W/NW: Lamp Post

peterm1 said:
In the 1950's Japanese film director Ozu Jasujiro made a movie called "Tokyo Story" about an elderly couple who visited their children in Tokyo after the war. Essentially it was a movie about the emerging generation gap in Japan as it became more westernized. At the time there must have still been laws passed by the Occupation Forces that films could not be made making political points or referencing anything to do with the war.

But Ozu wanted to make a subtle point and the way he got around it, was in the opening scene to show a Toro lantern from a famous shrine in Hiroshima (which, though never mentioned overtly, was apparently where the elderly couple lived). Nothing was said, just this short shot. Which Ozu knew every Japanese (back then) would understand the point of, but the American censors would not, as they were unlikely to understand the cultural reference. (Or so I have read according to a movie critic so it must be correct - they know everything 🙂 )
Click to expand...

The toro lantern pictured in that scene is located in the grounds of Sumiyoshi Shrine in Onomichi City, where the elderly couple in Tokyo Story very clearly lived, as mentioned multiple times in the movie. You can also see a ferry wharf to the right in the distance behind the toro. Onomichi City is famous for its ferries for crossing between Honshu and Mukaishima (literally island on the other side), which is also visible in the distance in that scene. I don't think Sumiyoshi Shrine rates particularly highly on the "famous scale" though, its really just a minor local shrine in a prime position on the waterfront near the ferry wharf. IMO your movie critic is reading waaaay too much into the scene.
Edit to add: the occupation officially ended on April 28, 1952, when the terms of the Treaty of San Francisco went into effect. Tokyo Story was released on November 3, 1953. Yep, the critic is talking nonsense.

https://www.ononavi.jp/sightseeing/temple/detail.html?detail_id=336

Position on Google Map

And to stay on topic, here's a photo Onomichi's main shopping street at night. Lamps, but not on posts! Oops

Onomichi by Jon, on Flickr
 
jonmanjiro said:
The toro lantern pictured in that scene is located in the grounds of Sumiyoshi Shrine in Onomichi City, where the elderly couple in Tokyo Story very clearly lived, as mentioned multiple times in the movie. You can also see a ferry wharf to the right in the distance behind the toro. Onomichi City is famous for its ferries for crossing between Honshu and Mukaishima (literally island on the other side), which is also visible in the distance in that scene. I don't think Sumiyoshi Shrine rates particularly highly on the "famous scale" though, its really just a minor local shrine in a prime position on the waterfront near the ferry wharf. IMO your movie critic is reading waaaay too much into the scene.
Edit to add: the occupation officially ended on April 28, 1952, when the terms of the Treaty of San Francisco went into effect. Tokyo Story was released on November 3, 1953. Yep, the critic is talking nonsense.

https://www.ononavi.jp/sightseeing/temple/detail.html?detail_id=336

Position on Google Map

And to stay on topic, here's a photo Onomichi's main shopping street at night. Lamps, but not on posts! Oops
Onomichi by Jon, on Flickr
Click to expand...

Thank you. On behalf of (I think it possibly was Roger Ebert the film critic who made the statement about Hiroshima ) I / we stand corrected.Glad for the update.
 
Yokosuka_Mike said:
Hello and thank you, Peter, I do appreciate the story. I have Yasujiro Ozu’ s “Tokyo Story” as well as “Floating Weeds” on DVD (Criterion Collection). I should add a few more of his movies to my collection but the reality is that I’ve been in a bit of a DVD viewing slump lately. Most of the newer movies don’t interest me and the older movies that I really do enjoy I’ve already viewed too many times. Not the worst situation one can find one’s self in but there it is.

Mike
Click to expand...


They are also hard to find these days Mike. Though they turn up on eBay now and then though usually coded in the wrong regional code for Australian DVD players.
 
peterm1 said:
The point is also made equally subtly by the subsequent scene in which a train (presumably carrying the couple from their home to Tokyo) is passing a hilltop temple.
Click to expand...

FWIW that's Joudou-ji Temple in Onomichi (link here). If you do ever stumble across that quote by the critic again, I would be very interested to know what was actually said. Scenes from Onomichi feature prominently in Tokyo Story (samples here), and the elderly couple speak in a regional Hiroshima/Okayama accent throughout the movie, so there's no subtleness about the fact they’re from Onomichi. Can't help thinking the quote may have been about another movie, or has gotten jumbled somehow.

Here's another photo from Onomichi - a floodlight on a post (a type of lamp post!) for a hilltop temple.


Temple with a view by Jon, on Flickr
 
Voigtlander 90mm f3.5 APO-Lanthar LTM lens, Sony A7III
Yokohama, Japan - May 2019

DSC00783.JPG


Currently listening to "Cal Tjader / Los Ritmos Calientes"

Mike
 
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