廃墟 Haikyo

[Charles]

Haikyo is to explore abandoned buildings .
There are a few abandoned homes in my neighborhood..... three in particular .
The homes are at least a hundred years old . One finally collapsed which made it easier to access the attic ; ) by removing roof tiles and sections of the roof I was able to get a better look at the things stored on this level , I was hesitant to go to far in before for fear of it collapsing . The other two are soon to follow . It is a great way to see how these type of homes were built ,being able to take things apart to get a look at the joinery used is also a good way to see how things were actually done by carpenters back then . Also many things have been left behind ... often tools .........




Todays Find

Chouna 手斧　
I'll clean it up and sharpen the blade ... Handle still feels solid .The wedge that holds the blade in fell out in the dark and I could not find it .Kind of funny looking for that wedge in the dark now that think back on it. Amazing how little rust there was on the blade ...just wrapped in cloth,thats it .

[Chris Hall]

Charles - cool! Enjoyed the post - please keep 'em coming!

[Yxoc]

Charles,
I have never been to Japan but I didn't imagine it was the type of place that would have many abandoned buildings - seems to conflict with my perception of the Japanese sense of orderliness/cleanliness.

Are they that common? Since the activity you speak off gets it's own name, presumably it is a common pastime, at least amongst a particular demographic?

Regards

Derek

[Chris Hall]

I'd love to jump in here - there are plenty of abandoned buildings in Japan, especially in rural areas. I remember prowling plenty of old houses in Hokkaido, dreaming of the materials I could reclaim from them.

sorry for the hijack!

[Yxoc]

Just shows you how far off your perceptions can be!

Sounds like this would be a fascinating pass-time, a veritable treasure trove of artifacts and history to discover - please share any other exciting finds with us.

Regards

Derek

[Charles]

Derek,
There are many empty homes throughout the more rural areas as Chris says .
People get old and pass away kids don't want to live in the country so many properties go to ruins .....
The discarded , abandoned and ruins seem to have away an orderliness/cleanliness to them ... like a bike that was ridden to a destination and just left , house that was lived in till they passed away , many boats are tied to their mooring yet half under water ... your perception is not far off ....

Chris thanks for moving this thread and creating it's own section ... would love to hear more about Hokkaido ,so Hijack away ; )

[Chris Hall]

What kind of camera are you using?

[Charles]

What kind of camera are you using?

I have a few different cameras

Film
Plaubel Makina 67 W , medium format
Pentax 67 ,medium format
Leica M4 , 35 mm

Digital
Leica M8.2
Ricoh GRD 4

[rstephenson]

Interesting thread, Charles, and beautiful photography too. I've always enjoyed exploring abandoned and derelict buildings, in my part of the world this tends to be 19th century granite industrial buildings, not much joinery to look at, but cool spaces nonetheless.

Thanks for posting!

Richard

[durbien]

I'm slowly working my way through the archives here and came upon this thread. Love the concept of finding old tools in abandoned houses, though it also seems like the plot of an old horror movie..

I'm sure some fans of JVlogs/Japanese YouTube culture may already be aware of this, but there's a YouTube channel called (amazingly enough) TheJapanChannel.com which is run by an Aussie guy who lives in Japan with his wife. It's one of those "fish out of water" type channels, where he explains what it's like as a foreigner living in Japan, food, etiquette, etc. Actually, that's a bit simplistic as he has many different playlists exploring many different sides to Japanese culture, from a Westerner's point of view (I dunno, are Australians Western?). I found the channel quite interesting on many levels - and since the guy is older and married, his videos tend to be more substantial than watching teenagers talking about video games.

Anyhow, one of the Playlists deals with his acquisition and renovation of a Japanese farmhouse compound to use as his home. There are many videos explaining the state he found the buildings in (very much like the homes mentioned above, abandoned after the previous owner had died, and left in ruins). There are videos on Japanese real estate and tradesmen, the opinions of the locals re: home renovation, and various architectural details. He is not a woodworker by any means (his pet name for himself is "the unskilled labourer"), and some of his work might actually be the absolutely wrong way to do things, but there's always something entertaining about them.

Buying a House in Japan

He also has a playlist where he visits castles and shrines, and there are some neat shots in those videos that may be of interest to woodworkers.

Definitely a time sinkhole for me; hope someone else will enjoy them as well.