Saturday, May 20: After leaving the Japan Open-Air Folk House Museum, I walk through a leafy park to the Tarō Okamoto Museum of Art, which collects and preserves the works of Tarō Okamoto, and his parents Kanoko and Ippei.
Tarō Okamoto (February 26, 1911 – January 7, 1996) was a Japanese artist noted for his abstract and avant-garde paintings and sculpture.
Tarō Okamoto Museum of Art
Entry at the Tarō Okamoto Museum of Art
Work began on the museum in November 1996; it was completed in July 1999, and the museum opened in October 1999.
There is only one place inside the museum where photos are allowed. My photos are featured in the gallery below. In addition, I bought some postcards and photographed those.
work by Tarō Okamoto
inside the Tarō Okamoto Museum of Art
work by Tarō Okamoto
postcard of work by Tarō Okamoto
postcard of sculpture by Tarō Okamoto
postcard of work by Tarō Okamoto
Outside are some interesting sculptures.
sculpture in a pond by Tarō Okamoto
sculpture by Tarō Okamoto
sculpture by Tarō Okamoto
sculpture by Tarō Okamoto
sculpture by Tarō Okamoto
After leaving the museum, I go in search of the rose garden, open only from May 11-May 28, a part of Ikuta Ryokuchi Baraen. I trek up a steep hill through neighborhoods and a forest, wondering the whole time if I’m going the right way.
houses in a neighborhood on the way to the rose garden
pretty in pink
On a steep hill through the neighborhood, I suddenly see the Japanese woman I ate lunch with at the folk museum. We greet each other and I show her my phone with the rose garden name. She points up the hill repeatedly and smiles, saying something cheerfully in Japanese.
going up…
and up…
I finally find a group of rose bushes and my first thought is: This is it? But then I see there is a larger spread down a hill.
roses
corals and pinks
pink tipped roses
I reach the full garden at about 4:15 pm and I see a sign at the entrance says closing time is 4:30. Luckily there is no entry fee; I’d hate to pay with only 15 minutes left.
The rose garden is crowded with families and photographers, along with plenty of roses, trellises and sculptures.
rose garden in Kawasaki
rose garden in Kawasaki
sculpture in the rose garden
roses in Kawasaki
coral pretties in the Kawasaki rose garden
Here is a small gallery of roses. Click on any of the images for a full-sized slide show.
pink roses
yellow roses
white roses
pink blossoms
white flowers
I love the lush layers and shades of roses.
layered petals
mango colors
mango/coral roses
layers and layers
The garden also has some classical sculptures.
a goddess in the garden
archway to roses
the goddess from afar
the rose garden in Kawasaki
pretty petals
a rose is a rose is a rose
Now that it’s a little past 4:30, some official looking people are rounding people up to steer them out of the garden.
another small trellis
evening falls on the rose garden
As there is no daylight savings time in Japan, the sun has been setting around 6:45. Still, two hours before sunset, the evening shadows are layering themselves over the garden. I make my way out of the garden and back over the hills and through the neighborhoods and eventually back to Mukogaokayuen Station. By now, I’m warm, tired and ready to go home.
Because I’ve been hot wearing my tennis shoes all day in the heat, I stop in Machida and buy a pair of walking sandals at the Skechers store. Now I’ll be prepared for outdoor walking in the heat of summer. 🙂
Total steps today: 19,744 (8.37 miles)
Saturday, May 20: A couple of weeks ago, my Japanese Instagram friend Yukie told me of three places I might like to visit in her town of Kawasaki. The first was Nihon Minkaen, the Japan Open-Air Folk House Museum. She also recommended the Taro Okamoto Museum of Art and a rose garden that is only open from May 11-28.
Kawasaki is not that far from my home, so I don’t feel any need to rush out in the morning for my outing. It is a warm and sunny day, nearly 80F degrees, and I find there is quite a lot of walking involved.
I arrive at the Mukogaokayuen Station on the Odakyu line to find a huge map looking out over a wide street perpendicular to the station. As I study the map, trying to get my bearings, a Japanese woman kindly comes up to me and asks me what I’m looking to find. I tell her the three places, which by this time I’ve already found on the map, and she tells me that all I need to do is follow the road right in front of me. The road, she says, is long and winding, but at the end, I will find the folk museum and the Taro museum. She advises me that I should eat some soba at the museum if I have time. We part ways and I walk down the road quite a distance until I reach the door of the folk museum.
After paying the entry fee at the museum, I ask about soba. The guard tells me House #10. I will be on the lookout for it, as I’m already hungry.
The museum was established in 1967, aiming to preserve the disappearing indigenous houses in Japan, and to hand them down to future generations. The museum has twenty-five traditional buildings, including a water-mill, a storehouse on stilts, and a Kabuki Stage. In addition, the museum displays stone statues and carvings, as well as farming tools and daily utensils in each house.
The first group of houses in the collection are designated as Post Town; the Hara House belonged to major landowners who ventured into banking and politics. The financial resources enabled skilled carpenters to display their techniques in erecting the wooden frames.
The Hara House
The Hara House
Inside the Hara House
Inside the Hara House
The Suzuki House was an inn where horse traders lodged and stabled their horses. The deep eaves and latticed windows are architectural traits of post towns.
The Suzuki House
Inside the Suzuki House
The Ioka House is a townhouse that belonged to the Ioka family. The head of the family was an oil merchant turned incense merchant. Both the practice of plastering over posts and the use of a tiled roof were measures to prevent fire.
The Ioka House
Inside the Ioka House
inside the Ioka House
Before leaving Post Town, I see a huge house being constructed. I don’t see any signs indicating what it is.
unknown house under construction
The next area is Shin-Etsu Regional Village. Here, the Water Mill grinds grain into powder; it also has two mortars for polishing rice and a straw damper.
The Water Mill
Inside the Water Mill
The Water Mill
The Sasaki House was built in 1731 in Nagano Prefecture. It was used as both a farmhouse and a dye-house. The second floor above the stable served as an elementary school.
The Sasaki House
The Sasaki House
The Sasaki House
inside the Sasaki House
inside the Sasaki House
The Emukai House, built in the early 18th century in Toyama Prefecture, is characterized by a massive gabled roof with thatch. The immense attic stories were used to raise silkworms. One of two divided sections of the earth-floored area was used for paper making.
The Emukai House
The Emukai House
Garden between the Emukai House and the Yamada House
The Emukai House
The Yamada House, built in the early 18th century in Toyama Prefecture, has a steeply pitched gassho-zukuri roof. The steep roof (45 – 60 degrees) is called gassho zukuri because the houses resemble palms placed together and fingers pointing up in prayer. No nails or other metal materials are used, according to jinto Japan: The Official Guide.
The Yamada family made their living through silkworm cultivation and fire farming. The space under the floor was used for manufacturing gunpowder.
The Yamada House
Inside the Yamada House
inside the Yamada House
The typical gassho-zukuri Nohara House, with a massive steeply pitched roof, has a sturdy frame in order to support the weight of heavy snows. The Nohara family raised silkworms and burned wood into charcoal. It is from late 18th century Toyama Prefecture.
The Nohara House
The gassho-zukuri Yamashita House, with its huge steeply pitched roof, is from early 19th century Gifu Prefecture. The Yamashita family engaged in silkworm cultivation and fire farming on a mountain slope. The house was briefly used as a restaurant before it was moved here.
At the museum today, the house also serves as a restaurant specializing in soba, both hot and cold. I stop here for lunch since the Japanese woman at the station recommended it. The restaurant is quite crowded and lively; because of this, I’m seated with another single woman about my age. She’s Japanese and doesn’t speak English, and of course I speak no Japanese, so we can’t communicate. The lack of common language doesn’t stop her from being quite friendly, however, smiling and saying things in Japanese that I can’t understand. 🙂
Having soba at the Yamashita House
Soba at the Yamashita House
The next area is Kanto Regional Village. The Sakuda House has two roofs – one over the living space and the other over the earth-floored area. The head of the Sakuda family was responsible for a seine net sardine fisher’s community. A seine is a fishing net that hangs vertically in the water with its bottom edge held down by weights and its top edge buoyed by floats.
The Sakuda House
A guide at the museum tells me the curved beams signify that the family is high-class and wealthy.
inside the Sakuda House
inside the Sakuda House
inside the Sakuda House
inside the Sakuda House
rooftop construction
roof construction
The Storehouse on Stilts is still part of the museum’s Shin-Etsu Regional Village and is from late 19th century Kagoshima Prefecture. The raised floor storehouse has four thick columns made of a toxic tree known as iju, which protect the columns from termites.
path to the Storehouse on Stilts
Storehouse on Stilts
Storehouse on Stilts
roof construction Storehouse on Stilts
roof construction Storehouse on Stilts
The roof space of the Storehouse on Stilts was mainly used to store rice, and a ladder was used to access it.
Storehouse on Stilts
The Hirose House, part of the Kanto Regional Village display, has a sunken hearth with no floorboards. The Hirose family originally grew tobacco, but then switched to silkworm cultivation. This house is from late 17th century Yamanashi Prefecture.
The Hirose House
The divided-ridge Ota House has a large gutter made from a log, where two eaves meet. The Ota family was engaged in farming and the head of the family was a village headman. This house is from late 17th to late 18th century Ibaraki Prefecture.
The Ota House
inside the Ota House
The next area at the museum is the Kanagawa Regional Village. The Kitamura House, from 1687 Kanagawa Prefecture, has a bamboo-floored living room, rather than timber. The Kitamura family’s major crop was tobacco.
The Kitamura House
inside the Kitamura House
The Kiyomiya House, from late 17th century Kanagawa Prefecture, is one of the oldest buildings in the museum. The grass ridge of the roof is covered with irises that bloom in spring. The Kiyomiya family grew rice and Japanese pears and they worked as carpenters.
The Kiyomiya House
The Kiyomiya House
The Kiyomiya House
The Kiyomiya House
Here, on this hot day, a man has a fire going in the center of the floor to demonstrate life in the past. The people motion for me to sit down, which I do for a brief time. The moment they’re not paying attention, I make my escape from the heat. 🙂
inside The Kiyomiya House
inside the Kiyomiya House
The Kiyomiya House
The Ito House, from late 17th to early 18th century Kanagawa Prefecture, sits on uneven ground. The Ito family grew persimmons unique to Kawasaki, along with silkworm cultivation and dry field farming.
The Ito House
Kokagesan Shrine was revered among the people engaged in silkworm cultivation. On both its sides are two of four reliefs depicting the afflictions suffered by the Indian princess in her life. She was believed to have brought sericulture (the cultivation of silkworms to produce silk) to Japan.
Kokagesan Shrine
The Iwasawa House’s simple lattice windows were to ward off wild beasts. The Iwasawa family were engaged in charcoal making and tea cultivation. The house is from late-17th century Kanagawa Prefecture.
inside the Isawasa House
The Kabuki Stage has a revolving platform that was used to change scenes during a play. Under the stage is a space from which the stage is rotated.
Kabuki Stage
inside the Kabuki Stage
behind the Kabuki Stage
The Kabuki Stage
At the west gate of the museum, I opt not to go in the Traditional Indigo Dyeing Workshop. It’s enough to see it under the red maple leaves.
looking over the Traditional Indigo Dyeing Workshop
The last area is Tohoku Regional Village. The shape of the Kudo House resembles the letter L from above. The Kudo family’s principal occupation was silkworm and tobacco cultivation.
inside the Kudo House
With two horses on one side of the earth-floored area, and humans on the other, they lived as family.
horse inside the Kudo House
After this expedition through the houses of Japan’s past, I make my way to the Rear Gate, where I find a sign pointing to the Taro Okamoto Museum of Art. I exit and find respite from the heat as I stroll through a shady park to the museum.
catbird in japan 