Dwelling In Dreams

冬の俳句 Winter Haiku

2009-01-18T10:12:00.000-08:00

some haiku fitting the season

雪の下
植物が寝る
秘密夢

under the snow
the flowers are sleeping
a secret dream

凍ったの（氷）
無限対面
僕の顔

on the frozen ice
an eternal confrontation
my face

毎降りる
美しき雪（の）
儚さよ

falling down again and again
wonderful snow
transience (Vergänglichkeit)

Heiliges Römisches Reich Holy Roman Empire

2008-11-05T12:05:00.001-08:00

Proceeding in German history I told my language exchange partner about the holy roman empire, which he was eager to learn more about.

The Holy Roman Empire (Of German Nation)
963 (Otto The Great) - 1806 (Francis II)

The Holy Roman Empire Of The German Nation was a union of territories in Central Europe lead by a Holy Roman Emperor. The Holy Roman Empire extended itself over present day Germany, Northern Italy, Burgundy, Austria, Switzerland, Netherlands, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Czech Republic, Slovenia, Belgium and large parts of France, Souterhn Italy, Poland. Despire the name, the city Rome was not part of the Empire.

Name

The name symbolized the attempt to revive the west roman empire, which ended with Romulus August in 476. Although Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne and his son Louis The Pious as Holy Roman Emperor, the imperial office got never formalized. The actual name changed very often from 962 version Regnum Francorum Orientalium (Kingdom of the East Franks) to 1034 Roman Empire to 1157 Holy Empire to 1254 Holy Roman Empire to its final version in 1512 Holy Roman Empire of German Nation (German Heiliges Römisches Reich deutscher Nation; Latin: Sacrum Romanum Imperium Nationis Germanicæ).

Since not only the name, but also the territories and status constantly changed, historicians had a lot of trouble writing about "Germany". In one example Severinus de Monzambano brings it to the point: "Nihil ergo aliud restat, quam ut dicamus Germaniam esse irregulare aliquod corpus et monstro simile ..." ("We are therefore left with calling Germany a body that conforms to no rule and resembles a monster").

Dynatsies

Merovingian 428-751
Carolingan 751-876
Ottonian 919-1024 (aka Saxon Dynasty)
Salian 1024-1125 (aka Frankish Dynasty)
Hohenstaufen 1138-1254 (aka Swabian Dynasty)
Habsburg 1273-1806

Before 962...

...it was custom for kings of the Carolingan dynasty to divide their empire among the sons, which lead to great loss in territories and power. The last king loyal to this custom was the father of Germany and France Charlemagne. However he was survived only by one son, Louis The Pious, and therefore gave his whole emipre to him. Louis however saw the weakness of this tradition and broke with it giving the whole empire only to one son. This however lead to a lot of civil wars and a final partition of Charlemagne's empire in 834. The title and original part was given to Louis eldest son Lothar I, while the split of part became known as Eastern Frankish Kingdom. Henry I the Fowler became the first crowned king of the Eastern Frankish Kingdom and was the first one not of the Carolingan dynasty and founded the Ottonian dynasty naming his son and successor arcordingly Otto I (He was only later called Otto the Great).

Otto was married to the widowed queen of Italy, which effectively added Italy to his empire. 962 signified a turning point in history, when the Pope decided to give his blessing to Otto I of the East Frankish Kingdom, instead of the West Frankish Kingdom acknolowding Otto's rule and power. Because of this blessing Ottonian kings saw themselves as successors to Romulus August and to the Old Roman Empire. However since the East Roman Empire still existed and the real Roman Emperor ruled from Constantinopel, they decided to abide from the name, not to provoke him.

Ottonian Dynasty

At the time of the Ottonian dynasty the empire consisted of a confederation of old Germanic tribes Bavarians, Alemanns, Franks and Saxons, as well as the kingdom of Italy. This confederation was only able to survive because Henry I, Otto the Great and his succession until Henry II were such strong characters, they could hold the empire together. Yet after Henry II died without children the Ottonian dynasty came to an quick end. The confederate states elected 1024 Conrad II as new king and thus started the ...

Salian Dynasty

of the empire. However Conrad II being a less strong character, the dualism and quarrels between the king and the territories constantly increased. When Henry IV came to power the escapade peaked, when the pope declared a ban on Henry the IV. Although this ban was rebuked in 1077 during the Walk To Canossa, it constantly weakend the position of the German king. Because meanwhile the dukes had appointed a new king "Rudlof From Swabia", which waged war against Henry IV. Henry was able to win after 3 years in 1080 but his title and power were weakened from then on. The last Salian emperor was Henry IV son Henry V.

Hohenstaufen Dynasty

With the dynasty so weakened the Hohenstaufer, originally a clan holding high offices under the Salians, overtook their masters and with Conrad III becoming appointed king in 1138 introduced the Hohenstaufen Dynasty, which was able to effectively restore the empire under new conditions in the Concordat Of Worms 1122. The great king Barbarossa (Frederick I) 1152 first called the empire holy. With Barbarossa the idea of the people seeing themselves as successors to the great Romans culminated again. This seemed to be an attempt to justify power independent of the strengthend pope. In this thinking it was also tried to revive Roman Law over the empire. Of course these laws were written for a completely different world, yet it was the first attempt to get a legal constitution (Roncaglia). This was effectively an attempt to bind the stuborn German dukes closer to the empire.

With religion and bishops taken away to maintain power over the dukes (separation from the pope), the Hohenstaufen kings devised a new strategy and intoduced ministerialia (ministers), free service men appointed to server for king and country. Starting from these offices later the kinghts were born, an important factor of imperial rule in the mid ages.

Another attempt to spread power within the empire was the foundation of new cities. For once this was done to account for the population explosion, but also to spread the realm of influence and to cover important strategic points. The same strategy was followed by the king and the dukes the same.

While most Hohenstaufen emperors struggled with each other for the title, mainly Barbarossa and his son Philip of Swabia and Henry the Lion and his son Otto IV, the last king of the Hohenstaufen Frederick II went an entirely different route. He did not struggle for power and ruled from sicily. When he was crowned king he suddenly claimed posesion of Rome, which lead to a ban by the pope. Most surprisingly he successfully lead a crusade in 1228 taking possession of Jerusalem. But he also lead to the empires downfall. For once he focused much of his attention on sicily, where he established a modern state with public services, financing and othe reforms, on the other side he gave great priviliges and powers to the German dukes to bind them to him. Privileges that could never again taken from the central power again, peaking in a ducment of 1232 which officially declared the dukes owner of their lands (domini terrae).

In this time also significant is when Konrad of Masovia invited the Teutonic Knights 1226 to christianize the Prussians. Also because of the long focus on Italy, the German dukes extended their own reamls and power and eventually took possesion of Slavic territories Pommerania and Silesia.

Rise Of The Territories

After Frederick II died in 1250 the Hohenstaufen dynasty ended and the dukes appointed several competing kings. This period is often referred to as Interregnunm and lasted until the election of the king Rudoplh I from Habsburg 1273. In this time much of the imperial power was lost. This struggle evetually lead to an agreement in the Golden Bull 1356, that only certain Kurfuersten (Archdukes) were allowed to cast a vote for the new king. Also all kings after the Hohenstaufen dynasty had to maintain their power differently. Until Frederick II the Emperor had its own lands (Reichsgut) and own cities (Reichsstadt), but during the Interregnum these were taken from the dukes. Instead staring with Rudoplh I from Habsburg, kings started to rely on their own dynasties for support, which were much easier to control.

Habsburg Dynasty

With Rudoplh I from Habsburg the Habsburg dynasty was started and the first to regain control over the empire after the Interregnum. Rudolph I thus gave the territories of Austria and Styria (parts of modern Austria and Slowenia) to his own sons for support. Another change under the Habsburg dynasty was that money increasignly took the role of duties and economic value and gained much in importance. Peasants were increasingly required to pay tributes in money for their lands.

Although some attempts to make a constitution were made over time (Roman Law, Golden Bull), it was still largely unsettled at the beginning of the 15th century. It therefore proved fatar when the two consecutive kings Sigismund of Luxemburg and Frederick III of Habsburg neglected the old core lands and only concentrated on their own lands. Without the presence of the king the old institution of the Hoftag (an assemply of the empire's leading men) deteriorated. This lead to quarrels and even wars of dukes against each other within the empire.

On the other side also the church was into a great crisis. Two competing popes were appointed and when this struggle was finally resolved in the Council of Constance 1419 a new Christian belief challenged the old Catholic rule with the Hussits, which postulated much attention from the church to be fought.

This conflicts were overcome when Frederick III needed the support of the dukes for a war against hungrary. As a response to that the dukes and electors called for an assemply of all the electors and dukes which was later called Reichstag (a succession to the Hofstag, later also joined by imperial free cities). While Frederick III was afraid to loose power and refused to go to such a meeting, his son Maximilian I prooved more wise and participated the Reichstag for the first time at Worms in 1495. At this meeting king and dukes agreed on four bills called Reichsreform (Imperial Reform), which gave the empire back some structure: e.g. Reichskammergericht (Imperial Court), Reichskreise (Imperial Circle Estates, for common defense and taxes). This changes took until 1512 to be finalized, the same year the empire got its new and final name: Heiliges Römisches Reich Deutscher Nation ("Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation")

Reformation

In 1517 Martin Luther initiated the Reformation and started a fire leading to the partition of the old Catholic Christianity in Catholic And Evangelists (Protestant). This changes going along with a political struggle for more power of the dukes, since the power of Emperor Charles V was declining, lead to the parition of the empire with North / East becoming protestant and South / West remained catholic. However while in Europe several wars were lead because of this new faith, Germany remained relatively quite from the peace of Augsburg 1555 until the Defenestyration of Prague 1618 leading to the thirty years war.

The Thirty Years War

This became the worst German war until the world wars, where 1/3 of the German population was killed. The main conflict was waged on religious reasons, but of course the true motifs were the hunger for more power of the dukes. What made this war so bad was the intervention of foreign powers like France and Sweden who supported several dukes against the imperial rule, while taking large chunks of the empire for themselves. This war devasted Germany to an incredible extent, which it was never able to recover from. It never found back to its former strength.

The Long Decline

The actual end of the empire came gradually in several steps:

The Peace Of Westphalia 1648 which ended the 30 years war gave the territories almost complete sovereignity.
The Habsburg Emperors became powerless figures, a name only and therefore concentrated only on their own estates in Austria and elsewhere.
The Swiss Confederation (which existed since 1499) broke off completely and became independent.
The Northern Netherlands left the empire and formed the modern Netherlands / Holland.
The rise of Louis XIV the sun king.
The dualism between Austrian and Prussia that dominated the history of the empire since 1740.
The French revolution 1789.
The conquest of Napoleon

At this time Habsburg emperors were completely dependent on the archdukes of Austria to counter the rise of Prussia. Throught the 18th century Habsburg emperors were used in various European confilcts as the War of the Spanish Succession, the War of the Polish Succession, the War of the Austrian Succession and so on.

The empire was formally disolved 1806, after it was first tuckled by the revolution france followed by a military defeat against Napoleon. The last Austrian Emperor was Francis II, who abdicted 1804.

Successors of the Holy Roman Empire of German Nation

Francis' dynasty was able to maintain control over Austrian and Hungary until the Habsburg empire was completley disovled after World War II in 1918. Napolean turned the empire into several confederations he took control of. Later his rule was replaced by the German Confederation lead by Prussia which eventually developed into the German Empire. Liechtenstein claims to be the last surviving remnant of the Holy Roman Empire still having a Habsburh dynasty monarch ruling over the country.

戦国時代第二　The Warring States Period II

2008-11-05T10:41:00.000-08:00

Although I am back in Germany, there is some material left from my language exchange in Japan, which I will present you now.

Last time we talked about the three big 大名 daimyo (feudal lords), who influenced the period the most ruling over most and eventually all of Japan. But there were more brilliant warlords involved in this time, who if not for misfortune might have taken the rule in their stead. Two of them I'd like to present to you: 武田信玄 Takeda Shingen and 上杉謙信 Uesugi Kenshin. The are most famous for their romanticized rivalry.

武田信玄 Takeda Shingen

Shingen was the first born son of the Takeda clan leader Takeda Nobutora. In his younger years he shone as poet and as military asset to the clan, but once he reached adulthood (after the coming of age ceremony) he started to rebel against his father. It is thought that the reason was the plan of his father to name his second son Nobushige successor of the clan. However at the age of 21 Shingen succeeded over his father and took control over the clan.

With a firm grip over the clan, he started to expand the clan's territory and aimed for Shinano province. With his strategic genius, though unexperienced he was able to score victory after victory and eventually took Shinano from the Murakami clan who fled and sought aid from the neighbouring Uesugi clan.

With this move Shingen faced his next enemy: Uesugi Kenshin. The rivalry between both became legendary and romanticized in many stories. It was the clash between tiger and dragon, since Shingen's nickname was the Tiger Of Kai and Kenshin was called the Dragon Of Echigo. The clash happened in five chapters, where both men's forces met each other. While the first three were mere skirmishes, the fourth became an all or nothing battle, where both men lost a good deal of their troops. It is also this battle where Shingen is supposed to have met Kenshin, who was fighting through Shingen's troop with his cavalry eventually facing him personally. Kenshin aimed for Shingen's head and stroke with his sword, but Shingen quickly lifted his war-fan and was able to block the hit.

After this battle Shingen had to recover his forces, which was made more difficult by how own clan, since two people including his own son, desired his power and tried to assassinate him. He uncovered their plots and threw his son into prison, but was weakened and only scored small scale victories, taking some area from Uesugi clan.

After he had recovered he had to realize that next to Uesugi Kenshin, another warlord had emerged and threatened to conquer all of Japan: Oda Nobunaga and his ally Tokugawa Ieyasu. Kenshin realized that he was the only one with enough abilities to stop Oda reaching his goal and thus challenged Ieyasu's forces in Futamata. Realizing the strength of their enemy Tokugawa and Nobunaga stood united against Takeda at the battle of Mikatagahara facing Takeda. Despite of the power of the alliance, Takeda could win the battle even if not decisive.
Preparing to face them again in Mikatagahara Takeda died of illness in his camp.

He was succeeded by his forth son Katsuyori, who was ambitious but not as brilliant as his father. After he could steal some castles from Tokugawa, Ieyasu and Oda united against Takeda and destroyed the clan's forces in the battle of Nagashino.

上杉謙信 Uesugi Kenshin

Takeda Shingen's rival Uesugi Kenshin's father Nagao Tamekage was an successful warlord in Echigo. However he was forced to face the Ikko-Ikki and Echigo's power dwindled under their pressure. Eventually Tamekage gathered all his forces and marched westwards, where Ikko-Ikki's forces ambushed and destroyed him.

The death of Tamekage resulted in a struggle for power among his son's, which cost the life of the second son. Kenshin, who was only 7 years at that time, was given to a temple for receiving education and for being out of the line for power politics. There he spent the next 7 years by studying.

At the age of 14 some of his father's followers sought him to claim power over the clan, as his ruling brother proved incompetent. First reluctant to face his brother, he was later convinced it was for the greater good of the whole clan. With the support of the clan leaders he was then quickly able to overthrow his brother and take control.

His first move as daimyo was to strengthen his position in Echigo and bolster his forces. However soon leaders from the Murakami (and other) clans came to him requesting help against the advancing powerful warlord Takeda Shingen. Soon he saw Shingen come close to the borders of Echigo and decided to stand his ground against this enemy.

You already know how this battles turned out, so let me add that both lords were what we would call gentlemen. Outside the battlefield they honored their enemy and even exchanged gifts. And not petty gifts but the most precious and dearest items they had, like a magical sword. When Shingen suddenly died Kenshin is said to have wept one night long uttering never again to meet again an enemy so worthy like Takeda Shingen. More than that, he vowed not to attack Takeda lands in honour to his fallen rival.

Kenshin was also seen as a highly religious man, which might be caused by his visits to the Shogun in Kyoto, where he always visited many shrines and temples. His next enemy after Takeda clan was to be the Hojo clan, which took control over the Kanto area. Although powerful, Kenshin was able to take many castles from them only failing in taking down the powerful Odawara castle, although all the surrounding lands were already conquered by him. Eventually he had to break the siege for his supplied were running low and retreat to Echigo.

Apart from Kanto, he successfully first mediated then intervened in a conflict of two daimyo in Etchu province, which he then took for himself. When daimyo Noto died, he also quickly took the lands of the weakened clan and had a considerable empire to rule upon.

At this time, he had to consider the threat of the ever rising Oda Nobunaga. With Takea Shingen and Hojo Ujiyasu (the powerful ruler over the Kanto area) dead, Kenshin was the only one able to oppose Oda Nobunaga.
Coming to the same conclusion and remembering the defeat they had when opposing Kenshin's euqal rival, Oda Nobunaga and Tokugawa Ieyasu gathered almost 40.000 men, the largest contingent, which has fought on Japanese ground then.
But despite their enormously overwhelming numbers, Uesugi not only defeated them, but was able to score a solid victory and Nobunaga had to retreat and fall back to Omi province.

After this encounter he met the same fate as his rival. He was unbeaten on the field, but stroke with a horrid sickness which tore his health apart and eventually killed him.

When Oda Nobunaga heard about Uesugi's death, he just said:
Now the empire is mine.
And it proved true, when Kenshin's successors fought a clan internal struggle weakening the clan enough for Nobunaga to easily take it over.

You see that though Oda Nobunaga with Tokugawa Ieyasu and Toyotomi Hideyoshi proved victorious, there were two men, which they never could have defeated on the battle field. Who knows how the Sengoku Period would have turned out, if not for the death of the two.

Die Franken The Franks

2008-08-27T19:09:00.000-07:00

As it was custom during our fairy tale exchange, I prepared a counter lecture on German history for Nakamura-san. He first wanted an overview of German history until the German Empire. So I started at the beginning, where instead of a country we had many clans, one of them was called

Die Franken The Francs

Name

from ancient Germanic frankon (= javelin). Germanic tribes were often called by their weapon of choice. Compare to Saxons who were using a weapon called seax (= long dagger). The francisca (throwing axe) is another weapon called after the franks, since they used this weapon too.

a seax

Origins & Mythology

the religion of the franks was Germanic Polytheism. When the Roman empire started to intrude in Germanic territory, the pantheon was supplemented by the Roman Gods. Also once the franks learned Roman lore, they found themselves ancestors in the Sicambri and Trojans.

Liber Historiae Francorum

This was written down in the history book ``Liber Historiae Francorum'' (history book of the Franks), where 12.000 Trojans led by Priam and Antenor moved to the Don river (Donau), settled in Pannonia and founded a city called Sicambria.

History

Unification Of The Tribes

Scholars think the Franks developed as a multi tribe entity out of many smaller earlier tribes.

Earliest written records are to be found 260 due to the first Roman invasion into Frankish territory.

100 years later in 356 the first Frankish king (Salian Dynasty) enters Roman territory stays there and is acknowledged king by the Romans.

By the end of the 5th century the Franks greatly expanded their territory now including the Netherlands south of the Rhine, Belgium and northern France. All the people living in these territories were merged into the Frankish tribe. This development gave rise to the Merovingian Dynasty.

outline of the Frankish empire from 481 to 814
(click to enlarge)

Merovingian Dynasty (481–751)

In 509 Clovis was the first to call himself King of the Franks (lat. rex francorum). Clovis' empire covered most of northern central Europe (Germany, France, Belgium, Netherlands). However he divided his empire into four parts and passed them on to his four sons and successors. These sons again divided their part and passed it on to their sons splitting the empire into smaller and smaller regions.

The successors of the sons however would sooner or later wage war against each other and try to conquer territories of the other. In this period three distinct powers emerged: Austrasia, Neustria and Burgundy.

In 613 Clothar II was able to reunite the whole empire and bound the power to his person by cutting corruption and power among the nobles of the empire. His son and successor Dagobert I was still militarily successful but after him the royal authority of the Merovingian Dyntasy started to diminish.

Finally in 751 Pipin the Short with the approval of the pope in Rome disposed of the last Merovingian king Childeric III, had himself crowned instead and thus started the Carolingian Dynasty.

Carolingian Dynasty (751–843)

The Carolingian kings started to unite central and western Europe under what was knows as the Carolingian Renaissance. Despite all the wars and different ethnics, Frankish rule and Christianity proved a good mean to control such a large area. The culture in the Frankish empire developed quite differently depending on the region and their rulers and their aims. Although these aims were often different the same basic belief system and loyalty bound all of them to the Carolingian Dynasty. These ideas and culture were basically a mixture of ancient Germanic and Roman ideas.

Military

Germanic people are known to have served in Roman armies since the days of Julius Caesar. However the Franks also kept invading Rome, which lead to confrontations of having Franks on both sides. After a successful invasion, it was only due to a tribe of Franks loyal to the Romans, that power could be restored. From that day own Franks in the Roman army were promoted to high ranks.

Therefore Frankish at this time and later were organized just like the renown Roman army, while merging in German customs and bringing some innovations. Also serving in the Roman army showed the Franks that in order to gain power they must stop fighting as one tribe, and start fighting as one conglomerate of many tribes with equal rights but under their rule.

Early Days

Roman Procopius wrote about the Franks in 539:

At this time the Franks, hearing that both the Goths and Romans had suffered severely by the war . . . forgetting for the moment their oaths and treaties . . . (for this nation in matters of trust is the most treacherous in the world), they straightway gathered to the number of one hundred thousand under the leadership of Theudebert and marched into Italy: they had a small body of cavalry about their leader, and these were the only ones armed with spears, while all the rest were foot soldiers having neither bows nor spears, but each man carried a sword and shield and one axe. Now the iron head of this weapon was thick and exceedingly sharp on both sides, while the wooden handles was very short. And they are accustomed always to throw these axes at one signal in the first charge and thus to shatters the shields of the enemy and kill the men.

and his contemporary Agathias wrote:

The military equipment of this people [the Franks] is very simple. . . . They do not know the use of the coat of mail or greaves and the majority leave the head uncovered, only a few wear the helmet. They have their chests bare and backs naked to the loins, they cover their thighs with either leather or linen. They do not serve on horseback except in very rare cases. Fighting on foot is both habitual and a national custom and they are proficient in this. At the hip they wear a sword and on the left side their shield is attached. They have neither bows nor slings, no missile weapons except the double edged axe and the angon which they use most often. The angons are spears which are neither very short nor very long they can be used, if necessary, for throwing like a javelin, and also in hand to hand combat.

Merovingian Dynasty

Under the Merovingian Dynasty the Franks strongly adapted Roman organization and ideas of military and warfare. They even started/continued to wear Roman coats of arms and symbols. This is especially significant since it lead the army to not only consist out of Franks, but of many tribes like the Saxons, Alans, Taifals, Alemanni and later Burgundy.

Under the king were the leudes, sworn followers of the king. The king had an elite bodyguard called truste (trusties). For day-to-day business he also had a normal bodyguard the puen. Later a new unit called levy was introduced. A levy consisted of men able to fight from a district and were a kind of early military service to the king (Origin of the English expression ``To levy troops'').

Carolingian Dynasty

Frankish military outfit in the later Carolingian dynasty

Language

the language of the Franks was Old Frankish. But not many words of this language are still known. It evolved into Old Dutch in the low countries and was later replaced by Old German and Old French.

Religion

Paganism

Frankish paganism was most probably very similar to German paganism showing many rituals and daily activities around the multiple deities. Their gods were worldly and had relations to things in this world, unlike the transcending Christianity.

Christianity

The first conversions to Christianity were in the late 5th century with Clovis I in 496 being the first king to do so after marrying a woman from Burgundy. Along with him probably around 3000 of his soldiers converted. Also with the Frankish lacking aristocracy and gaining in power this development made them a good friend of the church and the pope in Rome.

Although many of Clovis' successors also converted to Christianity it took as much as 200 years for the Franks to convert as a whole. Resisting pagans true to their faith were persecuted and executed.

Baptism Of Clovis I

Art & Architecture

Merovingian

very little is preserved of the Merovingian Dynasty regarding architecture and art. But there are some small baptisteries in South France, which are still standing.

Apart from architecture some few pieces of art like jewelry or ornate weapons were found as burial gifts to the Merovingian kings.

Merovingian Goblet

Carolingian

with the Carolingian Renaissance came a great boost in art and architecture. One reason was that Charlemagne encouraged the arts and even imported foreign artists to promote the art of his empire.

One example for the peak of Carolingian architecture is the Palatine Chapel in Aachen, Germany.

Palatine Chapel

戦国時代第一 The Warring States Period I

2008-08-27T18:37:00.000-07:00

Did you notice that there were no more new fairy tales told in my Blog?
This is because me and my language exchange partner changed the topic of our meetings from fairy tales to history, after we both noticed the others interest in history. I would narrate about German history and Nakamura-san about the Japanese. For the Japanese history we did not start at the beginning but in the middle in the 戦国時代 Sengoku Period (The Warring States Period).

戦国時代 Sengoku Period

The Sengoku Period is the struggle for predominance over all of Japan from the middle of the 15th century to the beginning of the 17th century. In this time Japan was basically in a civil war where power hungry 大名 Daimyou (Japanese feudal lords) tried to expand their territory of influence, where hungry peasants rebelled against paying taxes to a far away government, when their families are starving and fast developing trade and agricultural techniques and the trade with money instead of rice made the people postulate more autonomy. A war, whose outcome would form Japan until the 明治時代 Meiji Period, when an elected government replaced the rule of the Shogun.

時期 Beginning Of The Civil War

Before the Sengoku Period was the 室町時代 Muromachi Period (The Sengoku Period can also be considered the last chapter of the Muromachi Period). In this Period the rule over the land was in the hands of the 足利幕府 Ashikaga Shogunate. However over the years the power of the Ashikaga was dwindling and it escalated in the 応仁の乱 Ounin War over the succession of Ashikaga Yoshimasa, who had no children. This war gave the Ashikaga the final blow and many other influential clans started to act independently.

In the Muromachi Period Provinces were lead by a 守護 Shugo, a military governor appointed by the Shogunate in Kyoto. When the war of succession weakened the Shogunate, other forces took over the provinces, who's rule was legitimated by military power and real estate, rather than government appointment. These men were referred to as 大名 Daimyou (feudal lord). Another reason for the dwindling power of the Ashikaga was that more and more regions started to rebel against unfair taxes and trading restrictions, when they were suffering under bad harvests. This cut the budget of the Ashikaga heavily and they found themselves unable to pay their subjects.

As it was great men who sought independence and an extension of their clan's territory, the tale of the Sengoku Period is best told by telling about its three most successful Daimyo. Those were Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi and finally Tokugawa Ieyasu.

織田信長 Oda Nobunaga (1534-1582)

Oda Nobunaga lived a life of conquest resulting in one third of Japan being in his hands at the time of his death.
Nobunaga was born in Nagoya and was known to play with kids of lower social rank and not giving much to social rank. He also annoyed people with bizarre behavior when he was a kid. He even acted insane at the funeral of his father, which ashamed his brother so much, that he committed Seppuku to preserve the family honor.

This lead to a fight for the succession, also Nobunaga was basically the legitimate heir. Many fractions tried to seize power over Oda clan, but Nobunaga proofed cleverer than they thought and was able to grasp control over the clan and thus over Owari Province. All disputes of his rule were forgotten, when he won the battle of Okehazama when his 2000 men were able to defeat 20.000 - 40.000 due to superior military stratagem and superior equipment (helmets and spears, sneak attacks, landscape well known to the Oda Clan, enemy weakened by alcohol (they thought their victory is assured and started to drink before the fight)).

In 1561 he secured an alliance with an upcoming war lord called Tokugawa Ieyasu and they defeated the Saito Clan together in Mino. As a token of his power he renamed Mino Province to today's name 岐阜 Gifu (岐山 Qi is a legendary mountain in China and 阜 Zhou was a powerful dynasty in China). After this victory he went with the slogan 天下武士 Tenkabushi (militarism to the world).

He continued to score victories and defeated the Rokkaku Clan. At this time finally a new man was established as Shogun: Ashikaga Yoshiaki. He started his military rule by realizing the threat of Oda Nobunaga and forming an alliance against Oda and Tokugawa winning the Asakura and Azai Clans for his side. His enemies increased when he raided an ancient temple of 僧兵 Souhei (warrior monks) and killed 4500 monks along with one of the highest regarded heritages of Japan. He did not stop with monks and raided many towns and villages killing more then 10.000 civilians uninvolved in any wars.

僧兵 Souhei Warrior Monk

In the years following 1572 he continuously clashed with the very successful Takeda Clan with no side being able to score a distinctive victory. However on the other front he could severely weaken the Asakura Azai Alliance. He developed a new strategy for using the new slow loading but powerful rifles (arabesque) by forming three lines of people. The first lines shoots, the second lines aims and the third lines reload. Lines in front of back lines will duck in the case of shooting. With this strategy many victories were won.

In 1577 he lost a battle against Uesugi Kenshin, but then won against Takeda Shingen (ironically Uesugi Kenshin's archenemy, in 1577. In 1582 his clan scored a decisive victory and conquered Osaka. However at the verge of victory they called for his help, maybe to give him the honor of winning the fight, maybe to let him be the first to enter Osaka Castle, maybe to show off that he is not needed or maybe even as an attempt to usurp his power. No matter the reason Oda Nobunaga set out for Osaka and knowing the region to be his territory he traveled light without many people to guard him. When he made halt at Honnoji temple to pray for military success he was ambushed by an assassination party. He fought them bravely, but lost and was allowed to commit Seppuku to preserve his honor...

Japan after Oda Nobunaga's rule
(click to enlarge)

In his lifetime he modernized Japan's army significantly both in equipment, as well as in warfare strategy and organization combining pikes, firearms, iron lead ships and castle fortifications. The army was now organized by skill and ability rather than social rank, which increased its efficiency enormously. Also he gave measured and gave land by rice output and allowed for a rather free economy system called 楽死楽座 Rakushirakuza, the people rebelling to the Ashikaga Shogunate has wished for. He benefited more from it, because with that the economy was thriving and produced much more output. Under his rule also arts like the tea ceremony, gardening, theater and architecture blossomed. He also allowed for Jesuit missionaries in his territories, with brought a lot of knowledge and trading goods, apart from the Christian religion.

豊臣秀吉 Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1536 - 1598)

Succeeding Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi was the first Daimyo who unified Japan under his rule. He is seen as the second great unifier of all Japan.
Against the plans of his parents he choose a life of adventure over temple life. He is reported to have had a rare defection which gave him two thumbs on the right hand. Born in Nagoya he served under Oda Nobunaga in the Oda Clan in Owari Province.

He rose in ranks and helped to win the fateful battle of Okehazama for Oda Nobunaga. Afterwards he had his own army under his control and in order to secure borders with Sunomata, he initiated repairs to a border castle. According to legend, he even built another castle in between the riverbed separating Sunomata from Owari over night, which allowed him to attack and conquer Sunomata. He also proved to be an excellent negotiator and bribed many important characters from the Saito Clan to change sides.

After his next victory at Inabayama Castle, he was promoted to General over Oda's army. After that he and Oda Nobunaga joined forces with Tokugawa Ieyasu and won the Battle of Anegawa 1570. In reaction to the alliance between Tokugawa Ieyasu and Oda Nobunaga, an Ashikaga Shogun alliance consisting out of the Azai and Asakura Clans was formed. However 1573 Toyotomi Hideyoshi lead a successful campaign against both clans and was rewarded with becoming the Daimyo of Omi Province. He used his own region to produce modern firearms, upgrading existing factories.

1582 Toyotomi succeeded in the Battle of Akechi and took Osaka. However when he sent for Oda Nobunaga, Nobunaga was assassinated on the way to Osaka (see above). A war for the succession of the Oda Clan broke out. Toyotomi first supported Nobunaga's youngest son, while provoking the elder ones. This escalated in a battle, where he was able to defeat them and seize control over the Oda Clan.
A the height of his power, he now decided to become official Shogun, but the Tenno did not give in and rejected his pleadings. In 1587 he continued his conquest conquering Shikoku, Etchu and Kyushu, seizing most of Japan. After his victories he began to reduce the armament of the people declaring that only Samurai are allowed to carry weapons. He also banned Christian Missionaries, who his predecessor supported, fearing their influence.

1590 he found a peaceful way to end peasant revolts by gathering their weapons but melting the iron and using it to build a big Buddha statue for their protection. After the peasants calmed down he continued his conquest and sieged Odawara Castle, bringing an end to the Civil War.

Starting in 1591, when he achieved the unification of Japan, he probably went insane or mentally ill and continuously felt really horrible bad decisions: the first was to force the highly regarded master of tea ceremony Sen No Rikyuu, who revolutionized the ceremony, to commit Seppuku. In the same year his only son died away, leaving him without heir and his dynasty in doubt. He quickly adopted the child of his brother, when he died one year later and named him his heir.

Although he was physically falling ill, he decided to continue his conquest following dreams of Oda Nobunaga. Since Japan was conquered he planned to conquer Ming China and started with invading Korea. From 1591 - 1598 he thus waged an insane and brutal war against Korea. When Seoul was occupied, Korea allied with Ming China, which feared to fall to the invasion after Korea would have fallen. Together Korea and China could drive Toyotomi back until he finally had to give up the war in 1598. However no one has won this war, China and Japan lost the biggest part of their army, while Korea lay devastated in ruins. One third of the entire population had been killed or fallen victim to the upcoming food shortages, since Toyotomi's army burned everything to the ground. It was the worst war for Korea in history, much worse even then the occupation during world war 2.

When Toyotomi gave birth to another son in 1593, he feared for his succession, since he named his adopted nephew heir. Going along with his increasing insanity he killed one third of his own family clan including his adopted nephew in a blood rage. With his insane commands and actions increasing and the war in Korea lost and the Oda Clan's army shattered and broken, the power of Japan could easily taken by someone who was laying in wait to grasp it all the time: Tokugawa Ieyasu.

However his rule brought Japan much progress: He gave some peace to the country by forbidding arms, except for Samurai. He increased the power of his army, by refraining Samurai from menial labor and supporting them with real estate. He made the first census in Japanese history to see how many men and women he had in his country. Following this knowledge he could develop an effective powerful taxation system, with which he could eventually finance his insane war against Korea and China. He also banned slavery to get more capable man and, before he had fallen insane, made a big impact in the tea ceremony and let it prosper.

徳川家康 Tokugawa Ieyasu (1543 - 1616)

The last of the three great Sengoku Daimyo, which ended the Sengoku time for good and established a stable Shogunate, which was able to last for 250 years.

His birthplace and home is the province Mikawa. He was born as son and heir of the Matsurada Clan's Daimyo. However when he was only six years old the Matsurada Clan split into two fractions, one in favor of allying with the rising Oda Clan and the other in favor of the powerful Imagawa Clan. When Oda Clan invaded Mikawa, Ieyasu's father asked the Imagawa Clan for help. They agreed, but required him to send his son as hostage, as was custom. Oda Nobuhide (Oda Nobunaga's father) heard of this plan and kidnapped Ieyasu first. He then threatened Matsuradai Clan with killing Ieyasu if he would not switch allegiance to Oda Clan. Ieyasu's father refused and sacrificed his son to Oda in order to proof loyalty with Imagawa Clan. Despite that act, Nobuhide decided to keep Ieyasu alive for now.

Suddenly both Ieyasu's father and Nobuhide died of sickness (epidemic), and Imagawa Clan saw its chances in a weak Oda Clan and lay siege to their castle in Owari Province. Oda Nobunaga, Nobuhide's second son, offered Ieyasu in exchange for an end of the siege. Imagawa seeing in Ieyasu a future allied leader of the Matsurada Clan accepted and ended the siege. Thus Ieyasu grew up within Imagawa Clan being trained for leading Matsurada Clan.

When he came of age in 1556, he was allowed to return to Mikawa and take control over his clan. Imagawa turned Matsurada's army over to Tokugawa and told him "go out and fight Oda Clan". He won his first battle in Terabe and won valuable supplied for his troops.
1560 Oda Clan's dispute for leadership ended with Oda Nobunaga seizing control over the clan. Nobunaga was a brilliant stratagem and saw immediately the threat of the powerful Imagawa Clan and started a campaign to defeat the clan. It peaked in the Battle Of Okehazama where a mere 2000 men of his were defeated 20.000 of Imagawa Clan's men, by superior tactics and equipment. During the battle Ieyasu held a castle at the border to Owari province and was not involved. After this battle Tokugawa Ieyasu saw Oda Nobunaga's incredible military skills and decided to secretly ally with him. Secrecy was necessary, because his wife and son were held prisoner in Imagawa Clan's castle.

Thus his first act as Nobunaga ally was to siege the weakened Imagawa Clan's castle and easily get back his wife and son in exchange for the wife and daughter of the Imagawa Daimyo, which he captured. His next step was to fortify his position in Mikawa and prepare his troops. supplying them with new weapons and training them with new tactics. He also strengthened his position in Mikawa province by giving castles and real estate to key vassals of his trust (e.g. Hattori Hanzo).

In the years following 1568, while remaining loyal to Oda Nobunaga and supporting his wars, he also expanded his own territory of influence having built up a small but powerful army. He longed for the still weakened Imagawa Clan's territory and allied with another brilliant stratagem Takeda Shingen,leader of Takeda Clan. Together they were able to defeat the remaining Imagawa Clan and split their territory among themselves.

However 1570 Ieyasu longing for the whole territory, ended the alliance with Takeda Shingen and established an alliance with Takeda Shingen's eternal rival Uesugi Kenshin, a just as brilliant military leader. However knowing Shingen's capability he did not attack right away but help his ally Oda Nobunga in fighting Asakura and Azai Clans, which formed an Anti-Oda alliance around the weak Ashikaga Shogun.

Ieyasu was clever not to attack Takeda Shingen, but his switching alliance to Uesugi Kenshin angered Takeda Shingen and now he attacked Ieyasu 1571. Despite of sending for and receiving help from Oda Nobunaga, Takeda Shingen's military genius was able to destroy Tokugawa's entire army down to six men, including Tokugawa himself. It took Tokugawa four years to build up a new army, but when he was able to wage war again, luck stoke him, when Takeda Shingen died in a siege 1573 and was succeeded by his less genius son Katsuyori. Still his army was still trained and used to fight with Shingen's tactics and seeing Tokugawa's new army, Takeda Clan stroke again. This time Oda Nobunaga, worrying about his loyal ally came himself with 30.000 men and crushed Takeda Clan down to a small size. Now Tokugawa's small army matched Takeda's and they dealt each other many fierce but indecisive blows for seven years.

1582 Oda Nobunaga decided to put an end to the quarrelsome Takeda Clan and for a third time an Oda/Tokugawa force attacked Takeda Clan and this time annihilating the entire clan forcing Katsuyori and his family to Seppuku, conquering Kai province. After this victory Oda returned to Osaka to see another victory of his army, but he was assassinated on the way and a struggle for the succession of the Oda Clan started. Oda Mitsuhide saw Tokugawa as the biggest threat for the succession and decided to assassinated him, yet by clever disguise and much luck Tokugawa managed to flee from Kai Province back to his fortress in Mikawa. When he gathered his forces and prepared to march to Osaka, kill Mitsuhide and seize control of Oda Clan, he saw that he was too late. Toyotomi Hideyoshi, one of Oda Nobunaga's most capable generals, already did the job for him.

With Nobunaga's death, some of the provinces ruled by new vassals of him were very disputed. Tokugawa grasped the chance and moved his gathered army back to Kai instead of Osaka and seized control of the province. However with the powerful Takeda Clan gone, another powerful Clan became interested in Kai and attacked Tokugawa newly established rule: The Hojo Clan from Kanto region. Realizing his chances against the huge army, Tokugawa avoided battle and fought back with diplomacy. He succeeded in ending up in an agreement that left him both with Kai and Shinano Province, while Hojo Clan took Kazusa.

1584 Having his east borders secured by a contract with the powerful Hojo clan, he turned his eyes back westwards to Osaka, Owari and the Oda Clan. The struggle for succession was not decided yet and Tokugawa decided to throw in his lot with Nobunaga's eldest son Nobukatsu. A mistake since right after that Toyotomi Hideyoshi seized control of the entire clan annihilating Nobukatsu and almost Tokugawa. This is the only time when two of the three great warlords battled each other. At the first stage Tokugawa scored a victory against Owari castle, but then months of fruitless skirmishes followed, until he had to recede to diplomacy and a truce and alliance was called at the cost of giving his second son to Toyotomi for adoption. (He had to kill his wife and his first son, after they were accused of being involved with the assassination of Oda Nobunaga). Being left with only his third son, he named Hidetada his heir.

After that five years of deep understandable mistrust between Toyotomi and Ieyasu kept both apart from each other, meaning that Tokugawa was not involved in Toyotomi conquering Shikoku and Kyushu. With Kyushu, Shikoku and Kansai under Toyotomi's control, only the eastern Hojo Clan was left to oppose his rule over entire Japan. 1590 after the five years, Toyotomi was able to trust Tokugawa again and both of them prepared for the final battle attacking and sieging many of Hojo's castle with 160.000 + 30.000 men. When the Hojo main castle in Odawara lay under siege, the Daimyo saw that he had no chance winning against an army that large and surrendered committing Seppuku. Right before the end of the final battle Toyotomi still being afraid of Ieyasu challenged him with a powerful proposal: Tokugawa would obtain all of Hojo's eight provinces in Kanto, but needed to give up all his six established provinces including his home province Mikawa. Tokugawa accepted.

This was a courageous move, since it meant Tokugawa had to leave most of his trusted people and familiar places behind to move into enemy Hojo territory and hope to the loyalty of a clan he betrayed and then helped getting defeated. However his courage bore fruits, because he soon was able to win the Hojo Samurai's favor and improved Kanto's economy and infrastructure significantly. The most important fact was that Kanto was naturally isolated from Japan and hardly accessible. This left Tokugawa with almost complete independence of Toyotomi Hideyoshi. A Japanese proverb goes like this: "Tokugawa Ieyasu won the country by retreating".

1592 having conquered Japan, Toyotomi Hideyoshi went megalomaniac and planned to conquer Ming China. As a first step in his mad plan he invaded Korea with his entire force. One year later he summoned Ieyasu to Kyushu to serve as military advisor, but Ieyasu kept his Kanto region out of this insane war and successfully relied on his sons and trusted vassals to further improve Kanto region during his absence.

1598 with Korea burned to ashes and his troops reduced, demolished and retreating Toyotomi's health was also dwindling. He saw his end coming and feared for his succession, since he killed a third of his family in an insanity outrage, which left his five year old son Hideyori as the only heir. Thus he summoned the five most powerful Daimyo of Japan to his bed and formed the Council of the five elders, who should rule for his son, until he would have grown older and take control himself. The five elders were: Maeda Toshii, Mori Terumoto, Ukita Hidei, Uesugi Kagehatsu and Tokugawa Ieyasu. Then he died.

With Toyotomi Hideyoshi dead and his army crushed Tokugawa started to look at Kansai again. But he also established first diplomatic relations to Mexico and New Spain. Now he started to make alliances with various Daimyo around Japan, especially picking those who had no love for the deceased Hideyoshi. The he waited for a chance.

1599 One year later the chance came with Maeda Toshii died naturally and leaving a power leak. Tokugawa reacted quickly and seized Fushimi and little Hideyori in Osaka castle. The three remaining elders were outraged and prepared for war. The powerful Daimyo Ishida Mitsunari, while not being an elder, longed for Tokugawa's position and planned an assassination. However Tokugawa's generals spies got message of the attempt and stopped him almost killing him. In the last moment he was saved by Tokugawa Ieyasu, how ordered his generals to let him go. This decision is highly disputed and the best explanation is that Ieyasu foresaw that Mitsunari would lead the enemy army against him and he realized that he was an incapable stratagem and thus wished him to lead the enemy army. Foreseen or not, that is what happened: Mitsunari gathered the three remaining elders and formed a huge army in the pro Mitsunari Fraction, while Tokugawa's alliances bore fruits and an anti Mitsunari Fraction formed around Tokugawa, Date, Mogami, Satake and Maeda Clans.

1600 Tokugawa succeeded in defeating Uesugi Clan, while Mitsunari took Kyoto and Fushimi from Tokugawa. The war peaked in Japan's biggest battle: The Battle Of Sekigahara with 160.000 men clashing into each other. Tokugawa's assumption proved right and with Mitsunari leading the enemy army, Tokugawa could score a complete victory over Mitsunari's Fraction crushing the entire western block of Japan and ending up being the ruler of entire Japan. His first action was to execute important western Daimyo like Mitsunari and the the remaining two elders, replacing them with his own vassals.

depiction of the battle of Sekigahara

1603 Tokugawa officially received the title Shogun from Tenno Go-Yozei starting the 250 years lasting Tokugawa Shogunate. In the end he outlasted all the great men of his time: Oda Nobunaga, Takeda Shingen, Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Uesugi Kenshin and established the third of the three great Shogunates after Minamoto and Ashikaga.

1605 Tokugawa officially gave the title of Shogun to his son Hidetada, but in fact remained in power until his death. As retired Shogun, Ieyasu became 大御所 Ogosho Ieyasu (Cloistered Shogun). Remaining in power her supervised the construction of Edo castle, Japan's biggest castle ever, retired to Sunpu and established trading relations to the Netherlands and Spain. He also employed the English pilot Adam Williams for forming international relations with Spain and the Catholic Church.

1611 he visited the coronation of the new Tenno Go-Mizunoo and forced him to rebuild his palace in Kyoto. Later he composed the Kuge Shohatto, a document which weakened the Daimyo by forcing them to annually reporting to Edo leaving their estates for at least two months and loosing a lot of money for the march to Edo and back (since they had to take a huge force with them, both for protection and for showing off).

Having relations both to protestant and catholic countries Japan was falling into the Protestant Catholic war raging in Europe without doing anything. Tokugawa reacted outraged to this religious nonsense and expelled all Christians and foreigners from Japan banning Christianity and closing the country to the world starting the 鎖国 Sakoku (closed country) Period. Most of the Japanese Christians fled to the Philippines and build communities there.

1614-1615 the last battle of the Sengoku Period was fought, when Hideyori, Toyotomi Hideyoshi's heir reached adulthood and posed the last threat to Tokugawa's undisputed rule over Japan. When it became clear that Tokugawa wanted to dispose of Hideyori all the Samurai disloyal to Tokugawa or hating him and his rule gathered around Osaka castle around Hideyori. When the Tokugawas ordered Hideyori to leave Osaka Castle and he refused, they went into war what was known as the Winter Siege of Osaka. A peace treaty was signed and the siege ended, but before Tokugawa's troops retreated they quickly filled the castle moats with sand. When Ogosho Ieyasu returned to Sunpu he sent another eviction order to Hideyori in Osaka castle, when his refused again he and Hidetada rallied 160.000 men and sieged Osaka in the Summer Siege. With the moats being filled with sand the Tokugawa troops could seize the castle and executed everyone inside including Hideyori.

1616 Ogosho Ieyasu died of syphilis (or cancer). After his dead he was deified as 東照大権現 the great Gongen, light of the east, a Kami / Buddha, which came down to earth to enlighten all sentient beings. His shrine and mausoleum was erected in Nikko.

Tokugawa Ieyasu was a remarkable character at times both careful and bold. At most time he was able to determine the strength of his enemies and avoided battles he might loose. He always allied with the most intelligent capable leaders and only failed twice: Ending his alliance with Takeda Shingen and placing his hoped on Nobunaga Nobukatsu instead of Toyotomi Hideyoshi. In the end he waited almost his entire life for his chance to take control and the fortune let him outlast all the other four equally capable men, so that his chance finally came and now he could take the rule in his own hands. Not repeating the mistakes of his predecessors he worked his entire rest of his life as Shogun and Ogosho to secure the rule of his Shogunate and bring Japan on a path without further civil wars.

レビュー:おーい竜馬 Review: Oi! Ryouma

2008-08-25T08:32:00.000-07:00

In recent posts I told you more and more about the Japanese Revolution (明治維新) also referred to as Bakumatsu Period (幕末時代), which translates to "end of the Shogunate". You might think that I have studied the time from history books, but in fact I got most of my knowledge from a very excellent Manga, which I'd like to introduce today together with its main character:

坂本龍馬 Sakamoto Ryouma

The Manga features one of the revolution's main characters, without whom the revolution could not have taken place: Sakamoto Ryouma 坂本龍馬.

(I quoted the following text from my 長崎 Nagasaki post)

Sakamoto Ryouma was born 1835 in 土佐藩 Tosa Province (now 高知県 Kouchi Prefecture) on the island of 四国 Shikoku. In Tosa Province a couple of 上司 Joushi (upper class samurai) ruled with iron hand and Ryouma had to experience many cruelties during his youth. He was the son of a family of 郷士 Goushi (lower class samurai), which became wealthy in the Sake business. He was known around town for bed wetting until his adolescence, his bad writing and slow learning and was generally considered an idiot.

When he witnessed how the 大名 Daimyou (feudal lord) or Tosa killed friends of him, because of showing improper politeness when he was crossing a bridge, his life changed. He sought for a way to have an influence in the world and change it and what he found was swordsmanship. His simple childish plan was to become the best swordsman of Japan and by that gain influence. And so he did, with the burning passion and motivation of dreams behind him. Also 乙女 Otome his bigger sister played an important role, always seeing a great man in him and personally teaching him sword fighting lessons.

his big sister 乙女 Otome

When his skill reached a high level he joined tournaments in Edo (now Tokyo), which he was able to win. By that he made important contacts and friends in Edo. When he returned to Tosa, childhood friends of him created a local branch of the 尊皇攘夷 Sonnoujoui (a league to expel foreign dominance and influence on Japan and restore the power to the Tenno). At this time he met 吉田松陰 Yoshida Shouin and his students and was inspired by his teachings.
He initially joined for a certain time until they started to kill important leading figures of the feudal political structure of Tosa and Japan using the slogan 天誅 Tenchuu (heavenly punishment). At some point he got himself into an assassination mission of an important navy instructor in Edo called 勝海舟 Katsu Kaishuu. When he was about to kill him, he asked him to listen to him first and then decide whether to kill him or not.

吉田松陰 Yoshida Shouin

勝海舟 Katsu Kaishu

Katsu Kaishuu was on of the visionaries of the time and foresaw that a nation wide Civil War would weaken Japan to such a high extent that foreign powers could easily turn it into a colony of slaved. He saw the only way out in learning western science and building war ships like they do, building relations and find a peaceful way to change Japan into a strong modern country. Ryouma was immediately able to see the wisdom in his words and shared the passion of his dreams and thus in spite of killing his target, he became his 弟子 Deshi (disciple).

Together they worked on improving Japan's navy and acquired skills in how to operate steam powered war ships. They built a navy academy in Kobe, which became a place for free thinking, philosophy and dreams. The same as around Yoshida Shouin, the Kobe Naval Instruction Facility became a magnet for 志士 (shishi free thinkers and revolutionaries) from all over the country. At this time Ryouma was a 脱藩者 Dappansha (a person leaving a province without allowance by the feudal lord, a crime punished by 切腹 seppuku). Along with him many other people commit ed 脱藩 Dappan and joined Ryouma at the Naval Academy.

Although Ryouma was nor formally working for the Shogun he was still in good terms with the 尊皇攘夷 Sonnoujoui and other 志士 Shishi. When he met 吉田松陰 Yoshida Shouin, he also formed strong bonds of friendship with 高杉晋作 Takasugi Shinsaku, and 木戸孝允 Kido Takayoshi, which would influence the outcome of the revolution. When he was visiting 京都 Kyoto together with his 先生 Sensei, he also eye witnessed the 御門事変 Gomon Incident and at this time also made friends with 西郷隆盛 Saigo Takamori. Because of these connections he was later able to convince the two hostile provinces of 長州 Choshu and 薩摩 Satsuma to form an alliance the famous 薩長同盟 Sacchou Alliance to revolutionize the country.

西郷隆盛 Saigo Takamori from 薩摩藩 Satsuma Province

and 高杉晋作 Takasugi Shinsaku

and 木戸孝允 Kido Takayoshi from 長州藩 Choshu Province

After his protegee Katsu Kaishuu had to return to Edo and abandon the Naval Training Center in Kobe, Ryouma was on its own again. However by that he and most of the 志士 Shishi became targets of feudal lords again and had to flee. The found refugee in the 薩摩藩邸 Satsuma province feudal lord villa (like an embassy) where Saigo Takamori was residing. Having time to think about the future he decided to follow the ideals of his Sensei and form a company, Japan's first company, independent of political power. For that he had to move to 長崎 Nagasaki, the only city with an open port.

In 長崎 Nagasaki he formed the company and named it 亀山社中 Kameyama Company. With some initial support from Satsuma the trading company prospered and brought Japanese goods as silk, green tea, spices and pottery to the western world in return for weapons and later war ships. Later he realized the significance of his position, and part of his success in forming the 薩長同盟 Sacchou Alliance was to promise to supply the Choshuu army with fire arms, while Satsuma would get rice from Choshuu to supply their troops after a bad harvest. After that he continued supporting the revolution by making his company buy war ships for the revolutionaries. Therefore at this point he decided that his organizations needed a new name and he renamed it to　海援隊 Kaientai (sea support troop)...

the flag of the 亀山社中 Kameyama Company

So far the quote from Nagasaki, but of course Ryouma's story didn't end in Nagasaki, directly after he founded it, he gave the Kameyama comapany into the custody of his fellow Shishi and returned to the political tables of the period. Although the Sacchou Alliance was agreed upon, the revolution was only at its beginning. Throughout the political games, his foremost goal was always to avoid a civil war and any bloodshed at all. As long as he lived he successfully found means and convinced parties to unbloody compromises.

On a boat trip, all by himself he wrote down 8 paragraphs that would secure Japan's future as an independent country and a fair democracy. He presented the plan to the Tenno, who accepted it.

一策　天下の政権を朝廷に奉還せしめ政令よろしく朝廷より出づべき事
二策　上下議政局を設け議員を置きて万機を参替せしめ　万機よろしく公議に決すべき事
三策　有材の公卿×諸候×および天下の人材を顧問に備え官爵を賜い
　　　よろしく従来有名無実の官を除くべき事
四策　外国の交際×広く公議を採り新に至等の規約を立つべきこと
五策　古来の律令を折衷し新に無窮の大典を選定すべき事
六策　海軍よろしく拡張すべき事
七策　御新兵を置き、帝都を守護せしむべき事
八策　金銀物価よろしく外国と平均の法を設くべき事

1. Political power should be restored to the Imperial Court and all decrees should be issued by the Court.
2. Both upper and lower legislative houses should be created and government policies should be decided by this legislative body.
3. "Men of ability" from the former daimyo, nobles and general population should be appointed councilors. Traditional posts of power that existed under the Shogunate system should be abolished.
4. Foreign affairs should be conducted in accordance with regulations agreed upon on the basis of general consensus.
5. Rules and regulations created during Japan’s feudal days should be abolished and a new, modern legal code should be created.
6. Naval forces should be enlarged.
7. An Imperial Guard should be established for the purpose of defending the capital.
8. The value of goods and silver should be aligned with the going rates in foreign countries.

He also proved very wise and clever. His goal was to establish a democracy with equal rights for all humans, and a equal distribution of power. However if the two alliance leaders Satsuma and Choushuu would fight and win the revolution, they would take the greatest share of the power and thus prevent a real democracy from happening. Thus Ryouma cleverly introduced his home province Tosa as a third party to the alliance. The alliance gladly welcomed them, but they did not know about the good relations to the Shogun. Ryouma and Tosa's representative used these relations to convince the Shogun to return the political power to the Tenno (as it was goal of the revolutionaries). With this move a civil war was avoided, but the Shogun remained as a fourth political power in the game and the Tenno entered as a fifth. Thus Ryouma always tried hard to keep a power equilibrium, while fostering the revolution.

Eventually he moved from one political leader to the next and presented a sketch for a first democratic government to all of them. All five parties: Tenno, Shogun, Satsuma, Choushuu and Tosa would send representatives and build a common government. Although it was hard to convince Satsuma, Choushuu and the Tenno to give a big part of the power to the Shogun, they eventually accepted his scheme.

Sakamoto was assassinated along with his life long companion and friend

中岡慎太郎 Nakaoka Shintaro

Alas Ryouma was assassinated under unclear circumstances at last, when the revolution already seemed as good as done and the cities were safe again. After his death, probably due to his missing guidance, a small war broke out despite all his efforts. Shogun Yoshinobu decided to challenge the alliance, and fought with what was left of his forces. However with the political power having been given to the alliance the new formed national army, equipped with the newest weapons and versed in the newest battle tactics quickly won over the Shogun's forces. When Sakamoto's sensei Katsu Kaishu over that surrendered Edo to the alliance, the Shogun retreated with some remainder of his force and some unhappy Samurai to Hakodate in Hokkaido forming a counter nation called the "Republic of Ezo". However even this resistance was broken by the fast moving national army in the 戊辰戦争 Boushin War.

戊辰戦争 Boushin War in 函館 Hakodate

坂本龍馬僕の英雄 Sakamoto Ryouma My Hero

He truly has become my hero and inspiration.
As an independent person, never belonging to any of the five forces, he always managed to negotiate between all of them and thus find peacful solutions to what looked like certain war. Also despite the objections of his fellow Shishi he never recommened himself as carrier of any political office in the new government, although nobody would have earned this honor more than him. Also the other forces, when he was representing the scheme, asked him to also take some office for his hard work, but he answered "All I wish is to sail across the oceans and visit far away lands, knowing that my home is safe".

More than that he took more sacrifices than anyone at his time could imagine. His two best childhood friends Izo and Takeshi were captured and tortured for weeks in Tosa, until finally being executed or forced to Seppuku. Along with them all of the first Shishi of the 尊王攘夷 Sonnou Joui league, which came from Tosa, were also tortured and killed. All of this for the maintaining of an unfair social class system of 上司 Joushi (high samurai) and 郷士 Goushi (low samurai). The Shishi staying with him and running the Kameyama Shachu, his big sister, Takeshi's wife, and many more friends always grieved after their friends and longed for revenge and justice/satisfaction/revenge. Sakamoto deeply shared their grief and anguish and tried to support them as best as he could. However in the end, he saw taking exactly the Tosa leaders who were responsible for all the cruelty, injustice and bloodshed into the alliance and the new government, because it was the only way to secure a balance of power and secure a safe development for the future after revolutionary Japan. With this decision, which hurt himself more than anything else, he also procured the hatred of all his friends left on this world. To be capable of taking such a road, you need to be a hero.

僕の道 My Road

I myself am also thinking about how to bring the world closer to peace of more far away from war, how to distribute the world's wealth more equally among the people and abolish racism, class systems and discrimination. So goals very similar to those of Ryouma and he has become my inspiration and hope for taking the right paths at crossroads. To always take a path that does not lead to war and bloodshed and seek a path that does not give advantage to someone. But also to keep yourself humble and away from power, always smiling and happy and a good friend everybody can trust on. Thus is my road the same as his, let's see where it leads, and hope he will be a guiding star...

おーい龍馬 Oi! Ryouma

The Manga covers Ryouma really well and tells his entire life, starting from his childhood, where he was known to have been a coward, a cry baby and bedwetter unable to do anything properly, to his final days where his independent position enabled him to forge alliances and compromised between Japan's greatest leaders allowing his country to a bright future.

Sakamoto Ryouma with Takasugi Shinsaku and Kido Takayoshi
compare with the originals above

The drawing style is simple, as is common for Manga, but shows a good variety of emotions in the characters faces. The characters are well worked out and quickly come to live in the readers mind. But they are also not ficitional and so close to the real persons, that you will notice them immediately when you see their real photographs. The Manga has a very good humor, that it probably shared with the historic Ryouma, and often made me laugh heartily. But it also did not fail to show the dramatic events that lead to Ryouma seeking a new world and a revolution strong enough to make me cry and grief myself.

reading example, click to enlarge

Finally the biggest merit to the author is the amazing research he has done on Sakamoto Ryouma. The Manga can as well be called an excellent biography, as well as an excellent history book on the Bakumatsu Period. But in contrast to history books and biographies, it can do one more thing, it can bring Sakamoto Ryouma and his dreams, as well as the time he lived in back to life, which is so much more important that knowing some facts about history...

You don't learn from history by knowing times and events, you learn from history by living through it.

mika

2008 G8洞爺湖サミット G8 Toyako Summit

2008-08-23T00:32:00.000-07:00

Traveling in Hokkaido I could not resist paying a brief visit to the where only one month ago this year's G8 summit took place, the area around lake 洞爺 Touya.

G8 stands for "Group Of Eight" and was supposed to represent the eight mightiest industrial nations on this world. They are USA, Japan, Germany, Great Britain, France, Canada, Italy and Russia. In addition to that a representative of the EU takes part.
13% of the world's population are living in these eight countries, they receive 65% of the world's national income, and control 45% of the world trade and more than 70% of the world's military spendings. They also represent 80% of the world's biggest companies, and hist the eight mightiest banking institutes.

The G8 is like an exclusive club, invitations to other nations depend on the decisions of the eight members. Also like a club the meetings are informal, unlike a legislative meeting. One of the eight members takes president ship over the club for one year and is supposed to organize a summit in this year. This year the president ship lies in the hands of Fukuda, Prime Minister of Japan.

G8 抵抗 G8 Resistance

Most people I met don't understand why people protest against the G8 club, since in the news they hear that on the summits important topics like reduction of climate gases or reduction of poverty in Africa are discussed. That is why I want to give 8 reasons why people protest against the G8.

1. G8 Are Fostering Poverty

Yes this seems contradictory to "reduction of poverty" being always a topic of the summits, but in fact little is done to change the conditions. The biggest source of the poverty (next to corruption, which is harder to tackle) are the debts of third world country towards the G8. However despite the talking about "reducing poverty" not much of this debt has been canceled. And in fact most of the "Development Aid Funds" paid by the G8 countries end up being used to pay the interest on those debts to the world bank and thus flow back into the G8 countries.

2. G8 Are Preventing Peace

One of the high priority goals of the G8 is to get hold on resources. If other options fail, resources have to be secured by war. One example is the infamous "War On Terror", which is also a topic of G8 summits, but leads only to destruction, poverty and civil unrest. Another proof is that 90% of the world's weapons are exported from the G8 countries. The spendings on weapons in 2007 were 700 billion dollars, where in comparison 350 billion dollars would be enough to counter poverty world wide.

3. G8 Are Destroying The Environment

Again this stands in dispute to the topic of the G8 summits being "climate gas reduction" and "counter measures to global warming". Still the eight countries account for 45% of the world's climate gases. And despite of the talks about reduction of the last three G8 summits, no fixed numbers, no obligations, basically nothing but the general agreement that something needs to be done, has been decided.

4. G8 Are Preventing The Combat Against Aids

While another topic of the summits is how to fight the spread of Aids in third world countries, all that is done about it is to give some money to corrupt governments. However even that money that is actually used on fighting Aids, is spent on Aids medicaments coming out of the G8 countries and thus furthering the local economies. For a long time African countries try to make clear to the G8 that instead of money, they need the right to produce Aids medication themselves. However the G8 are unwilling to grant this rights, which would prevent the money spent on fighting Aids flowing into the local economy, where the medication is produced and protected by patents.

5. G8 Are Furthering Privatization

It has always been an interest of the G8 countries to further privatization of areas like for example: health, education, and pension. With this receiving one of these services becomes dependent of your wallet and poor people are prevented from having the same health, education etc. than richer do.

6. G8 Are Furthering Low Wages

The G8 states have an interest in furthering profits of their economies. One of the methods they use is to play of people in one country against the people of another, to force them to work longer and harder for less wages and benefits. For that for example European members decided on a service policy, which includes these goals.

7. G8 Seal Themselves Off Against Refugees

One of the fruits of the G8 policies are a high number of refugees all over the world. There are more than 40 million refugees on this world. Many of these people long for the security and safety in the G8 countries. However, in spite of being responsible for the causes, they do not allow refugees to enter and live in their countries and send them back where they had to flee from.

8. G8 Are Not Democratic

While the G8 club only represents 13% of the world population, their politics affect 6 billion people. Another good example for them being undemocratic is that every G8 summit has to be protected with high fences, police and military and a ban on people on a huge area.

G8洞爺湖サミット G8 Toyako Summit

The summit in Japan this year was no exception. The area of lake Touya was secluded from all people. Protesters were only allowed as far away as Sapporo and Ishikari. Only very few demonstrations have been allowed and only under very strict rules, like not more then four people were allowed to walk next to each other.
Harsh security checks were found as far away as Osaka and Tokyo, especially at the airports. People being known for being activists like the 74 year old Attac member Susan George was detained at the airport. Japan spent 280 million dollar on the seclusion of lake Touyako for the summit, more than twice of what had been spent last year in Heiligendamm in Germany.

However what I disliked most about the way the police handled the summit security were these posters, which you could see all over Japan. They tell all Japanese citizens to keep an eye on suspicious people, which might go to the summit and report them to the police. With this move every foreigner has become a potential suspect, and every citizen a potential police informant. So they played the people off against each other in a really dirty and mean way. Also because with this poster they basically told the Japanese citizens, which don't know much about the G8, that all people who protest against it, are terrorists.

Now what the protesters do has little to do with terrorism. This year they met in 80 events during the summit period and talked about how to really reduce poverty (release the debts), how to really fight Aids (allow governments to produce Aids medication) and how to further world peace (reduce spendings on weapons), which's results they would then present to their countries leaders. For Japan which is not used to civil protests, the summit protests events have been a full success with 5000 - 10.000 people attending, and the Japanese news covering the protest events surprisingly well.

When I visited lake Touya and watched at the Windsor hotel far off in the mountains one month later, not much was left of the turbulent time. Still you could find flags and signs everywhere, welcoming the representatives in Touya and warning people of entering the secluded summit area. Also curiously enough the driver who too my hitchhike call and took me to here asked me the question: "Do you hate the G8 summit?" and I honestly answered "Yes."

mika

レビュー:ゼルダ夢幻の砂時計 Review: Zelda The Phantom Hourglass

2008-08-22T03:48:00.000-07:00

It is time for another review, yay!
This time I will review a game, I bought: Zelda the Phantom Hourglass for the Nintendo DS.

I love Zelda Games since the NES (Famikon) and I also enjoyed this one a lot, but the reason I write about it in my Blog, is because the game is very suitable for learning Japanese.

ゼルダ夢幻の砂時計 Zelda The Phantom Hourglass

Gameplay

The Nintendo DS brings a lot of innovations (or rediscovered features) as for example the touch screen and touch pen. Zelda The Phantom Hourglass makes heavy use of this feature and the entire control is made by using the pen on the touch screen. This gives the Zelda game a new touch and the player a new gaming sensation.

While the sword fighting is mostly simply "tapping with the pen on the enemy" some other weapons like the Boomerang or the Bombchu make more use of the new control. For both you can paint a line on the screen which the weapon will follow if possible (if the line is not blocked by a wall). Also at several points you will be required to draw certain patterns you got explained before or saw before on the screen. But one of the coolest features is, that you can make notes right on you maps. You can mark important areas or connect certain way points to form patterns (the X marks the treasure). This gives the game a cool new sensation, that lets you immerse more with Link.

Another new feature is the ship. You will use it to navigate from island to island and to fight sea monsters in between, especially fights against other ships are fun. You can also find certain parts for your ship an upgrade them. If you collect an entire set, you get an even higher life boost. Alas the fun ist mostly in the collecting itself, as the sets have all the same benefits, expect the last one, the golden set, which gives you one additional life boost than the others.

Finally no Zelda Game would be complete without Mini Games. And Zelda The Phantom Hourglass is no exception. The Game is full of interesting and challenging, but also fair Mini Games which improve the fun during Gaming a lot. If you are stuck somewhere in the plot, you can always solve some Mini Games first and cool your head down, before you try it again.

Story

The story is nothing special, but it comes with nice animations (paper cut style) and it is fun to gradually learn more about the world you ended up in. At the beginning Link seems to be a pirate on a ship. The ships runs into a storm and Link and his friend Detorah are taken away from the ship. When he awakes he has been spilled to a shore... (sounds a bit familiar ^_^).

The further story involves a lot of monsters in temples, a Ghost Ship, three rare metals that form a special sword blade and one special temple of time. Whenever you challenge this temple, you have a certain amount of time corresponding to the sand in your hourglass. Throughout the game you will be able to find more sand and therefore be able to proceed further into the temple, where the final boss deep inside this temple is waiting for you.

Learning Japanese

As I said in the introduction, I decided to mention the game, because it is very suitable to learn / improve your Japanese. First the game targets younger audience and older audience a like. Therefore the dialog use Kanji, but the programmers thought of something to make them readable also for younger people. Whenever you read a word written in Kanji on the touchscreen, you can touch the word with your pen and you will get the reading. That helps a lot following the dialog for foreigners and makes it easy and fun to learn new words. The game uses simple language, and it is usually worth learning the words you don't understand.

Also the game contains a lot of riddles. Now the riddles are in theory quite easy to solve and shouldn't take you longer than five minutes, but with the language barrier they get really challenging. You don't know how to proceed if you don't understand the riddle, but in order to understand the riddle you need to understand what is written on the screen. This proved for me to be a very enjoyable challenge, as I slowly tried to translate the texts and then think of the meaning and the solution of the riddle. Again it is not so difficult, so be sure to give it a try!

Final Remark

So if you like Zelda or Zelda like RPGs, try to get your hands on a Japanese version of Zelda The Phantom Hourglass (夢幻の砂時計 Mugen No Sunadokei). Luckily the Nintendo DS has no country codes and works with any kind of games.

happy riddle solving

mika

Low Budget Traveling

2008-08-20T17:47:00.000-07:00

Low Budget Traveling

At the end of my stay in Japan I really ran out of money for good and had to borrow some from friends and family, but I also got better and better in almost living for free and still doing traveling. Now I decided to share these gathered secrets with you and teach you how to do traveling in Japan on a low Budget.

A) Moving

First traveling usually includes getting from point A to point B. The basic formula is, the more time you spend for getting from A to B, the cheaper you can get there. Thus we have: Night Bus, Seishun 18 Kippu, Hitchhiking and cycling and walking.

サイクリングとハイキング Cycling And Hiking

Usually in itself content of the journey, as it takes too long to get anywhere far. Also cycling includes the problem of getting a bike in the first place. There are many great places for cycling and hiking in Japan and some trains allow you to take your bike (use Seishun 18 Kippu). If you want to go on a pilgrimage, I can recommend the 遍路 Henro on 四国 Shikoku (http://dwellingindreams.blogspot.com/2008/01/blog-post.html).

青春１８切符 Seishun 18 Kippu

The Seishun 18 Kippu is a cheap way of using trains at the cost of time. It allows you to use all JR local (普通) and express (快速) trains for free on five days. The days need not to be consecutive and one ticket can be used by more than one person. For every person and day you will get a stamp, of which you have a total of five.

Cost: 11.500 Yen
Where To Get: Every JR Station

Taking only local and express trains takes a long time, and requires you to change trains very often, so be sure to prepare a sheet where you note down where to change trains. For looking up the connections you should use Hyperdia and un-select Airplane (飛行機), Shinkansen (新幹線) and Limited Express (特急):

http://grace.hyperdia.com/cgi-english/hyperWeb.cgi

Validity

The Seishun 18 Kippu is only valid at certain time periods:

春 Spring
Selling Time　02/20 - 31/03
Validity 01/03 - 10/04

夏 Summer
Selling Time　07/01 - 20/08
Validity 07/20 - 10/09

冬 Winter
Selling Time　12/01 - 10/01
Validity 12/10 - 20/01

Nightbus

When there is no 18 Kippu, or you are in a hurry, there is one more affordable option: the night bus.
They usually connect larger cities and cover the distance over night. You can go as far as Tokyo - Hiroshima in one night and a bit of the day.
A good way to find night buses is Rakuten: http://travel.rakuten.co.jp/bus/
The price is usually around 6.000 Yen, depending on the distance.

Be careful, the place to board the bus can be quite tricky to find. They are usually not at a parking lot, but simply on the side of some major street anywhere or behind stations. However the reservation comes with a map and location description you should print out. Further note down the phone number of the bus company, so you can call them, if you cannot find them. Also be sure to plan plenty of time to find the boarding place, else you will easily miss the bus.

ヒッチハイキング Hitchhiking

The coolest and cheapest way to travel in Japan. Also if your lucky, you can go as fast or even faster than with the Seishun 18 Kippu. When you intend to hitchhike, you should first prepare for it:

Preparation

x get a DIN A3 writing block with white pages, easy to tear out
x get a thick dark pen or a paintbrush pen, if you can handle it
x get a map including roads and city names of where you want to travel (a compass also helps)
x get a personal thank you gift (explained later)

The problem is, where to hitchhike. It's useless inside a city, because most cars will be on local business, so you will have to find a way to get out of the city first:

Where To Hitch

1 get a city map from the local tourist office (they are free)
2 check a suitable highway or express way interchange that leads to where you want to go
3 see if you can reach it by subway or bus + a reasonable amount of walking
4 get there

If you have decided for the express way, keep in mind, that you cannot access them by foot, so you need to find a street that connects with the express way and since you have to pay for the express way, there aren't many streets leading to and from it. Once you are actually on the express way and need to change cars, ask your driver to drop you at an interchange. Here the cars need to wait in line and pay for the express way. That means plenty of time for them to spot you behind the gate with your sign and plenty of time to decide whether to take you or not. Thus express way interchanges are a very good place, but it is really hard to get there.

The highway is a different matter. It leads just as the express way anywhere you want, but the speed is restricted to 60 km/h. Here suitable places are parking lots at resting stops (konbinis, restaurants, etc.). Again place yourself that people entering their car can already see you and decide whether to take you or not, until they reach you at the end of the parking lot.
Sometimes there are no resting places, then go for the second strategy and wait at traffic lights. When it turns red pass all the waiting cars, show them your sign and smile making eye contact. Show them that you are an ordinary guy and have nothing bad in mind.

Making cars stop without traffic lights, resting areas or interchange accesses is really difficult. If you have no other choice, try at least a spot, where cars can stop after seeing you without blocking the road.

What To Write On The Sign

Now you need to decide which city to write on your paper block. In theory you can also use the thumbs sign, but not many people will understand the sign, and many will simply oversee you. So it is always better to use a sign. The question is which city to write on it. You can try your desired city, but if it is too far, try to find a big city on the way and try with that. Here it is important to have some inside knowledge. For example when I hitchhiked first I choose a city, nobody goes to, so nobody stopped. Japanese drivers don't think as far as "Oh that's on the way, to where I drive" or "I am not driving that far, but at least I can take him a bit". So it is very important what your sign says. To get inside knowledge ask passing people directly if they think it would be a good idea to try this or that city. They are usually always helpful.

Because of the just mentioned problem writing a city name on the sign reduces the number of cars, that will stop. But then using the thumb does not work too well either, so what to do. I thought of a kind of paper thumb as solution. I wrote in big numbers the number of the current street and place a big arrow pointing in the direction I want to go below it. I found that this works quite well and many cars will stop. After you climb in you just explain where they should drop you or that they should drop you simply, when they leave the street.

Saying Thank You

Japanese people are really friendly and you will notice that probably every second person that let's you ride in their car also invited you for lunch or dinner on the way and pays for you. Also they never accept any money, when you climb out, so you are left with a really bad consciousness. So what to do? Takayuki, a Japanese friend that I made on the way, did it like this: Inside the car he would write a poem for the people letting him ride and give it to them when he left the car. This is a great idea, but you can of course think of a different thing: Maybe a scetch, a picture card from your home, sweets or Omiyage, or whatever is suitable for carrying around and makes for a nice Thank You gift :)

Time

The early bird catches the worm. This is especially true when you want to cover large distances, because the car drivers that also want to cover large distances will usually start very early. So set your alarm to 6:00 and try to be on the road at 7:00 and your chances will be very high.
As soon as the light fades, your chances of being taken up also fade away. Apart from the fact that people do harder seeing you, people in the night always seem scary and strange, and not many people will have the courage to take you up.
In general I had to wait between 20 minutes and 3 hours. But 3 hours only when I choose really bad positions... So plan ahead :)

B) Lodging

Concerning lodging we have the following options: Tent, Manga Kissa, Hiroma, Youth Hostel, Guest House, Capsule Hotel, 旅館 Ryokan, Hotel.

テント Tent

Using a tent is the cheapest but most difficult for of sleeping. The problem is that there are not many places on 本州 Honshu (Japan's main island), where you can easily erect a tent. Look out for river sides, as they usually are a good spot to camp. If there is no river side, try to stop at smaller towns or village and start walking away from it. In the nature you should also be able to find a place. What worked well for me are forests. But they can be pretty scary at night, especially in summer, when there are many huge insects visiting you at night...

Another problem is alarm systems. Most open spaces are protected for some stupid reason with alarm system. That means as soon as you set a food on it an alarm will ring, and make it impossible to proceed. Even in forests certain spots triggered the alarm. It really drove me nuts.

There are a couple of camping places but they are not very frequent. So you'd better find another place and be ready to get up early or apologize to the first person spotting you in the morning.

Price: free

漫画喫茶 Manga Kissa

The cheapest option for cities is the Manga Kissa. At some point in the near past they decided to let people have a comfortable and cheap stay over night to increase night business. Inside you can get your own private room with leather floor and cushions, a computer with internet, countless shelfs of Manga and free drinks. Sometimes even free showers and ice cream.

Price: 1000 - 1500 Yen

広間 Hiroma

Earlier this was the normal way to sleep for traveling people. A Hiroma is simply a big sleeping hall with Futon's closely arranged next to each other. Nowadays there are not many left, but you often find them in Onsen places. This is quite nice, because you can extend your stay with entering the Onsen (hot spa) before and after your sleep. The Hiroma, though usually available, are usually not listed on the information, you will have to ask for it.

Price: 1000 - 2000 Yen

ユースホステル Youth Hostel

The classic way of lodging for the backpacker. Every major city has at least one Youth Hostel and even many far off places have one. You can have showers, wash you cloths, browse the internet and sleep in a dorm. The biggest advantage is that you can easily make friends and spend a nice time with other people. However the price is much higher than the previous options.

Price: 2500 - 3000 Yen

ゲストハウス Guest House

Basically the same than the youth hostel in all but the name. Usually run by a nice couple and often having better accommodations than the Youth Hostel. They are often even cheaper. Sometimes they are called Backpacker's Hotel. Very often they are clad in Japanese Tatami / Ryokan style, without the higher cost. Keep an eye out for them.

Price: 2000 - 3000 Yen

旅館 Ryokan

The classic way for Japan to sleep while traveling. Earlier they mostly had Hiroma, now they only have private rooms, which makes them quite pricey. However when friends or our parents are in for visiting you, staying at a Ryokan you can be sure to show them the Japanese way of sleeping and resting, Apart from a Tatami room with Futons, they usually have a Japanese style お風呂 Ofuro (bathroom).

Price: 3000 - 5000 Yen

カプセルホテル Capsule Hotel

Also nick named coffin hotel. A child of the modern age. You will sleep in a tiny tube, which has a lot of Star Trek atmosphere. Inside you will have alarm clock, television set, radio and a light. Outside you might find a spacious Japanese style bathroom and recreation areas. Definitely worth the experience once.

Price: 3000 - 4000 Yen

(Business) Hotel

The way to sleep for the innocent fool, who never though of other options. However when you indeed cannot find other options, the cheapest hotels start at 4.000 Yen and thus are almost affordable. Of course it is impossible to give an upper limit for hotels... The cheaper ones are sometimes called Business Hotels, but not always. However Business Hotels are a good way to start looking.

Price starting from 4000 Yen

C) Food

For Japanese local food is a very essential part of traveling, if not the reason in itself. However that is were most of your money will go, if you are not careful. So I advise you to keep a cheap diet and extent it only here and then with some expensive local dish.

A cheap way of not starving is to buy slices of toast (100 Yen), some cream cheese (200 Yen) and vegetables like three carrots (100 Yen), 6 paprika (100 Yen) or three cucumbers (100 Yen) from a supermarket and take them with you. Since it is not much I advise you eating four times a day one slice with cheese and one vegetable, or two times plus some cheap dish on the road. You can extend that with cheap portable Konbini food, like Onigiri. All of the above can take high temperatures and a backpack atmosphere without growing bad. A cheap food you can basically find everywhere are Soba noodles. You can get them starting at 200 Yen, and they are delicious and filling. Often they are sold at stations (駅そば Eki Soba).

prepare some Onigiri yourself before you start your journey

If you are hitchhiking, you will probably be invited to dinner or lunch several times, and need to worry to much about food. A little supplement toast mix like above should be sufficient. In Youth Hostels and Guest Houses you are usually also able to cook, another way to extend your diet.

D) Final Tips

Knowing Japanese helps a lot on budget traveling, but is no requirement. You can also hitchhike without knowing Japanese, but you should find a way to write your signs in Japanese, else nobody will be able to read them.

Speak to people! Often people have valuable advice for you like a cheap place to stay over night, a quick route to the city you want to get in, or some cheap food around the corner. Also it is very easy to make friends with other travelers, who again can give you valuable tips.

When you arrive in a city unprepared go to the tourist information or, when there is none or it is already close, to the 交番 Koban (Police Box). Surprisingly compared to other countries, Japanese police is indeed there to help you! So you can go there and directly ask for a cheap place to stay over night. Usually you will not be the first one to ask and they often even have printouts prepared to the next cheap place. Like this I often found my way to the Onsen Hiroma, for example. In Kyoto they have a whole catalog with all the Youth Hostels, Guest Houses and Backpacker's Hotels. So be sure to ask them.

Use Wikitravel (http://wikitravel.org/en/Main_Page). Wikitravel has an excellent pool of information about Japanese towns. You can find attractions, special food and cheap ways to travel and sleep. So be sure to check the Wikipage of the city or area you are intending in going.

That's it, I am quite experienced in Low Budget Traveling in Japan by now, so if you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment or contact me.

mika

函館 Hakodate

2008-08-16T15:37:00.000-07:00

My final stop in Hokkaido was in 函館 Hakodate. Because of successful hitchhiking, I managed to get to Hakodate with some spare time, before I needed to go on and again cross the undersea tunnel...

函館 Hakodate

Hakodate city is very special and unique because of several aspects.
It was the first big city in Hokkaido and became the seat of the Matsumae Clan, who ruled over Hokkaido until the Meiji Period.
Then it was among the first three cities (the other two are 横浜 Yokohama and 神戸 Kobe), who had to open their port in the second half of the 19th century because of outside pressure from Commodore Perry and thus shows early and strong influences of western architecture and culture.
And third is was the short lived capital of the rebellious Republic Of Ezo and the last hold out of the Shogunate Rebels during the Boshin War.

戊辰戦争 Boshin War

I already talked a lot about the Meji Revolution in my previous posts about 萩 Hagi and 長崎 Nagasaki, and I will continue there and talk about the last efforts of Tokugawa Shogun Yoshinobu.

Thanks to 坂本龍馬 Sakamoto Ryouma two provinces, which had been archenemies, allied together against the Shogunate. Ryouma later was able to add his home province 土佐藩 Tosa to the revolutionary fraction and win the favor of Tenno Meiji. Indeed one of the main goals of the revolutionary forces was the restoration of the Tenno in power, why the Meiji Revolution is also often called Meiji Restoration.

Shogun Yoshinobu tried to fight down the revolution and eventually saw himself forced to launch a full fledged attack against Tenno Meiji in Kyoto. However the revolutionary forces eagerly trading with western powers, were better armed and had the newer better tactics concerning fighting with these new arms and thus were able to defeat the Shogun's forces. Eventually after a siege, Edo (former name of Tokyo) surrendered and Shogun Yoshinobu agreed to give up the power hold by his dynasty for more than two and a half centuries.

However many parties were not content with the results of the revolution and gathered around the defeated Yoshinobu who fled with his forces to northern Honshu and then Hokkaido. In Hakodate they formed the rebellious Republic Of Ezo (the former name of Hokaido) and made their last stand 1968-1969 in the recently completed 五稜郭 Goryoukaku, which was built according to newest western architecture techniques from France, and therefore in accordance with heavy use of artillery from both sides.

artillery firing from Goryoukaku

However the new Imperial Forces of the new Meiji Japan mobilized 120.000 men, which were able to also crush this last stronghold of the opponents of the revolution. But the opposing forces were not crushed, because prominent revolutionary leader 西郷隆盛 Saigo Takamori pleaded for clemency and eventually many of the opposing leaders even found their way to offices in the new government. By this last step the power of the new Meiji Japan was secured. This was already foreseen and tried to be achieved by Sakamoto Ryouma, who thought the best way to defeat your enemy, is to let him work for you by giving him responsibilities.

Although the revolution started from a group of people called 尊王攘夷 Sonoujoui Force to restore the Tenno and expel foreigners, they retreated from the second goal, as during the revolution they made many important relationships with western powers. However as an important long term goal they established the renegotiations of the very unfair trading conditions Commodore Perry first set up with Japan.

五稜郭 Goryoukaku

As I mentioned above, the last holdout for the Shogun rebels was the 五稜郭 Goryoukaku fortress in Hakodate. It is unique among Japan, as having been completed as late as 1866, it was the first Japanese fortress built after modern western architecture plans to account for heavy usage of artillery on both sides.

It is shaped like a five edged stars and allows for artillery to be placed all along the fortress wall to be able to quickly fire in any direction. Being placed on a hill further sets the castle's artillery in an advantage against the enemies.

However such technique does not help if one is outnumbered by the enemy almost 100 to 1, and the enemy could theoretically hold a year long siege of the castle. The rebels seeing this surrendered and the castle's interior was demolished afterwards. But the star shaped castle walls still stand and the interior was turned into a public park hosting a tiny museum today.

inside the small museum

and the park,
you can even take boat rides of the castle moat

There is also a tower that allows you to see the castle from a high altitude and thus marvel about its wonderful shape. However the cost for the tower's elevator is 850 Yen, and thus I was happy enough with taking pictures of the pictures advertising the view ^_^

the expensive tower

and the view

----

and thus my second great journey through Japan came to an end and I returned to Atsugi. In my next post I will tell you my experience in traveling in Japan and give you tips where to save money.

mika

北方領土問題 Northern Territory Conflict

2008-08-14T15:06:00.000-07:00

北海道の自衛隊 Self Defense Forces In Hokkaido

As you know by know, I was hitchhiking around Hokkaido for a while. Thus I spent much time driving in cars on the roads of Hokkaido. The first thing I noticed was the abundance of wonderful nature views, wherever you go, as the streets cut like veins through a body entirely made of ancient magnificent nature.
However the second thing I noticed was the military. Strictly speaking, I need to say 自衛隊 Jieitai or Self Defense Forces SDF, as Japan is by constitution not allowed to have a military.

I fear in average every second or at least third car, was a vehicle from the SDF, troop transports, tanks, MG-jeeps and the like. After seeing that for a while I actually got afraid. Seeing military moving within the country is not so strange, even in Germany, but not in such numbers. Also in the rest of Japan I have never seen a single vehicle. So I asked my driver "Are the Russians coming?" pointing at the SDF vehicles passing by. He replied "Oh no, it's always like that, don't worry".

日本ロシア戦争 The Japan Russia War

The reason for the high presence of the SDF in Hokkaido is obvious: Russia is in War with Japan. Yes I am not kidding legally both countries are in war. The war is not a new war, that you missed in the news, but an old war you have forgotten, or are to young to remember from the news: World War 2. After Japan lost the war, the situation prior to Japan's expansion policy was tried to be restored by Potsdam Peace treaty including islands north of Hokkaido (Etorofu, Kunashiri, Shikotan and the Habomai Islands), but excluding the Kurile islands and Sakhalin. Russia had occupied all these islands during the war and now refused to give any of them back (actually the conflict even dates further back, but let's start here for now). Indeed they deported all 17.000 Japanese inhabitants forcefully to Hokkaido until 1949. Thus Russia refused to sign a peace treaty with Japan and kept the northern islands. This problem is still unresolved, and both countries claim possession of the islands thus continuing the war, even if it is more fought like the Cold War.

And that is why the SDF is so present in Hokkaido. Especially now, after seeing Russia's action in Georgia, it is only natural for the SDF to grow tense and careful, be the threat real or not. If Russia would invade Japan, they could claim that they have no peace treaty with Japan what so ever.

北方領土問題 Northern Territory Conflict

So let's see why both Russia and Japan claim possession of the northern islands, and why the conflict is still unresolved. It actually dates much further back then World War II, as you might have guessed by now.

It starts in 1635 when the Matsumae clan, starting its dominance over Hokkaido, ordered a map over Hokkaido and its northern islands. This map contained all the islands in conflict: the northern islands (Etorofu, Kunashiri, Shikotan and the Habomai Islands), the Kurile islands and Sakhalin.
Russia first explored the Kurile islands in 1711 and created a map in 1721 where it at least denotes the northern islands as Japanese territory.

the map ordered by Matsumae Clan

With this prequel Japan and Russia peacefully negotiated a peace treaty giving the northern islands to Japan, and the Kurile islands to Russia in 1855, when Japan was forcefully opened by the west and its time of isolation policy ended. The treaty included that Sakhalin can be peacefully inhabited by Japanese and Russian people.

20 years later a new treaty was agreed upon, that exchanged the Kurile islands to Japan for the undisputed dominance over Sakhalin to Russia.

In World War I, Japan joined the Allies against Germany, but before that it fought its own successful war against Russia. The outcome was a peace treaty in 1905 (Portsmouth Peace Treaty) after Japan had conquered the southern half of Sakhalin.

In World War II, Japan sided with the Axis against Russia and America and lost. It was agreed that Japan had to give back all territories acquired during the war, which included for example the Philippines, Korea, and Manchuria in China. The claim on the Kurile islands and on Sakhalin were to be given up, but the northern islands remained under Japanese governance. This was written down in the San Francisco Peace Treaty 1951.

The Soviet Empire refused to sign this treaty, because it conquered all islands north of Japan and intended in keeping them. Ever after that peace treaties were negotiated but never agreed upon. In 1956 a treaty was proposed that after peace was reached, half of the northern islands should go to Japan and half to Russia. However since until today no peace was signed, this never happened. In 1960 the Soviet Empire refused to acknowledge that there even exists an issue about the governance of the islands and made all negotiations come to a stand still.
In 1991 Mikhail Gorbachev visited Japan and it was mutually agreed to finally resolve the ongoing war and sign a peace and friendship between Russia and Japan. The end of the same year the Soviet Union collapsed. 1992 an objective committee was called to gather objective facts about the history of the conflict, a big step towards resolution.

In 1993 Boris Yeltsin visited Tokyo and in 1997 Ryutaro Hashimoto visited Moscow, and both agreed to sign a peace treaty by the year 2000. But it never happened.

Boris Yeltsin and Ryutaro Hashimoto

In 2001 and 2003 Vladimir Putin and Junichiro Koizumi met again and again agreed upon that a peace treaty should be made soon now.

Vladimir Putin and Junichiro Kozumi

Yet until today no such peace treaty was ever reached...

The conflict is really difficult, as both nations are stubborn to having right to the islands and it is difficult to make an objective decision. Also another problem is, that there is no third power both nations would trust to make an objective decision. The NATO would obviously favor Japan, as Russia who recently left the NATO proved. And the UN, while being representative of all the countries in the world, has no power to enforce a made decision and thus such a resolve would be as vain as the agreements on making peace treated for the last 60 years.

The problem is that once military right wing dick heads in Japan manage to abolish article 9 of the constitution (saying that Japan cannot have a military and cannot wage wars against other nations), Japan probably would forcefully take back the northern islands. And as we see Russia's position today in Georgia, they would not hesitate to retaliate...

Let's hope for the best

mika

参考 References

I got the details from a Pamphlet I got in the Hokkaido History Museum in Sapporo, but I also found it online: http://www.mofa.go.jp/region/europe/russia/territory/

熊のサバイバルガイド Bear Survival Guide

2008-08-12T17:19:00.000-07:00

The danger of bears in Hokkaido is real and should be taken into account, when your life is dear to you.
Every year about five people are eaten by bears.
Planning to sleep alone by tent, this got me frightened a bit and I started asking people, how to survive an bear attack. That is why exclusively on dwelling in dreams, you will a the

BEAR SURVIVAL GUIDE

1) Bears usually avoid big groups of people. So the more people you take with you, the less likely an attack by a bear. If you are alone, try to stay in areas with people, whenever possible. Try also to use camping grounds whenever you can find one.

2) Bears have one weak spot, they are very sensitive to sound. That means a very loud noise can scare them away. So what I did is, I went to a 100 Yen store and armed myself with pot lid and a long iron sponge and tied them with a cord to my backpack, so they would always be in reach.

3) If the sound does not work, or the bear won't run away there will be a time when you will want to run away. Here is what you should keep in mind: Trees are not safe, don't try climbing trees like in movies, first it usually is more difficult than you think and second the bear is at you before you know it. So let's run away. Bears are very good and extremely fast in climbing upwards a slop or mountain, so you will never be able to outrun them. However they are very bad concerning climbing downwards. That is because of their huge weight (800 Kilo) they need to put a lot of effort in keeping balance while climbing down, that the weight won't get hold of them and let them roll downwards. So you can outrun a bear downwards.

4) Running away has the disadvantage that the bear will think your prey. So only run if the way is downwards and if you have any quick prospect of getting to safety . The final option is to drop dead. If the bear is not very aggressive your chances are high, that he will quickly loose interest in you. Don't move even when he examines you by stroking you.

That's it! Keep In mind that bears are dangerous, and thus you'd better keep your distance so you never need to use the advice above.

In Hokkaido I also heard a story where a bear entered a camping ground and open a tent with his paw. The girl inside was so surprised she kicked the bear with all her might. This frightened the bear so much, that he ran back into the forest. So I guess we can add

5) Fight the bear honorably and try to land many kicks.

mika

アイヌ Ainu

2008-08-10T05:55:00.000-07:00

アイヌ Ainu

One of my goals for going to Hokkaido was to learn more about the Ainu. I knew them a bit from the Japanese lessons in Erlangen, Germany, but my knowledge was very limited and I was eager to see and talk to them.

There no more than 20.000 - 30.000 Ainu left in Japan. Most of them dwell somewhere in Hokkaido. However they are more and more intermingling with Japanese and very few of them heed much attention for their people's custom and history. That is why the culture of the Ainu is slowly dying out together with people calling himself Ainu.

Ainu means human in the language of the Ainu. The language was almost lost, when the Japanese government forced the Ainu to speak Japanese in the Meiji Period (end of 19th century). However one Ainu man realized later in his life how precious the culture of his people is and from that point on did everything to preserve it. Apart from starting a couple of museums all over Hokkaido, he started voice recording the language, he still had learned from his parents and started teaching it to other. Because of that today there are again a few motivated Ainu, who are able to speak the language of their ancestors or at least sing in it.

Now there are several bigger settlements with Ainu comunities around Japan, but in most it is rather hard to get to speak to them in a couple of days. That is why I choose the only one town that uses Ainu for tourism, or more positive uses tourism to teach the world about Ainu: 阿寒湖 Lake Akan.

Since in Akan most shops are owned by Ainu, the museums are run by Ainu and you can see Ainu performances, it is rather hard not to meet Ainu...
For me I asked about Ainu after seeing the dance performance. Here I met Miyanaga-san from Ryukyu (Okinawa), who told me the secret tip of the Rider House.

So my next steps led me to the Rider House, which is run by the Ainu's shaman Chun-san. Chun-san warmly welcomed me, and I lodged in his house. However lucky I was to sleep in the house of the Ainu shaman, I could not understand the toothless utterances of the old man and had a tough time even understanding the most simple things.

alas I could not understand him

So my quest continued and led me to Akan's museum. Here I was finally able to find someone to talk. I arrived the Museum Of Ainu Arts (アイヌ藝術館) just at closing time. However being run by Ainu and not Japanese, the nice Ainu girl inside allowed me to have a look around and friednly waited for me. After I had seen the exhibitions, she asked me why I had come here, and I replied smiling to get to know you.

She was quite happy about me, and asked me why I know of the Ainu, and if everyone in Germany and Europe would know about them. I knew it, because I studied Japanese in University, but had to shatter her hopes about anyone else knowing them in Germany. She said "やっぱり Yappari I tought as much..." disheartedly. She told me about her people and their culture being taken away from them, without anyone in the world noticing. Even worse the world does not even know about them...

I shared her grief and asked her about herself. I thought that in nowadays Japan, although much has been lost of the Ainu culture, living as Ainu would not be so difficult anymore. She told me, I was partly right, because in earlier times Ainu were segregated from Japanese. They had to use separate schools for exmaple and were not allowed to mingle with Japenese. However they were forced to speak Japanese, and assimilate the Japanese lifestyle, giving up their own. Now they are equal before the law, and segregation has stopped officially, however she told me, when she was in school people would go away from her, and someone even pointed at her saying "Ainu" in a disgusted voice. She further told me that altough her father was already allowed to go in the same schools as Japanese, all teachers would discriminate him in class, and he had a really tough time.

Then she asked me to look into her face and shouted: "この顔を見て。日本の顔じゃないだよ　ヨーロッパの顔もないだよ。　いったいどこから来たか？” "Look at this face. It is no Japanese face, neither is it European. Where on earth do I come from".
Yes the Ainu look neither very Asian, nor very European. They look very unique. As it always goes, I found no good reply to comfort her anguish then, now I would have said "I don't care where your face comes from, but you know, it is very pretty"...

I then accompanied her closing the museum and going back to the village. I think she took some comfort in me trying to share her pains. I am glad I met this girl, otherwise I never imagined that Ainu still today have a hard time living in Japan.

In the other museum (Ainu Lifestyle Museum アイヌ生活記念館) I met an old Ainu lady smiling at me, when I entered. I asked her, whether she could explain me the things exhibited her, and cleverly added that I couldn't read the signs written In Japanese in front of time. So she started explaining me the usage of the tools and how the life looked like, much better than any sign could. There was a question in the back of my head concerning their life for a long time, and I finally had the chance asking it: "I saw how the old huts of the Ainu looked like and how they lived. Now I cannot imagine who they could survice Hokkaido's harsh winters, in huts that do not even really shield out the wind, not talking of containing warmth."

She replied: "Oh you must know, todays Ainu are already very different, because most mingled with Japanese sooner or later, or simply adapted to modern life. In earlier times Ainu had much more hair on their skin, almost like the fur of a bear. Also their skin was whiter and rougher and thus more adapted to the cold temperatures."
And indeed after she said that, I noticed that some of the Ainu I met had really really much body hair, where others looked just normal.

old pictures of Ainu

My luck would continue, when Miyanga-san allowed me backstage after the concert in the evening. We talked a while and I honored his drumming skills. He then said: "Why don't you join me and my wife for an Izakaya later?" and although I usually don't drink, how could I refuse being invited by a famous Rock Star and representative of the Ryukyu kingdom.

And my luck peaked when inside the Izakaya (Japanese bar) we met a complete Ainu family, whose two children Miyanaga-san is teaching Taiko. The family was complete with father, mother, the two boys and both of their grandmothers. They asked us to joing their table and we gladly accepted.
As the night gew merrier and Miyanga-san told the parents of my interest in the Ainu, they started talking about everything. I liked best when they talked about their normal life, in which they try to contain some values of their ancestors, some rites and ways, while also not ignoring the modern age and its possibilities and comforts. They said its not always easy, but as a big family you can manage. Later a Japanese man joined the round. Miyanaga-san explained me, that he lost his home and family and has no one left. One day he straied in Akan village, and some Ainu people showed him hospitality. Later they noticed that he had some expertise in pyro techniques, and now he is managing the pyro part of the late night shows, as volunteer for free. Although he is Japanese, the Ainu community welcomed him with open arms and now fully trusts him as one of their own. He seemed really happy this evening, still showing some Japanese minorty complex, which the family countered with love and back clapping. :)

Do you remember this picture from the last post?

I promised you to reveal its secret in this post. It was built to honor of the new found friendship between a tribe of American Indians. You already know that the Ainu are trying to making cultural exchange with the Ryukyu people from Okinawa, but the previous generation of the Ainu of Akan village has done a quite courageous step. They sent a delegation of Ainu, including shaman and elder to America to meet with American Indian tribes.
They could not speak a word in English, and the Indians not a word in Japanese, and still only a moment after the Indian chieftain had seen the Ainu one, tears came out of his eyes and the two noble figures embraced each other so heartily as to brothers who were separated their whole life and at its end could meet at last...

Indeed the culture of the American Indians resembles the Ainu culture so much, it is amazing. Although their environment is so different, they developed the same beliefs of living in harmony with nature and honoring the animals around them. It really touches my heart that two kinds of people who have both suffered so hard under the rule of others, could find each other in this world and if only for the fact of realizing that they are not alone to beat this fate, break out in joy.

阿寒湖 Lake Akan

2008-08-06T20:11:00.000-07:00

One of my main goals in Hokkaido was to learn more about its indigenous people, the Ainu. A Japanese friend told me of a village in the east of Hokkaido, that while being touristic overloaded, represents one of the biggest Ainu communities, which try to preserve their culture and let the world know about it. The name of this village is Akan, named after the great lake Akanko on which's shore it is located.

阿寒湖 Akanko

Akan is indeed a village, because it is really small. There are basically two streets and one path. One street is the highway on Akan's north border, the other is its main shopping street, the "center" of Akan, and last the path leads along the wonderful lake and then into the mystical forest.

Being touristic overloaded means the central street is plastered with tourist shops, which however, look really nice, are mostly lead by real Ainu descendants and mostly sell items handcrafted by the owner. Apart from that there is the Ainu Kotan, the traditional Ainu village, around which the rest of the town was built and the lake, which contains its own little mystery: the ball shaped algae called marimo. On the lake you can take an expensive boat ride, which will take you to a little island in the center of the lake, which hosts a marimo museum.

tourist shops on the central street through Akan

There are also two convenience stores, which also function as restaurants and offer Ramen and some other dishes. In the far end of the village you can find a tourist information, which has maps of the place and information about all the facilities.

Concerning the Ainu there are two museums, one about how they lived, and one about their harmony with nature and their arts. There is also one inside stage, where they perform their traditional dances, and one outside for concerts. Lastly there is one more museum about the ecology of Akan, which is free of charge.

For lodging I can recommend either to use the Camping Place or the incredible cool Rider House, led by an ancient Ainu for 500 Yen a day including breakfast and dinner.

アイヌコタン Ainu Kotan

Kotan is the Ainu word for village or settlement. Akan's Ainu Kotan extends the shopping street and hosts some more exclusive shops, all run by Ainu. It is the original village, today's Akan grew out of. In the center of the Kotan you can find a wooden hut, where at night around 8 pm, you can take pictures of yourself with an old Ainu Shaman for free (which happens to be the owner of the Rider House).

a picture of me and the Ainu Shaman,
who also let me sleep in his cool house

When you face the big stage house the sixth shop to your right (熊の家 Kuma No Ie), also hosts a little museum in the basement dedicated to a talented Ainu artist who specialized in wood sculpturing. So in the basement, you can find many samples of his work, followed by information about him and the arts the Ainu.

熊の家 Kuma No Ie

the famous Ainu wood carver

makes woodcarvings of Ainu and

animals alike

sometimes even of a monster from Ainu mythology

why would he choose to make a wooden statue of a native American
I will tell the answer in my next post: The Ainu

Apart from that, there is one thing I recommend you buying: The ムックリ Mukkuri, a traditional instrument of the Ainu made of bamboo. You can get one for 400 Yen, but be sure to ask the friendly shop owner to give you a quick course in how to play it, because it is really difficult, as I had to find out.

ムックリ Mukkuri

アイヌ Ainu

Apart from the shops and the Ainu Kotan, there are two museums, one stage show and one concert you can see about the Ainu. For the first three you can buy a combination ticket, that will save you almost 1000 Yen. The concert, however, is not included. So let's start with the dance show:

アイヌ踊り Ainu Dance

The Ainu have a lot of traditional dances, some of which they perform on the stage at the top of the Ainu Kotan. Along with the dances, some women sing songs in the Ainu language, that have been preserved, when the language was just at the brink of being forgotten. It sounds completely different from Japanese and has its very own distinctive sounds.

listen to this Ainu song

They also made music using the ムックリ Mukkuri, I mentioned before. it is incredible which variety of sounds and melody they can create with a little piece of bamboo. The Mukkuri resembles the European Jew's harp.

Mukkuri performance

The dances reflect the Ainu's lifestyle or being rather calm and harmonious in contrast to energetic and ecstatic.

head banging ^_^

Many dances in the Ainu culture are about animal mimicry, as the Ainu always tried to live in harmonious coexistence with the animals. The two most important animals were the bear and the owl.

an owl mimicry dance

Apart from the dances, they also showed the alcohol brewing ritual, very important to the people of the cold north.

the alcohol ritual

アイヌ藝術館 Ainu Art Museum

In this museum you can experience how close the Ainu lived to nature. Everything they did was in harmony with the animals and plants around them and in synchrony with the current season and weather. The museum tries to explain this mutual relationship, that has been lost to modern civilizations. This is also reflected in their art, of which you can find some examples in here like wood carvings or paintings.

it is explained how the Ainu lived in harmony with the animals
and in synchrony to the environment

those instruments are used for rituals

an Ainu holding a marumo

more wood sculpturing

アイヌ生活記念館 Museum About The Life Of The Ainu

The second museum reflects the daily life of the Ainu and exhibits many daily tools used for cooking or crafting. Some other tools were reserved for ceremonies, like alcohol brewing. You can also see a selection of Ainu clothings and typical food. The lady inside gladly narrates you more, when you ask her for it.

most of the Ainu tools were made out of wood
these are for festivals

their cooking utensils resembled Japans,
most probably because of trade

アイヌ琉球演奏 Ainu Ryukyu Ensemble

The highlight of the day was the concert at the evening. For two months a representative of the Ryukyu kingdom, which was conquered and occupied by Japan and is now known as Okinawa, was visiting Akan for cultural exchange between two oppressed people. Since he is master of 太鼓 Taiko (big drums) and brought his drum set with him, they decided to make a cultural mixed ensemble between Ryukyu music and Ainu singing and dancing.

the shaman opened the performance with a ritual

owl mimicry once more

Altough it didn't perfectly fit, Ryukyu music being energetic, loud, fast and ecstatic and Ainu dancing and singing more slowly and contemplate, the combination was more than just interesting. I enjoyed both the music and the dancing and even liked the disharmonic mix of both, which had its own flair. And they put real effort in it and created a stream of water carrying torch floats, prepared pyro effects and a really cool outside stage.

I talked a lot to Miyanga-san, the drummer from the Ryukyu islands, and we quickly became friends. I found out that he plays in two famous Japanese Rock Bands: Murasaki and Zodiac. I noticed that he was into Rock, both from his appearance and the music itself of course.
He told me that Okinawa was an independent country called the 琉球 Ryukyu kingdom. They used Kanji like China, but had their own language, which is till spoken by elder people on the islands. He told me that Ryukyu people were forced to assimilate Japanese culture and speak Japanese as mother language. But the spirit of the islands lives on, and there are quite a few left who want independence from Japan. He invited me to come to Ryukyu once and explore the culture and history of his people. I can't make it this time, but if I ever make it back here, I am sure to heed his call.

another dance by the women

the coolest dance was the sword fighting dance of those two

The next morning I was awakened by the sound of Taiko drums. When I curiously checked where the sound came from, I saw Miyanaga-san teaching a crowd of cute little children how to play Taiko. I sat next to the proud parents in the audience and listened to their performance. They were quite good actually. After that I talked a little more to Miyanaga-san and then we bid each other farewell.

Ryukyu Magic Dancing Island

エコミュージアム Eco Museum

At the other end of the village, where it starts fading into the forest, you can find the free ecology museum. It tries to teach you about Akan's nature, vegetation and animals. It has some exhibits, but mostly tries to arouse your interest with little interactive contraptions, that teach you about different aspects of the ecology.

peak inside to experience Akan forest

small information plates like this are hidden all around the museum

learn the differences between the trees

fishes local in Akanko

Especially noteworthy are the green algae balls that grow inside lake Akan. They are perfectly round and a true mystery. People tried to let them grow in labs or on other lakes, but all failed. It seems to be a delicate mix of external factors that make lake Akan the only place where those little balls can grow up. They can be as small as a rice corn, but the biggest one found was already the size of a soccer ball. They also seem to grow in colonies next to each other, which makes them even more unique. As it is Japanese custom, the marimo are touristic exploited and you can buy very ugly まりもっこり marimokkori mascots in the main shopping street.

you can buy this ugly marimokkori family everywhere...

If you want to see more of them, there is a museum dedicated to them in the center of the lake. This means either you are a good swimmer, or you will have to take one of the expensive boat rides. I skipped on that, but as beautiful as the lake is, a boat ride is surely enjoyable. However I recommend you using a pedal boat, instead of the luxury liner. Because in the ecology museum I learned, that the marimo are already dwindling, because of human interference on the lake...

Lastly the museum does not fail to show its visitors how the ecology all around the world is more and more destroyed by the humans, and that is is in fact our fault for producing huge amounts of waste with our lifestyle, and even more waste and destruction for the production of the waste we are consuming and then throwing away again.

information about environmental disasters

阿寒湖 Lake Akan

I didn't take the boat ride, but I recommend you to at least walk around the lake's shore, and follow the path through the forest near the ecology museum, because it is really nice to walk on, and it gives you nice views on the lake.

ポッケと展望台 Sulfur Springs And Observatory

If you are up for a little walk through nature, I recommend you following the 白湯山 Hakuto Mountain trail on the map. One warning, concerning the location of Mount Hakuto, the map is largely inaccurate concerning distances. It looks like lying right next to the Akankohan observatory, but in fact it is 4 kilometers away. the Akankohan observatory is closer and a good start, but I recommend you climbing the mountain to the second one, because the path to it goes through Akan's national park and is really wonderful.

view from the first observatory (Akankohan)

to get there you need to climb the ski hill here

Don't be deterred by the first huge steep climb up the ski hill to the beginning of the walking path. After you managed this first tough part, the walking trail mostly continues flat and only makes moderate ways upwards. It leads through the national park and offers you really wonderful scenery on both sides.

白湯展望台 Hakudo Observatory

and the view from it

the path also continues, to where only the gods knows

Exceptional are the five ふれべつポッケ Furebetsu Pokke Sulfur Springs, you will come across when climbing uphill. You can smell them from a far and see the sulfur steam rising into the air. All area next to them has dies because of lack of oxygen and looks like barren wasteland. A wonderful sight and refreshingly not as touristic exploited and shielded as 大湧谷 The Big Steaming Valley in Hakone.

the sulfur springs turn the surroundings into wasteland

that's why the mountain is called Hakuto (white hot water)

watch the white water boil

and the valley steam

However walking through national parks has its dangers, and I was happy not to walk this path alone. A snake appeared on the way and hissed at us. I jumped back in fear, but my courageous Japanese companion quickly fixed the snake's head with his shoe to the ground and then took head in one hand and tail in the other. Now the snake was no longer dangerous, and I even could take a picture of my friend Takayuki holding the snake. However we could not relax as later we were assaulted by a killer bee. I first mistook it for an ordinary bee, as it is not much larger and maybe a little blacker than your ordinary honey bee. But Takayuki grasped the situation and quickly and shouted at me: "Zettai Ugokanaiyo" (Whatever you do, don't move!). The bee continued circling us for what seemed like 5 minutes until she eventualy allowed us to strove on. Later Takayuki explained me: "If you are stung once by a killer bee, you will probably survive, but you will be in pains for days. If you are stung twice, your death is certain".

Takayuki defeated the snake

*gulp* Paying a little bit more attention now, we strode on to the top and had in fact a really incredible wonderful view on Akan lake and the larger area.

キャンプ場 Camping Place

Although Akan is surrounded by national parks and boundless nature, I recommend you to erect your tent on the camping ground in Akan. The reason is afore mentioned dangers the boundless nature holds, especially bears. Within the camping place you are relatively safe, because it is fenced and most animals avoid big crowds of people. Also the camping ground has facilities like toilets, water and even an 足湯 Ashiyu (Onsen/Hot Spa for the feet). However you have to pay 500 Yen, when you leave the camping place.

this tent followed me around all over Japan

足湯 Onsen for the feet

ライダーハウス Rider House

On my second day Miyanaga-san gave me a secret tip, to try the Rider House for lodging. It is hidden behind other houses and not to be found on any map. It is lead by a very old Ainu Shaman and intended for hosting bikers. But the old guy also accepted me, and I gladly moved in. The house looks really old and has a lot of charm. Inside on the second floor, you can find many tatami rooms, in which you can sleep. Futons are also ready for usage.

The night is only 500 Yen, and breakfast and a large dinner are included. I think the guy is supported by other villagers, cause otherwise I can't see how he could run his house like this. But then he is an old Ainu and needs nothing to live but food, water and love. And why not share your house with everyone, so that whenever you want, you can enjoy the company of people traveling all over Japan in their bikes and having many good tales to tell.

Also incredible is that the whole house runs on customer to customer service. Meaning when I moved in, an already present guest told me about the 500 Yen, that I should simply lie them on the table in the main room, that I should write my name in the guest book and make a circle for paid. Then he showed me a room and told me about breakfast and dinner. Also when the telephone rings, and a biker is asking for the way, other guests will take up the phone and explain it. Even the cooking and the dish washing is done by guests (and remember we are talking about leather jacket wearing bikers). This wonderful way of managing things by trusting the guests to manage them themselves truly amazed me.

dinner with the biker family
some people from the village also joined

the old guy owning the hut, is actually the tribe's shaman,
who you can see on the picture

----------

In Akan learned a lot about the Ainu and made many friends. I was really lucky, always to crush into interesting people wherever I go. I will try to write a post about the Ainu, and the stories they told me.

From Akan I hit the road again.

札幌 Sapporo

2008-08-04T00:34:00.000-07:00

My first longer stop in Hokkaido was in the prefecture's capital Sapporo.

札幌 Sapporo

Sapporo is a metropolis and does not lack anything compared to other big towns in Japan. But it has one thing the others do not have and that is space. Since 80%-90% of Hokkaido are still covered by forest, there is an abundance of space otherwise the most precious good in Japan. So buildings in Sapporo and other cities are usually larger than they are tall. Also for the same reasons you can find many and huge parks in the city, like the famous...

Sapporo Station

大通公園 Odori Park

In the center of Sapporo starting from Sapporo's television tower, looking similar to Tokyo Tower and thus the Eiffel Tower with an additional useful clock, starts Odori Park. It is a large park, whose name means big street. And that's what it is. The park continues like a huge street right through the city and fills it with a lot of green.

Like a real street it is intersected by other streets, so that you need to cross traffic lights in order to get from one section of the park to the next. But it is truly worth walking along the park, because every section is different and it the strode gives you a nice view on Sapporo.

札幌ビアガーデン祭り Sapporo Beer Garden Festival

I was lucky, that just when I arrived in Sapporo, I could catch the last day of the annual beer garden festival. It takes place right in Odori Park and for every section of the park, there is a different big beer brewery responsible in making ready its own unique beer garden and according show.

Asahi Brewery

Suntory Brewery

Sapporo Brewery

Kirin Brewery

every brewery had unique big beer containers for the tables

but the coolest was without doubt Kirin's

some people sat on the beer garden tables

others preferred a more picnic like approach

and each garden has its own stage

The last section of the park, much to my surprise was clad in the theme of a German beer garden, or rather the Japanese image of a German beer garden. It was called ドイツの村 the German village, and the German flag was everywhere. The also erected their own Maibaum (= may tree), a German (Bavarian) custom. where every village erects their own tree, painted white and blue and decorated with figures each may. Well and in the image of the Japanese German beer garden personnel all wears Bavarian blue and white with a stupid looking beer hat. By the way, a lot of the personnel was actually from Germany.

duh! why write welcome in English?

\

German personnel

German beer

the Maibaum

they even had German beer garden food

and the Japaneses' imagination of German beer garden outfits

時計台 Clock Tower

Sapporo's landmark is the clock tower. It was erected in front of the first school in Sapporo in the Meiji Period, and therefore looks like a 19th century European/American style building.

the clock tower as part of the school

For 200 Yen you can get inside. Inside you will find a museum about this first school and school life in Sapporo about 120 years ago.

a young visitor from the US

Sapporo's symbol is the red star

explanation of how a clockwork works

白い恋人チョコレート工場 Shiroi Koibito Chocolate Factory

Loving chocolate I always wanted to go to a chocolate factory since I was child and here I finally had the chance. And the Shiroi Koibito Chocolate Factory (or White Lover Chocolate Factory) is definitely one of the coolest of the world. All my imaginations from my childhood, how a chocolate factory must look like, where not only met but even surpassed.

I imagined it to be a place like in fairy tales, where the houses are made of sweets and have just the right size for children, but are too small the adults would fit it.

I imagined wonderful parks with soap bubbles floating around in the air and a clock tower which performs a play every full hour and clads the whole factory in magic.

I imagined houses growing on trees and the facade of the huge and enormous factory looking like the houses in fairy tales.

I imagined the inside looking like a palace with gigantic stairs and important people coming to try the chocolate.

notice the wonderful details,
like the wall fresco and the balloons

or this dog guarding the staircase

I imagined horses and carriages bringing people to and from the factory.

And as children like toys as much as chocolate, there also needed to be toys! A lot of toys, no all toys ever devised from ancient to most modern ones.

And as you can see the factory was just that! Also a friendly guide explained everything, you could see not only old toys but also see how the chocolate and sweet boxes and advertisements looked 100 years ago.

in this model the two ghostly children
are shown how chocolate was made earlier

You can also watch live how the factory workers supervise the factory's main product: Shiroi Koibiti White Chocolate Biscuits.

in another room, children could try to make their own chocolate

Truly a place out of dreams and a must see for everyone coming to Sapporo and loving chocolate!

開拓野村 Pioneer Village

Hokkaido is Japan's Wild West (North). Only in the last 120 years people from Japan really started settling on the island. It is too cold, the nature and forests to dense and dangerous (bears, snakes, ....) so that people long refrained from settling there. But now it people are living there normal lives. That was different for the pioneers, they had a quite different life in a daily struggle for survival. And to make the wild west scenario complete Hokkaido has ingenious people: the Ainu.

And indeed the first settlements in little villages around lakes or mountains or farm land were quite simple and plain. The first towns had some more variety like barbers or a black smith, but the houses were still plain wooden houses.

Gradually these houses were replaced by more modern houses until they became modern cities. The 開拓の村 (Kaitaku No Mura, Pioneer Village) tried to preserve some of this pioneer buildings and villages and moved them into a national park, where they can be seen today.

The open air museum contains four parts:

1. A Fishers' Lake Village

2. A Woodcutters' Mountain Village

the life of the mountain people was the most simple

I said woodcutter, but most mountain village existed because of coal mines

and the coal needed to be transported to towns by lorries

3. A Farmers Farmland Village

water mill

grain silo

cow shed

farm land

the village had one common shed with farming tools (tractors came only very late), because they were to expensive for individual possession, so they had to share them

also in the farm village they all slept in one big main building

4. A Town

town hall

doctor's clinic

magistrate's home

barber

money lender

tailor

police

sleigh and

cart construction

black smith

and horse smith

porcelain

toys

and a candy shop

Significantly for all of the villages is, that its people all shared one house for living and the other for storage and tools. So every village had one big main house, were everybody slept side by side around the fireplace. Life in the villages was extremely hard and difficult, since the people were cut off from civilizations and mostly had to use improvisations of tools they needed for everyday life. Foremost the woodcutters in the mountains, who having only berries, nuts and wild deer to eat, living under constant threat of attacks by bears, had the hardest life of all. The worst however were Hokkaido's winters where the temperature drops as much as -30 degrees Celsius in the high north.

storage for rice

and tools

The town was already a good imitation of later cities, but plainer and more simple. But after a while a post office was established, railways to the coal mines and even later telegraph connections. At the same time the number of jobs increased by a barber, candy maker, doctor and the like.

you can move around the village by this train wagon pulled by a horse

stables

the town well

Of course the town has its own school for the children.

where they are taught mathematics

martial arts

and music

like in Europe at this time, students wore this kind of uniform

Hokkaido also had one university of agriculture, intended to improve the technique in farming, dairy production and technical farming equipment.

students lodgings

They also had one martial arts Dojo.

mainly used for Kendo

It is quite cool to walk through the village, especially because you can enter every single house and explore its interior life recreated with puppets. One house for example teaches the creation of silk. Another plus point is that being located within a national park, the whole area is surrounded by woods and even the inside is really nice going along with the outline of the museum (hills leading to the mountain village, a lake in front of the fishers' village and so on).

recreated interior life

this bridge leads from the farm village to the university

and on the way to the mountain village you cross wonderful nature and then climb uphill

in the silkworm house

you can see how silk is made

記念博物館 Hokkaido History Museum

Right next to the Pioneer Village and definitely worth a visit is Hokkaido's history museum. It is one of the best history museums I have ever seen and excellently tells the history of Hokkaido in many easy to read information plates going along with countless exhibition from the time and things the plates talk off. The museum is separated by time epochs of which it makes eight.

1. Island of Hokkaido

The first section talks about the prehistoric life of Hokkaido and the long Ice Age where it was connected over a long bridge with the continent. Then it continues to first humans on the island and ends with Japan's first two time epochs the 縄文時代 Joumon Period and the 弥生時代 Yayoi Period. Being separated from the rest of Japan, the stone age (Joumon Period) took way longer on Hokkaido than on the rest of Japan, and only on the end of the Yayoi Period (Japan's Bronze and Iron Age) Bronze and Iron slowly also reached entrance into the culture of the Hokkaido people.

Hokkaido even today is a dense sea of trees

first human dwellings looked like that

2. Ainu Culture

The ingenious people of Hokkaido and North Japan were distinctly different from the rest of Japan. They were evolutionary apt for living in regions with temperatures of up to -20 degrees, by having more fur than hair on their body and a white skin, similar to the Eskimo.

They developed their own independent language and culture, which is very similar to the native American culture. They lived in harmony with nature and took and gave back. Whenever they had to kill an animal for food or defense, they would pray for its soul in a ceremony (especially for bears).

typical winter food

Ainu clothing

Ainu tools

they had very simple ships

bears earned high respect among the Ainu

also their houses very plain
and could not really hold the cold winter out

Later they started trade and cultural exchange with people from southern Japan, China and Russia (Siberia).

a ship trading with the Ainu

and an Ainu trading ship

a sample of Ainu the language

3. Age Of "Ezo"

Although the real settling in Hokkaido was not more than 120 years ago, first Japanese settlers invaded the island already in the Mid Ages and settled in southern Hokkaido, were the climate was warmer than in the north.

By that they drove the Ainu back from Northern Japan and Southern Hokkaido into the North and East of the Island. Those first settlers called their new home Ezo.

The Ainu picked up farming techniques from the Japanese

In 17th century Matsumae, a mighty Samurai clan took possession of Ezo and started forcing local Ainu tribes under their predominance. They still let them life their lives, but forbade them trading with anyone but themselves and kept them separated in special regions.

the Mastumae forced the Ainu

to accept their leadership

4. The Early Modern Age

1855 with the proceeding opening of Japan, Hakodate 函館, Ezo's biggest city and dwelling place of the Matsumae Clan, was together with other port cities, forced to open its port to the world. Then after the successful revolution in 1869 Meiji Japan strove to modernize Japan and compete with the western world. For this they also desired to develop Hokkaido The first tasks was to protect the immigrants in the island and actively creating industries on Hokkaido to make it self sufficient.

the British vessel, that forced Hakodate to open its ports

5. Progression Of Colonization

To reach the development of Hokkaido the government greatly advertised for people to settle in Hokkaido. The peak of immigrants was reached from 1900 till the end of World War I. With every new settler more of Hokkaido was being claimed by the Japanese and more territory lost for the Ainu.

advertising for moving to Hokkaido for coal mining

the settlers who heeded the call had a rough pioneer life

6. From Recession To World War II

After World War I, were Japan successfully fought on the side of the Allied Forces, new industries and technology rapidly came up and progressed the modernization of Hokkaido. This allowed to finally expand the territory on Hokkaido into the far east, leaving no more space for the Ainu. The Ainu were those forced to live in the territory claimed by Japanese. However they were segregated by for example having to use separate schools and not being allowed to mix with Japanese. They were also forced to speak Japanese and assimilate the Japanese culture and life.

farming tools improved in this period

first telegraph lines were erected in Hokkaido

and for a first time houses were upgraded with ovens for the winter

settling continued

During World War II Japan's focus point of development moved away from Hokkaido to Manchuria, the Philippines among other conquered areas. Settlers and support were sent there and Hokkaido largely forgotten. However at the loosing end of the war, Hokkaido became more and more a refugee for people fleeing from the bombings and the atrocities of war. So that Hokkaido ran into a huge problem of Food Supply, which was barely solved with bad planning of the government to turn everyone into emergency farmers and quickly develop more farmland, a plan the for the greatest part failed.

then the war was started, and Hokkaido in between

support our troops with coal

and food

7. The Postwar Period

Because of the ongoing food shortages the post World War II time was a time of social and economic confusion and conflict. Many farmers started uprisings against the government, who always fought them down.

However along with the rest of the nation starting 1960 the economy quickly rose to never known peaks the the life of all people was improved enormously. For a first time luxurious life was also possible in Hokkaido, and many people build modern houses with central heating.

heating improved together with

general housing

the first passenger trains were opened

and luxury came with children's toys

home electronics

and skiing as past time activity

also the farming tools were modernized

8. Tomorrow's Hokkaido

Almost 90% of Hokkaido is still unclaimed nature. And for the most parts, the Japanese like to keep it that way and turned large areas into protected national parks. However the development and progress of life will not stop. More and better roads will be created. The sparse train net will be expanded. New settlements will be started by the courageous pioneers of tomorrow.

百年記念公園 100 Years Memorial Park

The real settlement in Hokkaido now lies 120 years in the past. 20 years ago the new capital of Hokkaido, Sapporo, decided to turn a huge area into a national park and dedicate one area inside to 100 years of settling in Hokkaido honoring the past 100 years of settlers.

This park is yet another part of the the same national park that hosts the pioneer village and the history museum. So you should go there after seeing the other two (since the park has no opening hours).

The memorial park, no the whole national park and even the city nearby is dominated by the exactly 100 meters high 記念タワー Memorial Tower. Created completely of Iron it towers as a huge dark threatening monolith over the trees. It looks like I always imagined Sauron's black tower from the book The Lord Of The Rings. And no matter where I was, I could no stop staring and marveling at it. There really is a magic to it, I am sure of it.

can you see Sauron's eye in between the top pillars?

If you be there between 9 and 17:00, you can also go inside the tower and climb half of it's height to a observation platform. I happened to arrive their after six o'clock, but sine the sun was already setting and it was meaningless to go on, I simply decided to erect my tent right next to the tower not directly seen from the walking path.

view from the observatory in the tower

Therefore the guard on duty only noticed me in the morning and woke me up with a very careful questioning "ohayou gozaimasu" (Good Morning). I responded "ohayou gozaimasu" and opened the zipper of my tent putting my head outside. The guard was frightened to see a foreigner and started stuttering in Japanese:
"e-to. koko ha tento wo haru koto ga chotto, e-" (Erecting a tent here is, ahm). I quickly replied in Japanese
"ah gomennasai, wakarimasen deshita. (I am sorry, I didn't know).
Then he replied really relieved "nihongo ha hontou ni jouzu n desuga..., tento ha chotto..." (Your Japanese is really good, but... about the tent)
"Hai hai, sugu ni nidsukuri shimashou! shinpai shinaide kudasai!" (Yes, I will quickly pack it together, worry not good sir!).

there is one single way inside, for the courageous

Later I met him again, when I finished packing the tent and waited on a bench till the clock would strike nine. The he greatly relived even sat next to me and spent almost the next hour of his duty talking to me in fascination and we became friends. We talked until his duty called and the first visitor of the day parked in front of the park around half to nine. Japanese guards and police are really cool. ^_^

actually the memorial park is more than just the tower,
but everything else looks plain compared to the monolith

On a side notice, of course the national park around the pioneer village, museum and 100 years memorial park is also quite worth seeing. Starting from the tower there are a couple of really nice walking trails that lead through the forests and let you enjoy a nice view on the untouched nature.

札幌大学 Sapporo University

When I was traveling back I crossed Sapporo a second time. I was very lucky because when I was hitchhiking for Sapporo two students of Sapporo University stopped and picked me up. We found liking each other and diverged over several Anime and Manga topics. When we reached the outskirts, they asked me where I was intending to lodge. I answered tent or manga cafe. Recognizing my financial situation and lack of need for comfort they offered me to sleep in the university. One of them was a PHD student of ecology and said in the ecology lab, there is a nice couch where I shall find a comfortable sleep. I gladly accepted.

two couches and a chair = comfy bed

CSIAM Control Strategy of Intrusive Alien Mammals

Arriving we all found our stomaches empty and the same student decided to use the ecology budget on some important inter cultural exchange and invited me, the other student and one girl which still was working in the lab for dinner ^_^. Later they showed me the couch and even allowed me to use the computers inside for internet surfing and writing mails.

Thus I even was allowed to see Sapporo University from the inside and outside, meet some more friends and have one more good sleep in Hokkaido's capital.

mika

北海道へ Going To Hokkaido

2008-08-02T21:29:00.000-07:00

After relaxing for almost two weeks after my travel to west Japan and Kyushu, I hit the road again, this time for the opposite direction: north Japan and Hokkaido.

Traveling to and in Hokkaido is really difficult and time intensive, so that I decided to briefly write about how to get there, which options you have and how much time it takes.

Basically your options are: Hitchhiking, Fairy, Seishun 18 Kippu, Fast Trains, Air Plane and Car Rental.

青春１８切符 Seishun 18 Kippu

The cheapest option from the above (except hitchhiking) is the Seishun 18 Kippu, but it also takes the longest time. The Seishun 18 Kippu is a special train ticket, that lets you ride all JR local and rapid (快速) trains on five arbitrary days (they need not to be consecutive) for 11.500 Yen. It is available to all ages, but only during summer and spring holiday seasons. You can not board special rapid trains (tokkyu, 特急) and Shinkansen (新幹線), which means traveling takes a lot of time and endless train switching.

To speak plainly: from Tokyo to Sapporo with this ticket it takes 3-4 days! If you take the Iwate line from Morioka (盛岡) to 八戸 (Hachinohe) you can definitely make it in 3 days, but this intermediate line can not be boarded with the kippu and you need to pay another 2200 Yen for boarding it.

That's the way I got to Hokkaido:
1st day: Atsugi (厚木) - Sendai (仙台)
2nd day: Sendai (仙台) - Hakodate (函館) (using the above Iwate line to from Morioka to Hachinohe)
3rd day: Hakodate (函館) - Sapporo (札幌)

From 本州 Honshu, Japan's main island, to Hokkaido, there is only a train tunnel as the sole connection, except ships. From 青森 Aomori to 函館 Hakodate, there is a special rapid train connecting main land and Hokkaido. Since there is no local train JR makes an exception for Seishun 18 Kippu users to allow boarding of this train. The name of the train is Tokkyuu Shiratori Number 15 特急白鳥15号 (special rapid white swan number 15).
However you can not go the whole way but need to board at 蟹田 Kanita (the north most stop on Honshu from the train, north of Aomori) and need to get out at 木古内 Kikonai (the southmost stop on Hokkaido, south of Hakodate) and change to local trains.

ヒッチハイキング Hitchhiking

The cheapest option is without doubt Hitchhiking, and if you are only a bit lucky, it is way faster than the Seishun trains. Especially once you reach Hokkaido, there are many places not reachable by trains and all the trains are exceptionally slow. So I do not recommend taking trains in Hokkaido, but to use the roads.

I will write another entry about budget traveling talking about hitchhiking in detail, but here are some techniques you should keep in mind.

- write a sign with the destination, where you intend to go
- or if that destination is quite far write down the name of a big city on the way
- be sure to use Kanji! without nobody will be able to read the signs quickly enough and understand what you want. also like this they will know that you can speak Japanese (even if you can't) and gain some confidence in taking you
- good positions are: big express and highway stops, express way entrance roads, traffic lights on highways. always look the people into the eyes and smile, so that they can plainly see you and loose their fear.

Concerning getting to Hokkaido your problem will be, that there is no street, bridge or car tunnel to Hokkaido (the existing tunnel is only used by trains). So you will need to find a way to get there: either you takes one Seishun 18 Kippu stamp and use the train or you use a...

フェリー Ferry

image from Wikipedia

There are two ferries I can recommend to you.
The first goes from Aomori 青森 to 函館 Hakodate takes 4 hours and 1.500 Yen (there is also a 2 hour ferry for 4.000 Yen that is surely not worth the extra Yen).
The second goes from Hachinohe 八戸 to Tomakomai 苫小牧, a city just south of Sapporo. It costs 3.000 Yen and goes overnight and includes sleeping accommodations. Therefore it surely is a good way to get there, since you also have a bed for the night.
Both ferries go in both direction, but depending on the season are quickly booked out. So be sure to plan ahead one or two days and call them to keep a place for you.

八戸 Hachinohe <-> 苫小牧 Tomakomai 0120-539-468
青森 Aomori -> 函館 Hakodate 017-782-3671
函館 Hakodate -> 青森 Aomori 0138-42-5561

レンタカー Rent A Car

image from Wikipedia

As I said before, the best way to move in Hokkaido is by car. This means you can hitchhike around, or if you have enough money and a driver's licence also rent a car. The roads are in excellent conditions and endlessly go through wonderful nature and scenery so it is really a pleasure to go anywhere in Hokkaido. Which is why also many biker find their way around here.

The problem is however that the cost for shipping a car over the ocean is huge: 20.000 to 40.000 Yen, so that it would be utter madness to take a car to the island. Rather rent a car in Hakodate, Tomakomai or Sapporo and cross the sea by ferry or train.

The gas prices in Hokkaido seem comparatively lower than on the main land, you can save as much as 10-20 Yen per liter if you look for cheap gas stations.

飛行機 Air Plane

image from Wikipedia

The fastest way and still cheaper than fast trains and car rental is the plane. It costs not more than 15.000 - 20.000 Yen for a return ticket, depending on the season, and takes you to and from Sapporo quickly.

So if you don't have a JR Rail pass and don't want to spend 6-7 days within trains, then this is your best option.

特急 Fast Trains

This option is incredibly expensive and way slower than the air plane. The only case this option makes sense is, if you are holding a JR Rail pass. Without the fee for a train from Tokyo to Sapporo is 35.000 Yen one ways, and even more for a bed inside the train. The train takes one day, because there are no Shinkansen yet going as far a Hokkaido (although a Shinkansen is currently planned for Sapporo).

So it would be utter madness to use this option, except you can use it with the JR Rail pass. However even the Rail pass does not include the fee for a bed, so you have to sleep in your seat or choose one of the other options.

Now that you know all the options, I recommend a combination of them as the best and cheapest way to get there:
First get to Morioka 盛岡 either by hitchhiking or by Seishun Kippu (or rather stand up early use one stamp and see how far you can get within one day). From there you should hitchhike to Hachinohe　八戸 or Aomori 青森, since the Seishun Kippu does not cover the Iwate Train line. And you'd probably even be faster that way.
From Aomori 青森 / Hachinohe 八戸 decide whether you want the ferry or tunnel (and see if a place on the ferry is available). The tourist information can help you find and book the ferry.
In case you want to take the tunnel get to Kanita 蟹田 by local trains, take the next fast train to Kikonai 木古内 and then again locals to Hakodate 函館.
Lastly from Hakodate 函館 or Tomakomai 苫小牧 refer to hitchhiking as long as you are in Hokkaido.

With a combination of Seishun 18 Kippu, hitchhiking and taking one fast train from Kanita to Aomori (because there are no local trains after 16:00 o'clock, I was able to cover the way from Sapporo to Atsugi in two days. I first intended to use ferries, but they were all booked out, so try to plan ahead.

so let's see what treasures Hokkaido holds in my next posts
mika

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