Here are a few links to photo collections of Japanese manhole covers.
- Okachin Manhole Cover Gallery: This collection of 1,000+ manhole cover photos is organized by prefecture. Use the links on the left side of the page to navigate the site.
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- Flickr Pool -- Japanese Manhole Covers: Over 400 great photos here.
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- Design Manhole Collection: To use this interactive map, click a prefecture and then click the town names in the grid on the following page to display the manholes for that area. Click each photo to enlarge.
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- Manhole Map: This interactive map by the Journal of Sewerage Monthly contains hundreds of photos organized by prefecture and town. Click a prefecture on the map, and then click the links on the following page to display the manhole covers for each town.
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- Kyoto Manhole Covers: The Kyoto prefecture website has several dozen photos of manhole covers used in towns around the prefecture. Click each photo to enlarge.
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- Manhole Blog: Lots of manhole cover photos from northern Japan. Use the ???? ("previous page") link in the bottom-left corner to scroll through the site.
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- Manhole Box: Six pages of manhole cover photos.
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- Google image search for Manhole/ Manhole cover/ Design manhole: Lots more here.
Tombo
?????(manji)?????????????
[]El Chauvinisto
What's with the friggin swastika? I know the Japs liked the Krauts in the deuce, but Jesus. Update your shit Japan.
[]carmen
It's the sign for a buddhist temple which dates back many thousands of years, much older than the swastika.
[]Ian Jade
The Swastika pre-dates the Second World War thousands of years. Besides the symbol you see on that manhole isn't a regular swastika, but a "sauwastika".
[]Hugo
You'll notice that it is reversed. Sometimes it is the same side as the Nazi's though. Still, it is a symbol stolen by the Nazis. It predates them by thousands of years.
[]OhNoBrownCow67
The Swastika has been around since the Neolithic era. However, it is most popular for it's appearance in the Hindu/Buddhist religions as a symbol for unity. In Hinduism it literally means the unity of all concepts or ways. The Nazi's took the symbol and rotated it counterclockwise to show that uniform thought is better than diverse thought in a society. Before WWI the symbol had always been a symbol of basic diversity and was almost always perfectly square with the arms connecting laterally (卐).
[]adam russcher
i think you better update your shit man , this symbol predates the nazi version by thousands of years. the symbol is reversed if you noticed. it is seen in many statues of the buddha, in the place of his heart....too bad it has been so mistaken....it will never be the same.....very sad indeed.
[]Lee G
nice to see someone with a brain that can think instead of just running off at the mouth! ;-)
[]Jan
Swastika's and the symbol for Buddhism are the same. The Buddhist changed the direction which it points (it didn't used to matter) when the Nazi's came along. I learned that after being shocked at the 'swastika's' I saw on the pews (or whatever they call them) in the temple
[]khyle
it has been used in the counter clockwise orientation forever by the Hindu faith. and i think this bro's a troll
[]Lulz
Hell yeah tell the fool who's wrong!
[]nickolas
its not a swastica its the sighn for peace if its backwards like that the swastica goes to the right the sighn for peace goes to the left get it rite!!!
[]LC
the Swastika was bastardized by the Nazi in recent history. The symbol predates the rise of Hitler by centuries and is a symbol that is still used in Eastern religions.
[]Robin Mackenzie
The swastika is an old hindu symbol for strength and power, it has been around for thousands of years, the nazis were the ones that took it and ruined it, please learn your history before thinking everyone is a nazi.....
[]Catarina
You are kinda stupid.. really. The sawstika is known for centuries.. even centuries b.C.. i mean, Greeks and Romans used them in their mosaics and it has nothing (obviously) to do with nazism.. It's only with Hitler that the swastika is know like the symbol of nazis..
[]Marcelo Prati
Nazi swastika is a 45° positioned. Actually, it's an ancient simbol for the rising sun.
[]faefolk
that symbol wasnt invented by the nazis, dude. it existed beforehand...im not certain of the original meaning, but i know it meant something like peace..
[]Bloo
It's a Sauvastika... not a swastika. Exact opposite in fact and, yes, derived from Buddhism. It's purpose is to generate peace and protection.
[]Shannon
Update your shit, dude. Still using words like "Japs". I think you need to go back to school. You are so dumb, you are really dumb, fo real.
[]Kyle
LOL, I see wut you did there.
[]DANKyle
IDIOT
[]Jap
Ummm...Chauvinista, how about you get YOUR OWN shit straight? That 'swastika' has nothing to do with the Nazis. It's an ancient Hindu/Buddhist symbol from India that existed thousands of years before Hitler came along and bastardized it. It's known as 'manji' in Japan, where it's commonly seen at Buddhist temples. And it's widely used in Asia. Sorry, no relation to Nazi Germany. why not educate yourself a little? Jesus. >>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swastika
[]Shoovi
Looks like katana's tsuba ;)
[]Mila
Qué detalles¡¡¡¡, son únicos los japoneses... muy buen post...saludos for Spain
[]brettkun
I love this type of creativity in small places without getting claustraphobic
[]http://squidoo.com/yayoi
Carl Garrity
Great site. Thanks to whoever is responsible for it. Take a look at my site and consider linking me up. I do lots of manhole rubbings in Japan which can be found on my site according to their prefecture, Chhers,
[]Carl
Carl Garrity
Here is my site
http://manholeart.info/
[]adam russcher
hi carl, can anybody do rubbings ? do you need permission?
[]love your stuff!! adam
Nils
Actually I saw similar manhole covers in China. I guess it's a pan-Asian thing.
[]Enrique
Me descubro el cráneo, que dirían en luces de Bohemia. Yo también hice fotos de alcantarillas en la tierra del sol naciente, pero estas son de chuparse los dedos.
[]japanese words
These are all very clean. The kaminoyama one is pretty cool.
[]ateeq ahmad
Wow what wonderful art!!! Love it!
[]El Correcto
The swastika (from Sanskrit svastika) is an equilateral cross with its arms bent at right angles, in either right-facing (å) form or its mirrored left-facing (å) form. Archaeological evidence of swastika-shaped ornaments dates from the Neolithic period. It occurs today in the modern day culture of India, sometimes as a geometrical motif and sometimes as a religious symbol; it remains widely used in Eastern and Dharmic religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism.
Despite this usage, the symbol has become stigmatized and to some extent taboo in the Western world because of its iconic usage by Nazi Germany, and it has notably been outlawed in Germany if used as a symbol of Nazism (usage of the sign by religious groups is tolerated). Many modern political extremists and Neo-Nazi groups such as Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging and Russian National Unity use stylised swastikas or similar symbols.
[]Ed
Love the art work. Those Japanese bureaucrats are unlike any bureaucrat we have back home.
[]Whopper Jr
FLAME WAR
[]kevin
Oh, what a surprise yet another ART site with a bunch of folks embroiled in a religious debate...ridiculous.
[]Will
I wish American manhole covers where that interesting
[]Jon
Indeed@Will.
[]Kool Mando
It's amazing how after one or two people correct someone, 500 more will feel some need to simply re-state the same correcting information.
[]Ya mum
Lol, I think its funny how everyone is focusing on the marking that isnt even important anymore. Even if it was a swastica, which it isnt, why would you care, WWII has been over for decades, why the fuck are people still so obsessed with it?
[]sarcasmmuch
."even if it was a swastika...why would you care?" really why would you even ask dumbass. hmm i dont know its not like millions of people died miserable deaths and were starved, beaten and worked to death. but anyway it aparently it s not a swastika which has already been repeated multiple times.
[]Derp
If it's not a swastika, then what is it? And don't give me that "ancient indian jainist/buddhist religious symbol" shit, I already know all that, I want a name.
[]Derp
Can somebody explain the top right one? I'm not quite getting the what the swastika has to do with the apple.
[]Jenni
These are all so fun and creative. Just think, if more cities around the world would focus upon art and design of little things such as manhole covers the world would be a beautiful place. And perhaps, maybe even a little, may encourage people to take care to keep it beautiful! The fifth row down is my favorite! :)
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