The Events of a Year

The Swordmaker
In 1300 AD there lived a swordmaker in Kamakura, the ancient capital of Japan. His name was Masamune, and he developed a new technique of forging swords that was to change the tide of history in Japan. I spent three weeks with his 24th-generation descendant, learning the ancient techniques to forge these artistic weapons.

The sword is said to be the soul of Japan, to embody all the qualities the Japanese revere in a true warrior and human being.Masamune swords are made with 100-year-old temple nails and iron-sand from a single river source 500 miles to the north. A finished sword has over one thousand layers and takes eight days to polish. When you handle it you must wear a mask so that your breath does not damage its fine finish.

Yabusame

In olden days the very greatest warriors in Japan were the yabusame, the mounted samurai. They could shoot arrows with extraordinary accuracy from the backs of their galloping horses, and were expert swordsmen. Today these skills are still practiced by two yabusame teams, who compete several times a year at Japan’s foremost shrines.

I joined the yabusame mounted archery team and spent months learning to manhandle an 8-foot longbow while balanced precariously on the back of an ex-racehorse. I never once hit the target.

Sanja Festival

Once a year Tokyo hosts a great festival called the Sanja Matsuri. Forty portable shrines (each requiring 25 men to carry it) are paraded through town for three days. The shrines contain kamis – local gods – who insist on visiting the limits of their domains at least once a year. I carried a shrine throughout the three days of the festival. It was so crowded that I had to walk –and breathe – in perfect sync with the person in front and behind me. Thousands of spectators chanted a rhythmic "ya-shoi, ya-shoi" while we marched hour after hour. The repetition, sound, and palpable energy transformed the simple act of movement into an almost religious experience. It was the closest thing to human harmony that I have ever experienced.

Winter Kabuki

The tiny town of Kuromori in northern Japan lies forgotten all spring, summer, and autumn. When winter comes the farmers of Kuromori exchange plowshares for wooden swords, break out their tins of face-paint, and re-enact a 350-year-old tradition called winter kabuki. The real heroes of this yearly event are the spectators, who sit in the snow – and sometimes in a snowstorm – for seven hours while listening to the players recite act after act in an ancient form of Japanese that none of them can understand.

One-Man Sumo

Everybody knows what sumo wrestling is, but have you ever heard of one-man sumo? Each year on a tiny island of O-mishima in the Inland Sea the best sumo wrestler in the village goes up against the shrine god. Best out of three.

Guess who wins?

Bloodless Bull Sumo

Just a few miles south an ancient custom continues. Each year twenty bulls – one ton apiece – are pitted against each other in bull sumo. The massive animals eye each other, then slowly close the gap and lock horns. They may stand, unmoving, for an hour. Not so their handlers – teams of up to twelve Japanese men leap around like crickets, pounding their animals' flanks and shouting encouragement. Eventually one bull turns tail and flees, and then the real excitement begins. Several men jump up to grab his nose, tail, and ears in a futile attempt to stop a thousand pounds of runaway, horn-tipped muscle…

Yamabushi

In August I spent two weeks with the Yamabushi – a 1400-year-old cult of pre-Buddhist mountain ascetics – in the sacred Dewa Sanzen mountains. While in training the Yamabushi are not allowed to wash or brush their teeth. They eat one bowl of rice, a cup of watery soup, and a piece of pickle three times a day. They hike throughout the mountains, dressed in white and wearing brass bells that ring with every step.

The Yamabushi worship stones, trees, summits, lakes, and ancient sites. They are elusive folk, though if you hike deep into the sacred mountains and listen carefully, you may hear the haunting three-tone sound of their conchs carried on the wind. At night they chant for hours, then seal themselves inside a temple and pour pepper powder and rice husks onto a fire. For fifteen minutes they inhale the fumes, sometimes passing out. This is said to simulate death and eventual rebirth as a sacred being.

Power Croquet

One day I stumbled upon a game of gateball. It looks like lawn croquet played upon a hard-packed surface, but there the resemblance ends. This is serious business – each game lasts twelve minutes and players run from shot to shot. Woe betide anyone who gets tapped by an enemy ball. Croquet mallets turn into golf clubs and ball is quickly sent into the next county. After being soundly thrashed, I discovered that the average age of my opponents was 78 years old.

Pachinko

Pachinko – it looks like a slot machine and sounds like a pinball game. Although it requires no skill whatsoever, it is one of the most popular past times in Japan.

Huge and gaudy pachinko parlous tower over every town and village. Since gambling is not permitted by law, the players are not allowed to convert their pachinko balls back into cash at the end of the evening. A truly Japanese solution has evolved to solve this dilemma. The players purchase an agreed-upon product – lipstick, for example, take it around the corner to a separate company, and resell it for cash. Occasionally one is treated to the incongruous sight of a dour-faced businessmen hauling a huge armload of lipstick down the street…

New Human Beings

It is a fact of life that every generation, as it approaches middle age, are surprised and appalled by what the young ‘uns are up to. The Japanese are so taken aback by this generation’s crop of youth that they have labeled them "the New Human Beings".

They sport spiky green hair, metal plugs in their eyebrows, noses, tongues, lips, cheeks, and navels, and heavy leather in the heat of summer. A frightening sight, though they are completely harmless and can often be found handing out tissues on street corners. It will be interesting to see what changes these new human being bring to traditional Japan.

To purchase the four-hour DVD set ($29.95)or hardcover book ($23.95), please visit Japanlandonline.com

BACK