Family Tree

When I was cleaning up my apartment at New year, I found a five-thousand yen book token my students had given me when I left my last job. I took it down to Kinokunia bookshop yesterday, and they told me that even after four years, it was still valid. I was aiming at get something which I would never buy for myself, and looking around the shelves, it didn't take me long to decide what I wanted: The Royal Horticultural Society Encyclopedia of Plants and Flowers. Thanks to that, I can tell you that the pretty flower above is a "Blue Beauty" water lily. I photographed it at Shinjuku Gyoen a few years ago, one hot summer afternoon after coming back from the dentist. I staggered around the park almost passing out from sunstroke and the effects of the dental anesthetic.

Yesterday was also the day when I finally started researching my family tree, or to be more accurate, I started researching how to research my family tree. There is a bewildering collection of online sites, some free and some not-so-free. I don't want to pay through the nose for something only to find that it is online elsewhere for no charge, so I have started trawling through the genealogy listings. The best thing I have found so far was the 1881 UK census, which is free to view. Through that I found my mother's father's father and grandfather and their household. I discovered their names: great-great-grandfather William and great-great-grandmother Emma, both born in Derby in 1848. By this time they were living in Sheffield with their four kids, William Henry (my great-grandfather) 7, Lillie 6, Betsy 2 and Eliza 3m. William is described as an "Iron Puddler", and Wiki tells me that this was a highly-skilled, but also extremely dangerous job - one of the most dangerous in a foundry. I am guessing that they moved from Derby to Sheffield so he could get a job in the steel industry. It seems from the records that William died aged only 38, so that is the first mystery I would like to solve - what happened to him? Was there an accident at the foundry, or did he die of other causes? Another mystery concerns their lodger, Fredrick, who seems to have been William's older brother. He is listed as an engine driver and on the 1871 census, he was recorded as living in Derby with his wife, Fanny. Ten years later he is in Sheffield lodging with his brother and there is no sign of his wife, so what happened there?

Face of a Mizuko

This is a statue of a mizuko. In Japanese tradition, mizuko are the souls of children who were miscarried, stillborn or aborted. Legend has it that because they died without doing any good deeds, they are unable to cross the Sanzu river to enter the afterlife. The fact that they have made their parents suffer is also something they have to pay penance for, so they are sentenced to an eternity of piling rocks on the banks of the river. Being punished for being born dead seems rather extreme and unfair even by Japanese standards, so you may be happy to learn that there is a special deity named Jizo whose job it is to look after these unfortunate lost souls. You will find statues of him surrounded by tiny statues of children (the mizuko) in the grounds of many temples in Japan. The mizuko wear distinctive red bibs and hats. At the temple at which I took this picture, the mizuko were all wearing little crocheted outfits. This one's had almost rotted off him, so I hope that someone will soon be making him another.

Floating Flowers

I was puzzling over whether this was a chrysanthemum or a dahlia. By the shape of the leaves, I think it is the former. Anyway, I like taking this type of shot where a flower is separated from its leaves by making the background out of focus. In addition, if you use the flash on an overcast day, the flower will come out brightly coloured while the background will be very dark or even black. The double contrast in both focus and colour can produce quite a dramatic effect. To me, this looks more like a jellyfish swimming in the deep sea than a flower, but then maybe I have too vivid an imagination.

Aoyama Baiso-in Gujo Odori Dancing Festival

There is a dancing festival held at Baisoin Temple in Aoyama, Tokyo every summer. This showcases Gujo Odori (Gujo Dancing) and to get an idea of what it is like, you can take a look at this website:

 Aoyama Baisoin

I have been several times and enjoy taking pictures during the first half, while it is still light. Then, after the musicians take a break, you find that the light is fading, so I usually spend the second half taking part in the dancing. It isn't too strenuous and it is pretty easy to pick up the basic steps if you watch the people next to you carefully. This is a lot more upmarket than most of the other festivals I've been to, but then Aoyama is one of the ritzier areas of Tokyo. There are no dodgy-looking, chain-smoking teenagers selling greasy noodles here; instead, if you go inside one of the outbuildings, you'll find a good selection of regional products ranging from food to traditional clothing. The dancers seem to be more expensively dressed than those at other festivals too, like these two very graceful ladies.

Peonies

There is a peony garden in the grounds of a shrine next to Ueno zoo. I go there every year to photograph the flowers. It's got so that I know the location of every bush. This one pictured is in the first section of the garden on the right-hand side. It only has two or three flowers on it every year, but that may be because I always get there late in the season, so perhaps the rest of the heads have fallen off by then. Peonies don't weather the elements very well, but I think this delicacy only adds to their appeal. They are by far my favourite flowers, which is a trait I share with my grandmother. She had just one treasured bush of wine-red flowers in the old garden at home and one day, when I was a toddler, I thought I would cheer her up by going out into the garden and snapping off and collecting all of the unopened buds as a present. I can still remember the expression on her face when I proudly dumped the lot into her lap.

Fish Portraits

As well as festivals and temples, another common subject for my photographs is fish. There are several reasons for this. The main one is that they are easy to access - being trapped in tanks down at the aquarium, they can't get away. Secondly, you can take hundreds of pictures of them in a short space of time (two hours is normally the most I can concentrate on photography these days). This picture was taken at Tokyo Tower Aquarium. Most people don't seem to be aware that there are fish tanks on the ground floor - I suppose they are too focused on seeing the sights from the top to notice the small aquarium sign on the ground floor. Anyway, I have spent several happy hours there, mostly taking pictures of the deep water fish. The tropical varities are colourful, but I find them boring on the whole, I prefer the huge, ugly creatures from the great lakes or deep sea. With these you also have the advantage of their interest in lights; they are attracted by your flash or autofocus light instead of being frightened, so they will swim over and look at you through the glass, giving you great photo opportunities. Once you start photographing them, you realise that they all have different faces and unique facial expressions. You might not normally think of fish as having personalities, but looking at some of my photos, I can imagine that they do. Some of them even remind me of people I know. This one here looks a bit gormless to me, and it does remind me of a certain man, though I wont say who. Not because he might read it - which would be impossible, as he is dead now - but because it wouldn't be nice to be compared to a fish. I have a whole file of these pictures. I call them my "fish portraits".

Good Luck

Couple reading lucky fortunes at Egara Tenjin in Kamakura. This is one of my favourite shrines in Kamakura, dating from 1104. The red buildings make a beautiful contrast with the leafy surroundings.

Festival Kid

Here's another kid from another festival. He looks just as bored as the kid in the previous photograph.

First Post

I just created this Blog a few minutes ago. My primary motive in creating this thing was to finally do something with my photographs. I have just submitted the one above to the "My Shots" section of the National Geographic site. The directions came with a list of terms of agreement three feet long. I got lost somewhere in the middle of it and have probably signed over my kidneys and other vital organs in return for publishing possibilities. Anyway, this picture was taken at the Sanja Festival in Asakusa in 2006. My Nikon does best in bright sunlight. I wonder what that kid is doing now?