1/22/2008

Salt (shio)

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. Legends about Salt .
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Salted winter food

***** Location: Japan
***** Season: Winter
***** Category: Humanity


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Explanation

Salt has been used in Japan as in other countries to prepare food for winter. Especially salted fish is very common.


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salted salmon, shiozake 塩鮭 (しおざけ)
"new roll" aramaki 新巻(あらまき)
shiobiki 塩引(しおびき)、shiojake しおじゃけ

Salted salmon, called shiozake or shiojake, is so ubiquitous in Japan that when people just talk about “salmon” (sake or shake) they are usually referring to the salted kind rather than the raw kind (which is specifically called namazake(生鮭)). Salted salmon is a staple ingredient of bento, used as an onigiri rice ball filling, flaked on top of or mixed into rice, or just grilled.

Salted salmon is cheap and easily available in Japan, but not so outside of Japan. So I’ve been making it myself for some time now, and it’s quite easy. All you need is a typical refrigerator that has low humidity. (If yours doesn’t have excess condensation in it, and old leafy vegetables get dessicated in the corner of your vegetable bin, then it’s ideal.)
Read how to prepare it :
© justbento.com



salted yellowtail, shioburi 塩鰤 (しおぶり)


salted cod, shiodara 塩鱈 (しおだら)
The Chinese character of this fish (tara ) consists of the word for FISH and SNOW! It is a delicacy in winter.


salted bonito, skipjack, shiogatsuo 塩鰹 (しおがつお )




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hodgepodge with salt, shottsuru nabe
塩汁鍋 (しょっつるなべ)
"salty soup" shottsuru 塩汁(しょっつる)
saltey soup with fried clams, shottsuru kayaki
塩汁貝焼(しょっつるかやき)


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Echigo Murakami Sake Shiobiki Kaido
越後村上鮭塩引き街道


The "road for salted salmon" in Murakami, Echigo.
Every home has salmon hanging from the eaves, with the stomach open to the wind (tomebara 止め腹).

The main street of the village is called "Salt-pickled Road".

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Shiogama has prospered as the home of the Shiogama Shrine and as a harbour city.

In ancient times a god named Shiotsuchi no oji no kami, is said to have come to Shiogama and to have taught the people how to make salt. Shiogama, meaning salt caldron, derived its name from this legend.
Today, the ancient salt making ritual is still performed every July at the Okama Shrine in Shiogama.
Shiogama Myoojin (塩釜明神, 鹽竈明神)

WDK : Sail-cord Festival (hote matsuri). Shiogama


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amajio あまじお【甘塩】 "sweet salt"
lightly salted food and pickles
amajio no sakana ... lightly salted fish


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The Salt fields at shrine Ise Jingu 伊勢神宮

mishio 御塩 "salt for the gods"
Mishiohama 御塩浜 beach with the salt fields
Mishio yakuiho 御塩焼所
The salt for daily offerings is prepared at the shrine salt fields.



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Worldwide use

North America

Compiled by Larry Bole :

American cuisine is such a hodge-podge of world cuisines!
Americans who need to look after their health are looking for ways to cut-down on sodium, which there is often too much of in American food.

There isn't much interest in salt pork anymore, but it once showed up in American cooking, especially in Boston baked beans.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salt_pork

There are salted peanuts, but if they were a kigo, they would probably be a summer kigo.

There is corned beef, which usually goes on sale around St. Patrick's Day here in America.

And there is salted codfish, which is found in both Italian-American cuisine (baccala) and Hispanic-American cuisine (bacalao).

In my city neighborhood, where there is a substantial Latino population, I love going into the local grocery stores around Christmas time and smelling the briny, tangy sea smell of the bacalao, even through the plastic wrapping.

One of my favorite Basho haiku:

tsutsuji ikete sono kage ni hidara saku onna

azaleas all arranged:
in their shade, a woman
tearing dried cod


Basho, trans. Barnhill

This has been translated into Spanish as:

Ante un florero lleno de azaleas
Una mujer
Desmenuzando bacalao seco

Basho, trans. not known


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Philippines

In the Philippines, we have what is called "bagoong", pronounced "ba-go-ong", which is anchovy paste. It has a sharp pungent odor and is often used to flavour less sharply-flavoured dishes, but also functions as a kind of counter-flavour for very sour dishes or sharply-sour fruit, like green mangoes. However, a simple dish of bagoong with rice will do very well, too. The bagoong will cause you to eat more rice and thereby fill your tummy, even if you have nothing else to eat in the house, which is often the case with people living below the poverty line. That doesn't mean, though, that only the poor eat bagoong. It's not called our native caviar for nothing! In "tokos" around the world, especially Asian, and most especially Filipino "tokos", fresh export-quality bagoong can be bought by the jar.

CLICK for more photos


dried fish
and salted tomatoes
... on Delft blue!



a saucer
of anchovy paste
on the table
the steady drip
from a leaking roof

Ella Wagenmakers


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Things found on the way


Salt in used as a means to purify a place in Japanese culture.

Sumo wrestlers throw a hand full of salt in the ring before the battle, to purify it of any negative feelings the arena may hold from past bouts .
CLICK for enlargement



After a funeral, visitors get a small package of salt to purify themselves before they return home. O-kiyomejio お清め塩 .
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Morishio (morijio 盛り塩) - a symbolic mound of salt at the side of the entrance to a Japanese restaurant.
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According to the story, there was once a Chinese emperor who had 3,000 concubines waiting in little houses outside the palace gates. Every night the emperor would set out in an ox cart to visit one or the other of them. One clever concubine, knowing that animals are fond of salt, decided to improve her odds of a royal rendezvous by putting salt outside her door. The imperial ox made a beeline for the salt and couldn't be budged, so, while the emperor may have had a different destination in mind, he ended up spending the night with her.
Morijio ... more details are HERE !


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salt with kurome (seaweed), kuromejio くろめ塩

くろめ(黒海布/黒布/黒菜) クロメ
kurome is a kind of konbu. It is powdered and mixed with salt.
The mixture is eaten with fresh sea-urchin eggs (uni).



salt with seaweed 藻塩 mojio, moshio
eaten with tempura
CLICK here for PHOTOS !
Records of this salt

Prepared first in Yamato by the god 塩推之神.

Ein besonderes „Algen-Salz“ (mojio, moshio 藻塩 ) wird gewonnen durch das Aufgießen von Meerwasser auf Seegras oder Abkochen zusammen mit Meerwasser zur Erhöhung des Mineralgehaltes; es war ursprünglich eine Art Medizin, die wahrscheinlich über Korea ihre Verwendung in Japan fand und bis heute als besondere Würze zu Tempura gereicht wird. Es wird bereits in der Gedichtsammlung „Manyooshuu“ besungen.
Salz vermischt mit Kurome-Seetang (kuromejio くろめ塩) wird als Geschmacksverfeinerung über frische Seeigel gestreut.


. Moshio yaki shinji 藻塩焼神事 Ritual of making Moshio salt .


わくらばに問ふ人あらば須磨の浦に
藻塩たれつつ侘ぶと答へよ


wakuraba ni tou hito araba Suma no Ura ni
moshio taretsutsu wabu to kotae yo

If, by any chance
someone should ask after me,
answer that I pine,
weeping as salt seaweed drips
on the beach of Suma.

Tr. Helen Craig McCullough

Ariwara no Yukihira 在原行平 (818 - 893)


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salt with macha green tea powder 抹茶塩 machajio
eaten with tempura
CLICK here for PHOTOS !


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Salt-tasting Jizo Bosatsu
Shioname Jizo 塩嘗地蔵


This is a small statue in the neighbourhood of Kamakura, where I used to live closeby in the mountains of Juniso.
It is at the foot of the Asahina pass road from Kamakura to the Bay of Tokyo.



This strangely named statue stands within the grounds of Kosokuji Temple. It is enshrined in a small wooden house, together with six smaller Jizo, the Roku Jizo (六地蔵), guardian deities of the Six Realms of the afterlife:
Hell (地獄), Hungry Spirits (餓鬼), Animals (畜生), Bellicose Spirits (阿修羅), Human Beings (人間), and Heaven (天).

In earlier days, the statue stood beside the main road where many people passed by. The name of this Jizo derives from the following story: In the early days, salt sellers offered the Jizo a portion of their salt on their way to the town of Kamakura because they hoped for a successful trade. On their return, they always noticed that the salt was gone. They innocently believed Jizo had graciously tasted it and would give them luck. The legend attests the importance of this road for transportation of daily necessities such as salt.
Look at more photos of the area here:
 © Kamakura: History & Historic Sites

quote
Hank Glassman's wonderful book The Face of Jizō (2012, University of Hawaii Press).
Herein we learn that six Jizō effigies were commonly installed at city entrances for "warding off evil and controlling spiritual dirt." (Glassman, p. 129). This accords well with the location of Kōsokuji Temple, which is situated on the outskirts of Kamakura along one of only seven entrance roads. Although Kamakura is next to the ocean, its bay is not well suited for the production of salt. In those bygone centuries, the city depended on salt traders from nearby Mutsu-ura and Mirua for its salt -- and those merchants depended on the passageway in front of Kōsokuji. As a preeminent crossroad deity, Jizō was most appropriately installed here to protect the wellbeing of Kamakura and the prosperity of its neighboring salt traders. The six Jizō icons are not mentioned in the SKS, however, so we may reasonably assume they were added in later years.
and more by
. Mark Schumacher - facebook Jizo Gallery .


. Asaina Kiridoshi Pass 朝夷奈切通し .
and Asahina Saburo Yoshihide - 朝比奈三郎義秀



. 銭塚地蔵尊 Zenizuka Jizo - Shioname Jizo
- かんかん地蔵 Kankan Jizo .

Asakusa, Tokyo

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quote
Agehamashiki Salt Production 揚げ浜式の塩づくり
Agehamashiki (salt production method whereby sea water is brought manually to a salt pond) is a term in salt production corresponding to irihamashiki (a method utilizing the tide) and is said to be the worlds oldest method of producing salt. In the feudal period, salt production was encouraged as one of the most important products of Kaga Domain and a monopoly was established in 1627.

Not counting one temporary hiatus, the monopoly continued until 1871. In the Suzu area, salt production had been the major industry since the Edo period, but it was terminated in 1959 due to the Extraordinary Measures Law for Salt Industries.
Only Kakuhanake (the preservation society for the agehamashiki salt production in Noto area) has been passing on the traditional technology, despite numerous difficulties.

Beginning with the preparation of the enden (the sandy salt field), and following through the shiokumi (carrying sea water to the enden), which demands extremely hard physical labor, the shiomaki (scattering sea water onto the sand), the construction of the nui (filter), around-the-clock kamadaki (boiling) at the extreme heat of 60 degrees centigrade - the technology for this whole series of tasks can only be found here and is a very valuable cultural heritage.

This activity was designated an Intangible Folk Cultural Property by Ishikawa Prefecture on April 8, 1992.

Look at the video here:
source : bunkashisan.ne.jp


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Tobacco and Salt Museum
Shibuya, Tokyo

The Tobacco and Salt museum might seem a bit of a quirky museum to outsiders but to the Japannese both of these products have been very important in Japanese culture and trade for centuries. This museum traces the history and the importance of both tobacco and salt and its relationship with man.

The third floor is all about salt, its production and uses and its importance to us all. Thre are dioramas and detailed displays which explain salt harvest technologies and the worlds relieance on this natural resource. Japan harvests all of its salt from the sea while many countries expecially in Europe or Asia have natural deposists which they mine. The Japanese are facinated by these salt caves. Some of the displays show the amazing imagination used to create clever salt extraction methods from sea water.

By comparison with other heavily populated parts of the world, Japan has always been at a disadvantage, for it has no known rock-salt deposits or other terrestrial salt sources, while its relatively low median temperatures and heavy rainfall make reliance on natural evaporation impracticable.

Until relatively recent times, importation of salt from abroad was difficult if not impossible, due to the island nation's distance from the continent. Thus, Japan was forced to develop its own salt technology, some aspects of which are not found elswhere.

In general, Japanese salt production was carried on in two stage First, various methods were utilized to produce a heavily condensed saline solution from ordinary sea water; in the second stage, this salt concentrate was boiled down to yield a residue of edible sea salt.

Even with the universal mechanisation in use today, these two processes still form the groundwork of salt manufacture in Japan; the search for increased efficiency in extracting salt from sea water continues to challege the ingenuity of contemporary scientists and technician. The scope of their research is not limited to edible salt production alone, for the growing significance of soda and soda derivatives in modern industry has if anything, increased the importance of salt as one of the indispensable raw materials necessary for the advanced technology of today.

Tobacco and Salt Museum


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Shio no michi 塩の道 The Salt Road  
"Chikuni Kaido" 'chikuni kaidoo 千国街道(ちくにかいどう)
From Niigata to Matsumoto in Nagano


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takeshio, takejio 竹塩 salt made in bamboo
bamboo salt. Sea salt is stuffed into freshly cut bamboo and then roasted two or three times. This is an old method from Buddhist monks, brought over from Korea. This salt has a high mineral content and is also used for gargles or as bathing salt. It gives a special flavor to dishes.

. . . CLICK here for Photos ! 



yamashio, yamajio 山塩 salt from the mountains
from Oshika mura in Nagano 大鹿
It is contained in water coming out from the mountain. It is cooked for a few days until the water is evaporated. Local people use it to eat the tempura, grilled fish in salt and other dishes with it.

. . . CLICK here for Photos !


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Print by Utagawa Kuniyoshi 風俗女水滸伝 


The Salt-boiling Islands, Shiwaku Shotoo (塩飽諸島)
The group is situated between Okayama Prefecture and Kagawa Prefecture in the western Bisan Seto and consists of 28 islands of various sizes. On the Okayama side lie the Kasaoka Islands. The name derives from shioyaku (塩焼く, shioyaku) or shiowaku (潮湧く, shiowaku) both meaning boiling seawater to get salt.

Shamijima 沙弥島
Due to a land reclamation of the Sakaide Bannosu (番の州, Bannosu?) industrial area in December 1967, the island became connected to the adjacent land. Adjoining, the island services the Seto Ohashi Memorial Park. In summer the island is crowded by guests who come to bath in the sea. From the Jomon period on the salt making culture developed. At Nakanda beach (ナカンダ浜, nakanda-hama) earthenware and other finds from that time have been excavated.

The Man'yōshū poet Kakinomoto no Hitomaro paid a visit to the island and composed a tanka and tanka appendage. According to the novelist Nakagawa Yoichi (中河与一, Nakagawa Yoichi?) from Sakaide, Kakinomoto no Hitomaro had a temple/monument erected on Nakanda beach which in 1936 was moved to its present location on Osogoe beach (オソゴエの浜, Osogoe beach?) at (人麻呂岩).


Yoshima 与島,
part of Sakaide and one of the seven "salt boiling islands". area: 1.10 km², circumference: 6.9 km. The island is crossed by the Great Seto Bridge and a rest area ("Yoshima parking area") has been build along the highway.
© More in the WIKIPEDIA !



Utagawa Kuniyoshi,
Women Carrying Buckets of Brine for Salt
source : The Arthur R. Miller Collection

. . . CLICK here for Photos of the Islands !



source : asahi-net.or.jp

The Shiwaku Odori 塩飽踊り Shiwaku Dance
amulet from the Shiwaku Islands (salt boiling). (on the left)
In 1591, Toyotomi Hideyoshi ordered the marine of Shiwaku to help with his campaign against Korea. 32 ships with 650 people joined the battles and eventually came back sucessfully. When they returned home, old and young, men and women of the island danced for three days, filled with joy.

. Toys and Amulets from Kagawa 香川県 .

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Sakaide and Kume Tsuuken (1780 - 1841)
久米通賢(くめつうけん)坂出


Sakaide is the biggest trading port in Shikoku, dealing with about 34,700 cargo ships and tankers each year. Until the 1960s it was known for the greatest salt production in Japan. Visiting Kamada Kyosai-kai Kyodo Hakubutsu-kan Museum is like visiting Sakaide as it used to be. There are lots of interesting objects from the earliest salt-making pots (300-600 A.D.) to innovations in the 19th century by Kume Tsuken, the founder of Sakaide as a Salt City.
Sakaide is an industrial town of 60,000 located 22 km west of Takamatsu. It is a traditional area for sea-salt production.
source :  www.lansingsc.org



yukishio, yuki-shio ゆきしお / 雪塩 snow-salt
very fine salt, often used for kaiseki food. This salt is blown over the food to distribute it carefully.
Very rich in minerals, even in the Guiness Books of Records as the salt with the most minerals !
From Miyako Island, Okinawa 宮古島
. . . CLICK here for Photos !



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Heda no shio 戸田の塩 salt from Heda, Izu peninsula
It has a long tradition of more than 1000 years.
The salt is boiled and stirred constantly in a long process to make salt. Now a group of local ladies and their husbands keep it up. The men get the water out in large tanks from the deep sea of the Bay of Suruga. From each large yellow container of water they get about 14 kilo of salt.
. . . CLICK here for Photos !
One delicacy is a simple
shio musubi 塩むすび rice ball with salt
Salt is also used as a dip for sashimi, instead of soy sauce.


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quote
On the night of the twenty-ninth of the sixth month, they met in the garden of the Dajōkan,
drank salt water and swore an oath, . .


This ritual is mentioned only in the edict translated in the article (757.7.12), and in Azumahito's confession in the "Shoku Nihongi" entry for 7.4 to which it refers.

source : pmjs group discussion


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Salt from Ako, called Chushingura
赤穂塩 忠臣蔵

赤穂の天塩

quote
Chûshingura in the 1980s:
Rethinking the Story of the 47 Ronin

Henry D. Smith II

Take, for example, the episode on the Pine Corridor incident that appeared in NHK’s “Invitation to History” (Rekishi e no shôtai) series, in which academic historians, amateur historians, and writers of historical fiction are all happily mixed together to debate a particular issue. One major topic of discussion in this particular program was the so-called “salt-farm theory,” deriving from the fact that both Akô and Kira Yoshinaka’s own domain of Kira-chô, located 40 km southeast of Nagoya on Atsumi Bay, just happened to be producers of salt.

It was the novelist Ozaki Shirô―a native of Kira-chô―who first proposed in 1949 that the incident had its origins in a salt rivalry between Asano, whose Akô salt was of superior quality, and Kira, who had easier access to the Edo market.
Of the several versions of the salt-farm theory, the most common envisions Kira sending spies to Akô to steal the secrets of superior salt technology, thereby provoking Asano and eventually the Matsu-no-rôka attack. Never mind that there is not a shred of evidence for the theory: the NHK show made a virtue of this by featuring a lengthy discussion by a leading expert of Edo salt production, who conclusively demonstrated that the industrial spy theory was in fact implausible, since the geological and labor conditions in Kira-chô would have made Akô’s techniques useless anyway.

source : www.columbia.edu/




rusk bisquits with Ako salt 赤穂塩ラスク





生大福 daifuku rice cakes with Ako salt
忠臣蔵ゆかりの地 赤穂の塩を使った





salted peanut snack with Ako salt
赤穂の天然塩をピーナッツ

only sold in the Kansai area


. Chushingura 忠臣蔵 The Story of the 47 Ronin .


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HAIKU


SALT kigo for the New Year

Matsumoto no shio-ichi 松本の塩市 (まつもとのしおいち)
salt market in Matsumoto

..... First market at Matsumoto, Matsumoto no hatsu ichi 松本の初市
..... Sweet Market, ame ichi 飴市(あめいち)
Matsumoto in Nagano is the final station of the Salt Road, see below.

It used to be January 11, now on the second Saturday and Sunday in January.
Now more sweets are sold instead of salt.




. WKD : New Year Ceremonies  


Shio no michi 塩の道 The Salt Road  
"Chikuni Kaido" 'chikuni kaidoo 千国街道(ちくにかいどう)
From Niigata to Matsumoto in Nagano


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salted salmon

塩鮭をさげて食おうか絵にするか
shiozake o sagete tabeyoo ka e ni suru ka

taking down the salted salmon -
shall we eat it?
shall we paint it?



塩鮭の塩の甘さを嘆くべし
shiozake no shio no amasa o nageku beshi

the sweetness of salt
from the salted salmon -
we should grieve about it



塩鮭や何で紅色きらめきし
塩鮭や海の力を割り裂きて
銀シャリに映える塩鮭見てわが身引き締む
味なじむ鮭のおにぎり母のぬくもり
子がくれし、塩鮭捌く、年の暮れ
© 俳句歳時記(62号)
Tr. Gabi Greve


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木がらしや木の葉にくるむ塩肴
kogarashi ya ki no ha ni kurumu shio sakana

winter wind--
wrapped in tree leaves
a salted fish


Issa, tr. David Lanoue

sakana, can also indicate a bite to go with a sip of ricewine, not necessarily a fish. Something to nibble while drinking.


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Compiled by Larry Bole

In Snorri Sturluson's "Prose Edda" (Norse Mythology), the sacred cow, Audumbla, "... licked the ice-blocks, which were salty; and the first day that she licked the blocks, there came forth from the blocks in the evening a man's hair; the second day, a man's head; the third day the whole man was there. He is named Boki ['ancestor of the gods and grandfather of Odin']." (trans. Brodeur)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salt_lick


Here is a salt lick haiku:

ice moon . . .
an elk touches its tongue
to the salt lick


an'ya
(The Heron's Nest, Volume III, Number 10: December, 2001)



Gandhi led a famous "salt march" to the seashore in India to protest the British salt tax. This is reminiscent of the American colonial opposition to the British tea tax, symbolized by the "Boston Tea Party."

You can read about Gandhi's "salt march" here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salt_Satyagraha


Various sources on the internet say that Japan has no significant mineral salt deposits, and so has developed several ways, some unique, to extract salt from sea water.

In his book, "Dawn to the West," Donald Keene writes about the Japanese haijin Sawaki Kin'ichi (1919-2001) and his commitment to writing haiku of social significance.

"A series of haiku describing the salt fields of the Noto Peninsula he [Sawaki] visited in 1955 includes this example:

enden ni hyakunichi sujime tsuketooshi

In the salt fields
One hundred days of raking
Lines in the sand.

"The picture here is of a primitive and infinitely laborious process. Buckets of sea water are repeatedly dumped, all day long, into sand plots exposed to the hot summer sun. The water evaporates, leaving the salt. The sun is hot enough to make this crude method of salt extraction possible only for about one hundred days in the year.
The raking of the sand, generally left to the women, was (like the rest of the process) back-breaking labor. Sawaki's poem, effectively depicting the scene, earned the praise of such men as Mizuhara Shuuoshi and Yamaguchi Seishi for its rare success in incorporating into the poem itself theories of social consciousness often advocated by critics of haiku."

Hugh Bygott has translated the above haiku as follows:

In the salt pan fields,
one hundred days of lines drawn;
marked in the sand.


http://groups.yahoo.com/group/shiki-temp/message/4723


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In the fish shop
the gums of the salt-bream
look cold.


Matsuo Basho
Tr. David Landis Barnhill

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減塩に変えていつもの倍入れる  
genen ni kaete itsumo no baai ireru

changing to low salt diet -
usually I add
twice as much   
    

Hensa 偏差値48


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Related words


Selling new salt, waka shio uri 若塩売(わかしおうり)
celebrating the new salt, waka shio iwai
若塩祝い(わかしおいわい)
kigo for the New Year

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. WASHOKU - sweets with salt ! .

. WASHOKU - Meersalz
Die Geschichte des Salzes in Japan

. Legends about Salt .

***** Washoku - Food from Japan and Haiku

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Sea salt making, the right detail for boiling sea water, in the middle with to women carrying sea water in their buckets, and two men stacking up bundled fuel twigs for heating sea water.

Katsushika Hokusai (1760–1849, signed Zen (Previously) Hokusai Manji 前北斎卍)
Poem by Gonchûnagon Sadaie (Fujiwara no Sadaie, Fujiwara no Teika), from the series One Hundred Poems Explained by the Nurse (Hyakunin isshu uba ga etoki) 「百人一首宇波か縁説 権中納言定家」, 1835-36

Poem: Konu hito no Matsuo no ura no yûnagi ni yaku ya moshio no mi mo kogaretsutsu
来ぬひとを まつほの浦の 夕なぎに やくやも塩の みもこかれつゝ

On Matsuo Beach
I wait in the pines at dusk
for one who won't come -
and like the blazing salt mounds,
I too am consumed by fire.


- reference : MFA Boston -

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- #salz #shio #salt -
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1/21/2008

Bat (koomori)

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Bat (koomori) - Fledermaus

***** Location: Japan
***** Season: All summer
***** Category: Animal


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Explanation

bat, koomori 蝙蝠 (こうもり)
..... kawahori かわほり
"bird that eats mosquitoes", kakuidori蚊喰鳥(かくいどり)
mountain bat, yama koomori山蝙蝠(やまこうもり)
bats of my home, ie koomori 家蝙蝠(いえこうもり)
big bat, oo komori 大蝙蝠(おおこうもり)


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"chrysanthemum head bat" Horseshoe bat, kikugashira koomori
菊頭蝙蝠(きくがしらこうもり)



CLICK for more Japanese photosCLICK for more English LINKS

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- source : Wikipedia BAT



A bat is a mammal in the order Chiroptera.
Their most distinguishing feature is that their forelimbs are developed as wings, making them the only mammals in the world naturally capable of flight (though other mammals, such as flying squirrels, gliding flying possums and colugos, can glide for limited distances). The word Chiroptera comes from the Greek words cheir "hand" and pteron "wing," as the structure of the open wing is very similar to an outspread human hand with a membrane (patagium) between the fingers that also stretches between hand and body.

A measure of the success of bats is their estimated total of about 1,100 species of bats worldwide, accounting for about 20 percent of all mammal species. About 70 percent of bats are insectivores. Most of the rest are fructivores, with a few species being carnivorous. Bats are present throughout most of the world, including Alaska.

Bats perform a vital ecological role by pollinating some flowers, and also have an important role in seed dispersal; indeed, many tropical plants are totally dependent on bats. This role explains environmental concerns when a bat is introduced in a new setting. Tenerife provides a recent example with the introduction of the Egyptian fruit bat.

Culture
The bat is sacred in Tonga and West Africa and is often considered the physical manifestation of a separable soul. Bats are closely associated with vampires, who are said to be able to shapeshift into bats, fog, or wolves. Bats are also a symbol of ghosts, death, and disease. Among some Native Americans, such as the Creek, Cherokee and Apache, the bat is a trickster spirit. Chinese lore claims the bat is a symbol of longevity and happiness, and is similarly lucky in Poland and geographical Macedonia and among the Kwakiutl and Arabs. The bat is also a heraldic animal of the Spanish autonomous community of Valencia.

Pre-Columbian cultures associated animals with gods and often displayed them in art. The Moche people depicted bats in their ceramics.[18]

In Western Culture, the bat is often a symbol of the night and its foreboding nature. The bat is a primary animal associated with fictional characters of the night, both villains like Dracula and heroes like Batman. The association of the fear of the night with the animal was treated as a literary challenge by Kenneth Oppel, who created a best selling series of novels, beginning with Silverwing, which feature bats as the central heroic figures much as anthropomorphized rabbits were the central figures to the classic novel Watership Down.

An old wives' tale has it that bats will entangle themselves in people's hair. One likely source of this belief is that insect-eating bats seeking prey may dive erratically toward people, who attract mosquitoes and gnats, leading the squeamish to believe that the bats are trying to get in their hair.

In the United Kingdom all bats are protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Acts, and even disturbing a bat or its roost can be punished with a heavy fine.

In Sarawak, Malaysia bats are protected species under the Wildlife Protection Ordinance 1998 (see Malaysian Wildlife Law). The large Naked bat (see Mammals of Borneo) and Greater Nectar bat are consumed by the local communities.

Bats can be a tourist attraction. The Congress Avenue bridge in Austin, Texas is the summer home to North America's largest urban bat colony, an estimated 1,500,000 Mexican free-tailed bats, which eat an estimated 10,000 to 30,000 pounds of insects each night. An estimated 100,000 tourists per year visit the bridge at twilight to watch the bats leave the roost.
© More in the WIKIPEDIA !

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source : facebook

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Bats in Chinese Art
by Stephen J. Kern

Chinese art abounds with bats. They fly from the folds of fabrics and chase each other across the finest china. Jade bats adorn jewelry, and golden bats grace the most ornate altar cloths. Tapestries and toys, scepters, saddles and sashes, and many other objects are likely to be decorated with beautiful bats. While European and early-American artists used bats and bat wings to depict devils and demons, the Chinese embellished their cherished artifacts with the same winged mammals many Westerners find repulsive.
Those who were taught to dislike bats
can learn a great deal from Chinese art.
Oriental bat motifs encourage us to view bats more favorably, as objects of beauty. Chinese artists have long used five bats to represent the five blessings (wu fu) : health, long life, prosperity, love of virtue, and a tranquil, natural death.
The bats often are bright red— the color of joy.
Sometimes they encircle a stylized caligraph known as the prosperity symbol. This popular bat motif often was embroidered on expensive clothing to imply that a person's prosperity had resulted from a virtuous lifestyle.
The Chinese word for bat is "fu," and the word for happiness also is pronounced "fu." Two bats sketched on the wrapping of a gift convey best wishes and good fortune. Two butterflies, symbolic of marital bliss, often accompany bats on presents to newlyweds. Throughout Asian culture, bats continue to evoke strong, positive emotions.
Sometimes, the pattern featuring a bat in front of some ancient Chinese coins is carved. The bat symbolizes happiness, "fu", while money, pronounced "qian", is equivalent to front. The hole in the coin's center symbolizes the eye. Read as a whole, it means happiness (fu) is right in front of the eyes.
Chinese admiration for bats
began thousands of years before Christ. The Oriental world was viewed as an eternal interplay between active (male) and passive (female) forces.
Bats were thought to embody the male principle— flowers and fruits, the female.
The bat commonly was pictured with the peach, a popular female fertility symbol. We now know that the pairing of peaches and bats portrays an ecological as well as mystical relationship. Peaches (one of man's most popular fruits) were first cultivated in China approximately 5,000 years ago. Before that, peaches relied on bats for dispersal of their seeds.
Ancient scholars thought bats attained very old age because they lived deep in caves and because "they swallowed their breath." While the mystery of bat longevity remains unsolved, researchers have confirmed that bats far outlive other mammals of similar size. In a culture that venerated wisdomed old age, bats became a symbol of these virtues. Bat designs even were used on household shrines honoring deceased relatives. Such usage clearly indicates the high status of bats in the artistic and cultural heritage of China.
© www.batcon.org / Stephen J. Kern

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Chinese Art and Bats / more reference


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Things found on the way


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HAIKU


蠕蝠 - 蝙蝠も出ようき世花に鳥
かはほりも出ようき世の花に鳥

koomori mo ideyo ukiyo no hana ni tori

even bats
come out to this floating world
of blossoms and birds


even horseshoe bats
come out to this floating world
of blossoms and birds

- to make it 5 7 5 in English -
note the two different versions of kanji given for the koomori


This hokku may have been written with respect to a monk who started out on a trip. And maybe made his way to the pleasure quarters too, since it was spring with all the temptations of the season.

. Matsuo Basho 松尾芭蕉 - Archives of the WKD .

此句はある僧の旅立けるにかくいはゞやと申されしが餞別ならでよからんとていはずなりぬ
「かわほり」とは「こうもり」のことで、うき世はいま花に鳥の遊ぶ華やかな春ですよ、常に光にそむいている「こうもり」も出て一緒に遊びなさいよ、風流人の俳諧人とならないまでも、少しは花鳥風月に遊ぶのもいかがですか、との意味でしょう。
source : michiko32


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aoyagi ni koomori tsutau yuubae ya

Kikaku 

A bat flying
Along the green willows
In the evening glory!


(Tr. Blyth)
Willow robes (yanagi gasane)and Haiku


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暑き夜や蝙蝠かける川ばたに
atsuki yo ya kômori kakeru kawa-bata ni

hot night--
bats dangle
at the river's edge



かはほりや夜ほちの耳の辺りより
kawahori ya yahochi no mimi no atari yori

bats--
after buzzing the ears
of the hookers



kawahori ni yahochi mo sorori-sorori kana
kawahori ni yahochi mo sorori-sorori kana

like the bats
night's streetwalkers too
make their slow rounds



Yahochi is another word for yotaka: "nighthawk."
As Gabi Greve points out, both words are euphemisms for low-grade streetwalkers who wait for customers on roadsides in the evening; Kogo dai jiten (Shogakukan 1983) 1671. In this and a few other haiku of 1824, Issa makes a playful connection between these night "birds" and bats. Unfortunately, in English translation one must choose: nighthawks or streetwalkers.
I've opted for the latter, losing the image of kindred creatures that fly by night.

Kobayashi Issa
Tr. David Lanoue




. Yotaka, Courtesans - Ladies of the Night .


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. Japanese Legends - 伝説 民話 昔話 – ABC-List .

. hebi 蛇と伝説 Legends about snakes .
Is someone points with a finger to a snake or bat, this finger will rot.
One has to put spittle on it and insert the finger into the obi 帯 belt to be cured.



............................................................. Osaka 大阪市

. Oonyuudoo 大入道 O-Nyudo Monster .
and black smoke at Osaka castle



............................................................. Tokyo 東京

. nobusuma 野衾 Yokai squirrel, monster bat .
"wild quilt", "wild blanket"

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- reference : Nichibun Yokai Database -


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Related words

***** Mosquitoes, mosquitos (ka, Japan)

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- #bat #komori #koomori #fledermaus -
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1/15/2008

Garlic chives (nira)

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- - - - - for Egawa Tarozaemon, see below
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Garlic chives, Chinese chives (nira)

***** Location: Japan
***** Season: Various, see below
***** Category: Plant


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Explanation


CLICK for more photos

chives, nira 韮 (にら), kamira かみら (加美良)、
mira みら (弥良)、"two letters" futamoji ふたもじ
Allium tuberosum, Garlic chives
kigo for mid-spring

often translated as LEEK, but that is a different plant.
In the Japanese saijiki, Garlic comes next after nira chives.


Allium tuberosum LINKS


The Japanese name of "futamoji" goes way back to the Heian period. The aristocracy wrote the name of the leek 葱 like this “ギ”(one letter). The more complex character for the chives, 韮 was then called "two letters".


KAMIRA 加美良(かみら) dates back to the historical chronicles of the Kojiki.
KUKUMIRA 久々美良(くくみら) is an old reading of the poetry collection Manyo-Shu.
The M from the older reading of MIRA later changed to an N.


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flowers of the chives, nira no hana
韮の花 (にらのはな)

ninniku no hana 蒜の花 (にんにくのはな) garlic flowers
kigo for late summer

nobiru no hana 野蒜の花 (のびるのはな) Nobiru flowers
kigo for early summer


There is also a kind of yellow garlic chives, 黄ニラ.
This is a speciality of Okayama prefecture.
. . . CLICK here for Photos !

Yellow garlic chives for the Momotaro pot Okayama


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CLICK for original LINK ... himakichi sanpo
不許葷酒入山門

くんしゅさんもんはいるべからず
kunshuu sanmon hairu bekarazu
葷酒山門に入るを許さず
kunshuu sanmon ni iru o yurusazu

Garlic chives and liquor are not allowed
into the monastery.

 KUN refers to garlic chives and garlic.

These words are engraved in stone beside the entrance of a Buddhist monastery. This stone is also called kekkai seki 結界石(けっかいせき) "stone that separates the normal world from the Buddhist world".
Some temples called the hot ricewine
"hot water of wisdom" hannyatoo 「般若湯(はんにゃとう)」
or "water of wisdom" chie no mizu 「智慧の水」.


葷酒山門にいるを許さず紅葉哉
kunshu sanmon ni iru o yurusazu momiji kana

no garlic and wine
beyond the temple gate ...
red autumn leaves

Terada Torahiko 寺田寅彦 (November 28, 1878 - December 31, 1935)
source : jofuan/myhaiku


Daruma Museum
More about 葷酒山門 kunshu sanmon

Temple Gate, no garlic or liquor beyond this point!


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Nira chives are a favorite ingredient in Chinese food. Here in Japan, it comes in miso soup, on scrambled eggs or in gyosa dumplings and many other preparations.

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japanesefood.about.com: Nira (chives)


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Things found on the way


"Chives Mountain", Nirayama 韮山, is a town in Izu peninsula.

During the Edo period, the famous reformer Egawa Tarozaemon
江川太郎左衛門 (1801-1855) lived here.

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A scholar of warfare and a civil administrator. As his family members had been for generations, Tarozaemon was the successive governor of Izunokuni Nirayama. Tarozaemon was familiar with the conditions of the people from the time he was appointed governor of Izunokuni Nirayama. He was an honest worker who listened to the views of the agricultural policy administrator and thinker, Sontoku Ninomiya, and was called “Edo’s God of Social Reform.”

After becoming conscious of naval defenses, he learned artillery from Kazan Watanabe and Western artillery from Shuhan Takashima and served as a professor of artillery. Tarozaemon got on the wrong side of Yozo Torii, the Edo Magistrate who disliked Western studies, and nearly fell from power in the bribery case of Bansha, but he was rescued by Tadakuni Mizuno, was later promoted by the top leaders of the shogunate government, and built six gun batteries. He devoted himself throughout his life to naval defense, building foundries and air furnaces in Nirayama and producing canons and guns. He is also known as Hidetatsu Egawa.

Torazaemon baked hardtack as ready-to-eat food for soldiers following the method taught by a student of Shuhan Takashima, and the Japan Bread Association called him the “Father of Bread” of Japan.
© 2006 MINATO CITY. Tarozaemon Egawa

pan no hi パンの日 day of bread - April 12
When the first bread was baked in the home of Egawa family 太郎左衛門 near Nirayama, Izu 韮山, in 1840.
It was very hard and durable, as food provisions for the soldiers, and called
hyooroo pan 兵糧パン.
It was baked in oil in a huge iron pan in the main kitchen of the large Egawa estate. The Egawa family is now in the 42th generation.
The Chinese Opium War has just started and Japan was afraid foreighn soldiers might come to Japan too. So the nation prepared for war.
The Egawa family also build small cannons to defend their harbour in Izu.
More in the WIKIPEDIA !



His soldiers used a special kind of light helmet called the "Nirayama Helmets, nirayama gasa 韮山笠".

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They were like circles, folded in half, made from leather or twisted paper strings (koyori 紙縒り). The paper was then covered with laquer or sometimes light leather. Some troups of the Bakufu government, especially soldiers from Aizu, Nagaoka and Shonai, used these helmets.
They were not produced in large numbers and not many remain to our day.



 © PHOTO : www.wbr.co.jp


Japanese Reference
韮山笠でっす


Egawachoo 江川町 Egawa Cho District
Chiyoda ward, Higashi Kanda 東神田一丁目
This district was founded in 1706 and is rather small. It was named after Egawa Tarozaemon, who lived here.
The Egawa clan came from Nirayama, Izu.

. Place names of Edo .


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- quote
Ninomiya Sontoku 二宮尊徳
(September 4, 1787 – November 17, 1856), born Ninomiya Kinjirō (二宮 金次郎) Kinjiro, was a prominent 19th-century Japanese agricultural leader, philosopher, moralist and economist.
. . . Though he did not leave written philosophical work, his idea were later transcribed by his disciples, namely Tomita Takayoshi, Fukuzumi Masae and Saitō Takayuki. Ninomiya combined three strands of traditional teachings Buddhism, Shintōism and Confucianism and transformed them into practical ethical principles which matured out of his experiences. He saw agriculture as the highest form of humanity because it was the cultivation of resources given by the Kami.

Ninomiya Sontoku emphasized the importance of compound interest which was not well understood among samurai and peasants. He calculated the maturity of each interest rate for 100 years to show its significance by using the Japanese abacus or soroban. In terms of agriculture, he viewed agricultural village life as communal, where surpluses from one year were invested to develop further land or saved for worse years, and shared by members of the community. He was aware that developed land had a lower tax base than established agricultural land and he was adept at financial management which he applied to his estate. He also encouraged immigrants from other estates and rewarded them if they successfully established an agricultural household.
He started his own financial institutions called gojoukou  - gojookoo (五常講 ごじょうこう), which appear to be a forerunner of credit union. Each member of the village union could borrow funds interest free for 100 days, while the entire membership shared the cost in case of default. Combination of land development, immigration and communal finance all managed under diligent utilisation of abacus was a success and became the standard methodology of economic development in feudal Japan.



It is not uncommon to see statues of Ninomiya in or in front of Japanese schools, especially elementary schools. Typically these statues show him as a boy reading a book while walking and carrying firewood on his back. These statues are depicting popular stories that said Ninomiya was reading and studying during every moment he could.
© More in the WIKIPEDIA !

- His statue at temple
. Buppoo-Ji 仏法寺Buppo-Ji .
Mimasaka, Okayama 美作市川北




source : www.naritasan.or.jp

He practised danjiki shugyoo 断食修行 fasting at temple Narita san in Chiba for 21 days and then went on to help the farmers in need.

- quote
Ninomiya s plans had been fairly successful, but
the work was very slow. Feeling somewhat
discouraged, he decided to appeal to Heaven for
help. Some hold that Ninomiya was sincere in
this action, and that he really felt his dependence
upon some power higher than himself ; others held
that his action was purely spectacular, that he
wished to win the people by an appeal to their
religious and superstitious nature. But whatever
his motive may have been, he went to the Buddhist
temple at Narita to pray for the success of his work.
He secured lodging at the inn, and was daily in
the attitude of worship before the god, fasting and
bathing in cold water. He made several short
prayers, and some definite vows before the god.

He prayed that calamity, including death, disease,
accident, and debt, might be replaced by blessing,
prosperity, and happiness. He prayed that
deserted wastes and barren soil might give
place to well-cultivated plains and rich,
productive farm lands; that poverty, tribulation, and
hardness might be replaced by wealth and joy, and
by all that was for the good of the people. He
vowed that he would renounce everything that was
detrimental to human development, and that he
would endeavor to give them everything that would
tend to make their lives truly blessed.
He continued thus for twenty-one days. The priest
afterward said that he admired Ninomiya s un
selfish spirit. Instead of praying for his own selfish
benefit, as others did, he prayed for the people.

Ninomiya had gone to Narita 1 secretly. Not
even the officials knew his whereabouts. They
became alarmed at his continued absence, and sent
a messenger in search of him. The first clew they
received was from a messenger of the hotel where
Ninomiya was lodging. It seemed that for some
reason, after Ninomiya had paid a sum of money
in advance, on his lodging account, the landlord
became very suspicious of him.
He was not reassured
even when told that Ninomiya was a
samurai of the Odawara clan, but, pleading that
his house was overcrowded, tried to send him away.

Ninomiya was indignant, and thundered out: "Why
did you not refuse me when I first entered your
hotel ? Has your house suddenly become full ?
I have come here to worship at this temple for the
good of others. What reason have you to be
suspicious of me? Let your suspicions cease."
The landlord, frightened, became very humble, and
apologized for his conduct. However, he secretly
sent a messenger to Odawara to inquire about this
strange man, who had come to pray for others.

The Odawara men did not know why he had gone
to Narita, but they assured the messenger that he
was one of their trusted clansmen. After this he
was the guest of honor in the little hotel. As
soon as the people of Sakuramachi knew where
Ninomiya had gone, they gathered together for
consultation. They were alarmed lest he in
tended to desert them, so they decided to send
a messenger, urging his return, promising to obey
his every word, and to be more diligent in future
than they had been in the past. The messenger
arrived on the last day of the fast, and as soon
as Ninomiya had heard their message, he ate a
bowl of rice, and set out for Sakuramachi, running
all the way. He arrived there that evening.

The people were surprised that, after such a long fast,
he was able to run fifty miles. They knew he had
been praying for them, and were so impressed by it
that they regarded him with the same awe and
reverence that they felt toward the gods.
Fromthat time Ninomiya s work prospered.

1 Even yet Narita shrine is popular. The God "Fudo Myo" was Ninomiya s favorite. It was a man standing unmoved in the midst of fire with a drawn sword in his right hand to cut out evil and a rope in his left hand to bind it up. The ancient soldier sometimes wore it on his armor as he went to battle. It represents that spirit in the Japanese people that enabled them to defeat the Russian armies every time. Psychologically this idol has had a great place in making Japanese people what they are, strong and courageous.

NINOMIYA AND YOUNG MEN
As Ninomiya s fame increased, he came to Yedo (Edo),
and took up his abode in the house of Utsu, in
Nishikubo. There he gathered disciples and taught
them daily. Naturally he had opponents who
were jealous of his power. They frequently pasted
threats over his gate, to the effect that if any
accepted his teaching their heads would be cut
off, or they would be banished to a far-distant
island, or their houses would be burned. His dis
ciples became very scarce. Some excused them
selves by saying they were busy, others who were
boarding in his house fled home, but he only be
came the more earnest, and his spirit waxed stronger
and stronger.
He hung a picture of "Fudo Myo" in his room,
and pointing to it, said to his disciples,
" Without such a spirit you are useless."

SINCERITY
He believed in being true in heart even under
most trying circumstances. Perhaps no one s lot
can be harder than that of the daughter-in-law,
who is married into her husband s ancestral home.
Speaking of this, he says :
" People like a luxurious and easy life,
and dislike hardship and trial. When
a young bride goes to her husband s home, in summer
she feels like a person sitting on the mats of a
burning house; in winter she feels as if she were
standing out in a cold field. But she is very happy
when she brings her husband to her father s home ;
in summer she feels like one in the refreshing cool
of an ice house ; in winter, like one who draws near
to a burning house. But in any case she must feel
that she has a divine call, and that she must obey
that call, and accept her adopted home as her true
home. She may have to endure suffering, but she
must not swerve from the path of duty, but remain
as firm as Fudo san
. If she has a true heart, she
will work with all her might, as the farmer works
in heat or cold, and as the samurai endures the
hardships of the battle-field."


HIS APPEAL TO RELIGION
WHEN Ninomiya attempted to improve the moral
condition of the people, he found that moral suasion
alone was powerless to accomplish his ends. Excellent
as his teaching was, he felt that Sakuramachi
was not responding to his efforts. This led him to
turn to religion. He suddenly left his work and
ceased teaching and spent nearly three weeks in
earnest fasting and prayer before the idol of Narita.
Here he received great inspiration. His prayer was
answered. The people rallied around him, and as a
result a complete change took place in the conditions
of the country around Sakuramachi. When famine
broke out a few years later, he was able to open up
his stores and not only feed the people of his
master s estate, but was able to help the neighboring
estate in which the people were suffering.

Ninomiya gives us a key to interpret idol worship
in Japan. He pointed to the god "Fudo Myo"
and said to his disciples, "Without such a spirit
you are useless." A Buddhist priest in a sermon
gave an illustration that gives us some light on the
nature of their idol. A band of soldiers was arrested
and thrown into prison by the Tokugawa government
in the stormy times immediately preceding
the revolution of 1868. They became very angry,
especially as they thought they were treated unjustly.

When the jailer was passing in food
through the little window of their cell, they seized
his hand and maltreated it. In their company was
one boy who was very quiet, dignified, and obedient.
It was noticed that every morning and evening he
took out two little dolls and, placing them before
him, reverently greeted them, saying,
"Good morning, Mother," "Good morning, Father."

At mealtime he again bowed before them and expressed
the gratitude he felt to his parents for the food he
ate. This was repeated so often that the others be
gan to respect him for his filial piety and connected
his constant good conduct with the influence of these
dolls, which were used to keep his parents ever
before his mind. Commenting on this incident,
the Buddhist preacher said, "We need dolls to
act as flying machines to enable our hearts to
soar to the place where dwells the true father of
us all, to the presence of the Buddha. We need
not trouble ourselves about the material used in
making these images. Half an inch of decayed
wood, a sheet of old paper, a lump of clay, a block of
metal, anything will do so long as it is a symbolical
representation and prevents our forgetful hearts
from becoming oblivious of the Tathagata.
Before these symbols we bow down, and in doing so our
hearts are lifted up in thought to the great heart of
the Tathagata."

- source : archive.org/stream


He thought of himself as Fudo Myo-O
金治郎は自身を不動明王と見ていた
When he sat in his mountain retreat, pondering some morning mist, he felt it was like the flames in the halo of Fudo Myo-O.
「俺も、不動明王だ」

. Fudō Myō-ō, Fudoo Myoo-Oo 不動明王 Fudo Myo-O
Acala Vidyârâja - Vidyaraja - Fudo Myoo .



- reference -

*****************************
HAIKU


久々の母子の会話韮の花
hisabisa no oyako no kaiwa nira no hana

I talk to my child
after quite a while ...
chive blossoms

Yamano Ibuki 山野いぶき
Tr. Gabi Greve

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chive flowers
purple blossoms top
pungent stalks


Robert Hunt, 2009
Happy Haiku Forum



. WASHOKU
More NIRA haiku



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Related words

***** Welch Onion Head (negi boozu)
and
Stone Leek (negi 葱), Welch Onion, Green Onion, Chinese Onion, Spring Onion

*** Ninniku ニンニク 大蒜 Garlic


WASHOKU : YASAI . Vegetable SAIJIKI



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