Onigawara

　　　　As part of Life In Kyoto's series about traditional Japanese buildings, allow me to introduce onigawara (鬼瓦)or "demon face roof tiles".
Kawara（瓦）are Japanese-style roof tiles made from clay that has been molded into a shape, then heated. The word kawara is thought to have originated from the sanskrit word kapala, meaning plate, bowl, or cranium. Kawara were introduced to Japan from China by way of Korea in the year 588 AD. Kawara were used in the construction of Asuka Temple（飛鳥寺) in what is now Nara Prefecture. To this modern day, kawara are still frequently seen in temple architecture, though very seldom used in the construction of palaces.
Many different types of roof tiles have been developed over hundreds of years, having different names depending on their use or shape. One well-known type of kawara is onigawara, a large roof tile decorated with a demon's face (oni, 鬼), which covers and decorates the ridge of the roof. Onigawara are believed to serve as a talisman against evil and misfortune. It should be noted that while the demons in Japanese fairytales and legends are often evil creatures, the oni depicted on onigawara are good demons, that protect people from harm.
　　　　However, any sort of decorative kawara talisman is called onigawara, regardless of whether or not it depicts a demon's face. The renge-mon onigawara (蓮華文鬼瓦) shown in figure 1, dating to the Hakuho Era(白鳳時代, 700 AD), is called an onigawara, even though it depicts lotus blossoms.The onigawara shown in Figure 2, on the other hand, depicts the whole body of a fierce-looking demon.This onigawara was excavated from the ruins of the Heijo Palace 〔平城宮), built during in Nara Era (奈良時代 710-793 AD). On the tiles in Figure 3, (Kamakura Era, 鎌倉時代,1192-1333), and Figure 4 (Muromachi Era, , 室町時代,1336-1573 AD) we can also distinctly recognize the face of a demon on the tile. As Figure 5 would indicate, onigawara changed once again during the Edo Era (江戸時代,1603-1867). Instead of showing demons, onigawara began to depict waves or the Chinese character for water (水). These talismans were intended to protect houses against fires
　　　　Recently, in the light of the destruction of property due to the Great Hanshin Earthquake, Japanese homes have become more and more westernized. Traditional kawara roof tiles are giving way to new, light weight materials like slate. However, Kyoto still retains a traditional feeling and many homes and temples here feature kawara roof tiles. Why not take a stroll around Kyoto and enjoy viewing these onigawara ? You will surely find some interesting onigawara depicting demons faces, family crests, waves and so forth. You can try making your own onigawara by hand at the shop listed below. Afterwards, your work can be used as a good luck talisman, a paperweight,or a wall-hanging.

Place: Gado, (瓦道), Narazaka-cho, 2366, Nara City
Telephone: 0742-22-2391
Fax: 0742-22-2393
Open Hours: 9:00-17:00
Gado is closed on Saturday and Sunday, but if you make a reservation, you can come on those days.
Fee: It will cost \2,000 to make your tile.
Access: Take No.2 bus for Aoyama Jutaku at Kintetsu Nara Station and get off at the Narazaka-cho Stop.
It will take about an hour to make the kawara. The shop will bake the kawara and send it to you 3 weeks later.


Yachiyo Matsuda

Kyoto Interview Series

　　　Life in Kyoto (LIK) recently interviewed Laurie Toby Edison, a New York born photographer who completed a residency and exhibit at the Kyoto Arts Center in the Fall of 2002. Laurie Toby Edison is widely known across Japan and the United States for her ground breaking photo series Women En Large, and Familiar Men. She is currently working on a new photo series entitled Women of Japan. Laurie Toby Edison has the gift of encouraging people to reconsider their preconceived notions about bodies, race, and gender through the viewing of her photographs, presenting her subjects with uncommon warmth and familiarity.
Q: What made you decide to photograph Japanese women for your latest photo series?
A: As a photographer, I select projects which stay in my mind and capture my artistic imagination. I first came to Japan in 1996, when my photographs were being exhibited at the extremely successful "Gender: Beyond Memory" group show at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography. I was struck by the presence and variety of the women I met, and wanted to capture that feeling in my photographs. I guess you could call that the inspiration.
Q: What was the purpose of this series?
A: Like all of my projects, Women of Japan has had many purposes. I wanted to explore the variety of women in Japan and to create a breadth of images that go far beyond conventional images of beauty and visibility. I wanted to learn more about Japanese women for myself. I wanted to create a context for a discussion about what being Japanese means.
Q: What do you think of the way women are depicted in the Japanese media?
A: In my experience, the media shows an extraordinarily narrow range of women, which makes it hard for most women to see themselves at all, let alone to see themselves as beautiful. Unlike the media, I am interested creating images of women who are old, young, fat, thin, coming from many different classes and backgrounds. I have already taken portraits of a leather worker, a writer, a community worker, a publisher and a performance artist.
Q: What sort of techniques did you use to shoot the series?
A: All of my photographs are shot in black and white. I use a medium-format camera and create my own master prints in a darkroom. Most of the portraits are 8 inches by10 inches, but some are smaller. When the project is further along, I will probably also do some larger prints.
Q: How do you pick the locations for shooting?
A: Each photograph is a collaboration between the model and myself. In the United States, most of my portraits have been of people in their own homes. By contrast, many of the photos I've taken in Japan have been in outside settings which they have chosen or helped me choose, and in which they feel comfortable. For example, one woman whom I recently photographed wanted her picture taken on the train between Kyoto and Osaka. Another picked a riverside, and another was photographed in the water at a local onsen.
Q: Had you been to or studied Japan before you began this series?
A: I first came to Japan in 1996 for the Tokyo museum exhibition. Before that, I had always been interested in Japanese art and culture. I have just completed my fifth trip to Japan, and several of the trips have been about a month long.
Q: Do you have any favorite Japanese photographers?
A: My favorite Japanese photographer is Ms. Miyako Ishiuchi. I feel that there is a real relationship between her work and mine. Other Japanese artists I admire include Mr. Taikichi Irie, and Ms. Yoshiko Shimada and Bubu, both collaboratively and individually.
Q: How did you find the subjects for your series?
A: Since the beginning of the Women En Large project, I have always begun my relationship with models the same way. When I see someone I want to photograph, I begin by making sure I am formally introduced to them. I invite them out to have coffee with me, look at my pictures and discuss the project. Then they take as long as they need to decide whether or not they want to be photographed. I don't try to persuade people - I want it to be their choice. People I have photographed or worked with frequently introduce me to other possible models.
For Women of Japan, I am making an effort to photograph women from a wide variety of backgrounds, including diversities of class, beauty, physical ability, race, national identity, size, culture, legal status, age, and economic status. The more Japanese people see my work, the more they help me make choices about who should be in the project.
People who look at my work frequently comment that the models look unusually comfortable. Although all of my portraiture projects have been about groups of which I am not a member (fat women, men, women of Japan), I always approach my work by taking pictures of people "like us," rather than people who are "other" (which is traditionally what photographers do: Edward Curtis photographed Native Americans as "them"; Diane Arbus photographed "them".) Thus, the fact that I am working in collaboration with my models may be subtle, but people notice the results.
Q: What brought you to Kyoto? How long did you stay?
A: I was invited to be an artist in residence at the Kyoto Arts Center, including a show of the Women of Japan project in process, and a talk about the exhibit. I was in Kyoto for four weeks and I spent another week in Tokyo. During this trip, I photographed six different models or groups of models, including a three-generation family--grandmother, mother, and daughter.
Q: What things did you like about Kyoto?
A: I very much appreciated working with the Kyoto Arts Center. Everyone was extremely helpful and considerate.
My exhibition was in the tea ceremony room at the center, which was very beautiful. I'm told that the reason it is larger than most tea ceremony rooms is that when the building was a school, they used it to teach manners. There were many complexities in creating an installation that both showed the photographs artistically and was in harmony with the tea ceremony room. I was very pleased with how the exhibition looked and delighted with people's reactions to it. The advice of the Kyoto Arts Center staff was invaluable in making this successful.
I love Kyoto, and spending a month there was marvelous. I am always refreshed and renewed by the beauty and artistry of the city and its people.
Q: Do you have any further plans to exhibit the series or release a book of the photos?
A: I am still in the early stages of this project. I have many more people to photograph, and I am just barely beginning to develop the text that will go with the photographs. The text will written be by the women I photographed, and other Japanese people. I still need to travel extensively in Japan. On my next trip, I hope to take photographs in Okinawa and elsewhere around the country.
It's too soon to think about a book, but I do have plans for further exhibition and development of the work in Japan.

For more examples of Ms. Edison's photographs, please visit:
Ms. Edison's photographs


Interview by B. Jarvis

Know Your Onigiri!

Do you feel like you're playing russian roulette every time you buy an onigiri at the convenience store? Is the complicated kanji and the choice of mysterious fillings overwhelming? Fear not! Life In Kyoto presents a comprehensive onigiri guide to satisfy both your curiosity and your hunger.

Onigiri is one of the best snacks you can get in Japan. They're tasty, filling, healthy, cheap, and convenient. Typically speaking, onigiri are either triangular or circular balls of rice with some kind of filling, wrapped in dried seaweed. Most sources say that onigiri have been around since the Heian period (平安時代) or earlier, when they were called tonjiki and issued to soldiers as their rations. Traditional filling choices include umeboshi (梅干sour plum), konbu (昆布kelp), and katsuo (鰹bonita), although, as you will see in any convenience store, today's onigiri come in many different flavors.
This list is by no means exhaustive; as there are many different combinations of ingredients available, as well as flavors that the author has not figured out yet.

THE ONIGIRI PRIMER
O: circular shape V: triangular shape
O Chahan (ヱャハン) Fried rice with bits of pork and scrambled egg. Not quite as good as the stuff you can get at a Chinese restaurant, but still tasty.
V Katsuo (かつお、鰹) The bonito fish, whatever that is. It's got an intense flavor that reminds me of shredded beef jerky.
O, V Konbu (こんぶ、昆布) Seaweed. Kelp. An acquired taste, but I hear it's pretty good for you. Sometimes has sesame seeds mixed in.
V Mentaiko (明太子) Small, spicy pink fish eggs. There's no flavor I can think of to compare it to. An acquired taste, but one worth acquiring.
V Maguro (マグロ、鮪) Raw tuna (not the canned stuff), usually with a lot of wasabi mixed in. One of my favorites.
V Negitoro (ねぎとろ) Higher-grade, fatty tuna with sliced green onions and, again, a lot of wasabi.
O Omurice (オムライス) A mini version of the classic. Rice in tomato sauce with egg wrapped around it.
O Red Beans and Rice, or sekihan (赤飯). While a staple of budget cuisine in America, this dish is eaten on celebratory occasions in Japan. My students look at me funny when I eat these as a midmorning snack. Very filling but bland.
O, V Salmon (しゃけ、さけ、鮭) Comes in both shapes. This is the most commonly available, and also one of the tastiest. It's made with cooked salmon.
O Sesame and Salt (ごま塩) Just rice, roasted sesame seeds, and salt. Basic and delicious, but not if you're minding your salt intake.
O Shisoume (しそうめ) Need a pick-me-up? Eat one of these. They've got a real bite to them and they're high in vitamins and minerals as well.
V Tuna (シ・チキン、ツナ) Good old canned tuna. Unfortunately usually served with mayonnaise (マヨネーズ) V Ume (梅, うめ) Pickled plum, also known as umeboshi. Very tart. If you're into sour candy, you'll probably like this.
O, V Wakame (わかめ、若布) Seaweed again, but with a milder flavor than konbu. It痴 the same stuff you see in miso soup. Usually comes with some salmon flakes too, in circular form.
O Yakionigiri (焼きお握り) A plain onigiri, brushed with soy sauce and then grilled.
V Yakitarako (焼きたらこ、焼き鱈) Small, spicy fish eggs, mixed in with pieces of fish. I bought this out of a sense of adventure and really liked it.
Ann Cwiek

I think that some people would starve if it weren't for onigiri!
The unique plastic packaging on konbini onigiri has always struck me as a fairly ingenious way to keep the seaweed from getting soggy. However, A lot of konbini have started selling home-style musubi onigiri, where the seaweed has already been pressed into the rice and has a softer texture. These onigiri are usually bigger and fresher tasting that the traditional plastic wrapped version, and I highly recommend them, even if they are a little bit more expensive. If you ask the clerk to heat it up in the microwave for you, you have the perfect winter snack.