Shirakawa Castle and Daruma!

I totally forgot to make a post about this day waaaaaay back in January of 2017, so I am doing it now! I made a post of this day on my Instagram and on Facebook, but I totally forgot to do it here. Better late than never.

I drove a carpool out that morning in early January from Fukushima City to Shirakawa where we had a fun day planned for us by my friend Kris and a small group of people. I was tacked on at the last minute, but I was glad they let me join in all the fun. We first met at a beautiful building in Shirakawa where we met a man whose family had been making traditional Fukushima-style Daruma for at least two generations. I forget his name, and I'll hate myself forever, but he was super nice and we had a great time.

While we were there, there was a Japanese television news crew that was taking footage and pictures of us and they were going to make a news story about us, a group of foreigners, learning about traditional Daruma dolls.

He started by telling us about the different artistic styles of Daruma and specifically how his family painted theirs. You'll notice how the Daruma has angry eyebrows and a frown on his face. He also showed us how to draw the mustache and the designs on the sides of the eyes. These symbols are a combination of "Pine" and.... some other tree. I cant remember and I'll have to ask someone. Get back to you on that.

After explaining how to paint it and what the symbols meant, he gave us each a Daruma to paint ourselves. Everyone had their own style and artistic capabilities, and they all looked so cool afterwards!

This one is mine. How it looked before during and after.

Group Photo!

When we were done painting we went downstairs where there were lots of workers painting many daruma in preparation for the fetsivals for the new year. There were thousands of daruma of all sizes all over the floors and stacked up!  I didn't think to take a picture at the time, but I asked my friend Merran if I could use her picture, and she was nice enough to let me.

You can see a portion of just how many daruma were on the main floor of this shop.

Our day started rather late so we didn't have a whole lot of time, but we did have enough to go see Shirakawa Castle, also known as Komine-jo.  The castle was largely destroyed during Battle of Aizu  in the Boshin War. It was rebuilt in the 1990's and suffered some damage again during the 2011 Great Tohoku Earthquake. But it was still quite pretty while we were there.

This is the main gate.

So posh!

How the roof tiles look up close.

The grounds surrounding the castle were quite large and peaceful, and there was a great blanket of snow covering everything.

Not any real windows, but only wooden slats you could aim an arrow through.

Entrance to the inside of the castle.

The gate from the other side.

I threw snowballs with Julien underneath the shadow of the castle!

We went up inside the castle and were able to look out over the grounds and see parts of the city.
It was so beautiful, although you couldn't see too much.

Beautiful, albeit obscured, view!

Window for dropping things down the wall onto enemies below.

 Small windows barely large as an open hand for shooting arrows through.

I liked how both inside and outside the castle they had these beams that had a cool.... scalloped carving on the undersides. It created a beautiful look to the already gorgeous wood.

Here are some stairs inside the castle, they are so steep! I made well sure to be holding tight to the rope railing while i ascended and descended.

Bonus: Fallen child!

This section of the castle was being fixed because of the damage it suffered during the 2011 Great Tohoku Earthquake.

After we finished looking about the castle we stopped at the gift shop and then piled back into my car and head back to Fukushima City. It was such a lovely day!

I got dinner that night with a couple of friends. We went to a ramen place.

Here is the manhole cover for Shirakawa City.

The following week I was sitting in my mechanic's shop and I was watching some Japanese news station. That's when I saw it! The story of our group in Shirakawa came on! I got so excited in the lobby of the mechanics office! I stood up and started pointing and saying "That's me! That's me!"

"Oh, you're so talented!"

The owner of the mechanic shop came rushing over to see what I was talking about. I said "I painted a daruma doll this weekend and now I see myself on tv!" (The woman in the pink hoodie and high socks is the one who was there while we painted.)

"Spicy!"

He was so excited too! We just kind of stood there giggling for a minute before he turned to go back to his office, but he returned with a little manju treat for me to show congratulations.

He is the sweetest man. He always made me feel welcome when I stopped in his shop, and he always took the time to explain things to me in language I could understand. He is a good guy.