Private Guide in Hakone:Yokoso! Japan
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City: Hakone
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Obi, a Remnant of Old Japan
Private Tour Guide in Japan: Yokoso! Japan
Traveling down the Nichinan Coast from Miyazaki on Kyushu's eastern shore, it's the surf town of Aoshima that gets most of the attention. The weekend surfers and beach bunnies who descend on the town's beaches, rock piles and amusement arcades rarely seem to feel the need to go further down the coast to explore its stunning cliff formations, rustic villages, or the oddly neglected historical town of Obi.
A mere one-hour ride on the charming, two-carriage Nichinan line train from Miyazaki, Obi is sufficiently inland from the Udo headland to be a deterrent to crowds. Adding to its geographical obscurity is the fact that this old samurai town hardly goes out of its way to advertise itself. Only a few discerning Japanese, in fact, even know of its existence. All of which is good news for travelers searching for authentic smidgens of "old Japan."
Obi was better known in the 16th century, when it was a fiefdom under the Ito family of Kagoshima. The town's defenses, its restored walls, imposing entrance gate and plaster-covered lookout towers, the visible remains of its once formidable castle, hint at a long-vanished importance and prestige.
The town regained some historical attention during the early Meiji period thanks to the town's best-loved son, Jutaro Komura, scion of a local samurai family. Komura is best known for negotiating a revision of the Unequal Treaties act and for restoring Japan's sovereignty in a number of areas including customs rights. Obi had already established itself as a thriving merchant center by this time. Several Edo-period whitewashed merchant houses, some now serving as stores and museums, are still visible along the main road that runs through Obi, testament to the modest level of wealth that flowed into the town.
Fifteen minutes on foot from Obi Station, Otemon-dori, a straight avenue lined with old houses, plaster storerooms, and stone and clay walls, leads to the superbly restored Otemon, or main gate, the entrance to the castle grounds and a small history museum. Within the same precincts stands a faithful replica of the Edo period Matsu-no-Maru, the residence of Lord Ito's most senior wife. Kyushu's humid summers have nicely weathered the building, applying an appealing patina of age. The women's quarters, reception rooms and the Gozaemon, a beautifully stark tea ceremony room, seem to hail from a different age. The lord and his women appear to have lived well in this Seraglio. A steam bath with a clay stove stands behind a Chinese gable, from which the clan lords could exit into a small tower where they could cool off in the evening breezes.
Original to a fault, with all the signs of a genuine ageing, the Yoshokan was the former residence of the Ito clan. This is surely Obi's most elegant samurai residence. In accordance with good geomancy, all the rooms here face south. This is a felicitous angle in any case, as a stone garden has been created here, one that can be enjoyed from the open rooms with a view of Mount Atago in the background.
If you have an interest in Japanese gardens, especially the rock and gravel arrangements favored by Zen priests and the better-off samurai, there is a smaller stone garden at the nearby House of Denzaemon Ito, the residence of a high-ranking samurai. Obi cedars, much in evidence on the outskirts of the town were used in the construction of this fine villa. The town's local shrines enveloped in forests of timeless Obi oak, cedar, and cryptomeria, are reached by long flights of stone steps. Only faintly trampled, their moss-covered steps are a sign of how little visited this town is.
Not that Obi is completely off the mainstream tourist orbit. A car park large enough to accommodate tour buses, and a small number of souvenir shops and vending machines, attest to the fact that Obi is on the map. The town even has a one-man rickshaw operation. A man dressed in period clothing will pull you around the historic core of the town in a "jinriksha" (rickshaw), relating local anecdotes and lore and explaining the historical details not found in the brochures. The rickshaw may seem a form of conveyance more suited to the streets of Calcutta or Mandalay, but the vehicle is in fact a Japanese invention , which first appeared on the streets of the Nihombashi commercial district of Tokyo in 1869.
Besides the prescribed sights marked on the map that comes with the collective ticket to the main spots, the real pleasure of Obi lies in wandering its back lanes lined with old samurai and Meiji period timber buildings, and in peering over the stone walls or clipped hedges and topiary of private residents into impeccably kept sub-tropical gardens bulging with cycads, plantains, palms and lime trees. Many of these lanes are bordered by shallow culverts where carp swim in clear, trickling waters.
In this calm and refined cultural climate, ideal for serendipity, even the bicycles that visitors can hire from the station seem oddly out of place as if they hailed from a busier more stressful world.
Travel Information
Obi lies 50km south of Miyazaki. JR Nichinan line trains leave regularly and take about 1hr 15mins. There are also buses from Aoshima and Udo-jingu. The main town is about a ten minute walk east of the railway station. Although there are a small number of accommodation options in Obi itself, it may be easier to make Miyazaki your base for exploring this coastline and slightly inland areas. Bicycles can be rented from the station kiosk for 300 yen for three hours, but the town is easily negotiated on foot. Obi-ten Chaya is a pleasant old-fashioned restaurant along Otemon-dori that serves a number of cheap dishes, including the eponymous obi-ten, a tofu, flying fish and miso mixture, and the local speciality.
