Agatanomori Park - Quick Review
Agatanomori Park in Matsumoto, Japan, is very much a locals’ park. This forest park is a great place for families, couples, or people who want to relax in a peaceful and beautiful park. You’ll see animals, ponds, waterfalls, old buildings, and tall trees. You can also learn a bit about Matsumoto history by touring the historical Matsumoto High School building.
Best part: It’s a relaxing place that’s great for tourists yet is designed for those living in the area with lots of nature, amenities, and places to play or relax.
How to get there: Walk less than 20 minutes directly east from Matsumoto Station or take the Sneaker Bus to the park.
When to go: This is a beautiful park with lots to offer all year round. I recommend going on a nice warm day so you can see some animals, enjoy a snack, and play.
Additional information:
Matsumoto Museum of Art:
Food nearby:
Boulangerie Ciel (
Kagoshima Ramen Sakurajima (鹿児島ラーメン桜島)
Agata No Mori Tea Room (inside the Former High School Memorial Hall)
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Sadako and Thousand Paper Cranes/ Ryo Arizumi Takafumi Tsuruta Tenbo Fashion
Music:Sakura by Ricky Valadez
Sadako Sasaki, a Japanese girl who was two years old when the atomic bomb was dropped on 6 August 1945, near her home in Hiroshima, Japan.
Sadako was at home when the explosion occurred, about one mile from where the bomb landed but didn't suffer any injuries at the time. It wasn't until almost ten years later, in November 1954, that Sadako developed swellings on her neck and behind her ears. Early the following year, purple spots had formed on her legs and she was diagnosed with leukemia which her mother referred to it as the atom bomb disease. She was hospitalised on 21 February 1955, and given only a year to live.
Sadako's best friend came to the hospital to visit, and cut a golden piece of paper into a square to fold it into a paper crane, in reference to the ancient Japanese legend that promises that anyone who folds a thousand origami cranes will be granted a wish.
Though Sadako had plenty of free time during her days in the hospital to fold the cranes, she lacked paper and would use whatever else she could scrounge up. This included going to other patients' rooms to ask to use the paper from their get-well presents.
Sadako Sasaki died on 25 October 1955 at age 12 having folded 644 paper cranes, 356 cranes shy of her 1,000 crane goal. Her class mates and family folded the remaining cranes, and Sadako was she was buried with 1,000 cranes. Every year on 6 August, Peace Day, people visit the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum to place thousands of paper cranes around a golden statue of Sadako lifting up a huge paper crane with the following wish engraved on its base This is our cry. This is our prayer. Peace in the world.
Fukushima Devil Fish: Katsumata Susumu's Antinuclear Manga
Fukushima Devil Fish: Katsumata Susumu's Antinuclear Manga
Lecture by Ryan Holmberg
Nov. 29, 2017, 4:30 pm
University of Hawaii Manoa Hamilton Library
Lecture hosted by the University of Hawaii Manoa Center for Japanese Studies
In collaboration with the exhibition The Disasters of Peace: Social Discontent in the Manga of Tsuge Tadao and Katsumata Susumu (Honolulu Museum of Art, November 30, 2017 - April 15, 2018)
Critiques of nuclear energy in Japanese manga did not begin with the Fukushima Daiichi meltdowns in 2011. One of the regulars of the legendary alternative manga monthly Garo in the magazine’s heyday of the late 1960s and early 1970s, Susumu Katsumata (1943-2007) has the curious distinction of having risen within the world of political cartooning and literary comics while studying toward a graduate degree in nuclear physics in Tokyo. In the late 70s, he began drawing frequent humor strips about the dangers of nuclear power and stories about the “nuclear gypsies” who maintained Japan’s nuclear plants under oppressive work conditions. This talk will survey Katsumata’s work on the subject of nuclear power, which is the largest, most diverse, and most trenchant such oeuvre in Japanese visual art. It serves as a preview of two upcoming publications: a collection of Katsumata’s manga titled Fukushima Devil Fish (SISJAC and Breakdown Press) and No Nukes for Dinner: How One Japanese Cartoonist and His Country Learned to Distrust the Atom (publisher TBD).
About the exhibition The Disasters of Peace:
Beyond manga’s occasional veneer of endearing innocence, the genre of gekiga (literally, “dramatic pictures”), which began in the mid 1950s and went mainstream in the late 1960s, addressed an adult audience and grappled with ethically complex social issues. Through monthly manga anthologies such as Garo, a faction of avant-garde manga artists with gritty, emotionally expressive styles and resolutely anti-authoritarian tones contributed to a new era of humanitarian concern and social activism.
The Disasters of Peace ironically alludes to The Disasters of War (1810–1820), a suite of prints produced by Spanish painter and printmaker Francisco Goya (1746–1828) in response to the horrific violence that he witnessed during the Peninsular War of 1808–1814. In a similar way, the works of Tsuge Tadao (b. 1941) and Katsumata Susumu (1943–2007) displayed here reveal Japan’s plight during the demilitarized era that followed the Pacific War (1941–1945) and the Allied Occupation (1945–1952). Financial hardship, moral confusion, and the lingering shame of military defeat compelled individuals to behave in questionable ways, while large industries, myopically focused upon economic recovery, indulged in unfair labor practices and overlooked environmental hazards. In Garo and other manga publications, Tsuge and Katsumata drew attention to such crises and encouraged public debate about them. At a time when many Americans are similarly concerned about social equality, the future of our planet, and other serious subjects, may these artists inspire thoughtful conversations among ourselves.
About the manga exhibition series at the Honolulu Museum of Art:
Manga— Japanese graphic novels or comics—play a vital
role in contemporary Japanese culture. Not only do they
enjoy immense popularity (annual sales within Japan have
risen to more than two billion US dollars); internationally,
they have become the centerpiece of the “Cool Japan
Initiative,” the Japanese government’s current campaign to
promote its status as a cultural superpower. Manga’s
popularity partly arises from the medium’s historical
connection with Japanese woodblock prints and paintings
(ukiyo-e), which were produced in Japan throughout the Edo
period (1615–1868). The term manga, in fact, was coined by
the renowned ukiyo-e artist Katsushika Hokusai (1760–
1849).
Since 2014, in its mission to expand and significantly
enhance its renowned collection of Japanese works on
paper, the museum has acquired several examples of
Japanese manga by artists such as Maruo Suehiro (b. 1956)
and Anno Moyoco (b. 1971). In 2016, the Honolulu Museum
of Art furthermore presented Visions of Gothic Angels:
Japanese Manga by Takaya Miou (August 25, 2016–January
15, 2017), the first in a series of exhibitions that explore the art-historical importance of manga. That series now
continues with The Disasters of Peace: Social Discontent
in the Manga of Tsuge Tadao and Katsumata Susumu.
National Treasures of Japan | Wikipedia audio article
This is an audio version of the Wikipedia Article:
00:02:33 1 History
00:02:41 1.1 Background and early protection efforts
00:05:21 1.2 Ancient Temples and Shrines Preservation Law
00:08:16 1.3 Extension of the protection
00:12:29 1.4 Law for the Protection of Cultural Properties
00:15:22 1.5 Recent developments in cultural properties protection
00:18:33 2 Designation procedure
00:20:16 3 Categories
00:21:01 3.1 Castles
00:22:11 3.2 Modern and historical residences
00:22:59 3.3 Structures related to industry, transportation and public works
00:23:46 3.4 Shrines
00:24:55 3.5 Temples
00:25:59 3.6 Miscellaneous structures
00:27:50 3.7 Ancient documents
00:28:39 3.8 Archaeological materials
00:29:43 3.9 Crafts
00:31:19 3.10 Historical materials
00:33:26 3.11 Paintings
00:34:31 3.12 Sculptures
00:36:02 3.13 Writings
00:36:40 4 Preservation and utilization measures
00:40:37 5 Statistics
00:41:52 5.1 Geographical distribution
00:43:27 5.2 Age
00:45:56 6 See also
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- Socrates
SUMMARY
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A National Treasure (国宝, kokuhō) is the most precious of Japan's Tangible Cultural Properties, as determined and designated by the Agency for Cultural Affairs (a special body of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology). A Tangible Cultural Property is considered to be of historic or artistic value, classified either as buildings and structures or as fine arts and crafts. Each National Treasure must show outstanding workmanship, a high value for world cultural history, or exceptional value for scholarship.
Approximately 20% of the National Treasures are structures such as castles, Buddhist temples, Shinto shrines, or residences. The other 80% are paintings; scrolls; sutras; works of calligraphy; sculptures of wood, bronze, lacquer or stone; crafts such as pottery and lacquerware carvings; metalworks; swords and textiles; and archaeological and historical artifacts. The items span the period of ancient to early modern Japan before the Meiji period, including pieces of the world's oldest pottery from the Jōmon period and 19th-century documents and writings. The designation of the Akasaka Palace in 2009 and of the Tomioka Silk Mill in 2014 added two modern, post-Meiji Restoration, National Treasures.
Japan has a comprehensive network of legislation for protecting, preserving, and classifying its cultural patrimony. The regard for physical and intangible properties and their protection is typical of Japanese preservation and restoration practices. Methods of protecting designated National Treasures include restrictions on alterations, transfer, and export, as well as financial support in the form of grants and tax reduction. The Agency for Cultural Affairs provides owners with advice on restoration, administration, and public display of the properties. These efforts are supplemented by laws that protect the built environment of designated structures and the necessary techniques for restoration of works.
Kansai, the region of Japan's capitals from ancient times to the 19th century, has the most National Treasures; Kyoto alone has about one in five National Treasures. Fine arts and crafts properties are generally owned privately or are in museums, including national museums such as Tokyo, Kyoto, and Nara, public prefectural and city museums, and private museums. Religious items are often housed in temples and Shinto shrines or in an adjacent museum or treasure house.
Tourism in Japan
Japan attracted 13,413,600 international tourists in 2014, slightly more than Singapore. Japan has 16 World Heritage Sites, including Himeji Castle and Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto. Popular foreigner attractions include Tokyo and Nara, Mount Fuji, ski resorts such as Niseko in Hokkaido, Okinawa, riding the shinkansen and taking advantage of Japan's hotel and hotspring network.
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