Page 242 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Japan

EXPERIENCE Western Honshu

26 27 Jonen-ji is noted for its finely
carved gate, Hofuku-ji its
Iwakuni Hagi bibbed Jizo statues, Kyotoku-ji
岩国 萩 for its garden, and Choju-ji for
an atmos pheric ceme tery.
! B5 ⌂ Yamaguchi ! B5 ⌂ Yamaguchi Camellias and natsu mikan
Prefecture £ Sanyo Prefecture £ @ (summer oranges) hanging
Shinkansen line to Shin- n (0838) 25-1750
Iwakuni, JR Sanyo line over whitewashed mud walls
to Iwakuni n At 2F bus Hagi was a minor fishing port typify the samurai quarters to
until Mori Terumoto forti fied it
the west of Teramachi. Sever al
terminal near Iwakuni Stn; in 1604. Mori samurai helped residences are located here,
(082) 721-6050
spark off the anti-Tokugawa including Kikuya House, a
This city’s main draw is the revolt in the mid-1800s, and merchant villa with a small
elegant Kintai-kyo, or “brocade many of Meiji Japan’s founding museum and beautiful garden
sash” bridge, named for the fathers came from Hagi. Today attached. The Ishii Tea Bowl
rippling effect created by its it is best known for its pottery- Museum has a superb
five linked arches. The ori ginal making tradition. Hagi’s charm ceramics collection. Wealthy
structure, built in 1673, was is in the details: its mossy merchants appoint ed by the
destroyed by a typhoon in ceme teries, tea houses, and Mori clan once owned the fine
1950. This almost exact replica the tiny, purple bloom of bush collection in the Kumaya Art
depends on first-rate joinery clover (hagi). The central Museum to the north of here.
and an invisible quantity of Teramachi district contains It includes tea-ceremony
reinforced steel. old temples and shrines. utensils, paintings, and screens.
Kikko Park is home to
samurai houses, including
Mekata House. Iwakuni Art HAGI’S CERAMIC ARTS
Museum has an impressive Hagi’s first kilns date from the Heian period, but the town’s
display of armor and weapons. reputation for refined tea vessels and other wares began
A cable car climbs to Iwakuni in the 16th century with the introduction of apprentice
Castle, a faithful 1962 recon- potters from Korea. A distinguishing mark of hagi-yaki
struction of the 1608 donjon. (Hagi-ware) is its translucent
glaze (right). Hagi-yaki
Mekata House improves with age, the
⌂ 2 Yokoyama # 9am– muted pinks and pastels
4:30pm Tue–Sun of the stone ware
softening to beiges
Iwakuni Art Museum as tannin from the
" ⌂ 2-10-27 Yokoyama tea soaks through
§ (0827) 41-0506 # 9am– the porous glaze.
5pm daily
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