Sunabe Beach: Site of First American Landing in WWII

Rainy Day Birthday

The rainy season we’ve been warned about is officially here and the sky is gray and gloomy this morning in Chatan. I am looking forward to the joint birthday party this evening and think it will do much to add some cheer to the day. Matt started out the first full day of his late twenties by doing an AFN radio interview on exercise safety in warm weather (“drink lots of fluids”, “don’t overexert yourself”) and I have been picking up around the house and attempting, for the fourth time, to hang the “Happy Birthday” banner I purchased to decorate for the occasion.

Last night, we had a fun time at Macaroni Grill with the Snyders. Faith seemed pretty excited that it was Matt’s birthday and had created a special drawing on his card. She also was very interested in attempting to seal the envelope until Brittany urged her to present it to Matt before it got too soggy. At the restaurant, Matt was treated to a Japanese rendition of “Happy Birthday” by the wait staff and even though he politely declined, he still received a humongous portion of complimentary cake. Afterward, we braved the torrential downpour (ah, you have to love the rainy season!) to regroup at the Snyder’s apartment for cake.

Matt’s cake turned out to be both a disaster and a success. When I attempted to turn the baked cake (a yellow cake with chocolate marble) out of the bundt ban, only half of the cake released and the rest refused to budge without the intervention of utensils. The result was three-quarters of a ring of uneven cake on my new Noritake platter. I was a bit disappointed, but I decided to work with what I had and foregoing icing, placed the Jedi figurines along the top of the ring. The result was actually pretty cool – it looked like a battle against the Dark Side occurring along a rocky ridge. Matt was pretty pleased with the result, and since it’s only the birthday boy’s opinion on what matters, so was I.

Happy Birthday Dear Matthew!!

Matt on the Great Wall of China

          Today is Matt's birthday - I had planned to surprise him with a cake decorated with Jedi master figurines, but he surprised me by coming home early from the clinic. I'm glad he got the afternoon off though, because he deserves it! It's a lot different from last year when he spent his birthday on call and I surprised him with a cake the next day before he headed to bed. Tonight, we are going to celebrate with the Snyders at Macaroni Grill and tomorrow we are going to Sushi Zen to celebrate birthdays for Katherine, Matt and me since they fall within a two-week spread. I'm looking forward to both dinners and think they will be a fun way to start the weekend!

Classic Matt - it must be his day!

All About Clay: Yomitan Pottery Village

Katherine in Front of the Kiln House

As I was writing the post on Ryukyu glass, I remembered that I hadn’t written about Ryukyu pottery, another trademark handicraft of Okinawa. Several months ago, Katherine and I ventured to the Yomitan Pottery Village, a unique area of pottery workshops located in a historical village on the East China Sea. There are about 45 actively working potters that have workshops and showrooms in the village, a conglomeration of small tile-roofed huts located down a narrow one-lane road. We were able to view the potters at work, both at their wheels and in the kiln shelters, and view their finished products in their shops.

Ryukyu pottery has a long history on the island and its characteristics – simple shapes and natural contours – are traits that display the constant mindfulness of the environment inherent in Okinawan culture. The potters use local clay to create pieces in two styles: arayaki, more traditional and unglazed, and joyaki, finely glazed and decorative. The pottery features bold patterns and painted designs in natural colors – browns, grays, muted blues and greens, and earthy reds. Like the shapes, the patterns also center on natural objects such as fish and plants that are abundant on the island.

Another kiln shelter in the village.

Several pottery workshops and shops around a courtyard.

The interior of our favorite shop - it was as artistic as the pottery and glass for sale.

Home Searching

Out of our price range, but this oceanfront home could be yours for $2.1 million.

As our return to the States looms in the not to distant future, Matt and I have begun the search for a home in Virginia. We’ve been looking at homes online through a site called ZipRealty, as well as reading up on the home buying process. We’ve also been studying mortgage information and working on saving up for this all important purchase, our first house. When we arrive in June, we want to be knowledgeable and ready to make a decision on the place we will be living for the next four years.

It has been fun as well as informative to look at the pictures of the exteriors and interiors of potential homes online and discuss what we want or don’t want in a home. Fireplace, nice backyard – absolutely! Aboveground pool, very open floor plan – no way! Another intriguing thing is how much our childhood homes have affected our concept of what would be the ideal house – we both prefer two-story homes and Matt likes cul de sacs while I have a penchant for trees and landscaping. And we also discovered that both of our mothers had no-touch rules concerning the good living room furniture.

The other aspect that has been really interesting to me is the interiors of homes – these are places where people have lived and though there are no people present, the pictures reflect the lifestyles and tastes of their owners. We’ve really liked some, and I can definitely say we’ve gotten ideas for interior design from a few of the homes. On the other hand, others are dated and depict bygone eras. It is always amusing to pinpoint time periods by the colors and patterns present in a home.

There have also been homes that left us wondering “what were they thinking?” These are usually the ones we trade back and forth to the Snyders with the subject line “Your new home is ready to move in”. When they sent us a Native American/Southwest themed home replete with woven rugs and pelts hanging on almost every last bit of wall space, we returned with a lovely red brick with Pepto Bismol shutters and matching interior walls. Trust us, we’ve seen everything from a completely mirrored disco throwback to gratuitous usage of the color aquamarine (it’s actually pretty popular, can anyone explain?)

The list of our favorite homes is diverse – from a folk Victorian with charming hardwood floors and a wrap around porch to a brick colonial with a warm interior and large backyard. However, they do share similar characteristics: quiet neighborhoods, lots of windows for natural light and places we can imagine putting some of our favorite furniture and new treasures from our year in Japan. We’ll keep you posted as our search continues, and please keep your fingers crossed that we find a great place to call home.

A Touch of Glass

One of the traditional handicrafts of Okinawa is Ryukyu glass, which has been made on the island since the Meiji Era. The colorful glass, made by adding coloring agents to the raw glass material is crafted by skilled artisans into objects for home use and decoration and can be bought at locations all over Okinawa. Often, the crafters use recycled glass making Ryukyu glass a beautiful as well as environmentally friendly item.

At the Ryukyu Glass Craft Factory, we were able to watch craftsmen at work as they formed and decorated pieces to be sold in the factory store. To shape the glass, the craftsmen using a technique called mid-air blowing using pipes and inserting the glass into a large furnace.They decorate the glass using techniques when the glass is cold (sandblasting) or hot (bubbles, crackling, melting and attaching). The result are unique glass items from flowers to pitchers and mugs.

Okinawa Peace Prayer Park

The Okinawa Peace Prayer Park, a collection of memorials and exhibits for the Battle of Okinawa, is located in Itoman on the southern part of the island. The location of the park is symbolic: Itoman was where the most devastating part of the four-month battle occurred and where the most casualties were suffered. In the battle, also known as the “Typhoon of Steel”, over 240,000 people were killed (90,000 Japanese troops, 50,000 American and Allied troops and well over 100,000 Okinawan civilians). Over 90 percent of the island was destroyed, and one witness recalled that the island was turned into a “vast field of mud, lead and decay.”

There is much debate as to the cause of the mass civilian casualties (which I might explore in a future blog). The Peace Memorial Museum presents that Okinawa was caught in the fighting between America and Japan and the Japanese Army was indifferent to the safety of native Okinawans. There are many reports of the Japanese Army using civilians as human shields, encouraging them to commit mass suicide and confiscating food and shelter leading to starvation and exposure to the elements. Earlier this year, I was watching a documentary on the battle and heard the sobering testimony of one soldier, who while at sea pondered the inhumanity of the Japanese kamikaze pilots as they smashed their planes into naval ships and his change in attitude and compassion for the Okinawans he witnessed suffering when he landed on the island.

The Peace Park and Museum were established in 1995 and serve as a memorial to the battle’s victims, both American and Japanese, as well testament to the stories of survivors. The Cornerstone of Peace, located close to Mabuni Hill where the battle reached its conclusion, consists of multiple walls with the names of all known victims from each country involved carved in the black granite. These walls are surrounded by expansive gardens and ponds, and at one end the always burning Flame of Peace overlooks the ragged coast and Pacific Ocean. An area once consumed by the chaos of war now remains a place to silently reflect on the message of peace

Mausoleum for National War Dead - Over 180,000 bodies of Okinawans are interred here. Their cremated remains were collected by the government in 1945.

Peace Ceremony Area with Museum in background - On June 23, the anniversary of the end of the battle, thousands gather here for a memorial ceremony.

Brittany looks for family names on a row of the Cornerstone of Peace. There are over 230,000 names of Japanese, American and Allied soldiers and Okinawan civilians listed on these walls.

We found some Shreves and a Langford listed in the names of American soldiers that were killed in the Battle of Okinawa.

The cliffs adjacent to Mabuni Hill - Commanders of the Japanese forces on Okinawa and many civilians are said to have committed suicide here during and at the conclusion of the battle.

Flame of Peace - Located at one end of the Cornerstone of Peace. The monument is designed so that on June 23, the sun shines down the middle of this path and illuminates the granite walls of names. 

100th Post!!! Spending Time with the Snyders

The Snyders - Brittany, "Carter", Alan and Faith

I cannot believe that this is my 100th post on Belletrist! When I started the blog last August, I had no notion of how many blogs or how often I would end up posting. My hopes were that this blog would provide an outlet for me to chronicle our adventures in Japan and share them with our friends and relatives. I didn’t know if many people would read my musings or if, like many of the journals I have started throughout my life, my devotion to posting would wane. However, here I sit, ten months, five countries, 36 readers and countless experiences later, typing up my 100th post. A couple days ago, I was thinking about what the subject of this post should be, and after a little discussion with my husband and partner in crime, we decided to dedicate this post to the Snyder family.

This blog would be remiss without a post mentioning our friendship with the Snyders. Matt and I wholeheartedly agree that our experience in Okinawa would not have been nearly as great without the presence of Alan, Brittany, two-year-old Faith and baby Carson. If I were to write all of the stories we have with the family that fondly knows us as “Dr. Matt” and “Miss Shannon”, I could probably add another 50 posts to this blog. They were some of the first people we met when we came to Okinawa: we all had dinner before Matt and Alan left for Korea and while the guys were away, Brittany was an invaluable resource on all things military life and really showed me that there were plenty of things to do here and that life on this island is what you make of it.

Since our husbands’ return, we’ve had a great time getting together, attending different on-base events, and more recently as our time winds down, sightseeing around the island. Our experiences together have run the gamut from confusing (getting lost on our way to the Peace Park, Brittany and I attempting to decipher our husbands’ conversations as they flipped rapidly between reality and Oblivion) to touching (the birth of Carson in January, our reunions when the guys got back from Korea) to hilarious (ditching the five-course dinner and “Evening of Romance” in favor of McDonald’s, any number of incidents concerning misunderstandings between the wives and the husbands). It is those last set of experiences, the hilarious ones, that are most representative of the fun times we have together. We’ve had some serious moments, but for the most part we when are together, we enjoy a good laugh. Often the laughter comes from Brittany and Alan’s sage, but comically delivered married advice and amusement at some of our newlywed foibles.

Case in point: the day that Matt and Alan went to pick up the wood and marble bar Matt and I purchased at the Holiday Bazaar. As Brittany and I waited and waited at her house, we wondered what could be taking them so long - especially because I hadn’t eaten and I thought the plan was to fix lunch when they were done. A couple hours later, Brittany said “I wonder if they are at your house playing PS3?” Innocently, I said “No way, Matt knows I was going to fix lunch.” Brittany, all the wiser, called Alan on his cell phone and indeed, they were seated on the purple couch playing Fall of Man. They sheepishly returned to the apartment and as Matt drove away, I commented “You poor thing, you are probably starving too since you haven’t eaten since breakfast.” There was silence from the driver’s side of the car and a weird expression froze on his face. His voice was meek. “We stopped at Pizza Hut on the way home.” I don’t think the guys will ever live this down.

One of Matt’s favorite anecdotes revolves around Faith, who in all of her toddlerishness, is a constant source of amusement. As Alan and Matt were playing Wii one evening, Faith walked up very close to the television screen. “Did she just lick the TV?” Matt asked Alan in astonishment. Not missing a beat, Alan turned to me and said “Oh, you need to get one of those for him reeeeal soon.” The good news is that we won’t be missing these moments when we leave Okinawa – the Snyders are also moving to Virginia for their next duty station and we will be able to return the favor of showing them the ins and outs of their new location. I’m sure that many more adventures will follow, and possibly be documented on this blog. But for now, Matt and I would like to end with one significant word that symbolizes the fun the Langfords and Snyders have together: CHUB!!

All dressed up for an "Evening of Romance", when we realized that the bread might have counted as a course and the salad was served in a wine glass...

....we ditched the dinner and headed for McDonald's. The only problem was that the guys only had ten minutes to get the food and get in the car before they were breaking curfew.

Japanese teens love Faith and Carson and often ask if they can take their pictures.

Matt and Alan brave the low ceilings of the Cape Zanpa Lighthouse

"Dr. Matt says 'NO RULES'!!"

Kyoto: International Manga Museum

After stepping back into the past with tours of Kyoto’s historic sites and a night at Ryokan Nishiyama, Matt and I decided to take in something positively modern: The Kyoto International Manga Museum. Manga, which are like comics, are published as illustrated series, and represent a $3.7 billion industry that appeals to readers of all ages. Manga gained popularity after WWII but has its roots in pre-Meiji art and covers subject ranges from ninjas to schoolgirls to tennis. Manga is also closely related to one of Matt’s (and now my) loves, anime, because many of the manga series are also turned into the anime series we watch on TV and DVD. Says Matt “manga rules, but anime is better.” (This of course is a direct quote from an exclusive sit down interview with Dr. Langford).

The museum opened in 2006 in the former Tatsuike Elementary School and features galleries, research areas as well as a collection of over 200,000 volumes of manga. There were also indoor and outdoor reading areas where many people were sitting on benches or sprawled on bean bags and the lawn, reading manga from the museum’s collection. Some of the highlights of the museum were an exhibit that showed the process of transforming manga into anime and also a special exhibit of the work of Kawanabe Kyosai.

Kyosai was a prominent artist of the Edo and Meiji Eras. He paid particular attention to the human form as well as depicting politically charged scenes that critiqued the Japanese government. Often, his works were depicted in several frames or scenes, leading him to be credited as one of the forerunners of manga. Matt and I were thrilled with the pieces on display in the Kyosai exhibit and spent the most time here out of any area of the museum. We found his highly detailed work to be captivating and even irreverant at times and especially like the numerous works that contained skeletons and explosions. If you would like to take a look at some of Kyosai’s work, click here.

Matt checking out some manga (Full Metal Alchemist) from the museum's library which holds over 200,000 volumes of manga in several different languages.

We were "anime"-ted!! It was really hard to sit still and not laugh while we were being drawn.

Conversation Overheard: Breakfast, Sunday April 13, 2008

Mrs. Langford: Do you know what today is? Why it is important?

Dr. Langford: It's the Lord's Day.

Mrs. Langford: (impressed) That is correct, but what else is today?

Dr. Langford: (visibly pleased) It's the day we got engaged.

Mrs. Langford: That's also correct, but what else is today?

Dr. Langford: (stumped) I've got two out of three......

Mrs. Langford: It's Thomas Jefferson's birthday.

Dr. Langford: (shakes head and laughs) Oh, honey.......

The Art of Kimono

In my kimono at Ryokan Nishiyama

Since we were staying at a traditional inn and feasting on a traditional Japanese meal, I decided it was only fitting to wear one of my kimonos while we were in Kyoto. For Christmas, Matt had given me two kimonos: a less formal, washable lavender floral and a striking formal gray silk with an ivory and peach landscape scene. The lavender seemed more springy and easier to pack so it is the one I brought along for our stay.

Kimono are the national costume of Japan and even though they may seem old-fashioned and the process of donning them can be laborious, many women of all ages still wear kimono in Japan. Although kimono are mainly donned for formal occasions, such as weddings and tea ceremonies, I was surprised at the number of women I saw on the streets of Kyoto, even businesswomen commuting, wearing kimono and zori sandals.

There are many styles and fabrics for kimono, depending on the marital status of the wearer and the formality of the occasion to which it will be worn. Unmarried women wear kimono called furisode, with long flowing sleeves and patterns in bright colors. The kimonos of married women have shorter sleeves and are more subdued in both color and pattern. Cotton kimonos are worn for everyday and informal occasions and kimonos made from hand-dyed silk, often costing thousands of dollars, are for more formal occasions. One of the first questions I was asked when I was looking at kimonos was my marital status, and then I was guided to kimonos that would be appropriate for me to wear depending on the occasion.

In addition to the robe, there are many other pieces that make up a kimono costume. Most prominent is the obi, a wide sash worn around the waist and tied in a decorative fashion at the wearer’s back. The colors and design of the obi are based on the occasion and are complementary to the colors and design of the robe. A white blouse and sometimes skirt are worn under the kimono and there are various silk ties that are used to hold the kimono and obi in place. Kimonos are worn with tabi socks, white socks that are like mittens for the feet with a place for the big toe and larger area for the other toes, and zori, thonged platform sandals.

This was the first time we had attempted to dress me in a kimono, so I also tucked four pages of instructions on kimono dressing into our suitcase. As any Japanese woman will tell you, it is almost impossible to dress in a kimono without assistance and many use professional dressers to fold their kimono and tie their obi belts for them, a service also offered at many salons in Japan. It was a little frustrating getting everything on and situated, but in the end I think Matt did a very authentic job of folding and tying the kimono in place. The main thing was that we folded the left side of the robe over the right, because the opposite is only done on corpses before a funeral.

It's all in the details - additional pieces for kimono dressing, clockwise from top right: obi sash, obi bun, tabi socks, obi-jime cord, koshi-himo sashes, date-jime belt. Not pictured: juban (white cotton underblouse), kanzashi pins (flowers for hair) and zori sandals.

All dressed up - Kyoto style. Despite the lengthy dressing process and many layers, it is actually quite comfortable to wear a kimono. I am not wearing my zori because it is against custom to wear shoes on tatami floors. 

Kyoto: Ryokan and Kaiseki

As you may (or may not) know, Matt and I usually consult a Frommer’s guide when planning trips to foreign destinations. I’ve looked at lots of different guide series, starting with Let’s Go in my backpacking days, but Frommer’s is the one that really seems to be on par with what we want to do, see and experience in our travels. They are consistent and dependable, and I like that they are frank without being disparaging (though they did instill a healthy fear of what we would encounter in China). And I really enjoy the front section of “Best of” lists. When we were planning our trip to Kyoto (“If you go to only one place in all of Japan, Kyoto should be it”), Frommer’s highly recommended staying in a ryokan and eating at least one kaiseki meal.

Ryokans are traditional Japanese inns, much like bed and breakfasts in the United States or pensions in Europe. The rooms have traditional tatami mat floors and shoji doors and guests sleep on futons on the floor. There are public baths, but many rooms often have private bathrooms and guests are also given slippers and yukata (cotton robes) to wear in their rooms and common areas of the inn. When we arrived at our ryokan, a maid showed us to our room and served us green tea and a Japanese sweet at a low table as we sat on the tatami mats. It was very cool to stay in the traditional inns, especially when our one room overlooked a Japanese garden and waterfall, but sleeping on the futons was a little hard on the back and shoulders (and my hip bones). On our last evening, I found additional futons in the closet and stacked our beds princess and the pea style so we had some extra padding.

Another benefit of the ryokan is that a traditional kaiseki meal is often included in the stay in addition to Japanese breakfast (though I found raw fish first thing in the morning is just about as appetizing as it sounds). Kaiseki is Japanese cuisine at its finest. It consists of an elaborate spread of dishes that are served on plates of different shapes and sizes that complement the textures and colors of food. The food is prepared many different ways –raw, steamed, grilled, broiled – and accompanied by soups and rice. The plates and garnishes, as well as the type of food served, create a seasonal theme making kaiseki quite literally a culinary art. The table setting was beautiful – almost too pretty to touch – and also somewhat confusing because we weren’t sure where to begin. Matt and I agreed that the intricate display and traditional atmosphere were the best part of the meal because I think a lot of the food didn’t necessarily appeal to our Western palates.

This was our table after the meal - one of my favorite dishes was a broiled salmon with a fresh green herb paste. My least favorite was the gelatinous bowl with a raw baby octopus.

Matt getting ready to begin the feast. As you can see from the top photograph, we accented our meal with sake and the old standby, Coca Cola.

Our room at the Ryokan Nishiyama. The shoji screens opened onto a view of the central garden and waterfall, which gave a nice relaxing sound to our room.

Kyoto: Kiyomizu and Sanjusangendo

At Kiyomizu Temple

On our sightseeing tour of Kyoto, we visited two Buddhist temples, Kiyomizu and Sanjusangendo. Along with Shinto, Buddhism is one of the most prominent religions practiced in Japan. It was introduced in the sixth century from a Korea and currently approximately 96 million people adhere Buddhism (as I mentioned yesterday, it is often practiced with Shinto because they are complementary). There are many different forms, or schools, of Buddhism in Japan and Jodo Shinshu is the most prevalent form practiced today.

The Kiyomizu temple sits atop a hillside overlooking the city of Kyoto. It was built in 1633 and named in honor of the waterfall that is located within the temple complex (Kiymizu means “pure water”). The impressive veranda is supported by hundreds of wooden columns and is the inspiration for the popular saying “to jump off the stage at Kiyomizu.” In the Edo period, it was said that to survive the leap from the veranda to the ground below would lead to a wish come true for the jumper; now the saying is used similarly to our “take the plunge”.

The Sanjusangendo temple is an impressively long structure that dates back to the 12th century. The temple’s name literally means “hall with thirty-three spaces” to indicate the number of columns present in the main hall. Inside this hall are 1,001 statues of the 1,000 armed Kannon, the bodhisattva of compassion, 28 statues of guardian deities, and statues of the Japanese gods Fujin (wind) and Raijin (thunder and lightning). The statues are constructed of Japanese cypress and each of the Kannons has a different face. Another interesting thing about the temple is that each year an archery competition is held where competitors shoot arrows the length of the long hall.

Kiyomizu Temple - One of the best views of Kyoto

A view from under the Kiyomizu Temple

The long hall of Sanjusangendo. The most amazing part of this temple was inside and since photography wasn't allowed, click here for some photos of the statues of the Kannon. 

Heian Hanami

Cherry blossom time is the season of the year when the whole country becomes imbued with the spirit of life and hope that is beyond the comprehension of Occidental minds - for here the cherry tree is regarded as a principle of life whose snowy wand transforms the earth and gives new powers to the heart which may be shared by all classes from the humblest to the exalted. 

– Cherry Blossom Time in Japan

Shining spring day

Falling cherry blossoms with my calm mind

- Kino Tomonari

Silent cherry blooms

Your simple eloquence is

  Speaking to my soul  

- Onitsura

With us, a plum or cherry tree in flower is not an astonishing sight; but here it is a miracle of beauty so bewildering that, however much you may have previously read about it, the real spectacle strikes you dumb. You see no leaves - only one filmy mist of pearls.

 -Lafcadio Hearn, Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan, 1894

Kyoto: Heian Shrine

Shinto is the native religion of Japan and originated in ancient times with the worship of nature, tradition and family and physical purification. It is a polytheistic religion and there is no holy text or religious canon. After the arrival of Buddhism in the sixth century, the two religions were practiced together until the Emperor Meiji separated them in 1868 and Shinto was made the official state religion. During the first half of the 20th century, adherence to Shintoism was enforced and the emperor was worshipped as a deity. This changed after World War II when government control of shrines was released during the American occupation.

Shinto and Buddhism were once again practiced simultaneously because the religions are considered complementary to each other. Often, birth and life cycle events, such as weddings, are celebrated at Shinto shrines and funerals are Buddhist ceremonies. Our tour guide explained that the division of these celebrations is based on the Shinto focus on this life and the Buddhist focus on afterlife. While we were touring at the Heian Shrine, we were able to see a Shinto wedding taking place at the altar from a distance and later take pictures of the procession as it made its way out of the shrine. Only immediate family members attended the shrine ceremony, but later the couple celebrates with friends and the rest of the family.

Shinto shrines, like the Heian Shrine, are places for practitioners of Shinto to pray and hold religious celebrations. They are constructed in traditional Japanese architectural styles and painted white, orange and green. There is often a special place at the shrine, accessible only to laity, where kami (religious artifacts) are kept. Another feature of the shrines is that there are no images; this keeps with the belief that Shinto practitioners pray spirit to spirit rather than to objects.

The sun was out, the shrine was peaceful and we were happy to be out and about in Kyoto.

These wooden cards (ema) have pictures of animals on one side and prayer requests on the other. They take the place of the tradition of donating livestock to the shrine when making a request for good fortune at the shrines. 

The Shinto wedding procession - the bride is wearing a traditional white kimono. According to tradition, brides wear the white headdress to cover their horns. You can be sure that Matt had a good laugh when our guide told us that. 

Kyoto: Swords and Samurai

Next to geisha, one of the most romanticized images of Japan in the Western world is that of the samurai. These figures of strength and honor have been depicted in numerous Hollywood films and anime series, but it is often overlooked that the samurai were actually an entire class of people in pre-industrial Japan. Some were indeed warriors, but they also served in other roles of nobility. They were highly educated and often excelled in other interests, such as the fine arts, and were expected to follow a strict code of conduct called Bushido, or “Way of the Warrior”. 

As famous as the samurai are their weapons, most particularly the katana. The samurai considered these artfully crafted steel weapons so precious that they often named them and considered them to have their own soul. Prominent samurai developed their own sword styles and techniques that were passed down from generation to generation. The process that went into making katana was labor-intensive and took several craftsmen to forge, fold and polish the metal blade as well as furnish the hilt and sheath.

Today, there are still several Japanese families that continue the tradition of swordcraft. Unlike commercial reproductions that are readily available, these katana are made by the same traditional techniques with the same materials as the samurai’s katana of yesteryear. Of course, Matt wanted to visit the shop of one of these authentic craftsmen and find a katana as a special souvenir of our time in Japan.

One afternoon in Kyoto, we made our way to the tiny store of the Hashimoto family and were awed by the various swords in their display room. The saleswoman took utmost care in presenting swords for us to examine and explaining differences in quality and construction. Matt selected a gleaming blade that was made in style of the famous samurai Musashi. No doubt it will proudly be on display in our home when we return to the States. 

Matt with his katana (wrapped and ready for travel) in front of Hashimoto swordmakers. We perfected our honorific bow at the end of his transaction. 

An example of a daisho, a combination of katana and wakizashi (honor blade)

(Kyoto Handicraft Center)

Samurai armor at the Kyoto Handicraft Center