Travel Memories – Tsuyama Castle

When you travel it is always exciting to visit the most famous, “must see” destinations that are the highlights of any tourist itinerary. Looking back though, I sometimes feel a very special affection for the places that were not at the top of the list; the ones that turned out to be much better than the guidebooks and reviews suggested. A day trip to the rural town of Tsuyama stands out as one of those special experiences.

Tsuyama from the castle heights

Our day trip to the rural town of Tsuyama was meant to be a quiet break from several days of intense tourism. Take a slow trip on the little train from Okayama, wander around the town and the park with it’s castle ruins and then back again in time for our evening meal. Tsuyama is pretty much the middle of nowhere nowadays, right in the centre of western Honshu, yet back at the beginning of the 17th century it was a major crossroads. In 1603 a new Daimyo chose to construct his castle there.

Tsuyama castle before it’s demolition in 1873

Tsuyama was never rated among the grandest or most beautiful of castles but it did have a reputation as being perhaps the most heavily fortified ever built in Japan with over 70 towers and other defensive structures. Sadly, everything ended for Tsuyama castle when the formation of the Meji government led to the abolition of the clans. The castle was sold off by the ministry of finance in 1873 and all the buildings, including the great tower were demolished soon after. It was only when some of the surviving stonework began to collapse in 1890 that efforts began to conserve what remained.

All that remains today is a vast and splendid three-dimensional maze of stonework

The castle eventually became the property of the town council and was made into a public park. This involved the planting of some 5000 cherry trees. Today these cherry trees are Tsuyama’s main claim to fame, as it is now rated as one of the best cherry blossom sites in western Japan.

Beautiful stone structures and cherry trees are everywhere you look

The castle also features many, many long steep stairways

Me struggling to the top of yet another stair

And at the top of the stairs ….. you are faced with more walls and yet more stairs heading off in all different directions

In 2005 a defensive tower known as the Bitchu Yagura was rebuilt as part of celebrations for the castle’s 400th anniversary. The Bitchu Yagura tower was originally part of the Daimyo’s palace buildings. This work has been beautifully done, though it does look disturbingly new when compared with it’s surroundings.

The Bitchu Yagura on the top main level of the castle

Entrance to the Bitchu Yagura

Interior view of a room in the Bitchu Yagura

Looking back down towards the town from the top of the castle. It’s a long way down!

This was originally the basement storeroom of the main keep

An aerial photograph showing the base of the keep

Archaeological digs were in progress in various parts of the castle

The space and scale of the this place cannot really be conveyed in photographs. Nor can you really appreciate how peaceful it was on the day we visited. The park did have a constant trickle of visitors but they were so spread out on this huge site that you could always find another area where you were completely alone. It was perhaps the ability to experience this vast and awe inspiring place with effectively no one else around you that made the experience so memorable. Yes this site lacks much that makes a place like the great castle of Himeji such an impressive window on Japanese history but then it also misses out on the seething crowds, the queueing and being herded round like cattle.

The Royal Ontario Museum

Toronto’s Royal Ontario Museum is the largest museum in Canada and one of the largest in North America. It first opened in 1914 and for much of its life was under the control of the University of Toronto, before becoming a fully independent body in 1968. Today it is Canada’s largest institution for scientific field research and is particularly renowned for its world class fossil collection.

A duck billed Hadrosaur

The museum buildings grew in stages with the original 1914 west wing being in a neo-Romanesque style and the 1933 east wing showing Art Nouveau influences including rather grand mosaic ceilings.

The mosaic ceiling of the east wing rotunda

The museum undertook another major phase of renovation and expansion in the early 2000’s with The Crystal, an extension designed by Daniel Libeskind opening in 2007.

Alex outside The Crystal extension

This extension seems to be loved and hated in equal measure. We found it an interesting bit of architecture but it is hard to deny that its primary purpose was to make a grand statement rather than provide a well planned space to display exhibits.

A stairwell in The Crystal extension

The museum has many galleries covering many aspects of science, history and culture but it is probably the dinosaur galleries that make the biggest impact. The layout is rather old fashioned, with many, often unrelated dinosaurs packed side by side. Here there is none of the blind stumbling through darkened rooms that is now fashionable in Europe and the impact of the exhibits is not diluted by vast walls of educational reading. It does have its modern quirks for the kids (get an instant photo of you being chased by a T-rex!) but the dinosaurs themselves are fabulous and really show off the fossil riches of Canada.

A small duck-billed dinosaur with a very narrow skull

A very grand Ceratopsian (the Triceratops family)

A notable feature of the dinosaur galleries is the number of creatures suspended from the ceilings. These include various Pterosaurs and prehistoric sea creatures.

Giant pterosaur with a 12metre wingspan

Two more pterosaurs

An enormous 4.5 metre ancient turtle – Calling all Terry Pratchett fans!

The ROM has many other interesting displays covering various aspects of the natural world and world culture. There is a good exhibit on biodiversity and a fine collection of minerals and gemstones. The European history exhibits are fairly small but with many fine specimens including nice Cycladic and Etruscan pieces.

This stunning lump of natural copper looks like a modern sculpture

Cycladic figure

The museum has large galleries dedicated to Canadian First Peoples but other world cultures are mainly represented by quite limited displays. The exception being Chinese displays, which have a large and prominent set of galleries with many fine artefacts, particularly the early ceramics. Sadly, many of the Chinese displays are in cases with glass all round and this combined with harsh lighting from a multitude of sources can make viewing difficult and photography near impossible.

The early Chinese ceramics are beautiful but the glass reflections often disturb your view

If you have enjoyed this bit of virtual lockdown travel, we plan to go somewhere else very soon. Maybe to Japan next!

Take good care of yourselves – Wai-Yuk and Alex

Gateway to China

Six hundred years ago the Chinese built a great fortress to mark the edge of their Empire and to prevent attacks by foreign invaders. This was Jiayuguan, the  “First and Greatest Pass Under Heaven” (天下第一雄关).

The inner fortress at Jiayuguan seen from the east

In 1368 the Han Chinese drove out their Mongol overlords and founded the Ming dynasty (1368-1644). They immediately set about arranging the defences of the empire so that they would not be threatened by foreign invaders again*. In 1372 the first Ming Emperor, Hongwu, ordered the building of a new fortress and rebuilding of a section of the Great Wall in order to block the main way into China from the North West.

The Great Wall here was built 600 hundred years ago and is showing its age

The Hexi Corridor runs through the Gobi desert in Western Gansu Province and is the only easily travelable route between high mountain ranges. All the traffic along the Silk Roads and all invading armies passed along this way. The new fortress was built at the narrowest point of the Hexi Corridor, at its Western-most end. The fortress became known as Jiayu Pass or Jiayuguan. (To Chinese the word pass in this context refers both to the pass between the mountains and to the gateway that people had to “pass” through.)

The Western entrance from the desert. Literally the “Gateway into China”

After the fort was built, all traffic along the Silk Route for hundreds of years had to pass through Jiayuguan and it marked the absolute edge of China. Even when the later Qing dynasty (1644 – 1912) extended its control into what is now Xinjiang to the West, Jiayuguan still marked the edge of China proper, being the limit of civil administration, with everything beyond being controlled by a military governor.

The fort’s interior buildings have largely been rebuilt

The fortress today is the most complete existing example of a large-scale Ming fortification, though it has been subject to considerable restoration.

View of the fort in 1875 by the Russian photographer Adolf Erazmovich Boiarskii

*In 1644, another group of foreigners would invade, this time from the North-East and would set up the Manchu Qing dynasty.

The Western entrance from the desert. Literally the “Gateway into China”!

The beautiful towers dominate the fortress

The small but beautiful temple attached to the fortress

Detail showing the interesting roof tiles

The inscription over the West gate says “Jiayuguan”

The Great Wall here was built 600 hundred years ago and is showing its age

The inner fortress at Jiayuguan seen from the east

View of the fort in 1875 by the Russian photographer Adolf Erazmovich Boiarskii

Battered old doors inside the fort

The fort’s interior buildings have largely been rebuilt

The Great Wall of China stretching South from the fortress

 

Boiarskii image courtesy of the World Digital Library