A rare sight today, a solitary thatched farmhouse, Miyama-cho, Kyoto Prefecture.
Cotton indigo tie-dyed ( shibori ) crepe work jacket in a field of newly harvested rice.
Circular rice field dedicated to the gods of the grain; outdoor folk museum, Takayama, Gifu Prefecture.
Persimmons drying against an old house, Noto Reninsula.
JAPAN COUNTRY LIVING
SPIRIT * TRADITION * STYLE
AMY SYLVESTER KATOH
PRINCIPAL PHOTOGRAPHY BY SH IN KIMURA
TUTTLE PUBLISHING
Boston • Rutland, Vermont • Tokyo
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
For my family: to Yuichi, who first started me on this journey, to Mia and Saya, Tai and Toshi, who are always beside me. And for Toshiko and Sueko, who light the way. This book would have been impossible without the kindness and cooperation of countless people. Heartfelt thanks to the Akagi family, Mr. and Mrs. Akiyama, J.C. Brown, Diane Durston, Koji Fujibayashi of Sanso Murata, Kozo Fujita, Hiroko Izumi Fukuchi, Mr. and Mrs. Hagiwara, Mr. and Mrs. Hagiya, the Hiroji Hashimoto family, the Junji Hata family, IDr. Hide lshiguro, Senzo Ishikawa, Koji Kado, Kame no Ii, Yoshihiro Kamitani, the Hiromi Kanemaru family, the Kawasaki family, Yufuin, Kyushu, Marc Keane, Miwako Kimura, Ryoichi Kinoshita, Nanyen Kitamuro, Yuri Konomi, Hiroshi Kurata, Hiroshi Kutsukake, Mr. and Mrs. Richard Large, Kiyoko Machida,.Mitsu Minowa, Akio Mitsuno, Daisuke Miyashita, Mr. and Mrs: Miyatani, Sachi Molwi, Mr. and Mrs. Mori, Mr. and Mrs. Tadashi Morita, the Murata family, Makoto Nakano, Takashi Nakazato, the Nibe family, Takako Nishikawa, Margaret Price, Shinji Sakamoto and mother, Shinsaburo Shibuya, Nobuyoshi Shimomura, Mr. and Mrs. Hiroyuki Shipdo, Masanosuke Shirawaka, Barbara Stephan, Shinji Takagi, Yoichi Takimoto, Kenji Tsuehisawa, Mr. and Mrs. Uchida, Mr. and Mrs. Masao Umesao, Douglas and Kiyo Woodruff, Akemitsu Yamada, Mr. and Mrs. Yanagida, and Kazuko Yoshiura.
Photos pp. 50-51 & 54 © Akira Kita Photos pp. 14-15, 38-39, 145 © Naoki Baba.
Published by Tuttle Publishing, an imprint of Periplus Editions (HK) Ltd.
Copyright© 1993 by Charles E. Tuttle Co., Inc.
All rights reserved
LCC Card No. 93-60522
ISBN: 978-1-4629-0649-9 (ebook)
First published, 1993
Printed in Singapore
Designed by Katharine Markulin Hama
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CONTENTS
Introduction 18
Heritage 23
Country Ways 37
Sources 190
INTRODUCTION
THE ROAD THROUGH
THE COUNTRY
On first impression, Japan was a jumble of colors, shapes, sounds, smells and people. Patches of brilliant green rice fields bordered by sluices of running water, layers of indigo mountains, explosions of scarlet spider lilies at the edges of the fields, and people in blue-and-white work clothes, planting, pruning, picking. Here and there a wooden shrine or a stone statue, graced perhaps with a red bib and a fresh offering of flowers, a rope of twisted straw, several coins. Farmhouse roofs were thatched-thick bonnets of golden reeds that turned brown, then gray. Sculpted, organic toppings, the roofs looked as though they had been poured over the house.
In the myths, the islands of Japan are said to have been created of drops falling from the spear of the founding god as it was drawn from the ocean. Standing on the hills, overlooking the misty folds of the land, the myth