GOKASHO, NEAR THE EAST SHORE OF LAKE BIWA, has an old town quarter of 19th century merchant houses. Before the houses run stone watercourses 1/2m deep and nearly 2m wide, with carp swimming in clear water. The aged houses have white shikkui (lime plaster) walls, boarded on their lower portions with weathered cryptomeria planks from maruko-bune sailing boat hulls. The planks are pierced at intervals with a ragged groove where an iron spike once held the plank fast to the boat hull. ►IT WAS THOUGHT WASTEFUL to discard such boards, because they were sturdy boards from trees a century old. There was also the necessity of boarding the white plaster wall to protect it from mud splatter. Another factor was the “wabi-sabi” beauty of the weathered boards. (photograph © K. Shimizu) ►The watercourses of Gokasho provided spring water from the mountains for daily living, while giving the town a unified appearance and producing a cool atmosphere in the summer. ►Inside their front gate, the houses have a square utility pool with underwater doors that open into the watercourse. Here, the vegetables and eating utensils were washed, with the carp and other fish cleaning up the crumbs of food rinsed into the water. (photograph © K. Shimizu)
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