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Tokonoma, engawa, talismans, Yoshitsune, soroban, Zen meditation temples!

Karasu raven tengu statue.

This post or article covers a number of interesting Japanese topics. First we look at two unique features of Japanese traditional homes: the tokonoma ceremonial alcove and the engawa wooden walkways that lead you around the edges of the house and overview traditional Japanese gardens. The next topic is the exquisite omamori talismans sold at most Japanese shrines & temples: for protection, luck and love! Next we go back to the 10th century when Japan's first two "samurai families" the Genji and the Minamoto clans battled each other for territory across Kyoto. Then we look at something that is still used in Japan: bead-system wooden soroban calculators. But fact is you really have to look for elderly people running wholesale and retail businesses on old covered market streets. Think Nishiki street or Sanjo just south of Nijo Castle in Kyoto; Osaka's Kuromon and Korean market; and Tokyo's Outer Tsukiji Market and select ultra old covered market streets. And last but not least, I have provided a good selection of Zen temple sleeping & and meditation temples near Kyoto and Tokyo.

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!

The Tokonoma alcove: Heart of the Japanese home

The tokonoma alcove is something that you will only find in Japan. It did not come from China or anywhere else. It is purely Japanese.

Raised from the floor about 10 cm. and of various sizes, the tokonoma is a space that exists to honor the spirits of the natural world and, by extension, the human spirit as well.

The classic elements displayed in nearly all tokonoma are a scroll or kakejuku in the background and a vase of flowers in the foreground. Each element, ideally, should symbolize or express the present moment of the season outside the home.

Expressing the season is quite simple as every florist in Japan stocks seasonal flowers. For those who are more orthodox there are always the hills, valley and fields of one’s neighborhood from which to pick flowers and grasses.

Using a scroll to express something about the current season is a little harder if you limit yourself to seasonal themes. However, in many instances the “decorator” has chosen a scroll, often a Zen scroll, that expresses a philosophical point or bit of wisdom in the form of a koan or aphorism.

Kyoto kitayamasugi cedar are most famous for their use as tokobashira, the main pillar on the left side of the tokonoma. They have been favored since the Japanese tea ceremony developed at the end of the 16th century. Today, a single first-class pillar can cost almost as much as a new car!

Many new homes built today, even if they look entirely Western from the outside, have a tokonoma. For without such a space the house isn’t Japanese.

In the most formal spaces, for example a traditional tea ceremony room, the tokonomo should face south or west (never north).

Engawa walkways at the edge of traditional Japanese houses

The engawa or near-the-ground veranda is a much-loved part of traditional Japanese homes. My last house in Kyoto was a huge old (circa 1920) home with a front and back Japanese garden. And in front of each garden was an engawa walkway maybe 2.5 meters long and 90 cm deep. And both engawas faced a simple pretty ancient garden. The engawa is the place for a chilled beer on a hot July evening looking out on the garden. The optimal set up is sliding glass doors and two sliding screen door to deal with the mosquitoes! Japan is very rich in mosquitoes and they are fast and small!

Architecturally or from an interior design perspective, the engawa is an edging strip of non-tatami-mat flooring. In private homes it's always wood that has been varnished or lightly clear lacquered. Can be a kind of hallway outside of first floor and second floor traditional tatami rooms. My house had 18 Kyoto sized tatami mats on the second floor divided into three 6 mat rooms. And an engawa joined them all to the toilet at the end of the hallway.

Exposed engawa that cannot be sealed off by an amado wooden door isn't well covered by the overhanding eaves must be finished to last in the Japanese hot sun for months on end and then rain and rotting.

On the groud floor of traditional Japanese buildings and homes the engawa is only about 30 centimeters above the earth under the house. No basements in Japan! Under really well designed engawa the soil slopes away from the house or is packed in some special way.

Japan's omamori talismans: for good luck and protection

Each shrine and temple in Japan is connected with a different diety depending on its religious history and other factors. All of these dieties have special powers or areas of expertise for good fortune or protection. You too can get this luck or protection: just buy an omamori (usually around ¥500).

As you might have noticed, many major shrines and temples sell little colorful talisman bags, often made of colorful silk. These are the omamori. Inside of each bag is a slip of paper with a kind of prayer on it, and sometimes something else. You can hang these talisman or omamori on you bag, in your car or just keep them at home, depending on what it is for. They are extremely popular in Japan. And so they should be!

If success in study is your thing, the Kitano Tenmangu Shrine is the place. This shrine is heavily frequented by students prior to major entrance exams. Another place, Tanukidera Temple (directly up the hill from Shisendo), specializes in protecting drivers from car accidents. Rokuharamitsuji Temple's omamori are famous for obtaining the owner good connections in marriage, friendship, and jobs. If you're trying to quit smoking, a love affair or get over an illness, Yasui Kompira Shrine is the place to go. Omamori from this temple are best hung up in a tree or a place that catches lots of different energy waves.

The Minamoto no Yoshitsune legend & Kurama's super tengu goblin warriors

The 12th century rivalry between the Taira (Heike) and Minamoto (Genji) clans set the stage for the creation of the perfect young hero, Minamoto no Yoshitsune.

His father, Yoshitomo, was beheaded by Taira no Kiyomi, who spared Ushiwaka-maru (Yoshitsune's childhood name) on the condition that he become a priest. And so Ushiwaka-maru was sent to Kurama Temple in the heavily wooded mountains to the north of Kyoto.

These mysterious mountains were the home of tengu-winged, red-faced, long-nosed mountain goblins from whom mountain acestics, called yamabushi, tried to learn magic powers.

One day a powerful tengu, Sojobo, noticed the vengeful Ushiwaka-maru practicing alone with his sword. Taken with the boyÕs ardor he began to coach him in martial arts and military strategy. Ushiwaka-maru's first infamous exploit Ñ his confrontation with Benkei at Gojo Bridge Ñ has inspired countless artistic and stage interpretations.

Benkei, an eight-foot tall warrior-monk from Mt. Hiei's Enrakuji Temple, boasted that he would take the swords of one thousand opponents. He had already collected 999, when one evening, returning from a visit to Kiyomizu Temple, he encountered a slender youth playing a flute on the moonlit bridge. Insulted by the laÕs arrogant indifference, he demanded that he present himself. When the boy ignored him, Benkei was sure his 1000th sword was a second away.

But thanks to the Tengu's lessons, Ushiwaka-maru easily remained just out of the monk's reach. In the end, the exhausted Benkei surrendered and pledged his eternal loyalty to the boy.

The two eventually went on to destroy the Taira in the 1185 battle of Dan-no-ura. Some even say that Yoshitsune left Japan and went on to become to Ghengis Khan.

Soroban: Japanese abacuses calculators!

Though the practical and simple abacus has served the East for centuries, in this age of silicon fewer and fewer people are becoming proficient in its use. And for a simple reason: although a person of average ability can add and subtract large numbers faster with an abacus than with an electric calculator, learning to use it requires practice, while anyone can press buttons.

The etymology of the word abacus reveals its origin in the ancient past, coming from the Greek, abax, meaning a slab or reckoning table covered in dust or sand. The dust abacus, which required a stylus to mark numbers and a finger to erase them, in time gave way to a system using counters which could be slid along a line or groove. A logical improvement was the creation of a device with beads sliding along rods held in a wood frame, which the Chinese used widely from about the 14th century. Since Arabic numerals were not used by Oriental cultures, a method of quick calculation that bypassed ideographic representation of numbers was welcome. The Japanese word for abacus, soroban, probably comes from the Chinese suan-pan, and refers to the bead abacus still in use today.

The standard soroban is a rectangular wooden frame 20 to 40 centimeters wide, 8 to 10 centimeters from top to bottom, and about 1.5 centimeters thick. Lens-shaped beads are strung on 15 to 27 evenly spaced rods perpendicular to the frame, while a longitudinal beam about a quarter of the way down from the top bar divides the rods into upper and lower sections. The original Chinese abacus had two beads above this beam, five below, and was used in Japan after the 16th century. The Japanese modified it gradually, and by 1920, it had only one bead above the middle beam and four below, the present configuration.

Since the soroban is based on the decimal system, the middle beam is marked with a dot at every third rod, which facilitates keeping track of thousands the same way commas do when large numbers are written out. When calculating, one usually chooses a dot in the right-hand portion of the frame, and this becomes the unit rod and decimal point. The next rod to the left becomes the tens rod, the second to the left the hundreds, the rod to the right of the dot is for tenths, and so on. Numbers in the trillions, not so rare in Japan these days, are easily manipulated since only 13 out of 23 or so rods would be in use.

The principal of reckoning with a soroban is simple. For each rod, the single bead above the middle bar has a value of five, and each of the four beads below a value of one. The beads have numerical value only when slid to the middle bar. Before calculating, the instrument is "cleared" to zeros by first tilting the frame toward the body so that all the beads slide down, then using one's index finger in a sweeping motion from left to right to move the beads above the middle bar to the top of the frame. This makes a nice sound, which is often heard in post offices, older stores, and banks, where the soroban is still widely used. A "one-touch clear" model is also popular and with it, depressing a small button on the upper left part of the frame moves a simple set of levers that pushes all beads away from the middle bar simultaneously.

Although multiplication, division, and even the extraction of roots are possible with a soroban, these techniques take time to master, and the speed of an electronic calculator's algorithms is superior in any case. Where the soroban excels is in addition and subtraction of long sequences of large numbers, in part because zeros need not be entered manually. A skillful abacist uses a minimum of finger movement, and can flick the beads towards and away from the middle bar in one motion, rod by rod from right to left, using thumb and index finger. To develop dexterity and speed, prescribed patterns of finger movements are followed, according to the numbers being manipulated, so that the many steps taken in calculating a total become a matter of habit.

In Japanese schools the soroban is a required subject, though nowadays only a few hours are devoted to it in 3rd and 4th grade math classes. Soroban juku (special classes outside the regular school) used to be popular, but now only about a third of 3rd and 4th graders attend one--later they are too busy studying other subjects. In banking and other such professions, skill with the soroban used to be taken for granted. Although its popularity is waning, people who have scored average or above on the national soroban proficiency tests, especially those of an age for whom it was their first calculator, continue to prefer it to an electronic calculator for its speed and human, tactile qualities.

Like most handmade tools having a long tradition, an abacus can be a thing of beauty. The best have boxwood beads sliding snugly on well-finished rods of bamboo in a handsome hardwood frame, and can cost as much as Yen 35,000. Cheaper models with birch beads and less select materials cost as little as Yen 3,000, and a plastic variety is available for about ｴ1,000. The number of rods has less bearing on the cost than the quality of the types of wood used. For about Yen 5,000, you can have (if you can still find it) what must surely rank as one of the most incongruous objects ever produced: an abacus with a built-in electronic calculator. When it comes to creating goods for every conceivable purpose and market niche, Japanese manufacturers usually show an unerring knack. One can only wonder what inspired the designer of this surreal object to mount the two such devices side by side!

Zen temple overnights & mornings in Kyoto & Tokyo

In the past foreigners were sometimes considered a distracting (or easily distracted) element and so were discouraged from joining zazen sessions in Japan. Today there are several centers that are open to non-Japanese, and there are even some that cater exclusively to foreigners. The following are some temples where foreign visitors are welcome to come and try zazen.

Soto Zen Temples for Foreigners in Japan

Zen Experiences: A Guide to Temple Stays in Japan

The International Zen Center: Located in Hiroshima Prefecture, a sub-temple of Shinsho-ji, which is a branch temple of Kyoto's Kennin-ji. It welcomes anyone — regardless of sex, age, nationality, or religion — who wishes to experience Zen training, or simply wishes to try Zen meditation in temple surroundings. Suggested donation is ¥3,000 per day (with 3 meals) or ¥70,000 a month. Anyone interested should send a letter or postcard indicating his/her name, address, telephone number, proposed length of stay, and intended date of arrival to: International Zen Center of Japan, Mirokunosato Shinsho-ji Kokusaizendo, Numakuma-cho, Numakuma-gun, Hiroshima-ken, Japan 720-04. Tel: 0849-88-1200, Fax: 0849-88-1710

Kyoto International Zen Center: Located in Jokoku-ji, it set in a quiet, traditional Japanese village, surrounded by rice fields and mountains. One day meditation per night 3,000yen (including 3 meals). Any length of staying is acceptable. For details, call 0771-24-0152; e-mail kyotozen@zen.or.jp.

Genko-an: A beautiful temple located north of Kyoto; meditation on on 1st and 3nd Sunday from 7:00-9:00; Tel: 492-1858.

Nanzen-ji: on 2nd and 4th Sunday, from 6:00 to 7:

00 (April to October) 6:30 to 7:30 (November to March); Tel: 771-0365.

Kennin-ji Temple: 8:00 - 10:00 on 2nd Sunday; Tel: 075-561-6363.

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!