Today in Japan, Nov 16 ~ A Video Game Legend is Born

over 1 year ago

And here is your daily almanac for Wednesday the sixteenth of November, 2022.

Today in Kyoto in 1952 Shigeru Miyamoto was born.

Within the video game community, Miyamoto is next to a god, regarded as the most influential designer in the industry. He is responsible for Mario Brothers, The Legend of Zelda, and Donkey Kong, among many others. Not only Nintendo but the entire video game industry would be very different if not for him.

But games weren't a consideration for him at first. Originally he wanted to be a manga artist. But when they didn't work out, he, like many, fell in love with Space Invaders and suddenly the video game industry seemed very appealing to him. Nintendo caught his eye and he used his father's connections to get an interview with president Hiroshi Yamauchi, an interview he passed when he impressed Yamauchi with some of his designs for toys.

He would go on to develop Donkey Kong and Mario Brothers, games which helped Nintendo gain a commanding presence in arcades. When Nintendo decided to make their home system, he changed Mario Brothers into Super Mario and a legend was born. He later designed The Legend of Zelda based on fantasies he had as a child of exploring the countryside around Kyoto.

Interestingly, in his free time he says he doesn't enjoy playing video games. Instead he plays the guitar, mandolin, and banjo—he loves bluegrass. He is also a semi-professional dog breeder. Who woulda thought?

Today is Tomobiki 友引, one of the rokuyō, the Buddhist horoscope. This is a strange day in which your friends are said to be pulled along with you, for good or ill. For this reason, funerals are are rarely held on Tomobiki, as one's friends might be pulled towards a similar fate.

(Read more about the rokuyō here)

On the old calendar, today would have been the twenty-third day of the tenth month. It is *Ground Starts to Freeze * (地始凍), the second microseason of Rittō.

According to the almanac (２４節気) this is when it's getting cold enough at night for the ground to start freezing. Many of the haiku season words for this season in fact refer to this freezing in some way.

^{Mt Fuji in Winter by Yoshimoto Masao}

Early winter is also the time to pick turnips.

Here's a haiku from Kaji Keiko about that:

寂光院までの古みち蕪引く
jakkōin made no furu michi kabura hiku

jakko temple
up the old road
picking turnips

Jakkō Temple is a small mountain temple near Inuyama. One can drive half way up the mountain, but it's 320 steps from there to the temple. Despite that, it's fairly popular to visit. The view from the temple was said to be a favor of warlord Oda Nobunaga. Around the time of year the view is indeed amazing, as you can see all the colored leaves.

^{Steps to Jakko Temple by Tokuriki Tomikichiro}

Have a good day, y'all!

❦

	David LaSpina is an American photographer and translator lost in Japan, trying to capture the beauty of this country one photo at a time and searching for the perfect haiku.