Senja-fuda(千社札＝one thousand shrines prayer cards)
Do you know what senjafuda are? If you are unfamiliar with senjafuda, allow me to tell you before you make the first visit to the shrines next January.
First of all, I must explain the practice of senjamode. Senjamode (千社詣で) means "a pilgrimage to a thousand shrines". The origin of senjamode dates back to the middle of the Heian Era(平安時代：794-1192). In those days, making a pilgrimage to as many as one thousand shrines and temples was in fashion amongst the Imperial families and other nobility of Japan. They prayed to the deities for National peace, personal welfare and good health. A second peak of the popularity of senjamode came during the Muromachi Era (室町時代：1336-1573), but was still limited to the privileged classes of the nobility and samurai families
The custom of senjamode, changed its name for senjamairi (千社参り) during the Edo Period (1603-1867), when the practice became popular amongst common people of the merchant class. Like the nobility, these people also visited shrines and temples in the hopes of attaining divine grace. Unlike their predecessors, they always took paper prayer cards(お札-ofuda) with them on which their wishes, names, addresses were written. The prayer cards were either block printed or hand written in bold script called "edo moji". They used to stick the cards on the pillars and ceilings of shrines and temples using paste and a long brush, as an offering to the deities. They believed they would have good luck as long as the cards stayed affixed to the places where they had posted them.This was the origin of modern day senjafuda.
The use of Senjafuda has been passed down for many generations fading in and out of popularity. In the modern Heisei Era (平成時代: 1989-present), senjafuda have gained a popularity amongst many people regardless of age, sex and nationality. Senjafuda today are made as a self-adhesive stickers in variety in sizes, colors, shapes, contents and even purposes. You will still see many plain senjafuda with a white background, with the name written in thick black Edo script. However, it is possible to make fancy senjafuda with colored or patterned backgrounds, decorated with traditional images, and adorned with an "omamori" prayer. You may make the cards yourself with a personal computer, using an edo moji font. You may also make them using automatic machines at toy shops or shops of Japanese sundries around Gion.(祇園), for around \300. You may choose different prayers, pictures, or kanji to adorn the senjafuda, using the machine. Our editor, Bianca has a senjafuda on her name tag、 written using Chinese characters (美杏花). How cute she looks with it!
Here is a picture of a senjafuda I made using a machine. I've printed my name, Matsuda Yachiyo, in Hiragana script. The man's face that appears at the top of the senjafuda is a kabuki actor wearing a style of theatre make-up called kumadori（隅取り）. The biggest performance of the year at Kyoto's Minami-Za theatre in Gion is called "Kaomise"（顔見世）, performed annually in December. The man's face therefore symbolizes December. The four kanji of the small omamori charm on top of my name reads kanai anzen: 家内安全, a prayer for the safety of my family.
Making your own original senjafuda is a very exciting experience. What should you do with your senjafuda after you've made them? You can keep them, trade them with your friends, or post them on shrines, as they did in the past. Senjafuda are a great present to make and give to your friends as a souvenir (お土産) from Kyoto.
If you decide to use senjafuda as the ancient people did, you should know which places permit you to stick them on their grounds. Some shrines that allow you to place senjafuda in Kyoto include:
Kurumazaki Jinja （車折神社）Asahi-cho, Saga, Ukyo-ku. Get off Keifuku Line at Kurumazaki.
Tatsumi Inari Daimyojin (辰巳稲荷大明神) Shijo-agaru, Hanami- koji, Higashiyama-ku. On Shirakawa river
You are probably wondering how you can make some senjafuda of your own. Here is the address of a shop in Gion, next to the Minami-Za, that has a senjafuda machine:
Here is a website where you can order custom-made ones (Japanese only):
click here
Don't you see how interesting Senja- fuda are? Why not experience "Edo Chic" by making and using some?
Kyoto Interview Series
Life in Kyoto recently interviewed Mr. Peter MacIntosh, a Canadian visual artist and cultural liaison who has lived in Kyoto for over nine years. During this time he has been a student of the traditional arts, including brush painting, dance, flower arrangement and calligraphy. Through this he has gained access into Kyoto's Geisha communities, where he now leads walking lectures. He is currently planning to publish a book of photo essays about the Geisha and their world. He has also coordinated and appeared in many documentaries about Geisha that can be seen worldwide. The following interview is part of a series profiling foreign nationals living in Kyoto who are doing something unique or different from the stereotypical working gaikoku-jin.
Q: What did you do in Canada before you came to Japan?
A: I was a professional soccer player.
Q: So why did you come to Japan, then?
A: I wanted to become a journalist. I believe that in order to be a journalist, a person needs to have many different experiences. I came to Kyoto because it's the city that is the most representative of traditional culture in Japan, which is very different from my own culture, and I knew nothing about it. I wanted to learn many new things and improve myself.
Q: What did you do when you first came to Kyoto?
A: I started to teach English at high schools and test prep schools which is a very typical way for recently arrived foreigners to earn money quickly. At the same time I set about learning Japanese culture: brush painting, calligraphy, flower arrangement, and Japanese dance. I also started to take pictures of the Kyoto Geisha district （hanamachi :花街）as a hobby. Japanese culture was so completely different from my own, and I was eager to learn everything about it. I found brush painting to be a particularly relaxing pursuit.
Q: What have you learned about Japanese culture?
A: I think the main point of Japanese culture is to seek a peaceful coexistence with nature. The four seasons are very distinct in Kyoto, and the people here integrate nature into their life according to the cycle of the seasons. For example, Winter and Summer kimono are different not only in terms of the weight of the fabric, but also the weave, color and patterns of the fabric. The summer kimono are sometimes printed with patterns of fish swimming in water, which gives people cool feeling. These seasonal changes can be seen in the home as well. People change the hanging picture (kakejiku :掛け軸), in the alcove (tokonoma :床の間）according to the season and the occasion.
Q: Do you sense any differences between your friends who are Japanese and those who are foreigners?
A: Not especially. Most of my Japanese friends are older than me, between the ages of forty and seventy seven. These people have had many life experiences and I feel that I can learn a variety of things from them. As for my foreign friends, some of them are the same age as I am, but we all have a strong interest in Japanese culture, so I feel I can learn many things from them as well.
But recently, many foreigners have been coming to Japan for the sole purpose of making money, rather than to learn about the culture. So at this point, my new friends are mostly older Japanese people.
Q: Why do you like the Hanamachi（花街:Geisha districts?）
A: For me, the best way to go back to the past is to go to Hanamachi. I often go there in Kimono and enjoy the nostalgia of the area. Although Japanese traditional culture seems to be rapidly disappearing from the city, it's preserved in the ordinary lives of the people in Hanamachi. It's granted that there is a great deal of hard work and training necessary for those people who keep the tradition. For instance, everyday the Maiko( apprentice geisha:舞妓) and Geiko（芸妓） have lessons such as dance (inoueryu kyomai :井上流京舞), shamisen (three string guitar: 三味線), Japanese drum, Japanese flute, tea ceremony, flower arrangement, calligraphy and so forth. From three o'clock in the afternoon their preparation for the evening work starts. This hard training is repeated every day on regular cycle. They have only two whole day holidays per month, so I respect the disciplined lives these women lead.
Q: Isn't it true that there are fewer people want to become Maiko these days because of this strict lifestyle?
A: Yes. Compared to the past, the number of women who want to become Maiko is definitely dwindling. In all five Hanamachi (Geisha districts.), only ten percent of the Maiko are from Kyoto originally. It's an interesting recent trend that many of those who wish to become Maiko come from other prefectures.
Q: Why is this true?
A: Think about it. For many young women, It seems much more charming and glamorous to become Maiko in Kyoto rather than working as an office lady in Aomori. There are many benefits to being a Maiko, such as getting to meet famous people who come as customers, being taken to expensive restaurants, and even appearing on television and in magazines. However, one cannot become a successful Maiko just by having these sorts of fantasies and dreams. The most importance aspect is whether they are truly devoted to preserving the traditional arts.
Q: I recently learned that in the Hanamachi in Kyoto, you can not go to the Ochaya-san (teahouse: お茶屋さん) without an introduction. As you are foreigner, how did you become so familiar with the geisha culture?
A: It's true that Hanamachi is ichigensanokotowari（一見さんお断り）- "by introduction only". I believe there's some sense in that, as it protects them from misunderstandings and danger, saving face for everyone. It's a matter of course that I used a great deal of money to nurture these relationships at first. In order to create a positive relationship with people in the Geisha districts, the important factors are not only money, but also time, effort and mutual respect.
Usually Geiko and Maiko do not permit outsiders to take pictures of them but in my case they allow me to do so casually, because of this give and take relationship I keep with them.
Q: Finally, do you have a message for the readers?
A: Kyoto is very popular tourist city for foreigners, just like the European cities of Rome and Paris. But there is a big difference in expectations of tourists coming to Kyoto as compared to other places. That is, when visiting European cities, people expect not only to see the traditional spots but also to enjoy experience these cities where traditional culture are integrated into the citizen's daily lives.
In the case of Kyoto, foreign tourists expect only to see the traditional spots: temples, shrines, Japanese gardens and so forth. They tend to ignore the reality of the city itself. This is the reason that Japanese traditional culture is rapidly disappearing from the city. The balance between the traditional culture and the daily lives of people who live here is getting to be lost. For example, next to the temples and shrines there are vending machines and big box-like condominiums. The landscape of Kyoto has been thrown out of harmony. I think the spirit of preserving traditional culture is not to deny the modern culture but to find a balance between the new and the old.
For these past nine years I have tried to learn about Japanese traditional culture through building relationships with many people. I want to introduce what I have learned and experienced through my work as a cultural liaison, my photos, and other art work. I'm planning on publishing a photo essay next April showing Hanamachi culture from my unique perspective as a foreigner, friend, customer, fellow practitioner of traditional arts, and lastly, as a husband.(Peter's wife used to be a tayu,太夫: highest trained member of geisha quarters, in Shimabara 島原).
As a Kyotoite, Peter's comments seemed rather stern, but I felt at ease when he told me: "Kyoto is still an exciting city. Everyday I can find something new when I walk the narrow streets. I can find beauty in things that might be considered ugly from a different perspective. I enjoy the nostalgia of old Japan. I really love Kyoto and want to live here for a long time."
Once our interview was over and we emerged from a Gion cafe, Peter pointed to his bicycle and said jokingly, " That's my Porsche," before riding away.
As I watched him ride into the setting sun, I was filled with nostalgic memories and thought of him as being like a kind and gentle mentor who taught me many good things in my childhood.
Walking lectures of Hanamachi for groups and/or individuals can be arranged.
Please see Peter's web sites for more information.
Features Peter's photographs of Maiko and Geisha
Explains more about Peter's work as a Cultural Liaison/ Interpreter
To make a reservation for a Hanamachi Tour, call 090-5169-1654
A. Tara
Purikura,purikura!
Japanese people tend to shorten and simplify certain English words, to make them more suitable to the Japanese language. For example, "personal computer" is abbreviated to pasokon (パソコン), "convenience store" to konbini （コンビニ）and "Print Club" to purikura（プリクラ）. You may not be familiar with the last word I have mentioned. "Print Club" is the trademark of an instant photo machine used to make a sheet of 16 tiny photo stickers. You enter the booth, pose in front of a television screen, and the machine takes the photo automatically. Users can select a variety of colorful backgrounds and frames, and are given a few minutes to pose for a picture and superimpose short messages. It costs about 400 yen to print one sheet.
I'm far from the purikura loving generation, but the foreign students to whom I haved offered homestays or homevisits have often asked me to join their Print Club pictures. "Okaasan, shall we share our purikura stickers to have a memory of our meeting?'" They ask me. Girls from Asian countries have told me that they had previously used purikura in their hometowns in Taiwan, China or Korea. So I have been given a chance to explore the world of purikura even though I am not a member of the target group!
In 1996 Atlus Dream Entertainment Co., Ltd. developed the Print Club machine along with Sega Enterprises and put it on the market. The concept of the machine had been invented between 1994~95 by a 30-year-old female employee of one of the two companies. Soon the machines were introduced to game centers (video game arcades) and the trend exploded amongst high school girls. You may remember a few years when ago teenagers swarmed the Purikura booths day after day, standing in line to take pictures.
Nowadays, this big fad has settled down, and purikura seems to have become an established aspect of Japanese youth culture. In order to find out why purikura seems to attract mostly teenage girls as users, I asked some highschool girls why they liked it. "I can't live without my cell phone and purikura techo (notebooks with a collection of the stickers) for even one day! It's fun to make pictures that are affordable, to share them with my friends and to put them on my personal articles," was the sort of answers they gave me.
I also interviewed a staff member of a game center in Kyoto to see what they had to say:
"Eighty percent of our customers are junior high and high school girls. Foreigners occasionally visit the Purikura booths at their leisure. Aside form the trade mark 'Print Club', many similar machines manufactured by companies such as Hitachi and Omron have been introduced and new technology has been developed. These days, the customers are satisfied by the good quality of the purikura pictures. Recently, costume play (taking pictures while wearing a costume) is very popular with the girls in our shop. Customers are allowed to borrow colorful wigs and showy costumes without a fee."
The purikura machines have been exported to the United States and other nations as well. In 1998, when the Winter Olympics were held in Nagano, the purikura machines in the Olympic Village were very popular with the atheletes from overseas.
Purikura seems to have become a popular means of communication between young girls, a way of enjoying their youth and an expressing their solidarity. To me, the word Pu-ri-ku-ra sounds as rhythmic and pleasant as the voices of young girls themselves!
M. Matsushita