My good friend Keiko arranged for me to visit and stay with Kenji Ito, who lives on Shikoku, the smallest of Japan's four main islands. He lives with his half-sister, Fumiko, and her husband, Masahiro, and their daughter, Nanako. He has muscular dystrophy and has been confined to a wheelchair since high school.
Kenji used to live in the main house, at the left, but they refurbished the barn/garage and now Kenji has his own quarters, at the right. He stays downstairs, but there is a dumbwaiter that he can use to go upstairs, where I stayed. The smaller wooden addition contains the toilet and bath areas, and a storeroom.
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Junko, Kenji, and I would often have lunch on the porch.
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Kenji Ito is only physically confined to a wheelchair, his mind and spirit roam more broadly than most people's. Surrounded by truly wonderful friends and family, he was my host for three days on my first trip. When I returned 5 years later, I stayed a week.
Here are some of those friends, who became my friends as well. Etsuyo and Eisaku, two of his former students, are both now school teachers; Fumiko is his half sister; Junko, his girlfriend who accompanies him on his travels when he presents papers at conferences; Masahiro, his brother-in-law; and Nanako, now 12 (in 2000), daughter of Fumiko and Masahiro.
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Another of his former students is Saori, here with her new husband and parents, in Bali, where she got married in 2000. She owns a hair salon.
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Here's Nanako on my first trip, with her cat.
And here she is, 5 years later, on her unicycle. Most elementary school children in Japan are issued a unicycle by the school so that they learn balance, and they also learn to swim.
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Here's Kenji at work at his computer.
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And here am I with Saori and Masahiro at the barbecue they had for me on the first night of my return trip. Eisaku did most of the cooking.
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That was after we went straight from the train at my arrival to visit the temple atop Mt. Upenji, reached by the longest tramway in the world - over a mile long and a mile climb, from about 1000' above sea level to over 6000'. As imagined, the views were spectacular.
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Here's Hiroshi, another of Kenji's former students. He's the one who helped build Kenji's wheelchairs and who takes care of Kenji's computer equipment.
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Donald Keene, a noted writer on Japanese films, said that temples are up high because one must climb up to God.
Well, it's true we took the cable car to visit Upenji, but we did walk up the mountain called Kompira-san to visit the famous temple, Kotohira-gu, 2,000 feet above the Inland Sea in the Zozusan mountains. To get to the outer shrine, visitors must climb 785 stone steps, and then another 583 to reach the innermost shrine. Along the way is one of the few Shinto shrines in all of Japan dedicated to women. Here are the beginning steps of the climb, and the last, 1,368 steps later. (I lost count around 1100 but the number is in the visitor's booklet.)
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And here's what it looks like from above:
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Another attraction of Shikoku's mountains is Shikoku-mura, a typical village of the early Edo period (17th century). A fun part of the visit is the short trek over the rope bridge, a replica of one built by the Taira family after they had lost a major battle to the Fujiwara and had retreated to the small island from Honshu. Afraid that the Inland Sea might not be enough of a barrier, they located high in the mountains on a site pro-tected by a deep gorge.The only way in was this bridge, easily defended.
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Two features of the village were a fully functioning kabuki theater, complete with revolving stage (worked by men walking in a circle, pushing the long 'handle' of a column attached to the underside of the stage in a pit below the stage) and a rice mill.
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Saori, Nanako, and yours truly.
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The Yayoi culture emerged in Japan around 300bc, along with wet rice farming. This is a replica of a family and their dwellings.
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Nanako and Etsuyo are
investigating the small room in
the rear building.
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The museum was atop yet another mountain, though not quite as high as Upenji. Still, the view was worthwhile.
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One evening, I was taken to the home of Takaro and Kimiyo Kurimoto, a charming couple. Kimiyo was a world-class ping-pong player and was helpful when the Japanese government decided to open relations with China. Takaro had been a successful TV personality and now owns a sporting goods store in Tokyo. They have a summer home on Shikoku.
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Takaro is on the far left and Kimiyo the far right. We are sitting at a table made by George Nakashima, a Japanese-American woodworker of world-class fame. One of his tables is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.
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I had written a haiku about how happy I was to be in Japan, and as is customary, everyone was pleased to 'help me make it better.' Here's the before and after - and actually, I'm not sure which is.
I think the subtleties are still beyond me.
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On my second trip, Kenji arranged for us to go with his friend Kazumi and her mother to a famous matsuri--the Awa Odori festival that takes place each year on Shikoku. Kazumi's grandmother loaned me the summer kimono.
This is a major event, lasting well into the night, with many different groups of dancers and musicians.
Here are two examples of male dancing . . .
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Kenji particularly liked
my sneakers.
And here's a typical
female group . . .
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