|
| |
|
UWAJIMA |
| |
|
|
| |
From Sukumo, Route 56 continues through countryside before emerging
on the coast. The gently turning cliff-side road, passing though small
fishing communities, provides spectacular views of the deep-blue sea,
carpeted with nets held up by a criss-cross network of buoys. The next
major stop is the port of UWAJIMA , 60km north of Sukumo, famous for its
sumo-style bullfights, when the otherwise quiet and compact town comes
alive . The main sights - which include an original castle and a
fertility shrine - can be seen easily in half a day. An overnight stop
will allow you more time to explore the town's real selling point - it's
tranquil backstreets lined with old wooden houses and temples.
You can easily walk between Uwajima's main sights, but they are a little
scattered, so renting a bike (available from the youth hostel or the
information centre at ¥100 per hour) is a good idea. The castle is a
fifteen-minute walk south of the JR station, while the Taga-jinja sex
shrine, across the Suka-gawa river, is a ten-minute walk to the north.
The municipal bullfighting ring is a twenty-minute walk up the hill to
the east. Route 56 cuts through the centre of Uwajima, running past the
castle and the JR station and parallel to the main covered shopping
arcade, Uwajima Gintengai
The City
Uwajima's most notorious attraction, the fertility shrine Taga-jinja ,
is set back from the Suka-gawa river, a short walk north of the JR
station. The shrine has an attached sex museum (daily 8am-5pm; ¥800) and
is set in a small compound, which is packed with various statues, some
of which assume the shape of penises if looked at from a certain angle -
there's no mistaking the shape of the carved log beside the main shrine
building, though. To the right you'll see a smaller shrine, clogged with
dolls, strings of paper cranes, women's clothes and other articles - all
fertility offerings. The museum is spread over three floors of a modern
building. Inside, it's wall-to-wall erotica, with display cases packed
with all manner of sexual objects, literature and art. There's nothing
in the way of an explanation - or even logical order - to what's on
show, and it soon becomes more entertaining to watch the reactions of
the Japanese tour groups guffawing their way round the museum.
Taga-jinja is to the left as you cross the bridge over the Suka-gawa,
while the larger shrine to the right is Warei-jinja , the focal point of
the spectacular Warei Taisai, one of Shikoku's major festivals. Held
from the evening of July 22 to 24, the festival involves huge models of
devil bulls ( ushi-oni ) being paraded in the streets, along with ornate
portable shrines, the aim being to dispel evil. The bulls, like giant
pantomime horses, eventually do battle in the river, while at the shrine
there's much banging of taiko , bonfire burning and a fireworks finale.
Walking back into the town, keep an eye out for the rather
forlorn-looking Uwajima-jo (daily 9am-4pm; ¥200), at the top of the
hillside park that rises west of Route 56. The compact, three-storey
donjon may be original and certainly gives a fine view of the
surrounding city and port, but there's little reason to pay the entrance
charge, unless you want to look at the photos of other Japanese castles
displayed inside.
There are two routes up to the donjon, either from the north through the
gate of the Kori samurai family (transferred to the castle ground in
1952), tucked back from the main road behind the post office, or from
the Noboritachi-mon gate on the south side of the castle hill. On the
way up, it's worth popping into the Shiroyama Museum (daily 9.30am-4pm;
free), housed in a half-timbered one-storey building, to see an eclectic
collection of local antiques and artefacts, ranging from giant masks of
a long-nosed goblin and a smiling woman to an early radio set.
Since it's been spruced up, the small formal garden Tensha-en (daily:
April-July 8.30am-5pm; Jan-March & Aug-Dec 8.30am-4.30pm; ¥300) has
become a much more popular place to hang out. Dating from 1866, and laid
out in the circular style with a feature made of a wisteria trellis, the
garden is a short walk south of the castle park. You can safely skip the
nearby Date Museum (Tues-Sun 9am-4.30pm; ¥500) and its dusty collection
of heirlooms from the local ruling family in favour of the exploring the
narrow residential streets immediately southeast of the centre. Here
shrines, temples and graveyards are huddled on the slopes leading up to
the Uwajima Youth Hostel . Climb this hill, even you're not staying at
the hostel, for sweeping views of the town.
|
| |
|
