Summer oranges lean out over the earthen walls. The samurai quarter of Hagi is a district of long mud-plastered walls, with natsumikan trees planted inside them and branches pushed out over the top by the weight of the fruit. The explanation given locally is that samurai who lost their positions in the Meiji years planted the trees in their large gardens and sold the crop — so the branches over the wall are also the visible remainder of a household rebuilding its income.

The kaimagari survive here as well: streets that turn at right angles between high walls on both sides, so that nothing ahead can be seen until you are in it. The Hiyako district was designated an Important Preservation District in September 1976, and kilns and climbing kilns for Hagi ware are scattered through the old castle town. The population is in the forty thousands, Yamaguchi city is about an hour away by car, and notices seeking successors are posted at the potteries.

Castle towns with fruit trees in the samurai quarter are not common. Turning the garden of a residence into productive ground was a specific answer to a specific question — what a household eats once its rank has been abolished — and it was answered by planting something that takes years to bear. Planting a fruit tree is a statement about how long you expect to be somewhere, and these were people whose position had just been abolished without notice. The branches now hanging over the wall are the evidence that the answer worked, and that the households which made it stayed.