Zwinger Palace at Arita Porcelain Park

 

To come across a full-size replica of a Rococo German palace in the countryside of Saga in northern Kyushu might surprise some people, but such things no longer surprise me.

This replica of the Zwinger palace in Dresden is located in a theme park devoted to porcelain, the Arita Porcelain Park, and as well as the Zwinger palace the rest of the park is made out to represent a "german" village.

The connection of porcelain to Arita is a strong one...... Arita is where the first porcelain in Japan was made, but the connection to Germany needs some explanation.

A lot of the porcelain produced in Arita was exported to Europe by the Dutch traders of Nagasaki and was very popular and known as Imari Ware after the nearby port to Arita from where it was exported.

In the 1970's it was discovered that behind the Iron Curtain in the museum of Dresden was an amazing collection of Imari Ware, and with some difficulty it was arranged to bring the collection from East Germany to show in Japan. This led to Arita and Dresden becoming sister-cities.

The original Zwinger was built in 1709 as an orangerie and gardens with galleries and pavilions for exhibitions. It is considered a classic piece of Baroque architecture of Dresden. It was largely destroyed by the infamous bombing raid of WWII but was rebuilt.

The Arita version was opened in 1993, and like many such ambitious projects from around that time the park never really became very successful and so has somewhat deteriorated. The gardens are particularly bleak.

When I visited the two long galleries held exhibitions of European porcelain and local Arita ceramics, but it seems that these exhibitions have now ceased. I suspect the whole park will not be a viable business for much longer, again a fairly common occurrence in the hinterlands of Japan.

I visited on day 70 of my walk around  Kyushu, a day I spent mostly exploring Arita, a town well worth a visit. Next, I will look at the rest of the porcelain park.

Ryoma Sakamoto Memorial Museum in Kochi

 

Ryoma Sakamoto is one of the most popular figures in the creation of modern Japan in the so-called Meiji Restoration that ended the rule of the Shogun and restored Imperial rule in 1868.

He was a low-ranking samurai born in what is now Kochi, west of Kochi Castle. A small museum dedicated to him now stands at his birthplace, but the biggest one is located south of Kochi City overlooking Katsurahama Beach.

He was assassinated in Kyoto in 1867 by pro-shogunate elements, possibly connected to the famed shinsengumi.

It is said that Katsurahama Beach was a favorite spot of Sakamoto's, and a big statue of him was  erected there  in 1939.

Not far away, in 1991, a striking museum was opened dedicated to Ryoma.

While personally not having much interest in Ryoma Sakamoto, I was intrigued by the architecture. Designed by Hiroshi and Akiko Takahashi, and was their first project together.

I took these photos in late November, 2011, on the 17th day of my walk around the Shikoku Ohenro pilgrimage. The previous post in the series was from the evening before in Kochi City at Yosakoi Inari Shrine. The closest pilgrimage temple is Sekkeiji.

Tabira Catholic Church

 

Tabira Catholic Church is located on the mainland close to the bridge across to Hirado Island.

It is a Romanesque brick structure with a wooden roof and was built in 1918.

Under the guidance of two French priests in the late Meiji period, Hidden Christians from areas further south in Nagasaki resettled in the area and built the church. Eventually many other Christian families migrated here.

The church was designed by Yosuke Tetsukawa who designed many other churches in the Nagasaki area.

In the late 20th century new stained glass from Germany and Italy was installed in the church and the original stained glass was donated to a church on Shikoku.

Since sites connected to Hidden Christians in Nagasaki were added to the UNESCO World Heritage, Tabira Church has become a popular tourist site. So nowadays it is recommended to contact the church in advance for permission to visit, but when I was there no such restrictions existed.

I visited on day 68 of my walk around Kyushu just before crossing over to Hirado. The previous post was on the Ohashi Natural Bridge.

Kounkaku Matsue

In the grounds of Matsue Castle stands quite an elegant Western-style building called Kounkaku.

It was built in 1902-3 as a lodging for the Meiji Emperor. The emperor made half a dozen grand tours around the country, part of the governments program to instill a sense of nationhood among the population using the emperor as a unifying symbol. 

All across the country towns and cities built such places in the hopes of attracting a visit from the emperor.

In the end, Meiji didn't visit Matsue, but his son, the Crown Prince did, in 1907, and he stayed there.

Now it is used for a variety of exhibitions and also houses a cafe.

Many similar, Western-style buildings were built, in the early days as residences for foreigners, like the mansion for foreign engineers in Kagoshima.

Some of the Japanese nobility built them for themselves, like the Jinpukaku in Tottori. However, many smaller, much less pretentious Western-style buildings were used for such things as post offices, hospitals, local government offices, etc. Like this former hospital near Kurume.

The previous post in this series on Matsue was Matsue Castle itself.

Sakurai Family Samurai Mansion

 

The Sakurai were a samurai family who controlled iron production in an area of Okuizumo in the Chugoku Mountains of Shimane.

Originally from what is now Hiroshima, the family moved here in 1644 from the Kabe district and so were known locally as Kabeya.

Just below the old manor is a modern museum called Kabeya Shuseikan displaying artifacts from the family history.

The main house was built in 1738. The main residence sometimes served as a honjin, a guesthouse for when the Daimyo was traveling in the area

The most notable feature of the manor is the garden, and that will get a full post next....

There were several other samurai families controlling iron production in the region, probably the most important iron-producing region in Japan.

Down the mountains, the Itohara Family Residence is another big samurai manor with a garden and also a museum devoted to tatara iron making.

Near to the Sakurai Residence is more modern version of a tatara forge, and in the town of Yokota is a big museum devoted to tatara and samurai swords

Minato Goten Palace

 

The Minato Goten Palace was built to the southwest of Wakayama Castle on the bank of the Tsukiji River.

It was originally built in 1698 by Tokugawa Mitsusada ( 1627-1705) and from the late 18th century became the permanent home of the retired daimyo.

It burned down several times and the current version was constructed in 1823 using the blueprints of the domains  mansion in Edo.

In early Meiji it was dismantled and moved to its current location next to Yosui-en garden in the Wakanoura area of the city.

It is considered a fine example of Shoin Zukuri architecture of the Edo eriod.

The previous post in this series on Wakayama City was the nearby Wakaura Tenmangu Shrine.