Sumiko Enbutsu - The Japan Times

LIFE / Travel / THEN AND NOW

Mar 5, 2004

The 1830s woodblock print by Hasegawa Settan shown here depicts Surugacho, now in the neighborhood of the Mitsukoshi department store one block north of Nihonbashi Bridge in the center of Tokyo. Rendered with excellent visual accuracy, it seems to be humming in praise of the wealth and prosperity of the Mitsui family, as even Mount Fuji joins in from a distance.

LIFE / Travel / THEN AND NOW

Feb 6, 2004

Spanning eras at Edo's vibrant hub

First of three parts Nihonbashi -- "Bridge of Japan" -- is the most famous and important bridge of Edo Period Japan. Designated by Shogun Ieyasu in 1603 as the hub of the country's highway network, with all distances measured from there, the small wooden structure with a 50-meter span was where journeys from the then political capital started or finished. In those days, too, when travel routes doubled as "information highways" constantly traversed by messengers, news of all kinds arrived here first and spread from here.

LIFE / Travel / THEN AND NOW

Dec 5, 2003

Plying the watery margins of old Edo

The accompanying 1830s woodblock print by Hasegawa Settan, titled "The Rokugo Ferry," shows a ferry that has just embarked on a crossing of the Tama River, taking about a dozen passengers and a horse to Kawasaki on the far shore. The two men dashing in vain to get on the boat will not be disappointed for long, as other ferries will soon be there to shuttle them across to Kawasaki, the second post station on the Tokaido highway.

LIFE / Travel / THEN AND NOW

Nov 7, 2003

Meandering in time beside the Tama

From its source in the high mountains to the northwest of Tokyo, the Tama River flows southwest before emptying into Tokyo Bay. The upper reaches in Okutama are part of the Chichibu-Tama National Park. The lower reaches separate Tokyo from Kanagawa Prefecture, with Haneda airport at the river's mouth.

LIFE / Travel / THEN AND NOW

Oct 3, 2003

Drenched in history: scenic Senzoku Pond

The 1830s woodblock print shown here depicts Senzoku Pond in a southwestern suburb of Edo that is now part of Ota Ward, Tokyo.

LIFE / Travel / THEN AND NOW

Sep 18, 2003

Step this way, pilgrim

This 1830s woodblock print by Edo Period artist Hasegawa Settan depicts the grand view of a temple on a wooded hill with a low-lying town in the foreground and peaceful Edo Bay in the distance. The picture is actually the right half of a sweeping landscape depicting Hommon-ji, an enormously popular Buddhist temple in the southwestern suburb of Edo, now part of Tokyo's Ota Ward.

COMMUNITY

Aug 31, 2003

Enjoy it while you can

The Ibaraki House in Bunkyo Ward (above) is a fine -- and rare -- example of Tokyo's prewar residential architecture.

LIFE / Travel / THEN AND NOW

Aug 21, 2003

Tracking down the old Tokaido

The old itinerant monk in "Oi," the 1830s woodblock print by Hasegawa Settan shown here, is admiring a gushing spring on a forested hillside. Apparently impressed by the joyous flow of water, he is speaking to a local temple apprentice who is pointing away to the right, possibly to another spring nearby.

COMMUNITY

Aug 10, 2003

Waterways of Edo life

For centuries, the boastful citizens of Edo lorded it over country bumpkins by saying, "I'm an Edokko [native of Edo] 'cause I was cleaned with pipe water when I was born and I've grown up drinking pipe water ever since."

COMMUNITY

Aug 10, 2003

The ones who got there first

Four centuries before Tokugawa Ieyasu arrived at Edo, a fierce band of mounted warriors had already fortified the hill where Ieyasu would build his magnificent Edo Castle, and on which the Imperial Palace now stands.

LIFE / Travel / THEN AND NOW

Jul 17, 2003

Exploring a once bleak, medieval upland

In 1601 Tokugawa Ieyasu established a nationwide highway network radiating from Edo and designated post stations on the roads to serve the needs of travelers. Shinagawa, on the city's southwestern perimeter, was the first of these post stations on the Todaido, the most frequented route between Edo and Kyoto.

LIFE / Travel / THEN AND NOW

Jun 19, 2003

Strolling in a dream

This 1830s woodblock print by Edo artist Hasegawa Settan shows the vast precincts of Tokai-ji, a Zen temple in Shinagawa. Built by Shogun Tokugawa Iemitsu (1604-51) and donated in 1638 to Abbot Takuan Soho (1573-1645), Tokai-ji prospered as the third-largest temple in Edo, second only to Kan'ei-ji in Ueno and Zojo-ji in Shiba.

COMMUNITY

May 18, 2003

Living the papermaker's art

Tsutomu Kono's life is all wrapped up with washi, the handmade Japanese paper made of pure, natural fiber.

LIFE / Travel / THEN AND NOW

May 15, 2003

Where the Tokaido left the town

Eastern Shinagawa, on the western side of central Tokyo, is fast being transformed from a decaying industrial area of warehouses and rail marshalling yards into a modern business hub. One step beyond the forests of shining new high rises, however, the area's history as an Edo Period post-station town on the old Tokaido highway at the city's edge lives on here and there. Footprints of fishermen, found off the main roads, also tell of the happy days when people there lived close to the sea.

COMMUNITY

Apr 27, 2003

A last look before doors close

The Yasuda House, a Japan National Trust property set amid thick woods on the heights of Sendagi in northwest Tokyo's Bunkyo Ward, will be open for public viewing on April 29, 2003 (Greenery Day national holiday). Marking the finale of a series of fundraising events by concerned citizens who, together with the owner, in 1996 succeeded in saving the beautiful wooden house from almost certain demolition, the open day will feature magnificent displays of sets of dolls and miniature samurai armor and weapons traditionally given for the Boy's Day festival. As well as viewing these antiques in the house's main tatami room, visitors will also have a final chance to admire the building's traditional architecture -- inspired by the Katsura Detached Palace in Kyoto and described by Tokyo University architecture professor Terunobu Fujimori as "the epitome of the residential style and building techniques of the Taisho Era (1912-26)" -- before the 85-year-old house is closed for lengthy refurbishment, beginning June 2003.

LIFE / Travel / THEN AND NOW

Apr 17, 2003

Tokyo's own stairway to heaven

The 1830s woodcut print by Hasegawa Settan depicts the steep, densely wooded hillside of Atago-yama topped in the haze by the Shinto shrine of Atago-jinja, which visitors reach either by a stone stairway thrusting straight to the summit, or another zigzagging round the side. In the foreground, a torii (entrance gate) guarding the shrine's precincts is flanked by affiliated temples and shrines.

LIFE / Travel / THEN AND NOW

Mar 20, 2003

Walking on waters that were

Tsukiji, now famous as home to the world's biggest fish market, was reclaimed from the sea in the 17th century. Its transformation from seabed to seashore came after the magnificent first city of Edo, designed by Shogun Ieyasu in 1603 and completed around 1650, was destroyed by a fire in 1657. Then, with rebuilding going on everywhere, the Tokugawa Shogunate determined to expand the city on its eastern and southern margins, building bridges across the Sumida River and filling in sections of Edo Bay. Tsukiji, meaning "constructed land," was added south of Ginza in this process.

COMMUNITY

Feb 23, 2003

Taisho treasure

Tokyo is in the throes of a particularly bold face-lift. In the cause of urban regeneration, massive high-rises are shooting up in Shinagawa, Shinbashi, Roppongi and Shinjuku, transforming the skyline of metropolitan Tokyo. On the ground, wrecking trucks clear more land, demolishing old homes and felling trees.

LIFE / Travel / THEN AND NOW

Feb 20, 2003

Down by the Edo riverside

The 1830s woodcut prints by Hasegawa Settan depict an amazing panorama of Edo as seen looking southeast from Edo Castle. The unobstructed view must have been the one the shogun enjoyed from his castle in what is now the Imperial Palace's East Garden, introduced in this column last month.

LIFE / Travel / THEN AND NOW

Jan 16, 2003

Tokyo's refreshing oasis of history and nature

As the most important festival on the Japanese calendar, New Year is an occasion to make wishes and resolutions, and to wish others happiness in the coming year. Most people also like to visit a Shinto shrine or Buddhist temple, and to gather together with family and friends. On Jan. 2, crowds also visit the Imperial Palace to see the Emperor offer his annual New Year's greetings.

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