Due to global warming, squid catches have been declining nationwide. Squid used to be a food for the common people, but now it is considered a luxury item. They cut up the squid while it’s still alive and you eat it while it’s still moving, so it’s a completely cruel story. It’s certainly delicious, and if you can’t finish it, they’ll make tempura out of the rest. This is even more delicious than raw squid. No wonder it’s expensive.
Squid dishes (1)
Squid dishes (2)
Yobuko Morning Market (11)
Yobuko Morning Market (12)
Yobuko Morning Market (10)
Although Yobuko’s morning market is one of the four major morning markets, there are not many stalls. Perhaps because it is a weekday. On the other hand, there are many police crackdowns on vehicles everywhere you enter the city. Tourists are not squid, so what’s the point of increasing the catch, or rather the number of arrests, in such a place? Drivers, please be careful. Recommended souvenirs include salt harvested from the mineral-rich Genkai Sea, mozuku seaweed that can be frozen in salt water, and dried mackerel, horse mackerel, and barracuda.
Yobuko Morning Market (5)
Yobuko Morning Market (9)nice smile
Yobuko Morning Market (1)
Yobuko Morning Market (3)
Yobuko Morning Market (6)Whales in the past, squids now
Yobuko Morning Market (4)
Yobuko Morning Market (7)
Yobuko Morning Market (8)
By the way, I don’t know who decides the top three or four, but I don’t like that Hachinohe’s Tatehana Wharf Morning Market isn’t included. I think that place is number one.
If you go to Cape Hado, you can see Iki, of course, and if you look closely, you can even see Tsushima. However, when I asked the locals, they said it was impossible to see Busan, South Korea, even in good weather. But it really made me realize how close we were to the border.
The fact that more than 130 Sengoku Daimyo(Regional rulers during the Sengoku period), who had previously fought bloody battles, were able to gather together to make up one team was possible only because of the command of Hideyoshi, who had unified the country. Moreover, Nagoya Castle, which was the same size as Osaka Castle, was completed in just a few months, and this walled city, which housed 200,000 troops dispatched to Korea and 100,000 people stationed there, only lasted seven years, falling into ruins with Hideyoshi’s death. There is an anecdote that Hideyoshi was pleased because the name Nagoya, where the castle was located, is pronounced the same as Nagoya, Hideyoshi’s hometown, but it seems that Nagoya in Kyushu was a more famous place name at that time.
Nagoya castle (3)
Nagoya castle (4)
After it was abandoned, the castle walls were reused as raw materials for Karatsu Castle and other buildings, and no longer retain their original form. However, there was an example of Hara Castle, which remained intact during the Shimabara Rebellion, becoming a base for an armed uprising by oppressed Christians, and it seems that the castle was actively demolished out of fear that a similar incident might occur. This is why there are few clear traces, and it is understandable that only some stone walls and earthworks remain. Furthermore, it is unusual for feudal lords to have their castles concentrated in such a densely packed area, especially on hilly terrain.
The dispatch of troops to Korea is seen as Hideyoshi’s ambition to invade the Ming Dynasty, but in any case, this battle caused a division among the Toyotomi clan’s vassals after Hideyoshi’s death between those who dispatched troops to Korea and those who remained behind to take charge of the supply routes, and Ieyasu‘s cunning took advantage of this, leading to the downfall of the Toyotomi clan. On the other hand, Korea’s land was devastated, and the Ming Dynasty lost its national power and was destroyed by the Qing Dynasty, a foreign ethnic group from the north. No one involved gained anything. It is clear that Korea and the Ming Dynasty were the ones who suffered the most.
pottery village Imari (10)
However, it wasn’t all bad. The soldiers who went to war had a hard time, but the feudal lords stayed behind and indulged in the tea ceremony, which helped spread Momoyama culture throughout the country. Potters brought from Korea laid the foundations for pottery in this area. The museum, located in a corner of the castle, is free to visit and is packed with historical documents. It even features a reproduction of the gold tea room where Hideyoshi held his tea ceremony. The construction of the tea room alone cost 30 million yen, and 16,000 sheets of gold leaf weighing 500 grams were used, with two layers of gold leaf. The shoji screens are made of red silk and feature a watermark of the paulownia crest. Apparently, a tea ceremony is held in this tea room once a year, and even the participation fee of 10,000 yen may be worth it. However, it is unlikely that you will be able to fully experience the feeling of wabi-sabi.
Nagoya castle (1)Golden Tea House in Museum
Nagoya castle (2)
Detour
Nanatsugama(Seven pots) is a place where the columnar joints have been eroded by the waves of the Genkai Sea, creating seven hollowed-out caves.
Nanatsu-gama (4)A wind-weathered sign
Apparently, the deepest cave is 100m, and when the sea is calm, you can go all the way to the back by sightseeing boat. The sea was raging on the day we went, and it was terrifying. I can imagine that it must have been extremely difficult to row out to Korea from here during the Korean War.
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.
karatsu kunchi fes (1)
karatsu kunchi fes (4)
karatsu kunchi fes (5)
karatsu kunchi fes (6)
karatsu kunchi fes (7)
karatsu kunchi fes (8)
karatsu kunchi fes (9)
karatsu kunchi fes (11)
karatsu kunchi fes (10)
karatsu kunchi fes (14)
karatsu kunchi fes (13)
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.
karatsu kunchi fes (3)
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.
karatsu kunchi fes (2)
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.”
karatsu kunchi fes (15)
karatsu kunchi fes (17)
karatsu kunchi fes (16)
karatsu kunchi fes (18)
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.
karatsu city (3)
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.
karatsu city (1)
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.
karatsu city (5)
karatsu city (4)
karatsu city (6)Karatsu Castle
karatsu city (14)
karatsu city (15)bank
karatsu city (6) a
karatsu city (7)
karatsu city (8)
karatsu city (9)pine forest
karatsu city (10)
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…
