紹介文は5月の節句時の訪問のために書いてますので、飾り物の所には、その時の人形や展示物のことになっています。

*人物(伊藤伝右衛門、白蓮、炭鉱、和歌、村岡花子、花子とアン、絶縁状) 

Denemon Ito; He was a wealthy celebrity in Iizuka in the early 20th century.  He made a tremendous fortune by running a coalmining company.  He was called “The King of Coal Mines.”  But what made him better-known all-over Japan was the scandal with his second wife, who ran away with a younger man and wrote a breaking-off letter in the newspaper.   

Byakuren: Byakuren is a waka poet name of the Denemon’s second wife, Akiko.  She was born in a family related to the Tenno Family, and she got married to Denemon (this is a kind of marriage of convenience) and began to live in Iizuka.  She kept on writing waka poems in this place and got a reputation as “Queen of Chikushi.”  But her marriage life was never happy, and it ended all of a sudden.  She ran away with a younger man and wrote her husband a letter of breaking off in a newspaper, which caused a great scandal.  After this, she got divorced but led a poor life.   She lived to be eighty-one.

Coal Mines: Coal mines were the main element to promote the industry in Japan from the late 19th century to the middle 20th century.  In this sense, coal was called Black Diamond.  Coal mine places in Japan flourished with a great population and the Chikuho district including Iizuka City was one of them.  But with the decline of coal mines, those places got less and less lively and exciting.  Now Iizuka city is one of the ordinary cities.  

Waka Poem: Waka is short styles of poetry in Japan.  The main style is Tanka.  For a tanka poem, the number of the stanzas and syllables is regulated.  As for stanzas and syllables, we use the phrase “five, seven, five, seven and seven.”  Waka was very popular among the aristocrats and high ranked clerks in the ancient times, but it lost its popularity after the age of aristocrats.  In the 19th century, it got its population again with the rise of poetic literature movements.  Byakuren was one of the writers who got popular in that age. 

Hanako Hanaoka: She was a famous translator in Japan.  One of the most famous books she translated is “Anne of Green Gables.”  She was a friend of Byakuren’s.  “Hanako to Anne” a TV drama based on the lives of these two ladies was broadcast and got very popular.  

Zetuenjo: A Dear John letter.  Baykuren didn’t sent one personally to her husband, but to a newspaper to make it open to the public, so that everyone came to know the situation.  

*日本家屋(屏風、畳、神棚、床の間、土蔵、掛け軸、縁側、衣桁、茶室、障子、書院造り、水洗トイレ)

Byobu, Folding Screen: Originally this is a kind of furniture for guarding against wind or dividing a room.  But later, it turned into a board for paintings and writings like a campus and reached the level of excellent art works.  It adds a good atmosphere of Japanese esthetics to the rooms.  

Tatami mat: Tatami mats are traditional floor materials.They are made of Igusa,  Filling all the floor of a room with tatami mats began around the 15th century and since then, Japanese people have used them for rooms.  When we talk about how large a certain room is, we use the number of the tatami mats.  This room is Hachi jo, or Yo jou han.  Jo means tatami.  When you use a tatami floored room, it is a customary not to step on the borders of different colors.  (This is, they say, because the cloth used for the borders are easily torn.)

Kami-dana, House Shinto Shrine: A miniature altar of wood with holy tools such as a religious writing card, a small mirror, small sake bottle, sakaki branches in vases are placed on the shelf set below the ceiling.  A praying person is supposed to change water and pray in a Shinto manner every day.  

Tokonoma, Alcove in a Japanese Room: It is a recessed space for some ornaments like a hanging scroll of writing or painting, that is, kakejiku, and a flower arrangement or just a vase, or a doll.  It is an important element of the good taste of a Japanese room.

Dozou: This is a storage house built of white mortars for a wealthy house.  It is a kind of a symbol of a rich family.  It is fireproof enough to prevent valuable things inside from being burnt and lost. 

Kakejiku, Artistic Scroll: A painting or a writing is put on a long piece of cloth for decoration and hung inside a tokonoma, an alcove.  This is a traditional Japanese way of hanging art works on the wall to appreciate.  As an art, some made by a famous artist are very expensive.

Engawa, Narrow Wooden Passageway: It is on the edge of the house facing a garden, connecting rooms. It is often used to view a good scenery of a garden or to warm up on a cold winter day like a sun house.  

Ikou, Rack: It is a rack hanging kimono.  It is good for showing the beautiful patterns and pictures of a kimono. 

Tea Room: A special room for tea ceremonies, standing alone in a garden.   The interiors are very simple, based on the spirit of Tea Ceremony, putting a stress on brevity.   It is four and a half tatamis large in a square shape with several tools for making tea.   Tea Ceremony has become a kind of discipline to learn how to behave well.  

Syoji, Paper Sliding Door: They are used for a traditional Japanese room.  A wooden frame with Washi, Japanese paper, glued on.  Washi is translucent, so Syoji doors give off an exquisite shade of light to the inside of the room.  Fusuma is another sliding door, but it is a paper door, and it is thick and not translucent.  Usually, some paintings are on fusuma.  It is placed between the passageway and the room.

Syoin Zukuri:It refers to a Japanese building style.  It is a basic style of a traditional Japanese architecture, with tatami, shouji, tokonoma, and husuma.  This style developed in the age of samurai. 

Flush Toilet: The one in Denemon’s residence was the first in Kyusyu.  It was requested by his second wife Byakuren.   She wanted the same modern life there as in Tokyo.

* 庭園(日本庭園、ツツジ、松、石灯籠、あずま屋)

Japanese Garden: Japanese gardens are different from Western gardens in that they represent a miniature of natural scenery.  So they are not arranged in a style to make mathematically beautiful patterns like being symmetrical.  In a Japanese garden, you can see a mountain, river, forest and sea in this non-artificial way.  And a Japanese sense of beaty is added to the appearance.  We appreciate seasonal changes and think highly of Wabi and Sabi, being simple and old.

   There are some gardens which shows its water part by the sand.  We call that kind of garden Karesannsui, Dried Mountain and Water.   In Fukuoka Prefecture, Komyoji temple located near Dazaifu Shrine is the best known for that type of Garden.

Tsutsuji: Azalea.  They bloom from late April to early May.   They are planted as hedges in individual houses’ gardens, public parks and everywhere.  It is the seasonal flower we appreciate after cherry blossoms end.

Pine trees: Pine trees are the most popular tree planted in Japanese gardens as lucky trees.  As they live long and keep green leaves all the year around, even in cold wintertime, it is a symbol of a happy long life.  Not only in Japanese gardens, but they are also used for bonsai, a miniature display of a planted tree.  Some of pine tree bonsais are worth more than one hundred million yen.  FYI, if you find mushrooms at the root of a pine tree, they could be very expensive ones, named Matukake, the king of Japanese mushroom. 

Stone Lanterns: They are a lighting device for the garden, but they are never lit up.  They are now just ornaments in the garden, but they are often placed and add some changes in appearance to the gardens due to being a different color and being artificial.

Azumaya, Arbor: They are a place for taking a rest while walking.  A lot of big Japanese gardens are designed to take a walk there.  While taking a rest, you can enjoy the good scenery of the garden.  

* 飾り物(端午の節句、五月人形、関ケ原の戦い、小野道風と蛙、鎧・兜、赤鍾馗、義経と弁慶、神功皇后、応神天皇、武内宿禰、天皇飾り、竹田人形、黒田武士(博多人形)

Tango-No-Sekku, Children’s Day: May the 5th is the day when people pray for a good growth of children, but, actually, of boys.  For girls, we have a different day on March the 3rd.   There are some customs for this day: hanging iris grasses under the eaves, taking a bath with iris grasses, eating special rice cakes named ‘Kashiwa Mochi’ and ‘Chimaki,’ place a pole with carp figures, and ornamenting the rooms with dolls.  As the day is for boys, a lot of dolls are brave legendary samurai.  

May Dolls: These are the dolls displayed on May the 5th.  Almost all of the dolls are legendary samurai warriors. They appeared in history books, children’s books and theater plays, and they were heroes for the boys and the boys love these dolls.

Battle of Sekigahara: This is the biggest samurai battle in the history.   All the samurai in Japan were divided into two sides, Army East and Army West.  It was like the final match of the battle tournament in the Civil War period.  The result was that Army East won the battle.  After this, the top general of Army East, Ieyasu Tokugawa began the samurai government in Edo, today’s Tokyo, and since then this has been the center of Japan. 

Tofu Onono and a Frog: Tofu was a calligraphy master in the middle age (the 10th century), and is well known for the story with a frog.  He was not satisfied with his works and gave up creating them.  For a change, he took a walk though it was raining.  When he reached a pond, he noticed a frog jumping to catch a bug on a leaf of a willow tree.  But it failed and fell into a pond.  He thought it was tough for the frog.  Soon, the frog got out of the pond, jumped again and failed again.  After this, the frog tried again and failed.  And for the third time it failed.  Tofu thought “Impossible is impossible.  Better give it up.”  But the frog never stopped trying.  Seven times, eight times.  At last, for the tenth time, it succeeded.  This made him feel he was wrong.  He decided to keep trying, no matter how often he would fail.   Later, he got to be the greatest master at that time.  His name came down in history. 

Yoroi Kabuto , Armor and Helmet: They are the top attraction for foreign visitors.  They can feel the figure of a samurai.  They often display in history museums and rich samurai residences, well preserved and open to the public.  And they are popular objects for dolls.  Nowadays, you can buy a newly produced set of Yoroi and Kabuto in life size at specialty shops.  But they cost more than one million yen.

Syoki:This is a Chinese God that has a role of driving the evil away.  It is one of the popular May dolls due to its scary, awful and brave figure.  This figure is all red, and red is also a symbol of driving the evil away for the same reason of using red in Shinto Shrines.  

Ushiwaka maru and Benkei: Ushiwaka-maru, the child name of Minamotono Yoshitune, a hero samurai with Benkei is the most famous and popular pair of master and follower.  Benkei was a rogue, robbing a passer of his weapons.  For the 100th weapon, young Ushiwakamaru appeared on the bridge, and he attacked him. But Ushiwakamaru easily dodged his attacks and finally won the battle.  After this, Benkei was impressed with this boy and vowed homage to this young boy.  They stayed together until they died on the same spot and at the same time.  There has been a lot of books and dramas about the two. 

Jingu Kougo: She is an empress in the myth.  According to the myth, she led the army, went over to Korean Peninsula and conquered three countries.  It is not clear this is historically true, but in Fukuoka Prefecture, from which she crossed the sea, there are some places related, it is said so, with this empress.

Oujin Tenno: He was Jingu Kougo’s son.  He made great contribution to the rise of Yamato Dynasty.  He probably existed.  It is thought he was the king called “San” in an old Chinese history document.    He was popular among samurai and he was enshrined as the God of Military in Shinto Hachiman shrines.   

Takeuchi No Sukune: He is one of the heroes in the myth.   He was loyal to several Tenno and had a lot of battles for them.  Moreover, he lived long to be about 300 years old.   His loyalty, strength, and longevity have made him a heroic icon among the Japanese. 

Tenno Doll Display: In Denemon’s residence, you will see a hinamaturi-like doll display, but it represents Meiji Emperor and his followers.  

Takeda Dolls:They were the puppet dolls used in the theater in Osaka in the 17th century.   

Kurodabushi Dolls: Fukuoka is well known for Hakata Dolls.  One of the motifs is one samurai who belonged to the Chikuzen Providence, or Kurada Han, today’s northern Fukuoka.   He was given a deal that if he drank up a huge cup of sake in one gulp, he was given a precious spear named “Japan No. One.”  And he did it.   The samurai at this moment was often depicted in a form of a doll. 

* ビデオ(地鎮祭、玉串、お銚子、重箱、バンザイ、福岡天神、仙厓和尚、蒸気機関車、浄瑠璃)

Jichinsai: It is a Shinto ritual for purifying the ground.  It is held before building a house on the spot.   In this video, it was held before digging up a coal mine.  It is also a praying ceremony for the safety of the construction of the coal mine.

Tamagushi: A twig of a sacred tree with pieces of paper is offered to the altar in a Shinto ritual.  

Ochoshi, Sake bottle: A bottle for sake.  They are warmed up in the boiling water and served to the tables. 

 Jubako: Layered boxes for lunch. They are wrapped in a cloth, which can help the guests bring jubako home.  

Banzai: Japanese people sometimes raise their both hands and call “Banzai” three times.  Banzai mean “May someone Live Long.”  This is often done at the end of the party.  

Tenjin Fukuoka: It is the downtown of Fukuoka City, business center.  At that time, it was not so, it seems.

The Monk Sengai: He was a Buddhist monk in Hakata, today’s Fukuoka.  He was respected and loved because he was always on the side of ordinary people.  He created Japanese style paintings of Indian Ink, which were much liked due to his excellence and humor.  

Steam Locomotive: The trains of Old Times.  They are gone already, but there are some places where you can get on a steam locomotive.  The closest one is Kumamoto, maybe Yamaguchi, depending on how to get there.  They are very popular as travelling spots.  

Joruiri: Denemon recites a song from a Joruiri play, which is a doll theater play.  It is made of dolls, doll handlers, storyteller/singer, and syamisen players.  Syamisen is a string musical instrument like a guitar.  Joruri recitation used to be one of the pastimes among decent people.

* その他(山本作兵衛、世界記憶遺産、飯塚、シュガーロード、黒田官兵衛、杯)

Sakubei Yamamoto: He was a coal miner.  After he got retired, he began to paint the pictures about coal mines and coal miners based on his own experiences and stories told to him.   All of them are painted accurately and in detail, and there was nothing else to show us visually about the coal mines in that period, so they are culturally very important.  The paintings were designated as a UNESCO World Memorial Heritage, which documents should be preserved to pass down to future generations.

World Memorial Heritage: In Japan, so far, there are eight items designated by UNESCO as Memorial Heritages, including the paintings by Sakubei Yamamoto.  

Iizuka City: The city flourished in the age of the prosperity of coal mine industry.  Coal mining was a very dangerous job, and there was no guarantee for coal miners to survive another day.  So, they spent as much money as they could at night after they finished working.  They ate and drank.  And the sweets were the source of energy for them, so the sweets shops were in prosperity.  There are no miners now, but some shops still remain now.  One of them is Hiyoko. 

After the fall of the industry, now it is one of the ordinary towns in the rural area.   There are some places remaining the images of prosperity.  Old Ito Denemon’s Residence is one of them.   

Sugar Road: The house is on Sugar Road.  It was used to carry sugar from Nagasaki, the port to import sugar from overseas, to Edo the center town in the samurai period.   Along the road, the sugar productions developed.   Iizuka sweets came from this tradition.

Kanbei Kuroda: He was the founder of the Kuroda lord family of Chikuzen Providence, today’s Fukuoka Prefecture.  He was a Christian lord.  He was famous as the main military advisor of Hideyoshi Toyotomi, who unified the civil-war -staged Japan.  Sakazuki: Drinking cup for sake.  Most of sakazuki are shallow dish-shaped, red or black.  Some of them are lacquerwares, very expensive. 

★  伊藤伝右衛門邸の周辺飯塚地域(千鳥饅頭、嘉穂劇場、大衆演劇、シャッター商店街、貝合わせ、ブーメラン型の魔除け、雛飾り、日本の祭、黒田二十四騎、麻生家邸宅、石炭産業、炭鉱夫、ボタ山、英彦山ガラガラ、凧、菖蒲兜、古墳、甕、神籠石、紙芝居、銅鏡、銅鐸)

千鳥饅頭 Chidori Manju: Sweet buns sold at Chidoriya. It is made by baking castella dough stuffed with Shiroan, white sweet bean paste.  Chidori is a kind of bird, plover in English.   The top of bun is branded with a small figure of a Chidori.

嘉穂劇場Kaho Theater: It was a wooden play theater founded in 1931, remaining some features of the theater houses in the Edo period.  At the peak of the coal industry, there were some other play theaters in Iizuka, but this is the only one that has survived to the present day. This theater gives us two retrospective features: the theatrical style of the samurai period and the flourishing image in the past.

大衆演劇 Taisyu Engeki, Popular Theater Drama: It refers to the dramas performed in theaters, rather small in comparison with artistic Kabuki and Noh.  It ranges from a comedy to a samurai drama, even a strip show. Nowadays, it usually means a samurai drama played by a small acting company in a small theater, but some groups and some actors have some popularity.

シャッター商店街 Shutter Street: This phrase is forcefully translated into English, but it aims to mean a shopping street with all or most of the shops out of business, that is, closed with door shutters.  The street used to be crowded with people in the busiest area in the town, mostly the space in front of the station.  But the problem is that it has no parking lots large enough in the age of automobiles, so once one after another large supermarket and mall began to be built in the suburbs of the town, of course, on the roadside and these shopping streets in the town centers could not survive.  They look a kind like a Ghost Town.

貝合わせ Kaiawase: Matching Seashells.  It is like a card game “Concentration.”  It was played in the imperial court in ancient times.  Players were supposed to match the two shells among a lot of seashells turned down.  On the inside of each shell was a painted some pictures or a written waka poem so that players could match the pair.

ブーメラン型の魔除け  A Talisman in a Shape of Boomerang: I happened to see a boomerang-shaped bundle of straw nailed on the door frame of the Chidoriya’s old house.  I asked a clerk what it was, and she answered like “a lot of families do so, but I don’t know what it is.“  Later, I checked it out on the Net, and I realized it was a talisman locally used in Iizuka district.

雛飾り  Hina-kazari: A set of the dolls ornamented for the Girls’ Day, March the 3rd.  It represents the life of the imperial court by placing dolls on several steps of the shelves covered with a red cloth.  In most cases of five-step displays, on the top step are the emperor and the empress, and on the second are three court ladies, on the third five musicians, on the fourth and fifth are ministers, and furniture and trees and others.   It is placed to pray for the good growth of the girls in the family.

日本の祭  Festivals in Japan: Festivals in Japan are held everywhere in Japan through the year, whether small or big.  Most of them are rituals of Shinto Religion to pray for Gods or spirits of the ancestors.  Sometimes, Mikoshi (a portable shrine) or Dashi (floats) are used to make more festival atmosphere.  Approaches to the shrine or temple, on the festival days, are often lined with temporary venders’ shops.

黒田二十四騎  Kuroda’s 24 Horsemen: Chosen 24 brave samurai among the warriors loyal to the Kuroda Family in the Civil War period.  One of them was Tahei Mori, a model for a popular folk song in Fukuoka, “Kuroda-bushi.”   He was given a precious spear as a reward for drinking a big sakazuki cup of sake in one gulp, which the song was based on.

麻生家邸宅  Aso Family’s Residence: A rich man’s house.  Also Family has had an influential power over the Chikuho district since the days of coal mine industry.  The residence is used as a guest house of the Aso Corporation and is open to the public on several special days only.  Taro Aso, a big shot politician of the LDP, is a member of this family.

石炭産業  Coal Mine Industry:  Coals were a driving force for the modern industrialization after Industrial Revolution.  The coal industry in Western World flourished until petroleum took the place.  Japan followed suit.  It reached the peak around 1940, and after 1960 it declined dramatically.  There are a lot of places, especially in Fukuoka Prefecture, that once flourished in a lively, exciting and noisy atmosphere but now look like a quiet ordinary town.

炭鉱夫  Coal Miners:  We can get an image of how they were working and living by the pictures painted by Sakubei Yamamoto and other documents.  What impresses us most is there were a lot of female laborers there, who, according to the pictures, worked half naked.  All risked their lives, but men minors, after working, ate and drank and play, maybe, while these women had to take care of the households. Work, work, work.  Probably, they were living like slaves.

ボタ山  Bota Yama: A huge pile of coal waste.  It forms a kind of hill in a cone shape.  In spite of the end of the coal industries a long time ago, they are still there.

英彦山ガラガラ  Hikosan-garagara: A lucky charm produced in Soeda Town, at the foot of Mt. Hiko.  It is made of several clay bells partly painted red or blue tied with a bundle of straw.  It began as a memory that Bunbu Tenno offered a bell to Mt. Hiko to pray for keeping away disasters.  Garagara is an onomatope for ringing a clay bell.

凧  Kite: Of course, it is a toy for playing, but some are exquisitely painted as a good craftwork, that is, an ornament.  They have got a position of local specialty products in some places.  In Fukuoka, Tobata is well known for the kite.  In Kyusyu, Nagasaki’s kites are the most famous, and they are called “Hata.”  It came from a foreign word.  Nagasaki was a gateway town to Holland.  When a man asked a Dutch flying a kite what it was, he answered the word “Phatan.”

菖蒲兜  Syobu Iris Helmet: In the Edo period, a helmet made of iris stems was displayed for Tango-no-Sekku, Boys’Day.  Iris was believed to drive the evil away for its strong smell.

古墳  Kofun: Kofun means burial mounds high built from the earth in between the middle 3rd century and the 7th century.  During this period, these graves were constructed by a lot of big figures, ranging from Yamato Royal clan to unknown middle-class families in all the regions from Hokkaido to Kyusyu.

甕  Kame, Earthen Burial Urn: They were excavated in Kyusyu districts. They belong to the Jomon period.

神籠石  Kougo Stones: They are found in the mountains in northern part of Kyusyu.  It is not clear what they are, but a general theory is that they were made for the base for a mountain castle.

紙芝居  Picture-story show: It was an form of entertainment of showing ten or twenty pictures while telling a story.  A man rode a bicycle with a set of pictures to a certain point in a town and he told children a story by using pictures in return for the purchase of candy drops he carried to buy.

銅鏡  Dokyo, Bronze Mirror: They were excavated from the ruins of the Kofun and Yayoi Period.  They were buried with an owner as a symbol of his dignity at that time.  They are important clues for archeological studies.

銅鐸  Dotaku, Bronze Bell: They were originally used as a bell, but in the course of time, it lost its actual role and got to have a role of showing the pride and dignity of the owners.  They were buried with an owner when he died.