Hagi & Tsuwano

Another typhoon was aiming at Japan last weekend. In December! Although it ceased to be a typhoon before crossing Taiwan, its effect brought Japan another disaster. It was the worst weekend to have a trip, but we had a "workplace comfort trip" in Hagi and Tsuwano. I hope you don't remember the phrase "comfort woman" for the trip. It has nothing to do with the sort of it. It rained for 2 days, and it was from the window of the train to go back to a Shinkansen station in Yamaguchi Prefecture that I could finally see the sun, although it was setting at the time. However beautiful the sunset was, the scene left some unsatisfied feeling in me. Hagi & Tsuwano tours used to be popular among young women, and my wife had visited there with her friends some years ago. No wonder I found some cute shops and cafes there, especially in Tsuwano.
Hagi Yaki Entering a Japanese-style cafe, I found a cozy garden and a tea ceremony hut. A lady owner appeared in Kimono, and offered me Japanese green poudered tea in a cup made by a famous potter. After a while, I had a chance to ask her about the potter, Hagi-yaki and so on. It was a luxuary one-to-one tea ceremony and a lecture.
Yoshida Shoin "OYA WO OMOU KOKORO NI MASARU OYA-GOKORO. KYO NO OTOZURE IKANI KIKU RAMU." (I think of you, my parents. However, you, my parents, think of me more deeply. As such, how do you find the news that I should be executed today?) I read the original letter with the message above. It was written by Yoshida Shoin himself, who was a harbinger of modern Japan, and died at the age of 29 without seeing even the beginning of Meiji Restoration.
Toko-ji Temple Toko-ji Temple is the third largest Obaku-shu temple in Japan. Obaku-shu is one of Zen denominations. The biggest one is in Uji, Kyoto, and the second is in Nagasaki, which were both established by the founder of Obaku-shu, Ingen Zenji. In one sense, this temple is the largest branch of the sect in Japan.
An'no Mitsumasa My most favorite painter, who have drawn and painted many pictures for many picture books with lot of imagination and unique sense of humor.
Urakami Christians When I visited Nagasaki, I learned that some Christians captured at the end of Edo period were sent to Tsuwano. Today I was lucky enough to have a chance to visit the very place where they were imprisoned till the death of some of them. Rather than having sympathy to them, I feel embarassed or ashamed to realize how cruel human beings can be.
Mori Ogai's grave Mori Ogai is one of the two biggest novelist at the beginning of Modern Japan, along with Natsume Soseki. Although I prefer Soseki, I although enjoyed reading some of Ogai's novels too. While Soseki was born, was raised, and died in Tokyo, the center and capital of modern Japan, Ogai was born and raised in Tsuwano, a tiny mountain town, until he went to Tokyo to attend a university there and to make a doctor for the Army later. The fact that he rather prefered to burried as a local Iwami persona at his death is a little bit mazing.