Nagasakiminato Ferry Terminal

 

The Nagasakiminato Terminal is located on the waterfront in Nagasaki.

From here are numerous ferry services, mostly out to the Goto Islands, but also tour boats out to Gunkanjima, the famous "Battleship Island".

The terminal opened in 1995 and was designed by Shin Takamatsu, a Shimane-born architect who has designed several other ferry terminals.

He described the structure as "a 100-meter-long horizontally-oriented oval cylinder with an inverse cone penetrating it."

I am quite fond of Takamatsu's work as we have a lot of his buildings in Shimane.

The ferry terminal is right next door to the Dragon Promenade with its distinctive orange globe.

The spacious interior space created by the "inverted cone" is kind of non functional, but great for my kind of photography.

The previous post on my day exploring Nagasaki on day 60 of my Kyushu Pilgrimage was the Kanko Maru, which I believe is still operating out of the terminal.

Dragon Promenade Nagasaki

 

Dragon Promenade is a kind of urban park on the roof of a utilitarian building on the quayside in downtown Nagasaki.

The building is a long, narrow, concrete box that operates as a warehouse, and above it is a strange structure with a huge orange sphere at one end.

The south side of the superstructure is dark green and composed of steel plate in a somewhat "stealth" kind of design like found on stealth ships and planes.

The whole structure is meant, I believe, to represent a dragon, specifically the dragon used in the Kunchi Festival here in Nagasaki. The orange sphere represents the head.

It has a wooden flooring like a boardwalk, and is semi covered. I believe events are sometimes held here, though whenever I have visited it was empty.

It has a somewhat dilapidated feel to it and I believe is now closed after dark.

It does, however, offer opportunities for the kind of architectural photos I like to take.

It was built in 1998 and architects Michael Rotondi and Clark Stevens are the architects.

I was here on day 60 of my first  Kyushu walk, a kind of a day off as I felt a day in the city would be more comfortable than walking in the rain down the coast.

The previous post was a Day 59 overview.

Hizen Hamashuku Thatched Roof Townscape

 

Hizen Hamashuku, now a part of Kashima City in Saga, lies along the Hama River. On the north bank of the river, along what was in the Edo Period a fairly main highway, is a historic preservation district, Sakagura Street, with many historic buildings and numerous sake breweries.

However, on the south bank of the river, a little closer to the mouth where it enters the Ariake Sea, is another small preservation district, known as a "thatched roof townscape".

Many of these preservation districts consist of preserved buildings of wealthy merchants or high-class samurai, but here was a more "working class" neighborhood with much smaller homes.

In a maze of narrow lanes lived carpenters, blacksmiths, sailors, fishermen, and merchants.

A cluster of three small homes that belonged to the Ikeda, Nakamura, and Nakajima families, have been renovated and offer a fairly unique opportunity to see some smaller, traditional buildings.

When i visited first in 2016 the houses were open and free to enter. When I went back a couple of years ago they were closed up.

There are several other thatched properties, some larger, and on my last visit I noticed lots of water hoses on top of tall posts, ready to water down the rooves in case of fire.

Unlike many of these preservation districts, there are no cafes, souvenir shops, etc, it is still just a funky, lower-class residential area, and therefore in many ways actually more authentic.

It is a short walk from the Sakakura Sake District and just a few minutes from Hizenhama JR railway station.

This was the last stop of my tour of Kashima on day 59 of my walk around Kyushu and from here I headed off down the coast.

The previous post in the series was the samurai residence nearby. Other Preservation Districts I've recently covered include Mima on Shikoku, and Tsuyama in Okayama.

Hizen Hamashuku Former Samurai Residence

 

Hidden among the maze of small alleys around Sakagura Street in Hizen Hamasuku, Kashima, is a well-preserved example of a former samurai home that is open to the public.

It is quite a substantial 2-storeyed structure with a thatched roof and is believed to have been built in the early 19th century.

It differs from most of the other samurai residences I have posted on, like the one in Matsue, or the one in Izushi, in that it is not within a samurai quarter of a castle town, but rather is set among residences of farmers.

Evidence from the interior arrangements suggests that this samurai family was engaged in silkworm production and farming, activities officially "beneath" those of the samurai class.

There was a certain amount of "class" turmoil by the 19th century as many impoverished samurai gave up their statues to become farmers or even merchants, and many rich merchants and farmers being given trappings of samurai statues like family names and permission to wear swords.

The thatched roof of this property is U-shaped, a local style known as Kudo-Zukuri. Like with many such sites in Japan off the main tourist track, entry is free.

The previous post was on the nearby Hizen Hamashuku Sakagura Street Preservation District.

Museum Of Modern Art Wakayama

 

The Mueum of Modern Art in Wakayama City is located across from the ruins of Wakayama Castle in the downtown area.

It is in front of, and connected to, the Wakayama Prefectural Museum, and both were designed by Kisho Kurokawa.

In fact I preferred the Prefectural Museum both for its architecture and for its exhibitions.

I couldnt get any sense of what the architecture was about and the exhibitions were not articularly appealing.

The msueum has a collection of more than 10,000 artworks, mostly Japanese, and mostly Wakayama-based artists, though its print collection is considered quite good. It has a few pieces by non-Japanese artists, Stella, Rothko, and even a Picasso, though none of them are their best works.

The previous post in this series on Wakayama was the aforementioned Prefectural Museum.

Wakimachi Historic Preservation District

 

Wakimachi is located on the north bank of the Yoshino River in the interior of Shikoku. It is now part of Mima City in Tokushima, the modern name for what was Sanuki Province.

This part of Shikoku became renowned for producing the highest quality indigo in Japan and the trade in indigo made many merchants rich.

Wakimachi established itself as the main trading centre of the area and the old main street of the town was lined with residences and stores of the wealthiest of the merchants.

Enough of the traditional architecture remains so that it is registered as a traditional architecture preservation district, and unlike many such districts, all the above grounds power lines have been buried to give the visitor a more authentic experience.

One of the architectural features that is commonly mentioned in the literature about Wakimachi is udatsu, which are the extensions protruding out from the side of the houses above the ground floor.

Made of plastered earth, their function is to stop fire from spreading from one structure to the next, a kind of firebreak. Udatsu can be seen in many traditional buildings, but here in Wakimachi the merchants competed with each other to build more and more elaborate and grand udatsu as a kind of ostentatious one-upmanship.

Some of the historic buildings on the street are private homes, and some are empty. There are a few gift shops and cafes, and one, the former Yoshida Family Residence, is open to the public as a local history museum.

Built in 1792, the 5 buildings that make up this former indigo merchants property display a slice of historic life and background information on the indigo trade. A ticket to the Yoshida House includes entry to the nearby wooden theatre Odeonza.

The nearest train station to Wakimachi is Anabuki Station, several miles away on the other side of the river, so Wakimachi is not so easy to get to, consequently, it is in no danger of being overcrowded or over-commercialized like some of the more well-known preservation districts.

As mentioned, a historic theatre is located at one end of the street, and a short walk away is a delightful, restored farmhouse worth a visit.

A few miles upstream is the historic Teramachi district with some nice temples that I will cover in the next post in this series documenting the third day of my walk along the Shikoku Fudo Myo Pilgrimage.

The previous Preservation District I covered was the Joto District of Tsuyama.