Hunting Manhole Covers
08.10.2012 § 1 Comment
I’ve been lucky to travel to Europe many times for business, to France, Italy, Belgium, Switzerland, England. After a while, I got a little blasé about things and did not pay too much attention to anything other than getting my business done. I did take one or two short excursions for pleasure, dovetailing the business trip, to places such as Venice, Paris and Prague. I was not looking for anything in particular at those times, although I noticed the door handles in Prague were quite amazing and took many pictures of them. Unfortunately, my documentation was lost, and I have never been back to Prague since.
I tend to notice subtle differences between places and find that the most prosaic objects can be the most interesting. I had noticed manhole covers here and there while I traveled the world, but not until I took a relaxing vacation tour in Japan did I develop a true interest and decide I would documents them whenever I see them, good or bad. This will be how I record my footsteps from now on. One of the reasons this aroused my interest was because the manhole covers I saw in Japan were out of the ordinary. Some of them were outrageously interesting, nothing like what I’d seen before. The Japanese are tradition-respecting people. They have kept very old things intact, so it is a good place to search for history. Here are a few outrageous manhole covers I found:
Osaka Castle
Osaka Castle is one of Japan’s most famous castles and played a major role in the unification of Japan during the sixteenth century. It was build by General Toyotomi Hideyoshi.
 Manhole Cover Found at Osaka Castle |
 Manhole Cover Found at Osaka Castle |
Osaka Dodonbori
Osaka Dodonbori is one of the principal tourist destinations in Osaka, Japan.
 Manhole Cover at Dotonbori |
Nara Tōdai-ji, temple gate
Nara was the capital of Japan from 710 to 784, lending its name to the Nara period. The manhole covers I saw were from Tōdai-ji temple built around 741AD. The temple is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site as “Historic Monuments of Ancient Nara.”
The manhole covers I found in Tōdai-ji have a contemporary graphic flair. Here they are shown below:
 Dots: “Nara City, XX Valve” |
 Lines: “Nara City, XX Valve” |
 Woven Basket: “Electricity” |
 Quarter Spheres |
 Bricks: “Electricity” |
 Spider Nets: “Disaster Prevention” |
 T’s |
Woven-Words 
[…] sent a link to my last post about manhole covers to my Japanese friends, and they directed me to this website, which got me wildly excited. I […]