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Japanese costumes, beautiful little village.

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rayk

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Saga, Kyushu, JP
Okawachi is a small, beautiful village in the mountains of Saga prefecture. It is famous for being the place that high class porcelain was first madenear Imari, Japan. In the 16th century the local lord of Saga, Lord Nabeshima, kidnapped a group of Korean potters, transported them back to Saga, and imprisoned them, forcing them to reveal their porcelain making secrets, using the newly discovered local kaolin clay. They couldn't easily escape, due to the ruggedness of the surrounding terrain.

Every year the village has a small festival, as do almost all villages in Japan. The costumes are usually very colorful, even if the music and dancing are a little staid.

E-1 with 14-54 lens.

All the pictures here, and some samples below.
http://www.pbase.com/rkphoto/okawachi









Ray Kinnane
Saga-shi, Japan
 
Yes, your part of the world has an interesting history with Japan. Mine too, as originally I'm from Australia. Many Australians still believe that Japan had intentions of capturing Australia during WW2, although most historians write that off these days as a bit of wartime propaganda to raise the concerns of the home folk. Japan did attack by air and sea quite a few times though. But nothing to what Saipan would have endured.

How do the local folk feel about Japan, and the Japanese, these days? Most of the rest of Asia still bear a decent grudge, even now.

Thanks for your comments.
--
rayk
 
Thanks Tim. You should get here then, either to reinforce or dispel the feelings! Seriously, it is a very different place than most western countries, even though it has taken on a lot of American culture, but who hasn't? But for that, it is still a very unique place to live and work. And great for travelling.
--
rayk
 
Excuse the very strange elongation (vertically) of pictures one and three! It is down to pBase, nothing I have done. It has happened before with them, and may or may not correct itself eventually. Japanese men are often thin, but not that thin! And their feet are supposed to be in the frame somewhere!

--
rayk
 
rayk said:
How do the local folk feel about Japan, and the Japanese, these
days? Most of the rest of Asia still bear a decent grudge, even now.
Click to expand...
The babyboomers are absolutely xenophobic (no matter where the people are from). The old folks who lived already in the Japanese times, have generally positive memories (besides the war). After all, the Japanese brought a little bit of wealth to nearly everybody. It only got bad when the war broke out, and everything was rationed and the locals were forced into labor.

Yeah, I read some stuff that the Japanese were keen on Australia, but I don't think they really would have been able to invade it. I guess all they wanted to do was to keep the Australians subdued and disturb shipping routes. On the other hand, the oil fields between Indonesia/New Guinea and Australia were vital to them, so may at least have tried to set up some bridge heads in Northern Australia .... But I don't think this would have been successful.
--
http://kagman2.blogspot.com/
http://cgbier.zenfolio.com/
( Both just started, so don't expect too much)
 
Love those little mountain festivals.

Tokyo's not nearly as "picturesque" in your sense, Ray, but here's one from an urban fall festival a few weeks ago.



--
'And only the stump, or fishy part of him remained'

http://www2.gol.com/users/nhavens
A Contemplative Companion to Fujino Township
 
Thanks Norm. Nice to hear from you.

Actually, we stumbled on the festival by accident, when I took my brother and his wife down to the village for a look. It is one of my favourite places in Saga, as it is really pretty, and full of very beautiful porcelain, both traditional Imari ware, and some great modern stuff. It's only about an hours drive from our place.

I like your shot. I wonder if she ever bit the phone, and accidently put the corn in her ear? I think young Japanese women could talk on the phone in their sleep!
--
rayk
 
rayk said:
I wonder if she ever bit the phone, and
accidently put the corn in her ear? I think young Japanese women
could talk on the phone in their sleep!
Click to expand...
Ha!, yeah, it sometimes looks like the things are growing out of their heads (the keitai, not the corn). What worries me is how "mature" she's looking (or trying to look) at that age.

--
'And only the stump, or fishy part of him remained'

http://www2.gol.com/users/nhavens
A Contemplative Companion to Fujino Township
 
Hokuto said:
Ha!, yeah, it sometimes looks like the things are growing out of
their heads (the keitai, not the corn). What worries me is how
"mature" she's looking (or trying to look) at that age.
Click to expand...
I've given up on trying to guess the age of women here, Hokuto. I can't tell if they are 14, 24 or 40, half the time. And the clothes and kawai accessories don't help much. I have a high school student and her mother in one of my classes, and you would almost swear they were sisters, even down to their clothing!

Women bank employees in hello kitty outfits, and twelve year olds in silver slingbacks is taking outfit swapping to strange extremes, I think. Not a good thing at all.

rayk
 
at the colour, detail, contrast that you and Higuma for eg. pickup in your images with the E-1. Do you still shoot jpeg? I switched to raw sometime ago and feel that mine lack your punch. Or maybe I am just using the Canon too much lately and have forgotten how good the E-1 is.

I actually posted an image of a prop driven plane the other day with the E-1 which I thought exemplified what I like about this camera but not one comment so maybe it was just me.

I can see the exif settings on your images but cannot tell whether they were raw or jpeg.

--
Terry
http://www.pbase.com/terdonal
dpreview supporter
pbase supporter
FourThirdsFAQ -> http://www.fourthirdsFAQ.com
 
Ray,

While the colour and detail of all shots are splendid as usual, its the 3rd streetscape shot that really has me....

This one really reminds me of Yangsho in China, yet really different (if that makes sence).

This looks like a place I now want to visit....

Cheers
Wazza

--
 
Hi Terry, thanks. These are a mixture of RAW and jpeg, but mostly RAW. I have been shooting a bit more RAW lately, since I got Oly Studio. But I only use it to convert the files, maybe adjust the exposure, and give me the in-camera sharpening setup, and then I do most of the other PP on the converted jpeg. It seems to work ok, and I have some good PixelGenius plug-ins for PSCS.

But the costumes have lovely colors here, and I just add a little contrast, and reduce brightness a touch, and the E-1 color magic comes through.

Is the Canon easy on the PP, or do you have to work hard at it?
--
rayk
 
Thanks Wazza - great to hear from you. I hope all the family are fine. Most villages in Japan are not that pretty, usually having lots of car bodies, rusted farm machinery and bits of fallen down houses everywhere, but this one has a huge amount of tourist trade so it is kept pretty picturesque. But I do love it. It is quite small, tthe main street (that you are looking at) is less than a kilometre long. And most of the main street is shops and kilns, which are both usually lovely, old style buildings.

If you ever get down to Saga sometime, I will certainly run you down there.
--
rayk
 
I especially like the last one. So many repeating triangles both in comp and actual forms. The circles break this up so nice. Wonderfully seen and shot.

I dare say it would make an excellent B&W shot as well.

--
Charlie

 
is about the same processing using Silkypix though the colours just can't match the E-1 more often than not.

I having been using the Canon a little more because of what I have been taking especially using the 135mm f2 which is a fantastic lens but maybe I need to step back and start using the E-1 some more. Shouldn't be difficult as the typical Vancouver fall, wet weather is on us again.

Again, great stuff, your images just have the punch in my eyes.
--
Terry
http://www.pbase.com/terdonal
dpreview supporter
pbase supporter
FourThirdsFAQ -> http://www.fourthirdsFAQ.com
 
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