Takasegawa (Kyoto) Revisited

The May reunion of the Old Boys Japanese expats group who I befriended in San Diego CA took place in the heart of downtown Kyoto, Kiya-cho aka Pontocho. A bit early going outdoors, the Ganko-Zushi Nijoen banquet is set in the open-air deck facing Kamo River. The venue was once owned by Ryoi Suminokura (1554-1614, surname meaning "Corner Warehouse"), one of the Kyoto’s wealthy merchants, whom I introduced in my blog about 10 years ago along with the Takasegawa Canal he built and flat Takasebune boats. These boats are long gone, but reportedly hundreds of boats sailed up and down the ten kilometesr canal in the heyday between Fushimi and Kyoto. Ryoi built his Kyoto home at this diversion point of the Takase River from Kamo River.

The name Suminokura fascinated me as a forerunner of Kyoto business enterprises. The family earned their fortune from the so-called Nanban trade by the Shogunate authorized vessels. Suminokuras left registration at the Shogunate office, with a dozen applications as well as authorizations for their voyages from Nagasaki to Vinh, Vietnam. There was one shipwreck disaster incident and records showed Ryoi visited Nagasaki to comfort survivors of the shipwrecked boat. Takasegawa project seemed to be one of his smaller enterprises. Easing rapid Hotsu River to a transportable river for Tanba and Kyoto was another. With the help of his son named Soan, rivers in Kanto area, such as Oi, Tenryu were also candidates to tame, but he passed away before it was feasible. Ryoan's name is remembered as well in connection with Lake Biwa Channelling or Kyoto Channelling.

Upon our arrival at the Ganko-Zushi, we were lead to the venue deck through the magnificent Nijoen Japanese garden (see the map), as we admired a monolith waterfall, a small tea room garden made by a legendary tea master Enshu Kobori (1579-1647), huge stone lanterns (the biggest in Japan) in an Arbor style with a 250-year-old red plum tree. The site had more gardens, but was moved to the nearby Nijo Castle by Kyoto City.

We had nice sunny weather in Kyoto at the reunion, and all enjoyed the Ganko-Zushi outdoor banquet. Our coterie Grandfather Mr. Arthur Jonishi was there, received hearty greetings from all. We missed Mr. Iue greatly this year. Mrs. Kuwahara, the first Minato Gakuen principal was represented by her daughter Kasumi and her husband Norikazu. I reported Minato Gakuen celebrated 40th year anniversary in San Diego. At the end of 2018 there were 524 students enrolled at Minato Gakuen, including 38 in kindergarten, 18 in senior high, and the remainder were elementary and junior high students.

This Ganko-Zushi Nijoen Restaurant is facing Shimadzu Foundation Memorial Hall, built in 1975 to celebrate its 100th year anniversary at its original birthplace. Taking this great opportunity, I visited the Museum, arriving an hour earlier before the reunion. I had a very instructive tour. Dr. Koichi Tanaka of Shimadzu won the Nobel Prize in 2002. I read his biography in English, which seemed to impress those present. Here is Nobel Laureate Dr.Tanaka's autobiography site.

I wish to thank both Coterie Kanji Nishimura and Kawamura who chose Ganko-Zushi.

Trip to Rediscover History

I was elated with my recent Fushimi/Kyoto trip which indulged my appetite as a history buff. It was for the reunion of an expatriate group I joined while assigned in and around the vicinities of San Diego/Tijuana, Southern California. The group consists of businessmen, lawyers, bankers, scientists, engineers including a few spouses. They are mostly retired. The reunion was a success, getting the highest attendance ever recorded. We took a sightseeing boat cruise on a flat boat with a roof, used and flourished during the Edo period. The boat cruised along the vintage Sake Brewers and cellars. We had a luncheon in the brewery turned Izakaya style restaurant. Then we visited the famous Teradaya Riverside Inn, where sword fighting and bloodshed occurred frequently before the Meiji Restoration.

Historical remnants were visible everywhere we went. You could see the influence of Taiko Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Shogunate on city urbanization and their promotion of industry and trade. The areas were designated to groups by trade and businesses competed in producing quality goods. Both Hideyoshi and Iyeyasu encouraged river navigation to transport farm produce and constructed the necessary embankment to protect them from the flooding rivers. The area included Biwa Lake down to Kyoto and Osaka, and there used to be a lake in Fuhsimi called Ogura (about an 800 hectare lake now totally gone). No wonder there is still a railroad station called "Chushojima", the island of "Chusho" (name of the ancient government post) where our reunion took place.


It is said that the lake had over 20 small islands in all and Fushimi had a port. I can't believe that there were at one time about 1500 boats (700 Kasho bune, 500 Yodo bune, 200 Fushimi bune, and 100 Takasebune) criss-crossing the connecting rivers, Yodo, Uji, and canals loaded with bales of rice and passengers. Our boat modeled after 30 "Koku" Bune (see Note below) accommodated our 30 member party comfortably. Apparently, Fushimi prospered as a port town, Sake town, and castle town, under Taiko Hideyoshi who built Fushimi Momoyama Castle. Even after defeating Hideyoshi's son and winning a fateful war, Iyesasu Tokugawa used the castle until his reign was cemented, then retreated to his home Sunpu castle in 1623 and the original Fuhsimi Momoyama castle was demolished.

While group trekking in Fushimi, we came upon another historical remnant, a statue of Ryoi Suminokura (1554-1614) who helped develop the Takase River, a man-made canal running along the Kamo River of Kyoto. Ogai Mori (1862-1922), a physician/writer, wrote a short novel Takasebune, a milestone book which became a school text book. It is about a criminal exiled on an island on a night sailing Takasebune.

I Googled Ryoi and found he was quite a man. Ryoi made 18 voyages to Vietnam (e.g. Cochinchina) on the Taiko licensed trade vessels. After foreign trade was banned, he busied himself in promoting river navigation, Takasegawa was one and Hozu River was another, working for Kyoto, entrusted by Iyesasu Tokugawa. Hozu is famous for the rapids and Ryoi contrived to widen narrow gorges, pouring in his own money. I have sailed along the Hozu one summer, so I can appreciate what he did. What impressed me was the extent of his contribution, from eastern to western Japan, probably in an advisory position. I suspect his expertise came from the Mekong or Red River Delta, where life there revolves much around the rivers and canals.

Note:
A "Koku" is a unit of volume. One "koku" is about 280 liters.
A koku of rice is enough to feed one person for one year.
It weighs about 150 kilograms or 330 pounds.