We had wanted to go to a good museum to see good examples of clothing, household goods, art, weaponry and so on. It wasn't to be. We headed to the Kyoto National Museum, only to find it was between exhibitions and was closed for display changes. We asked the advice of the counter person, and she suggested the Museum of Kyoto City, so off we went, following a pleasant little path beside a canal. At the Museum we found a display of modern paintings, and an exhibition of modern kimonos, but not the traditional museum we had been hoping for. That would have to wait for Tokyo.
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| A range of Japanese pickles at a pickle stall |
However the kimono exhibition was superb. The level of detail and craftsmanship was outstanding. Many of them must have taken weeks to create. There was a lot of use of batik-style resist lines, hand painting of dyes, hand painting with opaque paint, and some hand embroidery. Unfortunately no photos allowed, so we can't share the beauty of the kimonos. We spent a long time there marvelling at the amazing and beautiful designs, so clearly not a wasted visit.
The museum also had a good little store, and a very good washi (Japanese paper) store. The paper here is very highly regarded. It comes in plains and patterns, thick and thin. You can buy it in small blocks or quite large flat sheets. No nasty thin rolls from $5 at Countdown. We did enjoy looking at it all, and bought a little block of mixed origami paper.
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| Washi (paper) shop |
We had bought an ukiyo-e print a few days before, but wondered about another so had another look at the print shop. Very enjoyable, but we didn't buy any more. The artist Hiroshige's prints are everywhere, and there were dozens of different original prints of our Nakasendo trail. Back to our room for some R & R.
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| The pedestrian mall in Kyoto - good in damp weather |
For dinner, we headed back to the shopping streets to a Thai place we'd found in a wee side lane. Good, but not great.
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| A treat to see a geisha on our way home |
We were both excited to be starting the Nakasendo Way walk the following day. It's what the whole Japanese trip was based on, along with meeting Alastair.