Foxy Sasuke Inari Shrine in Kamakura

Kamakura has lots of points of interest such sa Tsuruoka Hachiman-gu but here, I focus on "Sasuke Inari Jinja (佐助稲荷神社)" or Sasuke Inari Shrine.

Sasuke Shrine is located kind of near "Zeniarai Benten," although you need to walk through "Keshouzaka Kiritoshi" from Zeniarai Benten, which is, by the way, also an interesting place.

What makes Sasuke Inari interesting is its foxes. "Inari" is one type of the gods in Japan. As fox is the Inari god's messenger, a pair of foxes or two always sits in the premises of the Inari shrine. At Sasuke Inari, you see not just a pair, but you'll soon notice many sitting here and there in the shrine!

This pair is located just below the right-side fox of the main stone pair. White ceramic foxes are those offered by people to make their wishes come true.

Sasuke Inari is supposed to have a supernatural power to bring romance between two people. If you want to marry with someone in your mind, you may come here, purchase a white ceramic fox and offer it to the Inari, asking for the god's help. It's like donation because the shrine uses money acquired to maintain their premises.

You'll notice a bib around a fox neck. Why is it? One theory is that parents who lost their babies tied a red bib around the fox to appease the baby's soul and allow them peacefully to become a budda in heaven.

There's another thing about Sasuke Inari Jinja. Though you tend to see Inari jinja less in your neighborhood nowadays, you have chances to see several while growing up in Japan. Most fox statues in Inari, however, don't have facial expressions as severe as Sasuke Inari's. See above pics. The foxes have unfriendly and beastly look and even have fangs protruding from their half-opened mouth. Those I've seen since my childhood have more comical or expression-less look. I wonder that people in the 13th century (that's when Sasuke Inari was constructed) regarded foxes as dangerous animals inconveniently living in their proximity but at the same time believed in their supernatural power and awed them.

You take "Shonan Shinjuku Liner"to visit Kamakura. It's about one hour ride from Ikebukuro.

Sakaguchi's "Resume" at Tokyo Watarium

The Kyohei Sakaguchi exhibit, which was over a couple of days ago, made me laugh a good laugh. I agree with Kyohei Sakaguchi 80 percent, which is in fact quite high.

His work, "Resume," warmed my heart. I've been agonized by the Japanese resume form quite a while.

Japanese resume (see pic below) is the perfect representation of "life on the track": You are expected to go to a high school after a junior high, then proceed to a college and then straight to a company. No nonsense between schools and between schools and the so-called real world. "The" Japanese resume form predicates on life on the track. In a sense, it's even a minimalistic tour de force of conceptual arts.

After graduating from a college in the US, I continued my education via enrolling in a number of courses at different community colleges, part of the adult education system that USA should be very proud of. I also changed my employers several times to expand my knowledge and experience. My education and work life therefore totally run off from the Japanese form. I feel I'm "crucified" on the criss-crossing lines of the Japanese resume form. I feel I'm out of question from "their" viewpoint because my life does not fit to life on the track.

Roland Berthas, one of my favorite writers, says, "Scratch the surface, and there's a history." I tried it when I was fumed with the resume form, and somehow a Chinese term,「科挙」、pronounced "Kakyo," emerged on the surface of my brain. "Kakyo" is an infamous examination system created in China circa B.C. 200. Is Japanese resume might be one of the vestige of Kakyo and incredibly still surviving?

Pic: Watarium Museum. It goes well with yellow.

　 While I was away from Japan、a cream ban has evolved、a telephone box almost completely disappeared in Tokyo, and subway lines changed its name to "Metro" and multiplied in the underground world of Tokyo, the form of Japanese resume has not changed even a bit (and the design of the 10 yen coin hasn't changed at all). Isn't it weirdly stagnant?

So Mr. Sakamoto's "Resume" warmed my heart and I feel love toward the artist.

If I write Sakamoto style resume, I'll include playing with my brothers (cooping up a cat in an empty wooden apple box and trying to observe the cat's behavior when pouring a water from the above etc) going for a long walk with neighboring kids after school. Those were important matters definitely involved in shaping my inner space called mind. I especially liked going for a long walk (sometimes by myself), which was quite an adventure for me at that time. We just walked to a far away place to make a return trip to home. I often picked up a rusted bottle opener etc. on the way and kept it as a treasure in my tin box. Sakamoto's resume didn't include those staff. My guess is that he didn't have siblings. Also, when he was a kid, it might have been too dangerous for a kid to go for a walk by themselves.

I feel I'm forced to fit myself to that form of cross, which is "resume."