Plenty of Nothing

Tsugaru Sashiko

Aomori Prefecture combines territories once controlled by the Tsugaru and Nambu domains. A difference between the two areas is the way they embroidered kimono: Tsugaru is monochrome, Nambu is coloured. Read more about it here.

Red Seal Ship

From 1592 till 1635 Japan sent armed merchant vessels to trade with the countries of south-east Asia. These vessels operated with the approval and protection of the shogunate, and are known by the official red-sealed permits they carried. Source.

Vaccination, 1934

Source.

Tsushima Screens

In the days of the Tokugawa Shogunate all trade between Korea and Japan was funnelled through the Tsushima Domain. These folding screens showing a bird's-eye view of Tsushima were painted about 1811. Source.

Noren-Sama

Even noren have a mascot. Source.

Tsugaru Nuri

Lacquerware from the Tsugaru district of Aomori. Source.

The Sakuradamon Incident

On this day in 1860 a group of ronin from the Mito Domain attacked and killed Ii Naosuke, a powerful minister of the Shogunate, just outside the Sakurada Gate as he was being escorted into Edo Castle. They were angry about the signing of the Harris Treaty and the purge of political opponents to it. The incident recalls the tale of the 47 Ronin, and was itself a model for the February 26 Incident of 1936. Print by Taiso Yoshitoshi (1839-92). Source.

Kaitakushi

This building was the seat of the Hokkaido Development Commission during the 1870s. Source.

39th All Japan Women's Ice Hockey Championship

Vortex won Group B last year. Source.

The 39th All Japan Women's Ice Hockey Championship, which was to have taken place March 12th to 15th, has been cancelled due to the COVID19 virus.

The eight participants were: Daishin, Obihiro Cranes Ladies, Douru Kensetsu Peregrin, Kushiro Bears, Takashi Clinic Mikage Gretz, Toyota Cygnus, Seibu Princess Rabbits and Vortex Sapporo.

I'm posting this instead of deleting it because I didn't want to waste this picture of Sapporo Vortex's sharp uniform.

The 2020 IIHF Women's World Hockey Championship, which would have begun in Nova Scotia in a couple of weeks, is also cancelled. The Japanese women's team were in Group B and were scheduled to play their games in Truro.

Kogao

I've written before about Rita Cowan and Masataka Taketsuru and how they look as if they were designed by a manga artist. Rita really does, and the heart of it is that she has kogao, or "small face." Apart from having quite a small head compared to her husband's she has the narrow jaw and pointy chin that characterize this Japanese beauty ideal. Source. See this article on kogao and body image.