The weather today has been absolutely glorious - warm and sunny, just right for a wander in the city. I didn't have anything particular that I wanted to see in Fukuoka, so after a quick glance over google maps, I spotted the City Museum and the Hakata Folk Museum and thought that would be a nice pair of things to do. The Folk Museum was just down the road from my hotel, but the City Museum was further out, so I hopped on a train and made my way out there.
"A train?" I hear you cry. "That's not walking in the city!" Fair point, but the City Museum was (according to the sign) exactly 1km from the nearest station, so there was still plenty of walking to be done. It took me down some nice little side streets (lots of hidden away shrines, as always), past some university buildings, and eventually to yet another glorious garden (yawn, amirite?). Within the garden sat the Fukuoka City Museum, and it was surprisingly modern-looking.
It turns out that Hakata (the district of Fukuoka where I'm staying) was originally its own city, and is one of the oldest cities in Japan. Because it's slap bang on the coast at the closest point to Korea, it became a hub for trade and political visitors. This museum details the history of the area from the Jomon period (if anyone remembers them from an earlier post) onwards.
I really liked this museum. It was well set up for English visitors, had lovely interactive displays (that worked - suck on that, English museums), and the best part for me was the whole section near the start on Jomon and Yayoi burial practices! (I know this isn't everyone's cup of tea, but indulge me for a second.)
The Jomon people buried their dead inside huge pots, which were put into vertical shafts in the ground. You can see in the picture that there's a larger pot at the bottom, and a smaller one at the top - the small one was like a lid that went over the head, while the body and legs were in the larger pot, and they fit together a bit like the thing inside a kinder egg, except not as close fitting. The sites for burials seem to have varied (probably over time, but I couldn't quite figure it out from the displays), but at some point or other these urn burials took place within graveyard, a bit like this.
Can you imagine excavating something like this? Probably not, unless you're an archaeologist, but the archaeologist in me geeked out a little when I saw the model. I'm not really into old pottery, but pottery with dead people inside is so much more interesting!
Anyway, leaving the dead people behind, the rest of the museum was almost as interesting. The very first exhibit was a golden seal that is apparently a famous icon of Fukuoka. It was in a little room all by itself, and very strikingly displayed.
"A train?" I hear you cry. "That's not walking in the city!" Fair point, but the City Museum was (according to the sign) exactly 1km from the nearest station, so there was still plenty of walking to be done. It took me down some nice little side streets (lots of hidden away shrines, as always), past some university buildings, and eventually to yet another glorious garden (yawn, amirite?). Within the garden sat the Fukuoka City Museum, and it was surprisingly modern-looking.
The Fukuoka City Museum.
It turns out that Hakata (the district of Fukuoka where I'm staying) was originally its own city, and is one of the oldest cities in Japan. Because it's slap bang on the coast at the closest point to Korea, it became a hub for trade and political visitors. This museum details the history of the area from the Jomon period (if anyone remembers them from an earlier post) onwards.
I really liked this museum. It was well set up for English visitors, had lovely interactive displays (that worked - suck on that, English museums), and the best part for me was the whole section near the start on Jomon and Yayoi burial practices! (I know this isn't everyone's cup of tea, but indulge me for a second.)
Reconstruction of an urn burial.
The Jomon people buried their dead inside huge pots, which were put into vertical shafts in the ground. You can see in the picture that there's a larger pot at the bottom, and a smaller one at the top - the small one was like a lid that went over the head, while the body and legs were in the larger pot, and they fit together a bit like the thing inside a kinder egg, except not as close fitting. The sites for burials seem to have varied (probably over time, but I couldn't quite figure it out from the displays), but at some point or other these urn burials took place within graveyard, a bit like this.
A Jomon Cemetery
Can you imagine excavating something like this? Probably not, unless you're an archaeologist, but the archaeologist in me geeked out a little when I saw the model. I'm not really into old pottery, but pottery with dead people inside is so much more interesting!
Anyway, leaving the dead people behind, the rest of the museum was almost as interesting. The very first exhibit was a golden seal that is apparently a famous icon of Fukuoka. It was in a little room all by itself, and very strikingly displayed.
The golden seal.
If you look carefully, you can see it's in the shape of a snake (the head's at the left, looking back over its body). It's about 2cm square, and has a hole through the centre for attaching a cord. The seal itself was displayed underneath, but the lighting wasn't right for a good photo. Still, it didn't matter much, because the pattern was displayed as decoration all around the museum.
The stamp of the seal.
This seal was found by a farmer 200 years ago (lucky bugger), and based on the kanji on the seal and historical records, it seems to be a gift from the Emperor of China in 57AD. There was a huge room dedicated to this seal, and similar ones given to other countries, so it's clearly a big deal here in Fukuoka, but what I find incredible is that a chance find on some farmland can be traced so precisely to something in the historical records. I know it happens, but it's like a pipe dream for most archaeologists.
The museum went on to describe the growth of Hakata, the founding of Fukuoka, and the eventual merging of the two. There was a bit about WW2 ( there was quite a big air raid here during the war), and then it started on contemporary Fukuoka.
This is where the day took a turn for the unexpected.
There is a festival in Fukuoka where a huge palanquin is raced through the streets on the shoulders of a whole host of men. I learnt more about it at the Folk Museum, but for now, I'll stick with my first impressions.
For anyone who's friends with me on Facebook, know that this is where the buttocks come in.
A model of the palaquin.
These happy chaps depict two of the many, many men that help carry the palanquin. The guy on the left is looking a little pained, and no surprise, because that palanquin must be bloomin' heavy, even on the shoulder of dozens of men, and even without the extra six men that sit on it. But look closer. No, those are not tight-fitting trousers. Yes, it is a loin cloth. It probably has a better name in Japanese, but I don't know what that name is. It hangs down at the front like some sort of odd modesty panel, but at the back...
Well. Buttocks.
It must ride up something terrible while they're running, but everyone wears one. In the rest of the museum, there were other models of these hosts of men, running along in front, carrying the palanquin, or pushing along behind. There were photos from actual races (they didn't race against anyone, they just ran like the blazes). It appears to be traditional to takes photos from behind (the buttock view), and in the video I saw at the Folk Museum (yes, video) there were plenty of firm pats on the padded bit at the back (the fabric, not the bottom). It all seemed a little slapstick, and the video showed that the race itself is accompanied by lots of laughing, especially when the palanquin veers off course or runs around in circles, but at the end all the men were very emotional, and there's probably a really significant meaning to it that I don't understand. I think it would be quite a sight to see live, as long as you can stand all the buttocks.
If you can't stand buttocks, look away now.
So that was the main bit of the museum. There was a temporary exhibition on witchcraft, which looked amazing, but was fairly disappointing. It was all about European witch hunts, and the art and objects from the period, but littered with fake bookshelves covered in cobwebs, and pointy hats, and all the cliche things. There was also very little about the Japanese take on witches, and no real point to the exhibition that I could see. And I got told off for taking photos (fair dos, I didn't see the sign), then got told off for making a note about something on my kindle, because I didn't have paper with me and I couldn't take a photo. So City Museum yes, temporary exhibition no. Good job it's only temporary.
The afternoon was spent in the much smaller Folk Museum, which was all about the festivals of Hakata (buttocks galore) and the traditional crafts of the area. There was a lady weaving silk on a mechanical loom with punch card patterns, which was incredible to watch, and an area to watch someone painting spinning tops (although they weren't there when I passed through). They've also got these masks for one of the festivals (there wasn't much English here, so I'm not sure which one), and they're basically a large rectangle with a notch for the nose, held on with string, worn just over the eyes. The eye holes are decorated with downward sloping eyebrows which makes them look really sad, but when they're worn, they're really creepy. By this point of the day I wasn't sure if I was allowed to take photos or not, so I don't have a photo, but this link has a picture of the eyes. Imagine this with the actual eyes cut out so you can see through it, and you have a traditional Hakata mask.
That pretty much sums up the day. Tomorrow I fly down to Naha airport on Okinawa Island, where I plan on spending a lot of time beach-side. These blog posts seem to have been getting longer and longer, but I expect they'll be short to non-existant for the last few days of my trip. We'll see what sort of shenanigans the southern islands can throw at me.
To see you off, here's a photo from the front of the City Museum garden. Did I mention it was a glorious day today? Look at that blue sky.
City Museum Gardens.
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