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Kuri chestnuts, daikon radishes, New Year events, haiku poet interview

Japanese archery is a bit event after the Japanese New Year.

Happy New Year! The year 2025 has begun and the Japanese take the New Year quite seriously. When I first lived in Tokyo in the early 1980s, pretty much all commercial activity stopped from Dec 31 to Jan 03. Of course, you could go to a 24/7 convenience store. But restaurants, supermarkets, and everything else was closed! That began to change in the early 2000s when young people just wanted to shop, even during the Japanese New Year. That trend has only become stronger in the 2020s.

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Content by Ian Martin Ropke, owner of Your Japan Private Tours (est. 1990). I have been planning, designing, and making custom Japan private tours on all five Japanese islands since the early 1990s. I work closely with Japan private tour clients and have worked for all kinds of families, companies, and individuals since 1990. Clients find me mostly via organic search, and I advertise my custom Japan private tours & travel services on www.japan-guide.com, which has the best all-Japan English content & maps in Japan! If you are going to Japan and you understand the advantages of private travel, consider my services for your next trip. And thank you for reading my content. I, Ian Martin Ropke (unique on Google Search), am also a serious nonfiction and fiction writer, a startup founder (NexussPlus.com), and a spiritual wood sculptor. Learn more!

Japanese winter kuri chestnuts and daikon radishes

The leaves and shrubbery in the mountains are beginning to change, and the clouds in contrast against the turquoise sky are pleasing to the eye. Late autumn and winter is the time for eating more kuri chestnuts and daikon radishes.

The color of the chestnut is appropriate to the natural tones of autumn. The effort of cutting through its tough, bark-like skin has challenged Japanese to think up several ways to enjoy this morsel. Chestnut skin is like armor, so it can be boiled, baked or grilled in its own shell. After hacking away with a sharp paring knife you finally arrive at the nut which can be eaten right away. For the more patient and determined, peeled and raw chestnuts cooked together with rice make a popular autumn dish called kuri gohan, or chestnut rice.

Big round candied chestnuts are used as an added ingredient in Japanese confectionery. Candied chestnut recipes vary in how long they are soaked but either way the process allows the kuri to become sweet and soft enough for kuri manju (rice-flour sweets), kuri yokan (bean-paste gelatin) and kuri zenzai (sweet bean 'soup' with rice dumplings). Although some of these may be sold at other seasons, the best time to eat them is autumn.

And the smell and sound of the trucks that sell roasted kuri chestnuts in all Japanese cities are a lucky chance!

Japan's beloved daikon radishes

Kyoto's justifiably famous cuisine depends dearly on a supply of fresh and succulent vegetables. Taste alone is not the only reason why this city loves its produce: centuries of humid summers and freezing winters have instilled in Kyotoites a healthy respect for their life-giving properties as well. Certain vegetables are honored in special ways at various temples around the city. Anraku-ji (July 25th) and Fushigi Fudo-in (on the winter solstice) hold ceremonies for the squash. On the best moon-viewing day in September, there is a ceremony for the hechima (dishcloth gourd), and in July there are services for the cool cucumber. At such ceremonies the vegetables are offered to the Buddha or some deity and people pray for health.

In December and January, Kyoto gives thanks to the ubiquitous white radish or daikon. A soup is prepared by boiling daikon in huge kettles, and this is served to visitors who know that eating hot seasonal vegetables gets blood flowing and keeps the body warm. Kyoto's older citizens will also tell you that daikon prevents paralysis and drives out evil spirits. The daikon-daki services all have a similar character: white steam from the kettles dances in the winter sun and the aroma of cooking daikon permeates the temple precincts. Here are three temples where you can sample the healthy broth: Senbon Shakado: Dec 8th commemorates the day on which the Buddha achieved enlightenment. Sanskrit letters are inscribed on round sections of radish. These are offered to the Buddha, then cooked and served. Dec 7 & 8. 10 am to 4.30 pm. Take bus #50 or #52 to Kami-Shichiken. Ryotoku-ji: When Shinran, founder of Jodo Shinshu sect of Buddhism, stopped here in l253 he was welcomed by a nun bearing a bowl of boiled radish. 3,000 radishes are cooked in huge pots and served to all visitors. Dec 9 & 10. 10 am to 4 pm. Take bus #26 to Narutaki-Honmachi. Sanpo-ji: Dec 3 at 11 am. Take JR bus to Sanpo-ji, NW of Ninnaji. Hoju-ji: Jan l5. 9.30am to 4.30pm. Just SE of Sanjusangen-do Temple (Bus #206 or #208).

Japan's festivals and new-year activities

Wakana Sekkusai: January 7 is known as the Wakana Sekkusai, which celebrates early spring veggies and how they make you healthy and live longer! The festival dates back to the Tencho Era (824-834). During the festival, young green vegetables (wakana) are offered to the gods. After the ritual, visitors can savor a bowl of wakana fresh-greens porridge (for a Yen 300 donation fee), Aristocrats in the Heian Period (794-1185) ate this porridge to get healthy or vital again after the New Year eating and drinking. The shrine is also known for its Katsukuri (Victory Chestnut) charms that are believed to ward off sicknesses. Date: January 7, 2025. Time: 10:00. Location: 20 minutes on the train from central Kyoto or Kyoto Station at Saiin Kasuga Shrine; http://www.kasuga.or.jp/ .

Ohara's Jan 15 Sagicho Festival: Head to Sanzen-in Temple to witness the Sagicho Festival, where bonfires light up the winter skies and competing floats have contests of strength. This traditional event involves burning New Year decorations and old talismans in a ritual fire. It is believed that eating rice cakes roasted over this sacred fire can ward off illness for the year. Visitors can also enjoy complimentary servings of Fukumochi Zenzai (福餅ぜんざい), a sweet red bean soup with lucky rice cakes, adding a delicious and meaningful touch to the experience. Date: January 15, 2025. Time: from 10:00. Location: Ohara Village about 30 min NE of central Kyoto by taxi or bus; http://www.sanzenin.or.jp/ .

Japan's biggest New Year’s Bonsai Event: The Shohin Bonsai Exhibition takes place every year at the Kyoto International Exhibition Hall. This event presents amazing bonsai of all sizes and types. And you can also buy high-quality plants, pots, and tools, at the event. Date: January 10–12, 2025 ; https://shohin-bonsai.or.jp/en/ .

Jan-Feb's Nishijin Craft Beer Town: The ancient stone-paved Nishijin Shoppig street is home to three craft beer breweries and a sake shop known locally as the “craft beer holy land” ; https://nishijin-craft-beer-town.com/ .

Miyama Kayabuki no Sato lightup: XXXX, a representative tourist spot in Miyama Town, there is a light-up event from late January to early February. This place, which retains the original landscape of Japan, becomes a magical scene with accumulated snow. The illuminated snow landscape is as beautiful as a painting.

Shimogamo Shrine Kemari Hajime: Shimogamo Shrine in Kyoto, hosts the Kemari Hajime every year on Jan 04. This traditional event is all about young samurai in colorful costumes playing kemari soccer (sort of).

Rokuharamitsu-ji Kofuku-cha Ceremony: At “Rokuharamitsu-ji in Higashiyama Ward, Kyoto City, the “Kofuku-cha Ceremony” is held during the first three days of the New Year. This ceremony offers tea that prays for good health, containing umeboshi (pickled plum) and konbu (tied seaweed). Visitors can drink this tea to wish for a healthy year.

A chat with artist, poet, eco-warrior Stephen Gill

From : https://kyotogaidai.org/ukyoxkufs/mr-stephen-gill/ Stephen Gill was born in North Yorkshire, England in 1953 and graduated from London University in 1979 with a degree in Japanese language and literature. He has been living in North-West Kyoto for 26 years, and at present, teaches courses in English language and haiku in English literature at Kyoto University, as well as comparative culture and haiku in English literature at Ryukoku University. Furthermore, Stephen is a leading light in the Hailstone Haiku Circle, Kansai’s only English language haiku society, which has an international membership and meets on a regular basis. He also has a very strong publishing record, including poems, articles, books, and translations, and has had twenty of his scripts broadcast by BBC Radio. Stephen remains active in the arts, giving talks about haiku, as well as holding ike’ishi (生け石), ‘live-stone’ arrangement art installations, of which he has held over twenty to date. Additionally, he is very passionate about environmental protection and helps run the nature conservation volunteer NPO, People Together for Mt. Ogura, which seeks to restore to beauty the place famed for waka near Arashiyama.

Stephen Gill or Tito (pen name) was born in England in 1953. He travelled the Narrow Road to India in 1971, and then discovered Basho’s 'Narrow Road' travelogue in Scotland in 1972, when he began writing haiku. A graduate of the Japanese Department of the School of Oriental & African Studies, London, in 1979, his first haiku radio programme was broadcast on BBC Radio Three in 1988. The following year, he won the Sony Prize for Best British Arts Feature. His first ikeishi exhibition was held in Tokyo in 1995. He is currently working as a poet and ikeishi artist, and teaching Indian & Celtic Studies at Ritsumeikan University. He also teaches English language haiku in Osaka, where Basho died. He was chief editor of 'Rediscovering Basho', published by Global Orient in 1999. His next one-man exhibition will be held at the end of this month at Gallery San (see below).

YJPT: How is it that you came to Japan?

SG: I've lived in Japan on three separate occasions. The first time I came was 25 years ago, directly through an interest in Basho, the great haiku poet. I was only 21 at the time, and wanted very much to visit Basho’s country and see the places he had written about. On that first visit I managed to spend a year here in Kyoto, near Arashiyama. The second time I came to Japan, from about 1980 to the end of 1984, I lived mainly in Tokyo and Nikko. On that trip, I was working as an information officer in a diamond company and as a translator for a gemological magazine. After two-and-a-half years of doing that I decided that I really wanted to write, so I moved to Nikko for two years to work on a book. This is my third visit. I have been living in Kyoto, again in the Arashiyama area, since 1995.

Again, the silver rain

Dampening down

The smoke coiling

From my paper fire.

(Kitasaga, Kyoto, 18/10/98)

YJPT: In what way are you presently involved with haiku? How has haiku changed since Basho’s time?

SG: I'm active in the haiku world as a poet and translator, and have had the good fortune of meeting and getting to know many of the leading haiku poets in Britain, America and Japan. I also teach a little circle of English language haiku poets, mainly Japanese people, at a culture center in northern Osaka.

There are four or five national haiku magazines in Britain and twenty or so in the US; Japan has literally hundreds. The Japanese haiku industry is huge, with nearly two million people who regularly write haiku, largely following one or other of the two main schools or styles. The traditional school maintains the 5-7-5 syllable pattern and demands the inclusion of a season word, while the modern school experiments in all sorts of ways. The last fifty years has seen a lot of innovation in the haiku form. In particular, European and American haiku poets have brought a whole new set of linguistic and cultural conditions to the form. Though Japan remains at the center of the haiku world, haiku has also become very much a global phenomenon. Basho said that “newness is the flower of poetry [linked verse].” And I’m quite sure that he would have approved of much of the contemporary haiku movement overseas.

YJPT: How did you become interested in stone arrangement?

SG: Ever since I was a small boy, I have been picking up stones and arranging them on windowsills, mantlepieces, tables, on the floor, and in bowls of water. When I first came to Japan and saw the Ryoan-ji stone garden, I realized for the first time that a landscape or something of even cosmic proportions could be represented with stones. Using stones was not new for me. Britain is a country of stones and the countryside is dotted with megalithic graves, and circular arrangements such as Stonehenge. Over time, I began to arrange the stones I collected more consciously.

Starting about twenty-five years ago, I began to arrange stones in pairs. Pairing stones is at the heart of stone arrangement or' ikeishi', which, in some ways, is very much like flower arrangement [ikebana]. I am a matchmaker in a sense, pairing stones instead of people. When I put two stones together that are 'meant for each other,' I feel that a new harmony or synergy is created. Many of the people who come to my exhibitions comment that certain pairs of stones "look so happy together." Once you have a pair then you can display them in many ways: with driftwood, on cloth, in water, on sand, and so on.

Aftermath of hurricanes —

Seaweeds float in . . .

From offshore banks

Under a hazy moon.

(near Hyannis, Massachusetts, 4/9/98)

YJPT: What is the connection between haiku and ikeishi?

SG: For a start, I use both to record my travels. Also, the three or four lines of the haiku form do not generally make a sentence. Instead, they create a contrast between two 'images' and then fuse them together into a single impressionistic record. Most stones seem to fuse naturally in a relationship with certain other stones, much like different images do in a successful haiku composition. I often display stones with haiku.

Strange as it may seem, I think stone arrangements, as well as certain individual stones, can serve as the fuel of dreams. If you contemplate a stone arrangement for long enough you can actually enter a different dimension. They seem to be able to absorb something from us, and reflect or send out a message to us from other places and times. Some stones, for example, seem to convey the purity, ruggedness or awe-inspiring nature of the place from where they came: the Himalayas, Alaska, the Sahara, or some isolated stretch of sea coast.

The Chinese were perhaps the first to value the rough and ready nature of certain natural stones. And in China, Korea and Japan today, vast sums of money change hands for certain water-worn stones, just as people exchange large sums of money for gemstones. I feel that I what I do has helped bring the idea of stones and stone arrangement into the region of modern art. And because it is modern and open-ended, people can take it as they wish. In the end, I am just trying to create installations that will take people away, activate their imagination, and lead them to an appreciation of nature, time and place that is beneficial, energizing and relaxing. I think that the effect of these stone arrangements on the viewer is therapeutic and healing, as well as visually satisfying.

YJPT: How would you summarize the magic or power of stones?

SG: Ikeishi arrangements, and stones in general, could be characterized by four special powers or effects they seem to have.

First of all, there is something about arranging natural stones that is both very direct, yet underdescribed or deliberately vague, like haiku. The arrangement is somehow animated by the viewer. Secondly, stones are completely universal, everyday things. Most people don’t notice them, and yet they are everywhere. They are just about the only thing that we have here that can be found throughout the entire universe.

The third thing is that stones are mysterious. They seem to act as the ‘fuel of dreams,’ burned by the viewer’s imagination to yield an incandescence, memory or a feeling. Stones seem to have the power to record and present something that goes beyond color, weight and texture. The final distinguishing feature is what I call 'lapidambience,' which refers to the atmosphere of stones. A stone from the wilderness transmits something of the land or setting it comes from. This lapidambience is one form of the spirit of the natural world. Only stones, untouched and unchanged, have that power.

Pebble

Dipped in water:

The old hill

Bathed in sun.

(Hackhurst Downs, Surrey, 21/7/78)

Content by Japan travel specialist & designer Ian Martin Ropke, founder & owner of Your Japan Private Tours (YJPT, est. 1990). I have been planning, designing, and making custom Japan private tours on all five Japanese islands since the early 1990s. I work closely with all of YJPT's Japan private tour clients and have a great team behind me. I promote YJPT through this content and only advertise at www.japan-guide.com, which has the best all-Japan English content & maps! If you are going to Japan and you understand the advantages of private travel, consider my services for your next trip to save time & have a better time. Ian Martin Ropke (unique on Google Search) is also a serious nonfiction and fiction writer, a startup founder (NexussPlus.com), and a spiritual wood sculptor. Learn more!