Today, I happened to ask my host grandmother about the image on this man hole cover, and she launched into a detailed (but unfortunately very rapid) account of the history and culture of Hirakata-shi and the surrounding area. I really wish I had been able to understand everything she said because what I could understand was very interesting. She told me that the flower at the top of the manhole cover is a kiku (chrysanthemum) flower, which Hirakata-shi is apparently famous for because of the annual 菊人形 (kiku ningyou) festival where life-sized dolls are dressed in chrysanthemum flowers and set up in displays like this one: My host grandmother also told me that the boat depicted on the manhole cover is one of the many boats that transported goods between Kyoto and Osaka along the Yodogawa river in the Edo Period. Or possibly one of the small boats used to sell food to the merchants who were traveling between Kyoto and Osaka.
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| Yodogawa near Hirakata station |
The portion of the Yodogawa river between Kyoto and Osaka was a major trade route, transporting goods and people between the two big cities. Because of this, Hirakata became a popular place to rest along the way, famous for its many inns and restaurants, including the Kagiya inn which was built in the late 1500's and has now been turned into a museum. (http://www.osaka-info.jp/en/search/detail/sightseeing_5171.html) According to my host family, Hirakata-shi used to be known as “Kurawanka” because that was the call the food merchants in Hirakata used when they sold food and drink to the passing boats. “Kurawanka” means something like “Why don't you eat?” and there are still many things in Hirakata with “kurawanka” in their name, although I never realized where the phrase comes from before and would certainly never have guessed that "kurawanka" was in any way related to the images on Hirakata's manhole covers.
It is interesting to note the different designs of manhole covers in different cities in Japan. I like the history of Hirakata-shi that you provide. You seem to indicate that you missed a lot of what your host grandmother told you. As an anthropologist, how could you have been able to get all or most of what she said?
ReplyDeleteYou might have found some photos/info about the chrysanthemum festival here:
http://visualanthropologyofjapan.blogspot.com/2010/10/hirakata-chrysanthemum-festival.html
For some reason the first photo appears really dark and hard to see. And the text formatting is odd in this post. Can you fix these things?
For some reason dark images show up just fine on my screen, so I didn't realize that pic was hard to see. I fixed it, and also the text formatting which was off because one of my photos somehow didn't show up and I wasn't able to add it when blogspot was down.
ReplyDeleteI did miss a lot of what my host grandmother said and wished I'd had an audio recorder of some kind with me, but I doubt my host grandmother would have said so much if I had had one, so maybe it's just as well.
I liked the pictures of the doll-making process on the site you linked to from your blog. (For anyone who can't navigate the Japanese site, here's the URL: http://www.eonet.ne.jp/~ryokka/kiku/kiku_sagyou.html.)
Thanks for your comments