|
| |
|
OBI |
| |
|
|
| |
The JR Nichinan line sweeps inland round the Udo headland, passing
through OBI , an old castle town about 50km south of Miyazaki. It's a
pristine little place with a number of samurai houses and a fine
collection of traditional whitewashed warehouses, many of them
immaculately restored, clustered under the castle walls. Obi's heyday
was under the Ito family, who were granted the fiefdom in 1588 and then
spent much of their time feuding with the neighbouring Shimazu clan of
Kagoshima. Only the walls of their once formidable castle remain, though
the main gate and lord's residence have been rebuilt in the original
style.
Central Obi lies in a loop of the Sakatani-gawa, with its historic core
concentrated north of the main east-west highway. Here you'll find a few
streets of samurai houses and the castle, Obi-jo (daily 9.30am-4.30pm;
¥510, including Yoshokan and Komura Memorial Hall), on the low hill
behind. Walking north up Ote-mon-dori, under the great southern gate,
you reach a white-walled history museum full of Ito family heirlooms.
Beyond is the Matsu-no-maru, an exact replica of the sprawling, Edo-period
buildings where the lords once lived, including the reception rooms,
women's quarters, tea-ceremony room and a lovely "cooling-off" tower,
where the lord could catch the summer breezes after his steam bath.
The rest of the castle grounds are now just grass and trees, but on the
way out take a quick look at Obi's largest samurai house, the Yoshokan
(same ticket and hours), immediately west of Ote-mon gate. When the
Meiji reforms abolished feudal holdings in the late-nineteenth century,
the Ito family moved to this more modest villa which had previously
belonged to their chief retainer. Though you can't go in, the house is a
lovely, airy building surrounded by a spacious garden that's looking a
bit worse for wear. On the opposite side of Ote-mon from the Yoshokan,
the Komura Memorial Hall (same ticket and hours) commemorates a famous
Meiji-era diplomat who was born in Obi in 1855. He's best remembered for
his part in concluding the 1905 peace treaty following the
Russo-Japanese War; the museum's most interesting material, much of it
in English, revolves around this period.
|
| |
|
