Travel Blog: The Castle Town of Hirosaki

We must be at home! I finally have the chance to pick up the last couple of blog posts for this trip, almost 2 weeks after my previous post.

Our next stop was in the port of Aomori, still in the main agricultural area of Japan, but now the main crops are fruit, more specifically apples, rather than rice. Our tour took us to the town of Hirosaki to view the famous castle and learn a bit about the local culture.

Arriving at Aomori in the morning. The Tsugaru
Mountains are an impressive backdrop.

Mount Iwaki is still an active volcano! And is
known as 'Tsugaru Fuji'. Every mountain that
looks at bit like Fuji with the snow cap has its own reference to it.

One of many apple orchards we passed along the way.
There were also some peach orchards. They also grow
garlic in this area.

Once we arrived in Hirosaki, we headed straight for the Neputa Village. This is a showcase of local craftmanship, mainly in connection with the annual Neputa Festival, but also including other crafts like pottery and woodworking.

The Neputa Festival is held at the beginning of August when the summer is at its peak. It is known as the 'sleep banishing' festival because, when it began over 300 years ago, the sweltering heat and humidity would make the farmers drowsy, neglectful of their duties and unable to ward off evil spirits. To avoid this they placed small lanterns on the river as vessels to carry their sleepiness away.

The Neputa Festival is really a series of parades held daily during the first week of August. Lanterns of many sizes, from very small for children to carry to gigantic fan-shaped floats the are carried on a litter or pulled on carts by a team of men. Along with the brightly lit (with LED lights nowadays) floats, evil spirits are warded off by playing the taiko drums. At the Village we were treated to a taiko drum and shamishen demonstration and toured the exhibition hall of floats and lanterns.

The taiko drum demonstration. It sure is loud,
and this is a very small drum compared
to some I saw in photos online.

Smaller floats can be carried by two people. Hirosaki's
festival is knows for these fan-shaped floats with warriors
on one side and elegant ladies on the other.

The largest floats must be 15 to 20 feet high,

Some floats are even three-dimensional. Aomori's
Neputa has more of this style.

The shamishen played by a pro. There is
a gallery of the best shamishen players
in the exhibition, too.

As we walked through the exhibition we were amazed at some of the beautiful painting on the floats. Each float is crafted by local associations rather than professionals, including painting the warrior and lady images on the front and back. There are probably people who study art just so they can paint their community float each year.

Small lanterns. The red fish on the bottom row are
modeled after a specific goldfish species unique to
Tsugaru that is a harbinger of good luck. These are
most often carried by children.

This one struck me for the beautiful and simple
artwork

Another version of the goldfish

A model of various sizes of float and how
they are carried in the parade.

Of course we weren't there during the festival, but here is a very impressive model of Hirosaki Castle on a float in 2015. Photo credit to http://jaapan.de. If you are interested in more detail, their blog post is very informative.

After the visit to the exhibition, we toured the craft workshop where we could have bought a number of things from wooden toys to beautiful laquerware and even a goldfish neputa lantern. Watching the artisans at work was very interesting.

There is also a beautiful Japanese style garden outside the hall, which we visited for a little while.

There are even Tsugaru Nishiki, the famous
goldfish, in the pond.

Azalea blossoms and Mt. Iwaki in
the background

Hirosaki Castle is only a short walk away, and that was our next stop. On the way our guide took us through what is left of the castle's cherry blossoms. The Cherry Blossom Festival ended only the day before we arrived, and the food and souvenir stalls were being taken down as we passed by.

Hirosaki Castle has two moats. During the Cherry Blossom Festival you can take a boat ride along the moats to view the castle and blossoms from a different angle. The park around the castle, which was opened to the public in 1895, has more than 2,600 ornamental cherry trees (double blooms, no fruit) all donated by local citizens. It must be spectacular in the height of the blooming period. Too bad we were just a little too late to see it!

The first gate we reached was also under restoration and covered with scaffolding. Of course I had to take a photo! I still plan to go through all(!) of my travel photos and make that album of famous sites we've almost seen because they were under scaffolding.

Boats still on the moat after the festival.

This is a famous 140 year old cherry tree

We were advised that the castle, which is normally open, would not be accessible due to construction, but we didn't understand the extent of the 'construction' until we got there. The castle has actually been moved away from its normal location on top of a stone wall so that the wall could be repaired and reinforced. Apparently this has to be done every 100 years or so.

As we crossed the bridge we saw the scaffolding
for the stone wall restoration and improvement.

And here's the castle tower, moved about 50
metres or 160 feet away from its usual perch.

This is as good a view as I could get of the castle tower and where it needs to be moved to. The steel scaffolding is in the distance. Apparently the work is supposed to be finished this autumn, and the locals can buy tickets to watch the process of moving the tower back to its position on the corner of the wall. That will be quite an impressive feat, but I have tremendous faith in Japanese ingenuity!

It is too bad that the castle is not open, but it is still a beautiful building and close enough to the cherry trees that iconic photos will still come out.

An overlook near the castle gives great views over
the city and toward Mt. Iwaki.

We took a slightly different route back to the Neputa Village, and had an opportunity to see our one and only blossom-covered walkway. It was a popular spot.

One of the other castle gates overlooking
the moat.

As we walked along the path, a Great Blue Heron
flew over and landed by the moat across
from us.

The next stop on our tour was for lunch, which was at the buffet restaurant in a local hotel. The food was quite good and a mixture of everything from sushi to pizza. We tried to stick with the Japanese dishes, though.

After lunch we visited a street called Zenrin-gai, which is lined with traditional temples. Most of them are behind walls so we could catch a glimpse of them from the bus but not get much further than that. One, the Chosho-ji Temple, was open to visit and we spent about 20 minutes there.

One of the most impressive parts of this temple was the hall that contains statues of 500 disciples of Buddha, each one with a different facial expression.

This is the Zen Temple area with its own collection of wooden statues. The Buddhist Temple dates back to before Buddhism and Shintoism were separated, and some of the buildings had to be moved when this occurred.

Our final stop on the tour was to Saishoin Temple. This is famous for its five-tier pagoda, the northern-most in Japan.

This is the gate to Yasaka Shrine, right next to
Saishoin.

Saishoin-ji Temple dates back to 1532 and the head priests here have historically held very high positions, including Gonsojo or high-ranking monk. Monks of this stature are sometimes enshrined in five-tier pagodas, having almost the same status as relics of Buddha himself. The pagoda here is meant as a memorial to the fallen, whether friend or foe, dating back to the Sengoku period from the 1460s to the early 1600s.

One difference this temple has to any other we saw is that you can actually stay here overnight and have access to the illuminated buildings, including the pagoda, and take part in other meditations and rituals. It certainly would be an interesting experience.

The bell tower

This statue honours Kobo Daishi, the
founder of the Shingon sect, to which
the temple belongs

The pagoda is also very interesting. It was completed in 1667 and is considered the most beautiful in the region. It is also an architectural marvel of sorts: the central pillar is made from one single cedar timber with no joints. That timber would have to be about 25 metres long, give or take. And, just like the Hagurosan Gojunoto in the forest on Mt. Haguro, it is earthquake-proof. The tiers are not attached to the pillar, but stacked on top of each other so they can move independently, and in the opposite direction from the pillar, during a seismic event. The other very interesting aspect of the pagoda is that it was built without using a single nail or other piece of iron. It is all interlocking wooden pieces.

This is the fountain where one purifies oneself
prior to praying at the main temple. The dragon
acts as the protector of the temple.

Larry even made a friend of the local cat.
She was wearing a collar, so she's not a stray.
I don't think we saw any stray animals
anywhere we went.

After our visit to the temple we boarded the bus heading back to Aomori and the ship. On the way we passed a golf course. Who wouldn't like to play with this scenery around?