The Soul of Japan: Higashiyama Onsen of Fukushima

, originally uploaded by Tony Alexander.

Last weekend on a brisk Sunday afternoon, I enjoyed yet another gem of an onsen at a hotel called taki no yu.

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This blog is about Japan and its four fundamental charms: sake, onsen, shinto shrines and delicious cuisines. In this blog I have captured some of the everyday pleasures that many Japanese take for granted nowadays. I also want readers to understand that there is a spiritual harmony and beauty in Japan which can be found in its symbols. The Tenno, Mishima Yukio, Jukujo, Sushi, the Hot Spring, and Shrines, are for me the ideal symbols of Japan in my opinion.

On Mishima, a functional schizophrenic who was a five time Nobel Prize nominee, had a vision of a spiritual army that would protect the emperor, which could be symbolic in protecting old traditions and values. That through this army he would prove his love and loyalty to the Son of heaven through self disembowelment . This form of expression which was committed at the very height of Mishima's physical beauty and maturity was considered the most dignified way to die.

"Mishima felt that at the very height of ones beauty it is better to die then than to be remembered being in a state of decrepitude at ones death."

Beauty can come in many forms and can be expressed in many ways. But one must first define a sense of beauty first - mine is this blog. I too, like Mishima, focus on the 'old way' but through another form of expression, I also feel that many things in Japan should never change and should be protected at all cost. One thing that's just as painful as the death of the Soul of a Nation that's spinning out of control, is the impending doom of a culture fast becoming too Westernized for its own good.

On a final note: Jukujo, for me, represent the ultimate beauty that a Japanese woman could aspire to attain, and although Mishima was homosexual, he found beauty in women also.

The term"jukujo" itself could come off a bit negative to some listeners, but it depends. The term literally means ripe and well developed Japanese women in their thirties and forties , and up depending how far you want to take it. Jukujo are very intuitive, intelligent and extremely nurturing.

The Soul of Japan

Hinomaru

Symbol of Japanese Unity

Ise Jingu

In Memory of Mishima Yukio

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12.24.2008

Higashiyama Onsen of Fukushima

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