Long-time friends of Japundit will remember that the cartoon character Zippy the Pinhead visited Isahaya at the invitation of contributor Danny Bloom to see the watermelon-shaped bus stop. Maybe we should invite Zippy back to Japan to see Frog Bridge in Inami-cho, Wakayama Prefecture.
Perhaps it would be more proper to call it the Frogs Bridge, because it actually has two frogs, as you can see from the photograph. It’s worth describing the story of the bridge’s construction, because it is characteristically Japanese in ways that would escape people who have not spent time here.
As this Japanese-language profile of the municipality explains, Inami-cho is a small municipality in a beautiful natural setting surrounded by the sea and mountains. The people in the area commercially grow vegetables, flowers, and ornamental plants. The district has a long history, with many associated legends and stories.
Unfortunately, however, not many people outside of Inami-cho know about the place, few visit from the big cities, population growth is sluggish, and young people tend to leave when they reach adulthood. The municipality received a grant from the government to promote regional growth and development, and one of the ideas they came up with was the Frog Bridge.
Here’s where it gets interesting. The word for frog in Japanese is kaeru, which has several homonyms. Kaeru became the concept for the bridge’s construction. The inspiration came from the father of Japanese calligraphy, Ono no Tofu (no, not that tofu), who is also known as Ono no Michikaze. The story is told that he found the determination to become a calligrapher by watching a frog try to leap onto a willow branch. From this, he learned the value of effort, patience, and making bold leaps.
The municipality also explains there are five kaeru that are used as hooks in the naming of the bridge. These are:
- Kangaeru (Thinking)
- Hito wo kaeru (Changing people)
- Machi wo kaeru (Changing the town)
- Furusato e kaeru (Returning home)
- Sakaeru (Flourishing)
I can’t begin to explain how quintessentially Japanese this entire story is. They’ve managed to use a historical Japanese figure for inspiration, connect him to a unique public works project to gain a little recognition in a cheerful, positive way, and incorporate the Japanese love of wordplay. When I was new to the country, unaware of the extent to which I was affected–or infected–by the sense of fashionable, cynical irony so endemic in the West, I would have rolled my eyes until they slid out of their sockets at the dorky hellokittyishness of this bridge and the people who built it.
After all these years in Japan, however, I’ve come to realize that cynical irony is a dead end street and learned to appreciate the sincerity, simplicity, and earnestness of the emotion behind efforts such as those of the people of Inami-cho. I wish them the best, and if I’m ever in their neighborhood, I’ll be sure to stop by to look at the bridge and buy some vegetables or flowers. I’m sure they’re excellent. You can even see the bridge if you’re just passing through–they built it so that it’s visible from the local JR train station.
Here’s a link to a close-up of the bridge plans, and here’s a link to another photo. This link has several photos; the Japanese writing on the bridge in the fourth photo from the top is the list of five kaerus I explained above.
Ampontan,
Great find, and with your permission, I will forward the link to Bill Griffith of the Zippy cartoon and maybe he will incorporate this into a future panel. Wonderful find!
Sure, DB, please do!
You can send in the photo and explanation to Bill Griffith at his email address: “bill griffith”
subject name: FOTO
If he uses it, he will contact you and get details. he will write his own caption, but he will credit you for the find. try it. — danny
That’s…wow. Every day I find something else to like about Japan. Of course then something else will come along to scare the bejeezus out of me, like Razor Ramon HG or the kogals, but overall I’m still biased in Japan’s favour.
Something like this would NEVER have been built here outside of an amusement park.
THAT is just too rad!!
I think it is cool. I collect frogs, so I’m interested in things like that.
ampotan-san, thank you for this astute post, which i think fairly sums up the worldview distinctions between the j-universe and the west. i particularly love your word “hellokittyishness,” which i intend to re-use!
You seem to present two possible interpretations of the Kaeru Hashi: cynical-ironic dismissiveness or appreciation for the earnestness of the people’s efforts.
Perhaps I haven’t spent enough years in Japan, but there must be at least one other way to look at something like this, because I think, with no irony whatsoever, that this bridge is a gaudy and horrible waste of money.
I mean, consider it this way: when you go into the house of a married couple and find that the wife keeps it decorated nook and cranny with frilly lace, pink bunnies, and countless antiques, scented with nostril-burning potpourri, and kept immaculately clean, do you (a) Appreciate the sincerity, simplicity, and earnestness of the emotion behind the woman’s efforts; or (b) Feel sorry for the poor schlep of a husband who has to put up with such tacky interior design (and probably isn’t allowed to sit on the couch)? I for one would choose (b). This bridge and other such projects look as if the federal government gave a team of domineering housewives with bad taste a million dollars to waste on whatever silly civil engineering project they could come up with.
That million dollars could have been put to much better use than yet another bridge. The problem is that the funds these towns get are tied to programs like the euphemistic “Self-conceived self-conducted Regional Development,” so they are forced to actually build something. If the federal government were truly interested in revitalizing these small towns (instead of padding the wallets of construction companies), they could have steered the money toward, just for example, scholarships to regional universities or maybe even incentive programs for industries.
The problem isn’t so much of different “worldviews” between the Japan and the “West” but rather one of the corrupt central government exploiting the small towns for its own benefit. It’s funny you call this post the “Great Leap Forward” because these types of federal programs actually do resemble China’s great leap forward in that they force local governments to perform economically unsustainable activities. The towns aren’t starving, at least, but without true economic development they are facing a slow death - depopulation. Koizumi’s “Trinity Reforms” are supposed to end the cycle of addiction to public works that afflicts the outlying regions of Japan by putting more tax revenue in their control, but prospects for their effectiveness are moderate at this point.
Ampontan,
ZIPPY the cartoonist wrote to me today:
Hi,…..
Great shot–Zippy (& Mr. Toad) will visit–but I’d love to see more
fotos–googled it, but no luck—
-Bill
if you can find more fotos of that bride, send them to Bill Griffith by email. I think he plans to incorporate that bridge in a future cartoon for ZIPPY and he will credit you.
kewl
i meant BRIDGE, not bride
If all goes well, this photo above will become part of the background scenery in an upcoming Zippy cartoon with credit given to Ampontan. Watch for it around mid-May or so.
[…] 4th, 2006 by Adamu
Ampontan at Japundit had a thought-provoking post on the “Kaeru Hashi,” or Frog Bridge, that was built on central government largess […]
The problem isn’t so much of different “worldviews” between the Japan and the “West” but rather one of the corrupt central government exploiting the small towns for its own benefit.
I was thinking about corruption in Japan today after recalling a conversation JP and I had about the developer (forgot his name) who used 20% less steel than is required by law, but who is not being hounded by the law in the same manner as Horie. I was wondering exactly which hotels and apartments he had constructed, and what they looked like and if I had or would be staying in one. It did occur to me that corruption in Japan is something that Japan-enthusiasts often don’t want to think about or talk about. I recently met some Americans new to Japan who were in the honeymoon stage, and of course this always makes me happy because I want people to come here and love this country.
I also have to say, there IS something very real about Ampontan’s observation that an awful lot goes on in Japan that would never appear in the West because of knee-jerk cynicism. This is a very real difference.
It’s not just the cynicism but also a neverending stream of sarcasm and irony in the US. They are dead end streets and serve as shortcuts to actually thinking about things rationally. America could certainly use some more everyday common courtesy, just for example (but NOT the manic-depressive TGI Friday’s variety, thank you very much). Or air conditioners with timers. Or automatic defogging bathroom mirrors.
It works the other way around, too. I look outside my apartment in suburban Virginia and see nothing but strip malls. I have to admit that these things are even more of an eyesore than an enormous fluorescent frog bridge would be.
Of course, taking the “US-Japan” comparison thing too far is yet another dead end street, intellectually, since the argument can be made that there are lots of similarities between the first and second largest economies in the world. I mean, there is plenty of government-sponsored silliness in rural America, too, just as Japan’s got plenty of ugly city planning.
On honeymoon periods: It is certainly easy for people to see Japan through rose-colored glasses, especially when they first arrive in the country. There must be much less of a honeymoon period for Americans going to, say, Moscow, probably since expectations are often much lower. Lots of people want one thing or another from Japan, either that it’s a sci-fi wonderland, haven for traditional arts, or what have you. Of course, any expat going to any country arrives full of expectations, but it’s surprising how many long-term expats in Japan either wind up permanently “using kid gloves” on Japan or else becoming totally cynical about everything.
BTW the developer’s name was Aneha, but by now I think it’s been officially changed to “Mud.”
The developer is Huser.
Aneha is the architect.
[…] This time (the comic appeared worldwide in over 200 newspapers on March 20) Griffith used a photo of frog-bedecked bridge in Japan, which appeared in a Japundit article by Ampontan. […]
[…] I have my own opinions, of course. I don’t, for example, think that kawaii is such a new thing in Japan, though I do think the global awareness of it has heightened. I also think that while in contemporary American culture having “attitude” is seen as a highly desireable, this, along with sarcasm, cynicism and irony, just aren’t as important in Japan. […]
[…] Oldest population: Japan now has the highest ratio of old people in the world, which combined with its now-declining population/workforce and record low birth rates spells possible doom for Japan’s economy. How is a population set to hit 100 million by 2050 going to produce more GDP than the current population of 126 million? According to a report from an association of reform-minded corporate executives known as the Keizai Doyukai, the only way to do it – assuming the reported projections in terms of immigration to Japan and a shrinking population, and that female and elderly labor will reach its potential levels by 2030 – is to bring back the level of productivity Japan enjoyed in the 80s by 2030, and maintain it for 20 years, all while bringing inward FDI levels to US levels (around 22%). And how can Japan do that? While the Doyukai gives a complicated solution, one popular simplified version that basically jives with the report’s suggestions comes from Koizumi-line economist Naoki Tanaka: Japan needs to put all its eggs in Information Technology and continue economic reform policies to minimize the massive waste in Japan’s economy. So even though right now Japan won’t be winning the “most likely to succeed” award, if Japan actually does what the Doyukai and others tell them, we’ll start seeing Japan pop up a lot more in world superlatives (Most efficient supply chains? Most profitable banks? Highest robot to person ratios?) […]