Ainuville

[imomus]

The Fukagawa Edo Museum is one of Tokyo's lesser-known attractions; a bit hard to find (you take the Hanzomon line from Shibuya to Kiyosumi, head for the top of Kiyosumi Park, then take a left along a lovely tree-lined traditional street) but well worth the trek. It's also within walking distance of the Saga district, where you'll find Tokyo's best contemporary art galleries, Koyama and Ishi.

You pay 300 yen and head down to the basement. Suddenly an underground village appears before you -- a detailed reconstruction in darkened wood of an entire early 19th century Edo shitamachi district. It's as if the inhabitants have dropped everything and left. You're free to wander through their houses and examine their lives; the rice and rapeseed oil they're preparing, the heaps of Japanese radish they're buying and the sukiyaki they're eating, the shinto totems lying casually about tiny rooms with elevated tatami floors, pots of green tea stewing in the central, rectangular hearths, a fishing boat moored in the rushes next to the fire lookout tower. The lighting and sound effects are haunting: when I arrived a nocturnal thunderstorm was in progress, then the cries of birds filled the air, then shutters in the glass roof opened and sunshine flooded the village. Cats meowed, dogs barked, and I followed a ghostly street cryer around the place without ever quite catching up with him. If the people are absent, they've left their voices behind.

The effect brings to mind the scene at the beginning of Miyazaki's 'Spirited Away', when the family discovers the abandoned village, or perhaps a Japanese version of Lars Von Trier's 'Dogville' set. (And did I mention that 'Dogville' is my favourite film this year?) Welcome to Ainuville!

Comments

other museum recommendation

[niemandsrose.livejournal.com]

I like the Mingeikan! Have you been there?

[niten.livejournal.com]

You might also be interested in the Edo-Tokyo Open Air Architectural museum (http://greggman.com/japan/tatemono-hakubutsukan/tatemono-hakubutsukan.htm) (english museum site (http://www.edo-tokyo-museum.or.jp/english/index.html)) out near Koganei. Besides some recent old buildings it has a few old farmhouses with thatched roofs and charcoal fires burning. It was very pretty mixed with a fair amount of nostalgia.

I took a slightly different route to get to the park, walking down from one of the stops on the Seibu Shinjuku line.

[niemandsrose.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, yes! That was lovely too! My best pictures from my last trip were all from there.

You have

[willabark.livejournal.com]

The most amazing ability to make me wanna go to Japan.
Between the "Anthem of Shibuya" and your posts I am about to start knocking off old ladies to get the money.

[in-dig-ent.livejournal.com]

And did I mention that 'Dogville' is my favourite film this year?

yeah, it pretty much blows everything else out of the water this year so far, don't it? and closing the flick to bowie's "young americans"... brilliant. i know you appreciated that.

[charleshatcher.livejournal.com]

There's some mirthful posting about the film's supposed disparagement of America going on over at the IMDB Discussion Boards. (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0276919/board/nest/6950603)

[cubitt.livejournal.com]

That's it. Your posts are amazing, and your pictures great. I looked up your page at allmusic.com, and if those really are all your influences, I'm going to seek out your music.
I'm a big Morrissey/Smiths, Bowie, and Gainsbourg fan.

Your Discography with ratings (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&uid=SUB010407281939&sql=11:hxkmikbhbb29~T2)

Such good scores... aw man, and I saw the Hippopotamomus vinyl at my local record store too.
I wonder if it had the "Michelin Man" track?

[cubitt.livejournal.com]

I have a quick question, what do you think of the work of Falco?
(notice the icon)

[seanthesean.livejournal.com]

you didn't ask me, but falco's einzelhaft is one of my favorite songs EVER. i love falco and have since 1984!

[imomus.livejournal.com]

You're asking a man who wrote a song called 'Folk Me, Amadeus' what he thinks of Falco?

[seanthesean.livejournal.com]

nope, cubitt was asking you... i was talking about my favourite falco song... which album is this folk me amadeus track on?

[imomus.livejournal.com]

'Folktronic', 2001.

[cubitt.livejournal.com]

Hehe, as you can see, I'm not completely familiar with your work.

Good to know!

Perhaps I'll pen a song as well, 'Pop Me, Amadeus'.

one from the heart

[(Anonymous)]

Allmusic thinks Momus is dead.
"Momus was the alias of Nick Currie..."
Or perhaps he has, in secret, gone on to become one of those sentiment-a'gushing singer/songwriter types who drop their pseudonyms for greater for a greater sense of "authenticity": the real reason he has stopped posting mp3s.

[(Anonymous)]

I'm wondering if you meant to write "inuville".

Ainu = indigenous Japanese. A tribe that inhabited these islands long before the
Yamato clan (http://gias.snu.ac.kr/wthong/publication/paekche/eng/paekch_e.html) arrived from the Korean peninsula.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Ah yes, I half suspected I'd mixed those up. Now I'm being very rude to indigenous peoples of the north, which won't do.

[wrighter.livejournal.com]

this is absolutely amazing. makes me think of the elaborate sets a photographer whose name i cannot recall right now creates for his photographs -- he'll build full ecosystems, i.e. a swamp, for one picture.

mine are pink

[thegulper.livejournal.com]

I am so happy to see you wearing plastic sandals. They are the best ever.