August 20, 2011
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August 20, 2011 Satsuma Sendai
Today we were in the city of Satsuma-Sendai at a real estate office on business. It just so happens that the office is near a local historical place of importance. The street where the office is located was a main travel route, seen on the right of the picture below. The street ends at the river, and one could cross to the other side at that point.
Here is the street today. The main route through the city is now another larger street running parallel to this one on the right side, and traffic crosses the river via the Taiheibashi bridge.
The street ends at these stairs. You could climb them to reach the boats in bygone days.
This is a view of the Sendai River as seen from the top of the stairs. There are move stairs leading down to the river.
A Shinkansen Bullet Train crosses a nearby bridge. Travel methods have changed!
There is a historical marker at the bottom of the stairs.
This road and river crossing were part of a main travel route from Kagoshima to Edo (Tokyo).
DH loves historical sites, and is going to take me to another one, Satsuma Kokubunji Temple grounds.
This is what the temple looked like. Now only the foundation sites are left.
A lady was taking a cat nap on the temple site premises.
Next we went to a local museum. Satsuma Sendai is famous for a tug of war festival that takes place every year. This model shows how the huge rope is made.
Smoking paraphernalia
This is a fumie (stepping on picture), a picture of the Madonna and child. Every New Year people would have to step on it to prove that they were not Christians. This one was probably made in Nagasaki, and is called the Madonna of the Rosary.
This is the story of Leon Shichiemon, born Saisho Atsumori. He was baptized as a Christian at the age of 39 in Kyoto and given the name Leon. He was martyred four months later in 1608.
This is a recreation of a scene at a local government office of times gone by. Since there was no paper, records were written in ink on small slats of wood.
This knife was a deleting tool.
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