Hamada River mouth to Shimoko River mouth

 

The Hamada River curves around the hill topped by the ruins of Hamada Castle before entering a narrow inlet with a narrow opening into the Sea of Japan.

The village at the base of the castle facing the sea is Matsubara, and it is well protected by lines and lines of tetrapods...

I guess it needs protecting from high tide surges, but located in a narrow inlet must mean its a bit of an overkill...

The shrine here is an Itsukushima Shrine, which I covered in the previous post in this series...

Below is the opening into the sea...

The inlet heading in the opposite direction is Tonoura, and it was historically a major safe haven for Kitamaebune ships...

I think this is the first seaplane I have seen in Japan...

The Kotohira Shrine located here I also covered in the previous post....

There are only a few houses now, but previously there would have been numerous lodgings for sailors, and also merchant houses that engaged in the lucrative trade....

From the end of the inlet a narrow road heads up over the high ground seperating the Hamada River drainage from the Shimoko River drainage.

It is surprisingly remote, considering downtown Hamada id so close...

There are some nice views of the rocky coastline....

There are several small settlements, but one tiny fishing village stands out....

From here I drop down to the mouth of the Shimoko River..... the next pilgrimage temple is nearby, but I will visit at the start of the next day....

The previous post was on the two shrines in this area....

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Murodani Rice Terraces

 

On the southern slopes of Mount Taima can be found the Murodani Rice Terraces.

In 1999 they became classified as one of the top 100 rice terraces in Japan.

There is currently about 1,000 of them here, but in earlier days, there were four times as many.

There are signs and a short path to a designated viewing point. I guess that reduces the amount of trespassing to get good photos.

The best times to view would be around Mat and June, when the paddies have been flooded and seedlings planted....

I recently posted on some other "top" rice terraces, the Nakayama Rice Terraces on Shodoshima Island.

The interesting thing, for me at least, is that these rice terraces, like those up in Okuizumo, were a by-product of the traditional iron industry.

Japan has almost no iron-ore, so domestic iron and steel was produced using iron sand, something the Chugoku Mountains have a lot of. The terraces were made after the valley had been " mined" for the iron sand. I did read a complicated, translated explanation on how the soil and rocks of the ground were separated from the sand, and that this process somewhat started the process of the terraces being formed, but I didn't really understand it.

A couple of years ago, while visited Hagi and its World Heritage sites connected to Japans industrialization in the Meiji period, I can across a tatara, the kind of forge used in creating iron from iron sand, that the Mori Clan had set up to create iron for its building of a western-style ship.

It seems that here in Murodani is where the iron sand came from. It was shipped down to the coast on horses, transferred to Kitamaebune ships and taken down the coast to Abu, near Hagi, then packed up into the mountain site of the tatara by horses again. If you have any interest in the history of tatara I have plenty of posts on Okuizumo about the topic.

If you want to learn more about the Kitamaebune ships, click here.

The previous post in this series was on the views from the top of Mount Taima.

if you would like to subscribe by email, just leave your email address in the comments below. It will not be published or made public. I post new content almost every day, and send out an email about twice a month with short descriptions and links to the most recent posts.

Tomonoura Harbour

 

Tomonoura is now a fairly decent-sized harbour filled with small fishing boats.

Walking around the small town, glimpses of the hatbour down narrow alleys are not uncommon.

During the Edo Period it was a major port bustling with ships of many kinds.

Its importance as a harbour goes back much further, being recognized as such in poems of the Nara Period.

It was during the Edo Period though when the port reached its peak, in part due to the Kitamebune ships that docked here. Kitamaebune was the trade route that ran up and down the Japan Sea coast before connecting with the Inland Sea route to Osaka.

Tomonoura was also one of the ports where official delegations stopped on their way to the capital. Not just daimyo heading to Edo, but the Dutch delegations from Nagasaki, and perhaps most notably the Korean delegations.

Further down the coast is Shimokamagari island, also well known for the Korean delegations and which I covered in this earlier post.

The harbour is almost circular in shape, created by constructing breakwaters/wharfs out of stone ( photo 11) . A pleasant sight compared to most Japanese harbours of great, concrete constructions.

Also notable is the lighthouse, 11 meters tall, constructed in 1850 and which burned all through the night. (photos 6 and 7)

Other than the fishing boats, there is a small ferry out to a couple of the offshore islands, and a tour boat that cruises around Benten Island.

The previous post in this series exploring Tomonoura was on the Historic Preservation District.

Tamashima Historic Preservation District

 

Tamashima is an area in the western part of Kurashiki City in Okayama that gets virtually no tourists, but yet is intriguing and with some sights well worth a visit. One of the delights of walking a pilgrimage is encountering surprises, the unexpected. Of course I realize that kind of goes against the grain nowadays when everything is organized and planned with the help of smartphones to avoid the unknown...... but Tamashima was completely unexpected and I only discovered it by walking through on my way to Entsuji Temple.

Three sections of the town are registered as a Preservation District by the prefecture, but not as the Groups of Traditional Buildings like the nearby Bikan District.

In the late 17th century Tamashima became a major port for the Bitchu Matsuyama domain and connected to the castle town via the Takahashi River.

Originally some small islands, the local lord built embankments and gradually reclaimed land until they became part of the mainland.

However, the boom times didn't last forever, and after a few generations the ports fortunes began to decline due to several factors.

Some trade continued, and the area still has some largish merchant properties and warehouses as well as sake breweries etc.

Unlike the nearby Bikan District, you will not find cafes, gift shops, or other tourist infrastructure, rather a more authentic glimpse of a former prosperity. However, the Yunoki Residence is open to the public and with free entry and is well worth a visit.

The area has been included in the Japan Heritage site connected to the kitamaebune and other Inland Sea maritime trade routes.

The previous post was on Entsuji Temple, a delightful, thatched Zen temple with a garden on a hillside overlooking Tamashima. Other sites of interest in the area are the Former Yunoki Residence, a wealthy merchant property with gardens, and Haguro Shrine, with remarkable decorations.