Le temps perdu

Time flies and many events happened and accumulated in my head but I could never find the time to write it down. So let’s try to catch up as I announced in the previous post, still 3 subjects are a lot for a single post but let’s do it! I just warn you, I am doing it on the fly otherwise I would think too much about it and postpone again.

Starting with the International Manga Museum of Kyoto, well it was a cloudy Sunday and I did not know what to do. Then I remembered that the museum had an exhibition about figurines and it was the last day. No need to think more about it, let’s pack a quick snack and a drink and I was off for Kyoto (1h30 by train). No rain and I was not used to the city subway, so let’s just have a walk, at least I had a map of the city. On my way there, I changed my mind and decided to visit Nijojo first, it closes earlier and at least I could easily spot it (I will tell you later why I did not see the museum first as it was closer from where I was).

Why did I want to visit Nijo Castle anyway? I guess it was because I had the whole afternoon… well Kyoto has lots of temples and monuments to visit… true this was the closest from where I was looking at my map, trying to find the museum. So Nijojo was the residence of the Tokugawa Shoguns, it consists of 2 concentric walls and a moat. Most of the buildings are in wood and I did not realize at first that the noises I thought to be singing birds, was in fact the sound of the cracking wood under my footsteps, it was a funny observation and made the wandering through the castle pleasant. Speaking of that, they recently announced that for safety reasons, they might close the castle to the public as it is becoming weak against earthquakes…

Unfortunately, for the safe of the paintings and other crafts inside the castle (like in many places in Japan) pictures are not allowed, at least inside. The surroundings of the palace are for the gardens and it is a peaceful walk through the trees, ponds and rocks. Climbing the wall give you an excellent overall view of the castle and how vast it is, 275,000 square meters. After 2 hours within the castle walls, I decided to go back tracking the manga museum.

And there it is! But wait… is it not a school? Oh yes it is, that is why I could not find it earlier then. The former Tatsuike elementary school in downtown Kyoto was reborn in November 2006 as the Kyoto International Manga Museum, “a next-generation museum to disseminate manga culture to the world” (in the words of its English brochure). It’s also a nifty place for lolling on the broad swath of real grass fronting the building, English-language comic book in hand, or watching professional kamishibai storytellers weave their narrative magic.

“As museum director Shuzo Ueda explained, “Since Chinese characters, or kanji, are intrinsically pictorial, they logically supported the development of manga, in which you look at the visuals and read the text simultaneously.” He added that today, with the Internet, all written language is becoming more visual, which helps feed growing interest in manga. Kyoto Seika University, which has a Faculty of Manga, operates the museum and its permanent collection of more than 200,000 manga. It also trains manga scholars from Japan and abroad, holds academic seminars, and plans to host an International Manga Summit in 2008. To help offset museum operating costs, Seika students create manga for public or private entities–or even individuals. Yes, for 10,000 yen a page, you can have a manga produced about your life–the latest in vanity portraits. Almost half the museum’s 130,000 visitors have been adults, Ueda said. Twelve percent are foreigners. Visitors to the museum can freely explore the shojo (girls’), shonen (boys’) and seinen (teens and young adults’) comics that line the walls, including a broad selection of foreign manga. You can also try sketching your own manga during weekend workshops, have your likeness drawn by manga artists, or read picture books in an invitingly carpeted children’s library.” (source: Asahi.com)

This was for your information, now my visit of the museum, well in fact as it is stated in the article, it is a library, a huge manga library! You would spend your day reading your favorite manga, sitting wherever you can find a place to sit; on the a couch, a chair, the stairs or simply on the floor, making a hard time for the other visitors but who care as long as you enjoy your reading. Hopefully there is the exhibition on figurines, which was the initial goal of my visit in Kyoto, because I still cannot read manga without spending hours and hours looking for a kanji in my electronic dictionary…

Again you will only have words to trigger your interest in the figurines exhibition as pictures are not allowed here also, not that it would deteriorate the little plastic figurines, but because it infringed copyrights of course. Believe it was a good exhibition with thousands of figurines and for every single visitor, there must be some that would be of interest. From sea or arctic life animal to Gamera, from samurai and historical replicas to 34^th century robots or mecha or maybe maids in underwear or simply basic character from diverse manga, you got to find something here. One of the key figurines was a true size Kenshiro from Hokuto no Ken, quite impressive.

I was never attracted to these small representations of the manga characters but I have to say that they are pretty well made and detailed. By the way, I received a pokeball-like present containing a figurine of a dragon; it is just taking dust at home now…

In addition to the exhibition, there also some activities around the museum such as “draw your manga” workshop or “get your portrait done” by young mangaka, a cyber space where manga and computer come together to explore a new media allowing “animation” but still being a manga. The last interesting fact was the presence of Hagiwara Sanae, a young mangaka, drawing one of her work, though I might not be the designated public. Hey wait! Why is it written in French on the flyers…

        – Bonjour, vous êtes… Sanae Hagiwara?
- Hum… nod.- Vous parlez français ?
- Puzzled face… eeh ? wakaranai…
- Pointing to the flyer. Furansugo wo wakarimasuka ?
- Aaaaaaahhhh! Iie, gomen. Ano… I make friend if you give email.

 

I skip the rest, there is nothing truly interesting. Just to let you know that if the flyers were in French, it is because she went to Paris (France) for the Japan Expo.

Let’s conclude this long post with a quick note on the Tenjin Matsuri in Osaka last week. Gion Matsuri was crowded for sure but Tenjin Matsuri was even more crowded! Well, the parade is made of 3000 people walking through the neighbourhood and then down the river and back in the streets. I arrived around 8pm for the fireworks, but come on, how can you possibly fireworks with all the buildings in the city?! No way, so it was more a “hide & seek” game, running through the streets to find a good spot among the hordes of other people just doing the same. We eventually ended up buying food at stalls and went back home, a bit disappointed. It is supposed to be one the 3 biggest festival in Japan, but truly too crowded, but it was nice to see many people wearing colourful yukata. It was just too bad we missed the day part with the procession.

 

That is all for now but in the meantime several new events have taken place so stay connected!

Next time: (hopefully by the end of the week)
- BBQ and nagashi somen
-Thriller and fireworks
- Pilgrimage at Koyasan

Summer time!

Il est venu le temps des festivals! La saison des pluies étant terminée (mon oeil… elle n’a jamais eu lieu ou plutôt elle continue mais sans trop être là), le beau temps est donc propice aux festivals et pourquoi pas pendant qu’on y est, prendre le temps de découvrir une autre ville que Osaka. Je vous propose donc de faire un tour à Kyoto.Durant le début du mois de juillet, se déroule à Kyoto le Gion Matsuri.

Ce festival consiste en une gigantesque parade depuis le Yasaka Shrine jusqu’au palais impérial de chars, décorés de trésors familiaux, tirés à travers la ville par des hommes. La parade a lieu le 17 juillet et les trésors ne sont visibles au public qu’à partir du 16 juillet, data à laquelle les maisons familiales exposent les-dits trésors, que ce soit tapisserie, étoffe ou armure de guerrier d’antan. Avant la grande parade, il se déroule le tirage au sort de l’emplacement des chars dans la parade, ces chars ont un nom, yamaboko (hoko pour les grands et yama pour les petits).

Pour l’histoire (et ceux qui ne lisent pas les liens wikipedia), le Gion Matsuri prend place quelques 1100 ans plus tôt, alors que la peste se propage à travers le pays. Pour contrer l’épidémie, les habitants érigent 66 lances (représentant les provinces) et décident de faire une procession de chars, chacun d’entre eux, afin de célébrer et honorer les dieux. Ainsi lors du festival, autour de chaque yamaboko, il est possible d’acheter des chimaki, que l’on accrochera à sa porte pour s’attirer les bonnes faveurs et la protection du ciel.

Bien, Kyoto étant renommé pour le design de ses kimono et autres yukata, ni une ni deux, il faut absolument porter un yukata (le kimono étant hors de prix) pour le Gion Matsuri. Non pas que celà soit obligatoire, mais le yukata étant un habit léger et “pratique”, il est souvent porté l’été durant les festivals. On ajoutera les geta (sandales en bois) pour ajouter au folklore. Une question traverse l’esprit, mais où mettre argent, appareil photo et autres? Il faut avouer que se trimballer avec un sac ferait perdre tout son charme et à la peine qu’on se donne (car oui, marcher avec des geta n’est pas aisé). Dans les manches pardi! Les manches servent donc d’immenses poches et si on est dubitatif au premier abord, c’est très fonctionnel (on est juste anxieux de savoir si tout est toujours dans les manches vu le nombre incroyable de personne lors du festival ou si un petit malin n’a pas pensé à vous couper les manches pour vous faire les poches…).

Une fois équipé, il ne reste plus qu’à faire la visite des yamaboko, admirer les trésors et se laisser porter par la joie et la bonne humeur (malgré la pluie). De jour ou de nuit, l’atmosphère est bien différente, ainsi à la tombée de la nuit, de nombreux étals et stands se mettent en place et l’animation ne se porte plus sur le festival en lui-même mais plus sur la découverte des plaisirs du palais et autres petits jeux pour les plus jeunes. (NB: je pense que ça fait partie du paysage japonais maintenant mais si j’étais un enfant de 3 ans et que le marchand de bonbons avait des piercings, les cheveux décolorés et limite un maquillage à faire peur, je ne suis pas sûr que je lui achéterai des bonbons…) Kimonos ou yukata, les filles sont plus colorées et les motifs plus divers et variés, l’essentiel étant de mettre de la couluer pour apporter de la vie au festival!

Le port du yukata est une expérience à vivre lors d’un festival, je retenterai bien l’expérience la semaine prochaine pour le Tenjin Matsuri à Osaka mais je partirai du bureau et je ne pense que travailler en yukata soit apprécié… je note aussi que les geta ont quelques avantages pour contrebalancer leur inconfortabilité (essentiellement due à mes grands pieds je l’avoue), du fait de leur hauteur, on évite de se mouiller (s’il pleut) et avoir les pattes à l’air c’est aussi agréable quand il fait chaud!

Les photos du Gion Matsuri sont sur cette galerie.

Prochainement:

• Le musée international du manga à Kyoto
• Nijojo, Heian jingu et Jishu jinja shrines à Kyoto
• Tenjin Matsuri à Osaka

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