View allAll Photos Tagged Retainer
Pugsley with Pet Lizard - Addams Family by Charles Chas Addams cartoon cartoonist Eccentric holiday Evil creature monster Frankenstein like mask costume creatures vamp undead patchwork man monsters toy toys valet servant retainer manservant nanny domestic rubber alligator crocodile portrait mace doll Marie Antoinette Ken Weatherwax NYC 2021
Akō Castle was home to thew Asano clan during the Edo Period (1603-1868).
Oishi Kuranosuke was the chief retainer of the Asano clan during the turmoil associated with the 47 Ronin incident, in which the feudal lord, Asano Naganori, attacked and wounded Kira Yoshinaka within Edo Castle. As drawing a weapon within the shogun's castle was a capital offence, Asano was sentenced to commit seppuku the same day.
As a result of Asano's impulsive behavior, the Shogunate disbanded the Asano clan and seized their lands. Oishi and 46 other former Asano retainers waited and unleashed their misguided revenge on Kira, attacking his home in the dead of night in December 1703, killing his body guards as well as taking his head and placing it in front of Asano's tomb in Senkaku-ji Temple in Takanawa, Tokyo.
All the Akō ronin were sentenced to death by seppuku (harakiri). The loyalty that these guys showed to their foolish lord by committing what can only be described as what me and some of my friends referr to as a feudal "drive-by"- Japanese style, has been lauded by the Japanese public ever since. The facts behind the actual events have been buried in the countless puppet and kabuki plays as well as movies that have been made about this.
I'm not a terribly big fan of Asano Naganori, nor do I think the Akō ronin were particularly "brave" by carrying out a night attack after a party and fighting a small group of drunk bodyguards and taking the head of a feeble old man. But, this perspective is from modern, western eyes. In reality, night attacks of this nature have always been a staple of samurai warfare, being documented since the Heian period. As much as I don't partake in the 47 Ronin Kool Aid drinking parties, I do admit to enjoying watching a good fictional film or kabuki play about these guys.
The Anma were hereditary retainers of the Aoyama Clan in Sasayama. Their house, which was built around 1832, has been turned into a museum, showcasing what a typical samurai house looked like.
Yes, this is a part of the Berlin Shopping Center. It's a forgotten retainer basin. To find this, go behind the Dollar General. Turn left until you meet up with the poison ivy coated fence. Walk along the fence (you are walking in poison ivy) until you find a small part of the fence where there is no PI. That's where I got this picture. There was ducks on the water, but they flew away when they spotted me. That's what caused the ripples in the water.
My Lynskey Viale Commuting Bike. Built as 6-speed bike with Hope Single speed hub.
* Frame: Lynskey Viale Medium
* Fork: Lynskey Endurance
* Headset: Hope
* Headset Spacers: Chris King and Hope
* Stem: Thomson 90mm
* Handlebar: Raceface Turbine
* Grips: Ergon GS3
* Seatpost: Thomson Elite
* Saddle: Crank Brothers
* Pedals: HT Cheetah
* Shifter: Paul Thumbies & Dura Ace
* Rear Derailleur: Shimano 105
* Crankset: Shimano 105 – Hope Retainer Chainring (44 Tooth)
* Cassette: Shimano SLX 9 Speed (used 14-16-18-21-24-28 Tooth only) 14T is Ultegra CS-6500 first position
* Rims: Velocity Dyad
* Hubs: Hope Pro4 front – Hope Pro4 Trials SS rear
* Spokes: Dt Swiss Competition
* Tires: Schwalbe Marathon Supreme 700X32
* Brakes: TRP Spyre
* Brake Levers: Shimano BL-R780
Kishiwada Castle, located in Osaka, was built by Koide Hidemasa, a retainer of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, in 1582, near the site of where Kusunoki Masashige built a fort in the 1300s. In 1640, ownership of the castle was transferred to Okabe Norikatsu and the Okabe family maintained possession of the castle and the Kishiwada fief until the Meiji Restoration in 1868.
In 1827 lightning destroyed the castle’s main keep and much of the remaining part of the castle was destroyed during the fighting between the Tokugawa and Imperial forces during the civil strife associated with the Meiji Restoration. The current three-story ferroconcrete keep was built in 1954, but it has been confirmed that the original donjon was 5 stories. The moat and the outer stone walls are all that remain of the original castle. All other structures, including the gate, are reconstructions.
The renowned garden designer, Mirei Shigemori, constructed the Hachi Jin no Niwa rock garden in 1953 using chlorite schist from Okinoshima Island in Wakayama Prefecture and white sand from the Shirakawa River in Kyoto. He personally chose all the larger stones and arranged the garden based on the Chinese concept of the battle formation of the eight elements of heaven: earth, wind, clouds, dragons, tigers, birds and snakes.
The larger flanged ring of the two retainers, it is driven all the way home. It may at times feel like it's tight, but when you look at it from the side, you can see that it still has a sizable gap above the gears. This is when you back it off a little, and then feel the gears pop into place. It usually needs to be done that way with both gears.
I figure the best tool for this job is one that is the same diameter as the retainer, with two pins no deeper than the flange on the retainer, so they don't bind on the gears. This give you even pressure on the retainer while screwing it down, and a better chance of getting it right the first time.
So having a retainer is pretty annoying, but decorating the cases for them makes things a tad better. :)
For more information, or to follow this artist refrences refer to -
INSTAGRAM: www.instagram.com/retayner/
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#Terain #Retainer #Retayner #OverSpray #InstinctDriven #InnerDemons #InDeep #ID #AwkardProductions #AllWeKnow #AWK
The garden of the New Otani Hotel in Tokyo stands on the property that was once the primary yashiki (estate) of the great Sengoku period feudal lord, Katō Kiyomasa (1562-1611). Kiyomasa was a trusted retainer and general of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the warlord who unified Japan in the wake of Oda Nobunaga’s assassination in 1582. Kiyomasa rose to fame during the battle of Shizugatake and soon found himself at the vanguard of many of Hideyoshi’s campaigns, including the invasion of Korea in 1592, in which Kiyomasa’s reputation as a master tactician, fierce fighter, castle builder and as a cruel man grew. To this day, the mere mention of Kiyomasa’s name in Korea is sure to bring a frown. Although loyal to the Toyotomi, if there was one thing that Kiyomasa hated more than Christianity and poor martial spirit among the samurai, it was Ishida Mitsunari, leader of the Western coalition of daimyo that opposed the rise of Tokugawa Ieyasu. It was this hatred of Mitsunari that drove Kiyomasa into the Tokugawa camp where he played a pivotal role in the Kyushu theatre of the Sekigahara campaign in 1600. As a result of his service, Kiyomasa was rewarded by becoming one of the elite daimyo who were allowed to build his Edo estate near the shogun’s castle in the upscale area that became known as Kioi-cho, named after the elite Kii Tokugawa, Owari Tokugawa and Ii daimyo families that kept their residences in this area.
As Kiyomasa was loyal to the house of Toyotomi and as a final showdown between the Tokugawa and Toyotomi grew, the Tokugawa began to have their doubts about where Kiyomasa’s ultimate loyalty rested. Fearful of having to face this fierce and influential warlord on the opposing side of the battlefield when the fighting would inevitably erupt in 1615, it has been suggested that the Tokugawa had him poisoned. Shortly after the fall of the Toyotomi, Kiyomasa’s son was accused of disloyalty (most likely a trumped up charge) and the family’s fief in Kumamoto, Kyushu was seized by the shogunate and the clan was abolished. Soon after this, the grounds of the Katō estate in Tokyo were given to the Ii family.
When the New Otani Hotel was constructed, it was decided to keep the traditional Japanese garden intact. Today the garden covers more than 10 acres and has over 800 trees, 10,000 flowering plants, ponds, a waterfall, and 42 stone lanterns, many of which date back from the Edo (1603-1868) and the Kamakura (1192-1333) periods.
Pac Man Custom deisgned dental retainer. Celebrating 30th anniversary of Pac Man.Acrylic Hawley design.
Creation Date: ca. 1770
Display Dimensions: 11 17/32 in. x 8 5/8 in. (29.3 cm x 21.9 cm)
Credit Line: Edwin Binney 3rd Collection
Accession Number: 1990.546
Collection: The San Diego Museum of Art
Sengaku-ji is where the 47 Ronin of Ako, along with their lord, Asano, are interred. Sengaku-ji is located in Tokyo, near Shinagawa Station.
Oishi Kuranosuke was the chief retainer of the Asano clan during the turmoil associated with the 47 Ronin incident, in which the feudal lord, Asano Naganori, attacked and wounded Kira Yoshinaka within Edo Castle. As drawing a weapon within the shogun's castle was a capital offence, Asano was sentenced to commit seppuku the same day.
As a result of Asano's impulsive behavior, the Shogunate disbanded the Asano clan and seized their lands. Oishi and 46 other former Asano retainers waited and unleashed their misguided revenge on Kira, attacking his home in the dead of night in December 1703, killing his body guards as well as taking his head and placing it in front of Asano's tomb in Sengaku-ji Temple in Takanawa, Tokyo.
All the Akō ronin were sentenced to death by seppuku (harakiri). The loyalty that these guys showed to their foolish lord by committing what can only be described as what me and some of my friends referr to as a feudal "drive-by"- Japanese style, has been lauded by the Japanese public ever since. The facts behind the actual events have been buried in the countless puppet and kabuki plays as well as movies that have been made about this.
I'm not a terribly big fan of Asano Naganori, nor do I think the Akō ronin were particularly "brave" by carrying out a night attack after a party and fighting a small group of drunk bodyguards and taking the head of a feeble old man. But, this perspective is from modern, western eyes. In reality, night attacks of this nature have always been a staple of samurai warfare, being documented since the Heian period. As much as I don't partake in the 47 Ronin Kool Aid drinking parties, I do admit to enjoying watching a good fictional film or kabuki play about these guys.
Sengaku-ji is where the 47 Ronin of Ako, along with their lord, Asano, are interred. Sengaku-ji is located in Tokyo, near Shinagawa Station.
Oishi Kuranosuke was the chief retainer of the Asano clan during the turmoil associated with the 47 Ronin incident, in which the feudal lord, Asano Naganori, attacked and wounded Kira Yoshinaka within Edo Castle. As drawing a weapon within the shogun's castle was a capital offence, Asano was sentenced to commit seppuku the same day.
As a result of Asano's impulsive behavior, the Shogunate disbanded the Asano clan and seized their lands. Oishi and 46 other former Asano retainers waited and unleashed their misguided revenge on Kira, attacking his home in the dead of night in December 1703, killing his body guards as well as taking his head and placing it in front of Asano's tomb in Sengaku-ji Temple in Takanawa, Tokyo.
All the Akō ronin were sentenced to death by seppuku (harakiri). The loyalty that these guys showed to their foolish lord by committing what can only be described as what me and some of my friends referr to as a feudal "drive-by"- Japanese style, has been lauded by the Japanese public ever since. The facts behind the actual events have been buried in the countless puppet and kabuki plays as well as movies that have been made about this.
I'm not a terribly big fan of Asano Naganori, nor do I think the Akō ronin were particularly "brave" by carrying out a night attack after a party and fighting a small group of drunk bodyguards and taking the head of a feeble old man. But, this perspective is from modern, western eyes. In reality, night attacks of this nature have always been a staple of samurai warfare, being documented since the Heian period. As much as I don't partake in the 47 Ronin Kool Aid drinking parties, I do admit to enjoying watching a good fictional film or kabuki play about these guys.
John Astin as Gomez Addams - Addams Family Card Game by Milton Bradley from 1965 Vintage Halloween the 1960s - Charles Chas Addams cartoon cartoonist Eccentric holiday Evil creature monster Frankenstein like mask costume creatures vamp undead patchwork man monsters toy toys valet servant retainer manservant nanny domestic rubber alligator crocodile portrait mace doll Marie Antoinette
The Queen’s Head is one of the oldest extant buildings in Wilcannia. It was constructed in the 1870s and purchased by in 1880 by John Penrose who became Mayor of Silverton and in 1885 opened the Lion Brewery with Edmund and Emil Resch. Although no longer operating as an hotel the building is in reasonable condition.
Aboriginal History of Wilcannia:
Wilcannia is located on the Darling River, about halfway between Bourke and Wentworth. The river is known as Barka by the local Aboriginal people or Barkandji, literally people belonging to the Barka, and it is surrounded on all sides by Barkandji speaking people. The people from along the Barka and varying distances either side from near Bourke down to Wentworth all recognised the Barkandji language as their primary language, but they were divided into subgroups with different dialects of this one language. The Barkandji language is very different from all the neighbouring languages including the adjoining Ngiyampaa/Ngemba to the east, the Kulin, and Murray River languages to the south, and the Yardli and Thura-Yura language groups to the west and north.
Barkandji have a unique culture and depended heavily on the grinding or pounding of seeds on large grinding dishes or mortars and pestles, such as grass, portulaca, and acacia seeds. In the riverine areas, there is a strong emphasis on aquatic plant food tubers and corms, and fish, yabbies, turtles, mussels, and shrimps as well as water birds and their eggs. Insect foods were also important, such as parti or witchetty grubs along the rivers and creeks, and termite larvae in the Mallee country. Large and small canoes were cut out, necessitating ground edge axes, and string manufacture for fish nets, hunting nets, bags, and belts was an important part of the culture. The Wilcannia area still shows tangible evidence of traditional life in the form of canoe trees, coolamon trees, middens, heat retainer ovens, ashy deposits, stone tool quarries and artefacts.
Thomas Mitchell led the first exploring party to reach Wilcannia and gave the Barkandji their first unpleasant taste of what was to come. Mitchell travelled via the Bogan to the Darling River near Bourke and then down the river to Wilcannia then Menindee, reaching it in July 1835. Mitchell was harassed by Barkandji as he did not understand that he had to properly negotiate permission for use of water, grass, land to camp on etc., and in addition his men were abusing women behind his back and breaking all the rules. He gave them names such as the Fire Eaters and the Spitting Tribe as they tried to warn him off. His comments show that the Barkandji groups he met occupied "different portions of the river", and that they owned the resources in their territories including the water in the river. The exclusive possession enjoyed by the Barkandji and the need to obtain permission before using any of their resources is demonstrated by the following comment about the "Spitting Tribe" from the river near Wilcannia:
"The Spitting Tribe desired our men to pour out the water from their buckets, as if it had belonged to them; digging, at the same time a hole in the ground to receive it when poured out; and I have more than once seen a river chief, on receiving a tomahawk, point to the stream and signify that we were then at liberty to take water from it, so strongly were they possessed with the notion that the water was their own"
A hill 15 kilometres north of Wilcannia was named Mount Murchison by Mitchell and this became the name of the very large original station that included the location that was to become Wilcannia township.
In 1862 the area northwest of Mount Murchison Station was still frontier country with continual conflict. Frederic Bonney was based at Mount Murchison homestead and then nearby Momba homestead from 1865 to 1881 and he bluntly states in his notebooks that in this period "natives killed by settlers - shot like dogs"
Bonney recorded extensive detail about the lives, language, culture, and personalities of the Aboriginal people at Mount Murchison/Momba and left us with extremely significant series of photos of Aboriginal people taken in this period. He does not elaborate about the way the station was set up except for his comment above. Frederic Bonney not only respected and looked after the local people but he sympathised with them, worked with them, and respected them. The Bonney papers and photographs are a treasure of information about the Aboriginal people living there between 1865 and 1881. Bonney published a paper in 1884 but long after he had returned to England to live he campaigned for the better treatment of the Aboriginal people, and he tried to educate the public about the complexity of Aboriginal culture.
Bonney names about 44 individual Aboriginal people living at Momba in this period, and one group photo from the same period shows a total of 38 people. Descendants of some of the people Bonney describes still live in Wilcannia and surrounding areas today.
Aboriginal people worked on Moomba and Mount Murchison Station, and from very early times fringe camps grew up around Wilcannia. The land straight across the River from the Wilcannia post office was gazetted as an Aboriginal Reserve, and this became the nucleus of a very large fringe camp that grew into a substantial settlement spaced out along the river bank in the 1930s to the 1970s. By 1953 the Aboriginal Welfare Board had built a series of 14 barrack-like and inappropriately designed houses in an enlarged reserve, now an attractive tree lined settlement known as the Mission (although never a mission it was beside a Catholic School and clinic, thus the name). Today Aboriginal people are the majority of the population of the vibrant, creative, and culturally active town of Wilcannia, and the main users of the post office facilities.
Wilcannia History:
The first secure pastoralists at Mount Murchison were the brothers Hugh and Bushby Jamieson of Mildura Station on the Murray, who in 1856 took up Tallandra and Moorabin blocks, later extended with other blocks and named Mount Murchison Station. Captain Cadell's paddlesteamer Albury was the first to travel up the Darling, landing flour and other stores for the Jamiesons at Mount Murchison in February 1859. The Albury then loaded 100 bales of wool from their woolshed and brought it down to Adelaide. At this time there were no other stations on the Darling between Mt Murchison and Fort Bourke. A little later:
"An enterprising attempt has just been made by Mr. Hugh Jamieson, of Mount Murchison, to bring fat sheep speedily to Adelaide. Mr. Jamieson having chartered Captain Cadell's steamer, Albury, that vessel was prepared, and received on board at Mildura 550 fine fat sheep. These were landed at Moorundee last Tuesday, after a rapid passage of two days, all the sheep being in splendid condition when put ashore"
Jamiesons sold in 1864 to Robert Barr Smith and Ross Reid from Adelaide. The brothers Edward and Frederic Bonney were leasing some adjacent blocks and possibly worked at Mount Murchison for these owners. In 1875 they bought the Mount Murchison/Momba complex, one of the largest stations in New South Wale. In 1865 it was known as Mount Murchison, in 1881 it was all known as Momba, later splitting into smaller stations. The original Mount Murchison Station homestead block was also known as Head Station or Karannia, the Barkandji name for the area just north of the town near where the Paroo River comes into the Barka. The original Mount Murchison woolshed was located on what is now Baker Park, Wilcannia, which is adjacent to the current Post Office.
The site of Wilcannia was selected on Mount Murchison Station in 1864 by John Chadwick Woore, who was appointed Commissioner of Crown Lands of the Albert District in 1863 and was based at Wilcannia. The town was proclaimed in 1866 and in the 1870s it became a coaching centre for prospectors exploiting the region's gold, copper, silver, and opal resources, and the administrative, service, and shipping centre for the pastoral industry. Wilcannia was incorporated as a municipality in 1881, and around this time it became New South Wales biggest inland port and Australia's third largest inland port (after Echuca Victoria and Morgan South Australia). 'The Queen of the River' or 'Queen City of the West'. At the height of its prosperity around 1880, the town boasted a population of 3,000. According to the Register of the National Estate, during 1887 alone, 222 steamers took on 26,550 tonnes of wool and other goods at Wilcannia wharves. The value of goods coming down the Darling River in 1884 was 1,359,786 pounds, and included over 30,000 bales of wool. The customs house, another Wilcannia stone building now demolished, located immediately between the Post office and the river bank and wharfs, took 17,544 pounds in customs duties in 1889. Paddlesteamers gradually declined, particularly after the 1920s, although a few continued to trade up and down the river into the 1940's, still remembered by elderly Wilcannia residents.
Wilcannia in the 1870s and into the 1900s was the centre of the pastoral and mining boom of the far west of New South Wales, and it was the centre of the paddlesteamer river trade from the Upper Darling to the Murray River and outlets such as Adelaide and Melbourne. The frequent dry seasons and lack of water in the river led to other methods of transporting goods being used, such as camel trains, but when the water came down the river trade always returned. The river trade built Wilcannia's fine buildings, but it was also its undoing, as the New South Wales government intervened to reduce the river trade because goods were moving to and from Adelaide and Melbourne, not Sydney.
Plans to improve navigation on the river were suggested in 1859 after Captain Cadell's first successful voyage up the Darling that was followed by other paddlesteamers. Cadell gave evidence at a New South Wales Select Committee that the Darling would be become reliable for boats if a system of locks were built at very reasonable cost that would hold back water during the drier seasons. The plans to build locks along the Darling River to make navigation more consistent were investigated again and again, but were not realised because the New South Wales government believed trade would benefit Victoria and South Australia.
After the opening of the Sydney to Bourke railway line in 1885, Wilcannia lost its status as the major commercial centre of the Darling River. The trade from the far North West New South Wales then tended to go to the railhead at Bourke and straight to Sydney. There were plans in the 1880s for the railway to be run from Cobar to Wilcannia, however this plan was continuously put off. Plans for a railway to Wilcannia continued to be made throughout the 1890's and early 1900's, and including a proposal from Cobar to Broken Hill then linking to South Australia as the Great Western Railway. In 1907 "a large petition was forwarded to Sydney from Wilcannia for presentation to the Premier urging immediate construction of the Cobar-Wilcannia Railway, and subsequent extension to Broken Hill".
The New South Wales government attempt to stop trade leaking out of the state resulted in their refusal to build a railway to Wilcannia (as goods tended to go to Wilcannia and down the river), or to extend the railway to South Australia for the same reasons. The bend in the river on the north side of town celebrates this government intransigence by its name "Iron Pole Bend", the iron pole said to have been placed at the surveyed location of the proposed railway bridge. New South Wales eventually built a railway through the low population Ivanhoe route to the south of Wilcannia reaching Broken Hill in 1927, and even then it stopped at Broken Hill and did not join the South Australian line until 1970. The link between Broken Hill and the South Australian railway was provided from 1884 to 1970 by the narrow gauge private railway 'the Silverton Tramway', which also took trade from Wilcannia.
The combination of missing out on the railway and locking of the river, the severe drought on 1900 - 1901, and the damage to the pastoral economy by drought, rabbits, and over grazing, led to a down turn in Wilcannia's prospects, leaving the fine stone buildings such as the post office languishing as tangible reminders of a time when Wilcannia was known as the "Queen City of the West" and was the largest inland port in New South Wales and the third largest inland port in Australia.
Post Office History:
During the 1850s, postal services became more regular, and the great colonial investment in postal infrastructure was underway. From the 1850s, each major rural centre had a postmaster of its own as the post office became a symbol of the presence of civilisation in many outback towns. Government architects built substantial post offices in provincial towns as statements of the authority and presence of the government. The original Wilcannia Post Office was established in 1860 under the name of Mount Murchison, the name was later officially changed to Wilcannia in 1868.
The Wilcannia Post Office and Post Master's Residence were designed by the Colonial Architect James Barnet, the signed plan being forwarded to Wilcannia in 1878. The Post Office and Residence were part of an official precinct in Wilcannia, with the courthouse (1880), gaol (1880), and police residence (1880) built across the road and one block south. In 1876 £1,500 was allocated to the post office project. Tenders were called in August 1878 and the builder D. Baillie accepted to erect the post office, and at the same time as the builder for the Court House, Lock-Up Gaol, and Police buildings.
A further £3,100 of consolidated revenue was allocated to the post office and £8,200 to the courthouse and watch house in 1879. By March 1979 the post office was "in course of erection". The complex was completed by 1880, succeeding the post office set up on Mount Murchison Station in 1860 and a second weatherboard building that was used from 1866.
James Johnstone Barnet (1827 - 1904) was made acting Colonial Architect in 1862 and appointed Colonial Architect from 1865 - 1890. He was born in Scotland and studied in London under Charles Richardson, RIBA and William Dyce, Professor of Fine Arts at King's College, London. He was strongly influenced by Charles Robert Cockerell, leading classical theorist at the time and by the fine arts, particularly works of painters Claude Lorrain and JRM Turner. He arrived in Sydney in 1854 and worked as a self-employed builder. He served as Edmund Blacket's clerk of works on the foundations of the Randwick (Destitute Childrens') Asylum. Blacket then appointed Barnet as clerk-of-works on the Great Hall at Sydney University. By 1859 he was appointed second clerk of works at the Colonial Architect's Office and in 1861 was Acting Colonial Architect. Thus began a long career. He dominated public architecture in New South Wales, as the longest-serving Colonial Architect in Australian history. Until he resigned in 1890 his office undertook some 12,000 works, Barnet himself designing almost 1000. They included those edifices so vital to promoting communication, the law and safe sea arrivals in colonial Australia. Altogether there were 169 post and telegraph offices, 130 courthouses, 155 police buildings, 110 lockups and 20 lighthouses, including the present Macquarie Lighthouse on South Head, which replaced the earlier one designed by Francis Greenway. Barnet's vision for Sydney is most clearly seen in the Customs House at Circular Quay, the General Post Office in Martin Place, and the Lands Department and Colonial Secretary's Office in Bridge Street. There he applied the classicism he had absorbed in London, with a theatricality which came from his knowledge of art.
The substantial two storey attached post office residence faces the main street and more than doubles the size of the complex. This is unusual as Barnet tended to have residences on the first floor of the main building or at the rear. It relates to the remoteness and government determination to make the job attractive to the right post master, a government representative who had to be an honest employee and trusted by this remote community. It consists of four rooms on the ground floor; parlour, sitting room, kitchen, and servant's bedroom, and three bedrooms upstairs, plus various storage rooms, and a central staircase.
The new post office became the focal point of town, located in the main street and immediately adjacent to the wharves and customs house. In 1896 the iron bridge with lift span over the Darling River was completed and the east-west highway re-routed to go over the bridge and directly past the post office, from then on located on the busy corner of the main street and the highway. Descriptions include:
"the post and telegraph offices, together with the master's residence", are "both a substantial and ornamental piece of architecture"; "the post office is a very neat building indeed" with "white stone which seems to finely glisten among the dark foliage of the river timber"; "The colonnade of the post office is the Exchange of the town, and here all the business men meet daily and discuss the news of the district. Mails do not come in every day but when Her Majesty's mail coach is seen in front of the post-office there may all the people be seen gathered together. The Sydney and Melbourne papers are four days old when they reach Wilcannia, as the town is from 24 to 30 hours coaching from any railway terminus".
In 1890 the tender from R. B. Spiers to erect a "verandah and balcony etc" at the Post Office and Telegraph office was accepted, referring to the two storey verandah and balcony at the post office residence and possibly the small verandah on the side of the post office as well. Drawings from 1881 and 1888 show the single storey verandah of the residence, but a photo from 1894 clearly shows the two storey verandah. The two-storey verandah was added in response to the extreme climate, the wooden lined ceilings on both levels are an attempt to prevent the heat from penetrating onto the verandah, north facing wall, and windows. The two storey verandah was probably also designed by Barnet as he held the position of government architect until 1890 and its detail is similar to the 1889 Bourke post office verandah.
This Post Office building was in continuous use until 1997 as a post office, telegraph, then telephone exchange, and post master's residence. The post office service was then moved and the complex was used as a residence only until 2002. It became the post office again from 2013 and provides both postal and banking services for the town and surrounding stations.
The remoteness of Wilcannia also meant that the central post office performed a range of significant peripheral services, such as posting up government edicts and community notices, weather measurements and warnings, flood warnings and river heights, timetables and pick-up and drop-down place for coaches, mail coaches, and later mail trucks and buses. The mail coaches/mail trucks left the post office for the remote outback laden with mail, newspapers, groceries, spare parts, school lessons for outback children, and travellers (workers, family and friends and even occasionally nurses and church people). Mail coaches/mail trucks played a unique role enabling people to exist in the outback that cannot be underestimated. Mail trucks still operate out of Wilcannia delivering mail and parcels to the remote outback stations.
Source: New South Wales Heritage Register.
This is where the 47 Ronin of Akō, along with their lord, Asano, are interred. Sengaku-ji is located in Tokyo, near Shinagawa Station.
Oishi Kuranosuke was the chief retainer of the Asano clan during the turmoil associated with the 47 Ronin incident, in which the feudal lord, Asano Naganori, attacked and wounded Kira Yoshinaka within Edo Castle. As drawing a weapon within the shogun's castle was a capital offence, Asano was sentenced to commit seppuku the same day.
As a result of Asano's impulsive behavior, the Shogunate disbanded the Asano clan and seized their lands. Oishi and 46 other former Asano retainers waited and unleashed their misguided revenge on Kira, attacking his home in the dead of night in December 1703, killing his body guards as well as taking his head and placing it in front of Asano's tomb in Sengaku-ji Temple in Takanawa, Tokyo.
All the Akō ronin were sentenced to death by seppuku (harakiri). The loyalty that these guys showed to their foolish lord by committing what can only be described as what me and some of my friends refer to as a feudal "drive-by"- Japanese style, has been lauded by the Japanese public ever since. The facts behind the actual events have been buried in the countless puppet and kabuki plays as well as movies that have been made about this.
I'm not a terribly big fan of Asano Naganori, nor do I think the Akō ronin were particularly "brave" by carrying out a night attack after a party and fighting a small group of drunk bodyguards and taking the head of a feeble old man. But, this perspective is from modern, western eyes. In reality, night attacks of this nature have always been a staple of samurai warfare, being documented since the Heian period. As much as I don't partake in the 47 Ronin Kool Aid drinking parties, I do admit to enjoying watching a good fictional film or kabuki play about these guys.
Creation Date: ca. 1800
Display Dimensions: 7 9/32 in. x 8 11/32 in. (18.5 cm x 21.2 cm)
Credit Line: Edwin Binney 3rd Collection
Accession Number: 1990.806
Collection: The San Diego Museum of Art
The nicest thing about fixing this is I can now get the 'fridge really clean, as you see. With the front cross-piece broken in the middle and the center beam broken away at the front, it wouldn't stay clean and didn't look nice. Now, at least better.
Now that its physically robust, I could epoxy the nearly cracked-off retainers at left and right edges of the front- they go above the glass. I cut a piece of 0.040 X 0.250 inch styrene for the gap at the center where they originals plastic is gone- that could be epoxied in place too. Or I could check the replacement cost and and see how much I'd like to enjoy the work I put in.
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Akō Castle was home to thew Asano clan during the Edo Period (1603-1868).
Oishi Kuranosuke was the chief retainer of the Asano clan during the turmoil associated with the 47 Ronin incident, in which the feudal lord, Asano Naganori, attacked and wounded Kira Yoshinaka within Edo Castle. As drawing a weapon within the shogun's castle was a capital offence, Asano was sentenced to commit seppuku the same day.
As a result of Asano's impulsive behavior, the Shogunate disbanded the Asano clan and seized their lands. Oishi and 46 other former Asano retainers waited and unleashed their misguided revenge on Kira, attacking his home in the dead of night in December 1703, killing his body guards as well as taking his head and placing it in front of Asano's tomb in Sengaku-ji Temple in Takanawa, Tokyo.
All the Akō ronin were sentenced to death by seppuku (harakiri). The loyalty that these guys showed to their foolish lord by committing what can only be described as what me and some of my friends referr to as a feudal "drive-by"- Japanese style, has been lauded by the Japanese public ever since. The facts behind the actual events have been buried in the countless puppet and kabuki plays as well as movies that have been made about this.
I'm not a terribly big fan of Asano Naganori, nor do I think the Akō ronin were particularly "brave" by carrying out a night attack after a party and fighting a small group of drunk bodyguards and taking the head of a feeble old man. But, this perspective is from modern, western eyes. In reality, night attacks of this nature have always been a staple of samurai warfare, being documented since the Heian period. As much as I don't partake in the 47 Ronin Kool Aid drinking parties, I do admit to enjoying watching a good fictional film or kabuki play about these guys.
The Oyamada served as the chief retainers of the Yagyū clan.
Many of us know of the Yagyū clan from what we see in samurai TV shows, movies and fictional books. More often than not, the Yagyū are portrayed as devious puppet masters, controlling the Shogunate’s spy and information gathering network and manipulating it for their own profit—with the exception of the one-eyed Jūbei, who like Musashi, fought a lot of duals, both imaginary, real and reel. Hehe. Also, when not chasing after Ittō Ogami and his son Daigorō, the Yagyū were a fairly normal daimyo clan, administering their small fief near Nara and teaching swordsmanship to the first three Tokugawa Shoguns.
Like most daimyo clans, the Yagyū ran into financial trouble during the Edo period. The burdens of funding the alternative attendance journeys to and from Edo every other year along with maintaining residences in the Shogun’s capital were a heavy drain on the small clan’s finances. The Oyamada family served as the hereditary o-karo (chief senior retainers) of the Yagyū clan and played a big role in helping turn around the clan’s finances in the Edo period. The Oyamada house has survived the test of time and has been turned into a very interesting and fun museum that sheds some light on what it was to live in the Yagyū han. I loved this house, as those who know me, know that I have an affinity for the lights, shadows and beautiful contrasts that old Japanese houses create.
This shrine is located on the site of the main castle of Uesugi Kenshin. The main object of worship at this shrine is not surprisingly, Uesugi Kenshin.
Uesugi Kenshin (1530-1578) was born the youngest son of Nagao Tamekage, an important retainer of the Uesugi clan. Following a major victory over the rival Hōjō clan which had invaded Uesugi territory, the gifted and ambitious young general found himself being adopted into the Uesugi clan and propelled to its top leadership position and ruler of Echigo Province. Over the course of his lifetime, Kenshin fought in 70 major battles against the Takeda, the Hōjō and Oda Nobunaga and was gained a reputation as one of the best generals of his time. It is for this reason that he was later given the nickname the Dragon of Echigo. As he was preparing for a major campaign against Oda Nobunaga, Kenshin suddenly became ill and died shortly afterwards. Until the point of his illness he had been in good health, despite being a relatively heavy drinker. Kenshin’s death was Nobunaga’s gain, as his forces started pushing deeper into Uesugi territory, taking advantage of the fact that Kenshin’s two adopted sons had started a civil war within the clan. Unfortunately for Nobunaga, he was assassinated in 1582, just as he had Kenshin’s surviving son, Kagekatsu, on the ropes. Nobunaga’s successor, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, brought Kagekatsu into his fold of allies and later asked Kagekatsu to move to the domain of Aizu, to help better ring in Tokugawa Ieyasu. Unfortunately for Kagekatsu, after Japan plunged back into civil war upon the death of Hideyoshi, he allied himself with Ishida Mitsunari against the Tokugawa and lost. For this, the Uesugi were forced to move to the much smaller fief of Yonezawa, which was a big blow to the pride, wealth and prestige of the once mighty Uesugi clan. Throughout the Edo period, the Uesugi were never to play a prominent role in much of anything—although gaining a slight notoriety for the part the clan and its daimyo played in the 47 Ronin Incident of 1701-1703.
Pretty early on I discovered that any kind of bumps in the road would cause the chain to jump out of its retaining box. This contraption was bent up from a piece of aluminum sheet, then slits were cut with a small abrasive disk. The resulting tabs were bend down slightly to snag on the chain box. The handles are made from a pair of #10 bolts that are attached with nuts top and bottom. Squeezing them together springs the two tabs free of the front and back edges of the chain box so that it can be slid off for chain adjustment. Worked first time!