This is sexy! This is
sooo sexy that an accompanying pamphlet warns you: "3 cm or 4 cm below
your belly button, there is a point called Tan-Den. Even a touch to here may
makes your feel warm! Notice: When sleeping, Red Panty may cause you excite and
make you sleepless."
This alarmed me so
much that I prudently bought red socks for myself rather than red bloomers.
Warm excite feet sound manageable.
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| Sugamo's famous red underwear for men and women |
I bet you're asking
yourself, "What is Ru gaaning aan about?"
Let me tell you about
Sugamo. Sugamo is a
neighbourhood in the northeastern curve of the Yamanote Line that runs around
Tokyo's centre. It's famous for a shopping street called
Jizō-dōri (地蔵通り), also known as the Harajuku for grannies, but if you were to write it off
as a geriatric graveyard, you'd be making a grave mistake. It's true that most of the shoppers can
probably remember the Great Tokyo Air Raid of 1945 – heck, even the Great Kanto
Earthquake of 1923 – but the beauty of this area is its history, traditional shops and temples.
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| The southern entrance of Jizō-dori near Sugamo Station |
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| Sign pointing towards the Togenuki Jizō temple |
Jizō-dōri is named after a nearby temple that enshrines a famous Jizō, but more about that later. The shopping street follows
the route of the old
Nakasendō, is almost a kilometer long and has over two hundred shops. No Starbucks, no McDonalds, no
Comme des Garçons. Plenty of sensible
shoes, kampo apothecaries, Japanese sweets, green tea, rice crackers and
shio-daifuku shops. The latter is a Sugamo specialty: it's a rice ball with red
bean paste and a sprinkle of salt. Delicious.
You'll also find several branches of Maruji, the shop that made red bloomers (赤パンツ akapantsu) famous. I could explain this
in my own words, but Maruji does it so much better. Here's their English …
Yes, English. This may be a shopping street
for old fogeys, but it's more clued-up when it comes to international marketing than anything
in Daikanyama. Better service, too.
Here's their English pamphlet, quoted verbatim:
The power of "The
Red Panty"
3 or 4 cm below your
belly button, there is a point called "Tan-Den". Even a touch to here
may makes your feel warm!
In Oriental medicine,
"Tan-Den" is remaked as the generator of invisible flow of energy
Called "Q i". It is hard to explain though, without "Q i" our
lives can't go on!
When your "Q i"
gets weak, you may become sick lose your control or even miss your fortune! It
is hard for us, ordinary people to get "Tan-Den" to be strong and also
"Q i". But don't worry. "Red Panty" does it! All you have
to do is put on it!
The red color
accelerates the secretion of adrenalin and boosts your concentration, and works
on the autonomic nervous system to rouse yourself to action. Added to these, it
is said that the red cloth can warm your body, and fill your energy in Oriental
medicine. Please choose brilliant red one and natural material one like silk or
cotton.
Notice: When sleeping,
"Red Panty" may cause you excite and make you sleepless. So put on
ordinary colour underwear when you sleep.
Now do you understand why I love Sugamo?
The red bloomers may be a
Maruji creation, but there really is a spot called tanden (丹田) or kikai tanden (
気海丹田), which happens to be the body's centre of
gravity.
I'm well aware of my tanden, thanks to yoga as
a youngster and zazen (meditation) as an adult. It's situated in front of your third lumbar
vertebra, in other words, about 3 or 4 cm below your belly button. It's regarded
as the central point of your ki (
気) or life force, and plays an important role in meditation techniques as well as
martial arts practice. (If you're into chakras, it's the
swadhisthana.)
Tanden means red rice field; kikai means
sea of energy. You beginning to see
where the red panties come from?
More trivial
information for fellowette fundoshi lovers
Lina,
Sarah and
Cecilia: it's said that
a fundoshi helps you to focus on your tanden. What it makes your observers
focus on is another matter altogether, but let's remain circumspect, shall we?
Sugamo is a very
friendly neighbourhood. Although I often grumble about
old-timers, I have a huge soft spot for nice guys who don't think a long life justifies rudeness, and I enjoyed my
interaction with shopkeepers and shoppers. While I was photographing a Maruji
shop, a little old lady approached me. She was at least 97.
"Akapantsu!"
she grinned at me.
"Yes, akapantsu!
I want to buy a pair," I said.
"You're too
young!" she chortled.
"It's for my
mother."
"So da na,
okaasan." Then the saucy minx continued, "I'm not wearing akapantsu."
I feigned horror.
"You're not wearing pantsu?!"
That made us giggle
for five minutes. It's the small stuff that counts, says I.
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| Can't afford a real pet? Here's an alternative. They move, bark and meow. |
Sugamo is also famous
for a temple called Kōgan-ji (高岩寺), alternatively known as Togenuki Jizō (とげぬき地蔵), but this
temple and its thorn-extracting Jizo deserves its own post.
Let me rather tell you about two
other places of worship at the two ends of Jizō-dori, Sugamo Kōshin-dō (巣鴨庚申堂) at the
north-western entrance and Shinshō-ji (真性寺) at the southern entrance.
Sugamo Kōshin-dō used to stand on a very
busy intersection of the Nakasendō on the outskirts of Edo. The crossroads was so famous that it was included in the Guide to Famous Edo Sites (江戸名所図会 Edo Meisho Zue), first published in 1834; and in those days
it was guarded by a monkey-faced, six-armed deity called Kōshin (庚申), whose statue was often placed on village borders to protect residents.
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The northern entrance to Jizō-dori, on the famous intersection guarded by Kōshin.
Kōshin-dō is to the left in this photo. |
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| The entrance to Kōshin-dō. The lanterns read Sarutahiko Ōkami (猿田彦大神),because the long-nosed wanderer is enshrined here. |
Kōshin worship is interesting. It has
Taoist origins, and it's based on the belief that three worms called the sanshi (三尸) live in your body, keeping record of all your good and bad
deeds. Every sixtieth night, called kōshin-machi, the three worms leave your
body to report to the heavenly gods what you've been up to. If you've been
naughty, you'd try to stay up all night, because that would prevent the worms'
departure and the gods wouldn't be able to punish you. (Worms? Ick. Why
worms?)
Alternatively, the
monkey deity Kōshin can protect you. If you're
wondering what a monkey has to do with worms, look, it's all about the Chinese zodiac cycle and homonyms and deathbringers and …
this is a blog … not an encyclopaedia. You can read more here.
Anyway, the
three monkeys that you often see – Mizaru (see no evil), Kikazaru (hear no evil) and Iwazaru (speak no evil) – are also related to Kōshin. Finally, just to make things really interesting, Sarutahiko (猿田彦神), the long-nosed Shintō deity of the crossroads who's
often depicted as a weather-worn wanderer, was linked to Kōshin in the Edo era.
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A Sarutahiko mask at a festival in Taitō.
Sarutahiko often leads festival parades,
because he's a symbol of strength and guidance. |
I include this complicated summary to
explain why you can see monkey statues in front of Sugamo Kōshin-dō, and why
Sarutahiko is enshrined inside.
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| This is where you can pray to Sarutahiko. |
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Monkey guardian at the entrance.
Note the three smaller monkeys: speak no evil, hear no evil, see no evil. |
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| His companion |
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| Sarutahiko Ōkami (猿田彦大神) |
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The nearest station to the northern entrance is Kōshinzuka on the
Toden Arakawa Line (an old streetcar line). |
Shinshō-ji (
真性寺) is the
other temple on the southern end of the shopping street, but I've already
written about it: it's one of the sites of the six Jizō of Edo.
Jizō-dori has its own
mascot called Sugamon (すがもん), who's described as a 12-year-old boy who comes from the land of
ducks. He loves oranges, hates green onions and has his own very cute Twitter
account, @Sugamon_dagamo. You can fondle his fluffy butt at the start
of the shopping street. I'm not making this up. It feels great!
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| Sugamo's mascot, Sugamon |
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Sugamon's fluffy butt. The photo was taken in late December, hence the kadomatsu
(New Year's decorations consisting of pine and bamboo). |
