Awa Ikeda Udatsu House & Museum of Tobacco

 

Awa Ikeda was in important transport and trading hub on the Yoshino River in what is now Miyoshi City in Tokushima on Shikoku.

This very large Edo period property belonged to a wealthy tobacco manufacturer and is open to the public.

In the entrance area is a nice display of puppets, as this area of Shikoku, Awa, is home to a long tradition of puppetry.

After sitting in the entrance for a while, trading tobaccos and smoking with the curator, he then took me on a guided tour of the house. It was a huge complex surrounding a nice courtyard  garden.

This first section of the property was formerly the residential area and each room was tastefully arranged with traditional, minimal, decorations...

Incidentally, udatsu are the external architectural features that are found protruding from the second floor of buildings and are meant to prevent the spread of fire from building to building. They are a common feature of a historic town a little further down the river in Mima.

At the rear of the property, which was where the workshops were, is the tobacco museum, spread over about ten rooms with a wide range of displays.

Tobacco was introduced into Japan in the late 16th century, probably by the Portuguese. The government unsuccessfully tried to ban it, but its use became widespread among men and women, and it became a lucrative cash crop throughout Japan.

Tobacco was smoked using a kiseru, a small pipe with a metal bowl and mouthpiece. Kiseru developed into an artform, some with intricate engraving. Another artform that came from tobacco was netsuke, the tiny ivory ornaments used in tobacco pouches.

The type of tobacco for kiseru was called kizami, a very finely chopped form. Kiseru and kizami began to disappear after the Meiji Restoration when cigarettes started to become available.

In 1898, to secure the considerable tax income, the Japanese government established a monopoly on the sale of tobacco leaf. In 1904 they expanded the monopoly to cover all aspects of tobacco production. In 1985 the government sold off Japan Tobacco, but retained a large percentage of shares, and JT has become one of the biggest tobacco companies in the world, buying u foreign companies like the Gallagher Group.

Even if you have no interest in Tobacco, it is a fascinating small museum to visit. The displays are all well made and though there is no English, the very friendly curator does his best to explain things. The traditional house is also worth a visit by itself. I find many museums in Japan to be overpriced and not so interesting, but there are plenty like this one that are excellent value for money but rarely visited.

I visited on the 4th day of my walk along the Shikoku Fudo Myoo pilgrimage. The previous post was Maruyama Shrine.

Interesting Modern Architecture in Sasebo

 

One of my favorite subjects for photography has always been modern architecture, and the cities and even the countryside of Japan have been great locations to find such.

Walking around Sasebo in Nagasaki I came across a few buildings that while not amazing, were quite interesting. These first three shots show the Sasebo City Library. 

I can not find the architect, but believe it was built in 1993.

Literally across the road is the Sasebo City Museum Shimanose Art Center. A somewhat brutalist building housing many galleries and arts facilities and also an archeology museum.

Again, I could not find who the architect was, but it was built in 1983.

The next 2 shots are of a headquarters  for Shinwa Bank. Of the three it is quite well known and was designed by Seichi Shirai who seems to have been fairly well known.

Built in three stages with each of the three sections distinctly different, the section shown, known as Kaisho-kan, was the last built, in 1975.

Finally, back near the port another shot of Arcus Sasebo, the newest, and for me, the most interesting of the modern structures in Sasebo.

The previous post was Miyajitake Shrine.

Mugiwara Zaiku Traditional Straw Crafts

 

Mugiwara Zaiku is a traditional type of craft that nowadays is practiced in just one location in Japan, Kinosaki Onsen in northern Hyogo.

It uses dyed wheat straw that is cut into intricate patterns kind of like marquetry and other types of inlay.

It is most commonly used to decorate boxes, though it is also used for other objects like fans or dolls.

The straw is prepared, dyed, then cut and flattened.

Nowadays modern chemical dyes allow a wide range of sometimes bright colours, but traditionally the colours would have been more natural earth tones.

As well as being cut, like veneers in traditional marquetry, the strips of straw are sometimes woven into patterns before being used.

In the early 18th century a visitor to the hot springs from Tottori, a certain Hanhichi, made small objects out of the local straw to help fund his travels.

Local people imitated his work and now Kinosaki is the only place in the country where it is still practiced.

The European physician Siebold took examples of mugiwara zaiku back with him in the 19th centuryand are on display at several museums in Europe.

The collections are of such good quality that craftsmen from Kinosaki traveled to Europe in 2001 to study them. As well as shops selling the crafts now in Kinosaki there is also a small museum dedicated to the craft housed in a former storehouse. Here visitors can take classes and produce their own articles.

The previous post in those series on Toyooka was on Gokurakuji Temple

Miyajitake Shrine Sasebo

 

Miyajitake Shrine in Sasebo is on a steep hillside in the downtown area.

I can find no history of it, though at the entrance there is a cluster of small local shrines that would have been moved here probably in the early 20th century, if not earlier.

The architecture is modern, as the original would have been destroyed in the great bombing raid of 1945.

The new structure is quite unique, with a long covered structure leading to the main hall.

It is a branch of the quite famous Miyajidake Shrine further north in Fukuoka.

It was built around a major kofun for a powerful, local ruler and is now considered to be Empress Jingu.

Also enshrined are two of her brothers.

The previous ost was on the Fudo Myo statues below nearby Saihoji Temple.

Isotake Port

 

Just a short walk past one small inlet after Takuno and I came into Isotake Port.

Named after Isotakeru, one of the sons of Susano, the small shrine at the harbour, Karakamishirahige Shrine is where I first read about the myth of Susano coming here.

The shrine's name roughly translates as " foreign gods from Sila" and enshrines Susano and a couple of his daughters. Some versions say that Isotakeru came with them from Sila, some say he was born here.

The shrine records say that Susano and others would travel back and forth to the Korean Peninsula, a story confirmed by other legends further down the coast at several coastal towns in  Yamaguchi. The myth of Susano's arrival in these parts is also recognized at the previous port of Takuno.

It is a decent-sized harbour with quite a few inshore fishing boats.

A friend and I stopped in here in a small yacht many years ago, and the local fishermen were intrigued by our boat.

If you look back through all the posts in this series documenting my explorations of the Sea of Japan coast, you may notice there are only fishing boats, no pleasure boats of any kind. Yachts and pleasure boats exist in Japan of course, but not in this neck of the woods.

Like traditional towns, these little fishing settlements have lots of very narrow alleys between the houses.

The previous post was on Takuno Port.

Fudo Myoo's below Saihoji Temple

 

Just below Saihoji Temple in downtown Sasebo, but quite outside its grounds, is an altar with numerous Buddhist statues, most being Fudo Myoo

Because there were no statues of Fudo inside the temple  and grounds, I surmised that this altar was not connected to Saihoji.

Saihoji is a Soto Zen temple, and Fudo is most usually associated with Shingon or Tendai Buddhism, the so-called esoteric sects, and with Shugendo, the syncretic mountain religion with strong ties to those esoteric sects.

I can find no information at all about this small site.

The previous post was on Saihoji Temple.