Kobe, Japan.

A couple of days ago I posted "Tsubaki in Groningen I", but I couldn't resist another photo - though in the light drizzle - from the same shrub in my garden abutting the vaster expanse of the unviersity garden which incorporates what was once that of the third order Franciscan sisters of the Sijwen convent. After Linnaeus had altered the Kämpher name of Tsubaki to camellia, it remained relatively unknown until the exploits of Philipp Franz Balthasar von Siebold (1796-1866). Von Siebold, originally a German physician, took service with the Dutch and spent 1823-1829 and 1859-1862 on Decima island, just off the coast of Nagasaki in Japan. Here he practiced and taught western medicine, and put together an enormous collection of natural specimens which he shipped to Europe. Banned from Japan as being a spy - detailed maps of that country were found in his luggage on its inspection by the authorities - he returned to Europe in 1830 and made landfall at Antwerp harbor. Just then the Belgians were fighting for their independence from the Netherlands and they refused to allow Von Siebold's collection to be transported to Leiden. The intrepid doctor however managed to convince them that his collection of dried 'stuff' had no commerical value and he was given leave to take the precious cargo to Leiden, via Rotterdam and Gent. Here it became the basis of much European research of Japan (honored recently by the university of Leiden in the establishment of a museum named after Von Siebold in his former house on the Rapenburg near the 'Academie'). The camellia - now called masayoshi - was part of this enterprise. In Japan, Von Siebold had fallen in love with Kasumoto Taki, but the law had not allowed them to marry. Living outside of official wedlock, they had a daughter Oine or Ine (1827-1903), who was the first female medical doctor in Japan. This camellia photo is in ironic fashion - see my earlier posting - dedicated to the memory of these courageous women, mother and daughter, who resisted social pressure against foreigners and who were proudly independent.

"Funaya" or boat houses, the unique architecture of this picturesque fishing village of Japan. Every house has a "garage" for their boat.

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Explore rsakaism's photos on Flickr. rsakaism has uploaded 684 photos to Flickr.

Funaya (boathouses) in Ine, Japan.

There are fishermen's house in Ine, Kyoto. First floor is for boats to go fishing and Second floor is for living.

Korpokkur by Sato Takahiro