evening garden

Korakuen garden once in a while is open in the evening. Recommended you go there a little after 6:00 pm and see how the sky changes its colors.

Bicchu-matsuyama-jo castle stands on granite base

Japan has 12 central castle keeps from feudal times. Most of the castle buildings are now gone and people tend to refer to castle towers as castles themselves. There has been a movement to restore their castle towers as a pride of the community and now people would like to have a wooden authentic castle tower constructed in the traditional way. 

The remaining castle buildings and structures at Bicchu-matsuyama-jo castle stand on top of the hill and the hill is practically made of granite. That made the stone foundation walls there quite unique and wild and powerful. I got awe-struck by looking at them!

The city of Takahashi, Okayama is seen from the castle hill

The two-layered turret behind the main castle keep 

NOZAKI residence, the largest of this kind I've ever seen

It was more than ten years ago that I first came here as part of the four. I do not remember how the tour was and how the travelers liked the house. Come to think of it this time, however, the house is huge. Now there's a street called JEANS STREET near the house. People must come to the house and take a stroll along the Jeans street where jeans and other denim goods are on sale. Nice destination. 

 The garden is well maintained and grand

 So many rooms

 42 meters from this end to the other end

Room after room !!

 Funny animal in the garden 

Must be BIZEN ware, since it's a local pottery in Okayama.

 Lovable guy in the garden, also BIZEN 

 Clean, peaceful, and pastoral

 All storehouses !!

The NOZAKI family prospered as a very wealthy merchant family and dealt with salt making, for one thing.

INBE, SHIZUTANI, & NARIWA

I saw nobody from abroad. Be one of the first to be there. INBE is home for BIZEN pottery. Lots of kilns and stores of BIZEN as well as remains of old ceramic firing places. SHIZUTANI SCHOOL was built for common people's education by lord IKEDA Mitsumasa in the Edo period in the 17th century. The roofs of the school were the BIZEN. The NARUWA MUSEUM was designed by ANDO Tadao. This time it hosts the special exhibit of KUSAMA Yayoi.

 

Amatsu Jinja Shinto shrine has BIZEN guardian animals at the TORII gate. The approach is also made of BIZEN.

And roofs, too.

BIZEN showcase and a living beckoning cat. The cat must be a store's PR member.

A climbing kiln for firing BIZEN.

IKEDA Mitsumasa, the founder of SHIZUTANI SCHOOL, had his relics  enshrined here.

The mound for Mitsumasa and stone walls unique to this compound.

Museum designed by ANDO on the former castle grounds.

Grassy Korakuen garden

One fifth of the garden is covered with grass at present. But three quarters of it was rice and vegetable field when it was built in 1700. The lord loved to see the farmers work. And he wrote, "I almost forgot to go back to the castle when I was looking at their daily work." The garden went through transformation due to the interest and preference of successive Ikeda lords. The founder's son built a small hill in the middle of the garden. At the same time, a watercourse, which linked the two existing ponds and was made into additional pond later, was naturally formed since the soil was dug up to make the hill. Another lord made most of the field into grass due to financial reasons. He laid off the farmers for streamlining. Some interesting shift can be observed but basically the garden retains the style as the strolling type garden of the feudal lords in the Edo period. The Ikeda clan was dispatched to Okayama as the governor of The domain by the then central government Tokugawa Shogunate and they were here for most of the Edo period. Glass spreading over the garden and meandering streams which show sensitive dynamism by flowing rapidly or slowly have to be the visible characters of this garden. 

Reconstructed OKAYAMA Castle

The castle is a splendid backdrop of the garden called OKAYAMA KORAKUEN, one of the reputed gardens built by feudal lords in the Edo period (1603 - 1868). The stones are original, which is often the case for remaining or reconstructed castles. 

new artworks from 2013 @ Inujima

The year 2013 celebrated the 2nd International Setouchi Art Festival followed by the one in 2010. The triennale attracted lots of attention and visitors. Visitors to Inujima saw new installations in the Art House project area and the same artist did the following two. The galleries were designed by SEJIMA Kazuyo, one of the SANAA architects. What you see looks different through contact lenses and the flowers look like floating in the water, being reflected there. The title is wisely conceived of: reflectwo.

And the big doggy. This is done by a local artist commissioned by the community and indifferent to Benesse art but simply cute and and good. The dog will stay as part of the island.

contact lens

looking at the dog-shaped sacred rock on the nearest island

Nagi-MOCA or the Nagi Museum of Contemporary Art



Nagi MoCA's entrance


In a remote town called Nagi, Okayama Prefecture, where some 6000 people live, something unexpected awaits you. The exterior of the complex, the Nagi Museum of Contemporary Art and Nagi Town Library, looks unique but does not show off its significance. It looks neither imposing nor self-important. The architect says the museum was meant to shelter the three site-specific artworks which will be displayed here permanently and the library was for the sake of locals.

Once inside, you might love the coffee lounge, through the large window of which you see Mt. Nagi, calmly and kindly cradling the town. The black tables and chairs in the lounge were designed by ISOZAKI Arata, an architect who did this complex. The furniture looks charming and formative. You then proceed to be closer to the first artwork displayed in the Earth Gallery, entitled UTSUROHI (Transience), by MIYAWAKI Aiko. This artwork is visible once you enter the museum. 

You might be disoriented by the next artwork done by Shusaku ARAKAWA and Madeline Gins in the Sun Gallery. You are invited to step into the artwork, major part of which is a large cylinder where the garden of Nagi’s Ryoanji is produced. (Ryoanji is better known as the Rock Garden in Kyoto). Here’s a quote from the panel that elaborates on the artwork: Step into Ubiquitous Site· Nagi’s Ryoanji ·Heart to learn how not to die.

(The Heart part was later altered to Architectural Body.)

The last work, HISASHI－THAT WHICH SUPPLEMENTS is housed in a narrow semicircular wing, the Moon Gallery. The straight wall of the gallery is aligned with the moonlight shed at 10 pm on the autumnal equinox day.

The complex has a small gallery for special exhibits on the other side of the coffee place beyond the reception and off-limits area. On the upper floor is a town library with an atrium.

The one-storied building nearby, also designed by ISOZAKI, serves as Tourist Information, where a very friendly and affectionate lady greeted me and gave me useful info about the dining place on the slope of the mountain. The food was VERY good. Fresh from local farms and cooked right there by local staff. SOME scenery too, with the houses sprawling at the bottom and more surrounding mountains enjoying their presence in complacence.

The architect was conscious of alignment when he laid out each building, conceiving three axis lines. Details are shown in the official web site in somewhat awkward English. Click here to visit the web site.

At one glance, the architecture itself might not look so different or outstanding, but the alignment will serve the community well perpetually, cleverly incorporating the highway and the mountain in the landscape. The moonlight and north-south axis lines are also considered.

ISOZAKI learned under TANGE Kenzo before he started his own studio in 1963 and was at the forefront of the post modernism movement of architecture. Now an established architect, he’s been active in many fields and known as a critic as well.



Part of UTSUROI



Part of Nagi's Ryoanji

Inside the cylinder

Garden in the cylinder

HISASHI in the Moon Gallery

Town Library

Tourist Information

Nagi's rape blossoms