Do you love listening to the tranquil sound of wind chimes? I do! The sound of a wind chime makes us feel cool on a hot summer day. When I was a kid, my Mom used to hang one under the eaves in summer. My sister and I would often fall asleep while listening to its sound in the afternoon. The breeze blew through the sudare, which is the Japanese name for a reed portiere, and a mosquito coil was lighted beside us.
Sudare, which have been out of fashion for a long time due to the spread of air conditioning have made a glorious comeback this summer because of nationwide power saving campaigns. In some supermarkets, they are out of stock. And wind chimes, which are called furin (風鈴）in Japanese, also sell well. I bought a new wind chime at the Grand Wind Chime Market at Kawasaki-daishi (川崎大師）. Various kinds of wind chimes from almost all the prefectures were sold there. Some were made of glass and some were made of porcelain. Iron, copper and bamboo wind chimes were sold at the market as well.
I was very glad to know that the ones from Fukushima Prefecture and other affected areas such as Iwate and Miyagi sold very well. It looked like people wanted to root for the people there by buying their products. The wind chimes from Fukushima are really lovely!
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①②③④are wind chimes from Fukushima.
I bought one that was made in Kitakata in Fukushima Prefecture. This is it. Two frogs, water lily leaves and some water patterns are drawn on it.
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During the Edo period wind chimes became very popular among commoners as a necessary good for cooling off. Many wind chime vendors sold them either traveling or at small shops. I found it very interesting that there are still traditional traveling wind chime vendors in today's Tokyo. You can see what they look like here.
After the rainy season, the mercury hits as high as 33～35℃ every day. Under the blue sky summer flowers are shining and butterflies and dragonflies are flying about. I’ll take a vacation from 20th and will be offline for a while. Dear friends and readers, have a lovely summer and enjoy it to the fullest!
