are deathly ceramics. Some are decorated with flowers, butterflies, and even Chinese-favorite dragons (exhibit No. 9). Another Chinese-favorite imaginary animal is a phoenix, and two phoenixes are drawn inside a tea cup (No.46 and 47) which were made around the 12th century in today’s Anhui province. A pair of fish and waves are drawn on a piece of white porcelain (No. 19) made as early as in the 10th or 11th century in today’s Hebei province. At a certain stage of Chinese history, the world decorated or drawn on the outside vessels technically entered into the insides.
The idea goes back much earlier. The exhibition titled "Ko-chu-ten” is based on a story in 'The Book of the Later Han', published around the 4th and 5th centuries.
Fei Chang-fang used to be an officer who supervised a marketplace during the Later Han dynasty in the first 3 centuries. In the market, an old man was selling herbs, and he hang a gourd-shaped vessel, “hu” in Chinese, in front of his shop. Whenever the market was closed, the old man jumped into this vessel, without being seen by the people in the marketplace. One day, however, Fei found this from the top of his lookout. Fei insisted the old man to bring him into the vessel, and the following day he was allowed to enter inside the magical hu, where they feasted and drank from a wine vessel that would never empty.
According to a legend, Fei Chang-fang became a magician who had "the power of shrinking and collecting in an urn mountains and streams, birds and animals, people, pavilions, terraces, and buildings, boats and carriages, trees and rivers."
This paradisiacal fairly land is far from this world, just like the miniature gardens that play the same role for those who cultivate them. This story may suggest two possibilities:
1) Fei Chang-fang actually came to have a magical power.
2) Fei Chang-fang could produce miniatures so detailed as to transport the imaginations of viewers into other lands.
Some exhibits of sumi-e, or ink and water paintings, we can find in the later part of this exhibition clearly indicate the potential of the miniature landscape.
Masaki Takayuki was gazing through the entrance or the hallway to another hall. In 1968, 17 years before his death, Masaki Art Museum was founded by him. His bronze statue is too big for the hallway, and made me feel embarrassed checking souvenirs beside him.
The next part of the exhibition shows Japanese tea ceremony goods. They were so well exhibited that even I could see that a small tea room has its own universe. You can find histories via inherited tea ceremony tools. You can find nature via decorated flowers. You can talk with a late artist via a screen painting (No. 38).
As far as I guess, the smallness of the tea room might have a meaning. Being in a small room, or in a small universe, you can focus on something, separated from the outside chaotic world. That something might be the communication with your guest. That something might be decision you have to make. That something might be a fairyland where you would like to be healed.
Walking up the stairs, you are surrounded with Chinese miniature ceramics. The room has everything; a farmhouse, a pig pen, a cup, an ancient kitchen range, a well, a goat, a dog, a horse, a duck, and even a soldier, an entertainer ... etc. Those were obviously dedicated to the dead. The dead must have wanted to have another world after their death, which should be as convenient and prosperous as in this world.
As time passed by, the desire for another world after death might have descended to this real world. We might have come to be more stressed out. People wish to have another world right now right here.
One picture (No.34) in the last part of the exhibition, the collection of sumi-e screens, or ink and water paintings, clearly shows this desire. The picture has a study with no person. If you put yourself in the study, you could listen to the chattering of the clear and clean bubbling stream. At this time of the year, you might hear a Japanese nightingale singing. To the ears of Japanese people, the birds sound like as if they were chanting the title of a sutra. And you can think … think about the decision you have to make, think about the retreat you need to have, or think about the retirement you wish to make.
I went out of the museum building to find hot fine heavens contrary to the forecast. The sun was scorchingly beaming down on the earth. Looking at the heaven and earth, I wondered what world, or what jar, I am in.

Myoshin-ji Temple Exhibition

Visiting a museum in the full-bloom cherry blossom season may sound a little bit freaky. However, the fact that today's destination is in Kyoto might be a good excuse.
Three willow trees welcomed me, as I walked out of the exit of Shichi-jo station on the Keihan Line. Cherry trees along the Kamo River really are a good attraction to sight-seers. Yet, I left the river bank immediately, and climbed a gentle slope towards the eastwards.
After a couple of blocks, I found Sanju-san-gen-do Temple on the right. The temple is quite a big name for Kyoto visitors. Yet, I went into the left side building, Kyoto National Museum, which exhibits paintings, calligraphies, and Buddhism-related implements of Myoshin-ji Temple.
Kyoto National Museum has a “modern” building. Here the word “modern” suggests its having been built during Japanese modernization days, which can be one of those modernization heritages. It has brick walls and bronze domes. It also has a modern gate, or let me call it a contemporary gate building, with a cool cafe as a part of it, which reminds me of some cafes of modern museums in some Western countries. Here the word “modern” does not necessarily mean they have exhibition of modern arts, but means their buildings are modern. Anyway, Kyoto National Museum exhibits Medieval things in their pre-contemporary “modern” building.

Zen-related drawings and instruments are exhibited. They show a certain spirituality and mind. The spirituality is certainly driven by Zen belief, while the mind is defined by the age.

The whole way through the exhibition, many Chinese drawings (kara-e) and Chinese instruments (kara-mono) are exhibited. They were brought from China to Japan, of course. Even some Japanese exhibits show that they were influenced by these Chinese masterpieces. In other words, “kara-gokoro” (China-influenced mind) in medieval Japan is featured here.

“Birds and Flowers of the Four seasons” is a set of four hanging scrolls with ink and light colors, which were drawn by Kano Motonobu (1477-1559) in 1543. They are usually preserved or hung in the Reiun-in Abbot's Quarters, and now exhibited in one room of the museum, Zen Space.
Each scroll is independently showing its own season --- spring, summer, autumn, and winter, from right to left ---, and has its own seasonal flowers and birds. In addition, they also make up one picture, or one piece of scenery: In spring, snow melts, and makes a water fall, which flows into summer rapids, whose distant landscape is curtained with moisture-laden air. The rapids gather into an autumn bountiful river, whose banks are covered with half-dried grasses, and the flow stops its running at the wintry pond. You can even feel the vapor from the surface of the icy pond. It must be an early morning of a cold winter day.
Not only do the water trends make the scenes one, but the birds are also communicating with each other across tapestries: Winter wild ducks are gathering to take warmth in the leftmost side of the pond where the dried grasses are sheltering them from the piercing wind. Three of the ducks are obviously looking up into the air, and one of the three is even shouting up over to something in the air. Its voice might never reach to the autumn wild geese flying over the mountains where the winter is sneaking up (or down?). The three geese look down at the pond as if they were searching for their rest stop. Their search might menace the ducks' peaceful resident. A summer snowy heron is quietly watching their communication, while spring sparrows are enjoying themselves carelessly.
The water flows from right to left, from spring to winter; the cold winds breeze from left to right, being warmed down (or up?) in spring via summer. All the creatures great and small are communicating with one another, and, there, even the seasonal order is reversible; being anterior and being posterior are in tandem.

"Saeki Yuzo and Montparnasse"

"Standing at the places of predecessors' tracks, thus we can think of their days, because the street corners and the buildings in Paris have been left as they were for as long as 100 years."
“Hemingway used to pass through a bakery to take a shortcut from his apartment at 115 Rue Notre Dame des Champs to Boulevard du Montparnasse, and the bakery is passed through by neighbors even today. We can think about 'Today' by standing at the same space, and sitting on the same seat for a while.”
---Shigeru Nakanishi, , 'Akahata' January 21, 2009, p.9---

The conversation between Moroyuki and Masanaga (4)

"To remain faithful," replied Moroyuki keep oiling his spearhead.
"To the Emperor?" asked Masanaga again watching his brother wiping the spear.
"To whom mind never."
"What?"
"It doesn't matter to whom you are faithful. It is to remain faithful that is important," with this, Moroyuki performed piking.
"Are you talking about ethics?"
"No. I am talking about reality,” gazing at the spearhead, he continued, “Remember, we are aliens here in Mutsu. They are all fighting each other in chaos here changing sides in their own interests. If we did the same changing sides in our interests, we would be one of them. Then, they, natives, have advantages, and we, aliens, would be diminished. We should be distinguished and even marked to survive and prosper here in Mutsu. Remain faithful, even if you are surrounded by all the enemies. That would work for the long," Moroyuki spoke unusually long for him.
"Ah, now I think I understand you, my brother."
"Thank you," sheathing his sword, Moroyuki faced Masanaga at last.

The Conversation between Moroyuki and Masanaga (3)

"To remain faithful," replied Moroyuki keep taking care of his sword.
"To the Emperor?" asked Masanaga again watching his brother oiling the sword.
"To whom mind never."
"What?"
"It doesn't matter to whom you are faithful. It is to remain faithful that is important," with this, Moroyuki wiped his sword.
"Are you talking about ethics?"
"No. I am talking about reality,” gazing at the sword, he continued, “Remember, we are aliens here in Mutsu. They are all fighting each other in chaos here changing sides in their own interests. If we did the same changing sides in our interests, we would be one of them. Then, they, natives, have advantages, and we, aliens, would be diminished. We should be distinguished and even marked to survive and prosper here in Mutsu. Remain faithful, even if you are surrounded by all the enemies. That would work for the long," Moroyuki spoke unusually long for him.
"Ah, now I think I understand you, my brother."
"Thank you," sheathing his sword, Moroyuki faced Masanaga at last.

Fujiwara Clan in Mutsu

Fujiwara Kiyohira (?-1128), Motohira (1090?-1158?), and Hidehira (?-1187) prospered based at Hiraizumi, and enjoyed a half-independent state in Musts for three generations and for about a century.

Moroyuki's Letter to Akiie

"Do you remember Sir Yoritomo subverted Fujiwara clan in Hiraizumi? However, the clan prospered for three generations almost as an independent kingdom. Your only and the best way to survive and to live long is to establish an independent kingdom here in Mutsu, separate from the power struggle in the central. You can do it, and I can support it."

Nambu Clan

Nambu clan is one of the only two clans who survived three "generations" of Japanese shogunate; Minamoto Shogunate, Ashikaga Shogunate, and Tokugawa Shogunate. The other is Shimazu clan. It might not be a coincidence that the clans either ruled the northmost or southmost parts of Japan.

The Conversation between Moroyuki and Masanaga (2)

"So you die for Nambu clan, don't you?" asked Masanaga another question.
"Half."
"What is the other half for?"
"I love Akiie. I don't have my own son. My life after his death is out of question."
"You think he will die this time?"
"He will. His only way to survive and live long is, or was to accept my advice to establish an independent country in Mutsu, independent from the central."
"You gave him such advice? How dare could you think of such an idea?"
"Fujiwara clan did it 200 years ago."

The Conversation between Moroyuki and Masanaga (1)

"To remain faithful," replied Moroyuki.
"To the Emperor?" asked Masanaga again.
"To whom mind never."
"What?"
"It doesn't matter to whom you are faithful. It is to remain faithful that is important."
"Are you talking about ethics?"
"No. I am talking about reality. Remember, we are aliens here in Mutsu. They are all fighting each other in chaos here changing sides in their own interests. If we did the same changing sides in our interests, we would be one of them. Then, they, natives, have advantages, and we would be diminished. We should be distinguished and even marked to survive and prosper here in Mutsu. Remain faithful, even if you are surrounded by all the enemies. That would work for the long," Moroyuki spoke unusually long for him.
"Ah, now I think I understand you, my brother."
"Thank you."

The Encounter of Nambu Moroyuki and Kitabatake Akiie

Kitabatake Akiie was appointed to be a chief of the Mutsu state on August the 5th in the third year of Genko (in 1333) at the age of 16, and moved there with his expeditionary force on October the 10th in the same year. He managed to bring the region under his control by the end of the next year.
Where did Nambu Moroyuki meet Kitabatake Akiie? If the former had lived at the Hakii county in the Kai state, they should have met at the estuary of Fuji-mi River on the latter's way to Mutsu. For form's sake, the former should have visited the latter. How was Moroyuki attracted by Akiie?

The End of Nambu Clan (2)

In 1867, the last Shogun, Tokugawa Yoshinobu, declared the transformation of the power back to the emperor. In 1868 the imperial era name was changed from Keio to Meiji. In 1869, all the domain lords nominally offered the return of their land and people to the emperor. In 1871, abolition of clans and establishment of prefectures was forced through, and the domain system was abolished. Nambu clan's ruling of their domain was effectively ended as with those of other clans as the result of Meiji Restoration. That was one of the processes of Japanese centralization. A thirdand five centuries had passed since Moroyuki's death in 1338. In other words, Nambu clan had kept Moroyuki's dream to establish an independent state in Mutsu, although

The End of Nambu Clan (1)

In 1868, Nambu clan's ruling of their domain ceased as with those of other clans as the result of Meiji Restoration. That was one of the processes of Japanese centralization. A half and five centuries had passed since Moroyuki's death in 1338.

Nambu Moroyuki or the Double

Which is better; Nambu Moroyki is riding on the horseback, or the Double is riding on the horseback? With a PC, I can write the both very easily.

Content-Based Instruction and English Classes in Sumiyoshi Senior High School

Introduction
Content-based instruction (CBI) is a teaching method which helps students to acquire foreign language skills by learning about something rather than learning about the language itself. CBI is a useful tool for motivating students and actively engaging them in the learning process. Some types of English classes at Sumiyoshi High School have naturally, been based on the CBI method, while some others are tacitly inclined to this style of teaching with potential possibility of their refinement by the intentional introduction of the method.
Kant put it this way: “It is extremely advantageous to be able to bring a number of investigations under the formula of a single problem. For in this manner, we not only facilitate our own labor, inasmuch as we define it clearly to ourselves, but also render it easier for others to decide whether we have done justice to our understanding.” (Kant, p.12)
Here we are going to bring various types of English classes in our school under the formula of a single perspective, Content-Based Instruction, so that we can see them clearly and facilitate our own teaching, as well as provide other high school English teachers opportunities to critically judge our teaching.
I. Sumiyoshi High School: natural Content-Based Instruction
1. Content-Based Instruction and Reading
The Open University, a distant-learning university in the UK, provides us with an idea about reading: “An essential part of active reading is responding to what you are reading....” Good readers read stories and/or essays critically. In other words, they constantly ask questions while they read.
One aspect of English reading classes is to raise good readers. Good readers would be able to ask questions on their own. Objectively, how can instructors help intermediate students develop their ability to read critically, to read asking good questions?
As English language teachers ask appropriate questions of their students, the students develop their ability to ask good questions themselves. Then, what are good questions?
Good questions are those to connect ‘bottom-up’ and ‘top-down’ reading. Bottom-up reading itself does not necessarily lead to the understanding of the contents, as it just gives us grammatical information. Top-down reading does not necessarily lead to the understanding of the contents either, but it only gives us back-ground information. We need to read critically to understand the contents, which links the two. Thus we can link the grammatical information and the background information to the understanding of the reading contents. In classes, English teachers should ask engaging questions that encourage students to think critically, thus helping students to do so more independently.
In this way, teachers and students work together to link all the information to the understanding of the reading contents. English teaching in Japan has had a significant accumulation of bottom-up reading, that is, the long history of the grammar-translation method. However, the amount of background information English teachers can provide has increased significantly, thanks to the proliferation of the Internet. These days, many English textbooks have a certain amount of comprehension questions. In addition, implementing an appropriate schedule and procedure to introduce the appropriate questions will bring about significant progress.
2. Content-Based Instruction and Super Science High School English Classes
Sumiyoshi High School has a subject named “Super Science High School English” (SSH English) in its Science Course for the first graders. The significance of its existence and the direction of its development can be understood and contemplated under the idea of Content and Language Integrate Learning (CLIL).
“MEXT designates high schools that emphasize science, technology and math education as ‘Super Science High Schools’ (SSHs). SSHs are undertaking research and development of innovative curriculums with emphasis on science, technology and mathematics study and effective ways of collaborating with universities and research institutes.”
SSHs are supposed to develop their students’ language skills, which are necessary to foster international communication ability by organizing science and mathematics classes, lectures, and presentation exercises, etc. in English. Our SSH English class is one such “etc.”
In SSH English, "First Steps to SciTech English Intermediate" is used as a textbook, and the authors, Miyama et al., state in their “Preface”, "In the field of the leading-edge science and technology, virtually almost all the information is communicated in English. Engineers, therefore, are supposed to acquire 'international communication skills' in their specialized field. This book is devised to help students acquire the skills to communicate in various specialized fields of leading-edge science and technology, through various tasks." This implies that the textbook is designed along with CLIL.
Although the relation between CLIL and Content-Based Instruction is yet to be explored, CLIL is designed to have students learn not only language skills but also the contents which are explained in English, and is reported by the BBC to be “an increasingly popular way of putting content and language learning together”.
In Europe, “this is the platform for an innovative methodological approach of far broader scope than language teaching. Accordingly, its advocates stress how it seeks to develop proficiency in both the non-language subject and the language in which this is taught, attaching the same importance to each.” (urydice, p.7) The question is how to avoid falling between two stools, and “teachers should devote special thought not just to how languages should be taught, but to the educational process in general.” (p.7)
“Special thought” should be devoted to SSH English, not only by English teachers, but also by the teachers of science and mathematics, as to how “the educational process in general” as well as “how languages should be taught.” Effectively researching these ideas might bring efficiency into students' learning various types of subjects within a limited time frame.
“CLIL enables languages to be taught on a relatively intensive basis without claiming an excessive share of the school timetable.” (ibid., p.8) This allows the science, mathematics, and English faculty to examine which themes should be taught in SSH English classes. Publishing a Japanese-English academic term list in the subjects might be a step toward this objective.
3. Content-Based Instruction and Speaking
---From Pronunciation to Verbal Expression---
Sumiyoshi high school has Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL) class for the first graders. Students study phonics, recitation, and debate in the class. Phonics enables the students to pronounce English words better by giving them the literacy to more accurately pronounce words from their spellings. This is achieved through the use of phonetic symbols. The understanding of phonemes is the subject of phonemics. Phonemics is in turn, a field of phonetics, which includes pronunciation of sentences as well as words and phrases.
In practical phonetics, students are to learn sentence stress, pause, tone, and stress-timed rhythm, often in unmarked or neutral sentences. The grammatical rules of phonetics, for the unmarked or neutral sentences, are often overruled by attitudinal factors. The attitudinal factors are generated by the contents of the text. Recitation of speeches gives the students a good chance to master the attitudinally effected pronunciation of texts, and thus improving their verbal ability.
Sumiyoshi High School has a history of teaching phonics, in CALL Class. In class, paper-based teaching materials are handed out, to be used in conjunction with interactive activities and computer exercises using innovative software. Having all the teaching materials combined and published in the form of a textbook makes the first step toward a more sophisticated procedure of teaching English pronunciation. This will surely lead to the research and development of pronunciation teaching techniques that enable verbal expression.
II. Further Intentional Application of Content-Based Instruction
1. Content-Based Instruction and Writing
We have presentation-oriented English classes: Paragraph Writing, English Expression, and the like. The question is whether they are, or can be, content-based. To have content-based presentation-oriented English classes, we should attempt to conjugate these 2 learning processes.
Sumiyoshi High School's International Course has Paragraph Writing (PW) classes in the first grade and English Expression (EE) classes in the second grade. In the Paragraph Writing classes, students practice effective paragraph writing. In English Expression classes, they further build on their writing skills by participating in debates of various resolutions. The classes are, therefore, basically based on tasks, while many writing classes in high schools have been based on either grammar or functions, and have aimed at sentence writing. For example, in Polestar, a writing textbook for Science Course students, Part I (from Lesson1 to 8) is based partly on functions and partly on grammar, and Part II (from Lesson 9 to 15) is based on situations, and only Part III (from Lesson 16 to 20) aims to introduce how to write a paragraph.
In PW classes, the task assigned to students is to write paragraphs. Writing a paragraph requires a far flung schema, further than just writing a sentence or two. The paragraph-writing task is continued even in the first quarter of EE classes, while debating is introduced as a further developed task in the latter three quarters.
PW and EE in Sumiyoshi High School are essentially based on contents. In the textbook in PW class, Ready to Write, authors state in its Introduction: “By providing them with a wide variety of stimulating writing topics and exercises that go beyond sentence manipulation drills, students are encouraged to bring their own ideas and talent to the writing process.” (p. iv)
The textbook is used even in the first quarter of EE class. In the latter 3 quarters of the class, we use another textbook, Discover Debate. Its statement to the teacher says: “It is about how we think about, how we talk about, and what we want to do about global issues, human rights, or the environment.” Although the textbook is basically focused on debating skills, learning to debate itself is a content-based learning process.
The Task-Based sphere and the Content-Based sphere of the PW and EE classes do not contradict each other. As Tutunis argues; "a Task-based approach to writing would facilitate the achievement of our goal for the first year. … During the second year (freshman year), .a content-based approach to writing would be beneficial for the students," a Task-Based approach is a good introduction to a Content-Based writing.
The development of PW and EE as Content-based writing classes will depend both on deliberate choice of its contents, and on their contemplated arrangement and introduction.
2. Content-Based Instruction and Study Tour Abroad
Sumiyoshi High School is organizing three types of study tours abroad: Study Tour Abroad to Taiwan (STA Taiwan), Study Tour Abroad to Korea) (STA Korea), and Study Tour Abroad to Australia (STA Australia). The first is obligatory, and the other two are voluntary. Sumiyoshi also organizes an intensive English training camp, a three-day, overnight, domestic excursion, which is obligatory for all first-year International Course students. What can we find when we see the STAs and English Camp from the perspective of Content-Based Instruction?
　　Asano Kyozo suggests Content-Based Instruction is applicable to STAs: “an overseas volunteer activity can be considered … from the perspective of content-based instruction.” (Asano, p.109) He organized a study tour to Australia for college students, and had his students participate in volunteer activities.
In their first week, the students co-worked with Greening Australia, and carried out a tree-planting campaign. The Campaign staff explained their activities with many technical terms such as propagation，mulching，pruning，afforestation, etc. However difficult and strange as these words sounded to the students, activities performed later gave insight into their meanings. This experience itself is a good example of how the contents of certain social context give clarity to English vocabulary.
In their second week, the students performed care-giving services at Centacare. There they experienced two types of authentic communications. The first was experienced in their preparation process. As they were supposed to perform a certain kind of “infection control” and they all realized the importance of their performance, they listened to the lecture more earnestly and read the manual more seriously than they usually do in college. It is not the authenticity of the text but that of the social context that affected their attitude towards the lecture and the text.
The second was experienced with the clients during their care-giving services. The students worked independently and confidently with their clients, as volunteers, and not as passive learners who participate in an English class taught by a teacher. That facilitated their communication with their clients. This experience is a good example of content-based learning where communications can be promoted by a certain social context.
This is the aim of Sumiyoshi High School’s intensive English training camp. The skills that were acquired during the year in CALL class are then practically implemented by planning various camp activities (games, campfires, sing-a-longs, scavenger hunts, etc.) with native English Assistant Language Teachers (ALTs). Students are generally divided into groups of eight per one ALT. As activities change, so does the ALT allowing the students to interact with various personalities from various countries. Students are strongly encouraged to speak in English as much as possible while the ALTs foster a friendly environment in which to do so.
During the second day of camp, students participate in an English debate competition. Students come to the camp prepared with the basic debating skills necessary to think quickly and critically. Students argue opposing view points of various topics, and although they are given time to prepare, are asked to refute their opponents on the spot. Students then naturally implement recently acquired language skills and immerse themselves in the spirit of competition. Thus we can observe highly motivated students actively engaging in their own learning experience.
3. Cooperation with other Studying Subjects
In Adjunct Language Instruction, one of the contemporary models of Content-Based Instruction, “students are enrolled in two linked courses, one a content course and one a language course, with both courses sharing the same content base and complementing each other in terms of mutually coordinated assignments. Such a program require a large amount of coordination to ensure that the two curricula are interlocking and this may require modifications to both courses.” (Richard et al., p.216/217)
As Richard et al. suggests, we can coordinate all subjects of Sumiyoshi Senior High School so as to have Adjunct-Language-Instruction-like effects. We might be able to start from making a Japanese-English academic term list. Coordination with other subjects also leads us to another idea: to connect the development of English related subjects and Sumiyoshi SHS.
4. English Classes and UNESCO Associated School
As one of the associated schools of UNESCO, Sumiyoshi Senior High School is supposed to conduct pilot projects on four main themes such as: 1. World concerns and the role of the United Nations system; 2. Human rights, democracy and tolerance; 3. lntercultural learning; and 4. Environmental concern.
English classes can make a contribution to one or more of the four main themes. For example, English reading classes can enhance students’ understanding of the world and can help foster tolerance and intercultural exchange. In English expression classes, students can write about and debate topics based on human rights and environmental issues. I believe that the method called Content-Based Instruction is the most effective way to make this contribution.
Each text has its contents, and belongs to a wider or more universal context. Understanding the text or its contents has been said to require both bottom-up reading and top-down reading. The latter reading implies that knowledge about the context is important to understanding the text itself. In addition, each context has been designated a theme. Having more knowledge of various themes is believed to help improve top-down reading. This may be true, but learners need a certain amount of ‘know-how’ to connect the knowledge of certain themes to the understanding of the contexts.
Talking about content-based English classes reminds us that many English classes are still based on grammar and idioms. Knowledge of grammar and idioms is certainly one of the best tools to do bottom-up reading. Here, again, learners need a certain amount of ‘know-how’ to connect grammar and idioms to the understanding of the contents of a text.
Conclusion
How can learners connect contents with a theme? How can they connect contents with grammar and idioms? How can we as teachers design our teaching procedures to help them develop such abilities? Employing Content-Based Instruction does not necessarily mean that we don't have to research and develop our teaching techniques and procedures any more. In fact, exploring various methods of teaching should inspire us to think more critically ourselves and seek out new ways to meet our students’ academic needs. As we evolve as teachers, we enable our students to become well-rounded adults. We, therefore, not only help them excel in their language studies, but also better prepare them to navigate our ever changing world.
Refferences
Asano Kyozo, 'Content-Based Instruction no shiten kara kangaeru borantia katsudo mokuteki no tanki kaigai eigo kenshu', “Nanzan Junior College Bulletin” No. 34, p109-122, 2008, http://www.nanzan-tandai.ac.jp/kiyou/No.34/07-Asano-Keizo.pdf
Martin Barlin, “Content-based Instruction in an EAP Program”, http://nels.nii.ac.jp/els/110002963277.pdf;jsessionid=E83207F064B8B79C12E1D0E9AC314ECD?id=ART0003320649&type=pdf&lang=jp&host=cinii&order_no=&ppv_type=0&lang_sw=&no=1217299217&cp=
BBC, http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/think/podcasts/innovations-teaching-3
Eurydice, “ Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) at School in Europe”, 2006, on the Internet, http://www.eurydice.org
The Ministry of Education, Technology and Science, http://www.mext.go.jp/english/org/science/54.htm
Immanuel Kant, "Critique of Pure Reason", 2003, Dover Publications, New York,
The Open University,　http://www.open.ac.uk/skillsforstudy/reading-critically.php
Jack c. Richard and Theodore s. Rodgers, "Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching" (2nd ed.), 2001, Cambridge University Press, New York
Birsen Tan Tutunis, “Content Based Academic Writing”, http://iteslj.org/Articles/Tutunis-ContentBased.html

An Answer

When my friend in Brisbane comes to Osaka, I must take her to Yamato, an okonomi-yaki shop, in Kishiwada. She teaches Japanese language in a public high school there, and sometimes have her students cook okonomi-yaki in her class. They cook, however, only maze-yaki, while Yamato serves the other type, yoshoku-yaki, and, moreover, have their local version, kashimin. They first bake crepe-like things, and then put shredded cabbage and chicken mincemeat on them. The name kashimin comes from kashiwa (chicken) and minchi (mincemeat). Eating at Yamato will surely increase her repertoire.

Cheongdam at Ten'noji

Cheongdam High School students are visiting our school. Two teachers, the principal and a Japanese language teacher, are leading the party. This afternoon, the students had a paseo in the Ten'noji area, in Hoop and Mio. Three teachers of ours were taking care of them, while the two Korean teachers rather wanted to explore its surrounding larger area.
After getting off the tram at Ten'noji-eki-mae stop, we walked up the overpass. At the top of it, the three Japanese teachers took to the right, leading 20 Korean students; the two Korean teachers and I to the left. From the bridge, we saw the Ten'noji Park inviting us.
You are tolled to enter the park, and some middle-aged and old men were sitting idly around the gate, as if waiting for something. After paying a short visit to a glasshouse of the park, we crossed another overpass, and headed for Osaka Municipal Museum, where the best arts of Osaka municipal high school students were being exhibited.
The exhibition was being held on the first basement level. The level had two wings: the north and the south. The north wing were providing two halls to Osaka Municipal High School Arts Festival. Its reception desk had an old man, a middle aged man, and a young woman. All of the three might have been, presumably, art teachers.
The arts were those painted, drawn, written, sculptured, hammered, assembled, woven, groomed, or fabricated during classes or in club activities. Two exhibition halls are filled with students' works. The principal asked me how many entries were there, which I didn't know. The old male receptionist happened to come into the hall we were. He, for our surprise, didn't know the number. Art teachers may not be a good statistician, especially when they are old.
One corner of the first hall showed dozens of copper plates. Each plate had a designed flora in its center. They were family emblems, or kamon in Japanese. The Korean teachers knew some Japanese kimono wears those emblems. They were interested in the idea that an emblem showed which clan the wearer belonged to.
When we went out of the wing, I asked the other receptionists of the number of entries. They exchanged glances each other, and the middle-aged man answered, "You can count the students' names the brochure has, ... or shall I count them for you?" We declined his proposal, and left the museum. Art teachers may not bother with numbers.

I am back at school, and counting. 21 municipal high schools take part in the festival. They have 999 students' names in total on the brochure. The brochure has some vague information, which implies that they have more entries, whose names are hidden to protect their personal data. Quite a big event.

We visited Shin-sekai, Tsuten-kaku Tower, the Ten'noji Zoo, Keitaku-en Garden, a historical Japanese garden, and then made for Ten'noji Station. The sun was setting, and buildings were gorgeously clothed in the evening glow. No wonder, a part of this area is called Yuhi-ga-oka, literally Sunset Hill in English.
With the entrance of the park already having been closed, we walked out through one of the two exits open. At the closed entrance, the middle-aged and old idle men were building their one-night cardboard houses with blue plastic sheets as well. They had been waiting for this. The two Korean people were watching it, maybe understandingly. I wondered if they had a cardboard city in their home country, and also remembered one of their students had told me that, the day before their departure, it had gone down as low as -11 degrees Centigrade.

Masaoka Shiki: A Diligent and Genius Haiku Poet

The novel Saka no ue no Kumo starts as:
“A really small country is trying to become civilized.
“One of the islands of this country is Shikoku Island, and Shikoku is divided into Sanuki, Awa, Tosa, and Iyo. The capital of Iyo is Matsuyama.”
Matsuyama is a birth place of Akiyama Yoshifuru (1859-1930), Akiyama Saneyuki (1868-1918), and Masaoka Shiki (1867-1902). Saka no ue no Kumo continues:
“We may say the main character of this story is small Japan at this time. We, however, should follow three people.”
After staying at a hotel in front of JR Matsuyama Station, I followed one of the three: Masaoka Shiki.
I left the hotel, and drove a little bit Southward in the city of Matsuyama following the direction of my car navigation system. I was definitely near Shiki Doh House, his birth place, but could find no sign showing its entrance. I kept driving in despair, this time Eastward, toward the Dogo Hot Spring area. Kono Clan's main castle used to be in this area, and was called Yu-duki Jo, (namely Hot-spring Built Castle). The castle area is now Dogo Park.
Shiki Memorial Museum is built in the north area of Dogo Park. The museum has collections of his original handwritten manuscripts, copies of his publications at the time, and related materials such as his bag and so on. I was impressed with the quantity and quality of their collections, and also overpowered by how productive Shiki had been. Shiki started editing "Shuji-gaku Zairyo" (Rhetoric Materials) as early as in 1889, or at the latest in1891. He made 65 notebooks of 3 categories: seasonal words, things and affairs, and forms. He also made another notebook on tones. Furthermore, with those materials, he edited a tree diagram of the relationship among haiku poets, and a chronological table of haiku. It is also surprising that so many collections have not been scattered and lost. We must pay respect to his surviving family and followers as well as to the good work that was done by the museum.
Shiki was actually struggling to reform haiku, tanka, and novels in Japan. He researched and classified almost all haiku published during the Edo Period, and organized three types of literary salons for haiku, tanka, and Japanese novels. Each of the salons produced distinguished talents of the field. Natsume Sohseki was only an example of many. Shiki also was working as a newspaper reporter, and even tried to report the Sino-Japanese War.

Shiki's "Shuji-gaku Zairyoh" (Rhetoric Materials) was edited and published by Samukwa Sokotsu and et al in 1935 under the name of "Bunrui Haiku Zenshu" (Complete Classification of Haiku Poems) with 12 volumes, a copy of which Sakai City Central Library owns as in-library use only. The volumes were later published as a facsimile edition in 1992 with its renewed name: "General View of Classification Haiku."
Sakai City Central Library's volumes, which were printed in 1958, are 14cm wide and 19cm tall, and has the thickness of 43.5cm in total. The first volume has 514 pages, the second 532, the third 482, the 4th 322, the 5th 501, the 6th 498, the 7th 486, the 8th 516, the 9th 496, the 10th 495, the 11th 536, and the 12th 559. It has 5937 pages in total.
How many haiku poems do these 12 volumes have? How many did Masaoka Shiki collect? Samukawa Sokotsu, who wrote explanatory notes for "Bunrui Haiku Zenshu," gave no statistic. I, of course, have no idea. I can only imagine.
The first page of the first volume has 14 haiku poems, the second page has 20, the third 22, the forth 24, the fifth 20, the sixth 23, the seventh 23, the eighth 24, the ninth 20, the tenth 18, and the eleventh 21. The first page has rather small number of haiku poems. The 10 pages from the second to the eleventh have 215 haiku poems in total, and 21.5 haiku poems on average. The total 5937 pages, with this average used, might have approximately 127645.5 haiku poems.
Sokotsu points out that Shiki sometimes placed one haiku poem on more than 2 pages for the convenience of searching. Shiki obviously collected less than 127645 haiku poems, approximately of course.
The first haiku poem is "Saki iwae hatsu akatsuki no hatsu chozu," which is classified under the category of a seasonal word "hatsu akatsuki" (New Year daybreak). As Sokotsu says in his explanatory notes that he changed the appearing order, the original first one might have been "Kyonen tate hakobishi koe ya haru no kaze," which belongs to the seasonal word "rishun" (beginning of spring). The last one is "Kitsune-bi ni hare-ma mie tari satsuki-ame," which was recognized to have the same meaning as the previous haiku poem "Kawa-beri ni kitsune-bi tatsu ya tsuiri hare."
Masaoka Shiki has generated generations of successing haiku poets, and also generated generations of his studiers. One of them is Shibata Nami. She perfected the general survey of both the 12 volumes of Shiki's classifying and the 18,191 haiku poems that he composed. Shiki had been identified as a realist, and his revolutionary role had been attributed to his achieving the transformation of the conventional haiku community at the time into realism.
Shiki shares the same distinguished feature with other genius; he was very prolific. He started, according to Shibata Naomi, composing haiku poems in 1885, and made 7 of them in the year. He composed only one in 1886; 23 in 1887, when he started learning from Ohara Kiju; 31 in 1888; and 32 in 1889, when Kiju died and Shiki started the idea-rhetoric argument with Natsume Soseki, which continued till the next year, 1890, when he composed 53 haiku poems. In the dispute, Shiki stressed the importance of having good ideas over and above mastering rhetoric. Soseki, on the other hand, regretted that Shiki was wasting his talent by producing second-graded writings. Recognizing the importance of mastering rhetoric, in September, 1891, Shiki wrote Soseki about his attempt to categorize haiku poems for the purpose of mastering rhetoric. Soseki gave him an offhand approval.
Shiki wrote 231 haiku poems in the year 1891; 1665 in 1892, by the end of which he started working for Hihon Newspaper Company; 2998 in 1893; 1965 in 1894; 2836 in 1895, during which he worked as a war correspondent with the Imperial Japanese Army during the First Sino-Japanese War; 2994 in 1896, when he was diagnosed as having tubercular caries, and underwent an operation; 1466 in 1897, when he had another operation on his back; 1409 in 1898; 903 in 1899; 641 in 1900; 524 in 1901; and 418 in 1902, when he died of tuberculosis in September. He made 18,191 haiku poems in total.
Shibata, matching each of the 18,191 haiku poems with the corresponding analogous haiku poems from the 12 volumes, clarified how much Shiki learned from the tradition of haiku poems, including those composed by his great predecessors, Basho and Buson.
Shiki's categorizing process not only helped to admonish himself and other haiku poets against plagiarism, but also enabled himself to write a new haiku with unexpected combination of words. Shibata shows Shiki's famous haiku "Kaki kue ba kane ga naru nari Horyu-ji" as a good of example of a new combination. The combination between Nara and kaki (a persimmon) had never occurred to anyone before, and Shiki knew the combination is new, thanks to his categorizing work.
Shibata also made it clear, comparing Shiki's classification and that of haiku dictionaries and handbooks of his time, that he introduced some scientific categories. That means that he applied his western knowledge acquired through the modern education at school.
Masaoka Shiki clearly shares the same tendency with other Meiji modern intellectuals: succeeding the Japanese tradition and applying the Western academic knowledge.

I was standing in front of a picture in the museum, which showed two piles of Shiki's notebooks, with Ritsu, Shiki's younger sister, sitting beside, and with Samukawa Sokotsu standing on the other side. The notebooks stacked up as tall as Sokotsu. They show that Shiki was hardworking. Shiki is regarded one of the four great masters of haiku, along with Basho, Buson, and Issa. He is definitely a genius and diligent. However, he had been taken good care of by Ritsu from his first operation to his death. His notebooks had been aired annually by Shiki's surviving family and followers, like Ritsu and Sokotsu in the picture. A genius could not be a genius by himself.