During the first week after New Year, a special exhibition about "Samurai Princess Matsu" was held at Shinshoin Temple in Hachioji City, Tokyo. I kept introducing about Princess Matsu on my website since last April. As I wrote in my previous post on April 10th and April 28th in 2016, she is a daughter of a very powerful Samurai Lord during Japanese Warring States Period in 16th Century.
Since last year, 2016, was the 400th Anniversary of her death, a special festival was held in the April and an old image of her, which was carved in about 1715 and was treasured at Shinsoin Temple, was carried out from the temple building and made a round trip as a parade to Shingenin Temple where Princess Matsu became the Buddhist nun after her family was destroyed.
The image had not been open to the public until last year, so a lot of people came to the 400th Anniversary Festival to see her image. Then, the Shinshoin Temple decided to exhibit the image again during the New Year's celebration this year.
The image was created after about 100 years after her death, but it is said that the image tells her appearance well. When I visited there, there were still New Year's decoration at the temple gate and a small Shinto shrine on the temple ground had Traditional New Year's offering rice cake inside. In the front room many photos of the 400th Anniversary Festival were displayed, then in the inner room the image of Princess Matsu was sitting quietly as you can see in the photos on the lower row above.
The size of the image was almost actual size of human being and the eyes were made of glass which gives her eyes a real sparkle. Her face had a peaceful look mixed with grace and dignity. Many local people were visiting there and putting the palm of their hands together in prayer. In the room there were many historical materials related to her such as her father's portraits, letters addressed to her, and her portrait painted in modern times. It seemed as if Princess Matsu has been sitting there surrounded by her belongings and watching over Hachioji all the time for these four hundred years.
Apparently the temple people are now thinking about having the same kind of exhibition next year during New Year's celebration. Let's hope we can have a chance to meet her again!
I'm continuously talking about Japanese trains and railroads in my recent posts on October 14th and 21st in my another blog "Yuko's Japan Guide and in this website on October 18th and 19th. In the connection, I'd like to introduce a fact that some stations are good places to see Japanese early modern times.
For example, Takao Station on JR East's Chuo Line located in Hachioji City, Tokyo, keeps one of the oldest structures inside of Tokyo. Takao Station is on the major rout to visit Maiji-no-mori National Park including Mt. Takao which is a very popular tourist spot, thus you may have a chance to go through there. It was opened in 1927 and was originally called Asakawa Station. Although Hachioji Station, which is two stations away, was opened earlier, current Hachioji station building was renovated 5 times, so the building is completely different from Takao Station.
Please look at the upper photos, the right hand side photo is the north exit of Takao Station, and the left hand side photo is the view from the platform. It has traditional Japanese structure like some shrines or temples. Also you can still see the original bricks structure on the lower basement of the platform although they installed the high-tech machines for the ticket gates.
What's more, some old rails were recycled as pillars to hold the platform roof at Takao station, and one of them has marks of "1902" and Japan's first government iron mill "Yawata Ironworks" as you can see in the lower right end photo. Apparently it is the oldest maid-in-Japan rail remaining today. The "Yawata Ironworks" started to produce rails in 1901, but nobody found a rail made in the first year so far. The oldest rail is located on the platform 3, with the fifth pillar from the Sagamiko side.
As I introduced on the October 14th, the first railroad business of Japan began services in 1872, but most of the stations in early days were already renovated or reconstructed. Then, in Tokyo the oldest station building remaining today is actually Harajuku Station, which is located in the center of Tokyo and also very popular spot among tourists. It was build in 1924, a couple years earlier than Takao Station. However Harajuku Station has a nice Western style and looks completely different from Takao Station, so it would be interesting to visit both old stations and compare them!
I introduced an unique exhibition being held in Ueno, Tokyo in my previous post on August 16th. Actually Ueno area has many museums, historical buildings and facilities for activities. It is one of popular recreation spot in Tokyo. What's more, many of the facilities are located in Ueno Park which is next to Ueno Station, so it's very convenient for visitors.
Ueno Park was originally a property of a big Buddhism temple, Ueno Kaneiji Temple, which I have introduced one of their buildings in my previous post. Kaneiji Temple had been one of the most powerful temple since it became a family temple of Shogun during Tokugawa Shogunate era.
After the shogunate government collapsed in 1867, Japan's first modern government owned some parts of Ueno Park.
That's why the oldest zoo in Japan located in the Ueno Park. It was established in 1882 by Japanese government and is now managed by a public corporation. The official name of it is Ueno Zoological Gardens, but people usually call it just "Ueno Zoo".
Of course Ueno Zoo is a nice place to enjoy animals, but because of its historical background, people can also enjoy historical structures there. There is a remain of a tea ceremony house established by a historical Samurai lord named Takatora Todo as you can see in lower left hand side photo. Also a historical five-storied pagoda built in 1639 is inside of the Zoo.
These structures were already there when Japanese government tried to establish the Ueno Zoo and people concluded that it would be easier to secure/manage them if they are kept inside of the zoo because they were cultural important assets. Thus these historical structures were remained on their original places.
People thought it would be a better settlement, however they found a big problem later. That was about the separation of religion and politics. Since the zoo was a national zoo, people at that time thought a Buddhism pagoda was not proper to be there. Therefore people held a ceremony to separate the pagoda from Buddhism and removed all Buddha statues from it.
Since then the pagoda is peacefully standing there, in the zoo. It might sound Ueno Zoo was too strict with rules back then? Perhaps they got more flexibility nowadays. Recently they are extending the business hours for people on summer vacation. So people can enjoy seeing pandas' dinner time and hippopotamuses' gargling in evening as shown in the upper photos. Also, the view of the pagoda would have different beauty at night!
