Horse archery festival in Moroyama

Every Spring and Autumn a Yubasame, horse archery, festival is held at the shrine in Moroyama. Last week on a perfect autumn day we went along.











The event dates back about 1,000 years and, unusually, in this festival very young boys shoot the first arrows. They are splendidly costumed and chosen to represent the three ancient clans of the area.

It is a great community event with all the usual food stalls and sideshow stands.
 I was the only foreigner I saw there amongst the thousands attending.

 

To begin with there is lots of parading back and forth and bleesing of the area by the priests.

Each of the three boys representing each clan shoots the first arrow for his side.
Then successively more agile and older riders show off their skills.

Textures and Materials

 There are beautiful things everywhere. Not least the patterns of materials used in everyday life.

The photos here were taken rather randomly over a period of a week's wandering around.

Wood stacked for the pottery kiln

The appetiser of a $15 lunch in Kurashiki, you should have seen the rest.

A wall in Kanazawa.

A warehouse wall in Kurashiki. This sort of construction was introduced when they got sick of the wooden ones burning down.

Wooden walls that have been purposely charred to act as a protective coating.

The screens at the entrance of a house.

Screens of an inn at night with amusing cut-outs.

This is where you sweep the dust outside in an old house, also ventilation. Korean restaurant in an restored ancient house.









The thatched stucture of a temple roof in Shirokawago.

 

Shingle roof in Kanazawa.

The Lapislazurli decorated wooden ceiling of the  Sei Son Kaku, Kanazawa.

Fence facing the sea, Noto Peninsula.

Eating materials, near our house.

The world's most beautiful roof

The Sei Son Kaku is a marvellous palace built for Shinryu-in the dowager of the Maeda clan in the middle 1800's. It is in a beautiful park on a hilltop in Kanazawa.

Kanazawa, the ancient lair of the Maedas, is an old city full of historic treasures. In fact so full that there are all sorts of wonders off the main tourist path that almost no-one seems to go to.





Such was the case with the Sei Son Kaku, we had the place  to ourselves. Also, unlike many tourist spots, the place was pretty much as it was when the owners left it.

 You can walk around and get close to the furnishings and ornaments and really get the feeing of what it must have been like to live there.

But the really amazing thing is the roof, ....oh the roof. It is made out of  millions of wood shingles about 8 x 15 cm overlain to seven layers and held together by millions upon millions of bamboo nails.

The effect is quite mesmerising it is like feathers or fish scales or the scales on the wings of  an insect.  It shimmers in the light and incredibly folds seemlessly around corners and into valleys and dips. All this punctuated by copper gutters. It must have taken an unimaginaeable amount of fine workmanship and a very long time to create. It was a warm day and with the screens open on the second floor the breeze was perfumed with the smell of cedar from the roof.