Red Neck

Three months till Christmas found us in a 16th century Japanese castle. Himeji-Jo is Japan’s premier example of Japanese castles. Most of the Japan’s castles were destroyed shortly after Commodore Perry ‘opened’ the country in 1853. Japan’s Mieji government feared that the soldiers and samurai would launch a civil war and try to regain control of the country in the years following the landing of the American forces. So the government forced most of Japan’s castles to be destroyed. Himeji-Jo was saved because of the extreme expense to tear it down.

While the main building was saved, the grounds around the castle were drastically reduced. Two outer moats were filled in. Two outer defensive walls were torn down. Many buildings, including the lords house next to the main castle tower were torn down, sold off or burned. Himeji-Jo also suffered damage during WWII.

The castle is seven stories tall and is built on an augmented hill. Originally it was just a high rocky hill, but in the 14th century they began to build stone defensive works and the original castle. This eventually evolved into the castle foundation as it is now. I am starting to really appreciate the Japanese castle architecture. It is radically different from the European castles I have seen. What I really find interesting is the foundation stones and rockwork. My brother, Rick, is studying stone masonry in Spain even as we speak. I know he would like to see the size of stones the Japanese worked with. Some are quite immense. Most of the stones, I saw at Himeji-Jo were not overly large, but the slop of the battlements are very artistic.

We enjoyed an intimate tour of the castle. We only had three people in our group with a knowledgeable guide. While our tour was rushed, we did get a good taste of what to expect when we return with friends and family.

After our tour, we attended a tea ceremony at the foot of the castle. Women in Kimonos served us traditional Japanese tea with rice cakes. The rice cakes are really rice dumplings with adzuki beans either inside or wrapped around the outside. They taste like very sweet pie dough. The tea is very bitter and looks like a very thin green pea soup. I had one teacher quickly tell me how to do the ceremony last week, but we didn’t have anyone coach us through. We watched some of the older women around us for the social cues and process of drinking the tea.

Outside the tea ceremony the city sponsored a traditional concert to celebrate the first full moon of autumn. Chrissy had seen the Moon Viewing Ceremony advertised on one of our excursions, so we planned to visit the castle on the 25th. Around the concert venue they had booths set up to serve rice dumplings, fried fish, and locally brewed Sake. The concert began with the traditional Japanese harp. Two different groups played for about 20 minutes each. They were followed by dance performances to Japanese poetry. It didn’t move us emotionally, but we did have to get home. So we left before they finished the concert with traditional drums. Himeji is about 1 to 2 hours from our home, and I had to work the next day.

While we were at the concert, though, it struck us both how similar and different our cultures are. Sitting in the park reminded us of Pullman’s summer concerts in the park. We were also reminded of our visits around the US. When the Japanese harps were playing, I couldn’t help but think of our visit to Kentucky. In my mind, I could hear, “Our Ole Kentucky Home” playing and see people walking around the park with tastes of locally brewed bourbon. The only difference I could recognize at the time was the differing open container laws and the type of music, but I felt very much at home under the big full moon in front of Himeji-Jo listening to folk music with a bunch of Japanese Red Necks. On many truly important levels, we really aren’t that different.