ABOUT

YOSHINO

Yoshino is a county in Nara Prefecture, located next to Kyoto. Before the capital city of Japan moved to Kyoto, the capital cities had been in Nara. Yoshino is geographically far from these capital cities in Nara, and the ancient rulers/governors at different times who were once defeated in power struggles often bided their time in Yoshino. One of the earliest examples is Prince O-ama (Later Emperor Tenmu) in the latter half of the 7th century.

Mt. Yoshino is selected as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2004. In spring, the whole mountain is covered by pink-blooming cherry blossoms, and therefore Yoshino has been famous as the best cherry blossom site in Japan since ancient times.

For some details, please see: http://www.yoshinoyama-sakura.jp/english/


THE STORY OF THE OLD HOUSE

Today, a vacant house is located in Yoshino District, Nara Prefecture. This is the house where my mother was born and brought up in. After marrying, she’s lived around Tokyo with our family, but we spent a summer vacation every year in my childhood. My grandma died in 1988, then my great-grandmother died in 1996 at age 91. My uncle stayed lived in the house for some years after that, but moved to the urban area in the prefecture for the convenience of his job. Then there were none. The house has been vacant about for 20 years, though my uncle sometimes visited the house for chores, like grass cutting.

It’s a quite common story across Japan. Old houses need great care for maintenance and preservation, and apparently, only property in urban areas deserve such effort and cost. Amid the rural exodus and aging population in Japan, there are countless examples where no one wants to take over a property from elder relatives, all relatives passing the buck back and forth.

In our case, when I decided to receive the property by inheritance in a spontaneous way, my dad expostulated with me, saying "It's not asset but debt, "it’s like getting left holding the bag!". Or, it sounds crazy to some relatives. There are no other candidates, of course. Be that as it may, I’m sure the house is worthy to preserve, and not a big burden. Now I see the house and the town has really interesting culture and history, so I started this blog to write down what happen. 

Tea house, 1975

From the tea house, 1975

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