A conservation area, Joto district

Here is a conservation area of historic townscape, Joto.

Joto used to be a castle town of Tsuyama castle, and houses and buildings from the Edo era are well preserved.

It takes about 25min by car from Shurakuen garden.


Some samurai residences are opened to the public.
First, we visited ‘Sakushu Joto yashiki’.
 
This building used to be a school in the Maiji era.
Here is also a place where Japanese film ‘Otoko ha tsuraiyo’ was shot.
　

Behind this building, there’s an exhibition room for carnival floats.
They are called ‘danjiri’.

Tsuyama City has 28 danjiri which are designated as important cultural assets of Okayama, and four of them are exhibited here at the moment.

Those danjiri appear at Tsuyama festival (at Osumi shrine) in November once every 2years.

Let’s go inside
 


What a gorgeous float

It has a driver’s seat and a steering wheel  It’s funny...

　
The oldest danjiri was made in 1856
 


Dragons are curved on the roof of each danjiri.
So elaborate…and beautiful
 
Maybe I'd better come back to see Tsuyama festival


In the exhibition room, some paintings by a local painter, Isao Kono are displayed.

I also liked them


You can see some old furniture and tools at Sakushu Joto yashiki.
 
(left）stairs with drawers
(right) kitchen tools
　

It also has a big rest room.
Those ‘fusuma (movable doors)’　are designed by Isao Kono.
He draw a snow scene in Tsuyama and wild flowers.
    I'd love to have doors like those in my house
 

Next, we visited a residence where Genpo Mitsukuri used to live until he became 14years old.
He was a scholar of Western learning in the Edo era.
 

I found a statue of him in the garden

He was good at English as well, so he was asked to translate some important English documents when Matthew Calbraith Perry visited Japan in 1853.


Apart from that, I noticed small red stuff hung at the entrance.
 
Apparantely, they are called ‘kukuri saru (bound monkeys)’. 
They are traditional lucky charm. It’s displayed to welcome visitors.

At the end of our trip, we tried local specialty ‘hormone udon’
I’ll tell you about it in the upcoming episode.


Sakushu Joto yashiki
Address: 19 Nakanochotsuyama City
Tel: 0868-24-6095
Opening time: 9:00-17:00（last admission 16:30）
Close: Wednesdays (open if it’s a holiday)
Admission: free

Mistukuri Genpo house
Address: 6 Nishishinmachi, Tsuyama City
Tel: 0868-31-1346
Opening time: 9:30-16:00
Close: Mondays (open if it’s a holiday)
Admission: free

A conservation area : Joto district
Address: the area between Hashimoto town and Higashi sin machi in Tsuyama City
Tel: 0868-22-3310（Tsuyama tourist association）