Omi-Hachiman

Nakamura-ya ryokan in Musa.

A two-story ryokan called Nakamura-ya (中村屋) in Musa, Omi-Hachiman has been totally destroyed by an early-morning fire on Dec. 10, 2010. The owner/operator couple of the 200-year-old inn were sleeping on the 1st floor, but managed to escape after hearing a fire alarm. No customers were staying in the ryokan at the time. A neighbor reported the fire a little before 5 am. The fire spread rapidly as it was a wooden building. Some 24 fire trucks put out the blaze after about 3 hours.

Nakamura-ya has a 400-year history as one of the hatago inns of Musa, the 66th post town on the Nakasendo Road linking Tokyo (Edo) and Kyoto through an interior route. The building that burned down was about 200 years old. Shiga has ten historical post towns on the Nakasendo. Musa, today a small and quiet neighborhood, is near Ohmi Railways Musa Station, a short ride from Omi-Hachiman.

Omi-Hachiman and the town of Azuchi merged on March 21, 2010. It is now a new city of about 82,000 residents with the city’s name remaining the same. A mayoral election will be held on April 25 to elect the new city’s first mayor.

Japan will no longer have a municipality named “Azuchi.” This name is famous as the name of Azuchi Castle built by Oda Nobunaga for which the Azuchi-Momoyama Period of Japanese history is partially named.

This successful merger was the second attempt for both municipalities to merge. The first attempt was botched due to opposition by Azuchi residents.

This second attempt, though successful, was a very messy merger up until the day of the merger. After the red tape was completed in July 2009 to merge Omi-Hachiman and Azuchi, opposition arose among Azuchi residents. They sought to oust the Azuchi mayor who pretty much railroaded the merger through the town’s assembly. A referendum was held on Aug. 23, 2009, and 60-year-old Mayor Tsumura Takashi was ousted and replaced in Oct. 2009 by a mayor who opposed the merger.

Since the new Azuchi mayor still faced a town assembly which favored the merger, in March this month, the opposition successfully ousted and replaced those town assembly members who voted for the merger.

The mayor and assembly worked to cancel the merger declaring that the majority of Azuchi residents were opposed to it. However, they received a deaf ear from both Shiga Prefecture and the Japanese government both saying that the completed merger process cannot be reversed. Everyone knew that their efforts were futile. But it should be a lesson and warning for future mergers. The feelings and opposition of affected residents must not be ignored.

The main sticking point for those opposed to the merger was that the historic name “Azuchi” would disappear from Japanese maps. Unfortunately, when a vote was taken to decide the name of the merged city, “Omi-Hachiman” won by a single majority vote. Other choices had included the name “Azuchi” such as “Hachiman-Azuchi.” I was surprised they did not retain “Azuchi” since it is far more famous nationally than “Omi-Hachiman.” During the first merger attempt, the merged city was actually slated to be named “Azuchi.”

I can understand people’s affinity with the place name of their hometowns. But the reality is that Azuchi is in dire financial straits (so is Omi-Hachiman). By merging, it would be eligible for subsidies from the Japanese government. “Azuchi” will remain as a place name in resident addresses.

On March 19, 2010, Azuchi held a town-closing ceremony attended by 70 people. It included a slide show reviewing the town’s 56-year history. The town hall was closed for conversion to a branch office of Omi-Hachiman City Hall. On March 21, 2010, Omi-Hachiman City Hall held a ceremony marking the merger. About 170 people attended. Meanwhile, the interim mayor of Omi-Hachiman until the mayoral election (April 25) could not be decided so Shiga Governor Kada had to appoint one. She appointed the former mayor of Omi-Hachiman who is also seeking re-election.

The last Azuchi mayor commented that he and his cohorts will continue to try and break away from Omi-Hachiman and restore the town of Azuchi.

Released in Japan on Sept. 12, 2009, this movie is about Okabe Mataemon, a Nagoya (Atsuta)-based master carpenter who in 1576 was ordered by Japan’s leading warlord Oda Nobunaga to build Azuchi Castle on Mt. Azuchi fronting Lake Biwa. The main castle tower or donjon was to have an unprecedented five stories. It was to be the grandest and most lavish castle Japan had ever seen. Mataemon and his crew had only three years to complete the epic construction which they did. The movie shows the major and minor tribulations Mataemon and his crew went through during the construction. The movie is also unusual because it has no battle scenes despite being a samurai movie.

Being a castle fan, I really looked forward to this movie. However, I was somewhat disappointed with the quality of the acting, completeness of the story, believability, and overall visual and emotional impact. The movie does have a few outstanding scenes with what looks like thousands of people working, but they were too few and too short. Computer graphics depicting the construction of the mountaintop castle were impressive enough. But I thought there were too many story lines and characters which could not be fully developed or explained within the movie’s 139 min.

For history buffs, it might be frustrating because the movie is obviously not historically accurate since it is a work of fiction. For castle fans, the movie does not show all the major aspects of building a castle. I wish they showed more scenes of the actual construction (which sped by too quickly). Work on the stone walls, interior, moats, etc., are missing. Seeing the stones being cut and fitted onto the walls, the beams being fitted to the main pillar, the construction of the roof, moat digging, interior painting, gold leafing, etc., are all missing. So the educational value of this movie does not attain its potential.

The movie does have interesting story lines. Construction of a major castle with mostly manual labor, Mataemon the carpenter prodigy, Nobunaga’s affection for imported European goods, merchants getting rich from European trade, ninja-like assassins, and a few love stories. But the movie was too short to adequately develop them all. It tries to cover everything, but in doing so, it never really developed any story to its fullest and best potential. It might have been better to make it a TV series rather than a movie.

I was also disappointed that Governor Kada Yukiko did not make a cameo appearance. I had heard that leading actor Nishida Toshiyuki asked her to appear in the movie. I thought she agreed. Well, you won’t see her in the movie. The movie also does not mention the word “Omi” or “Shiga.” And it does not introduce any places, people, or products from Shiga. Also, none of the main actors/actresses are from Shiga.

But I still recommend seeing this movie. It is worth seeing the few outstanding scenes that it has. The movie was filmed in Kyoto; Adogawa in Takashima where they filmed the giant boulder scene with 200 extras, Awajishima island in Hyogo for scenes atop Mt. Azuchi overlooking Lake Biwa, Kiso-Fukushima in Nagano for forest scenes, and Taiwan for the big tree scene.

It is pretty much an all-star cast headed by Nishida Toshiyuki as Mataemon, Otake Shinobu as his wife, and Ogata Naoto (who gave a fine acting performance) as a woodsman.

I have posted a detailed review and detailed summary of the movie plot for those of you who cannot understand Japanese, so you’ll know what’s going on:

http://photoguide.jp/txt/Movie_review:_Katen_no_Shiro_(火天の城)

In Shiga, the movie is playing at the following theaters (phone number in parentheses):

Otsu: United Cinemas Otsu (077-527-6188) and Otsu Alex Cinemas (077-527-9616)
Hikone: Hikone Viva City Cinemas (0749-26-1002)
Omi-Hachiman: Warner MyCal Omi-Hachiman (0748-37-3433)
Kusatsu: Warner MyCal Kusatsu (077-561-4545)
Koka: Minakuchi Alex Cinemas (0748-63-8801)

Official Web site (in Japanese only): http://katen.jp/

As reported earlier, Omi-Hachiman and neighboring Azuchi are planning to merge in March 2010. On May 22, 2009, the deliberation committee for the merger between the two municipalities held a vote to decide the new name of the city after merging. Two proposed names were up for voting: Omi-Hachiman (近江八幡) and Omi-Hachiman-Azuchi (近江八幡安土).

It was a close vote, but Omi-Hachiman won the most votes. I’m surprised that “Azuchi” was not one of the options. The Azuchi name is far more famous than Omi-Hachiman. Japan’s Azuchi-Momoyama Period is named after Azuchi Castle built by Oda Nobunaga.

It is likely that “Azuchi-cho” will be retained as a place name in addresses after the merger. The current Omi-Hachiman City Hall will serve as the new city’s city hall, while the Azuchi Town Hall will be a branch office.

However, there might be a stumbling block to this merger by a citizen’s group in Azuchi petitioning for the recall of its mayor who is railroading this merger through.

Interesting that neighboring Ryuo-cho is out of the merger picture. Ryuo has the Daihatsu auto factories, but residents still depend on Omi-Hachiman for daily living.