One day in Kamakura with great NIGAOE artists (Part 3)
This is Part 3 of the report about my visit to Kamakura last autumn with two great caricature artists who are my friends. As for the first part of the report, please read Part 1. http://www.tenkai-japan.com/2010/01/14/one-day-in-kamakura-with-great-nigaoe-artists-part-1/
And as for the second part of the report, please read Part2. http://www.tenkai-japan.com/2010/01/17/one-day-in-kamakura-with-great-nigaoe-artists-part-2/
After having departed from near the entrance area of the Tsurugaoka Hachimangu shrine in two rickshaws, first we went to Kamakura Shiritsu Onari Shougakkou(/鎌倉市立御成小学校, Kamakura City-Run Onari Elementary School) near the West Exit of Kamakura Station, passing by a famous swordsmith workshop and store of hardwares, ” Masamune Son Touken Kaji Tsunahiro”(/正宗孫刀剣鍛治綱廣) that is “Masamune Kougei Bijyutsu Seisakujyo”(/正宗工芸美術製作所, Masamune Technical Art Works).
This store and workshop is run by Mr. Tsunahiro Yamamura who is the 24th generation descendant of Masamune who was a legendary great master smith of sword forging from the end of the Kamakura Period to the Nanboku-chou Period , in the mid 14th century. As Kamakura was the seat of Kamakura Shogunate and kind of a capital city of warriors in the Kamakura Period(said to be 1192-1333), there were many excellent swordsmiths in this area. In addition, lands in Kamakura contained rich iron sand, which was the primary ingredient of swords and metal weapons and caused flourishing activities of swordsmiths in those days. Therefore, still today we can find some famous shops and botteghe of Japanese samurai(warrior) swords in this area.
And now, we stopped in front of the entrance gate of Onari Elementary School.
The seasoned rickshaw-puller explained the background of the school and I reinforced him. The school used to be an imperial cottage until 1931 ,and was donated to Kamakura Town(currently Kamakura City) to be a elementary school. There is a stone monument which is thought to be a record of that school’s land was a place of court or other offices of the Kamakura Shogunate in the Kamakura period.
The Japanese word ” onari ” means ” a visit or appearance of a monarch ” . As the school place was deigned to be given to the town by the-then emperor, such a name was given,too. The calligraphic letters on the wooden school nameplate on the school gate were written by Kyoshi Takahama(/高浜虚子, a very famous Japanese haiku poet 1874-1959, who mainly worked in kamakura and buried in a grave in Jyufukuji temple(/寿福寺) in Kamakura) .
Yet there is another monument in the school yard which is for extolling the goodness of Tsugihiko Majima(/間島弟彦), who donated a huge sum of money with his testament in order to build a library for Kamakura Town, which was actually built in 1936. He was a member of Kamakura Doujin Kai(/鎌倉同人会, a coterie society of Kamakura), which had been founded by cultural figures, such as Count Hirokichi Mutsu(/陸奥広吉, a diplomat whose father was a well-known minister of foreign affairs of the Meiji government and an apprentice of Ryoma Sakamoto/坂本龍馬), and Viscount Seiki Kuroda(/黒田清輝, a famous western-style painter and a lord of the House of Lords as well) in 1915. The purpose of the society was to preserve historical and cultural assets in Kamakura and actually it has spent a lot of money to protect, maintain, or mend temples, shrines, old roads,and so forth for almost one century up until today.
To tell the truth, my great grandfather who had been a diplomat was one of the founders of the society and was the second president. He was a close friend of Mutsu who was the first president, and also was a relative of Kuroda. As my great grandfather was the president when the monument for Majima on the school yard was built by the society, not only Majima’s name but also his name is engraved on the monument. Majima was a well-known banker as well as a poet, who also donated huge amount of money through his testament exercised by his wife to build a library for Aoyama Gakuin University that he had graduated from. That “ Majima Kinen Toshokan”(/間島記念図書館, Majima Memorial Library) was completed in 1929, which still stands as a symbolic building known as ” Majima Kinen-kan”(/間島記念館, Majima Memorial Building) on the university’s campus in Tokyo. http://www.aoyamagakuin.jp/evergreen/build_11.html
My mother, who is a granddaughter of the second president of the coterie society of Kamakura , and myself are its members, which commemorates its 95th anniversary in this year of 2010. Personally, I am so happy to have been a member of a society which was founded by my own great grandfather, his friends, and his relatives and to have been able to explain these historical back stories to my friends as a pro guide-interpreter and a genealogist.
To my joy, not only Dave-san and Tomoko-san but also our two rickshaw-pullers,who were professional guides of Kamakura as well, seemed to take interest in my explanation over the monument , the coterie society, and my family’s back stories.
Then, we left the school and departed for the next stop-off.
( To be continued to Part 4)
5 Responses to “One day in Kamakura with great NIGAOE artists (Part 3)”
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Time 19/01/2010 at 14:06
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Time 21/01/2010 at 08:39
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Comment from Césare Majima
Time 10/11/2015 at 20:32
Hi Terry, my name is Césare Majima and I live in Brazil. My father came to Brazil in 1964 and I have bornt in 1970 in this country. I have grown up here in Brazil always listening the stories from my father that his family was famous in Japan, specially in Kamakura where he has bornt and in the Aoyama Gakuin in Tokyo where he and my mother were studied before coming to Brazil. I loved your story and taking the opportunity I will print it to show to my son who is very interested in Japan and about his ancients. Yes, and my name is also written “Majima” using the “Aida” no “ji”.
Comment from TERRY
Time 10/11/2015 at 22:17
Hi,Césare Majima-san. Thank you four your kind comment.I am so happy to learn people like you read our articles on this Tenkai-japan website. You may be a descendant of Tsuguhiko(or Otohiko) Majima(間島弟彦)who donated money to build the Kamakura Town Library and built library in Aoyama Gakuin Universaity(青山学院大学)in Tokyo. Tsugihiko Majima was my great grandfather’s friend and his wife’s brother was a painter who was an apprentice of Seiki Kuroda(黒田清輝)who was my ancestor’s relative. Tsuguhiko’s father, Fuyumichi Majima(間島冬彦)was also a well-known banker, politician and a poet.If you like to know more about them, it might be helpful to refer to the biography of Tsuguhiko Majima called “Shoden-Majima Tsuguhiko”(小伝間島弟彦)(http://ci.nii.ac.jp/ncid/BN14191139?l=en).The wekipedia is here;(https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%96%93%E5%B3%B6%E5%BC%9F%E5%BD%A6)
Unfortunately, most of data about the Majima family are available only in Japanese and not in Portuguese or English. But we will be quite happy if you kindly tell your son and other people around you about those historical people as a part of genealogy and culture of our countries.
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Time 19/01/2010 at 05:18
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