"Makashi-no-Kushimoto"

“Mukashi No Kushimoto,” Old Time Kushimoto,

  Suga No Hama or Kami Ura Beach, Kushimoto,

  POSSE JAPAN by Bill Braden

This POSSE JAPAN extra was created as an add-on to the “Haruka,” Kushimoto, the –big-wave-surfing-spot-in-Japan piece.  It shows how Kushimoto might have looked a couple hundred years ago.  It is not historically accurate; but it is just a liberal application of artistic license.  We understand that the background mountains, Shionomisaki was a separate island, so we put in the fancy red bridge.  The road going up the hill (across the bridge) is called Uma Zaka, which means horse hill and it is probably about in the same place as it was back then.  The fancy house on this side of the bridge is a copy of the Hara house, now preserved in a museum near Tokyo.  The yellow robed zen monk meditating on the deck of the tea house is, again a free association, probably one too many trips to Ryoanji, stone zen garden by the artist.  The modest shack adjacent is probably the kind of structure most likely to have existed in this by gone era: traditional black tile (kawara) roof, rough clapboard type wood siding with external battens, windows facing away from direct ocean exposure. 

The boats shown are copied from some old black and white photos the town people shared with us.  These are similar to the famous “Wave” painting by Hokusai.   In fact I borrowed the fisherman with the basket and fishing pole (foreground) from the same wood block print master.  Of course, I had to have the fisherman adoring their prized maguro (tuna) in the boat, as well as the lady with the fan looking on with mild interest.  Or is she noticing the very first Japanese surfer, with his curious mini-wood boat/ surfboard?  Behind them is a delivery man with a traditional yoke carrying system, further back is a little Shinto shrine with a pilgrim bowing after giving an offering and ringing the hanging bell.  There is also the horse mounted samurai leading a couple of footmen carrying a palanquin.  Who’s inside?

All this is now replaced with a massive concrete embankment, a seawall with a paved road above.  This is the fate of much Japan’s coastline- man made hardening that pretty much brutally destroys the natural beauty of a place.  There are a combination of factors:

1.)    Understandably, the need to secure property in the most efficient, economic manner possible,

2.)   Post World War II, road and public infrastructure construction was a national economic stimulus program, a way to rebuild the     economy and keep people fed and busy. Unfortunately it never stopped even when the economy improved. 

The right panel also shows a view that edits some of the jetty that was constructed for the modern boat harbor that is just to the right of this view.  Directly below the southernmost tip of Japan’s main island of Honshu, the point shown here, is another surfer.  The good news: this surf break is still there, at least the “rights” (as opposed to “the lefts”).

Part of the proceeds from the sale of these prints are to fund signage to help preserve either the beach area or wildlife associated with Kushimoto.