chiyoda and edo-tokyo museum
After resting up from the trip to Kyoto and Nagoya, on Thursday we ventured back to downtown Tokyo, to the Chiyoda area. The first place we stopped by was an evangelical Christian center, one of the few buildings I saw while in Japan that was evidently Christian, topped with crosses:
The center offers classes, houses both an English-language and Japanese-language bookstore, and provides other services for the small evangelical Christian community. In their front foyer is this plaque, inscribed with a verse from what I believe is Romans 12:11 ("Never lack in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord"):
After poking around the bookstores for a bit, we made our way over to the Russian Orthodox Resurrection Cathedral, commonly called Nikolai-do after the late 19th century monk-priest St. Nikolai Kasatkin who, as a missionary to Japan, was responsibile for overeeing the planting of 250 parishes with over 30,000 converts. While the Russian Orthodox church in Japan has suffered numerous setbacks due to the Russo-Japanese war, earthquakes, the Bolshevik Revolution, World War II, and other factors, the late 19th century Cathedral stands as a testimony to the faithfulness of many Russian Orthodox believers:
The Cathedral again, from another angle:
The iconostasis inside the Cathedral, covered with gold-leaf, and lit by a replica of the original chandelier:
A stained-glass window of a saint:
A detail of a cross-pattern on the exterior gates to the Cathedral property:
After visiting the Cathedral, we wandered through a nearby district full of used bookstores (and sports gear shops), though it was difficult to find any bookstores that carried English-language books, though the one we did find offered some remarkably choice volumes, though out of my league price-wise.
With the help of some coffee, we decided to visit the Tokyo-Edo Museum, a monstrosity of a building, set atop a small hill and intended to approximate the height of the ancient Edo Castle:
The museum, despite its off-putting exterior, did house a number of very instructive and interesting exhibits on the history of Tokyo in its evolution from the small fishing village of Edo in the 15th century to the burgeoning metropolis and Japanese capital of today.
The statue below is an image of a shogun that he had carved in his likeness:
This cab, decorated with gold, would have been carried by a group of men as the special transportation for a wealthy shogun:
The museum contained the reconstruction or replica of a number of different kinds of buildings, including this old-style print shop, where woodblock prints would have been produced and sold:
The Japanese developed sophisticated printmaking techniques that allow for full color production and replication, using multiple wood plates, a different one for each color, thereby turning out pictures like this:
As you can see, the artist was also not without a sense of humor. Looking at these old Japanese prints, I think one can see how far back into the past the development of some conventions of modern manga and anime seem to go:
The Edo-Tokyo Museum also houses a reconstruction of the late 19th century kabuki theatre: the Nakamuraza Playhouse. Kabuki is a form of entertainment dating back to the 17th century in Japan. The signs over the entrance give the names of the plays and actors, as well as the government permission to operate:
Inside the theatre, the museum featured a number of mannequins, attired in traditional kabuki costume and make-up, striking various poses:
Among the figures were a couple that were made to look female, though in actual kabuki (as with earlier English theatre) all roles would have been played by men dressed and made-up as women (or by boys playing girls):
In front of the kabuki theatre, the museum keeps what is a kinda of parade float that would be wheeled through the streets as part of a festival:
The museum also has a large section on the emergence of modern Japan, contact with the west, importation of western technology and culture, and so on. This included, of course, some exhibits that touched on World War II and the military build-up and imperialism that led up to it, which was interesting to see from a Japanese perspective (even if a bit aggravating at times).
The exhibits in this area included this old Subaru, which I thought was very cute:
My camera batteries gave out around this point in the museum, so I didn't take any further pictures, though we didn't stay much longer either before returning home.
(continue to next post: rest, church, home)
The center offers classes, houses both an English-language and Japanese-language bookstore, and provides other services for the small evangelical Christian community. In their front foyer is this plaque, inscribed with a verse from what I believe is Romans 12:11 ("Never lack in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord"):
After poking around the bookstores for a bit, we made our way over to the Russian Orthodox Resurrection Cathedral, commonly called Nikolai-do after the late 19th century monk-priest St. Nikolai Kasatkin who, as a missionary to Japan, was responsibile for overeeing the planting of 250 parishes with over 30,000 converts. While the Russian Orthodox church in Japan has suffered numerous setbacks due to the Russo-Japanese war, earthquakes, the Bolshevik Revolution, World War II, and other factors, the late 19th century Cathedral stands as a testimony to the faithfulness of many Russian Orthodox believers:
The Cathedral again, from another angle:
The iconostasis inside the Cathedral, covered with gold-leaf, and lit by a replica of the original chandelier:
A stained-glass window of a saint:
A detail of a cross-pattern on the exterior gates to the Cathedral property:
After visiting the Cathedral, we wandered through a nearby district full of used bookstores (and sports gear shops), though it was difficult to find any bookstores that carried English-language books, though the one we did find offered some remarkably choice volumes, though out of my league price-wise.
With the help of some coffee, we decided to visit the Tokyo-Edo Museum, a monstrosity of a building, set atop a small hill and intended to approximate the height of the ancient Edo Castle:
The museum, despite its off-putting exterior, did house a number of very instructive and interesting exhibits on the history of Tokyo in its evolution from the small fishing village of Edo in the 15th century to the burgeoning metropolis and Japanese capital of today.
The statue below is an image of a shogun that he had carved in his likeness:
This cab, decorated with gold, would have been carried by a group of men as the special transportation for a wealthy shogun:
The museum contained the reconstruction or replica of a number of different kinds of buildings, including this old-style print shop, where woodblock prints would have been produced and sold:
The Japanese developed sophisticated printmaking techniques that allow for full color production and replication, using multiple wood plates, a different one for each color, thereby turning out pictures like this:
As you can see, the artist was also not without a sense of humor. Looking at these old Japanese prints, I think one can see how far back into the past the development of some conventions of modern manga and anime seem to go:
The Edo-Tokyo Museum also houses a reconstruction of the late 19th century kabuki theatre: the Nakamuraza Playhouse. Kabuki is a form of entertainment dating back to the 17th century in Japan. The signs over the entrance give the names of the plays and actors, as well as the government permission to operate:
Inside the theatre, the museum featured a number of mannequins, attired in traditional kabuki costume and make-up, striking various poses:
Among the figures were a couple that were made to look female, though in actual kabuki (as with earlier English theatre) all roles would have been played by men dressed and made-up as women (or by boys playing girls):
In front of the kabuki theatre, the museum keeps what is a kinda of parade float that would be wheeled through the streets as part of a festival:
The museum also has a large section on the emergence of modern Japan, contact with the west, importation of western technology and culture, and so on. This included, of course, some exhibits that touched on World War II and the military build-up and imperialism that led up to it, which was interesting to see from a Japanese perspective (even if a bit aggravating at times).
The exhibits in this area included this old Subaru, which I thought was very cute:
My camera batteries gave out around this point in the museum, so I didn't take any further pictures, though we didn't stay much longer either before returning home.
(continue to next post: rest, church, home)
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