KANSAI DAISUKI

DEDICATED TO SHOWING THE BEAUTY OF OSAKA TO THE WORLD: TOWARDS AN OSAKA RENAISSANCE WITH THE WORLD’S LONGEST MURAL

関西広域機構 — 2010-08-19T16:22:45+09:00

The 15th interview in the KANSAI DAISUKI series is Hugues R. Mathieu (or HRM as he is more well-known). HRM is a mural artist based in Osaka who was born in New York, spent several years in Haiti, and then graduated from Art colleges in New York. He has been living and working in Osaka for almost 4 years now and has made the city his adopted home. His various commissions around Osaka (and in other cities around the world) include elaborate murals in classy cafes, wine bars, lobbies and restaurants. He maintains a spacious studio and atelier at a desirable address in Minami Horie, one of the most expensive and trendy places in Osaka, plus a number of art-focused, and social volunteering, websites in Japanese language.

March, 2007

“Osaka for me is one of the greatest places on Earth.”
Hugues R. Mathieu, Mural Artist

Hugues R. Mathieu was born in New York and spent several formative years in Haiti where his parents originally come from. He has a graduate diploma (MFA) in figurative art from the New York Academy of Art, and a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree (BFA) from the Fashion Institute of Technology, also in New York. Although based in Osaka, Japan, he has created a successful portfolio of mural projects around the world with his work on show in such places as restaurants, hotels, lobbies and religious spaces. Among his prestige projects is a mural painted in a restaurant owned by actor Robert DeNiro. Now firmly established in Osaka, his Minami Horie atelier and office provide a fascinating insight into his life and inspirations. The atelier seems like a combination of antiques store, Mardi-Gras workshop and Renaissance Master’s studio - a treasure trove of textures, fabrics and colors. There are stacks of giant wood boards (for murals), several works in progress across the floor, neat rows of paints in pots and tubes, Romanesque objects in plaster of Paris, statuettes and other objects of anatomy including - what seems to be - a chiropractor’s skeleton next to his desk. This whole eclectic display points to HRM’s strong love for Renaissance art and his multi-cultural roots, combining influences as diverse as the exquisite ‘maiko’ (apprentice geisha) wearing Japanese ‘kimono’, the bohemia of Greenwich Village, the edginess of Madison Avenue advertising and the far-off turquoise waters, tropical hibiscus and voodoo of Haiti.

  His murals display extraordinary versatility in terms of the materials and paints used, as well as the stylistic influences within the ‘frame’. Indeed, the ‘frame’ itself can be far more than a wall or ceiling as HRM will paint across glass or even over the air conditioners within a room. “Actually if you look inside the air conditioner you will see that I paint it on the inside too.” he says with some glee, an approach and attitude that accentuate HRM’s accomplishment and dedication to his projects.
  HRM defines his style as ‘Café Au Lait’. The particular characteristics involve a dramatic assimilation of multiple artistic traditions plus a strong, yet subtle, usage of symbolism. A single HRM work can incorporate styles from the great European masters, the rough primitivism of African painting, the more local inspiration of Japanese ‘ukiyoe’, and just a touch of Haitian folklore.“It’s like creating a salad - you put a little bit of this in the bowl and mix in some of that, and it can taste great…” he explains. As well as Rembrandt and Michelangelo his heroes include the modern American artist Chuck Close, (a painter of large photo-realistic portraits) and world renowned artists such as Vincent Desiderio, (his professor at the New York Academy of Art) and Ken Otsuka (his professor at the Fashion Institute of Technology).
  In addition HRM takes a highly pragmatic approach when it comes to using materials (which he says comes from the ‘rough and ready’ aspect of Haitian culture). Charcoal, acrylic paint and oil paint can all be used within the outline of the same one subject, perhaps even with some cement to lift the texture. (He has even experimented by painting with wine). This is not to suggest that he reaches for inferior or non-professional media. His brand paints are as precious as children. “I have some really expensive, really good paints – 200 dollars for a tube of Old Holland. It has such rich pigmentation, almost 80%, and the tube is so heavy”.

  Still in his early 30s, HRM has recently embarked on an ambitious new project - to create the world’s longest ‘true’ mural, an effort that will require a huge number of panels, each one approximately 2 meters high by 1 meter wide. Perhaps most surprising is that all the panels will be based on the beauty of just one subject - Osaka. Indeed, he calls the project “The Osaka Renaissance”
  “I will show this mural and the beauty of Osaka all over the world. I will have some shows in New York. One project is about 11 meters long, and these mural projects can be connected. I am making Osaka’s ‘takaramono’ [special treasure] and that work is my love for Osaka”. The project has only just started so there are several thousand panels yet to paint. Obviously HRM is intending to be in Osaka for some time yet! The artist agrees, going so far as to emphasize that: “I want to be buried in Osaka – that’s how much I love Osaka. Even if I die in America I want to be brought back to be buried here.”
  He will also have to put a great deal of planning into a project that is focused entirely on one city. But he uses the local libraries for a lot of his research. “Just to have a talent to paint is not enough – you have to do research in order to put meaning into the painting.… I study all the time, I listen to people and I study about Osaka,” he says, “We have to find the beauty of Osaka and put that on the canvas”. He sees the beauty in both the modern and historical architecture. “We have Sky Building and [Kyocera] Osaka Dome, which are wonderful designs, but if you’re talking about history…. Osaka Castle is beautiful”.

  “I went to Himeji Castle which people say is much more beautiful than Osaka Castle, but I’m sorry, I don’t think so. They say that Osaka’s castle was once destroyed while Himeji’s is untouched. But that does not mean Osaka Castle is not beautiful. Himeji is also beautiful – beyond beauty – but you cannot say that Osaka Castle is less beautiful. Prove to me that Himeji castle is more beautiful! Have you seen the wonderful jade color when Osaka castle is lit up at night? … I stayed in Kyoto for 2 weeks visiting temples. We cannot say that Kyoto is more beautiful than Osaka. It is like a bird with its own beauty. If you say that you have to ask what kind of beauty we are talking about…”
  HRM’s primary research and inspiration comes from personal observation. “What I see in Osaka is not what other people see in Osaka so my work is to show what I see“. He believes that too many local people have forgotten much of the beauty around them so helping them rediscover is part of his mission. “I’m teaching people in Osaka. The ones who don’t know – I teach them that Osaka is beautiful, and the ones who do know – I remind them. For me, Osaka is one of the greatest places on Earth.”My dream is to establish a bridge between Haiti and Osaka. I’d like to see Osaka as a place where Haitian coffee and rum can be imported because I know how much people in Osaka enjoy meeting friends and family over a really good cup of coffee.”
  The beauty HRM finds is not only within the local nature, history or architecture but within everyday life. There is his recurring theme of a mother and child in some kind of symbolic connection. “People know that I talk a lot about the ‘mamachari’ [bicycles with baby seats fixed to the back and front]. When I first saw this I was impressed – I thought, I want to paint this. Local people probably don’t notice the mamachari… The bicycle here is providing the connection between the mother and child. The baby feels safe. The mother steers to use the paths that are the smoothest as possible. The child instinctively knows this. This connection of baby and mother is something I always want to keep, so I can show people one of the beauties of Osaka.”

  HRM professes a lack of understanding about business in Osaka but this suggests some modesty on his part. Some of his business acumen is undoubtedly learned from the world-class interior designer Tony Chi who gave HRM his first major career break. Tony Chi includes the Osaka Hyatt Regency Hotel interiors among his extensive international portfolio and runs a small business empire linking up artists, designers, and architects. HRM clearly learned a lot from Tony Chi.
  HRM has also learned from hard experience and perseverance. It was actually by mistake (a fortunate one retrospectively) that he first landed in Osaka. Coming to Osaka was related to a design commission deal in Hokkaido that went sour. “It fell through but it motivated me to try harder [to work in Japan]. It was a like a fish that slips through your fingers – you at least know that you can catch a fish – you at least know that it is possible. But the money for sponsoring my visa hadn’t come through so I had to keep advertising myself, keep showing my work. I didn’t give up trying, and I couldn’t leave Osaka - this was the town that was inspiring me”.
  HRM’s business seems to be a model of how to make it good in Japan, as well as in Osaka. Not yet fluent in the language, he has nevertheless gained a small community of sponsors and clients who believe in him. (He counts the Mayor as a fan of his work). Indeed, language barriers have not been formidable at all, evidenced by the “special connection” he has with his friend and ‘sempai’ (mentor) Mr. Narimatsu of the Southern Cross Café where one of his murals covers the entire wall and ceiling of the second floor. “When I first came to Osaka I could not speak a word of Japanese. But people would go out of their way to help me. I always find that in Osaka. They try to speak to me in English and meet me on my level. Some foreigners [living in Japan] feel this to be discriminatory [because it suggests foreigners are incapable of mastering the language], just as when you go to a Japanese restaurant and the waitress gives you a spoon instead of chopsticks. But I always think it shows much more how they care about other people.” Comparing the service standards of different airlines, based on a recent trip to the USA, he observes that “the Japanese people did not invent the airplane but when you fly with a Japanese airliner it’s a whole different world. Even the economy class is like first class. What the Japanese have done with the meaning of travel is great.”

Now HRM has a bi-lingual assistant who can ease the language barrier but the diversity and professionalism of his all-Japanese websites show he is as savvy about promoting a business as he is about the paints stacked in his atelier. The website ‘links’ page directs the user to his friends and sponsors. He has wisely set himself up with two sponsors for the brand acrylic paints he paints with – obviously a significant cost saving if your canvas is typically the size of a room – and, besides working for his mural clients, has a thriving art school called ‘Art-HRM Academy’ (AHA) which focuses on drawing through the study of human anatomy, for which his colorful atelier (described earlier) is an inspirational showcase. Equally, his various promotional pieces – postcards, flyers and color swatches - are designed and printed to the highest quality standards. (His business card folds out into a miniature portfolio). HRM knows that the Japanese market respects quality foremost.

In a clever piece of street marketing he ‘unveiled’ the first panels of the Osaka Renaissance series at a prominent city location. One strong motif he uses is the ‘icho’ (gingko tree), the gingko tree being the prefecture’s symbol tree and the same tree that runs either side of Osaka’s 4 kilometer long Midosuji Boulevard. This was where he unveiled the panels and, while he would never describe himself as a performance artist, his unveiling technique was unusual - one that he named the ‘HRM Lift Off’. Pre-event, the painting was coated with a dark layer of watercolor to hide the artwork. Then, to great applause from a fascinated crowd, he washed off this temporary surface with a water hose. He marks that moment as the actual birth of the work, and the panels are now being retouched to bring them to completed splendor. In fact, HRM prefers to paint in peace and quiet without an audience but if he can help promote Osaka in any way then a live event like the public unveiling guarantees some press attention. Despite what HRM may say there is certainly something of a showman inside him. He dresses the part too and for this interview appeared resplendent in dapper waistcoat, flamboyant cravat and elegant tails.

He has been smart in balancing his need to spread awareness of the HRM brand with a hands-on involvement in the local community. “If you live in a place and you can’t do something to make it a better place to live, life has no meaning... You must do something in society as we only have a short time to live.” He is an active member of a local NPO that works to keep the streets clean. Among other things, HRM has applied his talent to designing posters asking the public to keep pavements clear of bicycles. He has also reached for a different kind of brush in order to help clean up litter. “Even if I clean the streets everyday, it is not enough for me to repay the city that has given me so much”. “People may look at me as a ‘gaikokujin’ (foreigner). I am not a gaikokujin, I am an Osaka-jin. This is really my place” HRM concludes.
He does however face one major dilemma. With 5,000 panels to paint into a series of projects about Osaka, and with 11 meters needed per project, he will soon need a far bigger studio, or even a warehouse. Ironically, that will mean moving from the city he likes so much into the countryside. On the up side, if his atelier does grow large enough for so many panels, he will probably be able to open a new tourism attraction, complete with a ‘mamachari’ cycle course for mothers with young children. Now that too would bring Osaka a great deal more publicity !

Following the interview KIPPO received one further comment from HRM regarding his project to create the world’s longest mural.

“My intention to make the world’s longest mural has not changed. Indeed, it never will change. However, it will obviously take a great deal of time to provide the huge number of panels needed. Taking the necessary time is important because I believe, truly, in quality far more than quantity. Nevertheless, my goal towards the world’s longest mural will be achieved for sure. And it will be a mural that no one has ever seen before - a work designed, composed, painted and rendered with the utmost care. I am already applying this level of care to the project and this is yet another demonstration of my deep love for Osaka.”

Interview with Kjeld Duits Kansai Resident, Photo Journalist and Japan Correspondent

関西広域機構 — 2010-05-28T12:35:54+09:00

In this article, Dutch photo journalist and Kansai resident Kjeld Duits, talks about the earthquake that changed his life, his passion for fashion in Osaka’s hippest backstreets and a fascination for festival, especially those in the remote countryside. For one man to experience all this hidden energy in a single lifetime it is small wonder that he looks forward to completing a ‘henro’ pilgrimage to all 88 temples of Shikoku.

December, 2005

The Hidden Energies of Kansai:
Tectonic Plates, Street Fashion and Festival Acrobats

10 years ago, just before dawn on January 17th the port town of Kobe was hit by one of the largest earthquakes of modern times. Hundreds of homes and buildings collapsed onto the sleeping inhabitants. Fires broke out as gas pipes ruptured, traditional wooden houses burned and whole areas of the city were burned to ash. Ancient temples, office buildings, flyovers and port cranes toppled like toys.

One local resident who struggled to escape his damaged home was a young Dutch educator, Kjeld Duits. Kjeld had already been in Kansai for 12 years managing a language school in Osaka. Recently he had decided to change direction and was designing a new technique to help people learn a second or third language. He tells the story himself. “I had spent several months designing the new language system and then the earthquake struck. Everything in my home that could possibly break, broke… the area around me was devastated. I helped to dig out a next door neighbor - she survived - but another neighbor didn’t. In all, seven people I personally knew died. That day, I saw a lot of terrible things. I thought, ‘I have to do something’, but I knew I could not dig into concrete buildings with my bare hands. One thing I realized I could do, that others could not, was report [to the world outside]. So I began sending reports to newspapers, magazines, radio and TV in Holland about the quake”

Despite many years in Japan building a successful business, Kjeld Duits suddenly found himself with no job and no income. “I had to start from scratch”, he says, but while not yet realizing it, he had already found his new line of work. “The earthquake launched me - at first literally - into a new career”. The ‘university-of-life’ crash course in journalism and news photography gave him a new set of skills and he even taught himself HTML (the arcane language behind the internet). What he needed next was a subject other than the earthquake. That was not such a difficult challenge for someone as intensely curious about the world as Kjeld Duits. He began to write about all kinds of subject related to Japan – history, politics, culture and social issues - and found an interest for his articles beyond his native Holland. This work continues today on his website at http://ikjeld.com (in English) and he prides himself on being the only foreign correspondent located in Western Japan. He feels uncomfortable that so much news out of Japan comes only from Tokyo and about the distortion such centralization brings to impressions of Japan overseas.

Ever since Kjeld Duits was a child, living in a small town near Amsterdam and reading adventure story books about distant lands, he had dreamed of exploration abroad. High schools in Holland were founded on the roots of the Trading Schools set up by the government in the late 19th century. These taught children the languages of neighboring countries and all the skills needed for commerce abroad. This was a tradition that appealed to young Kjeld. At age 19 he decided to follow his dream. He left Holland, first living in Germany, followed by Italy, Greece and Hawaii. It was usually chance encounters with people that influenced which country he would move to next. This was how he moved to Hawaii and then how he came to live in the Kansai area of Japan. Certainly the language and business skills served him well when he arrived.

For somebody who describes himself as “really curious about people and why they do what they do” the psychology at work in Japan was a greater challenge than the previous countries he had experienced. While delighted by the constant positive attitude of his new neighbors, he notes that it “nearly reaches to the point of naivety and is almost a unique characteristic.” It was other observations about the Japanese way of learning only about the rules of grammar, instead of actually learning to use grammar, that spurred his project to develop new teaching tools back in 1994.Among his large collection of books, many of them biographies, he keeps a section dedicated to human psychology, plus a Japan section. He recommends the book “Anatomy of Dependence” by Takao Doi as a good way to understand relationships between people in Japan. For example, when he first arrived he was especially surprised by the ‘group’ consciousness behind the fashion which stood in contrast to the emphasis on individuality of European countries. “When I was in high school I was interested in clothes and dressing in a unique fashion”. “In 1982 [in Japan] there was no originality, no creativity”. In fact, the fashion industry created the illusion that this season’s clothes radiated western style uniqueness by saturating promotions with images of blonde, non-Japanese models in posters and Caucasian-like chiseled mannequins.

A decade later things were different. The hidden energy below Kobe that had burst through as an earthquake almost stands as a metaphor for what was also happening to youth culture on the streets of larger cities around Kansai and Japan. Coinciding with the economic recession, and the prevalence of ‘freeter’ jobs among young people content to take on temporary, usually, menial work (in stark contrast to traditional aspirations towards a ‘salaryman’ job for life), some shopping streets were now being turned into “pedestrian heaven”. A whole new generation began to express themselves with clothes they had made themselves. Kjeld comments that “this was a very positive result of a negative situation.” As fast as the clothing manufacturers tried to mass produce the latest look, so the look kept changing. “Now we have a lot of trends happening simultaneously.”

In Kansai, this explosion of street fashion has been most apparent in Osaka, especially in the ‘Amerika Mura’ area near Shinsaibashi. Amerika Mura is an eclectic backstreet of counter-culture music stores, used-clothes boutiques, minority interest stores and coffee shops frequented by kids between 16 and 22. Until recently, this was the only area in Osaka where you might see graffiti (albeit respectfully kept within the confines of a designated length of wall and usually an expression of artistic pretension, not subversive rage or youthful angst). Amerika Mura is where another hidden energy of the Kansai has surfaced. (In Tokyo, the equivalent area is the more well-known Harajuku). As Kjeld explains about Amerika Mura, “The kids there may be buying second hand American clothes but the combinations they create are so Japanese. They have applied Japanese aesthetics to imported clothes and no European would come up with those color combinations. You can see how these combinations are influenced by kimono and yukata.” Kjeld has learned to spot the different “tribes” that the various styles signify. “The young people don’t dress this way to state a political or social idea but to identify with a particular group.”

Traditionally, fashion design and graphic arts skills have tended to gravitate towards Tokyo but a whole new pride has developed in Kansai exemplified by such initiatives as the fashion ‘happenings’ staged by the artist / designer group ‘Smile’ who promote young designers. “There’s a lot happening here in the Kansai but it is hidden away…a Kansai avant-garde” says Kjeld. Few people know that there are Kansai-only fashion magazines. Generally, people associate fashion in Kansai with Kobe (which has a fashion museum as if to stamp its mark on the claim) but the deluxe department stores and brand outlets are “really only for young women professionals and housewives”.

Another area where Kjeld often takes his camera is the ‘Greenwich Village of Osaka’ in Minami-Horie. This is home to the Digmeout café, a popular hang out for young Kansai artists (illustrators, graphic designers, painters etc). Started by local radio station FM802, Digmeout is a broadcast center for Kansai’s independent artists. In addition to holding art expositions locally, Digmeout promotes its artists worldwide, recently with a show in Oregon, USA, and exploits new initiatives to promote them. For example, Digmeout’s own magazine is issued with multiple covers so that several artists can claim front cover status! (More information about this “global young art connection from Osaka, Japan” can be found on line at http://www.digmeout.net.) Kjeld has many friends among this community and has examples of their work in his home.

With the foreign press around 2000 dedicating headlines to the explosion of Japanese youth culture Kjeld Duits knew he had found a new niche. On November 11th 2002 (deliberately chosen for it 11.11.22 rendering), together with a small group of equally enthused artist friends he launched a website called “JapaneseStreets” to provide the overseas fashion industry (both businesses and individuals) with a window on Japan’s hot new dynamic. As Chief Editor and Photographer, Kjeld provides much of the content himself.“I give pointers to the clothes and what to pay attention to…you can even conduct marketing research because we have data on spending habits.”

Kjeld talks about the new pride within a generation no longer encumbered with legacies of past wars. “Young people are at last wearing traditional yukata again, happy to be Japanese”. The confidence is apparent in many aspects of the new culture beyond fashion. “You can see it also in the animated films, in the manga comics, or in the street-art poetry”. As if to illustrate his point he shows off a set of unusual art objects shaped like traditional lucky ‘daruma’ dolls but decorated in psychedelic colors. Hence his website’s name is JapaneseStreets to allow it to embrace more than fashion. As such, it attracts more than 100,000 unique visitors monthly. The site's Member's Forum, only a small part of the site, has nearly 2,000 signed users, archives more than 4,000 photos uploaded by visitors, and boasts over 2.3 million views. He knows the site is having a real impact as the forum alone has attracted over 15,000 comments. JapaneseStreets was nominated for a prestigious ‘Webby’ award, (the Oscars of the Internet) in 2003. “It’s all done by word of mouth as I’ve done no advertising”. Also, importantly for someone who had to start from scratch, the work now needed to maintain the site’s momentum generates a real income. Asked what he does in his free time Kjeld replies with immense satisfaction “Journalism is my life, and I happen to get paid for it.”

Kjeld has also written books, some published, some still on the back burner. One of these is about Japanese festivals, or, ‘matsuri’. “Another reason I came to fall in love with Kansai was when I went to my first matsuri in 1995. First I went to the “Jidai Matsuri” (Festival of Ages) in Kyoto”, an event held each October featuring a historical parade with over 2000 costumed marchers. Kansai is perhaps home to more major matsuri than any other part of Japan including the Aoi-matsuri in Kyoto (May), Tenjin-matsuri in Osaka (July), Mantoro in Nara (August), Awa Odori in Tokushima (August), and Gujo Odori in Gifu (July~September). Kjeld himself has been to more than 100 such festivals. “I found them so interesting, so amazing, so full of energy.” He marveled at the raucous power of the parade of floats in the Kishiwada Danjiri (which is less a parade and more akin to the running of the bulls through the streets of Pamplona, Spain). “And if you go to Shiga or Gifu they have races with horses. The men perform all kinds of acrobatics that are better than a circus”.

Kjeld especially enjoys the smaller matsuri in the countryside, “the ones not so well known”. Here again he has discovered a hidden strength within Kansai. He feels the cities are overly-promoted to visiting tourists. “The roots have been taken out of the cities”. (“Uprooted Cities” being the title of an article he wrote about the issue). It is the older places that appeal to him. “When I went to the countryside I saw how beautiful Japan still is.” This extends to the older towns. “I love Sagano in Kyoto and Nara. Everybody goes to Arashiyama but Sagano is only 20 minutes away and hasa street with scenery that could be a length of the Edo Period ‘tokaido’. I can imagine how Japan looked 100 to 200 years ago.” For someone so committed to covering the ephemeral trends of modern city youth, he holds great respect for the past. “If you don’t know where you’ve been, you won’t know where you are going”. But as he said before, he can see how the young people are connecting with their past even if the connection usually only exists unconsciously.

Covering and uncovering the multiple hidden energies within Kansai perhaps explains why his next big adventure is far more subdued. “One day I intend to do the entire Henro walk.” (This is a pilgrimage route that connects 88 temples across the island of Shikoku located in the south western part of Kansai). “Just a few months ago I did a small Henro pilgrimage and came back so incredibly relaxed. We walked on mountain roads from temple to temple, saw no cars, only the real countryside... A lot of foreigners come for a whole month”. This is yet another positive feature of Kansai that seems well hidden away, (although less about energy and more about spirit). As Kjeld enthused further, “the Henro is so good it should be advertised more… but then again, no it shouldn’t !”

I wonder? For somebody so enthusiastic about covering all his experiences we can be sure Kjeld Duits will soon be uploading another website complete with an 88 temple photo gallery, this time a site called ‘Japanese Pathways’ that interviews ‘fashionable pilgrims’ and links to artists inspired by ancient temple seals. Fashion houses overseas watch this space!

Director of Institute For East Asian Architecture And Urbanism The Floating Bridges of Gunter Nitschke

関西広域機構 — 2010-05-28T12:36:59+09:00

December, 2004

The interview subject of this “I Love Kansai” is Gunter Nitschke, an architect and urban designer, originally from Germany and a long time Kyoto resident who first came to Japan in 1961. Gunter Nitschke has 3 addresses around Kyoto, his private office being at the Institute for East Asian Architecture and Urbanism, located in “Kamigyo-Ward, Kawaramachi Road, Marutamachi agaru, Demizu Block”, an address within a quiet old-town neighborhood of traditional wooden houses (not the kind of area a visitor would expect to find an architectural institute). Indeed, the location and address seem to have no relationship whatsoever and the best way to find the Institute (one of those curious tall and thin buildings, just one room wide and several stories high) is to find the neighborhood, roughly, and then ask a local who has a ‘jukyo chizu’ map, one of those curious maps that have the name of every householder neatly printed over each building indicated.

Navigating ones way, with difficulty, to his office is an appropriate way to meet Gunter Nitschke, an urban designer and passionate man of ideas who questions our very notions of place and logic. It is almost as if Nitschke-sensei has deliberately chosen his location to serve as a rite of passage for visitors to his challenging world of ideas. “At this moment, one fifth of Japan’s population is looking for a place they cannot find”, he jokes, “I am quite sure of this!” He has authored such texts as “The Silent Orgasm – From Transpersonal to Transparent Consciousness” so his ready sense of humor is a welcome contrast to his academic interests that have been inspired by the 60s era of bohemian academia drawn to East-Asian ways of thinking. His office is stacked with icons to his interests and history- mandalas from Tibet, competition posters, stacks of books on design, architectural portfolios, photographs of Japanese gardens and interiors, and a classic Hasselblad camera with various Zeiss lenses (his pride and joy).

Gunter Nitschke’s visitors can expect to be immediately greeted with cups of ginger tea (every cup different) even before the standard Japanese protocol of exchanging name cards. This alternative ‘ginger tea’ etiquette is one of the more gentle challenges to the norm of a man continually confronting his own perspectives and cultural expectations.

Considering that Kyoto is a repository of quintessentially Japanese forms of etiquette, as passed down from ritualized ancient court life, the city is highly tolerant of non-orthodox ways of living and thinking. For a city with so many temples, Kyoto has never made him feel uncomfortable as someone fiercely opposed to the indoctrination behind much religious teaching. Indeed, he attributes the level of tolerance to Japan’s lack of religious dogma. This makes Kyoto a very fertile place for intellectual pursuits (which is why it is a major conference destination in Japan). “People think of visiting Katmandu to find new forms of consciousness, but why not Kyoto?” he asked. “The artists of the 60s Beat Generation all came to Kyoto at one time or another and, in fact, I bought my first house here through Gary Snyder, one of the great poets of the Beat Generation.” (The ‘Beat Generation’ refers principally to a group of post-war artists who lost faith in Western cultural traditions and rejected conventional norms of dress and behavior).

“Don’t make your questions too pedestrian!” Nitschke-sensei advised when asked how long he had been in Japan. His answer certainly would not be conventional. “Life as we normally live it is a little bit boring. So when I was about 20 I thought, why can’t I split my life into 2 parallel ones? I have worked in many institutions [concurrently], so if I say I have been 18 years in one place, it really means I was probably only at that place for 9 years with the other 9 years somewhere else.” In fact, Gunter Nitschke has lived and worked in London, New York, California, Tokyo, Bombay, as well as spending long periods of time in Tibet, China, and other esoteric places. On calculating all the years he mentioned he was in each location I estimated he must be about 120 years old!

Gunter Nitschke left Germany in 1957 when still in his teens and he no longer identifies Berlin as his hometown. He explained that his sense of home now exists only within the heart and that the notion of hometown is an example of “cultural hypnosis”. “My Japanese colleagues at KyotoSeikaUniversity sometimes ask me when I am going back to my country. For them it is normal to have a ‘furusato’, home town.” He also observes the cultural bias of the question, “No American would ask such a question,” he adds, and this comparison of culture-bound thinking is a major theme of his philosophy. “You know, the fish really isn’t aware of the water and we all have a cultural hypnosis from being born in one cultural context. I have changed my cultural context three times by living in Europe, America, India, Japan etc…[Breaking from the hypnosis] is the target. If you had asked Buddha where he wanted to be buried he would have just laughed. There are other levels of understanding.”

However, Gunter Nitschke does admit to a special affinity for Japan. “Once in my 40s, I saw myself in Japan. It was like deja-vu. I went into a little village and small noodle house and thought I had come home. This was exactly the smell I was used to.” He also takes great delight when talking about Japanese food (and Kyoto is famous for elaborate ‘kaiseki’ meals of numerous mouthful sized dishes based on seasonal specialties). “It is the dedication to detail and to the season. It is not that the Japanese people are more loving of the seasons but what they make out of the seasons and how they make it, into an art, is a subtlety that only the older cultures acquire.” ‘Subtlety’ is also a quality that he admires in Japanese women. His wife is Japanese and she provides him with the balance his challenging ideas often require. He also appreciates the kindness of Japanese people and their tolerance. “It’s their heart, something you especially feel as you get older and have to go to hospital now and then.”

So why had he settled in Kyoto? His reply was unusually simple. “Because Kyoto is the center of Japanese culture!” Certainly Kyoto serves as one source of his inspiration. In 1998 he won First Prize in the International Urban Competition for the Future Image of Kyoto in the 21st Century. He used a concept inspired by one of Kyoto’s most famous cultural legacies, the Tale of Genji, the world’s oldest novel (written in the 11th century), a story about the many romances of the ‘Shining Prince’ Genji in the Imperial Court around Kyoto. Gunter Nitschke’s winning design was named after the final chapter of the story, “Yume-no-ukihashi” (the Floating Bridge of Dreams). “Walking in a dream is very attractive to me,” he mentioned. “What Lady Shikibu [the author of the Tale] had in mind was that life is like a passage from today to tomorrow, from here to there, from this life to the next.” His design proposed that the 48 bridges of Kyoto be re-built over a 100 year period, each with a theme related to its vicinity such as a theater bridge, children’s bridge, science bridge, pottery bridge, etc over the River Kamogawa. “The bridges are made of the stuff of dreams and these bridges are perhaps my career motif, a motif that has developed for me, not something given to me with my diploma or birth certificate.”

Gunter Nitschke greatly admires the traditional designs in Japanese architecture while lamenting how his students are guilty of a “great crucification” through their blinded adoration of Western design. One of his favorite buildings in Kyoto is the Katsura Imperial Villa and Gardens. “It is a type of architecture so lofty and so ordered.” He explained how such architecture is built around a module design of ‘tatami’ units or ‘ken’ (the basic 6ft 5 ~ 6ft 8 bay) and that, because the module system was always based on handicraft and playfulness, the end result could be highly relaxed and refined due to an inherent non-perfection. “This imperfection is very peaceful and this aesthetic has never been achieved in the West.” He contrasted this with “the German ‘industrial’ approach to modular systems, made by machine, which only created a perfection of boring space technology.”

The above is not to suggest that Gunter Nitschke only admires the traditional forms within Japanese architecture. “Tadao Ando is my favorite architect,” he revealed, “a fantastic man born in downtown Osaka in one of the messiest areas. Yet his spaces are pristinely empty and clear! It is one of those strange contradictions.” Tadao Ando creates minimalist yet monumental buildings using unfinished concrete and glass while respecting a connection with the surrounding environment. “Ando is also the only Japanese architect I am still on speaking terms with!”

On the subject of Osaka, the largest city in Kansai, and a bustling city of vast shopping malls and restaurants, and one that is in stark contrast to Kyoto, Gunter Nitschke spoke frankly about the its urban design. “Since Meiji it has not had a face, it used to be like Venice, with all its canals and bridges,” he chided. “So for the current redevelopment of the northern Umeda area I proposed they should make a huge lake called the ‘Lake of Laughter’ on the empty JR land.” This was a reference to Osaka’s fame as a humor-loving, talent capital that has created Japan’s most well-loved comedians. “Of course, they threw out my idea!”

Gunter Nitschke also told us about a discovery he made when viewing aerial photographs of Osaka. “From above you can see various small green spots. These are ‘chinju no mori’ or ‘urban deity groves’ which are Shinto shrines housing a deity. You can find them everywhere.” This was a discovery that neatly connects with another of his interests, the Japanese Festival or ‘matsuri’. In the 70s he wrote a thesis on the ‘matsuri’ which he sees as social celebrations of the small urban unit called the ‘cho’ (ward), rather than religious festivals. “For the festival they take the deity out and put it in a ‘mikoshi’ float and take it to the fringes of the territory to bless the community.” He believes the routes of these festival parades reveal a hidden map to the individual wards within a city. “Then you see an order that is not obvious to our eyes which are too accustomed to Parisian alleys or such malls as those leading up to Trafalgar Square. In Japan, such vistas simply do not exist… the City Hall in Kyoto is surrounded by car parks!”

But why is this hidden map so lacking in order? Gunter Nitschke gave one example from his immediate vicinity. “In Demizu-cho, one part of the ‘cho’ was relocated in the Meiji times. Still today, the mikoshi festival parade makes the detour to the area of town across the bridge to where that part of the community moved.” Such fragmenting of communities had rendered any numbering system obsolete for later Western tourists expecting to find Number 10 next to Number 12. “Now it’s like going to a parking lot and looking at the car number plates. There are only registration numbers and the one on the car next to mine is totally different.”

The conversation returned to the theme of cultural norms. Gunter Nitschke believes the urban organization (or lack of it, depending on your particular brand of hypnosis) can be attributed to the Japanese individual’s stronger sense of place within a group. “It is a different sense of space. You disappear into the ‘cho’ which probably used to have only about 500 people, something that probably existed in Europe in the Middle Ages. This is a medieval sense of group still existing here and accepted as normal. In Europe we have a coordinates system with our own unique plot that places us as individuals. Identifying yourself more with the group or as an individual is a different hypnosis and a very strong one.”

Gunter Nitschke then kindly offered refills of ginger tea. He had only just begun to explain his fascination for Kyoto and the inspiration it provides. He mentioned how he always appreciates the ‘kissaten’ tea houses, so ubiquitous in Japan, especially after a trip overseas. Kissaten have always welcomed customers to sit and relax (providing free magazines to read, even ‘manga’ comics). No doubt Nitschke-sensei has enjoyed such tolerant hospitality, though not to read. His passion is to talk, to debate and to challenge while crossing his Floating Bridge of Dreams.

By Tim Lemon

Gunter Nitschke is author of numerous historical and critical essays in AD, Bauwelt, Bauen & Wohnen, Daidalos, Kenchiku Bunka, SD-Space Design, Kyoto Journal and others. The most well-known among those are EKI – The Metabolists of Japan, in AD10,1964, MA, The Japanese Sense of Place, in AD3, 1966, The False Prophets in SD 2,3,4, 1968, and SHIME – Binding / Unbinding in AD 12, 1974.

He also authored the following books, the Architecture of the Japanese garden – Right Angle and Natural Form (Taschen, Koeln, 1991), From Shinto to Ando – Studies in Architectural Anthropology in Japan. (Academy Editions, London, 1993), and ‘The Silent Orgasm – From Transpersonal to Transparent Consciousness (Taschen, Koeln, 1995). At present Gunter Nitschke is preparing a monograph on the culture of the Kyo-Machiya, the traditional Kyoto Townhouse, in the framework of an urban history of Kyoto, as well as a new book on the Japanese garden entitled ‘Kyoto – at any moment now’, together with the poet Cid Corman.

full-time Assistant Professor at the literature department of Ritsumeikan University

関西広域機構 — 2010-05-28T12:45:27+09:00

The 12th interviewee in the KANSAI DAISUKI series is Ms. Anna Ruggeri originally from the Italian city of Palermo in Sicily. She is currently a full-time Assistant Professor at the literature department of Ritsumeikan University. She has also opened a Karate 'ashram' in Nishinomiya City near Kobe.

April, 2004

Palermo is a big city in Sicily located in the southern part of Italy, an area influenced by a variety of different cultures resulting from the rise and fall of several nation tribes since ancient times. Ms. Ruggeri was born in this historical city, her father being an architecture professor at the University, her mother an artist. Undoubtedly her parents provided a highly progressive environment in which to grow up. This provided her with opportunities to encounter more oriental ways of thought, which her parents had been interested in. She also experienced home-stay visits in other countries including the USA. These early opportunities allowed her to gain a broad natural outlook and recognize that are so many languages and cultures all over the world.

It was karate that first sparked her interest in Japan, a discipline she began practicing at thirteen years old. Thanks to an introduction by a Karate ashram teacher in Palermo, she home-stayed in Kobe for six months when she was a university student. Through this she further deepened her interest in Japanese culture. She also encountered Zen Buddhism which she was later able to study more formally when she participated in a 'Zazen' session (contemplation while sitting still), an ascetic experience open to the general public in the Reiun-in of Myoshinji Temple, Kyoto which her host family took her to visit during her home-stay.

She had read many books about Zen before she had the opportunity to ask an old priest at Reiun-in, "what is Satori (enlightenment)?" He answered, "You wash your face when you wake up, you eat meals, work and sleep at night. That is enlightenment." She was deeply impressed with the aspect of Zen thought that allows people to relate naturally to the situation of each moment in their daily lives as opposed to relating it to a system of knowledge or theory.

Ms. Ruggeri went on to major in Oriental languages and religious philosophy at Venezia University in Italy and then proceeded to a master's course at Hanazono University in Kyoto. Then she took a doctorate studying the thought of Hakui Ekaku, a Zen priest of the Edo period, at Osaka Prefectural Graduate School. As for Karate, she took first prize at a national tournament in Italy and opened her ashram in Nishinomiya when she came back to Japan. She is a determined and excellent athlete and scholar, although, when this interviewer met her, she conveyed an image of mildness and sensitivity, an impression reinforced by her explanation that she is also a vegetarian. She told us more about this. "When I was thirteen, I went on a home-stay visit to the United States, and stayed at a ranch in Oregon. I helped raise a newborn veal calf as if it were my own child. Ever since that experience I have not eaten meat."

She was a shy girl when she was young but began at a Japanese Karate ashram in Palermo in the hope that it would help strengthen her mentally. "I gained real self-confidence after I took the first prize at a national competition in Italy, but I also became aware that I do not really like competitions. Now I have opened my own Karate ashram in Nishinomiya. My students are all women and I am hoping they can develop both physical and mental strength through Karate."

It was seven years ago that she came to Japan again to study more fully about Japanese culture including Zen thought. She has been living in Kansai the whole time. I asked her about her impressions of Kansai and she replied, "What I especially feel about Kansai is the warmth and a friendly feeling of the people living here. Compared to people in Tokyo who are, for the most part, not very approachable and rather businesslike, people in Kansai are very friendly and warm in nature. They are similar to people from my home town in Southern Italy. I still keep in touch with the family that I first home-stayed with in Japan as if they are my real family. I find it very natural here to exchange a few friendly words with complete strangers while waiting for a traffic light or something, even if it is just to say "It's hot today, isn't it?"

"Since coming to Japan, I have lived either in Kobe or in Nishinomiya both of which are close to sea and mountains, just like my home town of Palermo. I gain some sense of familiarity in that. I will be moving to Kyoto this spring and, while I am looking forward to living there because of all the wonderful temples, it doesn't have the ocean."

Asked about the food in Kansai, she answered, "I'm a vegetarian so I like Kyoto's 'Shojin Ryori' (vegetarian food) very much, especially tofu dishes and 'goma dofu' (sesame tofu). I also like unusual tastes like 'ume' (plum) and 'otsukemono' (Japanese pickles)."

"However one thing I could not eat when I first came to Japan was the soft noodles like 'udon' because I was only used to pasta in Italy such as the 'Ardante' hard noodles. But now I'm totally used to udon' and, in fact, I sometimes feel a sudden need to eat udon when I'm back in Italy" she laughed.

Asked about her favorite spots in Kansai, she said, "When I was living in Kobe, I happened to find a temple near Nuno-biki Waterfall when out on a walk. Fudo-Myo-o is enshrined in this temple and it has a very quiet and tranquil atmosphere despite being located in a mountain not far from Shin-Kobe Station. The scenery of the temple and surrounding mountain paths are very wonderful. That is surely my favorite spot."

"I also like the atmosphere of Myoshinji Temple in Kyoto. This temple is also quiet even though located in a busy part of Kyoto. You only need take one single step into the precinct, and you can feel the serenity, a really amazing sensation. 'Taishu-Zendo' where you can experience 'zazen' is also found in the temple. To practice 'zazen' in the very early morning, such as at three or five o'clock on Saturday and Sunday is a truly wonderful experience."

"I also take trips when I have a holiday. I like the crab in Kinosaki in the winter, the Nachi Waterfall in Wakayama, cherry blossom in Shukugawa, and the scenery around Lake Biwa. These have all been wonderful."

Ms. Ruggeri has been deeply involved in Zen through her studies and translation of Zen thought, zazen and her everyday life. We asked her how she sees ordinary Japanese people and if she has an insight into any special characteristics of the Japanese people that gave rise to Zen thought, characteristics that perhaps even Japanese people themselves cannot recognize.

She said, "Japanese people tend not to speak out their own opinion, do they? When I was first in Japan, I thought that perhaps they didn't think anything" she told us laughing. "But I found out it was not true one day."

"Westerners who place a great deal of value on rationality cannot relate to one another in human relationships without logic. Japanese people are different. It is very difficult to express this sense, but I think that they have a special ability to empathize or coordinate with one another by the communal sharing of the atmosphere of the place where they live their daily lives."

"It is true that young people today are preoccupied with the superficial and their value set has been changing. However, they still have a natural ability to coordinate or understand each other and connect with each other's inner faces."

In the seven years she has been here, many of the Japanese friends she has made are, not surprisingly, priests and 'Kumomizu San', that is, Zen trainee priests that do not live in any one fixed place.

"In the Obon (ancestral remembrance) season I sometimes go to a friends' temple to help with the 'Osegaki' (Buddhist meeting) but I suspect I am sometimes more troublesome than helpful" she joked.

On the other hand, she does also have a modern 'gal' side, a more typical female side, in that she goes to the cinema, eats out with female friends and watches TV at home on days off. "I like 'laugh-in' TV shows. I especially like the 'downtown' programs and never fail to watch the weekly episode of the 'Tantei Night Scoop' show"

Ms. Ruggeri enjoys her life in Kansai from the heart. She is fully involved in the essence of all things Japanese, indeed, connecting with Japan to a far greater degree than most people born in Japan.

"Two years ago when I took a university doctorate here in Japan, my family asked me to return to Italy. I thought about my future for a while and found where my true feelings now reside. I just can't live in Italy anymore! That is my honest feeling." she said. Phrases such as 'a foreign land', or 'a different culture', have no meaning to her.

"I now practice the Tea Ceremony too. I think that Zazen, Karate, and the Tea Ceremony all train you to look inside yourself in a sense. When you look to your inner face through these disciplines, it is also important to turn your eyes to the outside as well. When you truly know yourself, it is far more natural to see inside other people. In short, you can see that people in any country and in any cultural environment are all the same human beings in their nature."

At the end of our interview, I asked her for an opinion about what is important for Kansai's internationalization and deepening international exchange around the world.

"I think learning language is important because an understanding of the language allows you to deeply understand the culture and the country's value system". She herself speaks fluent Japanese and I could really sense her hope that people in different countries and cultures can come to better understand, respect and value one another.

Ms. Anna Ruggeri is a follower of Hance Kyung, a theologian who called for a movement that seeks mutual understanding and peaceful coexistence between the countries and races of the world by encouraging dialogue among different religions. She has a special kind of determination, exemplified by her wish to continue studying Zen and Karate, a gentleness and sensitivity from her refusal to eat meat since raising a calf while a child, and a broad outlook and open-mind towards different countries and cultures.

Today the world appears to be sinking deeper and deeper into a state of chaos with too many unhappy disputes and confrontations in various places. On occasion, we tend to lose hope in the future but we must move ahead to overcome such circumstances and work towards mutual understanding, coexistence and the reconciliation of various cultures and races. I left the interview with the deep impression that it is people like Anna Ruggeri who are the ones who play the largest role towards these ends.

Director, China National Tourism Administration Osaka Office

関西広域機構 — 2010-05-28T12:45:27+09:00

The eleventh interviewee for our "I Love Kansai" series is Mr. Tei Horui , Director of the Osaka Office of the China National Tourism Administration.
Mr. Tei is originally from Shandong in China and went to university in Shanxi and studied Japanese language and culture. He was happy to conduct the entire interview with us in fluent Japanese.

Dec, 2003

Mr. Tei came to Japan three years ago to take up his post with the Osaka office although he had visited Japan several times before. On those occasions he had been in Japan to run tourism related promotions for China in the larger cities, including Tokyo. We asked him to tell us his impressions of cities in Kansai compared with those other cities he had visited.

"Osaka has an image of being a city of down to earth folk compared to, say, Tokyo, yet there are also cities of high culture in Kansai such as historic Nara and Kyoto. Because I live in Kansai now, I have a far greater sense of the similarities and differences between China and Japan."

We asked Mr. Tei about those similarities and differences in specific terms.
"The similarities are most apparent in those aspects of Japanese culture that have developed throughout the long history of the Japan-China cultural relationship. The influences derived from China can be seen in various parts of Japanese culture, from the ancient cultural properties of Nara and Kyoto to the Chinese characters still in daily use within the Japanese language. Japanese people have an impressive ability to absorb different cultures from overseas and turn them into something that becomes unique to Japan. For example, Japanese 'ramen' (noodles) has its origins in a Chinese noodle dish, but has been seasoned quite differently to suit Japanese people's taste. The soup is really tasty even when I compare it with Chinese ramen."

"What is very different about our two countries relates to our respective histories of modernization. While Japan has absorbed so many modern things from Western countries, China has kept its gateways to modernization closed for a long time. Now of course China is actively pursuing modernization and thereby emulating Japan in many respects."

As an area, Kansai remains a place of history and culture, yet it also tends to be very modern within its urban landscapes. What are your impressions of this?
"I think it is wonderful that everything is designed with so much comfort and convenience. In particular, I see this in the transportation facilities. All public transport, including railways and road services connecting cities are safe and punctual. The transport system serves as a fine illustration of the Japanese characteristics of hard work and following rules. That is one point that China needs to learn on its way to modernization."

Mentioning the transportation system as an illustration of something else, we can see how keenly Mr. Tei seeks to interpret the life and people of Kansai every time he observes its history, cultural heritage and landscape.

We also asked him about his favorite places in Kansai, his first choices being 'Gion' and 'Hanamikouji' (the row of traditional houses) in Kyoto. He seems to have a deep interest for such city spaces that retain the atmosphere of a way of life passed on down the ages. "I like not only the beautiful settings of the city but also the fact that people are still living there and that you can feel their lives in the scenery."

We asked Mr. Tei about the many photographs he has taken and seen published in introductory books about Japan. We noted that his pictures of Kyoto and Arashiyama, for example, showed a particular interest for the people. There were pictures of Kyoto people strolling by the river within the typical Japanese scenery backdrops of Arashiyama and Togetsukyo.
"You can see many beautiful landscapes in China also. I feel that the overseas scenes that Chinese people like most are those in which they can see the people living, scenes they can relate to and join in themselves."

As he had pointed out, part of the charm to Osaka is its down-to-earth "folksiness". Mr. Tei believes that tradition and custom are very much alive and part of daily life in the various different regions in Kansai.
"I know that Kansai has many popular festivals including the 'Gion Matsuri' and the 'Danjiri' (float) festivals. Even in the larger cities like Osaka and Kobe, the tradition of holding festivals such as the 'bon-odori' remain. In these, all the locals get together and dance. There are such traditions in China also but in the more urbanized cities, such as Shanghai, they are diminishing with modernization."

Mr. Tei then told us about a visit to Yoshino and the strong impressions it left him with.
"Yoshinoyama in the cherry blossom season was the most impressive place of all the places I have visited." (On being asked about the blossom he elaborated). "The cherry trees in full bloom all over the mountain were beautiful indeed. However, what struck me most of all was how the Japanese people relate to these blossom, how they have cherished and preserved such landscapes for so long. There are cherry trees in China too but only for the harvesting of cherries, not for people to view and appreciate. The Yoshinoyama landscape has been fostered by the Japanese for hundreds of years, an appreciation that has been passed on by the ordinary people living in the area. This helped me understand about the rich spirituality Japanese people feel towards the beauties of nature, a spirituality that has existed from ancient days.

The cultural relationship between Japan and China is one with a long history. Mr. Tei underlined the importance of tourism and the role it can play for developing a truly peaceful and friendly relationship between the two countries.
"Genuine mutual understanding is only developed through people meetings and communicating in travel situations. I'm aware that Japan is now conducting a promotion campaign to attract more visitors to Japan (the Visit Japan Campaign). I think the goal of inviting 10 million overseas visitors to Japan could easily be achieved if Japan were to issue tourist visas to people from cities in China other than Beijing, Shanghai and Canton. The infrastructure and the hospitality here is already at a satisfactory level for inviting more overseas tourists. Having said that, signage within stations and public areas could still be improved. Of course, there are good signs in the big cities but I wish they also existed in the smaller stations out in the more rural areas."

"The Chinese government has national tourism offices in all the main countries around the world but in most cases there is only one office. The only countries where we have more than one office are the U.S. and Japan. The U.S. is a large country so, naturally, there is a need for one on the East Coast and one on the West Coast. In that sense, having two offices in a relatively small land such as Japan says a great deal about how the Chinese government values Japan as a special neighbor. In fact, Kansai welcomes more than half of all the visitors from China. Kansai is both important as China's gateway to Japan and as the center of the long cultural relationship the two countries have shared over the centuries.

Lastly, Mr. Tei underlined the importance of taking another good look at the cultural assets Japan offers its foreign tourists from a broader picture that, for example, takes into account the viewpoint of people from outside Japan.
"I don't think that Chinese people will be especially interested in Japan's Buddhist temples just by receiving a background profile because there are much grander and older temples in China. In order to spark their interest it would be a good idea to introduce more about a temple's history in relation to its connection with China. For example, it is important to tell visitors that 'Obaku-san Manpuku-ji' temple in Uji City was founded by Ingen Zenji who came from China."

Within the scenery of Yoshino's cherry blossoms, Mr. Tei sees people who have cherished the landscape for a long time, and their lives. When he introduces the Japanese landscape from this unique viewpoint, it becomes "living scenery" for conveying the spirit of the people within. We left the interview with Mr. Tei in the hope that such "living scenery" will catch the attention of even more Chinese people and become the cornerstone of a closer relationship between China and Japan.

Ms. Kathy Correia working for the Radio Station FM CO.CO.LO

関西広域機構 — 2010-05-28T12:45:27+09:00



		Our interviewee for this edition of "Kansai Daisuki" (I Love Kansai) is Ms. Kathy Correia who is working for the radio station FM CO.CO.LO. FM CO.CO.LO is the first multilingual FM radio station to broadcast in Kansai and provides various programs in fifteen languages including English, Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, Thai etc. Kathy works on the English language news at the station.

June, 2003

Kathy Correia is originally from Boston, Massachusetts, USA, and first came to Japan when she was a senior high school student. She spent three months in Osaka on a home-stay visit as part of an exchange student program initiated by Mitsubishi Motors Corporation. It was thanks to this memorable experience that she took advantage of an opportunity to later come back to Japan to work in Kansai.

"The first time I was here I only had a short three months in Japan and studying the language was not part of the program. However, I did make friends with two girls who were about the same age as me and we grew very close. We wrote to one another for over 15 years until I came back to Japan. That was in 1995 and, when we finally reunited after all those years, we were amazed at how much we had changed. They were grown up, married and had children of their own."

Having had an overseas experience while young, and having later majored in journalism at university, Kathy clearly acquired the skills early on that she would need to understand worldwide events from a broader and more open-minded perspective.
After university in the US, Kathy went to Paris for a couple of years where she thrived in the world of broadcasting as well as corporate communications for large companies. It was after this period that she returned to Japan, set on the idea that she might even try a new line of work. While her lifestyle had now become truly cosmopolitan, this is perhaps less surprising when other aspects of her background are considered.
"My father is Portuguese, my mother French and the name 'Correia' is actually a Portuguese name. Here in Japan I can see many areas of similarity between Japan and Portugal. Did you know that 'Tempura', famous as typically Japanese cooking, is originally from Portugal, as are Japan's much-loved 'Castella' ? And, unusually for people in the West, the Portuguese love to eat 'Tako' (Octopus) just as the Japanese do."

Indeed, Kathy is very keen on Japanese food and almost always opts to eat at a Japanese restaurant when dining out. "I really love sushi as well as 'okonomi-yaki' [a little similar to pizza] and 'tako-yaki' [octopus dumplings]. Okonomi-yaki is excellent although a little heavy for me personally."
"My mother also loves Japanese food - perhaps too much! When she last visited Japan, I took her out to a Sushi restaurant but couldn't get her to leave. She enjoyed the taste so much that it took ages to eat each single piece of 'nigiri'."

As well as the food, Kathy seems very settled and content with life in Japan. She was asked what other aspects of life in Japan she enjoys the most.
"I have lived in different parts of Osaka and each have their own good points. When I first arrived, I spent a few years in 'Taisho-ku' living in a 'danchi' (block of flats). Now I live in 'Kyobashi' where I have a 'manshion' (private apartment). People in Taisho-ku were very friendly and quite comfortable interacting with a foreign neighbor. In the case of Kyobashi, the location is the best feature. My place faces out to the park along the Yodo River and Kyobashi also has easy access to other cities being linked to a really convenient transportation system. It also has its own unique characteristics and many interesting shops. However, when I lived in the 'danchi', I did socialize with the neighbors a lot more. The people were very quick to help each other out and I do miss that sense of community."

Asked about the attractions of Kansai, Kathy explained about her disciplined approach to exploring the region. "At weekends I often take short, single-night stay, trips away and always stay within the Kansai area. There are many wonderful places even within such a small area, for example, Ise, Nagahama and Ohmihachiman. Plus, there is a lot to do in each place whether it's the eating out, shopping, appreciating something or doing something outdoors. I actually keep files for each area and there's one for Nara, one for Kyoto etc. I have information about what to do, what to see and what to eat for each place so each weekend I simply reach for a folder and decide where I want to go."
"I would say that traveling is my number one hobby and what I do so I can enjoy Japan's changing seasons all over again - the cherry blossom in spring and maple leaves in autumn - is to go and see them in a different place each time."

Kathy clearly enjoys living in this part of Japan and 'Kansai Daisuki' asked her what aspects of the region she would like to let people in other countries know about.
"I'd like to emphasize the mixture, the combination of the old and the new. People outside Japan have an image that Japan is so ancient and that the people still wear 'kimono' and 'geta' (traditional wooden shoes) just as they did in the old days. Of course there are still many places in Kansai, such as Gion in Kyoto, where the old traditions still exist and these remain highly attractive features in themselves. However, other attractive features can also be found in the modern aspects of Japan such as the easy access, comforts and conveniences of daily living. You can see this in the convenience stores and advanced transportation systems. The real attraction of Japan lies in this coexistence of the modern and ancient within the social framework."

When asked whether Osaka had become more international in recent years, Kathy brought up some other ways in which Osaka is relatively easy to live in.
"I remember going to one country where I encountered difficulties at their immigration offices. The officers were not at all friendly or welcoming, whereas I have never had such problems in Japan. People here do make the effort to try and understand the foreign visitor, even if the visitor speaks little or no Japanese. You find that that level of courtesy everywhere, not only at the airport."
"However, it doesn't mean that Japan has become more international. I sometimes feel that Osaka is a very insular city, something I'm reminded of every time someone stares at me just because I am a foreigner. In other countries I never experienced being such a center of attention, whether it was in a good way or bad way."

Obviously, working in the non-discriminating, multi-national environment that FM CO.CO.LO makes possible is bound to accentuate that perception when moving around a typical city.
"That's right. In our workplace we don't treat each other as anything special and we have a really professional atmosphere. Actually, we are more like a family. You might think we are always quizzing one another about where we are from etc., but - apart from helping each other out with, say, pronouncing a difficult name that cropped up in a news story - we generally don't."

Asked what advice she would give the overseas visitor wanting to come to Japan she told Kansai Daisuki: "What is important is to learn something about the customs of Japan, that is, be sensitive to the people's mannerisms including the Japanese way of thinking and to accept it. It is important for the visitor to set aside the 'gaijin' (foreigner) mentality. For those wanting to come here to work, I advise them to establish their own set of standards and a system for self-evaluation. In Japan the employee rarely receives feedback or guidance from colleagues or managers so you have to work to a benchmarking system all of your own to know if you are making progress in the right direction".

Kathy also had some advice for Japanese people going overseas.
"This applies, not only to those traveling overseas, but also those trying to communicate with foreigners in Japan. I'm talking about the excessive value people in Japan seem to place on speaking English. While English is certainly an international language, it is only a tool to express something just as any other language. But Japanese people still put far too much emphasis on English and focus only on trying to master the language by itslelf. Just as I mentioned before about the importance of understanding and accepting the customs of other countries, if the speaker can only see other countries from a Japanese perspective then mastering English makes little sense. Of course, it works the other way around. The ability to speak Japanese is useless if the non-Japanese speaker tries speak the language without understanding the Japanese point of view."

The interview with Kathy therefore concluded with this reminder that true international exchange only exists when there is a mutual sensitivity for the different lifestyles and ways of thinking between different countries. Undoubtedly such awareness helped her when she was communicating with her 'danchi' neighbors in Osaka, even at a time when she spoke little Japanese, and continues to help her now with her work in the international environment of a multi-lingual FM radio station.

Consul General de France a Osaka et Kobe

関西広域機構 — 2010-05-28T12:45:27+09:00



		'Deep Signs of Civilization' in the 'Real Japan' - Kansai, as seen by the French Consul General, Osaka and Kobe, Mr. Philippe Chatignoux.

September, 2002

Our ninth 'I love Kansai' guest is Monsieur Philippe Chatignoux, the Consul General of France in Osaka and Kobe. Mr. Chatignoux was born, raised and educated in Paris. "Let's say, I'm a guy from Paris", he adds, inviting a pleasant level of informality that typifies his friendly personality. "I was born in 1954, but I tell people here that I was born in 'umadoshi' (the year of the Horse). I find it is very important to tell them this and I meet many fellow 'umadoshi' people in Kansai as a result. It is a good way to make friends".

The French Consulate is located in the elegant 'Crystal Tower' building in Osaka's Chuo-ku district but this interview was conducted at Mr. Chatignoux's Nishinomiya home, close to Kobe, a white modern villa-style house fronted by a garden blending both Euoropean and Japanese landscaping sensibilities. Tall conifers surround the lawn area and rose bushes planted by Mr. Chatignoux are in bloom close to the front lounge. If there had been a fountain I might have alluded to the gardens at Versailles. However, the exterior and interior of the house, the simple lawn and occasional well-trimmed Japanese pine all suggest a preference for minimalism over grandeur. On arrival, Mr. Chatignoux immediately invited us to listen to a CD of classical music while preparing us coffee.

Mr. Chatignoux is a graduate of the National Engineering School in Paris, studied at the Paris Institute of Political Science and the National Administration School. This interviewer suggested that his move from civil engineering into the civil service and administration must have been a major shift in direction. "Not really, it was more a progression due to my interest in town planning and urban planning". He pointed to a framed map on his wall. "One of my hobbies is collecting maps and I am keen to find old maps of Kansai and towns in Kansai". I suggested the antique shops in Kobe and then asked him how moving from Paris, a city of such 'Grand Design' since the time of Napoleon, compared to the surroundings of a Japanese city. "Actually, in 1983, my very first assignment overseas was to Tokyo. I was just 29 and, in terms of town planning, Tokyo was quite a shock. Kansai is easier for Europeans I think and, the town-planning, architecture and way of life is more European, probably because the sense of history is stronger here. So many things come from 1300 years ago. I therefore feel more of a common perspective in Kansai than in Tokyo". Mentioning that he also likes the tea ceremony and traditional court music, he observed how Kansai people are so involved in their traditional arts and culture "and people are so keen to tell you about the local monuments, of the castle that once stood here or other." Summarizing Kansai's historical culture, he added "here are the deep signs of civilization".

"The other day I was invited to join a Noh performance at a theater in Rokko. I had the role of a "Daimyo" (Lord) and helped perform the lighting of the fires ceremony before the performance. The organisers provided me with the costume. Indeed, Noh has incredible costumes and the stories are all linked to Japanese mythology. French visitors certainly need to hear more about this!" I mentioned that traditional Noh theatre (which originated in Kansai) is not known for being the most accessible of theatrical arts, relying on highly abstract, subtle and minimal action (visitors from overseas usually opt to visit the more dynamic kabuki in Kyoto or at the Shochikuza Theater in Osaka. Mr. Chatignoux however enjoys the ambience of Noh, ('ambience' being a word he uses often and clearly likes). "Actually, Noh is just as inaccessible to Japanese audiences too so we can all enjoy it on an equal level. We both need a translation" he quips. This shared enjoyment of such quintessential Japanese culture reminded him of the Sumo. "French people love the Sumo, and especially so after it went to Paris". He himself enjoys Sumo for the tradition, ceremony and - of course - ambience. He is looking forward to the possibility of President Chirac providing a trophy for the tournament in Osaka next March. He might have to make the presentation himself, "although the thought of standing in front of a giant like Musashimaru - oh la la". (In mock fear he briefly slips back into French).

"In Kansai you can feel a kind of continuity" he goes on to say. "And it is not only in places like Kyoto where the awareness of the past is apparent. In Osaka, there are many traditions based on trade from ancient times. Osaka was the city where trade began on a large scale". Mr. Chatignoux spoke in detail about trade between France and Kansai, their extraordinary growth since the 80s, of the fashion houses and the Renault-Nissan partnership. "France has made unusually big investments in Japan compared to its investments in other countries. It is the number 2 investor here now. Hermes, Louis Vuitton and Chanel have all made their part in Kansai where the consumer market is working very well for them. Therefore I concentrate on research linked with the industry sector and Kansai has a very high level of technology, even in the small and middle-sized companies. For example, there is great potential for agro-industry and agro-research between France and Kansai, with so much of the chemical industry being based in the Kansai."

Promoting trade through missions, seminars and logistical support for French business in Japan was of course the reason for Mr. Chatignoux being appointed to his position as Consul General, Osaka and Kobe in 2001. Before coming to Kansai he was Consul General in Florida USA, and worked as a diplomat in Australia and Vietnam. As Consul General in Kansai, he performs 3 main roles. "Firstly my job is to create new political contacts between France and the prefectures and cities in Kansai in order to stimulate new projects, new cooperation and new joint research. Secondly, I need to provide more accurate business information to the French people. Too many have the mistaken image that all Japanese business is in crisis and that there are no new opportunities. Thirdly, I help promote France in the Kansai but for this I have the great help of several other channels like the Alliance Francaise in Osaka, the French Institute in Kyoto and other cultural organizations.

I asked him about the environment in Kansai for business people. "Having a variety of very different prefectures is the strength of this area. You can find everything you need. There's the history in Nara or Kyoto, if you have a business you open in Osaka and if you have a family you live in Kobe which has always been a very easy place for foreigners to live". Besides the architectural familiarity of many buildings in Kobe, he referred to the way several of the international schools in Kansai are now also teaching French language courses, a feature very important to French ex-pats with families. "There are now 1000 French people living in Kansai out of a total of 5500 in the whole of Japan. Of course, this is not as many as the more than 30,000 Japanese living in France!" he smiled.

So Japanese awareness of France is clearly not a problem. On the image and awareness of Kansai overseas Mr. Chatignoux had this to say. "Just as Hiroshima has become like a world capital of Peace, now Kyoto is becoming a symbol for the Environment." He referred to the Kyoto Protocol, and the upcoming World Water Forum to be held in three places around Kansai next March (2003). "Osaka, Shiga and Kyoto are now known as environmentally friendly and aware, and the World Water Forum will bring Kansai a great deal of positive promotion". (Lake Biwa in Shiga is Japan's largest lake, providing Kansai's main supply of fresh water). "But I think that it will be important not to say Kyoto, Osaka or Kobe, but to say 'Kansai'".

Water aside, Kansai is especially well known for its food. Osaka is the reputed kitchen of the nation, Kyoto has its 'kaiseki' cooking (a season-based multi-course meal) and Kobe its European-style pastries and confectionaries. I asked Mr. Chatignoux about comparisons with French cuisine such as Cordon Bleu. "Well of course, the base ingredients are so different but the attention to detail and time spent on preparation - one whole day to create a feast - is similar". Therefore, I reasoned, it makes sense that the two are capable of complementing one another. He mentioned 'Shozan' one of his favorite restaurants in Paris. "They have created the 'sushi foie gras' and serve exquisite dishes, one served with champagne, another with Japanese sake. "It is very popular with Japanese visitors to Paris. Unfortunately, it is also very expensive so it is better to find someone to invite you", he laughed. He also has several standing invitations to visit the famous sake breweries in Kobe, most of which are concentrated in the Hanshin area but (he assures me) he has yet to find some free time to research this. Such are the hardships of the Consulate life!

Throughout the time we were speaking, Mr. Chatignoux's classical music played in the background. I wondered if he missed hearing European music during his time in Japan, but clearly not. "It is like Paris and every other night there is some big concert or other. The great world orchestras and the best directors all come to Kansai" he said, having attended many concerts in venues such as the Symphony Hall and Festival Hall in Osaka. "Only this last week I went to hear the China Philharmonic playing in the Hall at Kobe International House (in Sannomiya). People in Kansai really appreciate good classical music. The senior conductor Jean Fournet, (a French music specialist) from France was here recently and remarked how knowledgeable the Japanese audiences are. I think he receives a better response here than even in Europe".

Finally I asked him, as a "guy from Paris" what parts of the city he would recommend to the Japanese visitor to France, (apart from personally escorting them to Shozan Restaurant). "Sometimes they know better than me", he replied, "I have spent nearly 10 years working overseas! But, besides the famous sights of Notre Dame, Versailles and Le Louvre, there are some wonderful places they do not seem to know so well. I was brought up in the historical Left bank area around St. Germain-des-Pres and Montparnasse. It is an area that still very much lives the way of a village. It has a wonderful atmosphere - street markets, bakers, grocers, cafes". "It has a fine ambience", I add. He smiles!

The interview concluded with a look around Mr. Chatignoux's garden. I observed that the lawn would be perfect for a game of French 'petanque' (a gentle bowling game using small bowls). "Or gateball for the elder Japanese" he suggested. I came away realizing that, not only is Mr. Chatignoux one of those international people who, while proudly in touch with his own culture, identifies himself as part of a larger community - in his case, the people of Europe, but also that he has a natural gift for finding the similarities, not the differences, between different peoples.

Osaka Kyoiku University Lecturer Alpha International Patent &Law Office Adviser Life & Culture Inc. the branch manager of japan Doctor of Arts in Language and Culture

関西広域機構 — 2010-05-28T12:45:27+09:00



		In his homeland, the Republic of Korea, Mr. Cho was originally involved in activities, programs and publications about traditional Korean culture. This led to an interest in traditional Japanese culture, such as Noh, Kyogen and Kabuki, which attracted him to come to Japan in 1989. On completion of a post-graduate course at Osaka University he received a Doctorate in Linguistic Cultural Studies. His research and studies into Japanese Culture continued on while he taught Korean language, Korean culture and comparative cultural studies. At the same time he also busied himself introducing Japanese culture into Korea.

July, 2002

"Even from around the time of my university days, I had the sense that perhaps traditional Japanese performance art was somehow related to traditional Korean performance art. When I came to Japan I was thinking I would probably stay for two or three years, but my interest in the country grew beyond that of the people and their way of thinking, towards Japanese stories and traditional performance art. So, in order to study further, I entered Osaka University. Initially, I just wanted to give it a try, but I found my interest developing even more and my research began to progress. Ultimately, I ended up with my doctorate."

At first Mr. Cho lived in Nara on a home-stay basis but, since being involved with Osaka University, has lived in Suita and Toyonaka. So for this interview we asked him to tell us what he likes most about Osaka and Kansai, their culture and people. Apparently, he tells us, in terms of character and nature, Kansai people have much in common with Korean people. However, he finds the rivalry between Kansai and Kanto interesting, in particular the leadership spirit of the people in Kanto versus the independent spirit of those in Kansai.

"I like the area where I am living at the moment, which is in the vicinity of Toyonaka, Suita, Ikeda, Ibaragi and Takatsuki. It is not just because the area has a lot of greenery. I really like the gentleness of colors in the Osaka and Hokusetsu areas, the softness in Osaka colors. and I want to say there are places like this in Osaka. Then I feel relaxed in Nara. I like Asuka, Sakurai, Tenri, also the Yamanobe-no-michi (Yamanobe Way), Horyu-ji Temple and Hase-dera Temple. I feel close to Nature in Kansai, too. The beauty of the Totsugawa and Kumanokawa river valleys and the grand views of Lake Biwa and Amano-hashidate are utterly magnificent.

Of the people in Kansai, those in Osaka are often described as Japan's toughest characters or the most vocal and excitable. On the other hand, they are also truly friendly and caring, characteristics that are precisely those that appeal to most Koreans. Similarly, people in Kansai love to laugh and to make others laugh. Because whispering is no fun, they tend to speak louder and louder while talking, another characteristic that ordinary Korean people share.
The sincerity, honesty and sense of order the Japanese people practice are values they can be most proud of anywhere in the world. People in Kansai of course have these attributes but, additionally, I feel they offer a particular warm heartedness. Sometimes I think that the people in Tokyo and Kanto could learn a lot from the warm nature of Kansai people."

In May this year, a Flower Expo was held on Anhung Island. Mr. Cho guided some students studying hangul from the Kansai region as a friendship activity. This picture shows true exchange between Korea and Kansai.

At Osaka University, at the same time as pursuing his research, Mr. Cho has been busy introducing Japanese culture in Korean magazines, newspapers and other media. He showed this interviewer some of those magazines, and we learned that he has been representing a magazine as head of the publisher's Japan office. Showing us one issue he elaborated. "Here we featured Nara as the origins of Japanese History. We introduced Nara under a wide range of subjects, including Asuka, Hase-dera Temple, Tanzan-jinja Shirine, festivals and the antler-cutting of deers. Another volume covers Kyoto. Kamogawa River, Yasaka-jinja Shrine, Heian-jingu Shrine and Byodo-in Temple in Uji."
He went on to say that his primary aim, when talking about Kansai, is to introduce the region's many finer points to the people in his homeland. In recent years, the number of Korean people interested in Japanese culture has markedly increased, and some of them have taken that interest to a professional and specialist level.

"Naturally Korean people usually look to Tokyo, the capital region, as part of an image that Tokyo is Japan. However, what I want to make clear is that Kansai is the region that most Korean people can identify with. For example, if we compare some cities, Kyoto is similar to Korea's ancient city of Kyongju. Likewise, the atmosphere in Nara and Asuka resembles that in ... and ..., the former capitals of Kudara (the old country of the 4th to 7th century Korean peninsula.)"

"One of the things I wrote was to say that Kanto and Kansai are the two pillars of Japan but that we tend to only look at Tokyo. But actually, in several aspects, Kansai is the original home of Japan's history and culture. So, as in this case, when somebody in Korea asks me to write something about Japan, I always try to write about Kansai."

We mentioned to Mr. Cho that Kansai Window has one section called 'Places Connected to Korea' (Kankoku Yukarino Chi) which introduces some aspects of Korean culture now established in Kansai. Mr. Cho commented "I would like my people to know more about these issues. I think Kansai written in hangul is essential for the Koreans."

Mr. Cho feels Kansai has recently made great progress in efforts to promote the hangul system of writing and Korean Culture, thanks in no small part to the World Cup, an event that provided major opportunities. "Now, for example, in city offices around the Hokusetsu region, on documents for Family Registers, Resident Registrations and National Health Insurance, many are printing hangul letters alongside the Japanese characters. It is also a promising sign to now see guidebooks written in the Korean language for Universal Studios Japan and Osaka Castle.'

Mr. Cho introduces Japanese culture to Korean newspapers and other mass media. Today Mr. Cho kindly showed us examples.

Mr. Cho teaches hangul and comparative cultural studies at Osaka Kyoiku University and Baika Women's College, so we asked him how he compares Japanese and Korean students. "In such a comparison, Korean students do seem more lively and pro-active in making their opinions known. Even during lectures, they will raise their hand to ask a question or to state an opinion. Of course, when I ask them for an opinion, without fail somebody will say what I expect them to say. But giving an opinion is proof that the students are thinking about the issue. So, from that point of view, and in giving opinions, it could be said that Korean students seem to be better students, or at least more student-like, than their Japanese fellows."

"Another difference, I would say, is that Korean students don't tend to fall sleep or play with their portable phones. I am not talking about in years gone by, but about the students of today. Japanese students do attend almost all their classes without fail, but they do go to sleep or fiddle with their phones. They are obviously too relaxed while together with similar students. Unfortunately I think such behavior is evidence that Japanese college students nowadays are losing their ability for independency and self-judgment. Furthermore, their ability to concentrate, to express and to write is weakening. College student problems are piling up and before it becomes too late, I feel we must try and rebuild Japanese education with the full cooperation of colleges, society, families and everyone. Of course, most of all, university and college staff must not give up tackling the problems. They must not simply teach their special subject, they need to fully relate to their students and endeavor to provide them with an education that influences their intellect, personalities and future."

The Internet is now more widely spread in South Korea than in Japan, and South Korea is now a world leader for Information Technology. Kansai Window is also channeling a lot of news and information in hangul, and hoping to increase more of such information from Japan. Therefore we asked Mr. Cho about South Korea's current internet environment. "Japan's delay in starting internet development is a big issue. People in Korea are at least one or two years ahead of those in Japan in the IT field. But because of that, there are still many things that can be done in Kansai. I sometimes conduct questionnaires at my colleges, and have asked students how much internet surfing they do at home, or if they use standard modems, ADSL or fiber optics. There, I can see differences clearly between Japan and South Korea. Over 90% of Korean students have ADSL or faster net access in their own rooms and use the internet almost daily. At the university level, they use computers everyday."

Mr. Cho has recently joined up with one of South Korea's major law corporations and been appointed their Japan representative. So he is now also involved in helping South Korean and Japanese companies to make deals, in technology transfer and consulting. "As Korea's research ability has improved greatly, I have recently been involved in Korean car manufacturing technology. For example, recently, we had some negotiations involving a major Japanese manufacturer that is buying Korean car technology. This technology transfer is something of a reverse transfer as, until now, it was usually Japanese technology going to Korea. Sometimes, Korean end products were then imported back to Japan but never the other way round. Currently, negotiations are underway with a company in Osaka to sell Korean technology. Also I have been consulting to a major Korean company starting a new business to sell the products of small and medium sized companies from Osaka. So between South Korea and Kansai, there is still enormous potential for joint business ventures, importing and exporting both technology and products."

Mr. Cho also discussed sporting relations between the two countries. "Thanks to the World Cup, demand is increasing between the J league and K league. There is almost no difference between the Japanese and Korean national teams, although during the World Cup, Korea maybe did a little better than Japan. But when the two leagues are compared, the J league is relatively advanced. Several Korean national members have come to Japan to play in the J league. And conversely, some of those J league players not selected as members, or given a chance but who hope to play somewhere else, are putting their hands up to go to Korea even if their pay may fall. I would like to introduce many more Korean players to the J league. And in reverse, I also hope to send players from Kansai teams to the K league, or to have more partnership relationships between the teams of both countries." The last World Cup was the first time the event had ever been held jointly. Mr. Cho says he was elated from the moment the co-hosting of Japan and Korea was decided.

Mr. Cho continued the interview excitedly, talking even more about sports, including about the Hanshin Tigers. "The joint-holding of the World Cup was really good. Looking at the result, Japan fulfilled its original aim to rank in the top 16. But Korea, on the other hand, did far better than anyone expected. They made the top 4, a result that of course brought great joy to the Koreans but was also a good result for the Japanese people and our bi-lateral relationship. Many Japanese people around me cheered more and more for Korea as our team progressed. All the TV channel commentators were encouraging Korea to win as Japan's partner country, and I even received E-mails from Japanese fans saying how impressed they were by the match between Korea and Italy. So all this was another sense in which it was very good that the Koreans made it to the top 4."

"My love for Kansai becomes quite obvious through sport. For baseball, I naturally support Hanshin and Kintetsu and I am always really pleased when I read the newspaper sports page and see that Hanshin has won a match. And it's the same for Kintetsu. I want Kintetsu to win the championship and beat Seibu. Ultimately my dream is to have both Hanshin and Kintetsu in the Japan Series. In J league soccer, I support Gamba Osaka and Seresso Osaka, but I also want Purple Sanga and Vissel Kobe to do well. So accurately speaking, I am not just a Hanshin fan or Gamba fan, but a Kansai fan. My true feelings as a Kansai fan come out well in High School Baseball at Koshien. For example, when the Osaka Perfect Liberty (PL) school has to play against a Tokyo school, I automatically cheer for PL. Or if it is Chiben-Wakayama verses Yokohama, I support Chiben-Wakayama. This is when I realize myself that I am truly a Kansai person. But this summer when Chiben-Wakayama had to play against Nara-Chiben, I was torn," he laughed.

The seventh program

関西広域機構 — 2010-05-28T12:45:27+09:00



		Our seventh 'I love Kansai' guest is Ms. Diane Orrett, originally from Liverpool, England. Diane came to Japan in 1990 and has lived in Osaka ever since. While in Osaka she has studied and gained a deep appreciation for a variety of traditional Japanese arts and cultural forms such as flower arranging, the tea ceremony and the kimono.

March, 2002

More recently, Diane has become known by her stage name 'Diane Kichijitsu' ('lucky day') and makes stage appearances performing 'Rakugo', a traditional form of comic storytelling. Because she performs this stage-art in English as well as Japanese she has been able to bring the charm of Rakugo to many non-Japanese.

Before Japan, Diane had been traveling around the world as a back-packer for about two years. It was during some time in New Zealand that a roommate fascinated her with stories of Japan and prompted her decision to visit for a short while. At least, that was the plan! She had no intention of staying for any serious length of time.

When she first arrived, Diane stayed with a friend as she began to learn the language. At the same time, she was also growing very attached to life in Osaka. Then, 9 years ago, she found a small house, located just off Tanimachi Avenue, where she began to make a base for all her activities and where she has lived ever since. She likes the convenience and pleasant atmosphere of the area and, on her mountain bike, finds it very easy to get to the various places she visits for her work, Rakugo studies, flower arranging and relaxation. While home may be in the middle of a big city, at night it is actually very quiet. She is also within easy walking distance of the natural oasis that has Osaka Castle at its heart.

Diane is also happy to have some great neighbors, kind and friendly people she finds easy to mix and chat with. If she is out, they collect her mail for her. The owner of the neighborhood 'izakaya' (Japanese style public house) knows that she is a vegetarian and always produces his special 'Diane Menu' of tofu (bean curd) and various vegetables when she stops by. Diane herself says that one of her favorite meals is yam and vegetable 'okonomiyaki', a pancake-like dish. On the subject of Japanese cooking, Diane really likes the taste of 'ponzu', a sour sauce made from a special type of orange, which she uses as a dressing for 'tofu' and salad. She even pours it on noodles.

While, we already know that Diane likes Osaka's Tanimachi area, she told us about some of her other favorite spots in Kansai. These include Kiyomizu Temple in Kyoto and Todaiji Temple in Nara. She also mentioned the really old town streets that remain in Sannenzaka and Nara-machi. "Those places both leave a lasting impression" she said "but I like all parts of Kansai so much that it is difficult to pick favorites".

When she was in England Diane was a graphic designer. She recalls having seen Japanese ceramics and Kanji (written characters) at that time and being intrigued by them. So when she actually came to Japan, she found herself immediately drawn to Japanese culture and art.

The simplicity of flower arranging and the tea ceremony in Japan is an aesthetic that especially appeals to Diane. 'Flower arts do exist in England, too, but Japanese flower arranging is beautiful for its far simpler form' says Diane. She has similar feelings for the tea ceremony. The ceremony, she says, enhances the quality and depth of the communication due, in part, to the use of minimal space, decor and utensils. Diane believes that the charm of Japanese traditional culture lies in the depth and beauty of such simplicity.

On the other hand, Diane is also in tune with another kind of charm, namely the coexistence of a more modern aesthetic within traditional crafts. For example, both a quiet sensitivity and gorgeous richness can be found together in ceramics or kimono design. "I began to collect kimono with interesting patterns and gradually learned how to make my own for the stage", she told us.

Undoubtedly, it is partly due to her background in graphic design that Diane so sensitively appreciates the multi-faceted aspects of Japanese culture.

The charm of Rakugo may also derive from its subtle depth of simplicity spiced up with various humorous devices. Rakugo is, traditionally, a one-man comedy performance in which the props, a fan and a towel, are used in a variety of ways. Numerous amusing character types and situations can be depicted by the same performer. Diane elaborated. "Even in England, which has a broad and long comic tradition, there is nothing quite like this. Rakugo is utterly unique".When she works on a new comic routine, she records herself practicing on video so that she can check each and every detail. "If you change a gesture ever so slightly, that by itself can change the character or scenery entirely. That aspect of Rakugo is particularly interesting but it is also the most difficult thing about it. When I first started, I often mixed up the direction the characters were facing while speaking".

Through a friend's introduction, Diane first encountered Rakugo when she was helping as an 'ocha-ko' (stage assistant) for an English-language Rakugo show performed by a famous Rakugo master (Mr. Katsura Shijaku). Since then she has been able to master some of the traditional 'sketches' herself such as 'Bird Hunter', 'Samurai' and 'I'm terrified of Sushi', as well as creating her own original pieces. For the traditional routines, she makes appropriate cultural adjustments and adds her own ideas to make the presentation more understandable for translation into English. 'I'm terrified of Sushi' is a good example. The original title did not refer to sushi but to 'manju' (Japanese cakes). Diane thought that 'sushi' would be better for a non-Japanese audience. In such thoughtful ways she has succeeded in mastering traditional Japanese arts and, doubtless, some Japanese people will feel some sense of shame that they don't equally apply themselves to the deep appreciation of their own traditional culture.

Since leaving the United Kingdom, Diane visited 26 countries. "But at last I have found my base, and my base is here in Japan" she told us. "If I ever go back to England, I want to spread and promote the joy I have found in Japanese culture... and of course perform my Rakugo as well. But even if I do go back, a piece of my heart will always be here in Japan".

Diane's activities, spreading and promoting the best elements of Japanese culture, are expanding internationally. Her audience now includes people who live overseas as well as foreign people living in Japan. 'Japan Year 2001' was a cultural event held in England, Diane's home country, last year. Various projects and programs to introduce Japan to the English people were arranged. Several people active and prominent in Japanese culture visited as part of the program. Diane was one of them. On the day she gave an English-language Rakugo performance in London, her parents and sister were among the audience. They were taken aback to see her performing Japanese Rakugo in front of such a large audience.

"I was really shy when I was a little girl. At school I used to feel really nervous when reading out loud in front of my classmates. My Japanese friends don't believe me when I tell them that. They say I must have been a different person. In the same way, my family seems to think I've grown as a person since I've been in Japan. For my part, I don't feel I had found my true self before coming here. I came to Japan, encountered the many aspects of Japanese culture and, by absorbing them, discovered what I really wanted to do. That is how I found my base and I am so happy about that. Maybe I was Japanese in a previous life!"

It seems that whatever the traditional culture or art - Yakimono (ceramics), the Kimono (traditional dress), Ikebana (flower arranging), Sadou (the tea ceremony), or Rakugo - Diane has taken the time and effort to learn and appreciate it. Indeed, she has gained an appreciation that many young Japanese people today rarely experience.

Diane added that it is not so surprising that foreigners have never seen Rakugo, but it seems that a lot of my Japanese friends who come along have not seen Rakugo performed live either, yet they have been to see Yoshimoto comedy shows". But regardless of whether they are Japanese or non-Japanese, Diane is delighted with all her audiences.

So, the 'little English girl', once too shy to speak in front of an audience, came to discover her true self 12 years later when she encountered this country called Japan. It was just expected to be another country she would visit, but she soon found herself captivated by its people, culture and way of life. Diane's stage performances, her lifestyle, and friendly character can help us all discover, or rediscover, the best of Japan, whether we were born here or have come from other lands.

Member of the "Rekishi Kaido" Promotion Council

関西広域機構 — 2010-05-28T12:45:27+09:00



		Mr. Wanzhe Cui, a member of the "Rekishi Kaido" (Historical Roads) Promotion Council is the sixth interviewee in the "I Love KANSAI" series which introduces Kansai's attractions as seen by the foreign residents who live in Kansai. "Rekishi Kaido" refers to the exploration of new travel routes whereby the visitor can gain an appreciation of the very best of Japanese culture while visiting Kansai's various historical sites. The Promotion Council, which Mr. Cui works for, has been active in extending the network that connects historically rich towns, and his role is to introduce the special features of the 'Rekishi Kaido' to the world.

September, 2001

According to Mr.Cui "You can trace the exchange between China and Japan along the 'Rekishi Kaido' ".

Mr. Wanzhe Cui first came to Japan when he was a student at Beijing Normal University. He was sent here to study as a conference interpreter by the Chinese Government. Then he studied Japanese language at the Doshisha University's Graduate School. He gained a natural interest in Japan from a very young age owing to the close proximity of the two lands and cannot point to any one particular occasion that caused him to fall in love with the country.

Asked about his first impressions of the country, both from what he saw and felt, on arrival in Japan he said, "What first struck me was the enormous wealth and variety of information. Now, of course, thanks to the internet we can get information instantly anywhere in the world, including China, no matter where we are. But at that time it was very difficult to obtain information related to several different fields in my country. So I was most impressed by this environment that allowed me easy access to technical information around a broad range of fields."

He continued, "We can get information not only about Japan but also about any other country in the world. And thanks to that kind of information I think I was able to look at my country objectively, seeing both its good points and bad points, for the first time ever. In turn this meant that I came to like China more than ever, I feel."

A long time ago the capital of the Tang Dynasty, Changan, was a land where culture, goods and information from all over the world gathered in one place. Mr. Cui commented that he thinks this is akin to the present-day Japan which represents an accumulation of information and culture in Asia.

Observing that Japan has created an original culture out of the many things that resulted from close exchanges with China's Tang Dynasty, Mr. Cui feels strongly about the importance of cultural exchange between Japan and China today. His hope that many more people from China will visit Japan might well have been a reason guiding him to engage in his present job promoting the "Rekishi Kaido".

He went on to say, "A great deal of historical heritage and various cultural assets are concentrated in Kansai. These remain as traces of Japan's exchange with foreign countries and are very appealing to the foreign visitors who come to Japan." I thought it somewhat ironic for Mr. Cui to say that Japan's historical heritage is such a key attraction for Japan's inbound tourism because he is from China, a country that boasts several thousand years of history. But he also stressed that the opportunity to encounter historical heritage through wide ranging eras is a feature relatively unique to Kansai.

He continued, "China is certainly a long country with a long history but the history, in a sense, is a series of destructive episodes in which old cultures were destroyed and new cultures built on top of them. While in Japan, on the other hand, the country enjoyed cultural succession by which the better elements of earlier cultures and traditions were kept. Japan was able to continually produce new things through improving older things. It is wonderful that so many items from various past eras all remain within the same geographical area known as the Kansai.

" If we take a look at the main route of the "Rekishi Kaido", we find that it connects such a variety of places ranging from Ise, a place steeped in mythology, to Kobe, a place reminding us of the Meiji Era with its civilization and enlightenment, and through to a number of historical places. Mr. Cui told us, "When you follow the "Rekishi Kaido", you will find many traces of cultural exchange still remaining all around Kansai. They have become the tourism resources of today and, in themselves, created new exchange." He continued, "This is not just a phenomenon of the big cities like Kyoto and Osaka. It is also true of smaller villages. For example, Asukamura in Nara, has now become a rallying point for international exchange. Many people from China and Korea have visited Asukamura because of its ancient cultural heritage and enjoyed an exchange with the local people."

Mr. Cui often visits many places in Kansai for his work. He also regularly guides visitors from China to show them famous sightseeing spots. Kinkakuji Temple, Todaiji Temple and Himeji Castle are very popular historical and cultural destinations for visitors from China.

Asked about his own personal favorites, he answered, "I have so many favorite places that I cannot give you a short answer." Then he pointed out some places which only someone who has lived in Kansai for several years would think of noting. He said, "I enjoy strolling around markets like the one in Doguya Suji (Tool Street) and Kuromon Market. Markets in Japan are crammed full of fascinating goods being sold, including foodstuff. It is really great fun. I sometimes chat with the middle-aged women who run the stores and stalls and they often let me have a piece so I can try the taste." He also like Houzenji Yokocho in Osaka City and Nam-Demon Market in Ikuno Ward which has been built recently. These are all familiar places relating to the life of common people. He also said that finding new attractions peculiar to the land while visiting various areas in Kansai is very enjoyable.

He said, "The other day I went to Shingu City in Wakayama Prefecture. It is the town associated with the legend of Jyofuku who came all the way to Japan with the task of finding the elixir of perpetual youth and longevity from Shi Hangdi of Qinhuangdao. I found it very interesting to know that the town has been working to develop an identity in connection with the legend. It is a good example of cultural exchange that remains from the past but which have become tourism resources now." He continued, "I also stopped by to see the Nachi Waterfall which has some very wonderful scenery while keeping the sense of a sacred place. Then I went to Katsuura Spa. They have a hot spring in a beach side cave called Boukido which is fascinating. And I ate tuna cooking which is a Katsuura specialty. Kansai has so many places full of attractions for each of its areas."

Among the sightseeing areas visited by many people, Asukamura seems to be especially attractive to Mr. Cui. He said,"The attraction of Asukamura to me is that it is set in a pastoral landscape, almost like an open-air museum. And it has the gentle essence of Japanese landscape in all four seasons. Beautiful Japanese landscape from olden times still remains. Nature from the locality of my hometown, in the east northern part of China, is very cold and dry, therefore I especially appreciate the beauty of the scenery in Asukamura which is full of water and green." I could tell that he clearly knows more about Kansai's attractive spots than ordinary Japanese. Asked about his favorite food, he answered 'Sushi' immediately. He said, "I would say Sushi even if I was asked to choose only one favorite food in the world." This comment, which implied a preference over even the marvelous tastes of China, delighted me and I felt a great sense of warmth and friendship.

According to Mr. Cui, while we can get a great variety of information about the world from the internet, and so on, it is far more important to visit the country and get in touch directly with the local people and their culture. He said, "If people can treasure the memories of a country they have visited even once, then, if the memory is a good one, they will love that country forever. That is especially true for Chinese people who seldom have an opportunity to travel overseas even once in their lives."
Mr.Cui has been working on highly meaningful projects that further deepen the friendship between Japan and China through his work in following the traces of exchange between two countries, as they remain today along the "Rekishi Kaido". This Spring, through Wenlian Publishing Company from China, he has published a book entitled 'Exploring the history of exchange between China and Japan in Kansai' which introduces the exchange history in relation to the "Rekishi Kaido". Furthermore, this year, the "Rekishi Kaido" Promotion Council has opened an office in Beijing in the hope that many more Chinese people will come to know about the "Rekishi Kaido" in Kansai. Mr. Cui himself has been appointed as a delegate for the Council. He is determined to allow as many Chinese people as possible to experience the attractions of Kansai and he will do this by shuttling between China and Japan for the near future. In my opinion, I believe his efforts will be very successful and we can be sure to hear of future Chinese visitors returning to their homeland still saying "Kansai Daisuki (I love Kansai), well after leaving Japan.