![]() When I get to a busier road, I am able to hitch a lift for the final stretch to Kenmin-ga-hama (県民の浜). But the walk is a pleasant one, through mikan farms and old farmhouses. On Kami-kamagarijima, I jump off the bus, despite the driver telling me it is too far to walk to the beach I seek.Īnother sign of the times perhaps in modern Japan, where the elderly are advised not to walk a distance that Google maps tells me is a mere eleven minutes. As the bus is nearly empty I moved from side to side, keeping the water close. A bus takes me along the rest of the islands in the chain, crossing high above the water on the bridges that interconnect them. ![]() Far better, in hindsight, to have taken a late ferry out to the islands themselves and stayed there.įor this day at least I am through with boats. ![]() I mention too how disappointed I am in myself for not staying on the island, as recently I've been opting for cheap hotels on the mainland, convenient to early morning ferries. I talk with the proprietor over a coffee, talking about island life and asking questions that had arisen during my walk. I duck into Shiomachi Kan, which serves as a souvenir shop and cafe. Had that clock been correct, it would have told me it is nearing lunchtime. Koi ga hama beach front Kami-kamagarijima In a most poetic metaphor, the hands of the clock hanging above the old clock shop no longer move. But as I walk, all I am concerned with is today. Funny, considering that most of what we think of as being "traditionally Japanese" was created at that time. (Equally important, many of the samurai films of the early 1960's told stories of lone swordsmen fighting a corrupt Shogunate, in an off-hand criticism of the military government during the war, and even the modern Japanese government of the time.) Meiji values, though they too had rebuilt the country, did so in a way that led to an ultimate apotheosis in the war itself, and therefore, could no longer be trusted. After the Second World War, the Edo Period became fashionable, as if the bushido samurai code of ethics was necessary to rebuild the country, which the west picked up in the 1980's when all of Wall Street seemed to be reading the samurai classic The Book of Five Rings. Do we value older history more than new? Or perhaps it is political rather than cultural. I begin to think how ironic it is that places with an Edo Period look have been better preserved (a grand generalization in a country like Japan), whereas those from the transitional Meiji have been allowed to fade. Feudal period courtesans once paraded the streets. Like Kinoe, this town too had a pleasure quarter, but of a higher grade. I run into one woman twice, and another one, three times. All the rest is vibrant and alive, the residents actually moving about. There is the usual decay, but here it has a certain beauty, especially the old school, and the crumbling temple nearby. I crisscross the town a couple of times, following the lanes laid-out like the ribs of an open fan. Throughout these wanderings I keep wondering what he saw in his day, and for the first time I find us sharing the same view. I too am lucky to find things unchanged, not only from the Edo Period, but from Richie's visit as well. I approach with some trepidation, worried it had lost the charm that he found here. I would gush about it, but Donald Richie already has, and he dedicates a good number of pages in his book The Inland Sea to the town. ![]() Further bridges connect Teshima and Osaki-shimojima. Shimo-kamagari is connected by bridge to Honshu and the two islands are also linked by bridge to each other. Shimo-kamagari and Kami-kamagari are two islands off the Hiroshima coast that are administratively part of Kure. Knowing Tranquility Part XIII: Shimo-kamagari 下蒲刈 & Kami-kamagari 上蒲刈
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