
Bell donated by US Catholics to atomic-bombed Nagasaki cathedral shown to media
The bell was made under an American project to replace one destroyed at Urakami Cathedral in 1945 ahead of the 80th anniversary of the city's atomic bombing.
The cathedral originally had two bells, each hanging in a separate tower. The rebuilt cathedral only has the surviving bell, which was recovered from the rubble.
On Thursday, the Catholic Archdiocese of Nagasaki revealed the donated bell, which is a faithful replica of the original bronze one.
At a news conference, Nagasaki Archbishop Nakamura Michiaki said the sound of the new bell ringing into the future will be of great significance not just for Catholics but also for Nagasaki and the United States. He said he believes the new bell will provide hope for efforts to achieve world peace.
James Nolan Jr., who is the grandson of a doctor involved in the development of atomic bombs and who coordinated the bell project, attended the news conference online.
He said he is honored to be able to help restore the sound that had been lost for 80 years to Urakami Cathedral.
The Archdiocese of Nagasaki says the new bell will be placed in the tower in July, and will be first rung there at 11:02 a.m. on August 9 -- the time the bomb exploded 80 years ago.
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Japan Times
3 days ago
- Japan Times
Amid searing summer heat, eel restaurants draw crowds on Day of Ox
Kabayaki grilled eel stores and restaurants in Japan attracted crowds of customers on Saturday, this year's Day of Ox, with many lining up from before opening time in hope of surviving the intense heat by eating the summer delicacy. Japanese people have a tradition of eating nutritious grilled eels, believed to be good for restoring energy, on the midsummer Day of the Ox. The popularity of the summer tradition seems to be unabated even when purse strings tend to tighten due to high prices. At Yatsumeya Nishimura, a long-established eel restaurant in Tokyo's Meguro Ward, the staff were busy from early in the morning preparing around 1,500 fillets of grilled eels. They dipped the fillets in a sauce and grilled them skillfully over charcoal until they were browned. Yatsumeya Nishimura's grilled eels for take-out are priced at ¥3,000 per fillet, unchanged from last year. The restaurant has been attracting many customers this summer, since before the Day of the Ox. "It's hot again today. We will work hard to sell our eels so that many people can enjoy them," owner Kiyoshi Matsumoto said. A man in his 70s from Ibaraki Prefecture, meanwhile, said he was up early to get his share. "I left home at 5 a.m. to buy eels at this store," he said. "I want to nourish my body by eating the eels."


Japan Times
3 days ago
- Japan Times
Gandhi's philosophy of nonviolence — and Zen?
'Zen has no special doctrine or philosophy, no set of concepts or intellectual formulas, except' — wrote Zen priest Daisetz T Suzuki (1870-1966) in 'Zen and Japanese Culture' (1959) — 'that it tries to release one from the bondage of birth and death, by certain intuitive modes of understanding peculiar to itself.' This is puzzling. 'Intuitive modes of understanding' escape the ready grasp of minds fed on 'concepts' and 'intellectual formulas.' 'Release from the bondage of birth and death' is equally elusive. It's not the 'Western' intellect's view of things, nor that of most modern Japanese, whose thought processes, regardless of Zen's shaping influence over many centuries on traditional Japanese culture, are more 'Western' than Zen. In Zen, everything is not. Which seems to mean: nothing is. But doesn't. Because nothing, too, is not. Likewise life, death, self, I, you, subject, object, mind, thought. None of it is. It's all nothing. Which itself is not. The difficulties of writing about a manner of thought that denies everything language can express are clear enough. Suzuki, whose book (written in English) is a masterpiece of language used to transcend language, devoted much of his long life to introducing Zen to the West — not by making it comprehensible, which would have defeated his purpose; rather by making us comfortable (sort of) with incomprehension. Suzuki quotes at length numerous ancient sages. Extracting more or less at random: 'I see the emptiness of all things — no objects, no persons.' — Bukko (1226-86) 'I hold a spade in my hands, and yet I hold it not; I walk and yet I ride on the water buffalo.' — Fu Dashi (497-569) 'The uplifted sword has no will of its own, it is all of emptiness. It is like a flash of lightning. The man who is about to be struck down is also of emptiness, and so is the one who wields the sword. ... As each of them is of emptiness and has no 'mind,' the striking man is not a man, the sword in his hands is not a sword, and the 'I' who is about to be struck down is like the splitting of the spring breeze in a flash of lightning.' — Takuan Soho (1573-1645) Imagine Mahatma Gandhi reading that. 'Mahatma' — literally 'great soul' — is the title affectionately and gratefully conferred upon Mohandas Gandhi (1869-1948), first by India and then by the world — India which he led to independence, the world whose noblest souls he inspires to this day. 'I did not move a muscle when I first heard that an atom bomb had wiped out Hiroshima,' he told American journalist Margaret Bourke-White. He was affirming, it seems, his unshakable faith in nonviolence. Nonviolence, he said, 'is the only thing the atom bomb cannot destroy. ... Unless the world adopts nonviolence, it will spell certain suicide for mankind.' (All Gandhi quotes, as last month, are from 'The Essential Gandhi: His Life, Work and Ideas,' edited by Louis Fischer.) Was he a saint? He himself denied it — what saint wouldn't? But if profound religiosity; utter selflessness; boundless love for God and all living creatures; the willing and even joyous endurance of suffering for the good of all, friend and enemy alike (he acknowledged no enemies); and refusal to deploy against his most violent, threatening and dangerous opponents weapons more powerful than love, truth, nonviolence and noncooperation — he claimed there were none more powerful — are measures of sainthood, we must at least accord him a measure of saintliness. Was he — unconsciously perhaps — a Zen man? No, is the gut response. Between this apostle of nonviolence and Zen priest Takuan's veneration of the sword there seems no common ground. Suzuki has much to say of swords and swordsmanship. 'Zen,' he writes, 'speaks of the sword of life and the sword of death, and it is the work of a great Zen master to know when and how to wield either of them. Manjusri (the bodhisattva of supreme wisdom) carries a sword in his right hand and a sutra in his left ... but the sword of Manjusri is not to kill any sentient beings, but (to kill) our own greed, anger and folly.' Maybe so, and yet, undeniably, as we read in the 18th-century 'Hagakure,' which Suzuki quotes with approval, 'The essence of swordsmanship consists in giving yourself up altogether to the business of striking down the opponent. If the enemy, too, is ready to give his life to it, you are then well-matched. The final outcome will depend on faith and fate.' The 'Hagakure' is a celebration of Bushido, the 'way of the warrior,' written by a samurai named Yamamoto Tsunetomo (1659-1719) who, bored and disgusted by the long peace of the Edo Period (1603-1868) in which it was his misfortune to have been born, yearning for bloodier days gone by and, he hoped, to come, wrote, 'The way of the warrior is death. This means choosing death whenever there is a choice between life and death. Every day without fail one should consider oneself as dead.' Is the way of Gandhi death? Does the Gandhian sword of love, truth, nonviolence and noncooperation speak the same language as the sword of steel, 'sword of life' though Zen calls it? Certainly Gandhi faced death as boldly as any samurai. The nonviolent, he wrote, 'would offer themselves unarmed as fodder for the aggressor's cannon. ... The unexpected spectacle of endless rows upon rows of men and women simply dying rather than surrender to the will of an aggressor must ultimately melt him and his soldiery.' The ideal man or woman, he wrote, 'is a devotee who is jealous of none, who is a fount of mercy, who is without egotism, who is selfless, who treats alike cold and heat, happiness and misery, who is ever forgiving, who is always contented ... who has dedicated mind and soul to God ... who is versed in action yet remains unaffected by it...' Arrested frequently by authorities against whom he protested (however nonviolently), he called jail his 'temple' and said one could be happy even there — or rather, 'the follower of dharma (the ultimate reality of Hinduism and Buddhism) trains himself to do without things (or accept privation) with happiness ... for happiness ... is not the opposite of unhappiness. It is superior to that state. The devotee of the (Bhagavad) Gita is neither happy nor unhappy. And when that state is reached, there is no pain, no pleasure, no victory, no defeat, no deprivation, no possession.' Zen's sword might have repelled him but there was Zen salt in him, and a dialogue, we imagine, between him and Suzuki would have been friendly; no doubt fruitful as well. We'd arrange it if we could. Gandhi's fate was tragic. Ours is not the world he strove for, and he died staring in the face the overwhelming probability that it would not be. The spinning of cloth, which he strove to spread among the masses as their liberation from poverty and India's from modern industrial capitalism, which he abhorred, failed to take root. Nonviolence stronger than the atom bomb? It was not stronger than Hindu-Muslim hatred; there they were, India's two great religions, their devotees slaughtering each other en masse and without mercy before his very eyes even as India celebrated its rebirth as an independent nation. Brotherhood? The execrated, persecuted 'untouchables' of the Hindu caste system remain execrated and persecuted, despite his exhausting campaigning on their behalf. Circumstances, the world, human nature, call it what you will, may have defeated him — but victory over himself he did win. Months before he was assassinated by a Muslim zealot, he foresaw his assassination (given the emotional climate it was not difficult). He said, 'If I am to die by the bullet of a madman I must do so smiling. There must be no anger within me. God must be in my heart and on my lips.' And so it was. His last words, as he breathed his last: 'Oh, God.' Michael Hoffman is the author of 'Arimasen.'


Japan Times
4 days ago
- Japan Times
Cool to be square: A block of tofu with veggies to chill your summer
On days when temperatures and humidity soar, appetites and energy wane. That's when restorative hiya yakko comes to the rescue. In its simplest configuration, it's a block of chilled, silky tofu drizzled with soy sauce and topped with condiments. Meaning 'cube shaped,' the term 'yakko' is derived from the white, square-shaped crest that adorned the sleeves of servants who attended to high-ranking samurai in the Edo Period (1603-1868). Blocks of tofu cut to resemble the crest became a popular dish among Edo (the former name of Tokyo) townspeople, and hiya (chilled) yakko remains a favorite hot-weather dish today throughout Japan. My version of the dish, dashi yakko, includes a salsa-like topping made from fresh chopped myōga (Japanese ginger), cucumber, eggplant and blanched okra that is known as 'dashi' in Yamagata Prefecture (stock is referred to as dashi-jiru in the region). The recipe's dashi mixture includes cucumber, eggplants and okra, which are all at their peak in summer. | ELIZABETH ANDOH The Japanese generally embrace foods with viscosity (think positive cling, not negative slime), and in this dish, vegetables such as okra encourage other minced morsels to bind with each other. The result is a mixture of crisp, succulent tidbits with a slightly slick mouthfeel. For those who relish slippery textures, I recommend adding nagaimo, a mineral-rich yam that aids digestion and is thought to have a cooling effect on the metabolism. For those who wish to spice things up, adding green chilis such as shishitō tōgarashi is another option. In Yamagata, every household seems to have its own version of dashi; I encourage you to create your own using the basic recipe below as a point of departure. Once assembled, the dashi yakko mixture will keep refrigerated for up to five days. Having a jar on hand will make it easy to pull together a main course salad for supper on a muggy summer evening. The veggie-herb mixture also garnishes cold noodles and is served with plain cooked rice. Other (eclectic) uses for dashi include wrapping some in lettuce leaves, stuffing tomatoes or bell pepper cups with it or folding it into an omelet. Dashi yakko with fresh herb relish 1 block kinugoshi (silken) tofu (150 grams per portion; each block serves one) Yamagata dashi mixture (makes about 3 cups, enough for 12 portions) 2 small Japanese eggplants, about 180 grams total Salt, about 1¼ teaspoon total, used in preparing several of the vegetables 1 cucumber (about 120 grams) 140 grams nagaimo (5- to 7-centimeter segment) 1 teaspoon vinegar mixed into 2 cups water 3 okra pods (about 35 grams) 1 small knob fresh young ginger (about 50 grams) 1 bulb myōga 4 to 5 green shiso (perilla) leaves 1 tablespoon usukuchi (light-colored) shoyu 2 teaspoons mirin Chill the blocks of tofu, each in its own serving dish, as you prepare the dashi mixture. You'll be prepping each ingredient in a slightly different way before assembling them together in a bowl and lightly seasoning the mixture. To avoid unwanted metallic or plastic odors, it is best to mix everything in a glass bowl that can be covered and refrigerated until serving time. Begin by preparing the eggplants. Trim away the stems and sepals but keep the dark skins intact. Dice the eggplants finely and place the bits in a glass bowl filled with salted water (1 teaspoon salt mixed into 2 cups tap water). To ensure that the bits stay submerged in the brine, press a piece of paper towel on the pieces to serve as a clinging lid. Allow the eggplant bits to soak for at least 30 minutes and up to several hours. The soaking liquid will turn brown. After dicing and soaking the eggplants in water, gently squeeze them to remove their excess liquid. | ELIZABETH ANDOH Drain and rinse the soaked eggplant bits in fresh water, then gently squeeze them to remove excess liquid. Place these bits in whatever bowl or container that will hold the final mixture. Next, prepare the cucumbers. Slice off the very top (the nonflowering end where it had been attached to the vine as it grew) and rub the cut edges against each other in a circular motion. The friction caused by this action draws out a pasty white foam that the Japanese call 'aku' (naturally occurring but astringent-tasting bitterness). Rinse away the foam and slice the cucumbers lengthwise into strips. Cut across the strips to dice the cucumbers finely and place the pieces in a bowl. Toss them with ¼ teaspoon salt and let them sit for at least 5 minutes and up to 20 minutes. Lightly squeeze and drain off their excess moisture before adding them to the final bowl or container. Wrap the segment of the nagaimo in a paper towel to expose one end and, using a vegetable peeler, peel away the exposed skin. The uncovered surface will become very slippery — holding it with the paper towel will make it safer to handle. Using a fresh piece of paper towel, grab the peeled end and remove the remaining portion of skin. Wrap one end of the "nagaimo" (mountain yam) with a paper towel and peel away the exposed skin with a vegetable peeler. | ELIZABETH ANDOH Lay the paper towel on a cutting board, then slice and dice the nagaimo. Place the chopped yam in a bowl of vinegar water (1 teaspoon vinegar mixed into 2 cups water). This will prevent it from discoloring and minimize possible irritation from handling (some people feel an itching sensation after handling nagaimo). Let it soak for 10 minutes and drain. Rub the okra pods with ¼ teaspoon salt to remove any fuzz and ensure the pods will be brightly colored after being blanched. Trim away the stems without cutting into the pods to limit stickiness. Bring a small pot of water to a rolling boil, add the salted pods and blanch them for 1 minute after the water returns to a boil. Drain the okra and let them cool naturally — do not refresh under cold water. When the pods are cool enough to be handled comfortably (about 1 minute later), slice them thinly into (naturally star-shaped) rounds. Add the okra slices to the other prepped ingredients. Peel the ginger and mince finely. Slice the myōga bulb in half lengthwise, then across into thin half-moon shreds. Add the ginger and myōga bits to the prepped vegetables. Rinse and remove the stems of the shiso leaves, then stack and roll them tightly. Cut across the grain into thin shreds, then cut across to make shorter lengths. Place all the ingredients in a glass bowl, stirring and tossing to distribute them well. Mix the usukuchi shoyu and mirin together and drizzle this mixture over the chopped vegetables and herbs, then toss well. Sticky items such as the okra will 'string' as you stir the mixture — this is fine as it will keep the various ingredients clinging together. Mix the shoyu and mirin together and drizzle it over the vegetable and herb mixture before tossing well. | ELIZABETH ANDOH When ready to serve, spoon a generous amount of the mixture over blocks of well-chilled silken tofu. Serve with a spoon. Cover and refrigerate any remaining dashi mixture.