| The eighth century official document
records the name of Mino among the fourteen feudal states which gave
an annual tribute of paper to the Imperial court. That is why Mino
has the history of paper production over one thousand three hundred
years.
In the Edo Era (1603 – 1867), the city flourished as one of the centres
of paper industry, when not only the above-mentioned wooden lighthouse
but also other eighteenth century architecture were constructed,
many of which are still extant.
As the demand for paper grew bigger and bigger like a snowball, first
the machinery entered paper industry, then after the second world
war the petrochemical products were introduced to substitute for
paper. At last machine-made paper superseded handmade one.
In Mino the wholesalers dominated paper industry, which was supported
by family manufacturing. Therefore it was very difficult to mechanize
production system. Thus many manufacturers could not help but change
or give up their business: in 1950s one thousand two hundred houses
produced paper; in 1960 five hundred houses; in 1970 one hundred
houses; in 1980 forty houses and at present about thirty houses.
The municipal authority has taken various measures to preserve and
promote Mino paper, one of which is the above-mentioned grant for
foreign artists. The Japanese government has also designated the
traditional product as Important Cultural Heritage.
The
photo has a distant view of Mino Bridge built in the beginning
of twentieth century: the oldest suspension bridge in Japan (photo
7). According to an article*, this bridge has some similarities
with New Port Bridge over River Merrimack, Massachusetts, designed
by James Finley (1756 - 1828), the inventor of modern suspension
bridge.
Regrettably to say, but it is still unknown who
designed Mino Bridge. Yet we have a few names
of Japanese designers who had studied bridge design
in America and got the latest information at that
time. |
photo 7
|
One of them belonged to Yokogawa Bridge Corporation, so
famous for its high technological level that it could
be assumed that Gifu Prefecture requested to design and
construct the bridge, which relates to us the history
of modern Japan as well as of Mino City.
Now Mino enjoys the most cheerful season of the year, full of
festivities and hospitalities. The poster tells sakoura matsuri,
cherry blossom festival, lasts until the fifth of May, the Children's
Day.
|
|
photo 8 |
On Holy Saturday, the tenth of April, Japanese
girls in happi coat (photo
8) are seen to carry hana mikoshi, a portable
shrine adorned with cherry blossom petals of Mino
paper, when they have a standing comedy contest,
niwaka, too.
|
photo 9
|
On Easter Sunday,
the eleventh, they observe hinkoko matsuri, a festival of giant
puppets made of paper, which consists of a parade along streets
and a dramatic performance by puppets in a shinto shrine on hill;
with the spectators looking up to them at the foot as they do
in the photo (photo 9).
The drama is based upon the ancient shinto mythology: Prince Susanoo
slew a huge serpent with eight heads and tails to deliver Princess
Kushinada from confinement. Concerning shinto, the oldest religion,
or religious consciousness, in Japan, you could find some pieces
of information in my short article published in this website.
|
While travelling in old towns and villages in Japan,
I have often heard a similar utterance: we don't have anything here.
But they still have something important probably latent in beliefs,
customs and folklores, that is, traditions, as the communal observance
in Mino proves. It seems that the Japanese modern times had a tendency
to think little of them and so people have now forgotten they still
have it.
Lecfadio Hearn (1850 - 1904), the nineteenth century writer from
Lefkada, published Kwaidan, Japanese Ghost Stories, in April
1904, exactly one hundred years ago; among which a story titled as
yukionna, a snow fairy, might tell us something we have forgotten
or lost.
One winter
night. Two woodcutters, caught in a snowstorm, took a shelter
in a hut. Minokichi, the younger, was roused from sleep to find
a very beautiful girl with fair complexion bend over Mosaku, the
older. He had been frozen to death. She violently pushed Minokichi
down, saying she would do the same thing to him.
‘But I cannot do this. You are so young. Too cruel.’
She sighed with pity on the face.
'Listen. I will not kill you, but if you should tell somebody
. . . you shall be like him.'
She disappeared into the icy darkness.
Next winter it had begun to snow,
when Minokichi saw a beautiful girl fixing waraji, straw sandals,
by the roadside. Her name is Oyuki, which means snow. He gave
a night’s lodging on her request. Minokichi was living with his
mother. Both of them came to like her very much. Before long she
got married to him and borne ten children.
Another winter night years later.
Oyuki was busy with needlework by the fireside, while her husband
gave admiring glances to his wife as young and beautiful as ever,
drinking sake: Japanese wine made from rice.
‘It was at the age of eighteen, when I saw a very beautiful and
fair girl. Strange to say, she looked like you. A terrible night.
I have never told anybody until now.’
On hearing this, Oyuki got a start.
'I don’t like scary stories.'
'We were caught in a snowstorm . . . '
When he began to relate, she couldn’t keep back tears.
Minokichi talking; Oyuki weeping.
'It's an old story. Don't be scared. But I still wonder if she
was a dream or . . . a snow fairy.'
She hurled a needle box down to the earthen floor.
'Oyuki!'
'That was me. I told you even a single word if you should . .
. ,' said Oyuki filled with anger and sorrow, 'I must kill you
. . . but I cannot. Without these children I would . . .'
A door suddenly opened. She had vanished without trace.
There was a snowstorm outside like that night.
|
Everyone of us knows too well that a snow fairy
doesn't exist or is nothing but a personification of the winter chill
or the elementary Nature; but we still have the frosty and snowy
winter causing chapped hands or chilblains, which I have seen the
ordinary people suffering from both in Greece and in Japan. It is
not only for Minokichi but also for us, who cannot believe in something
mysterious or supernatural, that Oyuki couldn't keep back tears.
 |
|
 |
| Old houses in Mino usually have a
noren, shop curtain, which, together with the children
running along a sunlit street, waits for you to
come to this quiet Japanese city someday. |
Acknowledgements are for
my acquaintances in Mino: Mr. T. Funato, Mr. H. Ichihara, Mr. S.
Murai, Mr. S. Murase, Ms. Y. Takano, Mr. O. Tauchi, Mr. H. Terashima,
Mr. K. Umemura, and especially for Mr. R. Kosaka, president of Sightseeing
Association of Mino City; and also for Mr. H. Haba, a paper lantern
artist.
*http://www.jsce-int.org/Publication/CivilEng/2002/4-2/pdf
Links:
- Mino City
- Sightseeing
Association of Mino City
Greece-Japan.com |
