The Moai Island Puzzle by Arisugawa Alice (review)

The Moai Island Puzzle by Alice Arisugawa
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

"The Moai Island Puzzle" (Japanese title: Koto pazuru, lit. "Solitary Island Puzzle") is one of the detective novels written in the late 1980s by a number of (at that time!) young authors who specialized in writing traditional puzzle mysteries. Alice Arisugawa and the other writers had been nurtured at "mystery clubs" at Kyoto University and Doshisha University (also in Kyoto) and were dubbed Shin Honkaku or "New Orthodox" writers (for ideological reasons, some critics in Japan wrongly think that "puzzle mysteries" are the only authentic form of the detective story, which is rather a tunnel vision). Other writers of this "group" include for example Yukito Ayatsuji, Taku Ashibe, Kaoru Kitamura, Reito Nikaido, Rintaro Norizuki and Takemaru Abiko. The older and established writer Soji Shimada, who in the early 1980s had published a number of puzzle mysteries, served as their mentor, and publishers as Kodansha and Sogensha jumped on the bandwagon to promote this commercially as a new trend.

As I have indicated in my review of Soji Shimada's Murder in the Crooked House, puzzle mysteries can be rather problematical, not only from a literary point of view, but also when considering what constitutes a good and entertaining book: due to the focus on only the puzzle, the characters tend to be flat and uninteresting; the book is filled with endless discussions; there is no psychology or motivation; and the (too ingenious) "solution" to the closed room puzzle is usually unrealistic and unconvincing.

How does this novel fare? It is set on a solitary island, visited by three university students who join a larger group of people for the holidays. The students belong to a mystery club and intend to hunt for a treasure that the puzzle-freak grandfather of one of them supposedly has hidden on the island. Clues are apparently the miniature copies of "moai statues" dotting the landscape (the monolithic statues originally found on Easter Island and elsewhere in Polynesia). Then a double murder in a closed-room happens...

One of the students, Jiro Egami, functions as the detective, and his Watson is Alice Arisugawa, a copy of the author (just as Ellery Queen plays the main role in the Queen novels; only here the writer serves not as main detective, but his helper). Please note that this is a male (the author too, whose real name is Masahide Uehara - he apparently selected his strange pseudonym out of love for that other famous puzzle story, "Alice in Wonderland"). The third student is Maria Arima, whose family owns the island, and she is true to her (anagramatic) name female.

The writing is light and wholly focused on the two puzzles - for example, there is no characterization and the relations between the three students are not at all developed. And isn't a treasure hunt rather childish? While reading, increasingly the feeling took hold of me that this was a book for children or juveniles - for example like the "Famous Five" series by Enid Blyton (whose first volume Five on a Treasure Island indeed is about a treasure hunt!)... The author was 30 when the book was published, and has since then written a considerable number of novels and short stories. I wonder whether (or how) he has developed since then?

Two stars because I in general applaud translations from the Japanese.

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"Gold Mask" by Edogawa Ranpo (review)

Gold Mask by Edogawa Rampo
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

A novel which pits Japanese master detective Akechi Kogoro against Maurice Leblanc's gentleman thief Arsène Lupin (see Arsène Lupin, Gentleman-Thief). Lupin featured in 17 novels and 39 short stories by Leblanc, starting with "The Arrest of Arsène Lupin" from 1905. In 1906 Leblanc pitted his master thief against Sherlock Holmes in the story "Sherlock Holmes Arrives Too Late" - the name Sherlock Holmes was for copyright reasons later changed into "Herlock Sholmes." Later also appeared the story collection "Arsène Lupin Contre Herlock Sholmes." So Ranpo repeats Leblanc's trick by bringing on Leblanc's Lupin, a Lupin who displays something of a a colonial and racist attitude and is castigated by Ranpo for his lack of chivalry. As he wrote in Japanese, Ranpo apparently didn't have to worry about copyright matters... Lupin would later be transformed into "The Fiend with the Twenty Faces," the master thief from Ranpo's children's books (see The Fiend with Twenty Faces). And again much later, he would keep Japanese minds occupied as Lupin III, the grandson of Arsène Lupin, whose adventures form a manga (and anime) series written and illustrated by Monkey Punch (see Lupin III, Vol. 1). So, thanks to Edogawa Ranpo, Maurice Leblanc had an enormous influence on Japanese popular culture...

It is clear that Ranpo was rather strongly influenced by Maurice Leblanc: with both writers, the master thieves announce their crimes in advance and escape by a certain trick which is soon after explained. In both cases, there is no real mystery – we know the thief will get away by a trick and we know that trick will be discovered, and that this will be repeated an X number of times. There are no real puzzles, and the novels read more as adventure stories for children than detective novels...

Gold Mask is episodic and light – Ranpo said of himself that he was not good in writing novels, he was in the first place a short story writer, so in his longer works there is no overarching structure, but he just strings several short stories together. Ranpo’s style of writing in this particular book also seems rather uninterested – as if he wanted to tell his story as quickly and with as little details as possible so that he could soon finish it. There is little "showing," but almost only quick "telling." There is also none of the fascination we find in Ranpo's "ero-guro" productions.

One could wonder why this book has been translated, while so many better stories (such as "Maggots", "The Monster Worm", "Playing Two Roles", "The Masked Dancers", "Unearthly Love" and "Pomegranate") and even novels like "The Demon of the Desert Isle" and "Wriggling in the Dark" are awaiting English translation. The publisher seems to be concentrating on the figure of Ranpo's detective Akechi Kogoro, but unfortunately, Ranpo’s Akechi stories are not his best work (with the exception of the first story, "The Case of the Murder on D. Hill" (translated in The Early Cases of Akechi Kogoro). Akechi Kogoro's character was initially not planned by Ranpo. In that first story of 1925 he is an amateur detective with a young, collegiate image. In the four next stories in which he appears (until and including "The Stalker in the Attic", see The Edogawa Rampo Reader), all still from 1925, he functions as a sort of plot device, appearing only towards the end of the stories to explain the solution (in fact, the stories would be better without him). His personality remains rather vague. Then in "The Dwarf" from 1926 (translated in The Early Cases of Akechi Kogoro) he appears as a professional detective who has spent time in Shanghai and wears Chinese robes. At the time of his next appearance, in "The Spiderman" of 1929, he has English-colonial or Indian looks and now is called a "master detective." In this capacity he will return in five more stories and novels: "Who" (1929), "The Limits of the Bizarre," "The Magician," the present "Gold Mask" and "The Vampire" (all 1930). And finally, from 1936 on, he is transformed into the dandy-like detective hero in the 27 volumes of the Boys Detective Club series of juvenile books. It is only there that he finds his final and stable form, with a twelve year old boy called Kobayashi and the Boys Detective Club as helpers (those "boys detectives" call a contemporary manga (and anime) to mind, "Conan the Detective" in Case Closed, Vol. 1).

But that is kid’s stuff – for the reader interested in literature, Edogawa Ranpo is in the first place the author of a number of fascinating "ero-guro" (erotic-grotesque) stories. I’m sure more of those in translation would find a welcoming public!

Two stars because I generally applaud translations from Japanese literature.

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"Murder in the Crooked House" by Shimada Soji (review)

Murder in the Crooked House by Sōji Shimada
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

"Murder in the Crooked House" is the second novel (published in 1982) by Soji Shimada, who started a revival in Japan of detective novels which are focused on the puzzle element, in the style of Ellery Queen. In the late 1980s, Shimada became the mentor of a group of young writers from Kyoto who also put the puzzle – mostly a closed room mystery - central. These were for example Yukito Ayatsuji, Takemaru Abiko and Alice Arisugawa. Not only that, Shimada and others also developed an ideology that the “puzzle mystery”, which they call “honkaku” or “authentic” as is common in Japan, would be the only original and justified way of writing detective novels.

That is of course absurd and a sort of tunnel vision – the world of the mystery novel is large enough to accommodate many different sub-genres. Moreover, in America and England puzzle mysteries were mainstream during the 1920s and early 1930s, but readers soon tired of them and in America we for example get the hard-boiled novels of Chandler and Hammett in the 1930s and 1940s. In France, in the same period, we see Simenon coming up, who again wrote a very different type of crime novels. There is joy in diversity!

In Japan, the puzzle mystery only relatively late took a hold of the mystery world: after the Second World War, in the late 1940s and early 1950s, with authors as Seishi Yokomizo, Akimitsu Takagi and Tetsuya Ayukawa. It is claimed by Shimada c.s. that the first golden age of the puzzle mystery was in the early 1920s, when an author as Ranpo Edogawa was active, but that is a falsification of history. Ranpo only wrote a handful of short stories that could be called “honkaku.” In fact. from his first story, “The Two-Sen Copper Coin" (1923), he turns the puzzle mystery on its head and deflates it; and soon after that he would go in the direction of "ero-guro" (erotic-grotesque) stories which were popular among readers in the late twenties and early thirties (it is true that Ranpo after the war became a great fan of puzzle mysteries, but at that time he already had given up his creative work and only wrote essays and children's books).

The immediate postwar boom of puzzle mysteries was also short-lived, for in 1956 Seicho Matsumoto started publishing his “social” mysteries, which often put the finger on corruption in society and these became so popular that the history of the mystery novel in Japan is often divided into “Before Seicho Matsumoto” and “After Seicho Matsumoto.” Of course, Shimada and the Shin-honkaku writers push back against the all-too-dominant Matsumoto (and other writers of the late 1970s and 1980s, when light mysteries and travel mysteries were popular), and it is to their merit that they did call for stronger mystery plots, as that aspect was increasingly neglected. But they are also typically children of the 1980s "bubble economy," as they show no social conscience at all. Their novels are just “games” which are cut off from society (and reality). That is why they are set in the isolated spaces of absurdly large mansions or on small desert islands - not in any places that are relevant to the lives of contemporary Japanese.

I will not give the plot away as that would spoil the reading of the book, but just remark that “Murder in the Crooked House” displays everything that is wrong with pure puzzle mysteries in general:
- the characters are not only two-dimensional, but also utterly forgettable and uninteresting; there is no psychology;
- the novels are filled with discussions, with logical reasoning in which the various characters try to determine who the perpetrator could be. It is very boring to read such endless discussions, which only go back and forth.
- the way the murders are committed is totally impossible (the circumstance of the “closed room” forces the writer to devise a solution which is in fact unbelievable).
- it is also inconceivable that in real life a murderer would go to such weird lengths to commit a crime.

On top of that, in the case of “Murder in the Crooked House” it is quite easy to guess who the murderer is (although the method used is so ridiculous that no reader could guess how it was done).

I love mystery novels: Chandler, Hammett, the above mentioned Simenon, the Kurt Wallander novels by Henning Mankell, the John Rebus novels by Ian Rankin, and in the Japanese case Edogawa Ranpo, Matsumoto Seicho, Yokomizo Seishi, Natsuo Kirino and many others… but “Murder in the Crooked House” is just too much of a "puzzle-only" for me.

I give two stars because in general I applaud translations from the Japanese.


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"Pro Bono" by Matsumoto Seicho (review)

Pro Bono by Seichō Matsumoto
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Seicho Matsumoto (1909-92) wrote ”Pro Bono" (original title "Kiri no Hata" or "Flags of Mist" - Japanese titles are very beautiful and poetic, like French ones, something which is always lost in the all-too-practical English titles) in 1961. It was his 9th novel after his novelistic debut in 1958 with the interesting Points and Lines (and I'm not even counting his many short story collections). In that one year 1961 Matsumoto wrote eight more novels, including the well-known "Suna no Utsuwa," Inspector Imanishi Investigates (original title "Vessel of Sand"). Matsumoto must have had a severe cramp in his fingers that year... No wonder also that these novels, all first published as serials in magazines, could have been more polished, with better characterization, and sharper outlined themes, if Matsumoto had taken more time writing them.

"Pro Bono" is the story of Kiriko Yanagida, a young woman working as a typist, who travels from her native Kyushu in Western Japan to Tokyo (a very long trip in 1961 before the Shinkansen trains were introduced), where she wants to meet the famous lawyer Otsuka. Her brother has been accused of murdering an old woman, a moneylender, and his case looks quite desperate although she believes him to be innocent, so she wants Otsuka to take up the case. But she has no money to pay the lawyer's high fees. Although he hesitates a moment, Otsuka refuses to take on the case pro bono, mainly because he has no time to listen to her as he has a (to him more fascinating) golf appointment with his mistress. Kiriko's brother then is convicted and dies in prison. Privately, Otsuka feels a bit guilty when Kiriko notifies him about this by postcard, and he secretly studies the case records. The shrewd lawyer indeed discovers that a serious mistake has been made and that Kiriko's brother was innocent - but he does nothing with this knowledge, thinking it is anyway too late now. Kiriko in the meantime wants to take revenge on the cold-hearted lawyer. Having come again to Tokyo where she now works as hostess in a club on the Ginza, she waits for an opportunity to destroy his social position. She gets that chance when a second murder happens, which is related to the case of her brother and in which the mistress of Otsuka is implicated...

Kiriko is an interesting character, silent but very determined and going her course alone, refusing all help from others (such as from a newspaper journalist who tries to befriend her) - what in Japanese is called "shin ga tsuyoi," to have a strong core (to have backbone), which can be said about more Japanese, who are often wrongly seen as weak by Westerners just because they don't express themselves in words all the time. But as I mentioned above, Kiriko's characterization could have been much stronger and more interesting when Seicho Matsumoto would have had more time to write this story... Still, this book is certainly worth reading for the light it throws on Japanese culture (which has changed a lot since 1961, but there are also things which never change), and I would applaud more translations of novels by this author, who is rather underrepresented in English - what about his ゼロの焦点 Zero no shōten "Zero Focus," which I consider as one of his best and most atmospheric novels?

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Mozart by Year (1) 1761-1768: European Tour and Visit to Vienna

Mozart by Year (1)

1761-64 (age 5-8):

Jan 24, 1761 - Mozart learns his first piece on the piano, a scherzo by Wagenseil

Sept 1 1761 - Appears as performer in a musical drama at the University of Salzburg

January 1762 - Leopold Mozart visits Munich with Wolfgang and Nannerl to play before the Elector Maximilian Joseph III. The visit takes three weeks.

September 1762 - The Mozart family travels to Vienna. From Oct 13 the children perform almost every day at court. The family also visits Presburg (Bratislava) before returning to Salzburg on Dec 31.

June 9 1763 - Start of  the Mozart family's Grand Tour of Europe. Munich (June 12), Augsburg (July), Frankfurt (August), Mainz and Koblenz (September). October to mid-November stay in Brussels. On November 18 they arrive in Paris, where they will stay for five months. Mozart starts writing his first sonatas for keyboard and violin. 

January 1 1764 - Concert before King Louis XV. Mozart publishes his first music, the violin sonatas K6 and K7.

April 10 - The Mozart family leaves Paris for London, where they arrive on April 23 for a stay of fifteen months.

April 27 - King George III receives the Mozarts. The children give many concerts. Meetings with Johann Christian Bach and Karl Friedrich Abel, two German composers successfully established in London. Mozart composes his first symphonies, some given at a concert in London on Feb 21 1765.

 

Short Piano Pieces (K1-K5)

In the so-called Nannerl Notenbuch Leopold Mozart wrote down short keyboard pieces for his daughter Maria Anna (Nannerl), to teach her to play the piano. The notebook contains pieces by Leopold Mozart, but also by other composers as CPE Bach and Wagenseil. Interestingly, Mozart also scribbled his first ever compositions in this notebook (most may have been actually copied out by his father). His first composition seems to have been an Andante, but the first work entered in the Köchel catalogue is another of these 12 pieces, a Minuet and Trio in G (K1).

Note: Another series of similar 43 short piano pieces was set down on paper during the visit to London in 1764-65 (K.15 a–ss (Anh. 109b).

These are really just exercises, with some historic value as they were the first compositions by Mozart as a child.

Violin Sonatas (K6-K9)

All four of these early sonatas are preserved in Leopold Mozart's handwriting. Not real violin sonatas, but keyboard sonatas with violin accompaniment in the style of Johann Schobert and JC Bach. The first two sonatas were written in either Salzburg or Paris; the next two in Paris; and the last one in London.

More complex than the piano pieces above, this is elegant background music, in the period style.

Violin/Flute Sonatas (K10-K15)

Six sonatas for keyboard with accompaniment of violin or flute (the music has to be transposed for a flute, so the originals were probably only meant for the violin). Composed in late 1764 in London during the Mozart family's long educational and artistic tour of Europe, and commissioned by Queen Charlotte (the wife of King George III). Resembles a set of similarly scored sonatas (Op. 2) by Johann Christian Bach, the "London Bach," who befriended the young Mozart and became an important influence on the younger composer's evolving style.

Very pleasant sonatas, with a sure feeling for form. When transposed for flute, the melodic line of the solo instrument better stands out.

Symphony No. 1 in E flat major (K16)

Mozart's first two (preserved, there may have been others) symphonies (K16 and K19) were written in London. According to an anecdote, Mozart's father was ill with a throat ailment and had forbidden any piano playing in the family’s rooms. Mozart, to fend off boredom, sat down and jotted down symphony. The work shows the influence of several composers, including his father and the youngest son of Johann Sebastian Bach, Johann Christian Bach, whom Mozart had met during his time in London and whose influence was large. JC Bach's type of symphony owed much to 'opera buffa': grace, wit and orchestral virtuosity in the first movement, tender galant melody in the slow movement and ending with a dance-like finale, usually in triple meter. There is little difference in complexity and originality between Mozart's K16 and the symphonies of Bach's Op 3 and Abel's Op 7, which served as Mozart's models (in fact, a symphony by Abel was long considered as Mozart's third symphony!).

I really like the start of this symphony: a 3-bar orchestral fanfare in octaves, followed by a quieter 8-bar series of suspensions (this forte-piano opening apparently also owes a debt to JC Bach). The andante is a nice piece of atmospheric writing: sustained wind, mysterious triplets in the upper strings, and stealthy duplets in the bass instruments - perfect music for a clandestine nightly rendezvous in an opera of the period. The finale is a vigorous jig in the form of a rondo. The intervening episodes in the rondo are filled with delightful touches of chromatism in the latest galant style.

1765 (age 9)

Jan 18 - Wolfgang dedicates his Op III sonatas (K10-15) to Queen Charlotte. More piano compositions for two and four hands, played by Mozart in public, partly with his sister. More symphonies.

July 24 - The Mozart family leaves London. They stay a month in Lille because of illnesses of the children.

September 10 - Arrival in The Hague, where the Mozart family will stay for six and a half months. Mozart is ill for two months, but manages to publish six sonatas for keyboard and violin (K26-31). He also writes more symphonies.

Symphony No. 4 in D major (K19)

Composed in London. A set of parts written in the hand of Leopold Mozart has been preserved. This early symphony was performed at a public concert in the Little Haymarket Theatre in London. By the way, the number jumps from 1 to 4 because the Nos 2 and 3 are now considered as not by Wolfgang (but by Leopold Mozart and Carl Friedrich Abel, respectively).

After a bright and extroverted first movement follows a pastoral andante with yodeling melodies and droning accompaniments. The yodeling can also be heard occasionally in the finale.

Symphony in F (K. Anh. 223/19a)

Another early symphony written in London, which was lost until a copy in the hand of Leopold Mozart was found in 1980. The influence of JC Bach is again quite strong.

The first movement starts with a broad melody and is more in binary than sonata form. It is followed by an andante, which shows remarkable polish. The rondo finale brings the symphony to a joyful conclusion, having something of the character of a highland dance. 

Sonata in C major for keyboard four-hands (K19d)

Sonata for keyboard four-hands composed in London. One of the very few works written by Mozart for four-handed play. The sonata is something of a surprise because of the substantial outer movements, as well as the imaginative contrasting episodes in the rondo. The sonata makes use of the technique of crossing the player's hands, a feature visible on the (much later) Mozart family portrait by Della Croce. Leopold Mozart claimed it was the first sonata ever to have been written for the four-hand medium, which we should take with a grain of salt. A work like this was advertised by Leopold Mozart in the London Public Advertiser of May 13, 1765. Printed versions of the work were discovered in 1921.

The first movement is characterized by a light and bright melody. The second movement is a slow minuet, almost sounding like an andante. The rondo finale features a rather jolly tune. This is a nice sonata, and a big step up for the 9-year old Mozart.

Aria for Tenor, "Va, dal furor portata" (K21)

Concert aria in C major for tenor and orchestra written in London. The words are from a libretto by Metastasio, about fury at treachery discovered.

Substantial aria in typical Italianate opera seria style.

Symphony No 5 in B flat (K22)

Composed by Mozart in The Hague in December 1765. All three movements are colored by the prominent horns. A rousing first movement starts in the style of the Mannheim symphonists, with a long pedal in the bass. This is followed by a solemn, mournful movement of rare intensity. A short, frothy finale closes the work.

A vivid and vivacious work in skillful period style - demonstrating growth compared to the three London symphonies.

Aria for soprano and orchestra "Conservati fedele" (K23)

Composed October 1765 while staying at The Hague. The aria was slightly revised in January 1766, possibly for a performance for Princess Carolina of Orange-Nassau. In his list of Wolfgang's works which he started in 1768 in Vienna, his father Leopold entered this piece as no. 2 of "15 Italian Arias, composed in London and The Hague." The text is from Metastasio's libretto Artaserse which had been set to music by a number of composers, among them Johann Christian Bach.

A skilled melodramatic opera seria aria.

1766 (age 10)

From late January to early March, the Mozart family stays in Amsterdam. In late March they leave The Hague again, and travel via Haarlem, Amsterdam and Utrecht to Antwerp, Brussels and finally Paris.

May 10 - Arrival in Paris, where the Mozart family will stay until Mid-July. They also visit Versailles.

July 9 - The Mozart family leaves Paris, and travels slowly via Dijon, Lyon, Lausanne, Bern, Zurich, Donaueschingen, Augsburg (the town where Leopold Mozart had been born) to Munchen, where they arrive on November 8.

November 9 - Mozart plays at court. Later in the month, the family travels home to Salzburg, where they arrive on November 29 after an absence of three and a half years.

8 Variations on "Laat ons Juichen" & 7 Variations on "Willem van Nassau" (K24 & K25)

The Mozarts were invited to The Hague by Princess Carolina of Nassau-Weilburg (1743-87), sister of the Prince of Orange. They arrived in September 1765 and would stay until the end of March the next year. While in the Netherlands, Mozart wrote these sets of simple variations on Dutch national songs.

Violin Sonatas (K36-31)

Composed in The Hague and dedicated to Princess Caroline of Nassau-Weilburg on the occasion of the eighteenth birthday of her brother, the Prince of Orange. They were published as Mozart's "Opus 4."
The keyboard part still dominates and the violin may be considered optional. But this is bright and lively music.

Galimathias musicum in D major (K32)

A quodlibet (a medley of popular songs) for small orchestra and harpsichord composed in March 1766. It was played at a special concert to honor the Prince of Orange's coming of age on 11 March. The first four movements can also be performed as a kind of miniature sinfonia (as has been done by Christopher Hogwood and The Academy of Ancient Music). The first and last movements in that case offer just some bright noises. The D minor andante has the melody in the violas. The minuet plays over a rustic drone on a popular German Christmas carol. The whole work consists of 17 short movements and ends with a fugue.

Mozart's first divertimento - and a demonstration of a rather coarse, Southern-German type of humor not strange to the Mozarts.

Symphony in G, "Alte Lambach" (Anh. 221 / 45a)
A pendant to the Symphony in B (K22) also written in The Hague. As the manuscript was found in the library of the Lambach Abbey in Upper Austria, where the Mozarts stayed in 1769, it was thought to be of a later date (or even not by Mozart). But the authenticity has been proven - the Mozarts probably stayed at the Lambach Abbey and as a way of thanks left this and a copy of a symphony by Leopold Mozart in the monastery.

Somehow, the freshness of K22 is lacking, this almost is like a somewhat older Mozart, many devices from his later symphonies appear in this work. Still, the symphony is generally considered as authentic.

Klavierstück in F (K33b)

Discovered in 1942, Mozart wrote this piece on the back of a circular by the Zürcher Musikkollegium (Zürich Music College), when the Mozart family came to the end of their Grand Tour. The piece appeared in the 1984 film Amadeus when the child Mozart played it blindfolded on the harpsichord.

Famous because of the film, where it is expertly used - although as music it almost seems like a parody of Mozart...

"Or che il dover – Tali e cotanti sono" concert aria for tenor and orchestra (K36)
Aria written as the first composition by Mozart since his family's return to Salzburg, and performed as part of an entertainment for anniversary of the consecration of Archbishop Sigismund von Schrattenbach.

A very lively aria.

1767 (age 11)

March 12 - Wolfgang's sacred drama Die Schuldigkeit des ersten Gebots (K35) is performed at the court of the archbishop. He receives a golden medal and 12 ducats.

May 13 - Apollo et Hyacinthus (K38), a secular comedy for music, performed in Salzburg.

Sept 11 to 15 - The Mozart family travels to Vienna.

Oct 23 - In Vienna there is a smallpox epidemic. The Mozart family flees to Bohemia (Olmutz), but Mozart contracts the disease. He is successfully treated and recovers (Nov 10). On Dec 30 he plays a concert with his sister at a tavern in Brno.

Die Schuldigkeit des ersten Gebots (K35)

A sacred drama. Only the first part was composed by Mozart; the second and third parts were contributed by Michael Haydn and Anton Adlgasser respectively (Mozart's teachers who in fact greatly helped him). However, these other two parts have not survived. Mozart's part was first performed on March 12, 1767, in the Knight's Hall of the Palace of the Archbishop. The characters of the play are two tenors: Christgeist and Christ (a Christian), and three sopranos: Barmherzigkeit, Gerechtigkeit, and Weltgeist. The work starts with a bright sinfonia, followed by seven arias and recitativos. The final movement is a terzetto which has two recitativos.

Impressive music considering Mozart's age.

Piano Concertos 1–4 (K37, K39-41)

These early piano concertos are in fact orchestrations of sonata movements by various German composes. By using movements from the sonatas of other composers, the young Mozart seems to have begun to learn how to cope with the structural problems of composing in the piano concerto form (it may be that Leopold Mozart had devised this as a compositional teaching method).

These are clearly "study works," so a comparison with other concertos (by Mozart and others) is unfair. Leopold rightly excluded them from his 1768 list of Mozart's compositions. Most complete recordings of Mozart's piano concertos start therefore with his Concerto No 5. But these four concertos are bright and vivacious and form nice background music.

Apollo et Hyacinthus (K38 )

A secular musical drama consisting of five arias, two duets, a chorus and a trio, connected with recitative. Some call this Mozart's first opera, but it was nothing as grandiose as that: it was a charming school entertainment commissioned soon after the success of K35 and as "intermedia" interspersed between the acts of a larger play. All parts were sung by students and it was only performed the one time at this occasion. As is suggested by the name, the work is based on the Greek myth of Hyacinth and Apollo as told by Roman poet Ovid in his Metamorphoses. In the original story, Apollo accidentally kills his lover, a boy named Hyacinth, after which the grief-stricken god causes a gorgeous flower to bloom from Hyacinth's grave. The original Greek theme of homosexual love was removed by the librettist who instead introduced a sister of Hyacinth as the object of Apollo's love.

Some nice melodies. Mozart is clearly growing.

Grabmusik or "Cantata on Christ's Grave" (K42)

When on Nov 29 1766 Mozart returned from his Grand Tour that lasted three and a half years, he brought back a considerable portfolio of compositions for a child. There is an anecdote telling that the Archbishop of Salzburg tested him by locking him up for a week with the text of an oratorio to judge his capacities. The result was the present Grabmusik, or so the story goes... but there is no proof at all for this assumption (although it is a nice story). The performance of an oratorio about the tomb of Christ was a convention in the passion week in the southern German lands. The anonymous text takes the form of a dialogue between a tormented soul, who is desperately lamenting the tragedy of Christ’s death, and an angel. The work was first performed in Salzburg Cathedral during Holy Week 1767.

The music is very effective, especially the frenzied bass aria with which the piece opens. In all, this is a work of considerable emotional and dramatic scope.

Symphony No. 6 in F major (K43)

Symphony begun in Salzburg in the summer of 1767 and completed in Olomouc (Olmutz), the Moravian city to which the Mozart family fled to escape the Viennese smallpox epidemic. The symphony is in four movements - as was customary in Vienna, Mozart included a minuet. The effective Andante movement uses a theme from a duet of Mozart's Apollo et Hyacinthus. Its initial performance was at Brno on 30 December 1767, in a concert arranged by Count von Schrattenbach, brother of the Archbishop of Salzburg.

This first Symphony by Mozart in the Austrian style is more assured in the handling of the form than his earlier work. A vivid and bright symphony. The andante, with muted violins singing over pizzicato notes, has been called "ravishing."

Note: Symphony in F major "No. 43", K. 76/42a, attr. to 1867, lacks authentic sources. Until recently its attribution to Mozart was accepted, but is now uncertain. Possibly by Leopold Mozart, but this is disputed by others, who think it the work of neither Leopold nor Wolfgang.

1768 (age 12)

Jan 10 - The Mozart family returns to Vienna.

Jan 19 - Mozart received at court by Maria Theresia and Emperor Joseph II

April to July - Composition of the opera buffa La Finta semplice. Due to intrigues this work commissioned by the Emperor cannot be performed in Vienna - the first performance has to wait until next year May in Salzburg.

Autumn - Mozart's second operatic work, the operetta Bastien et Bastienne is given in the garden theater of Dr Mesmer's house.

Dec 7 - Mozart conducts his Waisenhaus Messe and a lost trumpet concerto in the presence of the imperial family at the Orphanage Church in Vienna.

End of December - The Mozart family travels back to Salzburg via Lambach.

Symphony No 7 in D (K45)

Completed in Vienna in January 1768 after the family's return from a visit to Olomouc and Brno in Moravia. The symphony is in four movements. Its first performance was probably at a private concert, probably one given by Prince von Galitzin, the Russian ambassador, at his Vienna residence in late March, 1768.

The symphony was reworked (without the minuet and trumpets, but with a larger role for wind instruments) to become the overture to the opera, La finta semplice, also written in 1768.

The first movement has an overture-like character due to the missing repetitions, the numerous runs, tremolo passages and also due to its beginning with the three chord strokes - perhaps this is why it could easily be edited as the overture to K51 (but note that the transitions between "Symphony" and "Overture" were very fluid at that time). The Andante has a minimalistic character, while the minuet is characterized by falling fourths and fifths as well as an answering triplet figure; the trio is only for strings. The main theme of the Molto Allegro finale is based on a popular song, which is resembles the introduction to Leopold Mozart's "Musical Sleigh Ride."

Symphony in B flat major "No. 55" (K. Anh. 214/45b)

This symphony was lost until a copy was found in Berlin in 1943. The origins of the symphony are disputed. Attribution to Mozart cannot be fully confirmed, but it is generally treated as genuine. By the way, the high number (55) originates in the fact in the 19th c. that Mozart's symphonies were numbered 1-41. The earlier, unnumbered symphonies (often not authentic) were placed at the end and numbered from 42-56.

The song-like Andante begins with its ascending theme which seems a distant premonition of the Duettino between the Count and Susanna at the beginning of the third act of Mozart's Figaro.

La finta semplice (K51 /46a, "The Pretended Simpleton")

During the year in Vienna, Leopold tried to establish his son as an opera composer. He was acting enthusiastically to a casual remark by Emperor Joseph II that the young wunderkind might like to write an opera for the court, and selected an Italian libretto by the Vienna court poet Marco Coltellini, which was based on an early work by Carlo Goldoni. Mozart produced a full score of three acts, 26 numbers, including an overture, one coro, one duet, three ensembles (at the end of each act), and 21 arias. But the Mozarts hadn't reckoned with the jealousy of the musical retinue at court, who were not keen to be upstaged by a young boy. Moreover, the Emperor's theatre manager Giuseppe d’Afflisio - who already was in financial difficulties - was unwilling to gamble on the success of an untried teenager. During rehearsals, the merit of the music was disputed, and its veracity challenged, some claiming that it had in fact been composed by Leopold. Mozart was forced to withdraw the opera, which then received its first performance the following year in Salzburg at the request of the Prince-Archbishop (after that it was not staged anymore until the Salzburg Festival of 2006). The whole affair had dragged on for nine months and may also have alienated the Empress Maria Theresa, who was an austere personage already offended by the lack of dignity in the Mozarts' European journeys. During the Mozarts' Vienna visit, she may have developed an even more hostile view of the Mozart family. The failure in 1768 cost young Mozart his chance of establishing his reputation as a first-class opera composer in Vienna, which would have been a jumping board for obtaining a permanent position in another European court.

La finta semplice appears quite good in comparison to much of the work it was meant to compete with. The plot revolves around the old staple of obstructions to young love being overcome by wiles and wisdom. Mozart’s instinctive sense of the dramatic and innate feeling for musical characterization is already evident in this first operatic work. "No masterpiece, but a source of near-constant delight."

Bastien und Bastienne (K50 / 46b)

A one-act singspiel, a comic opera in German, allegedly commissioned by Viennese physician and 'magnetist' Dr. Franz Mesmer (who himself would later be parodied in Così fan tutte) as a satire of the 'pastoral' genre then prevalent, and specifically as a parody of the opera Le devin du village by Jean-Jacques Rousseau. After its supposed premiere in Mesmer's garden theater (that is only corroborated by an unverified account of Nissen), it was not revived again until 1890. The manuscript disappeared until the 1980s, when it was rediscovered in Krakow. Bastien und Bastienne is a work of the utmost concision: over half of the arias last for less than two minutes. The plot is simple: two bucolic lovers, Bastien and Bastienne; Bastien has been lured away from Bastienne by a city-dweller and seeks out Colas, a fortune-teller and magician. There is eventual reuniting of the lovers once it gets to the point at which Bastien threatens suicide.
The music is simply beautiful.

Veni Sancte Spiritus in C (K47)

This two-part setting of the Pentecost sequence “Veni Sancte Spiritus” follows the text of the antiphon “Ad invocandum Spiritum Sanctum," leading into an extended “Alleluia.” The music, characterized by alternating solo and tutti passages, is influenced by Mozart's teachers Leopold Mozart, Michael Haydn and Johann Ernst Eberlin.The duration is about 4-5 min.

Missa brevis in G (K49 / 47d)

Mozart's first mass, written in Vienna for Sunday services celebrating the Ordinary of the Mass, this work features all of the early Classical 'Missa Brevis' conventions seen in the works of Johann Ernst Eberlin and Michael Haydn. It is concise (less than 18 min in duration) and rarely repeats text. The choir dominates the orchestra and solo passages occur only sporadically: the bass solo in the Credo is just a glimmer of an aria. The Benedictus incorporates the use of a solo quartet, but brevity prohibits development. The somber Agnus Dei is immediately followed by a joyful "Dona nobis pacem." It is not clear what occasion this mass was composed for, and it has sometimes been confused with the (much larger) Waisenhausmesse composed later in the same year.

Missa solemnis in C minor, "Waisenhaus" (K139 / 47a)

Commissioned by the Jesuit priest Ignaz Parhammer, who asked Mozart for music for the consecration of the new Orphanage Church (Waisenhauskirche) in Vienna.  Mozart also composed a trumpet concerto suitable for performance by a boy as well as an offertory, both have been lost. Indeed, due to cataloging errors, this mass itself was also considered lost for many years. The performance took place on 7 December 1768 at the church, in the presence of the court. The twelve-year-old Mozart conducted a choir of orphans in a performance that received "universal acclaim and admiration".

This mass is considered as Mozart's most ambitious work to this date, and was his first missa longa (about 40 min in duration).

Symphony No. 8 in D (K48)

The fourth of the symphonies written in Salzburg and Vienna between Mozart's Grand European Tour and the Visit to Italy. This one is even more Viennese in character, as it is Mozart's first symphony featuring a thorough treatment of the sonata-allegro form. Strangely, no records concerning this impressive work have come down to us. It is possible that the ceremonial work, with its festive trumpets and tympani, was meant for a sort of farewell concert before leaving Vienna (but such a concert goes undocumented).

The first movement starts with a dynamically dramatic opening theme, with large leaps and sudden shifts between forte and piano. The development section (though concise as the whole symphony) forms a large step in Mozart's approach to the symphony. The second movement is for strings alone which convey a plaintive lyricism. A refined Minuet leads to the dance-like finale.

[This article includes passages from Wikipedia articles about Mozart and his music - it was solely assembled for my own study]

Soba (Buckwheat noodles)

Soba

Buckwheat noodles

蕎麦、そば

 

[Zaru-soba]

Before talking about the dish, we fist have to look at the plant called "soba," a herbaceous plant (Fagopyrum esculentum) cultivated for its pyramidal seeds. Buckwheat takes only three months to grow and can be cultivated in mountainous areas on poor soil - but it is also very nutritious, being rich in protein, rutin, thiamine, lysine, and vitamins C and E. First the tough husk is removed (soba-kawa, in the past this made an interesting filling for "healthy" pillows), after which the seeds are ground into flour. Alternatively, the seeds van also be parboiled and mixed with rice (a way of eating rice of the common people in the far past, when white rice was the prerogative of the upper classes), or used for making shochu, beer or vodka.

When making soba noodles, often some wheat flour is added, because noodles made from only soba do not stretch easily and may break. The amount of wheat used is often indicated: ju-wari soba is 100% soba, so without any wheat; hachi-wari soba is 80% soba, so with 20% wheat, etc. Usually, less expensive types of soba contain more wheat. The expensive types with (almost) only soba are more for connoisseurs and demand more care in their preparation.

Soba noodles were originally sold by confectionery shops and Owari-ya (still going strong in Kyoto) was founded as such a shop in 1465. But the popularity of eating soba originates in the Edo period, when every neighborhood in the city had one or more soba-ya, which functioned much as today's izakaya, i.e. they always served sake with the soba. Also today soba-ya still serve sake. In the Edo period, soba was also sold from carts or movable stands.

Soba is more difficult to make than udon, so soba shops usually are a little bit more upscale in a traditional way. Although soba is more popular in Tokyo and udon in Western Japan, you can find both restaurants all over the country. But note that, while most soba shops sell udon as well, udon shops never sell soba! Another difference is that soba can be eaten very well cold; in the case of udon this is much less common.

Cold soba is immensely popular during the hot weather, but also in all seasons as a dish at the end of a banquet or drinking party. Soba helps the liver in dealing with alcohol and also lowers the blood pressure.

The word "te-uchi" or "hand-rolled" is often used as advertisement by soba restaurants, but this term has been misused so much that it has lost all meaning. Everything seems to be "hand-rolled" nowadays. The same is true for "honke,""original house," which indicates the pedigree of a shop.

Whether called "zaru," "mori" or "seiro," cold soba is the simplest and therefore also the most difficult soba dish: the soba must wholly stand on its own merits. For soba lovers it is also the most delicious way to eat soba: not hindered by other ingredients, you can fully savor the delicate sweetness of buckwheat noodles.

By the way, the reason soba is served in bamboo baskets, goes back to a three hundred year old custom. Since buckwheat noodles break easily (especially when made from 100% buckwheat), they were steamed, transported  and served in the same receptacle.

Soba is traditionally eaten on New Year's Eve, a tradition that survives to this day and is called toshikoshi soba. You'll see soba sets stacked up in supermarkets for this towards the end of the year.

Cold soba dishes

Chilled soba is served on a sieve-like bamboo tray called a zaru, sometimes garnished with bits of dried nori seaweed, with a dipping sauce known as soba tsuyu on the side. The tsuyu is made of a strong mixture of dashi, sweetened soy sauce (also called "satojoyu") and mirin. Using chopsticks, the diner picks up a small amount of soba from the tray and dips it in the cold tsuyu before eating it. Wasabi and scallions are often mixed into the tsuyu. Many people think that the best way to experience the unique texture of hand-made soba noodles is to eat them cold, since letting them soak in hot broth changes their consistency. After the noodles are eaten, many people enjoy drinking the (still warm) water in which the noodles were cooked (sobayu), mixed with the leftover tsuyu.

• Mori. Basic chilled soba noodles served on a flat basket or a plate.
• Zaru: Mori soba topped with shredded nori seaweed.
• Tenzaru: a variety of tempura is served on a separate plate (the most delicious way of eating zaru-soba, as the fresh tempura combines very well with the cold noodles).
  

 

[Tororo-soba]

Hot soba dishes

• Kake. Hot soba in broth topped with thinly sliced scallion, and perhaps a slice of kamaboko (fish cake).
• Kitsune. Topped with aburaage (deep-fried tofu).
• Tanuki (in Kantō) or Haikara (in Kansai): Topped with tenkasu (bits of deep-fried tempura batter).
• Tempura. Topped with tempura, a large shrimp frequently is used, but vegetables are also popular or kakiage (the problem is that the tempura sucks up the soup and so becomes sodden - it is a good idea to eat the tempura while still crispy).
• Tsukimi ("moon-viewing soba"): Topped with raw egg, which poaches in the hot soup.
• Tororo or yamakake. Topped with tororo, the puree of yamaimo.
• Wakame. Topped with wakame seaweed
• Sansai ("mountain vegetables soba"). Topped with sansai, or wild vegetables such as warabi, zenmai and takenoko (bamboo shoots).
• Kamonanban. Topped with duck meat and negi.
• Curry nanban. Hot soba in curry flavored broth topped with chicken/pork and thinly sliced scallion.
• Nishin soba. Topped with migaki nishin (very popular in Kyoto).

Other uses of soba

• Soba-cha, tea made from roasted buckwheat kernels, which can be served both hot and cold. It is often served in soba restaurants to accompany the meal, but is a refreshing drink at other times as well.

Note that yakisoba (despite the name) is not made from soba or buckwheat noodles, but from a type of ramen noodles.

Japanese Food Dictionary

Shiga Naoya's House in Nara

The author Shiga Naoya (1883-1971) often moved house, but he lived for nine years in Nara, where he designed and built his own house. That house is now a museum and stands in Takabatake, at the foot of Mt Wakakusa and Mt Kasuga. Shiga lived here from 1929 to 1938.

[The garden]

Shiga was born into an ex-samurai family of Tohoku, but grew up in Tokyo where his father was a banker. His family was so well-off that Shiga always had the security of money, although the fact that he went his own way and became a writer led to a long quarrel with his father.

[The sun room]

Shiga Naoya wrote relatively little: one novel (A Dark Night's Passing), one novella (Reconciliation) and about 60 short stories. For Shiga, writing was a spiritual exercise, and once he acquired the necessary tranquility, he stopped writing. There was also no financial necessity to work, as we have seen.

[View from the bedroom]

Shiga mostly found his subject matter in his autobiography. He disliked plot as "too fabricated" and gives us realistic and psychologically insightful vignettes from daily life. But although nothing seems to happen in his stories, the protagonists always come out of them as transformed persons. Shiga has often been misunderstood by Western commentators who disliked his lack of plot. But in Japan he has always had a very high status: especially the perfection and sincerity of his prose style are highly praised.

[Gate of Shiga Naoya's House]

Shiga's Nara residence is in mixed Japanese-Western style, a sprawling structure with a large garden. The front garden is in classical Japanese style, the garden at the back features a large lawn. It is a comfortable house, a house built by someone with taste. What I liked most was the Sun Room, a sort of conservatory, with comfortable chairs and a glass window in the ceiling.

Tel: 0742-26-6490
Hours: 9:30-17:30 (in winter: 16:30)
Entrance Fee: 350 yen
Access: 10 min walk east from the Wari-ishi bus stop on the Nara Shinai Junkan line

Haiku Travels (9): Shuson and Shin-Yakushiji

Haiku Travels

Shin-Yakushiji (Nara)

it's "Insects Awakening" -

their fingers bent back,

  Buddhas rage in anger

  keichitsu ya / yubi sorikaeru / funnu Butsu

啓蟄や指反りかへる憤怒仏

Shuson

[Shin-Yakushiji Temple]

This haiku is set in Shin-Yakushiji Temple in Nara. Shin-Yakushiji stands in the eastern part of the city, in the Takabatake area, just below the Kasuga Shrine. Today it is a quiet residential district, all the more so as Shin-Yakushiji is not one of the temples overrun by global tourism. The name "Takabatake" means "high field," and originated in the fact that this area lies a bit higher than the rest of Nara, as it forms the western end of the Yamato plateau. Traditionally, the priests of the Kasuga Shrine used to live here.

Shin-Yakushiji (or New Yakushi Temple) was founded here in 747 by Empress Komyo, to pray for the recovery from an illness of her husband Emperor Shomu - after all, Yakushi is the Healing Buddha, Bhaisajya-guru, the magician of both body and soul (on top of that he was seen as the Buddha who grants wishes and helps us flourish in this world - he was the most popular Buddha-type in the Heian period, until he was surpassed by Amida).

The temple took several years to build, for it was a large temple with a full layout of halls, two pagodas, cloisters and living quarters for 100 monks. The original Main Hall must have been very imposing, an elongated structure of nine bays wide, housing seven sets of Yakushi with each a Nikko and Gekko Bosatsu, plus a set of the Twelve Divine Generals (Juni Shinsho). That original temple has fallen victim to the ravages of time and lies deeply buried under the residences that now stand in this area.

The only building left is the present hall which was certainly not the original Main Hall - although it is believed to have been built in 747 at the temple's foundation. It stood at the back of the grounds and probably was the Kekasho, the place where Repentance Rituals were held in front of the Yakushi and his Twelve Divine Generals. The hall must always have had the same function, for the wide spacing of the pillars was designed to accommodate the large circular dais of stamped earth on which the statues still stand. The Twelve Divine Generals have an inscription dating them to the Tenpyo period, making this the oldest set that has come down to us.

[Basara, the most dynamic statue among the twelve]

Inside the temple hall it is dusk. Some candles are burning (in a wooden hall with National Treasures?). The hall is almost filled up by a low altar, a sort of circular dais, the Shumidan, which is made of stamped earth, like the doma in a farm house. On the platform stand twelve life-sized statues, facing outward, fierce and militaristic, encircling a large statue of a seated Yakushi Nyorai. They immediately attract attention. Wrathful faces float up out of the darkness. The nostrils flare, the tendons in the face are tense and the obsidian inlaid in the wide-open eyes emits a fierce glitter. These twelve military men are violence incarnate. They are so angry that their hair literally stands on end, and their outstretched fingers are bent backwards!

The statues of the Twelve Generals are made of unbaked clay, molded on to a wooden skeleton, and then painted in various colors. These have of course faded away, except some small patches, leaving the generals with a white skin. The generals are clad in Chinese-style armor and carry various weapons. Each has the assignment of guarding the Buddhist law against the danger from one of the twelve directions of the compass: north, north-northeast, east-northeast, east, etc. They were later matched with the twelve hours of the day, the twelve months of the year and of course the twelve animals of the Japanese zodiac. Later statues often have the zodiac animal in their headgear.

The Yakushi sits well-protected in the middle. He is a big-boned figure, with swelling chest, big nose, protuberant lips, large eyes. The Yakushi makes the “no fear” gesture with his right hand and carries a medicine pot in his left one. Head and body have been made from one block of wood, the statue is unpainted. Such statues were first made around 800, in the early Heian period and they always had  magical properties. At 191 cm, it is an imposing statue.

[Shin-Yakushiji seen through the temple gate]

Poet and scholar Kato Shuson (1905-1993) started out as an assistant teacher in the small Saitama town of Kasukabe. When he met haiku poet Mizuhara Shuoshi, his interest in haiku was kindled (he was originally more interested in tanka). Shuson became Shuoshi’s lifelong disciple and published his first haiku in Shuoshi’s magazine “Ashibi.” With Shuoshi’s help, Shuson belatedly took a grade in Japanese literature. He started his own haiku magazine "Kanrai" (Thunder in Winter) and became especially popular from the 1960s on for the "humane dimension" of his haiku. From 1970, he was commissioned by the Asahi newspaper as one of the judges for the weekly haiku page.

The present haiku starts with a difficult term, "keichitsu," a kigo for spring and one of the 24 "solar terms" or Sekki into which the year was divided in ancient Japan (and China, where this custom originated). Even in modern Japan, several of these sekki terms are still in common use, as shunbun for the vernal equinox and shubun for the autumnal equinox, toji for the winter solstice, and such terms as risshun for the beginning of spring. Keichitsu starts around March 6 and is the period when literally "insects awaken from their winter sleep or hibernation." It was thought that the spring thunder woke the insects up so that they would emerge from underground. It also means that around this time the weather is getting a little bit warmer (it is after all a month after risshun, the beginning of spring, which falls around February 4).

So what is the association between the wrathful statues of the Twelve Divine Generals (in the haiku for short called "Buddhas," although strictly speaking they are not Buddhas) and the solar term of "Insects Awaken"? When I look at my own visits to Shin-Yakushiji, I always feel refreshed and invigorated by seeing these powerful statues, it is as if their anger cleanses the spirit. Isn't that what Shuson also felt? A surge of new power at the time when nature itself is also waking up?

Shin-Yakushiji is a 10 min. walk from the Wariishicho bus stop, which is served by Nara City Loop Buses and other buses from both JR Nara Station and Kintetsu Nara Station (it only takes about 10 min to get here).

Other destinations in the neighborhood are the Irie Taikichi Memorial Museum of Photography (next to the temple, in a beautiful design by Kurokawa Kisho which puts most of the building underground so as not to disturb the neighborhood) and further to the north, the former residence of writer Shiga Naoya, a house with gardens in wonderful harmony between east and west. Read more about this house in my article on this blog.

[The photos of Shinyakushiji are my own. The photo of Basara is from Wikipedia (Ogawa Seiyou (1894-1960), a famous photographer in Japan, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)]

Haiku Travels (8): Shuoshi and Mt Bandai

Haiku Travels

Mt Bandai (Fukushima)

into the jade-green pond

tumbles a waterfall

and turns into jade

  ruri-numa ni/ taki ochi-kitari / ruri to naru

瑠璃沼に滝落ち来たり瑠璃となる

Shuoshi

[Goshiki-numa]

Mt Bandai (Bandaisan) is a stratovolcano located north of the Inawashiro Basin in northern Fukushima prefecture. The active volcano blew its top in recent history: in 1888 an explosion of water vapor caused a collapse of part of the mountain, which resulted in an avalanche of debris. Five villages on the north side of the mountain were buried and 477 people were killed. The explosion also rearranged the landscape by creating the Bandai Kogen plateau and damming local rivers, which formed numerous lakes and ponds. The most famous of these are the so-called Goshiki-numa, or "Five Colored Ponds." Varied in size and shape, each of these ponds, lying  between Lake Hibariko and Lake Onogawako, has water of a different color. There is a natural trail that connects the five ponds, with good views of Mt Bandai.

Mizuhara Shuoshi (1892-1981) was a medical doctor and haiku poet. Born in the Kanda ward of Tokyo, he studied medicine at Tokyo University and at a young age showed an interest in haiku. Next to his professional medical activities, he took part in the magazine Hototogisu of Takahama Kyoshi. In 1928, however, he left Takahama's group (which also included, for example, Yamaguchi Seishi) to strike out on his own. Contrary to the "objective description of nature" advocated by Kyoshi, he adopted a more emotional literary style, which he promoted via his own magazine Ashibi. In 1931, he founded the "Shinko haiku movement," which acted as a counter-movement to the Hototogisu magazine. He advocated haiku cycles consisting of several individual haiku and rejected the elimination of seasonal words (kigo). According to haiku historians, Shuoshi brought a new emotional expression to modern haiku.

[Mt Bandai seen from one of the larger lakes in the Goshiki-numa area]

The Goshiki-numa ponds develop various color variations depending on the season and time of day. The one Shuoshi describes has the color of "ruri," or "lapis lazuli." A small cascade falling into the pond sees its transparent water immediately turned into the same color as the pond. As "lapis lazuli" is rather an awkward word in English in a short poem, I have opted for "jade-green" and "jade" in my rendering, which is surely not far from the actual situation as I remember seeing greenish ponds here as well. By the way, this haiku seems to be the "objective description" that Shuoshi had discarded, but perhaps we may look for a deeper meaning: that human beings also tend to conventionally adopt the "color" of the majority... (And "taki," "waterfall," is of course a kigo for summer).

The Goshiki-numa trail runs between Goshiki-numa Iriguchi and Bandai Kogen and takes about an hour. To reach either of the trail ends, there are buses from Inawashiro station. Inawashiro is about 40 min by JR Ban-etsu West Line from Koriyama (a stop on the Tohoku Shinkansen line).

Other things to do in the area: you can continue via the JR Ban-etsu West Line to Aizu Wakamatsu, a former castle town with many interesting sights. Or visit the nearby Noguchi Hideo Memorial Museum, dedicated to a prominent bacteriologist who was active on the world stage (10 min by bus from Inawashiro St).

[The photos in this post are my own]

Index Haiku Travels

Haiku Travels (7): Seison and Sounkyo

Haiku Travels

  Sounkyo (Hokkaido)

splitting the sky

splitting the rocks

tumbles the waterfall

ten no sakeme / iwa no sakeme no / taki otsuru

天の裂目岩の裂目の滝落つる

Seison

[Ginga waterfall in Sounkyo]

Daisetsuzan National Park in central Hokkaido encompasses a massive cluster of volcanic peaks, rolling highlands, and scenic gorges. It has been called "the roof of Hokkaido," with Asahidake at 2,290 meters as the highest peak. Cold winds blowing down from Siberia create an alpine environment usually only seen at much higher elevation - in summer, alpine plants bloom spectacularly against a background of cinder-sloped volcanic cones and craters.

Sounkyu is a forested, narrow gorge lying at the entrance to Daisetsuzan National Park. The 24 km long gorge follows the upper reaches of the river Ishikari and was formed by an eruption of Mt Daisetsu. The village of Sounkyo is a busy onsen resort and base for hiking trips in the area. The sheer cliffs of the gorge with their columnar joints and waterfalls present a grand spectacle. The "Ginga no Taki" (Milky Way Falls) is a picturesque waterfall, cascading down the 100 meter high, sheer cliff-side.  Another powerful waterfall is the nearby "Ryusei no Taki" (Shooting Star Falls). The gorge is famous for its autumn colors.

The hot springs of Sounkyo were discovered by Matsuda Ichitaro, who came here in 1857 to find the source of the river Ishikari. The first spa accommodation was built in 1915. In 1921 the writer Omachi Keigetsu stayed here and he devised the name "Sounkyo," the "Gorge of Layers of Cloud," as the surrounding mountains are often swathed in clouds (the original Ainu name was Sounbetsu or "many waterfalls"). The spa water is hydrogen sulfide, good for healing rheumatism and gout and, when ingested, constipation.

[Sounkyo]

Yamaguchi Seison (1892-1988) was born in Morioka (Iwate) and studied at Tokyo University to become a mining engineer; he also worked as professor at his alma mater. As a haiku poet, he was a student of Takahama Kyoshi. His haiku are known for their connection to the earth and their thematic engagement with the Tohoku region. In 1922 he founded the Haiku Society of the University of Tokyo together with Mizuhara Shuoshi and others. He was also the founder of the literary magazine Natsukusa (Summer Grass).

Yamaguchi Seison visited Sounkyo in August 1956, after inspecting a silver mine in the area. It was a rainy day, but the rain made the swollen waterfalls seem even more powerful, a great natural sight, as is expressed in the haiku, where they seem to split the mountain and the sky.

[On Mt Daisetsuzan]

Sounkyo is about 2 hrs by direct bus from Asahikawa Station.
Information about Daisetsuzan gleaned from Gateway to Japan by June Kinoshita and Nicholas Palevsky (Kodansha International, 1990) and about Sounkyo Onsen from A Guide to Japanese Hot Springs by Anne Hotta and Yoko Ishiguro (Kodansha International, 1986)

[The photos in this post are my own]

Index Haiku Travels