As I have been saying in my blog for a while, my hobby is sudden outings and drives. And even the motive is always sudden.

The other day, for some reason, I was really missing the green color of green powdered tea. I had a sudden desire to eat that deep green food. I felt very sorry, but I suddenly asked my friend, “Would you like to go out to eat matcha sweets?” I asked my friend to accompany me on my sudden drive.

Thank you very much for your sudden invitation.

So the other day we went to Nishio City, Nishio City, Aichi Prefecture, which is famous for its matcha (powdered green tea). I am not sure if those of you from other prefectures are aware of this, but Nishio City boasts the largest share of matcha production in Japan.

The city has flourished as a castle town since the Warring States Period, and the townscape, shrines, and temples that have remained since then have made it famous as “Mikawa’s Little Kyoto,” and it is still being reborn as an old and new town today. The town is also famous for its matcha (powdered green tea), and there are many matcha and wagashi (Japanese confectionery) stores in the town, as well as cafes and stores offering wonderful matcha sweets, which has been a big boom for matcha.

I was one of those who were drawn to matcha the other day. The distance from Nagoya City is just right for a short driving course, and I sometimes want to go there.

I decided to stop by at a place I had never visited before, before trying the matcha parfait.

Nishio City Iwase Bunko

The Nishio City Iwase Bunko was founded in 1908 as a private library by Yasuke Iwase, a businessman from Suda-cho, Nishio, who wanted to contribute to society through books. After the war, it became a Nishio City facility and was renovated as Japan’s first “museum of old books” in April 2003, became a registered museum on December 7, 2007, and seems to have celebrated its 100th anniversary on May 6, 2008. Although it looks like a small library, it actually preserves and exhibits more than 80,000 books from a wide range of fields and eras, from classical books including important cultural properties to modern practical books, and offers unique exhibits that allow visitors to learn about the long history and rich culture of Japanese books through hands-on experience. (Admission to the permanent exhibition was free.)

The brick building at the back of the museum was originally used as the book depository, but now it seems to be housed in the new library and museum on the right side of the photo. The old stacks here were built in the Taisho era (1912-1926) and withstood the Great East Japan Earthquake and air raids, and are now registered as a Tangible Cultural Property of Japan.

The stacks are custom-made in width, depth, and shelf height according to the size and shape of the various books in the stacks. The three floors above ground house the library, and the basement floor houses newspapers, magazines, the Iwase bunko, and items related to Yasuke Iwase, making the inside of the building interesting.

The Iwase Bunko’s collection of over 80,000 volumes is characterized by its wide variety of books, and because of this large collection, many people from all over Japan come to the museum to study and browse the actual old books. The books include history, Japanese literature, books on herbs, geography, picture books, picture scrolls, maps, and many others. Although reservations are required to browse the real books in the collection, some of them are reproduced in the same condition as the real ones, and we can also pick up the replicas.

Of course, we visited the museum on a whim (we are too afraid of the real thing…). We picked up some of the replicas.

This is an illustrated book of birds, so to speak. It is a kind of illustrated book. The illustrations are precisely colored in shades of gray, and some of them have simple notes such as the place of origin.

There is no back matter. The original editor was Keizan Yamamoto (Akio), and since there was no such thing as printing at that time, this book is a transcription of the original. Thus, there are some copied words such as “Keizan Shasho,” “Keizan Shinsha,” “Kaei Jiyu (2nd year) Season and Winter Keizan Shasho,” etc. The latest chronology in the book is in vol. 5, which is the first volume of the collection. The most recent chronology in the book is found in Volume 5, “Little grebe egg,” which reads, “Meiji 廿六年7月 Torikai-mura Ueda Tatsujiro dourou,” and it appears that the writing was gradually passed down from year to year from the beginning of the Kaei era.

Although this is a copy (this is a replica), it is more than a copy, and for a while I was gazing at the beautiful depiction and composition of each feather of the bird.

I was also able to pick up a replica of the maki-e, but unfortunately I could not understand the title or the words written inside the maki-e. A ghost story about a princess who falls in love with a monk and turns into a specter or a monster? The story is a ghost story about a princess who falls in love with a monk and becomes a monster or a monster. The form of the monster is different from that of modern anime and manga and approaches true horror, which is scary. Ghost stories must have had fans throughout the ages.

Although it was just a casual stop at the Iwase Bunko, it was unexpectedly interesting, and for those who are studying them, it must be a treasure trove of materials. If you are ever in Nishio City, please stop by and enjoy the matcha parfait at the same time.

Now to my original goal of the trip, the matcha parfait. Bon appétit!

Have a good day.