YAMATO-KORIYAMA: GREEN TEA, A CASTLE AND PONYO
- José Carlos Gómez Delgado
- Mar 28, 2016
- 3 min read
Nara Visitor Center is a tourist association of the Nara Prefecture. The building is located in the city center, next to Sarusawa-ike Pond. They provide tourist information, advice on accommodation and many daily free services such as demonstrations of tea ceremony, origami workshops, Japanese writing lessons, Japanese history lessons, etc.
They also do tours to various locations around Nara. The bus and the guide are free, but depending on the route you have to pay temples, museums and other places to visit.
One of these routes brings us to the nearby town of Yamato Koriyama, a quiet little town with some interesting sights. We were a total of four people and our friendly guide Reiko, who explained in English the most important details of each place and answered all our questions.
First we went to Jikou-in temple to enjoy a matcha (bitter green tea) with a traditional Japanese sweet. This temple was founded in 1663 by Sekishu Katagiri, a daimyo (feudal lord) of the area, to pray for the happiness of his late father. Sekishu consecrated the temple to the discipline of Zen and the tea ceremony he had learned from monk Gyokushitsu.
In the Honden of the temple (main building) a sculpture of Buddha is flanked by one of Sekishu and another of monk Gyokushu. The front door of the temple, thatched roof, was moved from the far Ibaraki, Sekishu homeland. When the Tokugawa shogun banned the existence of more than a castle per prefecture, the castle of the family Katagiri was dismantled and the door moved to the temple Jikou-in.
In the price of admission (1000 yen) it is included the tasting of Matcha and the sweet, which has the form of "Kamon" or family crest. As we drank tea, one of the monks of the temple explained us the meaning of the way of tea according to his school and invited us to enjoy the beautiful garden and halls.
Then the bus took us to the center of Yamato Koriyama. The walking route led us through several buildings of the Edo Period, located in what was the old red light district of the city. Simultaneously, some curious street "monuments" (see the photo of the phone booth-aquarium) showed the devotion they have acquired in this city for "Kingyou" or goldfish. Do you remember Ponyo, Studio Ghibli´s film?
Kochikuya is both a shop specialized in souvenirs related to the goldfish and a dojo or specialized training hall. So there we tried the goldfish scooping. The goldfish farming industry in Yamato Koriyama is the largest in Japan, and since 1995 the the city held "The All-Japan Goldfish Scooping Competition". As we could see, catch these fish requires a good deal of skill and practice.
The last point of the route was Koriyama Castle. After a long and remarkable history, the castle was ordered to be demolished during the Meiji restoration. Now only the base of the tower and parts of the strong stone wall remain. During the 80s two towers and Otemon Gate were rebuilt.
At the time of our visit, they were preparing the area for the Koriyama Castle Festival. The castle ruins are one of the "Hundred sites for good view of the cherry blossom" throughout Japan.
After wandering around the castle area, we returned to the bus, which was waiting nearby. The route lasts a total of four hours (8:30 to 12:30) and is an experience I recommend to visitors who want and have time to extend his visit beyond the city of Nara.
Comments