Fukushima Prefecture – PHOTOGUIDE.JP Japan Blog

Yae no Sakura, NHK Taiga Drama 2013

January 7, 2013 Philbert Ono Fukushima Prefecture, People

This year’s year-long, weekly NHK Taiga Drama TV series will start airing tonight on Jan. 6. Titled “Yae no Sakura,” it’s about a woman warrior named Yae Niijima (1845-1932) from Aizu-Wakamatsu, Fukushima Prefecture. Aizu-Wakamatsu is famous for Tsuruga Castle (photo) and as the site of a Boshin War battle between pro-Emperor forces and pro-shogun forces who lost. Yae was on the latter side. After the war, she fought for equality for women and mastered English well enough to write one of Kyoto’s earliest guidebooks in English. (I wonder if a copy is still available.)

Her husband Joseph Hardy Neesima or Jo Niijima had studied in the US and founded a Christian school which became the prestigious Doshisha University in Kyoto. Yae will be played by actress Haruka Ayase. I remember her in the TV series “JIN,” about a brain surgeon who went back in time to the Edo Period. She was quite good (for a former bikini idol).

Everyone hopes that this Taiga Drama series will help bring back tourists to Fukushima. Aizu-Wakamatsu is one of Japan’s best provincial tourist cities, right up there with Sapporo, Sendai, Kanazawa, Matsue, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Kochi, Kagoshima, and Naha. It has many attractions and historical sites within a small area. The tourist infrastructure is well developed and I liked the convenient tourist shuttle bus stopping at the major sights. I highly recommend a visit to Aizu. More about the drama: http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/fd20130104r1.html

More photos of Aizu-Wakamatsu here.

Fukushima Prefecture PR fair

March 20, 2012 Philbert Ono Fukushima Prefecture

Actor Nishida Toshiyuki and Fukushima Prefectural Governor Sato Yuhei hold a talk show.

Fukushima Prefecture held a PR fair (がんばろうふくしま！大交流フェア) at Tokyo International Forum on March 20, 2012 to promote itself. Lots of stage entertainment, food booths, mascot characters, and talk shows. Famous actor and Fukushima-native Nishida Toshiyuki and Fukushima Governor Sato Yuhei also appeared together. Enjoyed it. My video below:

Wakamatsu Tea And Silk Farm Colony at Gold Hill, California

February 21, 2012 Philbert Ono Fukushima Prefecture

Last Sat. in Yamagata city, I had the pleasure of meeting and talking with Takahashi Yoshio (高橋義夫), a prominent, Naoki Prize-winning novelist whose favorite story themes include samurai history and rural life. In 1983, he wrote a book titled, “Kaisho Schnell” (怪商スネル) about John Henry Schnell and Edward Schnell who were German brothers working at the Prussian and Swiss consulates in Yokohama in the 1860s. They later imported and sold firearms and ammunition to samurai clans in Tohoku fighting the Imperial forces during the Boshin War in 1868-69.

What’s interesting is that, John Henry Schnell led a group of Japanese to settle in California in 1869. In effect, they became the first Japanese immigrants to the mainland US. (But not the first Japanese to live in the US since there had been shipwrecked Japanese sailors who were rescued and taken to the US. Hawaii also saw its first Japanese immigrants in 1868.) Schnell had a grand plan to have numerous Japanese immigrate to California including the Lord of Aizu-Wakamatsu. His plan was likely influenced by Eugene Van Reed, a fellow merchant in Yokohama who had arranged the first immigrants (Gannen-mono) to Hawaii in 1868. However, Schnell’s group did not total more than 30 or so.

Since John Henry was closely aligned with the Aizu-Wakamatsu clan (in Fukushima), the new Japanese colony near Sacramento was called Wakamatsu Tea and Silk Colony. It was assumed that Schnell took people from Aizu-Wakamatsu to America, but Takahashi sensei believes that the settlers were mostly farmers from the Kanto area. The colony was near Coloma (Gold Hill) where the California Gold Rush started in 1849. Within 2 years though, the colony disbanded as they couldn’t grow the silk and tea due to the lack of water. Schnell also ran out of money and disappeared with his Japanese wife and two daughters without a trace. Some of the colonists had their portraits taken at a studio in nearby Placerville. The colony site, about 40 miles from Sacramento, opened to the public last May.

Takahashi sensei was very nice and answered all our questions as he treated my AJA friend from Los Angeles and I to a superb kaiseki lunch. His book is one of the rare and definitive works on the largely-forgotten Schnells. He still writes using pencil/paper.

Colony photos: http://www.directcon.net/pharmer/Wakamatsu/Wakamatsu.html

Background story: http://www.directcon.net/pharmer/research/JohnVanSant/pages/VanSant_0.html