NAP Trip to Shikoku — Rocks and Stones

NAP Trip to Shikoku — Rocks and Stones

By C. Williams
NAP Contributor

“A rock!?” my cousin asks on our recent trip to Shikoku Island of Japan. I spent the morning frantically searching the more than one kilometer stretch of road for the perfect gift for a friend. To my cousin’s surprise, that perfect gift was, in fact, a rock! I purchased that beautifully painted rock and posed for a photograph with the artist under one of the many tarps of the Kochi Sunday Market. This popular street market, Japan’s largest open-air market, is more than 300 years old.

NAP tour participants ride the train in Matsuyama City. Photo credit: Joy Nishimura.

Tour participants enjoy Tenshaen Garden in Uwajima City. Photo credit: Joy Nishimura.

My choice of gift is not just a rock. It is a powerful representation of a different time and a recurring theme throughout our tour. It consisted of 20 travelers including my family unit, Tomio Moriguchi (the former CEO of Uwajimaya and son of the founder), Bruce Rutledge (general manager at The North American Post), and a handful of others this past October.

One destination of our tour was Noguchi Garden Museum. Isamu Noguchi (the famous sculptor of Black Sun, the donut-shaped stone sculpture in Volunteer Park in Seattle, Washington) created a workshop on the hillside of Takamatsu City. This unique museum displays Noguchi’s many stone sculptures, mostly unfinished, throughout his property.

To our amazement, the sudden downpour enhanced our experience by highlighting each groove of the sculptures, while the earthy smell of wet stones permeated the air.

Remnants of an old sake brewery remain in Noguchi’s workshop, a current gallery of rock art barely tall enough to fit his largest pieces. Curved beams held together by wooden pegs support the weight of this two-story building. We peered out of the large sliding doors and took a moment to watch the rain pour on the rock sculptures outside, creating a magical scene of rock luster accompanied by the sounds of crashing water.

Takamastu City at sunset. Lower left: Uwajima Castle at night.Photo credit: Joy Nishimura.

We followed our formally dressed tour guide who was wearing medium-heeled shoes through Noguchi’s stone staircase and up a water-saturated grassy knoll to a lookout point. This was the first time photographing was permissible. We stood motionless to absorb the view and imagine a time when the city below was once filled with salt fields.

left: Uwajima Castle at night.Photo credit: Joy Nishimura. right: Tenshaen Garden in Uwajima City. Photo credit: C. Williams.

We also visited Matsuyama for a few days. Each night the illuminated Matsuyama Castle shines like a beacon over the city. Like a bug drawn to light, my family and I were determined to make it to the top of that mountain, to see the castle. I hiked up the stone and concrete stairs, while my grandma, aunt, and cousin took the gondola. The towering stone structures that make up the castle wall create a barrier from the bustling of present-day city life and make the castle essentially impenetrable at exactly 4:30 p.m. when it closes for the day.

Within the city limits of Uwajima, a city known for its autumn festival, Ushioni, bull sumo and the namesake inspiration for Uwajimaya, sits Tenshaen Garden. Interconnected sets of ponds, inhabited by koi, together create the kanji character for heart. The stones surrounding the ponds were placed with intentionality by Munetada Date, the seventh feudal lord of the Uwajima Date Feudal Clan and the builder of the garden. While the bamboo, wisteria and irises that reside in the garden grow and transform seasonally, the stones remain largely unchanged. Within the tearoom garden, sits a combination of stones named In-yo-seki (in for female and yo for male), symbolic for one’s wish to have prosperous descendants. Another feature of traditional Japanese gardens, the waterless rock-river, Karekawa, expresses the passage of time. Our wonderful interpreter at this location made this experience educating and memorable.

Japan displays a juxtaposition of the past and present. Castles, over 400 years old, continue to overlook the ever-changing cityscapes. Wander around the magnificent castle walls, sit where Date sat and experience a moment of tranquility, peer into the Stone Circle displaying Noguchi’s stone sculptures and you will be transported back in time.
So, to my cousin, I say, “Yes, a rock!”