Memoir (17) by Professor Joe Watkins, University of Arizona, USA
Okay, I know it sounds strange, but I have become to appreciate the ascetic touches Japanese cities have placed on their manhole covers. Okay, maybe I’m strange (or maybe there’s no question), but when I was in Rome in 1972, I noticed that they had SPQR on their man hole covers. SPQR was the motto of Rome from nearly the time of its founding. It stands for “Senatus Populus que Romanus” or, basically, “The Senate and the People of Rome” (or thereabouts). At that time in 1972, I remembered reading Caesar and then, seeing those four letters on a manhole cover was surprising, and, I thought, a little bit sacrilegious.
But now I have begun to appreciate the artistic and social pride cities are displaying on these mundane items. Sapporo, for example, advertises its salmon and its Clock Tower. Hakodate has two separate scenes – one shows its love of squid (which I share as a sushi staple) and the other advertises its five-sided star fort.
In Aomori Prefecture, on Honshu Island, apples are a steady and important crop. In the small village of Kuroishi, the town has chosen to highlight its cash crop. The cover depicts a happy “kokeshi” (children’s wooden doll that are now becoming collectors’ items) with rice and apples. Just down the road is the village of Inakadate, famous for its rice paddy art (“Tanbo art”) which depicts various subjects entirely constructed from living rice plants of 13 different varieties!
So perhaps you won’t be hustling out to buy a Rembrandt or Michelangelo manhole cover to hang on the wall, but, then next time you are walking in a city, look around. And, for a little bit of fun, think what your favorite city would highlight on its covers. Would San Francisco put the Golden Gate Bridge on its covers when you can look up and see the real thing? Maybe New York City would depict alligators, which are supposed to haunt its sewers?
Sapporo Manhole Cover
Hakodate Squid
Hakodate Star Fort
Kuroishi Manhole depicting “kokeshi” with apples and rice