There are many different “Kunchi” festivals in Kyushu, but Karatsu Kunchi is the roughest
The town “Karatsu” was so crowded with people that I wondered where all these people were coming from in such a rural town. Through the crowd, 14 two-ton floats made in the late Edo period race down the narrow streets one after the other. Each community has its own float, but the number of people pulling these floats is incredible. The floats are decorated with lion masks, warrior helmets, sea bream, and dragon ornaments that swing like pendulums, giving the floats a sense of dynamism. The entire float is made of gorgeous lacquer.
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When turning into an alley, the persons sitting at the front of the float brake with the soles of their feet while the persons at the back forcefully turn the float, leaving clear brake marks on the road. To be honest, the enormous number of pullers at the front are not actually very useful in pulling the float, and it is moved by the more powerful people in front and behind the float, who are right next to it.
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The sacred object enshrined at Karatsu Shrine is carried between the floats as a portable shrine, with the priest sitting on it. He didn’t move an inch until it passed right in front of me, so I thought it was a doll, but it was actually a real person.
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The highlight is when the float is pulled into the sandy rest stops outside of shrine. As with any shrine, the deity travels away from the shrine once a year, and the vehicle on which it rides is called “Mikoshi.” It seems that the gods get bored of staying in the same place for a whole year, so this journey is the festival itself. The rest stops at the destinations are called “Otabisho.”
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Returning to the main topic, at the Karatsu Kunchi festival, the rest stops are located on sandy ground on the coast, so it is hard to understand why the floats are pulled into such sandy ground that they would sink into it, but this scene is certainly the most exciting. The floats cannot be pulled into the designated place in one go, so they are pulled in with repeated shouts. The floats line up in a single line, turning back and forth like a car parking in a garage.
You can find your view points of Karatsu Kunchi on the following map published by Karatsu tourism office
Karatsu Kunchi course map and time
Near this rest stops is the former Takatori residence, the mansion of a coal mining magnate. Inside the huge house, cedar sliding doors have been removed to create a path for performers to emerge from the left, and the tatami mats on the stage have been removed to reveal a Noh stage underneath. There is a hollow stone underneath the stage, and when performers stomp on it, the sound echoes loudly. This is how he would entertain guests at his home to watch Noh performances. It’s a truly luxurious story.
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karatsu city (2)Takatori Residence
Furthermore, in this mansion, the best rooms are not those on the south side, which get plenty of sunlight, but those on the north side, which face the coast and offer a miniature garden of islands floating in the Genkai Sea, peeking through the pine forest. Just like in England, rooms facing north are considered superior.
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A short walk from the former Takatori residence along the remaining stone walls of the castle town will take you to the restored Karatsu Castle. If you climb up to the castle tower, you can enjoy a 360-degree view of Karatsu city, the sea, and the arching Niji-no-Matsubara (one of Japan’s three great pine groves). However, you can still see it in the garden in front of the castle tower without having to pay to climb it.
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karatsu city (6)Karatsu Castle
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karatsu city (9)pine forest
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Detour
On the way back to the town bustling with the festival, I came across the wharf for the ferry to Takashima. Takashima is a small, trapezoidal island floating in Karatsu Bay, and its shape suggests that it is an island that brings good fortune. Once on the island, you’ll find Hohto Shrine, a popular spot where prayers are said to grant you the blessing of winning the lottery. You’ll want to get at least the money back for the prayer fee and the ferry ticket…
It is said to be the longest suspension bridge in Japan, Ryujin Ohtsuribashi, but I don’t see any reason to build a bridge here. It’s clear that the purpose is to attract tourists. I wonder if there’s anything interesting I can see on the other side of the bridge. Also, the bridge is made of a fairly sturdy steel frame, so there’s no shaking at all and it’s not thrilling at all.
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The only thrilling thing about the bridge is that you can bungee jump from the middle, but no one was there.
bungee jump entrance in dragon god suspension bridge
The Kyushu suspension bridge, Japan’s second largest, feels more swaying, and on the other side you can touch two white snakes that symbolizes good fortune.
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suspension bridge6 white snake named toguro
suspension bridge7 white snake named makitsuki
Detour
soba restaurant fujihiro
The road leading to the Ryujin Suspension Bridge is called the Soba Highway. You can enjoy freshly made soba noodles at one of the soba restaurants, Fujihiro. It reminds me of a soba restaurant in Yamagata.
To get to the falls, you either have to give up and park in a free parking lot quite a ways off and walk in the scorching sun of heart Japan, or you have to misjudge the free parking lot and drive deep into the souvenir street, where you’re stuck and can’t get anywhere, only to be guided by a shop assistant holding a fan (with a sign saying parking is 500 yen).
Furthermore, you have to pay an entrance fee to enter a long tunnel before you reach the front of the waterfall. The tunnel is decorated with illuminations, but the illuminations look a bit cheap considering the great outdoors ahead.
fukuroda fall (2) inside tunnel
Suddenly, the front of an overwhelming waterfall like nothing I’ve ever seen before comes into view. Water flows down the huge rock face in multiple streams (like Snoopy Waterfall, but huge!) , and the sound is so loud it’s difficult to even hold a conversation. The waterfall is made up of several tiers from the top, but the key point is that you can’t see it from the front for free.
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If you take the elevator up from here, you can see the upper tier of the waterfall all the way to the back (like Yokoya Ravine, but huge!), and the amount of water flowing down makes the rock face appear to be in the shape of a heart, which has led to it being introduced as a power spot.
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However, it was extremely difficult to find the shape, and I ended up taking many photos, checking each time to see if it looked like a heart, which took quite a while. I think the claim that it looks like a heart is a bit of an exaggeration or a pushy advertisement.
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Apparently it gets incredibly crowded during the autumn foliage season, but you can still enjoy the coolness even in the height of summer.
Detour
Fukuroda Falls is located in Daigo Town in the Okukuji region. It could almost be said to be in the Tohoku region. The Suigun Line connects Mito in Ibaraki Prefecture with Koriyama in Fukushima Prefecture, but it is an extremely local line. At Hitachi Daigo Station, a station along the line, an old steam locomotive is on display, and at a nearby shrine, the stone steps are decorated with Hina dolls during the Hinamatsuri festival. There is a wide variety of agricultural products for sale at the roadside station.
Kamakura isn’t the only place to find hydrangeas in temples: Amabiki Kannon Temple
Both sides of the stone steps leading up to the Sanmon gate are decorated with hydrangeas, just like at Meigetsuin Temple in Kamakura. Once you reach the top, you’ll see a pond on the grounds of the main hall filled with floating cut hydrangeas, a very calculating or cunning display. Everyone will be uploading videos of this to social media. The ducks in the pond look very cramped.
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Even when the hydrangeas are not in full bloom, many peacocks are free to roam. In Buddhism, they are said to have the power to ward off evil spirits and purify. I’m sure the pattern on its spread wings looks like eyes, which may intimidate monsters. According to a local photography enthusiast I bumped into, when surrounded by people, they spread their wings, either to get excited or to intimidate.
He showed me the footage stored on his smartphone, which was full of footage of peacocks spreading their feathers. Apparently, each peacock has its own unique style; some will raise their long wings vertically with great force, while others will spread them parallel to the ground and then slowly raise them. Naturally, the former is more impressive, but it’s hard to find one.
Finally, if you go up to the temple grounds at the top of the mountain, you can see the flat Kanto Plain in its entirety, which also reminds me of the flat Shonai Plain I saw at Dewa Sanzan.
amabiki kannon (9) with Mt.Tsukuba
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Today’s Inn
It’s a very rural hot spring inn. For a moment I thought I had arrived at a mountain hut. The rice, miso soup and grilled sweetfish were especially delicious.
Giant stone lanterns and decaying Edo period townscape
It seems that the city of Sakuragawa, literally translated as cherry blossoms along river, was formed through a merger of towns and villages, and while there are certainly spots comparable to the wild cherry blossoms of Yoshino in Nara, one of merged town of Makabe, which retains the same town layout as it did in the early Edo period like as Tatsuno town, is more famous. I headed for the old townscape, and was surprised to see huge stone lanterns installed at the entrances of private homes here and there.
makabe town (3)big house and big lantern
They were so huge that you would never see them at an inn or temple or shrine, and it seemed like each home was competing to have their own. It seems like peoplein Tokushima Prefecture are showing off their wealth by building magnificent udatsu at the boundary between houses, but with the recent increase in robberies, the giant stone lantern is intended to appeal to robbers, as if it is asking them to break into its premises. As we drove, we saw stoneworks everywhere, and the rows of stone lanterns waiting to be shipped were a spectacular sight. As I couldn’t buy a stone lantern as a souvenir, I bought a stone chopstick rest instead.
makabe town (8)tsukamoto tea storehouse
As you enter the town of Makabe, you will come across an old townscape that has been designated an Important Building Heritage District. While some buildings are well preserved, others are in a state of disrepair, and some look as though they will soon collapse if left as they are. I wonder if it could be used as a way to revitalize the town and somehow improve it. There are no shops that you can just drop into while walking around town. I’m sure there are similar places all over the country, but seeing the buildings decaying in the hot sun made me feel more lonely than touristy.
makabe town (1)miwa house
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makabe town (4)post office
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makabe town (7)kawashima storehouse
makabe town (9)shiota house
makabe town (10)iseya inn
makabe town (11)murai brewery
makabe town (12)stone storehouse
makabe town (13)inose house yakuimon
makabe town (14)Mt.Tsukuba
makabe town (15)nishioka honten brewery
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Detour for lunch
There is a lovely little cafe, “Cafe125,” between Makabe town and Amabiki Kannon Temple. The whole house is decorated with handmade dolls and dried flowers.
Numerous waterfalls created by the eruption of Mt. Aso
The area was completely covered by pyroclastic flows from the great eruption of Mt. Aso 90,000 years ago, and the heat of the eruption transformed this into welded tuff. As it cooled further, its volume contracted, creating countless long vertical cracks, and subsequent erosion revealed columnar joints that can be seen everywhere. This is clearly visible in the waterfall.
Bat Falls
You can’t get close to the waterfall, it can only be seen from above, the road isn’t shown on car navigation systems, and the road to get there is so narrow that even a compact car would likely go off the rails, so the whole experience of getting there is filled with a sense of unease and a sense of being in a remote area. Suddenly, a parking space and a space to turn around appear. This is thanks to the local people who have maintained the area. Please check the entrance (“Park golf course” sign) from the main road (National Route 502) and the terrain from an aerial photograph beforehand. Cars cannot pass each other, but it seems that the road has been widened recently.
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The waterfall is shaped like a bat with its wings spread, and in the Edo period, a wooden slide was built on part of it to allow ships to pass through. People in the past were amazing. The Kuju mountain range can be seen beautifully beyond the waterfall. It’s a place worth visiting.
bat fall1 and kuju mountains
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Harajiri Falls is like Niagara Falls
The collapse of the tuff rocks over a width of 120m created a circular waterfall similar to Niagara Falls. The waterfall and the surrounding scenery are so beautiful that they make you think of a movie set or Disneyland. There is a suspension bridge that offers a panoramic view of the falls, but once you cross it the road is closed off beyond that point.
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Chinda Falls
The collapse occurred over a width of 100m, creating a 20m-high step. It is famous for being depicted in a sumi-e painting by Sesshu during the Muromachi period. Unfortunately, the original painting was destroyed in the Great Kanto Earthquake, and only copies remain. Sesshu also painted Amanohashidate in Kyoto, so people really did travel a lot by foot in the past.
chinda fall by sesshu at source “yuagariart.com”chinda fall
In modern times, a dam was built behind the falls to generate hydroelectric power, and the structure remains. At first, I thought it was just part of the falls. The welded tuff that forms the foundation of the waterfall is a geology that is weak against vertical shocks, and has repeatedly collapsed due to being unable to withstand large-scale flooding. As a result, the waterfall has gradually moved upstream over a long period of time. Kyushu Electric Power Co. reinforced the rocks around the base of the waterfall, and now it is in its current form. Even man-made structures like dams can sometimes help preserve the natural landscape. There was a lot of water and it was making a roaring noise.
