►The rustic views of Takayama village are still there – four centuries later. The ancestral Takayama village is in the background.

No wonder the mother of Blessed Justo Takayama Ukon — Maria Takayama — insisted on being buried in the old Takayama village — when she died in Kanazawa in 1596. The gravesite of Maria Takayama still draws domestic tourists today to the ancestral Takayama Village in Toyono-cho. (Photo from the office of Maria Leona D. Nepomuceno, of the Philippine Department of Tourism-Osaka)

For this commemorative procession during the ‘Ukon Festival’ (Oct. 1, 2017), the villagers wear — NOT everyday street wear – but traditional apparel worn on special occasions.

Commemoration of Ukon’s wedding at the ‘Ukon Festival.’

The terraced paddies of Takayama village at dusk

The photographs were shared by Mr. Takaki Ohnishi of the municipal government of Toyono-cho – which is also famous for a brew of ‘Sake’ wine labelled ‘Takayama’ — NOT after Ukon, but after the Takayama village. Mr. Ohnishi headed a delegation that brought a granite marker from Toyono-cho — to “add a stone” — to the Takayama Memorial at the Graduate School of the University of Santo Tomas (UST). ◘