Most boathouses in Ine are private homes, but this one lets visitors inside. The first floor holds old fishing gear, glass floats, a whale harpoon, and old photographs and maps, and opens onto the sea beside the boat.
This moment in the journey
Inside a boathouse
Most of the boathouses in Ine are private homes, but there is a funaya that offers interesting indoor views. Through the dim doorway, ropes and floats hung from the beams, and oars and glass fishing floats were fixed to the walls.
You can see the fishing gear used in the old days and the boats up close. Between old photographs and maps were labels explaining a whale harpoon and a wooden tub.
Sitting on the bench beside the boat, I had the sea right in front of me. Seen from the water, the first floor of a boathouse, laundry swaying, opens straight onto the bay. A glimpse of the lifestyle of Ine, a fishing town.
Watch this scene on YouTube0:48
More notes from this journey
Ine, Kyoto
Rice cooked with filefish
A rice dish made with Kyoto fish bought at the harbor market.
From: Living with the sea in the boathouses of Ine
Ine, Kyoto
Grilled seafood
Seafood from the market, put straight on the grill.
From: Living with the sea in the boathouses of Ine
Ine, Kyoto
The boathouses of Ineura
About 230 boathouses line roughly five kilometers of the Ine Bay shore.
From: Living with the sea in the boathouses of Ine
Ine, Kyoto
Aoshima Island
An uninhabited island at the mouth of Ine Bay, known as the island where the gods dwell.
From: Living with the sea in the boathouses of Ine
Ine, Kyoto
Ine no Funaya Miyabi
A Japanese-style cafe in a boathouse built about 80 years ago and renovated in the manner of a teahouse.
From: Living with the sea in the boathouses of Ine
More notes from Kinki
Kyoto City, Kyoto
Kyoto-style ozoni (white miso New Year soup)
Ozoni in and around Kyoto is built on kombu dashi and white miso, with round mochi, taro, carrot and daikon.
From: Making New Year's Eve soba in a Kyoto townhouse
Kyoto City, Kyoto
Osechi (datemaki, red-and-white namasu, decorated kamaboko)
Each osechi dish carries a wish.
From: Making New Year's Eve soba in a Kyoto townhouse
Kyoto City, Kyoto
Toshikoshi soba (nihachi soba)
The custom of eating soba on New Year's Eve is said to have spread among ordinary people in the Edo period.
From: Making New Year's Eve soba in a Kyoto townhouse
Aridagawa, Wakayama
Chestnut rice (kuri gohan)
My first chestnut rice, made with chestnuts I had picked myself.
From: Chestnuts, saury and an autumn feast
Aridagawa, Wakayama
Charcoal-grilled saury with sudachi
Sanma is written 秋刀魚, "autumn sword fish," but that spelling only spread from the Taisho era on; older texts wrote it 青串魚.
From: Chestnuts, saury and an autumn feast
Aridagawa, Wakayama
Wakayama bonito and mandarin carpaccio
In contrast to the lean first bonito of spring, the fish that head south from around September are called modori-gatsuo, returning bonito.
From: Chestnuts, saury and an autumn feast