When the Meiji Restoration broke up the last feudal land holdings in Japan, most of the old samurai houses were destroyed. However, the Nomura house in Kanazawa was bought by an industrialist and preserved.
There are rooms built out of cypress wood with sliding thick paper doors. It’s a house that has the fragrant smell of the forest mixed with the incense from the shrine installed in an alcove.
There are rooms with elaborate designs in rosewood and ebony and descriptions of where people were positioned when visiting. It’s not a knockabout design; I can’t imagine an exuberance that isn’t severely controlled in this dwelling. So in my pop cultural reference mode, it’s hard to imagine John Belushi doing his SNL samurai routine on these tatami mats, although the smoking equipment they have on display might have fit his off-camera antics.
There is the Jyodan-no ma Chamber where you can sit down and take in the garden, a garden so tightly laid out a Belushi samurai would be hard pressed to slash his way out of it.
There is a collection of samurai swords. They are sharp and ready for Belushi to cut the sausage in his samurai deli sketch.
There is a suit of samurai armor that Belushi wouldn’t have been able to squeeze into.
Finally, there is the calligraphy of a very interesting thank you letter. I don’t think Belushi did deliveries.
That thank you letter could have been from the National Lampoon.
Like seppuku, it’s absurdly grotesque.