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TAKARAZUKA |
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When the Hankyu railway tycoon Kobayashi Ichizu laid a line out to
the tiny spa town of TAKARAZUKA , 20km northwest of Osaka, in 1911, he
had an entertainment vision that extended way beyond soothing onsen dips.
By 1924 he'd built the first Takurazuka Grand Theatre, home to the all-female
musical drama troupe Takarazuka . Some 2.5 million people - mainly women
- flock to the town each year to see the reviews and musicals at the
plush Takarazuka Grand Theatre , ten minutes' walk southeast of the
train stations, through the Sonio shopping centre and along an avenue of
cherry trees. Shows start at 11am, 1pm and 3pm, with no performances on
Wednesday, and tickets cost from ¥3500. Reservations should be made up
to a month before performances (10am-5pm; tel 0797/86-7777; no English
spoken, but tourist offices can often make calls on your behalf). Your
show ticket also gets you into the bland funfair and zoo Takarazuka
Family Land (daily except Wed 9.30am-5.30pm; ¥1400), opposite the
theatre, although you'll have to pay extra to go on any of the tame
rides.
A much more entertaining place for both children and adults is the
Tezuka Osamu Manga Museum (daily except Wed 9.30am-5pm; ¥500), just
beyond the Grand Theatre, which celebrates the comic-book genius Tezuka
Osamu, creator of Astro Boy and Kimba the White Lion, an inspiration for
Disney's The Lion King . Considered Japan's "god of manga ", Tezuka
(1928-89), who was raised in Takarazuka, was much more than a Walt
Disney figure who penned cuddly characters. He helped pioneer story-book
comics - the mainstay of today's mammoth manga industry - and tackled
difficult, adult material, such as anti-Semitism in his epic masterpiece
Adorufu ni Tsugu (Tell Adolf). This colourful museum charts his career,
displays art from his books, comics and animated films, screens cartoons
and gives you the chance to become an animator in the basement workshop.
There are a couple of atmospheric temples in the hills around Takarazuka
that merit a look as part of a day-trip to the spa town. The liveliest,
especially on the festival days held on the 27th and 28th of each month,
is Kiyoshikojin Seicho-ji , a rambling complex dedicated to a fire
deity, high above Hankyu Kiyoshikojin Station, one stop from Takarazuka.
The long slope leading up to the temple from the station is lined with
stalls selling souvenirs and traditional sweets, and each autumn the
woods surrounding Kojin-san, as it's nicknamed, burst into a range of
rustic colours. The ideal time to visit the nearby Daihonzan
Nakayama-dera temple, three minutes' walk from Hankyu Nakayama Station,
is the end of February when six hundred ume (plum) trees blossom with
pink and white buds. Although there's been a temple on this spot for
1400 years, the present buildings date from 1610, and people come here
to worship the eleven-faced Goddess of Mercy, Juichimen Kannon Bosatsu,
a statue believed to have been carved from a nutmeg tree in the tenth
century.
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