Onomichi Townscape

Bye Onomichi for a while. Bye bye to the kitschy mock samurai castle. See you next time.

Abandoned in Onomichi

Seika Ryo (Holy Flower Dormitory): an abandoned dormitory for nurses

Onomichi is a small seaside town in southeast Hiroshima. Yasujiro Ozu shoot ending scenes of Tokyo Story in Onomichi. I want to introduce this fascinating, quaint town with a web of narrow, steep, winding paths to you. I've been this town countless times, and each time I find new aspects that I didn't see from the previous visit.

This is the 4th of Onomichi series.* I've been explaining how charming Onomichi is, but today I'll tackle some of the challenges modern Onomichi is facing.      

Onomichi does have lots of abandoned houses. Like any other mid to small sized towns in Japan, the increasing senior population is a big challenge of the town.The hilly residential landscape is very charming for visitors but for the aging population, the terrain could be a huge barrier to conduct their everyday life.

*For the past series, see: The Landscape of Yasujiro Ozu, Onomichi Landscape: Local Belifes, and Onomichi Landscape: Commercial Space

Vending machine, Mukaishima Island

Onomichi Landscape: Commercial Space

Plumber shop

Onomichi is a small seaside town in southeast Hiroshima. Yasujiro Ozu shoot ending scenes of Tokyo Story in Onomichi. I want to introduce this fascinating, quaint town with a web of narrow, steep, winding paths to you. I've been this town countless times, and each time I find new aspects that I didn't see from the previous visit.

Interested? Please take a look at my post: The Landscape of Yasujiro Ozu.

Today, I'll show you some commercial spaces in Onomichi. All those photos evokes nostalgic sense to Japanese folks even he/ she didn't grow up in the mid 20th century. While the space represents our shared sense of the past, this is not a Potemkin facade like some amusement parks!

 Toy store display window

Onomichi Landscape: Local Beliefs

Do you recognize the archaic smile this Ksitigarbha fellow has?

Onomichi is a small seaside town in southeast Hiroshima. Yasujiro Ozu shoot ending scenes of Tokyo Story in Onomichi. I want to introduce this fascinating, quaint town with a web of narrow, steep, winding paths to you.  I've been this town countless times, and each time I find new aspects that I didn't see from the previous visit.

Interested? Please take a look at my post: The Landscape of Yasujiro Ozu.

Today, I'll show you some of the local beliefs welded into the everyday community landscape. I'm no expert in cultural anthropology, so I'm just gonna introduce them from an aspect of an ordinary Japanese person.

 A cat deity in a community Shinto alter

The Landscape of Yasujiro Ozu: Onomichi, Hiroshima

Just for a week, I went back to my home in Hiroshima. It's been for five years? since last time I went back. Well, I don't like an airplane trip. Wish I could afford a business class or something. Twelve hours in a sardine tine is asking too much for me. What could I do if I wanna get out and breath some outside air? No, obviously.

Enough gripe. I know, I know.

Onomichi cats are slim and have big eyes and ears!

Judi Chamberlin's Political Button Collection -- A Story of a Shrink Resistant Woman

No, anger is not "nice," but it's real, it comes from the gut, and not to be angry at being shit upon is being dead -- which is exactly what shrinks and their kind want us all to become...

But anger is exhausting, and being put down for our anger is destructive. What we need is to be able to turn to one another for strength, for support, and for understanding.

-- From Judi Chamberlain's correspondence, July 19, 1975

Judi Chamberlin at Conference on Human Rights and Psychiatric oppression
Toronto, 1982

You might ask, who's "Judy Chamberlain?" No, you got it wrong, she's Judi. Chamberlin, without an "a." Judi Chamberlain in Somerville removed her name from a phone book because she'd been mistaken over and over again as other Somerville woman named Judi Chamberlin, I mean our Judi.

So why did she collect such quirky pin badges? Shrink resistant, stop shock, what do they mean? Ok, let me tell about her life story.

Shrink Resistant

Urban obscurities

Montreal, Northampton, and Greenfield

Oddities in Montreal II - a**holes who steal benches suck

A vestige of last summer. Bilingual cuss. I admit I do love the city.

You may also visit: Oddities in Montreal I- Fear is the Mind Killer

Montreal Cityscape IV - Market

Jean Talon Market

Abandoned in Montreal II - Silo No. 5

This is the king of silo, period.

As I mentioned in the previous post about abandoned structures along the Lachine Canal, this 14.5 km long canal opened in 1825 used to be a bustling hub of industry and transportation until the opening of the St Laurence seaway in the late 50's.

Refereed as the "bread basket of the world", Canada was the major source of grains just after WWII.  The major beneficiaries of the export were European nations whose agricultural industry was left with little recovery.

Montreal cityscape III - Montrealers in summertime

Summer on Sunday means Tam-tams! At Mt Royal Park, Montealers and tourists gather to join this wild assemblage of human beings. The rhythm of drums and percussion draws people's psyche into this festive, chaotic, and primitive atmosphere that any enforcers of city ordinances would have no idea where he/ she should begin to regain, or say, create "order" from scratch.

Kid A: "Daddy, what's the funky-skunky-tobacco-like-smell?"

Abandoned in Montreal I - Lachine canal

The Lachine Canal is a riverway goes through the southeast of Montreal. Connecting St Laurence River and Lake St Louis, this 14.5 km canal began its operation in 1825. Through the several extensions and a deepening, it became the transportation artery and attracted various forms of industry and manufacturing.

Crane Ltd.: a plumbing company. This used to be a part of an iron plant built in 1918. (Source: Crane Plumbing Co.)

Montreal cityscape II - Cat, cat, cat

Even some places like this:

You'll come across a cat or two...

Montreal cityscape I

Oddities in Montreal I - Fear is the Mind Killer

Wachusett Aqueduct, Northborough

The Wachusett Aqueduct was completed in 1905 to carry water from the Wachusett Reservoir to the Sudbury Reservoir*. The majority of this 10-mile route is in underground, and a few elevated crossings are visible from us. The crossing I introduce today is on the Assabet River by Hudson Street.

*The route changed when a new water treatment plant in Marlborough was constructed in 2005.

Our Lady's Hospital, Cork, Ireland

(Pictures taken in 2003)

Princess Ann's 
Bull Terrier
ate 
Queen's Corgi

A tabloid said. It was 2003 Christmas, and the first time I set my foot in Ireland. It was a bumpy but memorable overnight travel from London by a train, ferry, bus, then train; a guy with a mullet playing rock music on the ferry, children dancing. Passengers on the bus so sleepy... or pissed that couldn't tell...or gave a damn about an exit and entry. In the dawn, a horse was scratching its back in a mud field. Crumbling ruins in the countryside...

Looking the interior through a broken window

An abandoned psychiatric hospital called Our Lady's Hospital (or Eglington Asylum, the Cork District Lunatic Asylum, etc.) sits on a river bank on the outskirts of Cork, Ireland. It is literally situated on the boundary between the town and country. As driving a car, my aunt-in-law told me that it is renowned as "the longest hospital in Europe".

Completed in 1853 by a local architect William Atkins, this Gothic revival hospital must have functioned as a watchdog for the Catholic morality. I mean, "You've been a baaaaad girl, I'll bring you to the loony bin on the hill" type of deal. Well, the statement is not far fetched because my uncle-in-law -- who brought me and Brian to the hospital -- told us that unwed mothers used to be chained there.

Looking the interior through a broken window

No way, I thought.

"They are fixing the hospital to make an apartment."

Double no way.

The vision of an unwed mother chained in a desolate cell haunted me. Why having an out-of-wedlock child regarded as "insane"? That's beyond absurd and an outright violation of human rights, I thought. Anyway, it's not fair the guy spilled seeds unpunished.

But I was not aware of the influence of the Catholic Church in Irish society, functioning as the social and moral framework. Father Ted didn't teach me about that!    

Is it true that unwed mothers in Ireland were held in lunatic asylums? I started researching, and found that there were numerous workhouses for unwed mothers and other "fallen women", not only in Ireland but also in Scotland, England and even in the US (note: they were not necessarily Catholic institutions).

For example, at the infamous Magdalene Asylums, women held there were forced to engage with laundry work in order to "wash away their sin":

The laundries got their name from Mary Magdalene, the fallen woman who became one of Jesus' closest followers. They began 150 years ago as homes to rehabilitate prostitutes. But by the early 20th century, the role had been expanded to care for unwed mothers and other young women the church considered to be wayward. -- from cbsnews.com

In accordance with the expansion, the institutional character became increasingly punitive in Ireland. Here is the documentary about Irish women who spent their time in the asylum, separated from their babies and constantly humiliated and abused by the nuns:

Why did the attitude towards unwed mothers become more punitive and organized in the early 20th century? In Ireland, the establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922 gave the church a further opportunity to stigmatize the unwed mothers by systematically managing them; the workhouses for fallen women were separated by "first-time offenders" and "multiple offenders". To avoid the separation with their children and social stigma, many mothers fled to England.

The concerns over unwed mothers were not limited in Ireland; in 1921, the City of Boston established a residence for unwed mother in Long Island, taking a place of a poorhouse that had established in 1891.

But all the cases were in workhouses, not lunatic asylums. I was thinking my uncle-in-law must have been told an exaggerated story from his folks.

Removed window boards looked like gravestones

Sorry, Tom. I was wrong.

I finally found confirmed cases in Yorkshire, England, where women with illegitimate children were sent to psychiatric hospitals:

Lucy Baker was sent to St Catharine's hospital in Doncaster in 1921. At the time of filming in 1972, she was released from the hospital and at an old people's home. But this 75 year-old Yorkshire accented grandma had spent 51 years of her life in the mental hospital.

She wasn't sent to St Catharine's immediately. She became pregnant by meeting a married man. At first, her parents were helping her by taking care of her baby while she was working at a local mill as a weaver.

Three years later, she again became pregnant from a different guy. This time, her father sent her to a workhouse, and her second child was born. Separated from her children, the situation "got on my nerve", she said. Her written pleads to be released from the workhouse were rejected. As anyone with a right mind would do, she escaped from the workhouse. When she was found, the authority put her into St Catharine's. The documentary also interviewed  a grandma in St Catharine's who had three illegitimate children.

I am surprised that the case I found was in the early 20's; I was expecting to find sometimes around, say, the mid-19th century.

In Ireland, the establishment of the Irish Free State would be the main reason, but it is not limited in Ireland. The reaction to the Suffragettes movement? Flappers must have raised an eyebrow of an American conservative. But I think the growing popularity of eugenics in the early 20th century must have given authorities an excuse to punish, and eventually eradicate the unwanted segment of population with a back up of "science". Here is a kind of discourse prevailed against unwed mothers:

The unmarried mother was perceived as doubly deviant. Not only was she a threat to the social order, but her child could be infected with deviant genes and perpetuate the threat in future generations. -- Crime, punishment and the search for order in Ireland (Italicized by S.K.)

A female as a reproductive sex bore some of the tremendous burdens eugenics created. In the US, the movie Black Stork was released in 1917, leading to Carrie Buck who was compulsorily sterilized in 1927.

In England, the 1913 Mental Deficiency Act was greatly influenced by the burgeoning eugenics. Many like Lucy Baker were labeled as  "individuals with loose morals" under the act. No matter how eugenics were praised as the beacon of rational science, it is impossible to rationalize morality; it belongs to the realm of muddy, subjective, ephemeral world of human minds.   

So now, Our Lady's Hospital is converted to an apartment complex. I am generally cautious about converting historic asylums to for-profit establishments (i.e.: Metropolitan State Hospital). Whether the building is architecturally significant or beautiful, the symbolism contained in those walls is too sad and grave to glamorize it as a tool signifying a luxurious life style. On the other hand, I don't want to see abandoned psychiatric hospitals being razed just because people don't want to face the uncomfortable past...It's the dilemma keeps me being interested in those ruins.

I don't know what kind of folks live there now. Correct me if wrong, but I have a feeling it's not the Cork natives' first choice. When I visited Ireland in 2003, the economy was booming; there must have been a steady influx of EU professionals to the town. Now? I have no idea, ask the Bank of Ireland.

Thanks for reading my long due lengthy memory and thoughts, and Merry Christmas!

Locate Our Lady's Hospital @ Google Map

The Magdalen Asylum, Co. Cork.: Abandoned Ireland (Check out the picture of gravestones on the last page, it's sadly horrifying...)
The Magdalene Laundry: cbsnews.com
Sex in a Cold Climate: YouTube
Wasted Lives: YouTube
Crime, punishment and the search for order in Ireland by Shane Kilcommins: Google books
Planning for life by Liam Concannon: Google books

Somerville Electric Light Company, Somerville

Triggered by the previous post, I'm on a crusade to fill the pieces of industrial facilities along the Minuteman trail and its extensions, imagining the landscape of the area sometimes between the late 19th and mid 20th century. The Grove-Ceder section of the bikepath (a part of the Minuteman Trail Extensions that goes eastward from Davis Sq.) used to be a railroad track for the Lexington and Arlington Railroad established in 1870.

The path is filled with bikes, babies, grown-ups, and dogs on a sunny weekend

This main power station for the Somerville Electric Light Company (SELCO) was opened in 1889 and is still operating. By the time of the establishment, the adjacent railroad was owned by the Boston and Maine Railroad. Boston Edison Company took over the SELCO in 1903, and the Edison merged into NSTAR in 1999, so I guess this place is now owned by NSTAR.

Somebody please tell me the truth!

Speaking of the power station, do you know about Battersea Power Station in London? Doesn't ring a bell? How about Pink Floyd's album Animals? It's the most ginormous and awesome power station in the world, I swear. I felt as if I was struck by a lightning when I saw the disused power station from a train approaching to Victoria Station, thinking why a mock Greek temple in the middle of the industrial area around the Thames.

What a gray day it was, only in London...

The disused power station is nearby Victoria Station

On the contrary, the SELCO Generating Station reminds me a small electric substation for a tramway in Hiroshima; Hatsukaichi Electric Substation was built in 1922 and demolished in 2009. Because the city of Hatsukaichi is next to Hiroshima city, it temporary supplied the electricity for the tramways serviced in the area destroyed by the Atomic Bomb of 1945. The proximity to the residential area (whether the residents like it or not), train tracks...Why did they demolished it? 

Hatsukaichi Electric Substation: from Wikipedia

SELCO Generating Station

Look at the star-shaped iron wall supporters

Like Hatsukaichi Electric Substation was owned by a tramway company, I first thought the SELCO Generating Station has something to do with the railway right next to. But I realized an electric locomotion (not for a trolley or tram) was introduced to the US in 1895, while the station was built some six years before. Anyway, as the name Somerville Electric Light Co. suggests, it was built for supplying electricity for light, not for the railway.

Locate SELCO Generating Station @ Google Map

Click picture to enlarge

Somerville's first high-tech startup (PDF file)
http://mhc-macris.net/Details.aspx?MhcId=SMV.679: MACRIS database