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KYOTO
IWAKURA, MT. HIEI
Caitlin lived in this neighborhood as a child
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"From the small train station Caitlin could easily remember the way, the right, the left, the veer right and then a sharp right, although there were new shops, even a supermarket, and houses where rice seedlings had once stretched in neat, corded rows. But the gutters were still deep off the side of the road, the hills still pushed up close to the houses, the triangle of Mount Hiei still hovered, and there were a few rice paddies left, wet and so green they made her thirsty." (PAGE 169)
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| Caitlin's childhood time in Kyoto from January 1969 until August 1970 was spent in Iwakura, a district in the northeast of the city. In the '60s and '70s, Iwakura was a quiet area with many rice fields and vegetable gardens set against the backdrop of Mount Hiei and surrounding mountain ridges. Today, although development has encroached, and the subway now reaches southern Iwakura, the area feels pleasantly removed from the city and monkeys still come down from the hills to steal vegetables, one of Caitlin's childhood memories of the area. |
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Iwakura from a cemetery overlook.
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Mount Hiei above rice fields.
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Iwakura’s Hase Shrine and Noh platform, where Caitlin and Mie sometimes played.
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A house like Caitlin’s childhood Kyoto house.
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Other Kyoto topics:
Iwakura, Mt. Hiei • Traditional Kyoto architecture
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© 2001 Holly Thompson and Stone Bridge Press
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