No 67

Dear Customers & Friends Hello from Japan! This is Kimono Flea Market ICHIROYA's News Letter No.67. Thank you very much for many emails concerning about the recent big typhoon. We are in Osaka, and she went through very near our town, but our town was safe and not damaged. But some districts are seriously damaged, especially heavy rain caused flood and landslides and approx 80 people lost their lives. It is a most serious damage of typhoon, I experienced and I could remember. And last night Niigata district(north west of Japan) had big earthquakes, which registered in the upper 6 range of the seven-point Japanese intensity scale. Especially Ojiya and Tokamachi area were seriously damaged, and 20 people dyed or missed. Ojiya is famous for its asa(Japanese hemp) products, and Tokamachi is also famous product center of tsumugi silk. We are very sad about this damage, and wondering why so many typhoons came this year. Some authority people say it is one of the effects of global warming, and they predict typhoons become bigger and fierce and occur more often in future. As far as earthquake is concerned, there will be very strong earthquake, which will be measured more than 8.5 on the Richter scale, are predicted to occur in Tokai and Tokyo area. Authority people says the probability of the Tokai earthquake within 30 years, is 50%. We must prepare for the disasters, especially we will protect your individual information! Yesterday TV news reported a number of volunteers who gathered to devastated district. We also remember, at 1995 Kobe earthquake ( which killed 5000 people) many people went to Kobe as volunteers.(I went Takarazuka city as a volunteer, also) Recently we Japanese seem to lose our goals, and seem to be wondering what we should do, or how we should live our lives. For example, there said to be approx 760000 NEET ( Young people, Not in Employment, Education or Training ) in Japan. Both older people and younger people seem to be tired of bad economy and unclear future. They can not set their goal of their lives. But once they meet the occasion like this time, many volunteer gather at devastated district, which they can devote without doubt. Today I am planning to write about 'Hinomaru'( flag of the Rising Sun ) and 'Kimigayo'( His Majesty's reign , Japan's national anthem ). We Japanese have very complex feeling about this national flag and anthem. Last autumn Tokyo Metropolitan Board of Education issued instructions, which ordered the teachers that they must make their students stand to attention for national flag, and sing the national anthem at events on the school calendar. Authority placed sanctions on approx 300 teachers, because they didn't follow the instruction. You must feel strange about this case. Why the authority must issue such instruction, and why teacher resist to do so? Many teachers and some ordinary people think 'Hinomaru' and 'Kimigayo' are the symbol of the militarism and Emperor system. Before ending of WWII, all Japanese people had to think themselves as subjects of Emperor, and willing to dye for the Emperor. Teachers had to teach their students to dedicate their lives to the Emperor. 'Hinomaru' and 'Kimigayo' were the very simple and strong symbol of it. If you check the war motif boy's kimono, you will know the atmosphere of that age. For example, http://www.ichiroya.com/item/list3.php?no=68182 My teacher of elementary school was very liberal person. I remember he put on TV and show us a historical boxing match - Mohammed Ali vs. George Foreman. He stopped the regular class program, and show us the match and said that you were seeing a historical case. Though I didn't know enough about two heros, but I couldn't forget it, because our teacher's good(and brave-he had to be criticized by other teachers or some parents ) arrangement. He taught us how nation drove people to the war without good cause , and killed people. He also taught us to be careful about the sign of next militarism, and keep the Article 9 of the Constitution that provides for renunciation of war. If he was still a teacher, he had to resist instructions of Tokyo Metropolitan Board of Education. However, Kimigayo is actually the only anthem and Hinomaru flag is the only national flag we have at the present even though they have a certain history. But recently our recognition towards the national flag and anthem are changing gradually. At the Olympic games or World cup games, we feel very proud to see the hoisting of the national flag `Hinomaru'. Especially young man seem not to feel complex feeling like us. And we are coming to think that only ideal and money will not make us safe under present world conditions. Anyway we would like to offer up a silent prayer to all the people who dyed recently by war and disasters.
Several days ago, we added new feature to our site - currency converter.You can check the item price and shipping cost in multiple currencies. Now we can accepti only USD or Yen, but we think the multiple currency display will give you some idea of the price of each item. If you are in Europe, Hong Kong, Singapore, Canada, Australia or New Zealand, please check the our new feature. Yesterday I attended kimono auction in Shikoku district, and got a little bit tired. Sorry for the delay of sending of the News Letter. And from now, I am going to write the discription and list items. Today we are going to list kimono, obi and silk bolts. We are very happy if you could check them.
Thank you again for reading to the end. We wish you a nice autumn day! Ichiro & Yuka Wada Kimono Flea Market "ICHIROYA" http://www.ichiroya.com e-mail: info@ichiroya.com address: Asia-shoji Bldg.301 1841-1 Nishi 1 chome Wakamatsu cho Tondabayashi city Osaka 584-0025 JAPAN TEL&FAX ****( international number ) - 81-721-23-5446