Beautiful countryside

Near Torino, in the middle of the hills,there is a small lake, the lake of Arignano. The place is not a natural park and it is not particularly famous. But it is known by birdwatchers as one of the spots in the province of Torino where a great number of species can be seen. In the lake, ducks, cormorants, grebes, herons and sandpipers can be seen. The countryside around the lake is not woods or anything looking like a primeval environment, but simple, old style countryside, where small patches of wood are mixed with fields and meadows. The special thing of this place is that it is different. Different from modern countryside where development is almost industrial and only corn fields can be seen. In this special place, you can see species, like the red-backed shrike my wife took a picture of, that are fast disappearing elsewhere.

I hope we can preserve some parts of those very human, yet natural, places.



Looking at the sunset reflected on the lake, while grebes were fishing and only sounds from nature could be heard, we cannot forget nature surrounds us, however modified or used by man, and we can use its resources without destroying it.

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いつも最後まで読んでくださってGRAZIE MILLE！）

The world of Genji

Thanks to a program of the University of Oxford's website, I recently could download (for free!) the entire text of the "Genji Monogatari", translated in English by Edwuard Seidensticker. I have read only about a quarter of the massive volume, but I can already post my impressions. It is without doubt a classic, and every time I pick it up, it continues to impress me with its freshness and beauty. The book was written around 1000 AD by Murasaki Shikibu, who was a maid of honour at the imperial court in Kyoto. It's the story of the splendid "bad boy" prince Genji and his many loves and romantic adventures around the Heian Kyoto.

The book surprises me for the modernity of the way the characters are represented and the feelings are expressed. At the same time, the many poems and the pace of the story has the same taste I love from the classics of Latin and Greek times. I think anyone interested in Japan SHOULD read Genji Monogatari. And even everyone else would appreciate it, as the story in itself is captivating. The novel contains everything... from romance, to horror (yes, horror), humor, religion... it's of course a look into middle age Japan, but also a wonderful story which is difficult to stop reading once picked up and an analysis of relationships from the point of view of man and woman. Every range of human feeling is displayed by the many characters, whose humanity is impressing.

Even in today's Japan, many places still bring to memory Murasaki Shikibu and her characters, of course especially around the area of Kyoto (but the idea of the story was conceived by Murasaki in Ishiyama dera, today in Otsu city).

　
GRAZIE MILLE！

Eji Yoshikawa's Musashi

Today I want to speak about a book I read recently, one of the few examples of Japanese historical novel to be popular abroad. The book is by Eji Yoshikawa, and it is titled "Musashi". It was originally published in Japan on the pages of the daily newspaper "Asahi Shinbun", from 1935 onwards. The book was then republished several times in Japan, where it is still popular today. And finally, in 1981, a partial English translation was published with a nice preface written by Edwin Oldfather Reischauer, famous American scholar of Japan and Asia.

The book speaks about the life of a man, Miyamoto Musashi, who not only really existed, but who left artworks and even a book, "The book of five rings" which is very popular even today. Miyamoto Musashi, born in a small village, son of a rural samurai, rose to the top ranks of the swordfighing world in the early times of the Edo era. After his young life of many duels and incredible successes, Miyamoto Musashi fought under Tokugawa Ieyasu, became a master of sword under the noble Hosokawa Tadatoshi, and played a role in taming the rebellion of Shimabara.

The novel of Yoshikawa Eiji follows the early years of Musashi, from the start in the battle of Sekigahara, until the final battle against Sasaki Kojiro. Much of what is told in the book is historical. But Yoshikawa manages to picture in a very nice way the life of the people of Edo, and to represent with the characters of his book, different moral qualities and ideals. Musashi is struggling for perfection, and rises in the book from his start, when he is a fighting bully, to the end, when he decides to stop taking the lives of his enemy. Through the "Way of the sword" Musashi also grows morally. So do most of the characted in the book,from the old woman Osugi who wants to kill Musashi for "ruining" her son Matahachi. To Matahachi himself who finds his way in life after many mistakes. To Otsu, who is from long pages obsessed in her love for Musashi.

One of the unredeemed characters, is the cruel and arrogant Sasaki Kojiro, who mastered the use of a long "nodachi" sword crafted centuries earlier and who, finally, is killed by Musashi in the famous Ganryujima duel. While the Sasaki Kojiro of the book is definitely a villain, I don't believe the real Kojiro, who surely was arrogant, must have coincided with the character in the book. The real Kojiro was a master of arms for the Hosokawa fief in Kyushu. Anyway he is mainly honored today as the final opponent of Musashi.

I advise to all the fans of traditional Japan to read the book "Musashi" by Eiji Yoshikawa!


Sasaki Kojiro's bronze in Iwakuni city.

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Today I would like to speak about a kind of fruit which became quite difficult to find in Torino, but was once very popular. I am speaking about "Uva fragola" which is the name by which a particular hybrid of American and European grape vine is called.

There is a story, maybe even history, behind this fruit. The grape which was grown in Europe for thousands of years, in many different varieties, to be used as table fruit, and to be made into raisins and wine, is "vitis vinifera". Some different species of grape vine were used, here and there, rarely, but "vinifera" (which means "wine bringer" in Latin) was the most common. Anyway, when European people went to America, they discovered a lot of new plants, and amongst them, a different species of vine, which was later called "vitis labrusca", and "American grape". The grape can be eaten, and has a sweeter and different taste. Wine can be made from it, but it is quite different from "real" wine, and has a particular sweetish / too fruity taste called "foxy" in English.

In late 19th century, a terrible thing happened. From America, a small parasite came to Europe, maybe in a ship carrying American grape vines (which was already used , sometimes, as roots to graft the European grape vine onto, since the production of wine rises in this way). This parasite proved very deadly to European vines. And this is a reason why there was a crisis in wine producing in that period. Many varieties of vine were lost, or almost disappeared. Scientists and agronomists scrambled to find a solution, and the easiest proved the one to graft every vine on American roots or on "hybrid" roots. Anyway, some people tried to make wine on labrusca grape, or to develop hybrids which were used to make wine. The taste of these wines was foxy, and, well, so different. But some people still enjoyed it, so, even after the wine industry had recovered on grafted vines, a small number of producers kept on making wine from those hybrid roots. In Italy, this wine was called "Fragolino" (cause the taste is like strawberry, and straberries are called "fragole") and the grape from which it is made are "uva fragola".

Later, for commercial reasons mostly, and because of a scare concerning supposedly "poisoned" wine, fragolino was outlawed in Europe (but it is still legal, and produced, in both America and Japan), except in a small region in Austria where it became traditional. So, uva fragola almost disappeared, except from some gardens, and from some few farms which still sell the grape (which is legal). Actually, you can still find a wine called "Fragolino" in every Italian supermarket, but that is made adding strawberry juice to "normal" wine.

So, one day in October, we found a small farmers' market in a square in Torino. And a stand was selling uva fragola, so we bought and ate it. Here is a picture:

「菊と刀」 The Chrysanthemum and the Sword

I read the book named in the subject after a coworker of mine lent it to me.
It was written by Ruth Benedict, a famous America anthropologist, in 1946, just after the end of the second World War.
The purpose of the book is to explain Japan and its culture to American people, and to serve as "manual" to the American army, which was then debating how to manage, and for how long, the occupation and reorganization of Japan.
According to Ruth Benedict the values and convictions of Japanese people made it very difficult to most Americans to understand the ideas of Japanese people and to predict how they would react to different situations. In particular, she says that Japanese people value over everything the "having the right place" in world and society, and that putting things to their rightful (deserved) places was a Japanese motivation for starting the war. Then, she describes the importance, for Japanese people, of the duties and obligations to society, family, and one's own honor (on, gimu and giri)

She also writes about the importance, in Japanese culture and art, of the the theme of the "conflict" of different obligations and duties, compared with the western theme of conflict of moral issues of "good and bad".

The book goes on to describe Japanese education of children and to speak about the issue of "shame" versus the western, and in particular American, feeling of "guilt". In her words, Japan does not value guilt as much as shame and the judgement of society.

Speaking of the religious mentality, she compares the Western vision of Heaven to the Japanese vision of doing the right thing because of following one's rightful nature. She draws a lot, I think most of it not completely rightly, from Zen stories and morality, equating the Zen attitude to Japanese culture.

To write this book, Ruth Benedict never went to Japan. She instead based many of her observations on the opinions of Japanese Americans she knew, especially of mr. Robert Hashima, a Japanese born in America who had lived 20 years in Japan and had become a teacher there before returning to America at the start of the war.

I think this book is still interesting, and some of the considerations still valid. However I don't think that everything is right with her views. First of all, Ruth Benedict was an expert on Indian American (tribal) cultures. While she insists that her method is universally valid, I think studying a tribal culture, where the transmission of the cultural values is entirely oral and "person to person", is not the same thing as studying the culture of a nation. Specifically, she does not consider too much how the propaganda of ideological groups in the period in Japan may have changed the popular culture or the views of the people she met and studied. Plus, the people she studied were a small sample, and it seems like a single person, Robert Hashima, influenced her views more than most of the others (I read a review online which included an interview made to Rober Hashima himself about this). That single person had a very ideological view about Japanese culture and a strong conviction that the culture HAD to change, because he had suffered a strong culture shock, mainly due to the (very ideological) education system, after moving from America to Japan as a kid.

Then the author puts too much emphasis on the way the education of small children inside the families influenced the culture of the country. My reflections about this were that the education methods she cites disappeared totally, or almost, but Japanese culture has not changed as much as her ideas would imply. Also, sometimes the author seemed bent on proving her points on Japanese culture by citing what is really "military" culture or samurai culture. And, in the chapter devoted to religion, she goes as far as taking Zen Buddhism as exemplary of Japanese culture, which is not totally correct, since she fails to consider both the place of Zen inside the larger frame Buddhism, and the fact that Zen schools are actually more important in other Asian cultures, like Korea or even China, that they are in Japan after the EDO period. This not to underly the fact that indeed Zen Buddhism did influence Japanese culture and the Japanese mindset. Also, by pointing out that Japanese don't believe in afterlife or in heaven, she fails totally to consider the strong influence other Buddhist schools, like Shingon or Shodo shu and Shodo shinshu, have had in the Japanese views. This without considering that many Japanese people who belong to Zen schools and are religiously active do actually believe either in rebirth or in an afterlife.

At the end, my opinion is that this book is interesting, but it is not to be considered really reliable in exposing to the world Japanese culture. However, I am glad I could read it, as it surely offers some interesting points in both Japanese culture, and American culture and its view of the world.

Hills of Torino

Turin is quite a big city, but one of the nicest things about it is that, just across the Po river, stand beautiful and wild hills. On the top of the second tallest of those hills, from the old royal church of Superga, the whole city can be seen from above. The hills of Torino, in the middle ages, were wild, dangerous,and covered by deep woods. Then later, they were covered with vineyards and fields and the villas of the nobles from the city. Those hills, for centuries used to be the place from where the food (and wine) for the population of Turin was grown. Then, in the last 100 years, most of the fields in the hills were abandoned and left to the wilderness again. Now, that very few farmers remain, some of their products are being discovered again, protected, and saved from being forgotten.





Today we will travel through the hills of Torino and know some of the products which come from there. From the city, just after having crossed the river, the streets start going up the valleys on the hills. There, now, beautiful mansions surrounded in green woods stand. After some kilometers, the mansions become rarer, and the woods denser and taller. We are still in the "City of Turin", but there are some small hill villages which still look like separate towns. Reaglie, or Cavoretto, for example. Then, having crossed the pass between Aman mount and the Colle della Maddalena, we meet the small city of Pino Torinese. Pino literally means "pine". This city is known as the "city of the stars", because it hosts the astronomical Observatory of Torino (http://www.oato.inaf.it/), with several historical telescopies and a modern one. From there, the university of Turin still makes its observation. And from there, everyone can learn about stars, galaxies, and planets. From downtown Pino, we can then go still up and take the "Panoramic Road" which leads to Superga. Before getting to Superga, the road crosses the Superga Regional Park. This park, together with the "Wood of Vaj" some kilometers to the North, makes up the "Park of the Torino Hills", which was created to protect a natural environment so close to the big city. There are several mountain tracks which go deep in the woods, where big oak and chestnut trees grow and where wild boars have returned. There, surrounded by nature, it is easy to forget how close we are to a busy city. From the peak of Mount Aman, Superga can be seen from an unusual angle to us, used to see its facade from the lower Turin.









After having left the park and its woods, we get back to Pino and continue to go East. Now we reach Chieri. Chieri, in the past, was a strong town, and in the Middle Ages it was decidedly stronger than Turin. Now, a lot of centuries have passed, but this small city of 30 000 people, only 30 km from Torino, still has a different feeling. Walking downtown, so many monuments can be seen from 1300 to 1500 which show the city was rich and powerful.






Then we leave Chieri, and go still a little to the east, to look for one of the treasures of this area. Chieri used to be famous for its wine, the "Freisa di Chieri". Freisa is a typical piemonteis varietal of grape, which is used all around the region. But in Chieri it is absolutely traditional. Wines made with Freisa used to be the daily wines of everyone in the Asti and Torino region. In the last 30 years, Freisa had weakened very much against other Piemont wines considered more prestigious, but luckily, it is being rediscovered. Freisa wine is a red wine, with a fruity taste, much lighter than Barbera or Nebbiolo, and less dark than Dolcetto. It can be found in several versions: sparkling, plain, and sweet. Once, sweet Freisa from Chieri was one of the most beloved wines for the people of Torino. Freisa is also sometimes used to make rose and white wines. In the small town of Andezeno, one of the most famous producers of Freisa sells almost every version of it (save for the sweet one) and even makes a barrique version. Apart from selling wines, he also maintains a small museum of traditional children games and objects from the old times of country farming. We could see the fermentation tanks and the small bottling and labeling plants.

Then we traveled North on a small country road, crossed the village of Moncucco Torinese, which is in the province of Asti, and reached the village of Cinzano, the center of which is nested on the top of a hill. Nearby, we found the home of another small producer which makes other wines from the hills of Torino. Those wines are sold with the "Collina di Torino" DOC denomination, of which there are five different versions. One is simply the "Red" which mixes Freisa and Barbera varieties. Then there is the Barbera, the Malvasia which is an ancient aromatic variety from Greece, developed in a different way in those hills, the Cari which is a local sweet wine made only in the Torino area and famous since the 17th century, the Bonarda whic is made from a piemonteis variety which used to be planted amongst Freisa.

Rossotto vini


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イタリアンカフェの話

Today I would like to speak about a different subject: coffee and Italian coffee machines. Before the second world war, there were many kinds of coffee makers in Italy. But of all these, the "Napoletana" coffee maker, invented in Napoli around 1840, became common all over Italy and was found everywhere.
In 1933, a new coffee maker was invented in Torino: it is called Moka and was invented by a company based near Torino called Bialetti. After being invented it gradually came to be the most common, but took a lot of time to (almost) completely supplant the "Napoletana". And lately,from the '80s, expresso machines which make Italian coffee "like in the bar" are becoming more and more common and many families have one.




Anyway, since the moka is still the most common maker in Italian homes, I will speak about it first. It is composed of three parts: a boiler which contains water. A filter in which coffee is put. And a container which is put over the filter. The maker is made in a way such the when the water boils, it goes up and passes through the filter, and then still up until it erupts in the container. The maker works with the pressure of hot water, and when the water starts filling up the container, it makes a characteristic gurgling noise.

The "Napoletana" maker works in a completely different way. There is a boiler, like in the Moka. There is a filter too, and the coffee has to be put inside the filter. And there is a container where coffee will go. But it does not work with pressure. When the water is boiling, some of it starts dripping out of a small hole. Then, it is time to take the maker, and turn it upside down. Now, slowly, the hot water will come down and seep through the coffee, then drip down in the container, ready to be poured in Italian coffee cups.



Now, comparing the two ways of making coffee: coffee made with the Moka is a little bitter and a little stronger, because the water is hotter when it meets the coffee. On the other hand, coffee made with the Napoletana is lighter, sweeter, but has maybe more taste, because while the water is less hot, it takes more time to seep through the coffee. Comparing the taste of Napoletana coffee to Japanese coffee, the Napoletana one is stronger than the Japanese one, but not as strong as the Moka or espresso.



Now, I am a kind of Torino localist and almost a "nationalist" for my city. But I am also in love with old traditions. In my parent's home, we always used the moka machine, but I always saw an old Napoletana maker tucked away inside a drawer. So when I went to live alone for the first time, some years ago, I went to a supermarket and bought a Napoletana coffee maker. I was lucky to find it, because now, Napoletana makers are harder and harder to find. There are some companies which still make it, and I have the impression that there will be a "napoletana renaissance" someday: because they are becoming things of the tradition and of the past, and so things in need of being recovered. There are some wonderful "new" models of Napoletana made by Alessi, for example. But one thing is sure: it is now impossible, after just a few years, to find a Napoletana coffee maker in a supermarket. But I still have the one I bought and that is the one we use every morning to make coffee.

Palavela

I would like to speak about a monument of Torino which is not commonly featured in guides and is not about "historical" architecture. To introduce this issue, I would like to explain to you how the Italian mind, and specifically the Turineis one, think about architecture and the looks of our city. In most places in the world, and especially outside Europe, building something "new" is considered positive: the modernity of a city or of a country, expressed not only by the style of life, but also by the looks of the cities, is a matter of pride for most. In Europe, often, building something "new" is considered a "damage" to the traditional looks of the city. So, if something new is built at all, usually it is outside the downtown areas because people are opposed to building anything modern besides our historical downtowns: and even outside downtown areas, people are often opposed to the building of skyscrapers or "tall" buildings (which , I believe, are the main embodiment of modern architecture). So this means that in Europe, most often the most modern buildings are in the peripheral areas of a city. In Italy this is strongest, and few things notable were built after the 60s. In Torino it is even worse: there are projects to build skyscrapers or tall buildings, but soon, groups of protesters get organized and often, the projects are canceled. I think this has no sense: for centuries, our cities did not care about such things. It can even be argued that our cities are beautiful because they are the mix of many different and splendid architectures from different periods of a long history: take Rome for example, where you can see Roman buildings, monuments from the Middle Age, and Renaissance or Baroque palaces standing side by side. Now people want to keep everything frozen in time, and I am not sure it is a good thing.

Anyway, there are a few things built in the modern era which are striking: one rare example in Torino, and one I like a lot, is the Palavela. Palavela means "sail palace": that is because the roof of the building looks like a huge concrete "sail". It was built in 1960, projected by an engineer, Franco Levi, and the two architects Annibale Rigotti and Giorgio Rigotti. The reason it was built was to celebrate 100 years of the Unity of Italy: in fact Torino was the capital city of the country which unified Italy, and the first capital of the united Kingdom of Italy in 1860. The Palavela, in his original form, had wide glass windows leading down from the cement roof to the ground. The space inside was enormous, and it was meant to be used to host fairs, salons and manifestations during the "Italia 61" celebrations. Sadly, after the celebrations, the Palazzo Vela (this is the complete name of the building) fell in disuse and disrepair. The color became darker, and from a spectacular monument, it became a big ugliness, empty and bad looking. I believed it would have been tore down some day. But luckily, a thing happened. Torino was awarded the 2006 Winter Olympics and the Palavela was chosen to host figure skating competitions. And finally it was renovated to its present form. Of course, some people protested because the renovation did not preserve the original glass windows. And under the big concrete sail there are two new buildings, where skating and basketball competitions are held. When you watched Shizuka Arakawa in her gold medal, she did so under this big sail which is one of the most daring and courageous buildings made in Torino in the last 100 years. So, here are the pictures: I hope you enjoy.

Living in Torino

Hello to everyone! I am the Italian husband, and I will start speaking about the city where we are living, Torino. Torino is in the North West of Italy, and it is the capital city of Piemont. About 900000 people live here, and it was an industrial city mainly dealing in car making. Both FIAT and Lancia were born in here. Lately, it is becoming a different city, as lots of people from many countries are coming here. We are used to integration and welcoming different cultures in Torino, as with the industrialization, the city welcomed hundreds of thousands of workers from the North Eastern and Southern regions of Italy. Now, this is a fast changing place,where you can visit the biggest street market of Europe and hear Arabic spoken besides Chinese or Piemonteis or Souther Italian languages and dialects. It is a city where you can find Japanese restaurants and brazilian food, but still drink our traditional red wine or eat bagna caoda (one of the most typical piemonteis foods).

Torino has 2000 years of history. It was founded by August, the emperor of the Romans on the same site of the former capital city of the local "Taurini" tribe, which was destroyed by Hannibal the Carthaginian. It was an outpost of the Romans in the midst of Celtic and Ligurian tribes. For many centuries it was a small town, still enclosed in the roman walls and trying to build alongside the perpendicular streets of a roman military camp. Then it became the capital of a small nation under the Savoy Dukes from Chambery, then later the capital of Italy, and then the seat of Italy's most important industries. In this city, you can shop in a former FIAT factory (now turned into a mall) and visit palaces of the former kings built in 1600. And the Roman gates still stand, just a 5 minutes walk from a muslim mosque founded by moroccans. We will try to explain to you life in this city. To explain what it means to live in Torino, what it means to be Turineis, and what to be a "foreigner" in this city.