Complete Your Moon-Viewing ( O-Tsukimi) For This Year- Tonight With The Ju-Sanya ( 13th night) Moon
These days, when most Japanese think of O-Tsukimi (お月見- moon-viewing）they imagine admiring and making offerings ( of seasonal foods and grasses) to the full moon of mid-autumn, the biggest looking and most beautiful moon of the year, which appears on the 15th night of the 8th month of the old lunar calendar ( which was October 3rd this year). Since according to this calendar the full moon almost always occurs on the 15th of the month, besides he word MANGETSU ( 満月), which literally means FULL MOON, there is another expression- JU-GOYA (十五夜), directly translatable as THE 15th NIGHT, which in the past could be used to indicate any full moon, but which now is usually taken to mean the night of mid-autumn moon viewing. The custom of having formal events on the night of the 15th in the 8th month was introduced to Japan from China, though as it spread throughout the land it was JAPANIZED, in that the offerings made to the moon also included TARO (yama imo), and other native Japanese species. However, what really came to make Japanese O-Tsukimi distinctly different from what happens in China is the fact that in Japan, proper moon-viewing could not be completed on JUST ONE NIGHT (the 15th night of the 8th month). This was called KATAMI-TSUKI (片見月), and was considered to be highly inauspicious.
To do TSUKI-MI the right way in Japan, one had to also set offerings to, and then admire the moon approximately one month later, in the 9th month.This time it was not the full moon of the 15th night which received special attention, but the moon of the 13th night (JU-SANYA 十三夜), which is very large , but NOT QUITE FULL (see the chart above). It is said that this IMPERFECT moon, appeals more strongly to Japanese (as oppossed to Chinese) aesthetic sensibilities.
Tonight, the night of October 30th 2009, just happens to be the 13th night of the 9th month according t the old calendar, and thus across the country, many families will be preparing special foods and decorations for tonight`s TSUKIMI.In particular soy beans and chestnuts are important for tonight. In fact, nicknames for JU-SANYA are MAME MEIGETSU (豆名月ー BEAN-MOON) and KURI-MEIGETSU (栗名月ーCHESTNUT-MOON).
Whenever I hear the expression JU-SANYA, the short story of the name name by HIGUCHI ICHIYO ( of 5000 yen bill fame). It is her tale of a woman, who by marriage to a man of higher status can give security and pride to her parents and also give birth to a son she adores- yet REMAINS MISERABLE because of the way her husband treats her, that I came to understand the symbolism and significance of the 13th night moon.
It is on that night that she secretly escapes from her home intending to leave her husband and son forever and return to her parents house. In the end they convince her to return to husband and endure her unhappiness for the sake of her husand, on and themselves.
At first I could NOT understand why HIGUCHI ICHIYO connected this womans situation with the moon ofthe 13th night, but then it hit me- NOTHING IS PERFECT and YOU CANT HAVE EVERYTHING. Tonight`s moon is a symbol of the imposibility of perfection- especially human happiness.
Still looking at the beautiful moon on a fragrant autumn night can fill us ( for a fleeting moment) with a sense of awe and wonder. Go on out tonight and have good long look.
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David Sanborn Group Performance at Tsukuba Capio
David Sanborn Group Performance at Tsukuba Capio
Tuesday, December 15th, 2009.
Doors open at 18:30, performances start at 19:00
VOLVOX, a Tsukuba-based company has been bringing world renowned performers to Tsukuba. You may have heard about the sold out Fourplay Japan Tour or Lee Ritenour Group performances at Tsukuba Capio. This time, VOLBOX will bring David Sanborn Group to Tsukuba!
Tickets:
8,500 yen advance (tax included)
9,000 yen same day (tax included)
* Preschool-age children will not be allowed entry.*
Ticket Offices:
- Tsukuba Capio Hall
- Music Plant Stores in Tsukuba and Tsuchiura
- Ticket Pia
- E-Plus
- Or you can purchase tickets online from VOLVOX website:
http://www.vol-vox.net/ticket.html (available only in Japanese)
Inquiries:
Call VOLVOX at 029-851-2762
Or visit: http://www.vol-vox.net/
David Sanborn (sax): http://www.davidsanborn.com/
Ricky Peterson (key): http://www.rickyp.com/index.html
Nicky Moroch (g): http://www.nickymoroch.com/
Richard Patterson (b), Gene Lake (ds): http://genelake.com/go/
This article is from the October issue of the Alien Times. Please also see the September issue for reference.
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TABS Boarding Schools Fair in Tokyo
TABS (The Association of Boarding Schools) Asia Boarding Schools Fairs will kick off in Tokyo this weekend. You can see the list of participating schools here.
TABS Asia Boarding Schools Fair, Tokyo
Date: Sunday, October 25
Time: 5:30PM to 7:30PM
Venue: ANA InterContinental Hotel
The next TABS TABS Asia Boarding Schools Fair will be held in Seoul, Korea on Oct. 27. For the precise details of this fair in Tokyo and fairs in other Asian countries, click here, or visit TABS website: http://www.boardingschools.com/
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Tsukuba Science Information Center Now Open on Weekends
We mentioned in the May issue of the Alien Times that the Tsukuba Information Center reopened as the Tsukuba Science Information Center in April. However, it was open only on weekdays. Well, this week, the City has announced that the Tsukuba Science Information Center is now open on weekends! It will be closed on Mondays and National holidays and during the year-end and New Year holidays instead.
Ref.: http://www.city.tsukuba.ibaraki.jp/13/885/005953.html
Tsukuba Science Information Center
Azuma 1-10-1, Tsukuba City
Hours: 9:00 to 17:00,
Closed: Mondays, National Holidays and the year-end and New Year holidays
Phone: 029-852-6789 (Office of Tsukuba City Policy Council)
Ref.: From the May issue of the Alien Times
The place that we all know as “the Information Center” has been closed for a while, but it has restarted its operation as the “Tsukuba Science Information Center” in April…, tentatively.
Tsukuba Science Information Center provides the kind of service and information the “Information Center” used to offer, such as the information area where visitors come and pick up brochures and newsletters. The Tsukuba Science City-related exhibit also continues.
They are currently open only from 9:00am to 5:00pm, Monday thru Friday. I know their new hours are very inconvenient if you work during the day, but hours may change sometime since everything is “tentative.” Even the new name for the facility is tentative!
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Saiki`s Old Fudo-Hall and its Traditional Monthly Women`s Prayer Meetings (妻木の不動尊)
Saiki`s Fudo Hall
By Avi Landau
It can be said that until about 50 years ago, the hamlet of Saiki ( 妻木), now a part of Tsukuba City, was at the edge of NOWHERE. This is because the land on which nearby Tsukuba Center, Tsukuba University and all their accompanying shops, restaurants, and apartments now stand, was once a large tract of impassible woods and marshland. Though remnants of this lost ecosystem can still be found in the string of small parks with ponds which run on a nearly straight north-south axis right through the center of Tsukuba, this once forested area has been turned into the CORE of what is now the SCIENCE CITY. Many of the old residents of Saiki, once poor farmers living in a remote area, have now become prosperous landlords living the easy life, as they have put up on their properties the abundance of chinsy apartments in which so many students (and others) live ( and pay dearly for).
- Saiki`s Blue Roofed Fudo Hall from a distance
Today the neighborhood of Saiki, an oasis of traditional village-scapes just minutes from Tsukuba Center by bicycle, lies sandwiched between the concrete-bank encased Hanamuro River and the 4-lane, chain- restaurant lined boulevard called Higashi-Odori. And while it offers the typically enchanting characteristic features of the deep Ibaraki countryside- the rice, vegetable,buckwheat and turf- lawn fields, the flower patches, the majestic housing compounds with heavy-laden fruit trees which can be seen through the gates or jutting out over the walls, the war memorials, the clusters of sacred stones, and the shrines and temples- one feature of Saiki stands out as a curiosity. It is a small, blue, tin roofed, wooden structure, slightly elevated off the ground by posts, which because of its size, shape and design does NOT appear to be either a shrine, temple or tea house.
The Sweating Fudo Stone inside the hall
The prayer chanted each month
Usually, such a stone would have a much smaller shelter( if any at all) and I realized that the structure must be a meeting hall for prayer sessions to O-Fudo Sama (as the deity is affectionately called), similar to the much larger one that can be found in Higashi-Oka, just across the Hanamuro River ( I have written about that prayer hall and its prayer meetings in more detail at: http://blog.alientimes.org/2008/07/higashiokas-fudo-ko-a-meeting-with-the-unmoveable-one/
Anyway, to learn more about the traditions of this (Saiki`s) Fudo Meeting Hall I walked a couple of steps across the narrow road and called out for help. An elderly woman dressed for farm work greeted me cheerfully and told me nearly all I wanted to know- that the hall was called the FUDO-ZON and that there were prayer sessions held every month on the 27th for family health and easy delivery ( if there were any pregnancies in the neighborhood). There could be special prayer sessions if someone called for them. This would be if one of O-Fudo-Sama`s devotee`s relatives or friends were ill or injured.
Gathered for the Fudo-Koh on the 27th of the month
The chanting begins
The Fudo Hall glitters in the sun 2009
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