I'm not sure how well-known this is. Among the Japan expat community there are constant posts about it. In the photography community it also shows up quite a bit (there are at least two groups on Flickr and several on Facebook for it). But it may not have spread too far beyond that.
What am I talking about? The artistic manhole covers of Japan! Most cities here have at least one or two different designs for their manhole covers showing something for which the city is famous, sometimes more. It could be a historic figure, a building, a famous food dish, etc.
I'm afraid I don't have many examples for you, actually. I'm not one of the foreigners who is always taking photos of them whenever I see them. Maybe I should, but I figure enough other people have that covered so I'd prefer to photo other things.
But I do have two examples from my adopted hometown.
that was with my cell phone. And one from my dslr:
What you see is Okazaki Castle in the background, which is probably most famous for being the birthplace of Tokugawa Ieyasu, founder of the Tokugawa Shogunate which ruled the country from 1603 to 1868. Around the castle are cherry blossoms, and in front is the Yahagi bridge. There used to be a waypoint along the historic Tokaido Road here, making the area somewhat famous.
At various places in the city they have painted versions of this cover.
Here is the same view in ukiyoe form, in a print by the great Hiroshige.
Here's another design
You see Okazaki castle again. This time with a ship holding Okazaki's tax payment to the Shogunate. Taxes were paid in units of rice called koku, 1 koku being roughly 180.5 kilograms (roughly 8 bushels). Despite being a domain of special importance due to Ieyasu being born here, it was a fairly small domain, and the tax was only 50,000 koku.
There is a third Okazaki manhole design, but I can't find any photos of it in my Lightroom library. I know I have some. Hmm.. I really need to tag my photos better. Anyway, it features a similar view with the castle in the background, but in the foreground are fireworks. The Mikawa area, the old domain name for the area Okazaki is in, was the only area in pre-modern Japan allowed to produce gunpowder and fireworks. As a result, even today about 80% of Japanese fireworks come from the Mikawa area.
If you'd like to see more manhole covers of Japan, here is an old post from 
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| 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. |
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