Day 9, Aizu-Wakamatsu (prologue)

Today and tomorrow I’m spending in Aizu-Wakamatsu, a city on a plateau surrounded by the mountains of Tohoku. The trip was quite uneventful, less eventful than the previous at least. In 4.5 hours I traveled to my new ‘minshuku’ (Japanese B&B). This included 400 km in 2 hours by shinkansen.

The history of Aizu-Wakamatsu mainly involves the Aizu clan. In the 18th and 19th century they were the most powerful family in the region. As I explained in one of the previous posts, at the end of the 19th century the Meiji restoration took place where the power was taken from the Shogun and given back to the emperor, Meiji. It also involved moving the capital to Tokyo, and it was the start of the rise of imperialism in Japan.

During the restoration several civil wars took place. In one of those, the Boshin war, the Aizu clan chose the side of the Shogun, and got defeated. The family of one of the most important samurai of the Aizu, Saigo Tanomo, committed suicide, while he himself died on the battlefield. The castle got destroyed, but has been reconstructed in the 70’s.

His villa has also been reconstructed, and I visited it today (because my minshuku was located right next to it). All the photos for today’s entry are from thee villa. It nicely shows how a samurai house is divided into different sections: Firstly, a large and luxurious section to receive important guests, including the main entrance. Secondly, a section for the owner himself, the villa guard and the administrative rooms. This section had its own (much simpler) entrance. Thirdly, a section for the owner’s family, whom had to use the side entrance. And finally, a section for the servants and kitchen. Normally, nobody went outside their own section, except for the owner of course, and some of the main servants. A veranda did run around the entire building so one could go from room to room without disturbing anyone.

A funny detail was the toilet; it doesn’t have a ceiling (you are looking directly at the roof), so assassins couldn’t surprise anyone. Also, there was a pair of rails running under it, on which a little cart filled with sand could roll. That way doctors could check the samurai’s health based on their feces.

Tomorrow the rest of the story about White Tigers, smoke, sake, and Mussolini…