Karatsu 唐津 Photo Gallery by Matthew Haswell at pbase.com

Karatsu 唐津

One of Japan's premier pottery towns, the city of Karatsu is set at the north of Saga Prefecture, at the eastern edge of the mountainous Higashi-Matsuura Peninsula. A former castle town (now with a reconstructed keep dating from the 1960s), it is especially well known for its beautiful and lively Karatsu Kunchi Matsuri in November, when a group of fourteen large, colorful floats are paraded around town.

Also included here are pictures of the ruins of Nagoya-jō outside nearby Yobuko town, once the great castle from which Toyotomi Hideyoshi launched his invasions of Korea.

Ceramic Kunchi float replica outside JR Karatsu	Karatsu-jō across the Matsuura-gawa	Stone bridge over the Chōda-gawa	Statue of a Karatsu Kunchi Matsuri participant
Restored turret on the Higo-bori moat	Senma-bashi	Former Head Office of Karatsu Bank	San-no-maru Tatsumi-yagura and Yanagi-bori
View down the old street off Tatsumi-yagura	Chōda-gawa and surrounds	Manhole depicting Karatsu-jō	Toki-no Taiko
Uzume-mon Hall	Former Takatori Estate	Japanese-style wing of the Takatori Estate	Restored donjon of Karatsu-jō
Ospreys flying above the castle	City view from the Maizuru-bashi	Maizuru-kōen and houses below	Karatsu-jō's donjon from the Hon-maru
Approaching the rebuilt castle tower	Stone marker on the site of the old castle	Karatsu skyline from the castle tower	Machicolations on the donjon
Looking down on a restored turret	View over Niji-no-Matsubara beach	Ospreys aflight in front of Anegonose	Jonai-bashi with Karatsu-jō beyond
Gofuku-machi shopping arcade	Old stone lighthouse beside Hoto-sanbashi Pier	Festival floats in the Hikiyama Exhibition Hall	Whale-fish dashi
Trio of Karatsu Kunchi dashi	Gate into Karatsu-jinja	Below the inner torii of Karatsu-jinja	Omikuji draped around a shrine statue
Arrival at the ruins of Nagoya-jō	Pathway into the castle park	Remnants of the Higashi-demaru, Nagoya-jō	Distant Yobuko Bridge
Grassy old wall overlooking the Sea of Genkai	View over the former Ni-no-maru	Atop the tenshu ruins	View across the former walls to the Tenshu-ato
Excavation tarps on the former Hon-maru	Steps leading through the former Ōte-mon	Corner of the San-no-maru ruins	Walls at the edge of the San-no-maru
Clock with Kunchi Matsuri float replicas	Kunchi Matsuri float images below the JR line	One open restaurant in the row	Kunchi dashi painting on a vertical shop door
Another door with a float image	Aya-gama kiln	Ochawan-gama Street	Entrance to Nakazato Tarōemon kiln
Ceramic statue in the Nakazato kiln garden	Kindai Library	Karatsu station detail	Pinecone Godzilla outside Arpino Hall

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