Japan Navigator
Posted by ampontan on Saturday, February 16, 2008
WHILE SEARCHING FOR SOMETHING ELSE on Google, I stumbled across the Japan Navigator website, written by a foreigner who seems to be based in Kyoto. He focuses on art, business, travel, culture, and food, and makes excellent choices in subject matter. Two of his posts in particular that I would like to have written myself are this one, called “Graves in Kyoto’s Shopping Arcades”, and this one, called “The Shogun’s Mausoleum in Shiba”. That building, reputed to be one of the finest examples of traditional Japanese architecture, no longer exists, but the post reproduces photographs from the 19th century!
Pay the site a visit if you have the time.
P.S.: A (herring)bone to pick–are one-third of all Japanese television shows really “devoted to food”? I don’t know about that…
bender said
If only Japan had enough resources to truly rebuild what was lost…did you know Nagoya-jo was also burned by American bombings like Zojoji, and later rebuilt by using concrete?
Also, so much of old Tokyo was lost- here’s some pictures you might find interesting:
http://homepage3.nifty.com/morikawa_works/index.html
Overthinker said
Nagoya is just one of the castles that ended up being burnt by bombs (Hiroshima castle is unique in the world as the only castle ever to have been destroyed with a nuclear bomb). The more important thing about Nagoya castle is that the palace in the castle, the only remaining daimyo palace (Nijo being the Shogun’s residence in Kyoto and a bit different) also got destroyed.
However recent reconstruction efforts have focused on the original methods as well as getting the building up. The rebuilding of the Gojikken Nagaya at Kanazawa Castle was the largest wooden building build after the war, done with traditional methods, and there is extensive rebuilding of Kumamoto Castle using traditional methods. This makes it far more expensive however.
But don’t blame the Americans too much: the vast bulk of castles in Japan were destroyed by the Japanese government soon after the Meiji Restoration. Concerned about the ways in which the old power centres could be seen as rallying points for anti-Meiji ideas and forces, and to stamp their own power over the country, something like 80 to 90 percent of all castles were ordered razed – and often replaced with symbols of the new regime, like prefectural offices or army headquarters. The Americans just burnt a few the Japanese had missed. There are still about a dozen genuine ones left, most of which are well worth a visit – especially Himeji, which is not only by far the most impressive castle remaining in Japan, but was one of the most impressive castle ever built in Japan, as its function was to guard the western approaches to the Kinki region (especially from the tozama lords like Moori and Shimazu) and so was made to be big and impressive.
You might think Edo Castle would be the biggest and baddest of the lot, but nope: the keep burned down in the Great Meireki Fire of 1658 and was never rebuilt. Still, the castle grounds were the most extensive in the world, if you generously include everything within the outermost moats.
What I find surprising about the bombing of Tokyo in some ways is not so much what was lost but what wasn’t. Many of the Western-style mansions from the Meiji period still stand – the home of the Mitsubishi zaibatsu chiefs is open to the public near Ueno Park and well worth a look, even if the grounds are a fraction of their former extent.
And yes, it sometimes seems to me that a third of all Japanese TV is about food….
bender said
the vast bulk of castles in Japan were destroyed by the Japanese government soon after the Meiji Restoration. Concerned about the ways in which the old power centres could be seen as rallying points for anti-Meiji ideas and forces, and to stamp their own power over the country, something like 80 to 90 percent of all castles were ordered razed – and often replaced with symbols of the new regime, like prefectural offices or army headquarters.
True. If many of the old daimyo castles and mansions were intact, they would have been ideal tourist attractions…handsome source of money lost. It’s too bad.
I don’t like Japanese TVs that much…they’re over-silly. I think they neglect serious people.