On the road again - Japan 14 May

 School is over! I survived! It was a bit sad at the end, when everyone was saying goodbye and various people were leaving over a couple of days. We also had a couple of meals out, and a small graduation ceremony to mark the occasion. Some people have to go home almost right away for work, others had some more time for travel, and a few people were planning to stay as long as another two months.  I've got another couple of weeks, so I'm back on the road again. I had wondered how I was going to feel after four weeks of constant company and semi-torpor, but it feels good to be exploring again. I'm also using more Japanese since I'm not surrounded by people speaking English all day.

Before I left, the woman who sews items out of recycled obi brought in a bunch of her sale items, including gorgeous runners, bags, pouches, tissue boxes etc. Sorry about the glare from the plastic. Of course I bought a runner and a tissue box, the fabrics are so gorgeous.

Yesterday I came down to Kakunodate, an old samurai town, on a cute little one-carriage scenic train that felt right out of a Ghibli film.

The ride was two hours long and incredibly scenic, coming down through northern Japan past flooded rice fields, mountains covered in green forest, rushing rivers and streams, old and new houses, big and small towns - I really enjoyed it.  When I arrived, I saw an example of a former local craft in the tourist information office, and subsequently saw many more examples today in the various samurai homes and their museums.

I don't know the Japanese word for it but the translation is 'relief painting'. They are fabric sculptures fashioned to look 3D but really they are less than 1cm thick.  Apparently it started as a court pastime amongst court ladies in the Edo period and then spread wider, and was very popular in the samurai town of Kakunodate.  It starts with an outline or a painting of the figure done by an artist (see above).  Then each component is cut in cardboard, which is covered in fabric, but padding is inserted between the fabric and cardboard. Finally, it's back to the artist who paints in the facial features and other details. Most of the figures I saw were 12-15 inches high, and were incredibly detailed. 3D effects like fabric pleating or armour were most realistically rendered.

In one of the house museums, there was a beautiful collection of kimono on display. Google Translate suggests they are all wedding kimono but I'm not sure if that's true.

You may heard of the thick padded 'sleeping kimono' used in the winters in the past, like an olden days version of a sleeping bag. I saw one of those as well, in coarse indigo dyed cloth.

Another famous regional craft done by the samurai since 200 years ago was fashioning items decorated with cherry tree bark veneer - the craft is called Kabazaiko.  It is still done today, and there is a cherry bark museum here in Kakunodate where an elderly craftsman was busy glueing polished bark to decorate containers.  The shops are full of decorative items veneered in cherry bark - the bark can have many different patterns and colours depending on when it is harvested.  And the museums had many antique examples including furniture.  I bought a little brooch at one shop, inlaid with lighter bark to look like a cherry blossom.

A rural offshoot craft was called (I think) 'itaya' which started around the end of the 18thC as a way for farming families to earn extra money. It is weaving various items out of strips cut from young maple trees.  One of the samurai houses had a little workshop with a woman making various items. I bought a little woven pincushion from her. She said the fabric is a traditional woven fabric typical of Fukushima.

Depite having spilled out of both my suitcases, I continue to be seduced by fabric. I am surrounded by temptation, so many shops are displaying fabric wallhangings, and wrapping cloths, and hand towels, hankies, bags, etc etc.

a shop in an old house, with typical fabric wall hangings on display.

a little thread-wrapped temari ornament I bought for the christmas tree

a cat hankie, and two wall hangings that are coming home with me

a modern tablecloth featuring Japanese motifs.

Fans sewn from kimono fabric - wouldn't this idea make a gorgeous Dresden Fan quilt?

I've seen very few miniatures, mostly just expensive key chains, because dollshouses are not a common hobby here. This  c 1/24 model samurai house complete with water wheel was on sale for 43,000 yen in a gift shop which is about 275 pounds, and was a bit crude in scale.

An old merchants house was displaying miniature kimonos on stands in their front tatami room.

In the afternoon I had a walk along the stunning Dakigaeri Gorge, with hawaiian blue river water and a magnificent waterfall at the end.  Altogether I took about 250 photos today and I'm a bit tired, ha ha ha.