Fun of Good Old Japanese - 江戸・明治に学ぶ　楽しむ生き方

This museum is located in the center of the Kanto plain which is the largest plain in Japan, just 40km north of Tokyo. The museum is surrounded by rice fields and it has a very peaceful atmosphere. Sakano clan was the richest farmer here and their house is so excellent and so fabulous. However it would be difficult to find the fun of old ordinary Japanese, we could understand the rich farmer’s life. The main building was built in the 18 th century. 　関東平野の真ん中に位置し、名家中の名家であろう板野家。まず、構えが良い。豪勢過ぎて、人々の楽しみには、遠いかな。今の主屋は１８世紀の初めに造られたという。 This is the gate of the Sakano house. During the time, only samurais were permitted to build this type of gates which were called “Yakui-mon”. 坂野家正面。長屋門ではなく薬医門。武士に許されている門らしい。でも、家内から見ると屋根に草が生えていた。茅葺らしい。 From the gate to the main building 、薬医門から玄関へのアプローチ  There is a big kitchen space on the earthen floor inside the entrance for the family. (There was another entrance for guests.) The space is connected to the living room. Cooking stoves are s...

R ice planting @ Hitachi City Museum 、田植＠ 日立市郷土博物館 Rice is very important crop for Japanese. It’s been a staple food for more than two thousand years. The rice was also used for tax paying instead of money. Farmers accounted for 80% of Japanese in the Edo period , so the farming especially rice farming has influenced our life so much. We have a lot of annual events concerning the rice farming. Wet-rice farming is major thing in Japan. I would like to describe the agriculture in the Edo period here. 米は日本人の主食 で、古来、税は米で納められている。稲作は、農民が人口の 80% を占めた江戸時代には、生活の軸であり、稲作に関連する祭りなど年中行事が行われている。 We have an annual event for a good harvest in January. The tools of the rice planting rite are shown below. The rite was a kind of a comedy show which mimicked farming. The actor used the hoe, he also fed the baby doll and he made her pee. The baby doll was the symbol of the god of the rice field. It was called “Ta-asobi”. “Ta” is a rice field and “asobi” is an entertainment. Ceremonial hoe and...

   This is our national museum, so we can see many exhibits of Japan and other countries as well. Many exhibits were collected after the WW2. This museum focused on the festival and the livelihood, we can find lots of fun for the people. 日本の民族学の研究頂点でもあり、世界の民族に関して展示している。展示品は戦後に収集したものだが、圧巻。さすが、国立博物館だ。丁度開館 40 周年であった。 展示が祭りと日々の生業にフォーカスされており、人々の楽しみがたくさんあった。  At the entrance, masks were displayed. It was written on the caption, “The mask shows us the power which no one knows.” It was interesting to see the masks from various countries. They were similar in that their expressions were terrible. 世界の仮面の展示。「自分たちの知識が及ばない世界の力を形にしたもの」が仮面らしいが、並べてみると確かに面白い。 1. Festival and “Hare” （祭りとハレ） 　 We Japanese distinguish everyday life and unusual life clearly. Everyday life is called “Ke” and the unusual life is called “Hare”. Festivals, annual events and wedding ceremonies belong to “Hare”, so we prepare various things for “Hare”. The kimono (Japanese traditional outfit) ...