Tokyo Disneyland was the first Disney park
to be built outside the United States, and it opened in 1983.The park was constructed in the same style as
Disneyland in California and Magic Kingdom in Florida. The park has seven themed areas: the World
Bazaar; the four traditional Disney lands: Adventureland, Westernland,
Fantasyland and Tomorrowland; and two mini-lands: Critter Country and Mickey's
Toontown.
Many of these areas mirror those in the original
Disneyland as they are based on American Disney films and fantasies.
Fantasyland includes Peter Pan's Flight, Snow White's Scary Adventures, Dumbo
the Flying Elephant, based on Disney films and characters.
Cinderella’s Castle is the fairy tale
castle at the center of the Tokyo
Disneyland. It serves as worldwide recognized icon and the flagship attraction
for the theme park.
Cinderella’s Fairy Tale Hall is located in
the castle where various artworks are exhibited that show scenes from her
story.
In the lobby and corridor, guests will find
eight murals showing how Cinderella changed from beloved daughter, to servant
girl, and then to Princess.
The murals mozaik were designed by
Imagineer Dorothea Redmond and crafted and set in place by a team of six
artists led by mosaicist Hanns-Joachim Scharff, the 4.6 by 3.0 m ornate panels are shaped in a Gothic arch. The
murals took 22 months to complete and contain just over 300,000 pieces of
Italian glass and rough smalti (glass made specifically for mosaics traditionally
used by Italian craftsmen) in more than 500 colors.
Many of the hand-cut tiles are fused with
sterling silver and 14-karat (58 percent) gold, and some are as small as the
head of a tack. Looking closely at these ornate murals, one will notice that
each of Cinderella's wicked stepsisters appears with a little added color - one
sister's face is clearly "red with anger", while the other is a
little "green with envy" as they watch Cinderella try on the glass
slipper. Source: Wikipedia
Nara is the capital city of Nara Prefecture located in the
Kansai region of Japan. Nara was the capital of Japan from 710 to 794, lending
its name to the Nara period.
Tōdai-ji or Eastern Great Temple, located in the city of
Nara, is a Buddhist temple complex that was once one of the powerful Seven
Great Temples. Todai-ji , is a complex of buildings that includes the world's
largest wooden structure, and the main hall houses the colossal bronze Buddha
statue .
Buddhism’s influence grew in the Nara era during the reign of Emperor Shomu and his wife,
Empress Komyo who fused Buddhist doctrine and political policy—promoting
Buddhism as the protector of the state.
In 741, reportedly
following the Empress’ wishes, Emperor Shomu ordered temples, monasteries and
convents to be built throughout Japan’s 66 provinces under the jurisdiction of
the new imperial Todai-ji to be built in the capital of Nara.
The vast temple at Todaiji was constructed as a symbol of
imperial power, and took over 15 years to complete at great expense. Emperor
Shomu’s motives to build Todai-ji temple on such an unprecedented scale seem to
have been a mix of the spiritual and the pragmatic: in his bid to unite various
Japanese clans under his centralized rule, Emperor Shoumu also promoted
spiritual unity.
Todai-ji would be the chief temple of the monastery system
and be the center of national ritual. Its construction brought together the
best craftspeople in Japan with the latest building technology. It was
architecture to impress—displaying the power, prestige and piety of the
imperial house of Japan.
On the centre of this Buddhist temple, you will be able to
find the biggest statue of Great Buddha, or Daibutsu, made of bronze. The
height of the statue is reaching 15 meters and weighs 500 tons.
The Buddha is seated with the palm of his right hand
extended forward. This gesture means "fear not" and “conversion of
jealousy and envy” into all-accomplishing wisdom.
Deer, regarded as messengers of the gods in the Shinto
religion, roam the grounds freely. According to legend a mythological god,
Takemikazuchi, arrived in Nara on a white deer to guard the newly built capital
of Heijokyo.
The deer that populate Nara are Sika deer or spotted deer
and are also known as bowing deer because they often times bow their heads
before being fed.
You will find a lot of deer and you can also feed them if
you want, but you need to buy the food first.
Kinkaku-ji which means Temple of the Golden Pavilion is a
Zen Buddhist temple located at the foot of the gently-sloping Kinugasa Hill,
northern Kyoto, Japan. The Temple’s top two floors are
completely covered in gold leaf. The image of the temple richly adorned in gold
leaf reflects beautifully in the water of Kyokochi, the mirror pond.
The Pavilion, that constitutes of Kinkaku-ji,
gardens and other buildings, is said to be designed to realize Buddhist
paradise on the earth. The Pavilion's first purpose was to serve the retiring
Shogun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu as a residence. Yoshimitsu was a one of the most powerful
persons during the Muromachi period of Japan. He created a solid political foundation
of Muromachi shogunate and restored the relation between Japan and China. The
Pavilion was turned into a Zen temple after Yoshimitsu’s death in 1408, and
continues to function as a temple of sacred relics.
The first floor of the Pavilion is in the
Japanese palace style and was used for Noh plays or Japanese classical dance
drama. The second floor is in the samurai style and was used for composing
poetry. This floor is built in the Bukke style used in samurai residences.
Inside is a seated Kannon Bodhisattva, as the goddess of mercy Kannon helps
people who are in distress. The third floor is in the old Chinese style and was
used for meditation.
The roof is in a thatched pyramid with
shingles. The building is topped with a bronze phoenix ornament. In Japanese
mythology the Phoenix brings goodwill as it descends from the heavens and is
typically shown sitting on top of a gateway to a Shinto shrine. This ornament adorns
the roof of the Kinkaku-ji Temple, it is a symbol of an imperial household.
From the outside, viewers can see gold
plating added to the upper stories of the Pavilion. The gold leaf covering the
upper stories hints at what is housed inside: the shrines. The outside is a
reflection of the inside. The elements of nature, death, religion, are formed
together to create this connection between the Pavilion and outside intrusions.
The garden complex is an excellent example of
Muromachi period garden design. The Muromachi period is considered to be a
classical age of Japanese garden design. The correlation between buildings and
its settings were greatly emphasized during this period. It was a way to
integrate the structure within the landscape in an artistic way. The garden
designs were characterized by a reduction in scale, a more central purpose, and
a distinct setting. A minimalistic approach was brought to the garden design,
by recreating larger landscapes in a smaller scale around a structure.
“Akira-san”, I said, “ I must confess that your movies
Throne of Blood and Ran introduced me to Shakespeare. The stories are
compelling, tragic and dark but you masterfully expressed it in the cinemas, in
black and white and in color. In Ran, which is an adaption of King Lear, the
dark , cruel world is expressed in cinematic beauty, highlighted by the colors
of the traditional costumes and the color of blood. Is this more or less how
you see the world?”
Akira-san:
“Tragedy is part of Japanese life which has been frequented
by by earthquakes, tsunamies and wars. The Kanto earthquake was a terrifying
experience for me, and also an extremely important one. Through it I learned
not only of the extraordinary powers of nature, but extraordinary things that
lie in human hearts. The Edogawa river had raised its bottom and showed new
islands of mud. The whole district was
veiled in a dancing, swirling dust whose grayness gave the sun a pallor like
that during an eclipse. The people who stood to the left and right of me in
this scene looked for all the world like fugitives from hell, and the whole
landscape took on a bizarre and eerie aspect. I stood holding on to one of the
young cherry trees planted along the banks of the river, and I was still
shaking as I gazed out over the scene, thinking, "This must be the end of
the world."
I said:
“ In the Throne of Blood, which is an adaption of Macbeth,
there is a scene with the piles of human skeletons forming little mountains. Is
this how it looks like in the aftermath of the Kanto earthquake?”
Akira-san:
“When the earthquake had died down, my brother Heigo brought
me to look at the ruins. The burned landscape for as far as the eye could see
had a brownish red color. It looked like a red desert. In the conflagration
everything made of wood had been turned to ashes, which now occasionally
drifted upward in the breeze. Amid this expanse of nauseating redness lay every
kind of corpse imaginable. When I involuntarily
looked away, Heigo scolded me, "Akira, look carefully now." I failed
to understand my brother's intentions and could only resent his forcing me to
look at these awful sights. The worst was when we stood on the bank of the
red-dyed Sumidagawa River and gazed at the throngs of corpses pressed against
its shores. I felt my knees give way as I started to faint, but my brother
grabbed me by the collar and propped me up again. He repeated, "Look
carefully, Akira." I resigned myself to gritting my teeth and looking.
Later he said "If you shut your eyes to a frightening
sight, you end up being frightened. If you look at every-thing straight on,
there is nothing to be afraid of." Looking back on that excursion now, I
realize that it must have been horrifying for my brother too. It had been an
expedition to conquer fear. “
I said:
“You once said that your brother Heigo has a great influence
in your interest in cinemas. How did he influence you? “
Akira-san:
“Heigo was a professional silent-film narrator. The
narrators not only recounted the plot of the films, they enhanced the emotional
content by performing the voices and sound effects and providing evocative
descriptions of the events and images on the screen— much like the narrators of
the Bunraku puppet theater. The most popular narrators were stars in their own
right, solely responsible for the patronage of a particular theater. Under the
leadership of the famous narrator Tokugawa Musei, a completely new movement was
under way. He and a group of like-minded narrators stressed high-quality
narration of well-directed foreign films.
In matters of both film and literature I owe much to my
brother's discernment. He was addicted to Russian literature. But at the same
time he wrote under various pen names for film programs. He wrote in particular
about the art of the foreign cinema, which was much promoted following the
First World War. I took special care to see every film my brother recommended.
As far back as elementary school I walked all the way to Asakusa to see a movie
he had said was good.”
I said:
“What happened then when the cinema transitioned silent
movies into sound movies?”
Akira-san:
“As the silent films went out, so did the need for the
narrators, and Heigo's livelihood was struck a terrible blow. At first all
seemed well because by this time my brother was chief narrator at a first-run
movie house, the Taikatsukan in Asakusa, where he had his own following.
Then it had now become clear that all foreign movies would
henceforth be sound movies, and theaters that showed them decided as a
universal policy that they no longer needed narrators. The narrators were to be
fired en masse, and, hearing this, they went on strike. My brother, as leader
of the strikers, had a very difficult time.”
I said:
“As what has happened, the transformation of cinema is
inevitable, from silent to sound, from black and white to colors, and from
celluloid to digital.”
Akira-san:
“In the midst of this, one day we heard of my brother's
attempted suicide. I believe the cause was his painful position as leader of
the narrators' strike, which had failed. My brother seemed to be resigned to
the fact that narrators would no longer be needed when film technology
progressed to the point of including sound. Since he knew it was a losing
battle, the fact that he had to accept the leadership of the strike must have
been indescribably painful for him.”
I said:
“ Didn’t he told your mother that he would die before he
reached the age of thirty?”
Akira-san:
“My brother had always said that. He claimed that when human
beings lived past thirty, all they did was come uglier and meaner, so he had no
intention of doing so. I had made light of my brother's words, but a few months
after I had assuaged my mother's fears in this way, my brother was dead. Just
as he had promised, he died without reaching the age of thirty. At twenty-seven
he committed suicide.”
I said:
“Some people said you're just like your brother. But he was
negative and you're positive. You have made good black and white as well as
good color movies, you are the first Japanese movie director receiving
international acclaim.”
Akira-san:
“That time Japanese films all tend to be rather bland in
flavor, like green tea over rice. I watched a woman read a book throughout the
Japan home-grown movie. Japanese films have lost their youth, vigor and high
aspiration. Movies . . . look like the work of tired, old men, who make petty
judgments, have dried-up feelings, and whose hearts are clogged.”
I said:
“Your first international acclaim is
Rashomon which received Golden Lion in Venice Film Festival in 1951. Set in 11th
century Japan, a time of fire, earthquake, pestilence, banditry, war. A period
when the country’s central government were being undermined by the growth of
political and military powers. There were rebellions, fires, earthquakes and
violent crime in the capital city. It was a period where it appeared to be the
end of the law, and the country is on the brink of disaster.
The movie opens at the Rashomon Gate,
the main gate to the city of Kyoto. The gate is in ruins, and so is the city as
well. The rain in black and white
gashing down the Rashomon Gate paints a bleak picture of the world. The destroyed
gate, its apparent grand scale and strong foundation reduced to utter ruins. The
clothing of the men is ragged, dark, dirty
and wet.”
Akira-san:
“The film goes into
the depths of the human heart as if with a surgeon’s scalpel, laying bare its dark complexities and
bizarre twists. These strange impulses of the human heart would be expressed
through the use of an elaborately fashioned play of light and shadow. Light and
shadow, represents not only good and evil, but also rationality and
impulsiveness. The introductory section in particular, which leads the viewer
through the light and shadow of the forest into a world where the human heart
loses its way, was truly magnificent camera work by Miyagawa Kazuo.”
I said:
“The story and the
characters are interesting, involving various characters providing subjective,
alternative, self-serving and contradictory versions of the same murder
incident. Through an ingenious use of camera and flashbacks, you reveals the
complexities of human nature as four people recount different versions of the
story of a samurai's murder and the rape
of his wife.”
Akira-san:
“Human beings are unable to be honest with themselves about
themselves. They cannot talk about themselves without embellishing. This script
portrays such human beingsthe
kind who cannot survive without lies to make them feel they are better than
they really are. The characters deceive even themselves; they refuse to face or
acknowledge the truth because they fear it. The commoner’s standpoint is that all men and women are like
this, and it is a property of mankind to lie and embellish reality even to
itself. As the priest said, if men dont
trust each other, this earth might as well be hell.”
I said:
“ At the end there is the scene of an abandoned
baby whom was crying loudly. At first we
did not understand how did this baby arrive at Rashomon gate, out of the blue. Later I found from readings that other than
being a place to abandoned corpses the Rashomon gate also became known as a
place where people abandoned unwanted babies. Then I can appreciate that this scene is not
as out of place as some people thought.”
Akira-san:
“We see the
Woodcutter accept the abandoned infant to take the child home to be cared for,
although he is poor and already has 6 children. This symbolizes the man
choosing to do what’s good. This is important because the Woodcutter for the
entire film to this point has merely stood by, choosing not to be a participant
in what he sees, “I didn’t want to get involved”, he says. By choosing to take the
child he gives hope to the priest that man is good and that the world does not
belong to the selfish.”
This is an imaginary interview in memory of Akira Kurosawa.
Source: “Something Like an Autobiography” by
Akira Kurosawa
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