Awa Ikeda Udatsu House & Museum of Tobacco

 

Awa Ikeda was in important transport and trading hub on the Yoshino River in what is now Miyoshi City in Tokushima on Shikoku.

This very large Edo period property belonged to a wealthy tobacco manufacturer and is open to the public.

In the entrance area is a nice display of puppets, as this area of Shikoku, Awa, is home to a long tradition of puppetry.

After sitting in the entrance for a while, trading tobaccos and smoking with the curator, he then took me on a guided tour of the house. It was a huge complex surrounding a nice courtyard  garden.

This first section of the property was formerly the residential area and each room was tastefully arranged with traditional, minimal, decorations...

Incidentally, udatsu are the external architectural features that are found protruding from the second floor of buildings and are meant to prevent the spread of fire from building to building. They are a common feature of a historic town a little further down the river in Mima.

At the rear of the property, which was where the workshops were, is the tobacco museum, spread over about ten rooms with a wide range of displays.

Tobacco was introduced into Japan in the late 16th century, probably by the Portuguese. The government unsuccessfully tried to ban it, but its use became widespread among men and women, and it became a lucrative cash crop throughout Japan.

Tobacco was smoked using a kiseru, a small pipe with a metal bowl and mouthpiece. Kiseru developed into an artform, some with intricate engraving. Another artform that came from tobacco was netsuke, the tiny ivory ornaments used in tobacco pouches.

The type of tobacco for kiseru was called kizami, a very finely chopped form. Kiseru and kizami began to disappear after the Meiji Restoration when cigarettes started to become available.

In 1898, to secure the considerable tax income, the Japanese government established a monopoly on the sale of tobacco leaf. In 1904 they expanded the monopoly to cover all aspects of tobacco production. In 1985 the government sold off Japan Tobacco, but retained a large percentage of shares, and JT has become one of the biggest tobacco companies in the world, buying u foreign companies like the Gallagher Group.

Even if you have no interest in Tobacco, it is a fascinating small museum to visit. The displays are all well made and though there is no English, the very friendly curator does his best to explain things. The traditional house is also worth a visit by itself. I find many museums in Japan to be overpriced and not so interesting, but there are plenty like this one that are excellent value for money but rarely visited.

I visited on the 4th day of my walk along the Shikoku Fudo Myoo pilgrimage. The previous post was Maruyama Shrine.

Disappeared Japan Yamane Residence Hamada

 

In October 2009 the Russian sail training ship Nadehzda was making a courtesy visit to Hamada Port and was open to the public

Walking back along the waterfront road I stopped to take some photos of a couple of empty, traditional buildings.

An old gentleman in the garden next door asked me why I why taking photos of the abandoned buildings and I explained I enjoyed the ratios and composition of traditional architecture.

He asked if I would like to see inside, and we said yes, presuming he meant the empty buildings, but he took us into his home.

It was a very large, traditional house filled with typical architectural features and family heirlooms. Particularly impressive were the two, large kamidana.

In the courtyard with two large, stone sinks, Yoko remarked that it looked like a sake brewery, and the owner remarked that it used to be a soy brewery, the business that had made the family fortune. I am guessing the adjacent empty buildings were part of that business.

While walking through the area 2 years ago I noticed that many of the older houses in the area were gone, and the house we had been allowed to explore has been replaced with a large, modern two-storey affair.

The previous post in this series on Disappeared Japan was on the unusual sex museum in Ureshino.

Fukutomi Residence in Izushi part 1

 

The Fukutomi were a wealthy merchant family in the castle town of Izushi who made their money from silk.

Izushi is a small town in northern Hyogo that is unfortunate, in my humble opinion, to be saddled with the nickname "Little Kyoto".

The town has a preservation district of historic buildings and the former Fukutomi residence is one of them.

The former residence is open to the public as a history museum. I have posted on the Shiryokan Izushi History Museum before, but it is deserving of more exposure.

It is a few minute's walk away from the main tourist area, and consequently gets significantly fewer visitors, which is a real shame.

It is a collection of linked buildings around a courtyard garden and was built in the late 19th century using the highest quality traditional styles.

There is a wide range features that could be described as interior design......

More tomorrow......

Shiryokan Izushi History Museum

Izushi

The Shiryokan History Museum in Izushi housed in a traditional residence.

Izushi is a small castle town in northern Hyogo, now a part of Toyooka City. The old town contains about 50 acres of Preservation District for Groups of Traditional Buildings, and here is located the Shiryokan, the local history museum.

Genkan entrance hall of a wealthy merchants house from the Edo Period

It's in an Edo Period residence of a wealthy merchant family, a cluster of connected buildings with lots of art and artifacts on display, but for me, it was the architecture itself, especially the interiors, that were the star of the show.

small irori in the floor with tokonoma behind

Spread over 2 floors, there is a veritable warren of rooms to explore filled with tatami, shoji, tokonoma, irori, fusuama, and all the traditional features of Japanese interiors. Somewhat unusual was the reddish hue of many of the walls, which comes from local clay.

Chigai-dana, traditional shoin-style shelving

A large storehouse also has displays of samurai weapons and armor.

sunlight through summer lattice windows cast strong shadows on tatami

Izushi History Museum

78 Izushicho Yoida, Toyooka-shi, Hyogo 668-0232

Tel: 0796-52-6556

Open 9:30am to 5pm every day except Tuesdays and over the new year

Entry 300yen for adults, 180 yen for kids