Stone statues in the Gohyaku Rakan shrine, Iwami Ginzan, Shimane Prefecture, Japan
Stone statues in the Gohyaku Rakan shrine, Iwami Ginzan, Shimane Prefecture, Japan
COMMENT
Millisphere: a discrete region inhabited by roughly one thousandth of the world population. Around eight million people, but anywhere between four and 16 million will do.
During the last week of the level four Covid 19 lockdown my friend John Steele passed away. Our condolences go to Fumiko,Kai, Rachelle and Nicola. We shared an interest in books and Japanese culture. John had been a regular visitor to Japan.
John, a conservationist and the Bookman from the River Traders Market, had walked many of the pilgrim's paths through Japan. He'd been in Tokyo during the Fukushima tsunami and walked around Shikoku, Japan's fourth largest island. He'd told me about the abandoned farmhouses there and had shown me his excellent photographs.
John had been to Kyoto, where the tourist hordes swarm through the temples and rock gardens, and John took the side trip to Nara. The world's largest wooden building, The Great Buddha Hall (Todai-ji) in Nara, contains the world's largest bronze statue. Because of the Covid pandemic Todai-ji is closed to the public until May 31. The Shinto monks there are live-streaming the noon prayers for a speedy end to the pandemic, a quick recovery for those infected and peace for those who lost their lives.
During lockdown I was exchanging news with Masami from Suzuka in the Mie prefecture, Honshu. Masami had stayed with us as a wwoofer in 1999 and we'd kept in touch. Covid-19 was sweeping through the northern island of Hokkaido before establishing itself in the megacities of Tokyo and Osaka before spreading throughout Japan. The virus arrived in Suzuka about the same time as it did in Whanganui.
As of Anzac weekend 2020 Masami's millisphere of Kii (Mie, Nara and Wakayama Prefectures) had around 300 Covid cases and three deaths. At the same time New Zealand, with a similar size population, had 1400 cases and 18 deaths. In Japan they vaccinate the elderly for pneumonia and they have less type two diabetes and obesity, both risk factors.
Masami and I were discussing her millisphere and we'd settled on Kii, covering the Kii peninsula projecting south into the Pacific Ocean, between the millisphere cities of Osaka and Nagoya. With barely four million residents much of Kii is forested mountains and most of the people cling to the coast.
Dotted in the national parks are shrines and temples. The most important is the Ise shrine in Mie, where, every 20 years for the last millennium the shrine has been rebuilt - the sacred objects transferred - and the old shrine demolished. Hundreds of years before global tourism all Japanese aspired to visit Ise at least once in their lifetime. This year the government is telling them to stay home for the moment.
Masami's hometown has the famous Suzuka Circuit. Developed as a Honda test track in the 1960s it hosts the Japanese Grand Prix at the end of the Formula 1 season. Masami is not a petrol head though. A committed Shinto/Buddhist greenie, she is a seed-saver and has found heritage kūmara varieties growing in Kii.
Basho, Japan's greatest haiku poet, is also from Mie. A haiku can contain the universe in only 17 syllables, they say. Writing up a millisphere in 700 words is a little like writing a haiku. Asked about the essence of the Kii millisphere Masami pointed me at Minakata Kumagusu (1867-1941).
Minakata-san was a self-taught plant collector who became a world authority on cryptograms (plants without flowers or seeds). Heir to the Minakata Sake Distillery he studied at Tokyo, San Francisco and Michigan where he engaged in drinking binges and "frequently reckless behaviour". Dropping out, he travelled the Caribbean with a circus and collected cryptograms before establishing himself in British Museum in London. He knew the Chinese philosopher/politician Sun Yat Sen and spoke a dozen languages. By 1900 he was back in Kii, in Wakayama in the south, protesting against "shrine consolidation" and fighting for the protection of their nature reserves. He saw nature through biology, folklore, ethnology and religion.
Like Minakata-san my friend John was a naturalist, a traveller and a "scholar without a degree". He will be missed.
Fred Frederikse
• Fred Frederikse is a self-directed student of human geography. Mapping the Millisphere, "a new millennium travel story" can be found at millisphere.blogtown.co.nz
