Nariwa Art Museum by Ando Tadao

 

Sometimes known as Takahashi City Nariwa Art Museum as the town of Nariwa was incorporated into Takahashi in 2004

Nariwa lie to the east of the old part of Takahashi, along the Nariwa River before it enters the takahashi River.

The Nariwa Art Museum was established in 1953, but the current building was opened in 1994.

It was designed by the renowned Japanese architect Ando Tadao.

One of the intriguing aspects of Japan, for me, is finding huge, modern, public buildings like museums or auditoriums in small rural towns.

many of these were funded by a program born in the pre-bubble era when, in many senses,  Japan had more mone than it knew what to do with.

What it did was give every single municipality a massive chunk of money which mostly got spent on such projects as this.

By now many of these establishments have gone bust, but this one is still going.

The main focus of the museum is a local-born artist, Kojima Torajiro (1881-1929) generally considered to be primarily an Impressionist.

Also exhibited are a collection of Egyptian artifacts collected by Kojima, and fossils from the Nariwa area.

The museum also stages temporary exhibitions throughout the year. It has a shop and a cafe.

For those without a particular interest in the exhibitions will find the architecture interesting enough by itself.

It is classic Ando, with huge expanses of plain, vertical; concrete. When freshly constructed and almost white it is quite powerful, but I wonder how Ando's buildings will look in another twenty years of built-up grime?

There is also plentiful use of water to bring in the natural environment by reflection.

There is also an inner pool faced by the cafe.

As with many of Ando's structures they are quite labyrinthic leading the visitor in and out of spaces.

The previous post in this series on Takahashi was on the old town architecture.

Other buildings by Ando I have posted on include the Inamori Auditorium in Kagoshima, Komyoji Temple on Shikoku, and the Decorative Tumulus Museum in Kumamoto.

Takahashi Old Town

 

Takahashi, the castle town on the Takahashi River in the mountains of Okayama was often referred to as Bitchu Takahashi to distinguish it from the other towns of the same name in other parts of Japan.

Honmachi, the oldest part of the town, is located in the northern part of what is now the modern town, close to the mountain which is home to Bitchu Matsuyama Castle, known as the highest castle in Japan.

Along the higher part of the old town are numerous temples and shrines, notably Raikyuji Temple with its magnificent garden.

Closest to the castle was the samurai district that now has some of the former samurai residences open to the public like the neighboring Orii Residence and Haibara Residence.

Lower down the slope is the former merchant district, closer to the river which made Takahashi and important transportation hub in historical times.

One of the richest merchant families were the Ikegami, and yesterday I posted on their property which is open to the public.

There was a disastrous fire in the town in 1843, so while there is little very old architecture, there is plenty of late 19th century architecture to make a wander interesting.

However, not enough for the honmachi area to be awarded the status of a Preservation District , or Dentoteki Kenzobutsu-gun as it is known in Japanese.

Fukiya, a small mining town to the north, now within the limits of Takahashi City does have a Preservation District though, and I will cover it in a later post.

Takahashi is known as a "Little Kyoto". I thought that this was just a nickname given to various places around Japan that have retained traditions, but I recently learned that you have to pay to join an organization of Little Kyotos.

Not such a well known tourist site, but with the castle, temple garden, and historic districts, well worth a visit to avoid crowds.

There are a couple of local museums housed in Meiji Period buildings that are interesting, with the local history museum certainly worth a visit.

The previous post in this series on day 6 of my walk along the Chugoku Kannon Pilgrimage was on the Ikegami Merchant Museum.

Ikegami Merchant Mansion

 

Down below the former samurai district of the castle town of Takahashi in the mountains of Okayama is the merchant district of the old town.

The wealthiest merchant family was the Ikegami, and their property is open to the public as a kind of rest spot-information centre-musuem.

The family has been on this site since the early 18th century, initially with a store selling small goods.

Later the family expanded in the river trade with some kawabune boats and also money-lending, a lucrative business for many Japanese  merchants in the Edo Period.

Their greatest success came with the manufacture of soy sauce which reached its peak in  the Meiji period.

The current buildings date back no later than the mid 19th century as much of the town was destroyed by a fire in 1843.

It is quite a large property with many buildings including the residential part and with a long garden in between.

The storerooms to the rear contain a lot of exhibits pertaining to the manufacture of soy sauce.

Entry is free and there are sometimes staff on hand to offer information.

As far as I can tell this is the only traditional building in the merchant quarter that is open to the public.

The previous post in this series on my walk along the Chugoku Kannon Pilgrimage was on the samurai mansion up the hill.

Orii Family Samurai Residence & Garden

 

The former Orii family residence in the castle town of Takahashi in Okayama was a fairly high-ranking samurai home built in the late Edo Period.

Placed around the property are various mannequins dressed in period costume including a suitably obsequious servant.

I found it a little creepy. In a museum when viewing a historical tableau, then it seems OK, but when you can walk around in the space I find it somehow distracting.

As this is next door to the Haibara Residence, it would suggest that the two samurai families were of a similar ranking, but as this one is closer to castle I would guess slightly higher ranked.

 

As the photo below shows, there were two separate entrances: one for receiving guests and one for daily life.

All the rooms of the property are open to visitors.

The gardens are nice enough, but nothing special and did not seem well tended. The gardens next door were better in my opinion.

There is a also a museum displaying armour, weapons etc

There are a variety of joint-entry tickets including the neighbouring samurai residence, the castle, and Raikyuji Temple.

These photos are from August, 2014 while I was on day 6 of my walk along the Chugoku Kannon Pilgrimage. The previous post was the Haibara Samurai Residence next door.