Hakata Culture: Streetcars and the streets of Hakata

Nishitetsu operated streetcars—onomatopoetically dubbed chinchin densha by the locals—in Fukuoka City from March 1910 until 1979. The ceremony marking the opening of the line was held on March 9 that year and operations began the next day. The Fukuhaka Denki Kido, operated the line, and it was created by Momosuke Fukuzawa, the adopted son of Yukichi Fukuzawa, the founder of Keio University and the man whose face appears on the ¥10,000 note, and Yasuzaemon Matsunaga, who later became known as a power company magnate. The work to launch ... More...

Hakata Culture: The Little-Known History of Tops

The New Year’s holiday is over, but New Year’s under the old calendar falls on February 3. The old New Year’s Day is still celebrated as New Year’s in many countries and territories in Asia, including China and South Korea. In Japan, traditional New Year’s games for children included kite flying, hanetsuki (a Japanese version of badminton), and top spinning. Few children are interested in amusements of this sort any more. Tops were introduced to Japan about 1,300 years ago during the Nara period through the Korean Peninsula from China.... More...

Hakata Culture: Monkey masks on the front door

—an old Hakata tradition The quiet and secluded Sarutahiko Shinto shrine stands in front of the Fujisaki Bus Terminal in Fukuoka City’s Sawara Ward. It’s usually empty of parishioners or visitors, but on a few days out of the year it’s the destination of a lively crowd. The first of those days is known as Hatsukoshin, and comes early in the new year. It is a moveable festival day, and next year it will be on Wednesday, January 5. At five a.m., well before dawn, people will ring the shrine grounds to wait for the office to open. They’re lining up... More...

Hakata Culture: Hakata’s Hidden Almanac: The Mikkaebisu Festival

Several times in this column we’ve discussed Kushida-jinja, the Shinto shrine that is the guardian divinity for Hakata. It’s known to the locals as O-Kushida-san. Hakata Gion Yamakasa, the climax of which is the annual early-morning race of festival floats through the streets of Fukuoka on July 15 is the most famous summer event in the city. Few people, however, know of the Miyoto Ebisu Festival in December. It’s held at the Ebisu-jinja, which is located near the mochi shop on the grounds of a subsidiary shrine of the Kushida-jinja. It is one of ... More...

Hakata Culture: History of Hakata’s Mizutaki

When the weather grows cold and the north wind blows, I get an appetite for nabe ryori. When young people think of nabe ryori in Fukuoka/Hakata, motsunabe comes to mind, but those with longer memories will think of mizutaki. “The defining trait of Hakata culture is to take something that comes from somewhere else and skillfully rearrange it so that it becomes something that seems to have always been a local specialty. That’s also true of food,” observed the late Einosuke Obiya, a historian who specialized in manners and customs and the... More...

Hakata Culture: The Akihaku brightens Hakata in the fall

Fukuoka City is sometimes said to be a “twin city” because the Naka River divides the city into two distinct halves. On the west side of the river is Fukuoka, the location of the Fukuoka Castle, while on the east lies Hakata, the commercial district. The Hakata district has many Shinto shrines, Buddhist temples, and sites of historical interest that have formed the culture of the area for several centuries. Hakata is also the site of the Akihaku, a series of colorful events and festivals from September to November. Its name resembles the nam... More...

Hakata Culture: New ginger, Hakata champon, and Hojoya hajiki!

One sure sign that autumn is coming soon to Fukuoka-Hakata is the Hojoya festival. With the Hakata Gion Yamakasa and the Hakata Dontaku, it is one of the three most important festivals in the area. The Hojoya festival is said to have originated in the year 720 at the Usa Hachiman-gu Shinto Shrine in Oita to commemorate the war dead. Since then, the festival has been an event for honoring the living. It is held in Fukuoka every year from September 12 – 18 at the Hakozakigu Shinto Shrine in Higashi Ward. The main path of the shrine is lined with op... More...

Hakata Culture: Cine-la—another important asset

Located in the Momochihama section of Sawara Ward, the Fukuoka City Public Library consists of three sections: a library, a city archive, and a film archive. The library has 1.2 million volumes, a wide selection of weekly publications, and 44 national and 18 international newspapers. The city archive holds microfilms of materials dating from the Meiji period. But the film archive is worthy of particular note. There the library collects and stores valuable movies from throughout Asia with the objective of becoming a film archive for the continent.... More...

Hakata Culture: Hakata's Special Summer Sweet

Fukuoka is reputed to be the birthplace of manju in Japan. Shoichi Kokushi, the founder of the Shoten-ji Buddhist Temple near Hakata Station, studied in China during the Sung Dynasty and brought what he learned back to Japan. One of the things he learned was the recipe for manju. More recently, another famous Japanese confection made only in the summer was created here — Hakata Minazuki. It was developed by the New Fukuoka – Hakata Wagashi Development Society. The latter was formed by members of the Fukuoka City Wagashi Union which is this y... More...

Hakata Culture: Fukuoka Tower: Easy as 123, 234

The Fukuoka Tower in the Seaside Momochi district of Sawara Ward has become the symbol of Fukuoka City and its most famous landmark. All a photographer has to do is fit the tower, the nearby dome, and the seashore into the same shot and natives and out-of-towners alike will instantly recognize the site as Fukuoka. The tower was built in 1989 for that year’s Asia-Pacific Exposition, commonly referred to as Yokatopia, to commemorate Fukuoka City’s 100th anniversary as a municipality. The idea of moving the broadcast tower for NHK and the comme... More...

Hakata Culture: Signs of Summer

The Fukuoka Jo Gakuin Junior and Senior High School, a school for girls commonly known as Mission by the locals, is an institution rich in history and is celebrating its 125th anniversary this year. The original establishment was founded in 1885 by missionary Jenny Gheer in Fukuoka’s Inaba-cho, now known as Tenjin 2-chome. It moved to Tenjin-machi in 1888 to occupy the only building with Western-style architecture in Fukuoka. The school is famous for being the first to introduce sailor-style uniforms in 1921. The headmistress at the time, Elizabe... More...

Hakata Culture: Fukuoka City Ranked as #1 Regional City

The main article in the March 15 issue of fashion and design trend magazine Brutus, published by Magazine House, is titled “Anti-Tokyo? Cool Local!”, and ranks the 50 most appealing regional cities in Japan. Edging out such well-known cities as Kyoto, Sapporo, Naha, and Kanazawa for the top spot on the list was the city we call home—Fukuoka City! On the panel of judges was Tokyo native Uichi Yamamoto, famous as the man who launched the café boom. He designed Comment Allez Vous, a café facing the Naka River, and Haruqui, a Japanese-style café... More...

Hakata Culture: Experience Fukuoka Via Fuku-Tabi

“Tabi” means travel in Japanese, and Fuku-Tabi is a new tour program that enables participants to experience the delights only Fukuoka and Hakata have to offer. The tours are not packages offered by a travel agency, but programs planned by people at the destination the travelers will be visiting, an approach that has become popular in recent times. They include such experiences as the chance to sample traditional foods or the daily cultural life of a district, including sites off the beaten path or famous locations known only to the locals, who a... More...

Hakata Culture: The story of the Gold Seal

Most of the business cards used by the municipal employees of Fukuoka City are printed with a shiny mark. Whenever they distribute the cards, the recipients invariably ask if that mark represents is the gold seal. That’s right—the gold seal is Fukuoka City’s only national treasure, and it is formally referred to as the Kan no Wa no Na no Kokuo. It was discovered on the Shikanoshima in Hakata Bay in February 1784 by someone engaged in agricultural work. To be precise, the seal surface is a rather small 2.347 centimeters square, and the seal on the... More...

Hakata Culture: A lot happens on January 7

January 7 is known as Nanokashogatsu, and it has long been the date for the custom of eating the “seven wild herbs of spring” to cure any illness. These seven herbs are water dropwort, shepherd's purse, cudweed, chickweed, nipplewort, lapsana, turnip, and daikon. Years ago, these herbs grew wild near people’s homes, and turnip and daikon were cultivated in gardens. The custom of eating these herbs arose because they were the first to sprout in the new year and were therefore thought to be filled with energy. In addition, people would have ha... More...

Hakata Culture: Fukuoka’s Christmas Lighting

The streets of Fukuoka come alive in December with the decorative lighting the city puts up for Christmas. It festoons local commercial facilities and tourist spots, starting with the department stores and popular speciality shops in the Tenjin district. This month’s column will describe sites that help you to fully embrace the Christmas spirit. The primary sites for the city’s Christmas lighting are Kego Park, near the Mitsukoshi Department Store, and the tree-lined Watanabe-dori, the main street of Tenjin. The We Love Tenjin Association org... More...

Hakata Culture: Shichi-go-san and Poppo-zen

The shichi-go-san festival takes place on November 15th and honors the Japanese custom of celebrating a child’s growth at the ages of three, five, and seven. On that day you’ll see formally dressed children with their parents and grandparents at most Shinto shrines throughout the country. The festival began as a custom in samurai families during the Edo period, but it became more widespread after the Meiji period. Here in the commercial district of Hakata, it is customary to hold the o-zen suwari, during which an auspicious day is chosen for... More...

Hakata Culture: Fukuoka City Retrospect

Fukuoka City was established on April 1, 1889, which means it is celebrating its 120th anniversary as a municipality this year. The Fukuoka City Museum is now holding an exhibit that offers a retrospective look of the city’s history over those 120 years. Hakata was a much smaller city in 1889, and its territory covered only parts of the current Chuo and Hakata wards. The population at its founding was 50,847. The other Kyushu cities that officially become municipalities that year were Kurume, Saga City, Nagasaki City, Kumamoto City, and Kagoshima... More...

Hakata Culture: Fukuoka Asian Art Triennale

Opened in 1999, the Fukuoka Asian Art Museum is one of only a few museums in the world to systematically collect and exhibit modern and contemporary Asian art. The inspiration for this museum and the Triennale came with the Asia Art Exhibition that had been held every year since 1979 when the Fukuoka Art Museum opened in Ohori Park. Asian works of art, grounded in distinctive cultures and traditions, have attracted great interest recently, but it was the Fukuoka Art Museum that took notice of the art 30 years ago. Local governments throughou... More...

Hakata Culture: Fukuoka City’s First Swimming Beaches

All of us enjoy sea bathing with friends and family during Summer vacations. The best beaches for swimming in Fukuoka that come to mind are Nokonoshima, Ikinomatsubara, and Obaru in Nishi Ward, and Shikanoshima and Katsuma in Higashi Ward. When did beach swimming become a popular recreation? The practice is said to have originated in Great Britain in the 18th century when a doctor established a seaside resort as a method for treating illness. In Japan, the records show that sites for sea bathing were created for medical treatment in Okayama Pref... More...
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