Photography Tour to Japan #6: Landscape of Wajima no comments
Two other destinations on this trip are Wajima and Suzu. They are located deeper in the Noto Peninsula along the Japan Sea. This region is called Oku Noto, Far or Deep Noto, as it is located on the northern edge of the peninsula.
This region is notorious for having bitterly cold winds blowing from Siberia which make the ocean here very rough. In this environment, people’s lives are tougher. This was captured in the photographs by Shozo Tomioka which we had at our gallery a few months ago. These images from the late 50’s show the simple lives of fishermen and women in this area and the roughness of their environment. Even the words, “Nihon Kia” (Japan Sea), give me a bit of a shiver.
While in Wajima, we hope to explore the coastline by chartered bus to see what the area has to offer. We will visit smaller fishing villages as much as we can to see how people live and to observe the interesting regional features like the traditional Japanese houses in the countryside and the picturesque sunrise and sunset over the sea.
Speaking of typical Noto scenery, there is a movie which gives you an idea of what the landscape of the Noto Peninsula looks like. It is “Maboroshi” directed by Hirokazu Koreda who has been receiving international acclaim lately. This movie shows the calm and often barren landscape of the Noto Peninsula. Images of paddy fields on the coastal hills, small fishing towns, and even morning market in Wajima are featured in this movie.
The beautiful images from the movie are from winter to go along with the somber atmosphere of the movie. But this time, we are visiting the area in September and the scenery has different colors and textures. As the paddy fields are ready for harvest, we will see a much livelier color of green grass on the paths and golden yellow fields of rice.
Wajima is also famous for lacquerware production. If ceramicware is called “china” in English, then lacquerware should be called “japan.” There are small production facilities all over the city. Most of them are studios where one or two artisans are making beautiful pieces in the traditional Japanese way. We will try to visit and perhaps even create our own lacquerware while we are here.
Our stay in Wajima will take us to the morning market and fishing port and allow us time to appreciate the coastal beauty. Hopefully we’ll also be able to particapte in some of the local highlights like creating lacquerware and touring the sake breweries.
