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!
I have been introducing Japanese summer seasonal stuff recently, such as traditional summer festivals, fireworks festivals, and so on. There is another typical summer activity people have been enjoying since old days. It is "listening ghost stories". Yes, scary ghost stories are often considered as summer seasonal stuff in Japan.
Why? When people listen ghost stories, the more scary the stories are the more people would feel cold shivers. It has been an ancestral wisdom against summer heat known among common people from the time without air-conditioning machines.
People can listen these scary stories narrated by professional performers since Japan has a traditional entertainment performance of story telling called "Rakugo". Although it is often introduced as traditional arts of comedy talk, it actually includes hart-warming stories, scary stories, and love stories in addition to funny stories.
Between the Samurai era and early modern era listening scary type of "Rakugo" was very popular during summer, and at that time "Rakugo" performers used drawings of ghosts or scary masks for their staging effects. Listening scary stories surrounded by ghost drawings or monster masks under candle lights sounds enough frightening to feel a cold shiver even today!
Actually there is an annual exhibition held at a temple in Ueno, Tokyo, which you can experience the atmosphere of these old times scary "Rakugo" show. A famous past "Rakugo" performer named Sanyutei Encho had a private collection of ghost drawings. He was famous for a master of scary type of "Rakugo" and that's why he collected these drawings. The exhibition is called "Yanaka Encho Festival" and showing his collections every summer.
Last summer, Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music collaborated with the festival and held another special exhibition of ghost drawings as you can see in the upper photo. Unfortunately they don't have it this year, but "Yanaka Encho Festival" is being held as usual at Ueno Zenshoan Temple (5-4-7, Yanaka, Taito-ku, Tokyo) until August 31st as shown in the lower left hand side photo. In addition, another ghost drawings exhibition is being held at Edo-Tokyo Museum until September 25th.
By the way, there is a typical image of ghosts in Japan. It looks like the drawing in the lower right hand side photo. A woman with a long tousled hair wearing white kimono and doesn't have legs. Apparently the typical image was created during the Samurai era. Some says a famous painter at that time drew this style first, then it was loved so much and spread quickly as the most common style for ghosts.
What's more, the typical ghosts even have a routine action, such as holding their hands like shown in the drawing above and saying "Urameshiya-(I'm having a grudge...)". Well, if you hear the word when you are passing a graveyard there might be a Japanese ghost!
