Archive for Attraction
September 29, 2008 at 1:32 pm · Filed under Art, Attraction, Nara
Sculptor Satoshi Yabuuchi is auctioning a limited-edition bronze statue of Sento-kun, the popular but controversial official mascot he designed for the Commemorative Events of the 1,300th Anniversary of the Nara-Heijokyo Capital (the upcoming festival marking 1,300 years since Nara’s establishment as Japan’s capital in 710 AD). The current bid on this 30.5-cm tall sculpture — one of only 130 created — is 185,000 yen ($1,750).
[Via: Yahoo! Auctions]
Original post by Edo
July 31, 2008 at 7:11 pm · Filed under Tokyo, Art, Relic, Attraction, Paranormal
Every August, as Japanese spirits return en masse from the otherworld, Tokyo’s Zenshoan temple exhibits a spine-chilling collection of 19th-century ghost scroll paintings. Here are a few. (Click the “+” under each image to enlarge.)
Ghost [+] // Sea Monster [+]
“Ghost” by Iijima Koga is a portrait of a floating, kimono-clad female apparition with all the ghastly physical features you hope to find in an undead spirit — bony hands, a head of stringy hair, and a pained grimace revealing a mouth full of black teeth. “Sea Monster” by Utagawa Hoen depicts an umi-bozu lurking near a boat anchored at shore, with the moon located precisely where the monster’s mouth should be.
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The Ghost of a Blind Female Street Singer [+]
Utagawa Hiroshige’s “Ghost of a Blind Female Street Singer” portrays the restless spirit of a street performer, one white unseeing eye wide open, carrying a shamisen […]
Original post by Edo
July 18, 2008 at 11:08 am · Filed under Anomaly, Animal, Biota, Attraction, Cephalopod, Mie
In nature, it is quite rare to encounter octopi with extra tentacles (or “arms,” for the purists), but a pair of aquariums in Japan’s Mie prefecture have some extraordinary specimens on hand.
The permanent display at the Shima Marineland Aquarium in the town of Shima includes a 96-tentacled Common Octopus (Octopus vulgaris) that weighed 3.3 kilograms (about 7 lbs) and measured 90 centimeters (3 ft) long when it was captured in nearby Matoya Bay in December 1998. Before dying 5 months later, the creature laid eggs, making it the first known extra-tentacled octopus to do so in captivity. All the baby octopi hatched with the normal number of tentacles, but unfortunately they only survived a month.
96-tentacled octopus laying eggs
The preserved octopus actually has the normal number of 8 appendages attached to its body, but each one branches out to form the multitude of extra tentacles. Apparently there is no theory […]
Original post by Edo
June 24, 2008 at 12:36 pm · Filed under food, Vegetation, Art, Sustenance, Attraction
Rice-growing season has only just begun, but this year’s first crop of rice paddy art, which is created by planting various colors of rice in the field, has already started to emerge.
In the Yamagata prefecture town of Yonezawa, an image of 16th-17th century samurai Naoe Kanetsugu has appeared in a field near the Onogawa hot spring. The samurai, whose image is based on a portrait housed at the nearby Uesugi Museum, appears along with a pair of fireflies and the kanji characters for “Love” and “Tenchijin,” the name of an NHK drama about Naoe Kanetsugu that will air next year. The rice will be harvested in October.
This year marks the third time that crop art has been grown in Yonezawa. Here are a few photos of works from the past two years.
2007
2007
2007
2006
In recent years, a growing number of local governments around Japan have started organizing rice paddy […]
Original post by Edo
May 27, 2008 at 1:51 pm · Filed under Hiroshima, Anomaly, Hokkaido, Animal, Biota, Attraction, Paranormal, Kyushu
Bigfoot. The Loch Ness Monster. The Abominable Snowman. Tales of unidentified mysterious animals have long intrigued and captured the imagination of people around the world — and Japan is no exception. Here is a brief introduction to 7 of the island nation’s most notorious cryptids, complete with grainy photographs where available. Whether you regard these tales as fact or fiction, their impact on the culture where they were encountered is undeniable.
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- Hibagon
Read the full post (2042 words, 14 images)
Original post by Edo
May 20, 2008 at 12:21 pm · Filed under Animal, Video, Biota, Attraction, Nagoya
Nana, a beluga born at the Port of Nagoya Public Aquarium in July 2007, enjoys creating air bubble rings under water. While it’s not uncommon for belugas to make bubbles by blowing out short puffs of air, Nana has the remarkable ability to suck air bubble rings into the water by swimming near the surface and drawing in big gulps of water. (Go :55 seconds into the video to see this in slow motion.)
[Video: Beluga bubbles]
(79 words, 1 image)
Original post by Edo
May 20, 2008 at 6:55 am · Filed under Attraction, Marketing, Nara
Sento-kun
Ever since his unveiling in February, Sento-kun, the official mascot character for the Commemorative Events of the 1,300th Anniversary of the Nara-Heijyoko Capital, has garnered widespread criticism from the media, religious groups and the blogosphere. A Buddhist child monk with a rack of deer antlers sprouting from his head, Sento-kun is supposed to evoke the image of Nara’s rich Buddhist history and the wild (but tame) deer that roam freely around town. But some citizens have expressed anger at officials for shutting them out of the selection process and wasting 5 million yen (about $50,000) of taxpayer money on an ugly mascot, and some Buddhist groups are upset with the sacrilegious decision to use the image of a monk.
Read the full post (338 words, 2 images)
Original post by Edo
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