源氏物語千年紀

源氏物語千年紀

【聯合報╱曾郁雯】 2008.10.30 03:23 am

《源氏物語》真正的書寫及完成時間至今仍無定論，學者專家從作者紫式部在西元1008年11月1日的日記中，發現其中記載這部作品在當時平安朝貴族間爭相傳閱的情形，就用這個時間算到2008年的11月1日，剛好一千年…… 位於宇治市的紫式部雕像。 曾郁雯／攝影 4月1日，愚人節。「選在這種日子出發，追櫻會成功嗎？」翻開一頁頁蓋滿戳記的護照，忍不住問自己。 進入登機室，笑容可掬的地勤送上一本小冊子，裡面是三種不同尺寸的便利貼，背面印著台北往返成田、關西機場的運航時間表，附上一張中、日文的小紙條，感謝 我們搭乘JAL日本航空4月1日從台灣飛往日本的首航，正式和已經飛行三十二年的日亞航說bye-bye。「這是愚人節的禮物嗎？」忍不住又問自己。 隔天站在京都真如堂前滿開到幾乎看不到枝葉的櫻花時，一顆心才獲得釋放，任春日香甜薰風將數年來不斷追逐的疲憊徐徐吹散，只想坐在樹下打個小盹，假裝一切 都沒發生過。但是2008年的京都，除了賞櫻狩楓之外，還有一件盛事，就是到處可以看到「《源氏物語》千年紀」的活動及海報，整個古都蒙上一層泛金的華麗 面紗。 2008年可稱為「《源氏物語》年」。 曾郁雯／攝影 2007 年第一次到宇治，還在車站就看到一張粉紅色海報，預告「2008年《源氏物語》千年紀」即將轟轟烈烈展開，原本只想逛逛這個茶的故鄉，卻誤闖《源氏物語》 最後「宇治十帖」的歷史場景。除了國寶平等院鳳凰堂、表參道外，宇治觀光案內所，備有各種「宇治十帖散策地圖」。宇治將《源氏物語》當作重整城巿的主題， 以「《源氏物語》博物館」為核心，利用模型及影像，復刻「宇治十帖」，介紹最後的人物「浮舟」。2008年再訪京都，果然到處可見千年紀的活動海 報，2008年可直接稱為「《源氏物語》年」。 這一千年是怎麼計算出來的？《源氏物語》真正的書寫及完成時間至今仍無定論，學者專家從作者紫式部在西元1008年11月1日的日記中，發現其中記載這部作品在當時平安朝貴族間爭相傳閱的情形，就用這個時間算到2008年的11月1日，剛好一千年。 《源氏物語》原本只是寫給後宮女眷看的「言情小說」，會變成男男女女爭相傳閱的暢銷書，原因不只一個，紫式部的文字功力了得，居功最大。她從小跟在詩人父 親身旁讀書，尤其鍾愛漢籍《史記》和白居易的詩文，也因為這項專長，三十歲不到就守寡的她，在西元1005年被召喚入宮，為一條天皇的中宮「彰子」解說 《日本書紀》和白居易的詩，在後宮侍讀一段日子，開始寫《源氏物語》。 林永福教授另有一說，在《源氏物語的女性》書中寫道：「紫式部可能在她丈夫藤原宣孝去世那年（1001年）就開始動筆，並完成部分的《源氏物語》，因此聲名大噪，才被彰子邀入宮中，繼續撰寫《源氏物語》。」 茂呂美耶在《物語日本》一篇談「隨筆文字之祖」的文章中，就把紫式部和《枕草子》的作者清少納言，平安時代（西元794～1192年）兩大才媛互相比較。 清少納言離婚後二十八歲入宮伺候一條天皇的中宮「定子」，聰明機智、溫柔明朗的個性，馬上變成宮廷「文藝沙龍」的紅牌要角。定子失寵病逝後，中宮換成彰 子，紫式部就取代清少納言的位置。紫式部曾在日記中批評清少納言的漢字文章。看起來茂呂美耶似乎比較欣賞清少納言的寬宏氣度。 後宮女官彼此競爭，不知是為自己還是為主子？當時的「紙」是非常非常稀有昂貴的物品，若非賞賜，一般人拿不到也負擔不起。所以還有一種說法是藤原為了幫助 自己的女兒彰子能夠受到天皇寵愛，找紫式部撰寫《源氏物語》，再由彰子說故事來吸引天皇上門求歡。後宮粉黛三千，比美麗永遠比不完，有「學養」的妃子更具 魅力！平安時代的「攝關政治」，大權掌握在攝政、關白這些天皇外戚手上，要實際掌握政權就要想辦法先讓女兒入宮，並生下皇子，再扶持外孫成為皇太子，下一 步就是幫助皇太子正式就位為皇上，藤原時代從西元858年到1016年，就是用這種方法掌握政權。 當時的貴族婚姻是「訪妻制」，女子婚後仍住在娘家，女婿不來，丈人、妻舅軟硬兼施，連哄帶騙也要設法逮人。如果以《源氏物語》全書中，長得貌不驚人，甚至 列為「醜女」的末摘花為例，源氏後來雖然看清她的長相，也識破她的琴藝、和歌皆不佳，中間甚至一度忘了她，但後來看到末摘花依然守在雜草叢生、連盜賊也過 門不入的荒廢舊居中，一心一意等待，大受感動，下定決心一輩子都要好好照顧她，兩年後真的將這位馬臉象鼻的癡心小姐迎入二條院享福。 還有一位「花散里」，即令源氏與她聚少離多，她永遠一如往昔，毫無怨恨之色，源氏最後也將她迎入改建後的二條院，和末摘花都安置在東院。但花散里是一位能 讓源氏信任的女子，源氏託花散里擔任自己兒子夕霧的監護人，從夕霧口中我們才知道：「這位繼母長得真是難看，但父親竟然連這樣的人也捨不得！」夕霧後來發 現父親喜歡的是花散里柔順可親的性情。過幾年源氏又將花散里移到「夏之御殿」，四周水晶花籬為垣，清涼泉水，濃蔭夏木，院內遍植夏花，排場不亞於最美的紫 之上夫人，源氏死後還將二條東院賞給花散里，花散里在夕霧的照顧下，安享晚年。 這兩位其貌不揚的女子，下場都比美女空蟬、夕顏、紫之上、朧月夜，還有第二代的大女公子、浮舟這對同父異母的苦情姊妹花幸運，由此推論《源氏物語》的背後，也許另有推手，就是希望女婿好好疼惜女兒的那位泰山大人。 在那樣的時代氛圍下，女人十分脆弱無奈，她們的一生幾乎都被命運的簾幕豢養在小小的格子門內，瘦弱、多病、蒼白、哀怨，彷彿皆是為了償還風流債而生，了卻 夙願而死。紫式部感慨「這個惡濁可欺的末世……總是越來越壞」，《源氏物語》由盛而衰的荒涼頹圮，比曹雪芹的《紅樓夢》早了七百年。 浮御堂是平安時代建造的寺院。 曾郁雯／攝影 宇 治的「《源氏物語》博物館」2008年籌備一連串活動，5月31日至6月22日，由宇治巿公園綠地課主辦「源氏夢螢」，讓大家在植物公園內傾聽流水聲，幻 想源氏螢穿梭飛舞的世界。8月10日宇治巿觀光協會在宇治川上主辦花火大會，七千發的煙火，照亮夏日夜空，是一千年的華麗約定。9月3日《源氏物語》博物 館十周年後重新開館，從這天起一直到11月3日，將公開「五攝家」當中，「近衛家」珍貴的「陽明文庫」，源氏迷可以在博物館的貴重資料企畫展示室看到。 10月16日到23日還有燈會，宇治上神社開放夜間參拜，博物館、宇治橋邊、散策步道都將點燃夜燈。十月下旬到十一月上旬，如果參加他們「宇治十帖」古蹟 健行，全程完成者還可以得到紀念徽章。 遠在另外一頭琵琶湖畔的「《源氏物語》千年紀in湖都大津」也不落人後。石山寺號稱《源氏物語》發祥地，這裡特別設置「源氏夢回廊」，一整年都可以在石山 寺不同殿堂中，參觀和紫式部有關的展覽。石山寺地處偏遠，要搭京坂石山坂本線出城，石山寺只從早上九點開放到下午四點半，扣掉爬山的時間，需提早出發，最 好預留一整天的時間慢慢遊賞。如果錯過上半年的《源氏物語》日本刺繡展和染色史家吉剛幸雄衣裳展；下半年還有「紫氏部千年戀館」，展示吉永小百合飾演紫氏 部，或天海祐希飾演光源氏的戲服。10月12日以後，還有十二單衣試穿體驗，注意先確定時間，而且每天午前、午後只有各四個名額。 過去比較常在京都玩耍，弄不清楚遠在琵琶湖畔的石山寺，為何和《源氏物語》也有關係，後來看到一份地圖，才發現若以京都為中心，右至石山寺，上至北山，左 至嵯峨野清涼寺，右下至宇治，左下至明石、須磨，足跡跨越京都府、大阪府、奈良縣、兵庫縣和滋賀縣，全都是小說的場景，難怪全體總動員。 京都府的活動更多，大多以博物館、圖書館為主軸，包括講座、文化展、能面展、茶陶器展、繪卷展、室內樂、朗讀、舞蹈劇，還有將《源氏物語》比較西歐宮廷文學中的王妃之戀演講等，整個委員會從2007年1月30日就成立，運作至今。 這樣大費周章，是否已將《源氏物語》的輪廊描繪得更加清晰？我並未刻意參與這場千年盛會，只因無法連續訂到旅館，被迫暫離京都兩天，卻意外發現石山寺和另 一座與藤原道長息息相關的三井寺，一站比一站盛開的櫻花，讓我幾乎處於幸福滿溢的亢奮狀態。紫式部認為物語有「瞭解世相」的功能，她寫《源氏物語》，寫的 是真實的人生，看書中四百多個人物進進出出，為愛煩惱，為情痛苦，借景抒情，借物抒懷，最後除了遁入空門，幾乎難得善終，難怪紫式部喜歡白居易，《源氏物 語》是她筆下一卷日本平安王朝的〈長恨歌〉。 這是個幸運的愚人節，花開得不能再好，雨下得不能再多，一千年後是否還有癡人追櫻？逐字逐句探索紫式部筆下千迴百轉的愛恨情仇？

源氏物語：源氏千年紀、最古の「梅枝巻」確認　甲南女子大、鎌倉中期の写本

　甲南女子大（神戸市）は２９日、所蔵する源氏物語５４帖（じょう）の一つ「梅枝巻（うめがえのまき）」の「別本」系統の写本が、鎌倉時代中期のも のと確認されたと発表した。梅枝巻としては、東京国立博物館所蔵の写本と同時期で、現存するものでは最古。他の写本にはない表現があり、紫式部が書いた原 文を知る手がかりになる可能性もあるという。

　１９７３年に古書店から購入したもので、縦１５・４センチ、横１５・６センチ。「斐紙（ひし）」と呼ばれる紙に書かれ、文字を記した「墨付」は ６５ページあった。米田明美教授（日本文学）が梅枝巻を田中登・関西大教授（同）に鑑定を依頼し、鎌倉中期の１２４０～８０年ごろの写本と確認した。

　今回の写本では、光源氏が妻の「紫の上」の書のうまさを褒める場面で、従来の写本にはない「いたうなすかし給そ（ご冗談おっしゃいますな）」と、紫の上が照れながら光源氏に話す表現があった。

　本文の前ページには、楕円（だえん）形で縦３センチ、横１・９センチの「勝安芳（やすよし）」と記された蔵書印が押されていた。米田教授によると、明治維新の立役者・勝海舟が維新後に名乗った名前と同一という。

　写本は１１月４～７日と１０日、甲南女子大の大学図書館で一般公開される。【吉川雄策、手塚さや香】

　◇新しい源氏見える－－伊井春樹・国文学研究資料館館長の話

　古ければ古いほど紫式部の原文に近いとは単純には言えないが、固定化された世界観とは違う新しい源氏物語が見えてくる。

毎日新聞　2008年10月30日　東京朝刊

源氏物語：英雄も愛した？恋愛小説　

　紫式部の源氏物語＝５４帖（じょう）＝の一つ、「梅枝巻（うめがえのまき）」の最古の写本と判明した甲南女子大（神戸市）所蔵の古書には、旧日本 海軍の基礎を築いた勝海舟（１８２３～９９）の蔵書印が押されていた。今年は、源氏物語が文献に登場してから、ちょうど１０００年。ミレニアム行事が各地 で行われる中、「幕末・維新の英雄と恋愛小説」という取り合わせに、研究者らは、さまざまな思いを巡らせた。

　海舟は、２０代初めから蘭学（らんがく）を学び、長崎海軍伝習所に派遣された後、１８６０（万延元）年、「咸臨丸」を指揮して渡米。神戸の海軍操練所で、多くの人材を育て、旧日本海軍の基礎を築いた。幕末、西郷隆盛と会見して江戸城無血開城したことでも知られる。

　海舟の玄孫（やしゃご）にあたる会社員、勝芳邦さん（４７）＝東京都世田谷区＝は「海舟は、蟄居（ちっきょ）や謹慎にされると、暇をもて余してい た」と言い、談話を集めた「氷川清話」（講談社学術文庫）には、「おれは、一体文字（もんじ）が大嫌ひだ」としながらも、４、５年間の屏居（へいきょ）を 命じられたお陰で「源氏物語や、いろ●の和文も、この時に読んだ」とつづられている。

　芳邦さんの自宅には今も、海舟がデザインした金物の器や陶磁器などが残るといい、「四角四面の政治だけを論じるのではなく、『文人墨客』としての幅広い知識や遊び心を持った人だったのだろう」と話した。

　海舟に関する多数の著作がある松浦玲・元桃山学院大教授（日本近代史）によると、維新後、海舟の元には生活に困った元幕臣らが借金に来ることがあ り、「担保」として書などを持ち込むことがあったという。「源氏物語は自ら進んで購入したというより、持ち込まれたものを価値のあるものと判断し、蔵書印 を押して手元に置いていたのではないか」と想像を巡らせる。

　「勝海舟を顕彰する会」名誉会長の鵜沢義行・日本大名誉教授（政治史）は「軍人として知られる海舟が、読書家でもあったことを示すエピソード。和歌や俳句を好み、教養をさらに深めるために源氏物語を読んでいたのでは」と推測した。

　小説「勝海舟　私に帰せず」の作家、津本陽さんは「役付きの幕臣になるには、古典や漢文の素養が必要。教養を広める一環で読んだかもしれないが、 勝は利害を見極めることにたけた男。価値があると考えて収集した可能性も否定できない」と指摘した。その一方で、「非常に博学で人間観察が好きな男。光源 氏のことを、『こいつやるな』と思ったかもしれないな」と笑った。【坂口雄亮、竹内良和、津島史人】

　●は繰り返しを意味する「く」のような記号

日本和北歐各國分別排在最具創新能力國家的前列

【日經BP社報導】 美國裏海大學（Lehigh University）于美國時間2008年10月27日公佈了全球各國創新能力的相關調查結果。日本和北歐各國分別排在最具創新能力國家的前列。

　　此次調查分析了16種新產品投產所需時間，並以此對31個國家進行了評測。

　　新產品投產所花時間最短的是日本（5.4年）。之後依次是挪威、瑞典、荷蘭和丹麥。美國以6.2年排名第6。瑞士和奧地利也排在前列。

　　另外，南韓和委內瑞拉等新興市場國家的排名超過了地中海周邊的先進國家。排名最後的5個國家為印度、菲律賓、印度尼西亞、越南和中國。

　　調查的產品分為手機、MP3播放器、數位相機、寬頻和網際網路等“娛樂產品”以及微波爐、洗碗機、冰箱、滾筒烘乾機和洗衣機等“實用產品”兩大類，調查新產品投產所需時間後得知，娛樂產品投產所需時間（7年）少於實用產品（12年）。

■日文原文
最も革新的な国は日本，次いで北欧諸国 -- 米大学調査

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【日本知名企業家談經營】本田社長福井威夫：不挑戰就沒有新技術

“製造業中，中國絕對戰勝不了日本之處”讀者留言綜述

本田更換社長 意在追求創新

文化功労者 文化勲章 2008

文化勲章に小澤征爾さんら、文化功労者に牧阿佐美さんら

2008年10月28日11時40分

　政府は２８日、指揮者の小澤征爾さん（７３）、作家の田辺聖子さん（８０）ら８人に文化勲章を贈ることを決めた。文化功労者には俳人の金子兜太さん （８９）、バレエの牧阿佐美さん（７４）＝本名・福田阿佐美＝ら１６人が選ばれた。文化勲章の親授式は１１月３日に皇居で、文化功労者の顕彰式は同４日に 東京・虎ノ門のホテルオークラで行われる。

　文化勲章を受けるのは小澤・田辺両氏のほか、京都大学名誉教授で数学の伊藤清（９３）、米コロンビア大学名誉教授で日本文学のドナルド・キーン （８６）、元日本オリンピック委員会会長の古橋広之進（８０）、今年のノーベル物理学賞に決まった高エネルギー加速器研究機構名誉教授の小林誠（６４）、 同じく京都大学名誉教授の益川敏英（６８）、ノーベル化学賞に決まった米ウッズホール海洋生物学研究所・元上席研究員の下村脩（８０）の各氏。下村氏は文 化功労者にも選ばれた。

　キーン氏は、６９年に初の月面着陸に成功したアポロ１１号の乗組員３人への儀礼叙勲を除き、外国出身で外国籍の初の文化勲章受章者。「フジヤマのトビウオ」といわれた元水泳選手の古橋氏もスポーツ選手として初の受章になる。

　文化功労者は、金子、牧、下村の３氏のほか、発生生物学の浅島誠（６４）、生物有機化学・応用分子細胞生物学の磯貝彰（６６）、作曲の一柳慧（と し）（７５）、工芸の奥田小由女（さゆめ）（７１）、電子工学の榊裕之（６４）、応用物理学・学術振興の霜田光一（８８）、彫刻の澄川喜一（７７）、経済 社会学・社会変動論の富永健一（７７）、情報工学・学術振興の長尾真（７２）、言語学の西田龍雄（７９）、狂言の野村萬（７８）＝本名・野村太良＝、作曲 の船村徹（７６）＝本名・福田博郎＝、歌舞伎の中村富十郎（７９）＝本名・渡辺一＝の各氏。

Ob-gyn ERs are useless without enough staff

2008/10/25

As the term "ob-gyn" suggests, obstetrics and gynecology usually get lumped together. But while women consulting obstetricians are usually expectant mothers, those who come to see gynecologists are battling illnesses that affect women.

Naturally, the two groups of patients are hardly in the same frame of mind when they visit their doctor. Yet, some hospitals treat these two groups as one and the same.

Sokun Tsushimoto, a Zen Buddhist monk-turned-physician, recounts his internship in his book "Soi toshite Ikiru" (Living as a monk-doctor) from Shunjusha Publishing Co.

"Life, old age, sickness and death are all there (in the ob-gyn department). As an outside observer, I cannot help thinking that the patients in both groups must have uncomfortably mixed feelings at times," he writes.

Childbirth is a painful but exhilarating process. Yet, it is deeply disturbing to realize that even today in central Tokyo, a mother puts her life on the line during labor.

Earlier this month, a 36-year-old pregnant woman who was near her due date and suffered a cerebral hemorrhage was turned away by eight hospitals before she finally was admitted. She later died.

The first hospital to refuse her was a Tokyo metropolitan facility that is designated as an emergency prenatal and neonatal center.

Yet, the hospital's obstetrics department did not have the required number of doctors, and there was only one doctor on duty during the weekend when the pregnant mother needed help.

Other hospitals that refused to treat her were also well-known institutions. Some gave the excuse that all their beds were filled. I picture in my mind a cluster of deluxe, central Tokyo hospitals with their doors shut tight at night, despite the fact that they are supposed to provide refuge to any woman in need.

What is the point in having such facilities if they are desperately understaffed? I've heard that medical students now avoid specializing in obstetrics because of the grueling workload and the high risk of litigation.

With obstetricians so stressed from overwork, I suppose they can hardly afford to celebrate the births of babies.

Tsushimoto says: "Buddhist monks preach 'life' in general, and doctors try to save individual lives. Every life is a part of the eternal, infinite 'network of life' in the broadest sense of the term."

Yet, this network of life is in danger of unraveling.

In the above case, the young mother's baby was delivered safely. Years down the road, I wonder what this child will think about its mother, who sacrificed her own life for it.

A new life in exchange for an older one. Both make us stop and question the meaning of existence and the purpose of this nation's emergency medical system.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Oct. 24(IHT/Asahi: October 25,2008)

Japanese sausage recall after cyanide scare 伊藤ハム

伊藤ハム、有害地下水の東京工場を一時停止

2008年10月28日19時19分

　伊藤ハムは２８日、地下水から有害なシアン化合物が検出された東京工場（千葉県柏市）の操業を一時停止すると発表した。同工場が担っていた首都圏向けの生産は他の工場に移管する。再開時期は未定。

　２９日から一部を停止し、１１月１日から全面停止する。外部識者を交えた調査対策委員会を立ち上げて、原因究明や供給体制、管理体制を見直し、再開時期を決める。

　東京工場は年間５万トンのハム・ソーセージ、調理加工品を供給する能力があり、現在国内向けの２５％を生産している。停止中は、豊橋工場、西宮工場、子 会社の伊藤ハムデイリー東北工場（宮城県栗原市）に人員を振り分け、東京工場の生産分を補う。受託製造していたスーパーなどの自主企画商品（ＰＢ）も他工 場での生産に切り替える。

Japanese sausage recall after cyanide scare

TOKYO (AP) — A major Japanese meat processor said Sunday it was recalling millions of packages of sausages and pizzas after finding cyanide in water at one of its plants.

Itoham Foods Inc. said in a public notice published in national newspapers Sunday that tests have found up to three times the government limit of cyanide in the well water normally used in the products.

The announcement was the latest in a raft of recalls following reports of contamination.

The industrial chemical melamine was found in a host of Chinese-made milk products in September, triggering massive recalls in dozens of countries, including Japan.

Separately, Japan's top instant noodle maker, Nissin Food Products Co., announced domestic recalls Friday of its Cup Noodle instant noodles after a woman grew sick from eating noodles that were later found to be tainted with an insecticide.

FIND MORE STORIES IN: Japan | Tokyo | Chinese-made | Chiba | Cup Noodle | Nishinomiya

The latest recall covers nearly 2.7 million packages of sausages and pizza sold in Japan.

Itoham said it had detected large amounts of cyanide in the water at two of the three wells at its factory in Chiba, near Tokyo. Tests were still being carried out on sausages to see if they had been tainted.

Cyanide, often used in fertilizers, can seep into ground water, where small amounts are often found.

Itoham spokesman Yoshiro Matsuzaki said this was the first time in its 40 years of operation that the company had found unhealthy levels of cyanide in its wells.

The country's second-biggest meat processor, based in Nishinomiya, western Japan, said it believed the products would not pose any risk to health if consumed. The company said it has not received any reports of health problems and the recalls are voluntary.

"Please accept our sincere apology," Itoham said in a statement. "We will do our utmost to prevent future problems and ensure product safety."

Japan has been hit by several high-profile food scandals involving contamination and mislabeling, and the government is considering creating a new, specialized agency to monitor food and product safety.

Copyright 2008 The Associated Pr

Temple treasures

Traces found of long-lost temple hall

THE ASAHI SHIMBUN

2008/10/25

The site in Nara of what is believed to be the original main hall of Shinyakushiji temple (TAKAHARU YAGI/ THE ASAHI SHIMBUN)

NARA--Archaeologists excavating the site of a former Japanese Imperial Army facility here uncovered evidence of what they believe is the long-lost original "golden hall" of a mid-eighth century temple.

Stones used for the foundations of the temple suggest the structure measured 54 by 27 meters, comparable in scale to the Great Buddha Hall of Todaiji temple, also in Nara.

The dig is being conducted at the campus of the Nara University of Education.

Experts say the original kondo (golden, or main hall) of Shinyakushiji temple, now located about 150 meters to the east, likely stood on the site.

The university on Thursday announced the discovery, which is expected to shed light on the temple's history and Tenpyo Buddhist culture of the Nara Period (710-784).

The site will be open to the public from 10 a.m. to noon and from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday and again from 10 a.m. to noon on Nov. 22.

Shinyakushiji temple was founded in the ancient capital in 747 by Empress Komyo to pray for the recovery of ailing Emperor Shomu (701-756), who established Todaiji.

The empress was the daughter of political strongman Fujiwara no Fuhito.

Ancient records, both pictorial and written, show Shinyakushiji was of a grand scale, with many structures. According to legend, it had as many as 1,000 priests.

After most wooden structures were lost to lightening strikes and typhoons, the current temple only has a main hall, which is much smaller. No details had been known about the original temple design.

"This will provide a new clue to specifics about the political might of Empress Komyo, who, coming from the powerful Fujiwara family, exerted great influence," said Masaaki Kanehara, an associate professor of environmental archaeology at the university.

He was put in charge of the excavation because the university planned to rebuild structures at the site.

He said he was flabbergasted to stumble across what others call a "treasure" or "first-class discovery."

Earlier this month, his team unearthed base stones extending about 10 meters east-west.

The stones are thought to have formed part of a structural platform and appear to have been fashioned to the highest standards of the period, according to Kanehara.

The team also uncovered four pillar holes near the western tip.

One square hole, measuring 2.7 by 2.9 meters, had more than 10 large stones buried inside, apparently to prop up the cornerstone.

Based on these structures, the researchers estimated the hall measured 54 meters east-west and 27 meters north-south, making it one of the largest built during the Nara Period.

Todaiji's Great Buddha Hall, rebuilt in 1709, measures 57 meters by 50.5 meters.

Minoru Senda, a professor emeritus of historical geography at the International Research Center for Japanese Studies in Kyoto, says the structure apparently was built so numerous priests could offer prayers simultaneously.

"In those days, it was believed that the larger the number of priests praying, the greater the power to expel illness," he said.

The discovery was welcomed by Shinyakushiji priests who had yearned to know more of the temple's history.

"It was not just an illusory temple. A huge hall actually existed," said Chief Priest Shokan Nakata, 91.

"This discovery is Buddha's guidance. I'm pleased I have lived this long."(IHT/Asahi: October 25,2008)

Temple treasures worth more than money

2008/10/23

I sometimes watch a show on TV in which experts name a price for supposedly valuable items. Works attributed to renowned artists are easy to understand--if they are authentic, they get eye-popping prices. But fakes are valued at next to nothing, drawing laughter.

And items that once belonged to famous people or masterpieces attributed to nameless artists are much harder to appraise. As for things in the first category, even underwear cannot be underestimated.

In July, a pair of bloomers that belonged to Britain's Queen Victoria (1819-1901) were auctioned for 4,500 pounds (about 800,000 yen), nine times higher than the expected price. The bloomers bear the royal crest showing the glory of the British Empire and have an impressive waist measurement of 127 centimeters. It is believed the queen wore them at the end of the 19th century when she was in her 70s.

The second category, which includes items of dubious origin, is the realm of experts. This year, about 30 Buddhist statues disappeared one by one from temples and other places in Shizuoka Prefecture. One missing statue, of the thousand-armed Avalokiteshvara deity, was stolen in Shimada and dates back to the late Muromachi Period (1338-1573).

An antiques dealer from Kyoto, unaware the statue was stolen, acquired it for 490,000 yen at an auction held in nearby Fujieda in June.

The man who sold it has been arrested and is under investigation for other crimes. Since it was stolen from a temple that has no resident priests, the statue must have been the temple's principal treasure, protected solely by the local community. In some thefts, the police were notified long after the item was taken because the statues are so rarely put on display that few people knew what they looked like.

Speaking of selling Buddhist images, in March, a statue of the Dainichi Nyorai (great sun Buddha) attributed to the distinguished sculptor Unkei in the 12th-13th century and part of a private collection, was auctioned in the United States.

Initially, the news rattled the Agency for Cultural Affairs, which feared the loss to Japan of a valuable work considered deserving of being named an important cultural asset. In the end, a Japanese religious organization bought the statue for $12.8 million (about 1.3 billion yen).

The images of Buddha stolen in Shizuoka are the sort that look better in temples than in museums. In that sense, the loss of the statues may have upset temple supporters more than the cultural agency.

Still, the value of objects of worship is not set by markets alone. It could be that an old woman prayed before one of the stolen images every morning. Such statues are treasures far different from Queen Victoria's underwear or works by Unkei.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Oct. 22(IHT/Asahi: October 23,2008)

Nissin and Myojo recall noodles over scare

Japan recalls noodles over scare

Instant noodles are hugely popular in Japan

Two large Japanese food manufacturers have found insecticide in their instant noodles, triggering a food scare.

First, Nissin - which invented the instant noodle - recalled 500,000 pots after a woman became ill. She had eaten from a cup containing insect repellent.

Now another Japanese food giant, Myojo, says it too has found the same substance in two of its own pots.

The incidents are the latest in a series of scares that have shaken the confidence of Japanese consumers.

Earlier this year ten people fell ill after eating dumplings imported from China.

The Japanese manufacturers are warning customers not to eat noodles with a strange smell or damaged packaging.

Guard taxpayer money as you would treasure

2008/10/22

In the old days, thieves used to compare white-washed, plaster-walled storehouses where people kept their treasures to young women with white face powder. A variety of slang words used by crooks emerged from this allusion.

When it was easy to carry out loot from a storehouse, it was referred to as an "easy delivery in childbirth." When the opposite was true, the "delivery was difficult."

When the warehouse was locked up tight, the thieves would complain that "mother is strict." All this is described in Tomosuke Watanabe's book, "Ingo no Sekai" (The world of jargon).

According to the book, slang aims to "maintain confidentiality within groups." But occasionally, words and expressions secretly handed down within a group are unexpectedly exposed by a crime. When that happens repeatedly, the term eventually is no longer considered slang.

A Board of Audit of Japan investigation into the accounting practices of 12 prefectures found irregularities in all of them. Many cases involved carrying over unused government subsidies for a given year to the next fiscal year. The money, totaling hundreds of millions of yen, was mainly accounted for as bogus orders for large quantities of stationery and other supplies.

Under the rules, unused funds are supposed to be returned to central government coffers at the end of each fiscal year. Under the fictitious purchase orders, the funds were kept by suppliers by a method called azuke (depositing).

In 2006, we saw the word azuke frequently in headlines after revelations about slush funds in the Gifu and Nagasaki prefectural governments. The term spread far and wide; it is apparently a familiar accounting term in government circles now.

The Board of Audit investigation also found cases of haritsuke (pasting). Haritsuke refers to central government subsidies being diverted and spent on things that should have been paid for by prefectures.

Moreover, unused government money was also used on the salaries of temporary employees whose jobs had nothing to do with government-subsidized projects.

Although local governments are operating under tight budgets, they did sometimes have surplus funds. Such money was at least unnecessary for the projects that fiscal year.

Dishonest accounting leads to embezzlement and too-cozy relationships.

Returning to the analogy of breaking into warehouses, public funds management should always be a "difficult delivery." If local governments worked hard for their subsidies, they probably use them to develop worthy projects.

Central and local governments must remember that the huge coffers of cash kept in their warehouses are a deposit made by taxpayers.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Oct. 21(IHT/Asahi: October 22,2008)

日本金融危機的前車之鑒 by Heizo Takenaka

竹中平藏(Heizo Takenaka)

日本金融危機的前車之鑒
2008年10月22日16:08

Heizo Takenaka

美

國次債危機引發了全球金融市場動蕩。日本在經歷了上世紀80年代末的泡沫破裂之後﹐也曾於90年代出現類似的信心危機。造成那場危機的原因在於日本政府對動用國庫資金向銀行注資猶豫不決﹐而是僅僅以擴大需求面的錯誤政策來應對。當政府最終採取行動時﹐卻走了彎路﹐而且也太晚。從日本泡沫破裂到政府第一次向銀行注資整整隔了9年時間。

信心危機一旦出現﹐就只有一個選擇﹕政府和央行都必須採取一切可能的手段平息危機。危機時刻需要拿出行動。日本對抗信心危機的痛苦經歷對全世界都具有借鑒意義。這裡有兩個重大教訓。

首先﹐只有注資並不能解決問題。如何安排注資更重要。首先必須要對金融機構進行準確、嚴格的資產評估。只有進行這一步以後才能進行必要的資本注入﹐也才能迅速推進。

不相信銀行的資產負債表是金融市場焦慮情緒最重要的來源。不幸的是﹐在90年代末﹐日本在銀行依然隱瞞不良資產狀況時就進行注資。結果﹐即便在注資之後﹐金融危機依然持續。直到2002年﹐時任首相的小泉純一郎(Junichiro Koizumi)推出“金融振興計劃”之後﹐危機才得以解決。根據該計劃﹐銀行接受嚴格審查後才進行必要的注資。結果﹐政府於2003年向Resona Bank注入資本﹐隨後形勢開始好轉。

第二個教訓是﹐採取的行動可能過火。在危機之中採取行動是必不可少的﹐但有些舉動需要避免。如果一些機構獲得過度的保護﹐其他機構所受的影響會加劇信心危機。

在當前形勢下﹐全球範圍內取消按市值計價會計準則的趨勢會引發問題﹐日本目前也在討論取消這一準則。其想法是﹐為防止金融機構的財務狀況顯得更糟﹐暫時取消一些會計準則。這樣是大錯特錯。取消按市值計價的準則會加劇投資者對金融機構資產負債表的擔憂。因不確定資產負債表狀況而產生的混亂只會更加嚴重。

一些人將取消按市值計價的準則視為積極政策﹐其原因不難理解。但在為穩定金融業而採取行動時﹐正確的順序是首先實行準確的資產評估﹐然後再展現金融監管標準的彈性﹐比如調整資本比率和證交所上市規則的要求。改變會計準則只會適得其反。

當危機發生在大選期間時﹐會計問題就更為棘手。兩相作用導致政治上出現不加選擇的行為。2003年﹐日本大選與金融危機“撞車”之時﹐許多政治家和行業團體都呼籲暫停以市值計價會計準則﹐以防銀行出現資本短缺。最終﹐小泉純一郎領導的日本政府拒絕了這一提議。如果我們這樣做了﹐投資者只會更慌亂﹐也會進一步對銀行的財務報表喪失信心。如果當時取消了按市值計價的規則﹐處理不良貸款和實現經濟復蘇就會需要更長時間。

面臨信心危機之時﹐彈性和大膽是至關重要的。雖然如此﹐但事態緊急並不是冒進的借口。扭曲會計準則就是魯莽行動的典型例子。這個問題將考驗全球政治領導人的謹慎和智慧。

（編者按﹕本文作者是慶應義塾大學(Keio University)全球安全研究所所長﹐曾任小泉純一郎內閣的經濟大臣、財政改革大臣和總務大臣。）

相關閱讀

Bringing transparency to Buddhist funerals

Bringing transparency to Buddhist funerals

2008/10/21

When novelist Saburo Shiroyama died in spring last year, fellow novelist Hiroyuki Itsuki wrote a eulogy in The Asahi Shimbun.

"Mr. Shiroyama once told me how impressed he was when the Jodo Shinshu Buddhist monk officiating at his wife's funeral not only asked for a fee that was quite reasonable, but even gave him a receipt," he wrote.

Itsuki went on to note that he could never forget the incredulous expression on Shiroyama's face as he recounted this episode. I recall reading this and thinking, "How like Shiroyama," who detested anything that offended reason.

I am sure many people have worried uneasily that they were being ripped off when making an ofuse (cash offering) to a priest at a funeral or memorial service. The appropriate amount is in the hundreds of thousands of yen, if not more--and you don't get a receipt.

In this day and age, such a transaction is a no-no even in the world of politics. There is no objective way to tell if the tacitly approved "going rate" really is appropriate.

Concerned that this sort of murkiness might have led to public distrust in the institution of Buddhism, about 20 young Buddhist monks in Tokyo recently formed an organization called Tera-netto Sangha (Temple network of followers of the Buddha) in Tokyo. One of its stated purposes is to try to restore faith in institutional Buddhism by explaining everything people need to know about the donations they make and where the money goes.

Daiki Nakashita, the group's 33-year-old leader, said that some funeral business operators have been "referring" Buddhist monks to their customers and pocketing kickbacks from the monks. The kickbacks, Nakashita explained, came out of offerings the monks had received.

In Buddhism, the deceased receives a kaimyo (posthumous name), and what kind of kaimyo the deceased receives usually depends on how much the bereaved family is willing to pay. Obviously, not all Buddhist temples are guilty of capitalizing on bereavement. But for a long time now, Buddhism in Japan has been viewed cynically as "the religion of funerals."

"Religion is not only for mourning the dead. It is also supposed to save the souls of the living," said Nakashita, who has been at the deathbeds of many patients in hospices.

Nakashita and his fellow monks intend to donate some of the offerings they receive to various charitable causes. I truly hope they will be like a fresh breeze to blow through and shake up the old order.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Oct. 20(IHT/Asahi: October 21,2008)

Peanut Butter on the Chin by James O’Toole

運用 PDCA, Bill 說戴明博士故事,「擦り合わせ」透明化（transparency）

「IZU HOUSE：伊豆の家」「知半庵」

古民家でのパフォーマンスのお誘い

１１月１日２日に、大仁の築２００年の古民家で行われるパフォ－マンス「IZU HOUSE：伊豆の家」のお誘い

伊豆の大仁にある築２００年の古民家「知半庵」を現代美術実験場にするプロジェクトがはじまりました。「知半アートプロジェクト」です。（友人のあわやのぶこさんが始めたので、私も関わっています）
そこでサイト・スペシフィック　パーフォーマンス（場所限定の現代舞踊）「IZU HOUSE：伊豆の家」を行います。詳しくはサイトを見てください。（私の感想はこのメールの後ろの方にあります．お時間あったらご一読を）
http://d.hatena.ne.jp/chihan_project_jpn/
私は全日います。いい気の流れる場所です。
ぜひお越し下さいませ。
土岐小百合
第２回知半アートプロジェクト
「IZU HOUSE：伊豆の家」　
日時：１１月１日（土）　(A)　午後１時開演（３０分前に開場）　
　　　　　　　　　　　　(B)　午後４時開演（３０分前に開場）
　　１１月２日（日）　　(C)　午後１時開演（３０分前に開場）
　　　　　　　　　　　　(D)　午後４時開演（３０分前に開場）
入場料：予約3000円　当日3300円
出演：ダンス：ロコ・カワイ　　（現代舞踊家＆振付家）
　　　　　　　リア・スタイン　
　　　　　　（現代舞踊家＆リア・スタイン・ダンスカンパニー主宰）
　　　　　　　新井英夫　　　　（体奏家）
　　　ボイス：　きむらみか　　　（声楽奏者）
　　　　音　　：　牧原トシ　　　　（パーカッショニスト）
場所：知半庵（伊豆、大仁駅近く。くわしい行き方は御申し込みいただいた方に御知らせします）

＊見る人も部屋を少しずつ移動するという珍しいダンスのため毎回の公演への入場者を30人限定させていただきます

予約
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'Izu House' tells story of fabled home in dance

BY KAZUE SUZUKI, STAFF WRITER

2008/10/10

East and West, old and contemporary will meet at a 200-year-old traditional Japanese house in the town of Ohito, Shizuoka Prefecture, on the Izu Peninsula. The floor of the huge house will be the stage for a collaboration by U.S. and Japanese dance artists on Nov. 1-2.

Titled "Izu House," the performance tells the story of the house and its residents, as presented by current owner and project coordinator Nobuko Awaya.

"I didn't want to keep the house, where my maternal ancestors had lived and where I was born, just as a museum. I wanted to restore its cultural vitality by actually using it," said Awaya, explaining how she came up with the idea of an experimental "site-specific" art project. "I started thinking of the meaning of the house when my uncle died and I came to take care of the house."

"Both the performer and the audience can experience the art only at one specific place," Awaya said, defining site-specific art.

The collaboration is called "Chihan Project" after Awaya's grandfather's pen name and the house's nickname "Chihan-an."

Home of a wealthy landowner family since the Edo Period (1603-1867), the house provided a space for community events, haiku contests and cultural exchange among novelists and artists. Grandfather Chihan acted as a patron to artists and novelists. Among the luminaries who stayed in the Chihan house were playwright Mantaro Kubota, novelist Fumiko Hayashi and filmmaker Heinosuke Gosho.

Artists in the upcoming performance are dancers/choreographers Leah Stein and Roko Kawai, percussionist Toshi Makihara, dancer Hideo Arai and vocalist Mika Kimula. Stein, Kawai and Makihara are based in the United States.

The dancers and Awaya stayed at the house for three weeks last year to prepare for the performance. There, they ate, slept, discussed, danced and synthesized Awaya's story.

"Izu House" starts with a scene in the entrance of the house, then moves to a tatami room where go stones are scattered.

"When I was about to be born in the inner room, my father and grandfather were waiting in the next room playing go," Awaya explained while showing a DVD made of last year's gathering of artists.

Kawai describes her astonishment at the rooms partitioned with fusuma removable sliding doors. "Inside this cubicle, women participated in the bloody red, chaotic messiness of birth, while, on the other side of the fusuma, the menfolk concentrated on a game of go."

The dancers use lattice doors as curtains or to shift from one act to another. As the dancers move from a living room to a kitchen to the corridor and into the garden, so does the audience.

* * *

Two performances will be given each day, at 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. Each performance will last 50 minutes. 3,000 yen in advance. 3,300 yen at the door. For more information, visit < d.hatena.ne.jp/chihan_project_jpn/ >. For information in English, call 090-8306-9766.(IHT/Asahi: October 10,2008)

If you must get sacked, try to do it in Japan

If you must get sacked, try to do it in Japan

By Jonathan Soble

Published: October 16 2008 02:51 | Last updated: October 16 2008 02:51

The e-mail from human resources looks harmless enough. After a couple of years trading Nikkei futures or hawking Samurai bonds, the bank has decided it’s time for you to bid Tokyo good-bye and head home to London, or take your act over to Asia headquarters in Hong Kong.

Sure, you’ll miss the bar scene in Roppongi. But given the state of the finance industry, you’re lucky to have a job at all.

But do you really have one?

Increasingly, Tokyo-based brokers, traders and bankers fear such messages have a more sinister meaning: you’re sacked.

Getting rid of workers is famously difficult in Japan. Labour laws were designed for an era that favoured lifetime employment and judges tend to favour all but the most miscreant employees over their corporate bosses.

They also don’t care if the plaintiff was on loan from New York, Singapore or a phantom corporate base on the Isle of Man – anyone working in Japan is entitled to the protection of Japanese law.

Relocating workers to slacker jurisdictions, even taking high transfer costs into account, can thus be the cheapest and easiest way to cut them loose.

“Japan, alongside France, is probably the most employee-friendly labour market in the world,” says Peter Godwin, head of the dispute resolution practice at Herbert Smith in Tokyo.

Cash-strapped global banks are looking to shrink their Tokyo headcounts by up to 15 per cent, insiders say, which translates to anywhere from 150 to 300 jobs per institution.

It is possible for companies to cull staff in hard times, of course – even the most benevolent Japanese groups learned to do it in the recession-spotted 1990s. But society – not to say the courts – expects them to pay for what is still viewed as a fundamental betrayal of their raison d’être.

Even in today’s market, a still-solvent employer is expected to offer six to nine months’ salary as severance pay. In good times the pay-off can be equal to a year’s wages or more.

Unlike the UK or Hong Kong, where minimum severance pay is set by law (one to one and a half weeks’ salary per year of service in the former, a measly 18 days’ pay in the latter), there is no official formula in Japan.

Instead, judges expect companies to offer “socially acceptable” terms, says Kazuki Okada, labour law specialist at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer. Most will err on the side of generosity to avoid an embarrassing and often futile trial. “Eighty to 90 per cent of cases are settled,” he says.

Disciplinary problems, if painstakingly documented, can force a sacking, but shoddy performance is rarely considered sufficient grounds. Companies thus prefer voluntary buy-out schemes that are open to everyone, at least on paper.

Slackers can be called in for evaluations, but bosses must be careful not to fall foul of rules against coercive or arbitrary dismissal. “We give them a script,” says one lawyer who advises global banks.

Long-term futures might be discussed, the joys of alternative careers extolled ... Perhaps HR could set you up with an apprenticeship in, say, organic ice-cream making?

Sacking local staff has cultural perils of its own. Tom Nevins, president of TMT, a Tokyo-based consultancy that advises companies on redundancies, counsels against confrontations that might risk humiliating the sackee.

“It’s a good idea not to tell people what’s wrong with them, and, even if you have a paper trail, not to use it,” he says.

Although Japanese workers are less likely to sue than foreign ones, a good way to get them calling their lawyers is to make them lose face.

It is also important, he says, to explain the company’s plight in detail to workers before beginning the cull, to create a consensus that lay-offs are needed. That way, those who leave “are fighting the collective will of their colleagues and not just some capitalist”.

Japanese banks have weathered the credit crisis in relatively decent shape – some, such as Nomura and Mitsubishi UFJ, are even buying pieces of weakened foreign rivals. But US and European institutions who must meet global redundancy targets might be tempted to use the tricks they developed when Japan’s financial sector was on its knees a decade ago.

Most involved abusing their still-unchallenged authority over transfers: if a casual hint that the company would be better off without you didn’t do the trick, a move to a tiny office with no working phone usually would.

Ultimately, though, employees who get the boot in Japan can be thankful they were there when it happened. Kevin Gibson, managing director in Robert Walters, a recruiting firm, says there are even a few finance jobs available in Tokyo, albeit mostly less glamourous ones such as accounting.

“Some banks are taking it as an opportunity to hire,” he says. “There are a lot of good people around right now.”

A bit of Japanese language ability can help a sacked expat pick up work at a resurgent local bank, avoiding the ugly prospect of returning home to face the job market on Wall Street or the City.

According to Mr Gibson, “No matter how bad it gets in the rest of the world, you’re still better off here.”

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008

In Japan, Hope Fades for Disposable Workers

Ko Sasaki for The New York Times

Unemployed men in the Airin district of Osaka, Japan, waited at a labor center to collect welfare payments. Some of the younger men are able to find odd jobs.

By NORIMITSU ONISHI

Published: October 11, 2008

OSAKA, Japan — With job signs stuck to their vans’ windshields and sliding side doors left open in expectation, the recruiters were sizing up the potential hires at Japan’s largest day labor market here recently.

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Ko Sasaki for The New York Times

Kazuyasu Ikeda, 64, had good jobs during Japan’s economic boom but now works sporadically.

By 4:30 a.m., thousands of aging day laborers had spilled out of the neighborhood’s flophouses and homeless shelters, or risen from its parks and streets, to form a potential work force of mostly graying men.

A sign on one blue van, barely legible in the twilight, offered a 15-day construction job paying $95 a day, minus $33 in room and board. Although the terms were comparatively decent, the recruiter sitting in a folding chair in front of the blue van had found only one suitably young laborer by 5 a.m. Most were above the unwritten cutoff age of 55.

“It’s really hard to use the men here because they’ve gotten old,” said the recruiter, Takuya Nakamae, 55, turning his head toward his prize catch, a recruit in his 30s. “If you’re this young, everybody wants you and you get plenty of offers. Just look at how young you are!”

And yet it was the older men who really knew how to work, he said, adding: “They’re the ones who worked during Japan’s decades of economic boom, so they know the ins and outs of every job. It’s just that they don’t have the strength anymore.”

Nowadays, few young men gravitate here, the Airin district of Osaka. Little is being built in Japan’s stagnant economy, and young day laborers or part-time workers find jobs by registering their cellphone numbers with temporary employment agencies.

Many of the older men who remain arrived here to work on the 1970 Expo in Osaka, which, like the Tokyo Olympics six years earlier, became a symbol of postwar Japan’s rebirth. Over the decades, they left to work on bridges, buildings and highways all over the country, performing the dirtiest and most dangerous jobs in helping build Japan. Some made it out of here and moved on to steadier jobs and lives.

But many others are still in Airin, one of the few corners of Japan where stray dogs lie in the middle of the street alongside drunken men, and Japanese mobsters, or yakuza, sell drugs openly on street corners and run gambling dens on certain blocks. After one worker claimed abuse by the police, scores of people here rioted for five days over the summer, though old-timers said the disturbances were only a faint echo of the violent and widespread riots of the 1960s and 1990s.

Many of the men left in Airin, on average just shy of 60 years old and with no family ties, are waiting to die here, said Minoru Yamada, who moved here in 1973, once worked as a day laborer and is now chairman of Kamagasaki Shien Kiko, a private organization that helps laborers.

“At one time, this was a place where you could remake yourself,” Mr. Yamada said. “But not anymore. Now it’s become a dumping ground for old men, a place where waste is disposed of.”

A grim report by the city government last year said that conditions in Airin were rapidly worsening: an aging population, rising homelessness, deepening poverty and increasing cases of tuberculosis and alcoholism. The number of welfare recipients has grown fivefold in the past decade.

An ancient slum, this area was renamed and reshaped into Airin in the 1960s when the city government cleared it of family dwellings, concentrated all the city’s day laborers here and invited others from all over Japan to meet a construction boom. Today, the city estimates that 30,000 people, about a quarter of its peak two decades ago, live in this 153-acre neighborhood, which is less than one-fifth the size of New York’s Central Park.

The district’s overall population is more than 85 percent male. But in Airin’s core — an urban valley hemmed in by wide avenues and an elevated train track — there are almost no women at all.

During Japan’s economic go-go years, the number of jobs offered here swelled, peaking at 9,614 a day in 1990. The number has fallen to about a third of that today and no longer includes jobs in the kind of large and lucrative construction projects that fueled Japan’s boom. Still, recruiters show up every morning at the Airin General Center, the day labor market, saying they need to check over hires before sending them to a job.

“This is different from bidding on dead tuna at a fish market auction,” said one recruiter, who said he shifted to Airin more than two decades ago after working as a pimp in Tokyo. “Sure, you can recruit on the Internet, but on the Internet, you can’t make out someone’s character. For example, a guy can be O.K. if he hasn’t been drinking. But if he has, he may get crazy and create problems for everybody around him.”

A couple of hours after the recruiters had left for the day, Tadashi Kato showed up at the center to put his name down for a job as a night watchman. Mr. Kato, 75, came here in 1957, abandoning forever his home in rural Hokkaido and family talk of fixing him up with a job at the national railway.

“It’d be natural to wonder whether I would have been better off joining the national railway, but I’ve led a carefree life and have seen things that people usually can’t,” Mr. Kato said in a guttural voice, explaining that he had taken photos of past riots here and was looking for a “successor” to inherit them.

He once lived in a flophouse. But nowadays, with few jobs coming his way, he sleeps on the streets. He refused to apply for welfare or enter the city-run homeless shelters, where each person receives one piece of hardtack bread a night. He would never, he said, depend on the government.

He was married briefly, and he said that, unlike many of the men who came here to escape after accumulating debts or abandoning their families, he long supported his former wife and their only child, a daughter.

He last saw his daughter, in Tokyo, when his first grandchild was born three decades ago.

“ ‘Your feet stink — don’t come here dressed like that,’ ” he said she told him. “She said I could come if I had some money for her, but not to bother if I didn’t. Either way, it’s hard being a man.”

He had not seen his daughter since, but he said he knew her address in Tokyo.

“When I die, I’ll absolutely go to my daughter’s,” Mr. Kato said of his ashes, adding, “Sometimes, you know, I think if I could go painlessly, it wouldn’t be that bad not to wake up in the morning.”

It was not 11 a.m. yet, but Airin’s tiny outdoor drinking stalls were already filling up with customers. The most popular was a five-stool stall that belonged to Yayoi Onodera, 48, who charged $5 per drink and sold rice balls. She had earned around $40,000 in profit since moving here from Tokyo six months ago.

“I never dreamed I’d make so much money,” Ms. Onodera said, adding that she had struggled in the beginning but was encouraged by a local yakuza leader who used to stop by every now and then before he was arrested and imprisoned for drug dealing.

Later that afternoon, many of the men drifted to Sankaku Park nearby where they watched sumo wrestlers on a television set atop a pole.

But Kazuyasu Ikeda, 64, went straight home to the 49-square-foot room he had been renting for the past six years for $11 a night. From his fourth-floor room, where he had a television set, 16 small cactuses and a small tank filled with guppies, he had a view of a parking lot and, beyond that, the Hankai train line.

He had just collected his wages for cutting grass that day and was in high spirits. The wages, of course, were nothing compared with what he had made during Japan’s economic boom. Helping to build a highway in Okinawa back then, he said, he far outearned American marines stationed there.

“At a foreigner’s bar that I used to go to, I was even more popular than the foreigners,” Mr. Ikeda said, adding that he was such a regular that the bar kept a bottle of Camus Cognac for him.

He never had children and thus suffered no guilt, he said with a laugh.

But as he watched the end of the day’s sumo matches, Mr. Ikeda, a red towel he had used while working still wrapped around his head, seemed to grow tired and his mood darkened. The conversation drifted, as it often did in Airin, to the topic of death.

Mr. Ikeda boasted that he had never taken a handout, stood in a soup line or stayed in a homeless shelter. When there were no jobs, he collected aluminum cans. His “policy” was to rely on no one, he said.

“I’ll hang on for another 10 years,” he said.

Outside, the train rattled past as dusk began settling on Airin. The men here, he said, were like cigarette lighters worth 100 yen, or less than $1.

“It’s painful to throw away a Zippo or Dunhill lighter even if it doesn’t light properly anymore,” he said. “But 100-yen lighters you just throw away. That’s what we are.”

2008年度諾貝爾物理學獎授予日本科學家南部、小林、益川

2008年度諾貝爾物理學獎授予日本科學家南部、小林、益川

DATE	2008/10/08

　　【日經BP社報導】 瑞典皇家科學院2008年10月7日宣佈，將2008年度諾貝爾物理學獎授予南部陽一郎、小林誠和益川敏英三人。南部陽一郎因在理論上闡明瞭“自發對稱性 破缺機制”等而得獎。小林和益川因在理論上闡明瞭“CP（電荷與宇稱）對稱性破缺”的“小林·益川理論”而得獎，兩者都是基本粒子物理學的基礎理論。

　　此前曾多次傳聞三人會獲得諾貝爾獎。

　　“小林·益川理論”是1973年提出來的有關物質起源的理論，提出了質子和中子是有三代6種夸克構成的，否定了在此之前一直認為的是3種夸克 的學說。小林和益川提出這一理論的時候還只發現了三種夸克，之後到1994年其餘的三種夸克相繼被發現，從而驗證了“小林·益川理論”的正確性。（記者： 野澤 哲生）

日本科學家獲諾貝爾獎一覽表
1949年	湯川 秀樹	物理學獎
1965年	朝永 振一郎	物理學獎
1968年	川端 康成	文學獎
1973年	江崎 玲於奈	物理學獎
1974年	佐藤 榮作	和平獎
1981年	福井 謙一	化學獎
1987年	利根川 進	生理學及醫學獎
1994年	大江 健三郎	文學獎
2000年	白川 英樹	化學獎
2001年	野依 良治	化學獎
2002年	小柴 昌俊	物理學獎
	田中 耕一	化學獎
2008年	南部 陽一郎	物理學獎
	小林 誠	物理學獎
	益川 敏英	物理學獎

注：南部 陽一郎現為美國籍。

■日文原文
2008年のノーベル物理賞は，南部氏，小林氏，益川氏の3人に

Japan’s cash-rich companies are coming (again)

Mergers and acquisitions

The Japanese are coming (again)

Oct 2nd 2008 | TOKYO
From The Economist print edition

Japan’s cash-rich companies are buying up foreign firms

THE credit crunch has reduced merger and acquisition (M&A) activity around the world. Banks have tightened their purse-strings and the cheap credit that financed deals during the private-equity boom has dried up. This year the value of deals has fallen by 15% in America and 30% in Europe. But there is a bright spot amid the gloom: Japanese companies are on a spending spree, capitalising on the distress to buy firms abroad. The number of foreign deals involving Japanese firms has increased only slightly compared with last year, but the value of transactions has more than doubled, reaching ¥6 trillion (around $57 billion) so far this year, and on track to exceed 2006’s record.

This wave of deals follows two previous forays overseas. In the late 1980s Japanese firms raced after foreign real estate, and in the late 1990s they piled into technology companies (see chart). Both binges ended badly, as companies sold their stakes at a loss and bolted for home. But things could be different this time. Instead of trophy assets such as Rockefeller Center or Pebble Beach golf course, the targets are companies that fit strategically with their acquirers, providing new technology or access to new markets.

Japanese firms can afford to be so acquisitive because, unlike companies elsewhere, they are flush with cash. Thanks to conservative managers and years of record profits, Japanese public companies are sitting on cash reserves of more than ¥60 trillion, estimates Nikkei, a financial-news company. At home, companies face a slowing economy, a cultural aversion to takeovers and an ageing and declining population. “They are pampered in cash. But they can’t invest in Japan—so they go abroad,” explains Shoichi Niwa of Recof Data, an M&A advisory firm.

Moreover, there are fewer rival buyers because of the difficulty of raising capital just now. Where Japanese companies lost out in bidding wars over potential acquisitions in the past, today they are winning, explains Robert Davis, the head of M&A in Europe for Nomura, a Japanese financial-services firm.

In addition, the share prices of many companies have tumbled in the financial crisis, making acquisitions more attractive, and the yen has strengthened relative to the dollar and euro, making Japanese cash go further. But the most important factor driving the deals is that after years of talking about the need to expand overseas—to achieve global scale and compete more effectively with Western firms and emerging giants from elsewhere—Japanese firms have realised that today’s misery provides the ideal opportunity.

Accordingly, most of the deals are strategic. For example, Takeda Pharmaceutical paid $8.8 billion for America’s Millennium Pharmaceuticals to get hold of its cancer drugs. Daiichi Sankyo paid $4 billion for Ranbaxy, an Indian maker of generic drugs with strong sales in emerging markets. TDK, an electronics firm, is spending ¥200 billion on Epcos, a German firm, to fill holes in its product line. Tokio Marine, an insurer, is paying ¥500 billion for Philadelphia Consolidated, to gain access to the American market. Even so, some deals are opportunistic: in September Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, a Japanese bank, paid $9 billion for a 21% stake in Morgan Stanley, a struggling American bank. And Nomura paid a pittance for the European, Asian and Middle Eastern operations of Lehman Brothers after it went bust.

Unlike in previous overseas acquisition sprees, the Japanese are regarded as good owners by foreign companies, says David Marra of the Boston Consulting Group in Tokyo. This is because they tend to be long-term investors (unlike private-equity firms) and have a good record of operating abroad (unlike investors from China or the Gulf—the only other people with money these days). They do everything they can to retain existing managers, notes Steven Thomas, head of M&A at UBS in Tokyo.

The deals are likely to continue, though there is no particular rush, since the credit markets seem unlikely to rebound in the near future. But before Japanese bosses celebrate, they may want to consider that this golden opportunity is hardly the result of business perspicuity. Japanese companies had such a surfeit of unused capital because of poor corporate governance and fiscal management. Luck has provided them with the chance to go global. But they will need wisdom and skill to manage what they buy.

Silvery fountains lure autumn hikers

Silvery fountains lure autumn hikers (TORU NAKATA/ THE ASAHI SHIMBUN)

Tourists stroll through a sea of silver Japanese pampas grass as autumn descends on the Sengokuhara highlands in Hakone, a popular tourist spot in western Kanagawa Prefecture that includes Lake Ashinoko. The local tourist association says the tall, feathery heads of eulalia grass, which sway in the autumn breezes, are expected to last through the end of October across vast expanses of the highlands, which stand around 700 meters above sea level. (IHT/Asahi: October 4,2008)

青森・田舎館村 田んぼアート、８００人が稲刈り

稲刈り作業が進む田舎館村の田んぼアート＝青森県田舎館村畑中 （ 2008年10月6日8時12分更新）

たんぼ ₀ 【田んぼ/田^▼圃】

〔「田圃」は当て字〕
[一]
(1)田。田地。
(2)どぶ。みぞ。
[二]江戸の新吉原周辺をいう。吉原田圃。


青森・田舎館村名物の田んぼアートの稲刈りが５日あり、８００人が参加した。１．５ヘクタールの田んぼには、つがるロマンをはじめ、紫色や黄色の古代米が穂を垂れる。今回の図柄は七福神のえびす様と大黒様だ。

　収穫には北海道や茨城県など県外からも２０人以上が駆けつけ、刈り取った稲束を、乾燥のために棒がけした。鎌を放り出し、イナゴを追いかける子どもの姿も。

　種もみをとるため、２人の「神様」の図柄の部分だけ１週間ほど残す。収穫した米は１１月に開かれる感謝祭で、参加者に振る舞われる予定。

　今年は田んぼアートに初の企業広告を取り入れたが、地権者の反対で田植え後１カ月で広告部分の苗を引き抜く騒動もあった。参加した村内の主婦（４２）は「アートだから広告はなくていいのでは」と話した。

台所;l"Japanese kitchen".

Wikipedia article "Japanese kitchen".
日本語

Daidokoro (台所;lit. "kitchen") is the place where food is prepared in a Japanese house. Until the Meiji era, a kitchen was also called kamado (かまど; lit. stove) and there are many sayings in the Japanese language that involve kamado as it was considered the symbol of a house and the term could even be used to mean "family" or "household". When separating a family, it was called Kamado wo wakeru, which literally means "divide the stove". Kamado wo yaburu (lit. "break the stove") means that the family was broke.

Contents [hide] 1 Early history 2 Fire and water 2.1 Stoves 2.2 Water 3 Shoinzukuri and the kitchen 4 Industrialization 5 The "Average person's dream kitchen" 6 The kitchen in the Taisho period 7 The post-war kitchen 8 See also 9 External links

[edit] Early history

In the Jōmon period ( 10,000 BC to 300 BC), people gathered to form villages, where they lived in shallow pit dwellings. These simple huts were measured between 10 to 30 square meters and had a hearth in the center. Early stoves were nothing more than a shallow pit (jikaro 地床炉), but they were soon surrounded by stones to catch the fire sparks. A clay vase with its bottom cracked soon replaced the stones as these became hot quickly and occupants had to be careful around a stove. This type of stove is called Umigamero (埋甕炉; lit. "buried vase stove"). As the stove became safer, it was moved from the bum the center of house to the side, and finally, by the late Kofun period (6th century), almost all houses had a stove at one end of the house. Some rich families in the Kofun period built a separate house where cooking was done. In these houses, food was stored in sacks and pots in a hole dug on the floor. Houses were constructed near a river or a spring for easy access to water.

In the Yayoi period (300 BC to AD 250) the cultivation of rice became widespread, and villages would be constructed near a marsh and a lowland. The water was muddy and Asaido (浅井戸) were constructed. An asaido was filled with sand and pebbles through which the water flowed to filter out mud and larger organisms. Some villages stored food outside a house in a large storehouse.

By the Nara period in the 8th century, the kitchen had reached a certain level of perfection and basically remained unchanged for over 600 years until the Muromachi period (1336–1573). Kitchens were furnished with the following items:

• Ashikanahe or Ashimarokanahe (足釜) - A three- or four-legged iron pot.
• Kakekanahe or Kakemarokanahe (懸釜) - An iron pot that was fitted over a stove. It had a "fringe" that let it hang on the stove and was used to boil cook rice into kayu.
• Yukikamado (行竈) - A pot with a stove attached that could be carried around
• Koshiki (橧 or 甑) - A wooden basket placed on top of a pot to steam cook rice.
• Nabe (堝 or 鍋) - existed both made of clay and of metal. Primarily used to make stews and a sidedish as well as to boil water.
• Sashinabe (佐志奈閇) - A small pot with a long handle used to warm sake in a bottle.
• Hiraka or Hotogi (瓫) - A large clay pot larger than a nabe used to boil water.
• Kamado - Also called Mushikamado: the stove itself, constructed with stones, tiles, and clay.
• Karakamado (韓竈) - A set of koshiki, kanahe (釜), and kamado that can be carried around.
• Takigi (薪) - In the Nara period, "薪" was read as "takigi" and not as "maki". Dried wood was used as fuel.
• Oke (麻筒) - A tub or a pail in three sizes; large, medium, and small. A flat bottomed and shallow tub was also used.
• Shaku (杓) - Also read as Hisago. A wooden ladle used to scoop cold and hot water from an oke.
• Katana (刀子) - A cooking knife and not a katana.
• Kiritsukue or Sekki (切机) - A Manaita (俎) or a cutting board.
• Fune (船) - A large wooden tub used for washing.
• Shitami (籮) - A coarse hemp cloth used to squeeze water out or to dry foods by spreading over it.
• Kame (甕) - A large vase where foods were stored.

In the Heian period (794–1185), the first usage of the word which became "Daidokoro" was recorded. The imperial palace of Heian had four rooms dedicated to preparing foods, Oni no ma (鬼の間), Daibandokoro (台盤所), Asagarei no ma (朝餉の間), and Ōidono (大炊殿). "Oni no ma" was the room used for checking for poison and tasting before serving. "Asagarei no ma" was the room for eating breakfast. "Ōidono" was the room to cook foods and was placed to the north and as far away as possible from living quarters. "Daibandokoro" was the room used to serve foods onto an individual Daiban (台盤), a lacquered wooden table. Maid servants also ate and waited to serve meals in the Daibandokoro. The original meaning of "Daidokoro" was not a kitchen but a pantry.

In the Kamakura period (1185–1333), as the Shoinzukuri style of housing became common, the kitchen was gradually absorbed into a house. Until then, a kitchen was built as a separate house whenever possible to avoid smells and smokes as well as fire from burning down the house where they lived. A kitchen of the Kamakura period was under the same roof as other rooms of a house. Yet, one would not see an essential kitchen furnishing, a sink or even a well in a kitchen.