day 301 - bamboo (4) - windows

Bamboo bars on the top floor of Matsumoto castle give a definite Japanese flavour to this open-air window.

The structural grid-pattern was often left unplastered to form a window.

Samurai quarters,

Old Hagi

In the days before glass, bamboo provided some security and privacy but still alowed a view of an atrium-style garden.

Geisha House,

Kanazawa.

A cross-section of bamboo makes an interesting window feature.

Geisha House,

Kanazawa

day 80 - old Hagi

Today, March 18 - this is posted retrospectively since we were beyond internet access for a week -  we explored old Hagi (pron.'huggy') all morning. Hagi was a prosperous town from the building of its castle around 1600 until the Meiji Restoration in the late 1800s when, to show his loyalty to the Meiji, the Mori lord was forced to dismantle the dominating castle (only footings, a few walls and the moat remain.) Fortunately a whole residential district has been preserved, including the homes of merchants and samurai. Hagi pottery, famous since the art was brought from Korea and a kiln was built around 1600, tends to emphasize the colour and texture of the local clays. The glazes are often made to crack, creating amazing random textures.

In the afternoon we caught a local bus to walk through a virgin forest of camellias which grow on Kasayama and right down to the rocky beach.

day 79 - Nagasaki - Hagi

Today we left Nagasaki, went by tunnel from Kyushu back to Honshu, and headed north up the San-in coast by local train, (that's kelp drying), stopping at Hagi. 

The Hagi Honjin hotel is built on a fantastic onsen. We were a bit suspicious of fugu at first (we call it 'toady' in South Australia), but this delicacy accompanied all our meals as sashimi, grilled and in a nabe and so far we're still alive...