Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Yamane Family home.

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On Sunday afternoon we were walking along the waterfront at Nagahama on our way back to the van after visiting the sailship Nadezhda. I stopped and took a couple of photos of some nice, old, empty houses. A man in the garden of the house inbetween asked me why I took the photos. I told him I liked these old buildings, and he asked me if I'd like to look inside. I though he meant inside the empty buildings, but what he meant was inside his house.

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Mr Yamane is the 18th generation of his family to live here. I didn't think to ask how old the house was, but the beams and some of the floors ( 5cm thick slabs of wood) looked to be at least 200 years old.

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The house was filled with family heirlooms, most seemed to be from the Edo Period.

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There were 2 huge Kamidana.

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Lots of weapons, including this thing that was attached to a 2 metre long pole. Not much up on samurai and such so I doin't know what its called.

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There were lots of old dolls, and this lovely pair of statues of Daikoku and Ebisu.

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My favorite object though was this miniature set of samurai armor.

On the way out through the covered courtyard between the buildings Yoko remarked that the 2 huge stone sinks reminded her of a sake brewery and Mr. Yamane told us it was a Soy Sauce brewery. That was has the family became wealthy. I mentioned that if his house was in Kyoto it would be open to the public for a hefty entrance fee. He laughed and said "everything in Kyoto is expensive"

I wondered if he had a son that would continue on living in the ancestral home, but I kind of think probably not. His kids probably live in a big city now.

4 comments:

  1. What a beautiful house! Dear sir, you are the coolest ojisan living in the coolest place on earth!

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  2. Wow! You are really lucky to visit such a nice home! It looks like a place where if the walls could talk, it would be able to tell loads of interesting stories :)

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  3. we don't get to see many homes like this anymore, thanks for sharing these pics here

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  4. Hey Bluseman... actually there are quite a lot of around out here in the boonies...

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