Walking Through The Yedo Era

It looked like fortune was smiling on me today as the headache from last night had vanished taking with it the sickly feelings inside. Could it be that those flu shots given to me by the Goddess in Green weeks ago were working? Did they make me immune? I felt great and the sky would be a nice clear blue momentarily (gray clouds were off in the distance). I was looking towards a three-day weekend and a good way to begin my time off was a nice long walk of exploration. I set my sites on the small town of Imaicho, fabled in ancient verse and rhyme.

You will remember I had been here once before but the day was not so kind and I was without my camera. Today I would make up for lost photographs by snapping off around 300 shots, mostly duplicates under varied settings to be deleted later. My camera and I have an on again off again relationship, a love and hate tug of war with no side every claiming clear victory. It was purchased just over a year ago now and over time has developed a finicky attitude. Sometimes it will take glorious photos and sometimes the most minute chore in blazing light will produce poor images. It does not like really bright light and it does not like really low light, sitting pretty in the middle. Maybe this is the way with all cameras, I don’t know. I am more apt to believe that mine is possessed and is in need of an exorcism Linda Blair style! With the clouds coming in I knew the camera would not be tiptop so I hurried my way down Yagi’s main drag (a police station, a grocery store, a toy store, a kimono shop, a smattering of restaurants and pubs and a 7-11) and crossed the red bridge into Imaicho. The red bridge would be a beautiful crossing if this area wasn’t so junky and marred by the hands of man. What could be a nice little stream has been turned into a canal with skeleton frames of bicycles stuck in the mud where no water flows. Trees have been cut down for the train tracks. A block away from the entrance to the town lies an ugly red building with a sign reading, in English, Lovely Ladies Entrance. One would not expect to find a strip club at the foot of such ancient history.


Still, there is this really old tree that they powers that be have allowed to let stand for one reason of another. The gaping hole in its trunk is like a mouth crying out for companionship.


Next to the tree is one of the best things you will come across in Japan, a little shop no bigger then a closet run by a toothless elderly person. These shops can be found anywhere and I have found them on the side of highway bypasses, in small neighborhoods off the beaten track and down dark alleyways more accustomed to muggings and passed out drunken vagrants bathing in a pool of their own filth. The little wooden shop by the bridge only serves one thing. I don’t know what it is but it has something to do with octopus and bread formed into small fried balls. The last time I was here the old man was inside with a muffin tin of these things I will call fried octopus eggs for lack of a better word. I doubt that is what they actually are. Though they smelled rather tasty that day I’m afraid I am not an adventurous enough eater to go that route. I smiled at the old man and he grinned his grin bereft of molars and canines and into the Yedo period of Japanese history I walked putting the mysteries of the bread stuff with octopus for another day when I am feeling a braver man.




The beginnings of Imaicho can be traced back to a monk named Imai Hyobuno-kyo Houjyuy who was written of first in 1386. It’s a good thing nobody had to sign checks back then, huh? He was part of a religious sect called Ikko-syu and took up residence in Honganji temple in Jinaicho (which best is translated as “temple town”). Houjyuy, the monks and their followers founded a town and there built Gobo temple which they surrounded by a moat. In 1575 when lord Nobunaga Oda battled his way to the then capital of Kyoto the people of both Honganji and Gobo took sides against Nobunaga and prepared for war. Imai town sat in the shadows of Gobo temple awaiting the passing of the storms of war. Unexpectedly, Nobunaga negotiated a settlement with the Imai family which resulted in Imai town becoming a trade town with the nearing cities of Osaka and Sakai. The deal with Nobunaga would transform Imai into the largest commercial town south of Nara.



In these early days of the Yedo period the town was home to over four thousand residents. Surrounded by the moat, the town stretched 600 meters in length from West to East and 310 meters from North to South. Nine gates were placed around the perimeter. One can assume that each always had a man stationed on patrol. The town was constructed so that no street had a straight line of site and crooked corners are situated within the town limits as though would severely limit an enemy’s visibility should the town fall under attack.




Today, most of these homes still stand virtually in tact from the Yedo period and it is unbelievable that such a place exists amongst the rush and bustle of Yagi. What remains now is around 600 buildings with 80 percent of them having been built in the 16th and 17th century. There has never been a major fire, which is good because the buildings are made of wood, nor has any other disaster befallen Imaicho making it a history buffs dream walk down narrow streets flaked by beautiful wooden buildings from a bygone age. In 1975 the Japanese government ensured the preservation of this area by enacting the Cultural Properties Protection Law and in 1993 Imaicho was granted status of preservation sighted as an important cultural site.




I started my walk at the building I now know as Hanairaka. This is sort of an information hub for those interested in the area. Today the finger on a stick waving guy was nowhere to be found.


On the site there is also this man made stream to sit by. Nice to look at from certain angles but it just seems to fake.

I had a map with me but decided to pocket it and just be surprised by every turn. Though it may seem maze like inside with no clear view of out all you have to do is find the moat and it will eventually lead you to an exit. Mapless and amazed, I wandered the streets for just over two hours.




Some of the old homes are open to the public and I walked in and out of a few of them. There was the Imanishi residence from 1650 and the Toyoda residence from 1662, two of the oldest buildings on site. The Kawai and Takagi residences both were brewers of sake for the surrounding areas.





Outside of some residences you could see the remainders of old wells and they also set up displays of regalia fitting to the time.
















The area has a few temples and shrines to tour about and with them I found my first cemeteries. I have a morbid liking of photographing graveyards and so I spent a bit of time around the uniquely Japanese graves. Notice they are slim, tall and packed as closely as the homes here are. When people are present I don’t like lingering around cemeteries long as I feel disrespectful. This is similar to why I don’t like photographing shrines and places of worship when people are there praying. All three graveyards I found on this walk were empty today so it was very peaceful to walk around the graves. I wish I could read how old they were but some of them, especially the ones with the weather worn Buddha looked really old.


Each site had a small basin where people used to clean off the graves.


Stray cats made homes around the shrines and in small holes in what looked to be abandoned buildings.


A sleepy eyed dog didn’t even look up as I passed by.





The most beautiful residence had a small pond out front and a park which had a small shrine and a cherry blossom tree.


Nearby I found a red shrine that was currently under reconstruction in the main area so I couldn’t get inside.


I found this quaint barbershop around one corner that turned a Japanese lantern into a barber poll, a very original idea.


The weather started to turn cold though and my light was wiped out by huge gray clouds so I fired off one more shot of a lion statue sitting on a rooftop, a lone sentinel warding off evil, and I set out to find someplace to eat.



I decided to walk in the direction behind my apartment as I had never been there before and there I found an overpass overlook this rice paddy. Due to the mountainous nature of Japan only a small amount of the land can be cultivated. Agriculture has been on a decline since the 1960s with only a small 10% of the populace living and working on farms. Individual farms like the ones I passed today are generally quite small compared to their Western counterparts . I watched from the overpass as the old woman tended her rice paddy. Rice is the most popular crop here although in 1993, for the first time, the crops were so poor that Japan had to rely on rice imports.

Farther up the road I found what closely resembled Brookdale Avenue in Cornwall. Here was a strip of grocery stores and malls, a KFC and a McDonalds. All the place needed was a Tim Hortons.


I decided to go another route and found this place with a large paw print with entirely English text inside of it reading “Brings an encounter with a special DOG”. Yup, dog was all in caps to stress just what your encounter will be yet. I really don’t want to know what services this place offers with man’s best friend.

Turning back home I discovered two great spots I will be frequenting often. The first was a Co-op grocery store that sells things on the cheap. They have six slices of bread for under a buck! It is a bit out of the way but worth the walk for the savings. Three blocks behind my apartment I found a vending machine that sold Bubble Man 2! Sure, it was 20 cents more then in Tendi but I now have the Bubble Man at my fingertips and boy will I use him!

So, all in all, a pretty good day.