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.

Tsuwano Horseback archery1

Tsuwano town people have been preserved the traditional horseback archery for more than 400 years. The Load of Tsuwano brought the Yabusame(Horseback archery) to his land from the capital Kamakura.

Washibara Tenmangu Shrine in Tsuwano

Washibara Hachimangu was established in Kamakura period(1185-1333) . It is located in the South-West of the Tsuwano mountain castle and protects that castle.It holds the horseback archery field, only one archery field which has been preserved the original style since Kamakura period.

Kanetani jouzan sakura April 2008

580 years ago, a young cherry tree was planted beside a mountain castle.

Long time later, only the tree is still alive on this hill top.

Drooping Cherryblossom in Ikoji temple

Sesshu Toyo, the founder of ink-painting in Japan, designed this garden about 450 years ago.

He was also the main priest of Ikoji temple (Rinzai sect), he tried to discribe the Buddhist pure land in this zen garden. You can practice Zen at this temple.

I took this video in the late March, 2008.

Ohira-Sakura

This big Sakura tree is very old....and she is almost dying...

Her flowers are 1/3 of before and she will have a surgery this year.

I hope she will be better sooner. I want to see full of Sakura flowers on her branches.

Drooping Cherry-blossom at Manyouji temple

March 29th, 2009

We went to see some beautiful Sakura (Cherry-blossom) trees in my town.

Fortunately there is a ceremony at temple and the priest came out to ring the bell....