Eyes have tremendous power, and in collaboration with a camera they can capture all aspects they consider interesting and then present them as exciting pictures. That’s what happened in a visit by Indonesian photographers to Sakai, near Osaka, Japan.
Osami Takeyama, the mayor of Sakai, said that most tourists in the area are from China and Korea, with very few Indonesians. Five hundred years ago, he noted, Sakai was a famous trading center, and the city is much older than Tokyo. “This has always been a fascinating city,” he said.
The mayor, who was elected just a few months ago, was very excited by the arrival of eight prominent Indonesian photographers – the jurors and winners of this year’s Garuda Indonesia International Photo Contest (GIIPC). For these photographers, the chance to visit Sakai was yet another part of their photographic journey to seek out new and unusual things. And Sakai certainly has it all; at least, that’s what the photographers thought.
“I was trembling, I had goose bumps. Taking pictures in the late afternoon with this approach; it triggered strong emotions. It was an intense inner experience,” said Goenadi Haryanto, describing the vivid views of the city from the 21st floor of the Sakai mayor’s office.
This senior photographer is not exaggerating. I saw how amazed he was, how much he enjoyed the wonders of the city, and how it inspired him to exploit the abilities of his camera, itself a prestigious Japanese product.
Actually, our reason for being in this part of the building was to get a better idea about the shape and layout of Sakai. The skyscrapers and factories that dominate the region confirm that Sakai is a city of industry, yet many remnants of its past glory as an important trading route can also still be seen.
When we took a river cruise the next day, we saw up close what makes the city so dynamic. The city government states that there are 1,804 registered factories in Sakai. Some of the largest ones produce products very familiar to Indonesian consumers, including Sharp, Daikin, Kubota and Kosumo Oil. The oil, metal and machinery industries are mainstays of the local economy.
Yet despite the vast amount of industry, Sakai is still blessed with clean air – very different from many other industrial cities where factories belch out stifling black smoke. The local government, concerned with maintaining air quality, applies Kankyo kihon ho, a basic regulation to protect the environment. Specifically, the government takes stern action against any factory that emits smoke exceeding strict limits. The government also restricts the number of cars and monitors air quality 24 hours a day, using computers at nine general monitoring points and six specifically for vehicular emissions. All this is typical of this technologically advanced country with its high level of discipline.
But our visit was not intended to focus specifically on Sakai’s industrial side, as much as that impressed us. As Rommi Perbawa said, he really wanted to take pictures of the factories, because he felt they captured the essence of Sakai’s character.
“I want to come back and do that (photograph industry). This is a really enjoyable photo hunting trip,” he said.
But another, very different thing Rommi also enjoyed photographing was the tea ceremony, an important part of Sakai’s traditional culture. He admitted that while he found Japan’s culture very deep, it was quite challenging to wait for just the right moment to capture the ideal images. We witnessed this traditional ceremony in Daisen Park, which is also home to the Sakai City Museum, the Bicycle Museum, and a Japanese Garden. Daisen Park is also very near the Nintoku-ryo Tumulus, the largest imperial cemetery in Japan and a place imbued with mystery.
According to Osami Takeyama, “The people of Sakai are very proud of their city and its characteristic culture, and this can be seen from the tea drinking traditions.”
He added that many well-known aspects of Japanese culture originated from Sakai – not only the custom of drinking tea, but also the production of knives and bicycles.
Fransiskus Parulian also admitted his fascination with Japanese culture. Asked what his favorites were, he immediately mentioned the blacksmiths at the Old Gunsmith’s House, which produces the world-famous, high-quality Sakai knives. Its history began with the knife maker Matasaburo Tachibanaya, who brought this art from Tanegashima to Sakai and made the city Japan’s largest knife producer. This is the only knife workshop surviving from the Edo period (1600-1868).
Agus Leonardus was impressed by the Bicycle Museum. “Photographers are always looking for something new and special. In Japan, a country I’d never visited before. The most interesting things were the temples and this bicycle museum,” he said.
The Bicycle Museum and Cycle Center is the only museum in the world that displays 50 types of old bicycles, as well as the newest, including one raced in the Atlanta Olympics. Visitors can also watch a documentary video on the history of bicycles through the ages, and ride replicas of classic cycles around Daisen Park.
Unlike Agus Leonardus, photographers Stephanus Hannie and Gathot Subroto were most interested in the details of the city and its mobility.
“Sakai is very moderate, very interesting, and completely new to me,” said Stephanus Hannie, winner of GIIPC 2009.
Stephanus said he was particularly interested in photographing various forms of transport, such as the bullet trains and the trams, which he sees as part of the public face of Sakai and Osaka.
But Fransiskus and Hannie agreed on one thing they both really enjoyed – taking pictures in the streets around the Yamaguchi House, an old home representative of early Edo period architectural style. “I found photographing the Yamaguchi House quite difficult. I couldn’t pick out immediately what I wanted to focus on, but had to first explore and seek out the details of the house,” said Hannie.
There were certainly many challenging things to discover here. One representative comment came from Makarios Soekotjo, who said, “This photo hunting experience in Sakai was mostly something I felt, but difficult to describe.” Makarios, who specializes in underwater photography, was very impressed with Sakai, which he found clean, organized and efficient.
Oscar Motulloh, another sharp-eyed photographer, regularly commented during the breaks in his photo hunting on the discipline of the local people and the intelligence they apply in everything they do in Sakai.
But everyone agreed that the Nanshuji temple and the Japanese Garden are the
most enchanting tourist attractions in Sakai.
As Makarios put it, despite its modern design, this temple plays a very important role in the lives of the Japanese, and the temple is simple, clean and calm.
An honored monk from the temple, Roshi Sekioh Tajima, stopped off and chatted with us – a bonus not to be missed, and an extraordinary photo op as well. He was about to give a tea ceremony lesson to some primary school students. As a monk, he recognizes his obligation to pass Buddhist teachings on to future generations, and one of these is the tea ceremony, which represents the emphasis on peace and harmony.
For us Indonesians, who have only two seasons, the visit to the Japanese Garden allowed us to experience autumn, which coincided with our visit. The colors of the leaves and the philosophy of the traditional Japanese garden, so different from Western-style gardens, made this an object of endless satisfaction. The garden, Sakai’s best, is too beautiful to be considered artificial.
And at the end of our journey, we all agreed with the statement made by Goenadi Haryanto that this hunting trip to Sakai was a unique experience in terms of fostering warmth and friendship, both among the photographers and with our hosts and friends in Japan.
“This deserves a big thumbs up, from every thumb on my body, including my big toes,” he said in all sincerity.
And through their eyes, Sakai – apart from its industrial side – exudes its attractions.
