More News From Japan

A group of scientists at Waseda University, Tokyo, have been studying the biorhythms of trees in the primeval forests of Japan. They found that the electrical potential of most trees varied through the day, but that several groups of trees varied according to the same daily pattern. Each group might contain 20-50 trees of up to six different species. Trees growing next to each other seem most likely to have synchronised biorhythms, but the groups seem not to have fixed boundaries and individual trees seem able to join in or drop out. Yoshiyuki Miwa suggests that the trees are communicating with each other, perhaps through their roots; other scientists, however, believe that the trees are all responding to the same set of changes in the local environment. [New Scientist 146/1977, 13-5-95]

THAT ORIENTAL CHARM

The endemic powerlessness of the individual that is all too often encountered in Japanese society now has a means of release. Any irritation, major or minor, is catered for by a new product marketed by Juonsha for ¥7800 (about £60) - a home cursing kit. This consists of a straw figure and accessories including black carrying bag, manual (which stresses the importance of creative visualisation in cursing) and another doll to catch any curses that may be sent your way.

Originally targeted via adverts in comics and computer magazines at the victims of school bullying, which is widespread in Japan and accounts for a number of fatalities every year, it has been found that a large number of customers are middle-aged women, apparently working out their neighbourhood and family resentments. Nonetheless, adverts carry success stories like cursed bullies failing their all-important exams for university entrance (without which there is no economic future for most Japanese men), grouchy neighbours being arrested for shoplifting and demotion and transfer of a sexually harassing boss.

The traditional method of cursing was to don white clothes, bind candles to your head, hold a wooden comb in your mouth and, taking along your straw doll, secretly visit a shrine or temple at midnight; there you hammer the doll to a tree with a huge nail. One ruined temple near Takatsuki, in Osaka Prefecture, was apparently someone's favourite place for such acts in the 1980s, and on several occasions when I passed through it sported such dolls pinioned by six-inch nails to tall Japanese cedars with an inscription detailing the curse. Juonsha, however, recommend in the interests of modern everyday life dispensing with the troublesome trimmings and doing it at home. All you need to do is hammer your doll to a wooden plate with a small nail in the chest, head and abdomen over three consecutive days. [Japan Times, 'Home Cursing Kits Latest Convenience', 8-11-1994]

VANDALS HIT PETROGLYPHS

Japan is one of the few countries in the world where one can leave things or places unattended and not expect an unpleasant surprise when you return. Yet even there we hear of wilful damage to antiquities.

Over the last ten years, there has been growing interest in epigraphic inscriptions on rocks in Japan. Mostly concentrated in the south-west, and particularly on the island of Kyushu, the markings correspond to no known local (Japanese or Chinese) script. Some researchers claim to be able to interpret them using Sumerian glyphs as a model; archaeologists and others, while accepting that the carvings are deliberate and ancient, are naturally somewhat sceptical of the Sumerian connection.

One of the most celebrated of all the petrograph rocks lies on Sugita Hill in the city of Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi Prefecture (Fig. 1). First discovered in 1924, when research into matters that did not fit into the Imperial chronology (i.e. that the world was formed c. 660 BC) was officially disapproved, the rock continued to hold its own for another seventy years. In March 1994, however, it was found that someone had attacked the surface with a rock, scoring lines across the carvings. Similar attacks have apparently taken place on other engraved stones in Yamaguchi and Kyushu, and there are also fears that collectors may cast avaricious eyes upon some of the more portable stones. [JPS Petrograph News 35, 17-8-94]

Cup-and-ring marks have been found associated with an alignment of pyramidal stones at Mt. Kasagi in Gifu Prefecture. [PN 38, 2-4-95]

Another curious inscribed stone was found in a private shrine last July, where it had been brought after discovery in Tsukumi Bay, Oita (Fig. 3).

For details of JPS write to Yoshida Nobuhiro, c/o JPS, PO Box 11, Kokuranishi P.O., Kokura-kita-ku, Kitakyushushi, 803, Japan; please mention the NE editor.
SACRED TRAUMA

How about this for child abuse? The festival of Nakizumo at Ikiko Shrine in Kanuma, Tochigi Prefecture, involves two men dressed as sumo wrestlers, but each holds a baby. At a given signal, they compete by holding up their baby and shouting "yoisho!" (a traditional word of encouragement to greater efforts). The winner of the contest is the first one whose baby starts to cry!