Tobiyama Rekishi Taikenkan (Tobiyama Historical Museum)
The wooden bridge was thought to be the entrance to the castle.
Tobiyama Rekishi Taikenkan (Tobiyama Historical Museum) was included in the Tobiyama Castle Ruin, located at the tip of the plateau on the Kinugawa river bank in Tochigi.
The ruin was arranged as a park in 2003. At the museum, you can learn the Japanese lifestyles of the Ancient and Middle ages.
Also, you can experience the ancient way of life by becoming a solider,or a princess and playing Hanetsuki(battledore and shuttlecock, a Japanese badminton) and Komamawashi(a spinning top), etc.
SHICHIGOSAN season has come! (What’s SHICHIGOSAN? As I wrote in this blog before, it’s a celebration of a child’s growth; for three- and seven- year-old girls and three- and five-year-old boys.) During this SHICHIGOSAN season, this museum provides SHICHI-GO-SAN children with a opportunity to become a young warrior or a princess. You have to make a reservation(through November 15th). It costs 300 yen for both of a kid and his/her parent to wear the ancient costumes. (This costume service is available throughout the year, but it usually costs 300 yen for each person.)
My elder son and I tried the ancient costumes this weekend!! The costume my son wore was called “Hitatare”. When my son asked the staff what Hitatare was, she answered like this, “This is a formal attire which a young warrior like you wore in the ancient Japan.” My boy asked many questions, “Why does it take so long to put this on? Why does it have so many strings??” He seemed to be relieved to hear that this Hitatare was not daily worn.
Talking about the costume I wore, called “Kosode” and “Uchikake”, there were some obvious differences from the present Kimono. Kosode’s sleeves are much shorter, and its Obi belt is small in width.
Kosode & Uchikake(for the left), Hitatare(for the right)
This time, we didn’t have time to walk around the ruin park. But next time, we’d love to spend more time in the beautiful park and see various buildings, which were mostly restored based on the exacavation survey, such as an ancient solidier’s station, a wathtower, a wooden bridge, a medieval pit dwelling, etc.
At last, let me introduce the history of TOBIYAMA Castle briefly:
Tobiyama Castle was built during the last decade of the 13th century by the Haga clan, a powerful retainer of the Utsunomiya clan, which controlled the north Kanto region at that time. Later in the Northern and Southern Courts Period (Nanbokucho period) (1336-1392), the castle was used as the bases of the Utsunomiya clan, which fought for the North Imperial Court, and during the Warring States period (Sengoku Period) it was used as the military base to regain Utsunomiya Castle. Tobiyama Castle had witnessed the history of ancient battles. Due to its historical significance and being in a good state of preservation, the castle was designated as a national Historic Site in 1977. As a result of an excavation survey started in 1992, numerous archaeologically valuable items mainly from the Middle ages were discovered.
Tobiyama Rekishi Taikenkan(http://st0011.nas931.utsunomiya.nttpc.ne.jp/ext/tobiyama-hp/top/tobiyama-1.htm)
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