Nagaya-mon Gate

This gate type is called Nagaya-mon. In Edo period, Samurai class family and rich farmers made many rooms in their gate and let servants live there.
The whitewashed gate is Samurai class house gate and this wooden gate is for rich farmers.

This old farmer house is the birthplace of Sahachiro Hata, a bacteriologist.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sahachiro_Hata

Rainy day at the Minoji mansion

Today is a heavy rainy day and I visited the Minoji-mansion in the countryside.
It is smoking from the fireplace for cooking rice and it comes out from all over the big roof. Today is a Minoji-mansion lunch party day. Country foods like fresh local vegetables, handmade Tofu are offered to visiters today. The foods are in old vintage Urushi racquered plates and bowls which are inherited years and years.

I like this atmospeher.

Tsuwano Casle ruins, May 10th, 2009

Last weekend, my son and I visited to the ruins of Tsuwano castle in the next town. This mountain castle was built in Middle Age and there still remains some rock cliffs on hilltop. Once when this castle was attacked, people was shut themselves in this castle for more than three months and the enemy was gave up. This castle was very difficult to attack. Unfortunately, in the beginning of Meiji(after Tokugawa Shogunate), this castle building was pulled down. This picture is a way from a smaller tower to the main tower.

Yomeiji temple in Tsuwano

Yomeiji temple used to be the center of Soutou sect in this region and held 200 monks practicing Zen there, but now, only a aged couple lives and keeps this temple.

experience of cooking Mochi

The other day, before we go to see the Cherryblossoms, we dropped in a small festival.

Fresh cooked rice cake is very soft and yummy!!

Yabusame field in Tsuwano

This is the Yabusame field in Tsuwano.
This side is for the Forward and Shooting, and there is the other way for backward to the starting point.
This is the perfect style.

Tsuwano horseback archery 2

The riders shout "Yin Yang" when he shoot the arrow.

Tsuwano town's Yabusame belongs to the Ogasawara school.

Only Tsuwano town preserve the original Yabusame field, so the head of Ogasawara school come to this ceremony from Kamakura.