Asian Haiku Travelogue

Welcome and Enter !

2008-12-11T17:35:00.000-08:00

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Welcome to my Travelogue throught Asia,
... ... ... via Haiku !

CHINA

China : Dunhuang Travelogue Tonko 敦煌

China : Guilin Travelogue Keilin 桂林
........... Autumn Memories Keilin, Guilin 桂林

China : Peking Travelogue

China : Shanghai Travelogue

China : Anji Bridge

.........................Photo Albums

Dunhuang (Tonko), Mogao Grottoes　敦煌 Part 1 and 2

Keilin (Guilin)　桂林

Peking北京

Shanghai 上海

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INDIA 1979

Faces of the Himalayas -
Dharamsala Tibetan Opera 1979

Kashmir Travelogue

Kashmir PHOTO ALBUM

Himalayas PHOTO ALBUM Keylong, Manali

Benares / Varanasi PHOTO ALBUM

NEPAL
PHOTO ALBUM

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JAPAN

INDEX of my Japan Travelogues
... ... ... ... Start exploring from HERE !

Daruma Pilgrims --
Introducing famous Places of Japan

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TAIWAN

Taiwan Travelogue

Taiwan
PHOTO ALBUM

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THAILAND

Thailand Travelogue

Thailand
PHOTO ALBUM

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Yasugi (Izumo Kaido)

2008-05-21T22:11:00.000-07:00

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Yasugi 　安来宿

MAP of the area

A big earthquake of magnitude 7.3, of which the center was in the western part of Tottori Prefecture broke out at around 13:30, October 6, 2001.
Yasugi City is located in the east end of Shimane Prefecture, close to the western end of Tottori Prefecture. In Yasugi City, though the scale of the earthquake was great, the damage was comparatively small and fortunately no inhabitant died, however, quite number of buildings and structures were damaged.
©　sciencelinks.jp

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　 ... Photo Album

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Yonago

NEXT TO
Matsue

More detailed Izumo Entries to enjoy !

Izumo Kaido, The Old Road of Izumo 出雲街道

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Yonago

2008-05-21T18:48:00.000-07:00

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Yonago　米子
Yonago was originally a fishing village called Kano.

MAP of Yonago area

Yonago (米子市, Yonago-shi) is a city located in the northwest of Tottori, Japan, facing the Sea of Japan, and adjacent to Shimane. It is the prefecture's second largest city after Tottori and therefore a commercial center of the western part of this prefecture.

The current city was administratively founded on April 1, 1927, and merged with Yodoe Town in 2005. It has an art gallery.

The name "Yonago" means "Rice Child", though since the city has begun to develop into a trade center of note, it has acquired the nickname Osaka in San-in.

The Amago family, the daimyo in the Sengoku period, constructed a castle in the area. In the Edo period, the castle was kept by a castellan who served the Ikeda of Tottori.

Yonago has always been an important crossing point of several routes in the area.
©　More in the WIKIPEDIA !

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coming from Mizuguchi, take route 181

Kugo Shrine, Kugo Jinja 久古神社
Japanese LINK

Maruyama Shrine, Maruyama Jinja 丸山神社

near Kishimoto

Temple Oodera haiji 大寺廃寺

Temple Sakanaka haiji 坂中は廃寺

Odaka Castle Remains

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Yonago Castle Remains 米子城（よなごじょう）

Situated on Mount Ii (飯山（いいのやま)

The Amako (尼子 ( あまこ）Amago) were descended from Takahisa, a grandson of Rokkaku Takauji. Takahisa is said to have taken the name 'Amako' since he had been raised by a nun (ama (nun), ko (son). He took Tomita Castle in Izumo Province for the Kyôgoku shugo and his descendants were powerful in Izumo from the 14th Century until the mid-16th Century. From their headquarters at Gassan-Toda Castle, the Amako challenged, with mixed results, the Ôuchi and, later, the Môri. They were destroyed as daimyô by Môri Motonari in 1566 and disappeared as a military force with the suicide of Amako Katsuhisa in 1578.

Amako Tsunehisa, Lord of Izumo
1458-1541
Iyo no kami, Mimbu-shôsuke

Tsunehisa was the eldest son of Amako Kiyosada 尼子清定 (d.1487).
©　www.samurai-archives.com

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From there, the Road to Daisen, Daisen Michi
大山道（だいせんみち）started.

MOUNT DAISEN in Tottori
An Overview of my visits

There have been five old roads leading toward Mt. Daisen and its famous temple from the Yonago area, the one from the city itself started from Odaka, now it is route 24.

Booryoo Michi 坊領（ぼうりょう）道」
Odaka Michi 「尾高（おだか）道」
Mizoguchi Michi 「溝口（みぞぐち）道」
Yokote Michi 「横手（よこて）道」
Kawatoko Michi 「川床（かわとこ）道」

The temple at Mt. Daisen was also famous as a protector deity for the cows and horses, important animals of their time.

Japanese Reference

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From Yonago to Sakai ... Sakai Orai
(Sakai oorai 境往来)

With beautiful storehouses and merchants' residences reflected on the river surface, and with Mt. Daisen on the background, the road extends to the sea...

The road connects the city of Yonago, called "Commercial Capital" of San-in, to Sakai-Minato. Yonago is a castle town of Hoki Province with 180,000-koku that was constructed in the early Edo Period with the construction of the Yonago Castle. It prospered in the mid Edo Period through Taisho Era by maritime transportation business.

In the downtown area around the former Kamogawa river that once prospered as a transportation passage, there are still storehouses of white plastered walls and residences of distinguished merchants remaining. And along Teramachi (temple town) street are nine temples that were gathered for the strongholds of the Yonago Castle, giving the clear atmosphere of a castle town.

Pleasure boats for Kamogawa river and Nakaumi lake cruise depart from the front of white-walled storehouses.
©　Yume-Kaido Renaissance Project Team

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My walk through
The Temple Town of Yonago, Teramachi 寺町

Okamoto Store in the Temple Town

. . . DRAGONS of Yonago Temple Town

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Yonago ...　 Photo Album

BACK TO
Mizoguchi 溝口宿

NEXT TO
Yasugi 安来宿

More detailed Izumo Entries to enjoy !

Izumo Kaido, The Old Road of Izumo 出雲街道

My HAIKU TRIPS to .. YONAGO

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Yonago Temple Town

2008-05-21T15:08:00.000-07:00

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The Temple Town of Yonago, Teramachi 寺町

This is a small village in itself, with more then 10 temples, most of them aligned on the one main road. The temples hold the graves of the townspeople since the Edo period and older.

During the strong earthquake in 2001 a lot of damage was done to the buildings and compounds, so now they all look rather new and well cleaned up.

New Temple Gate

Many new stone lanterns of the same type are in the temple gardens.

Words to live by ...

Temple gate with carvings

Dragon Carving in the Gables

New orange roof tiles and stone lanterns

Graves of the unknown, Mu-en Botoke

Temple hall for Myoken Bosatsu

Striped walls of the Temple Gates
a closer look !

My Story about
Grandmother Okamoto
Toy Store in the Temple Town

peace for the world !
just some flowers
by the temple gate

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Namu Jizo Daibosatsu 南無地蔵大菩薩

In every temple was a group like this one or at least one or more stone steles with this inscription, an invocation of Jizo, who cares for the afterlife of children. Here they are in respect for the earthquake victims of 2001.

In front of a bell tower

They are all here :
Namu Jizo Daibosatsu

Here is more about this deity:
... ... ... Jizo Bosatsu　地蔵菩薩

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Start the PHOTO walk from HERE
. . . . . Yonago Temple Town ALBUM

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BACK TO
Yonago and the Road to Izumo

Read my Haiku Archives

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Jizo Daibosatsu

2008-05-21T14:33:00.000-07:00

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Namu Jizo Daibosatsu 南無地蔵大菩薩

in Yonago Temple Town

In every temple was a group like this one or at least one or more stone steles with this inscription, an invocation of Jizo, who cares for the afterlife of children.
Here they are in respect for the earthquake victims of 2001.

オンカカカビサンマエイソワカ
on kakaka bisanmaei sowaka

on - offering a prayer
ka - holy sylable for Jizo, repeated three times
bisanmaei - a very rare and special thing
sowaka - may all things be at peace !

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Lantern for Jizo Daibosatsu

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Yonago Temple Town

Jizoo Bosatsu (Kshitigarbha) 地蔵菩薩

Read my Haiku Archives

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Okamoto Toy Store

2008-05-21T14:23:00.000-07:00

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Okamoto Sweets and Toy Store

岡本一銭屋 "One Cent Store"

The present owner, a friendly old lady, lost her home in Kobe during the great earthquake of 1995, only to come here and experience the earthquake of 2001!

Her house is an old wooden structure in the stle of a Kyoto merchant home (Kyoto Machiya), with an open three-story part in the middle to give sunlight to the inner parts of the house.
The walls were all newly painted, since during the earthquake all the white stuck had fallen down and almost killed her daughter under the rubble.

She was sitting in her store-cum-living-room, talking to some students of the nearby Yonago University. The front store sells cheap sweets, dagashi (see LINK below), but it seems she only runs the store for the fun of having the students come in and talk to them. Others came in while we were there and she seemed to be like a good mother to them all.
She is also often visited by the small children of the neighbourhood after school, where she is lovingly known as "Grandma", and tries to teach the little ones good manners, which is rather seldom these days.

She took a fancy to me and showed my the whole house.

Her husband was quite fond of antiques, so the walls are covered with this and that and we keep talking ...

Here is the shop sign of the store outside, quite remarkable in size

Click for enlargement

It reads

Ichi Zeni Ya 一銭屋

She talked more about the antiques collecting hobby of her husband.
More than 40 years ago, a shrine nearby burned down, because a huge tree was struck by lightning, split into many parts and started a fire ...

To pay for the rebuilding, the priest thought of selling parts of the "holy tree" for fundraising. So her husband bought a large chunk of it, which now sits there as a partition to the back part of the home. Her husband gave a small fortune to get this piece ... but she was really angry at that time, because she had to care for two small children and the purse of the family was rather tight in these days.

Now this special piece sits there as a fond rememberance of her husband, who passed away a few years ago, and she laughs when she tells the story of her anger!

This is a different one (tsuitate 衝立) but you get the impression of her treasure.

sourrounded by the past
she laughts with the children ...
Grandma Okamoto

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Start the PHOTO walk from HERE
. . . . . Yonago Temple Town

More about the cheap sweets, dagashi
AME, DAGASHI Sweets and Daruma

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BACK TO
Yonago and the Road to Izumo

Read my Haiku Archives

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Temple Walls

2008-05-21T13:32:00.000-07:00

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Temple Gates with striped walls

Yonago Temple Town, with 9 temples side by side.

Most walls had been destroyed during the earthquake in 2001.
Many walls have wooden boards now, some seem sujibei 筋塀.
I just line up the photos I got from my visit in May 2008.

Plain white wall

Discussion about 5-banded walls
PMJS: Premodern Japanese Studies

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Start the PHOTO walk from HERE
. . . . . Yonago Temple Town ALBUM

BACK TO

YONAGO TEMPEL TOWN

Yonago and the Road to Izumo

Read my Haiku Archives

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Mizokuchi

2008-05-21T10:54:00.000-07:00

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Mizoguchi (Mizokuchi) 　溝口

鳥取県伯耆町(西伯郡) 溝口

MAP of Mizoguchi area

Mt. Daisen seen from Mizoguchi

Mizoguchi lies west of Mt. Daisen and is one of its entrance stations.
Mizokuchi has a great station and bus terminal, but few trains stop here ... and many houses along the main street are empty now in 2008.

When you cross the river Hinogawa, there is the "Bridge guarded by a demon" Kimori bashi 鬼守橋.
Mizoguchi is a town with one of the oldest "oni" demon legends in Japan and many things in this village are decorated with a demon.
There is even a museum of demons, 鬼ミュージアム, Onikko rando 鬼っ子ランド, but it closed down due to not enough visitors to bring in money for the upkeep !

Demon at the station wall

manhole with Demon

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The main resthouse of the Matsue Clan is close to the station, it used to be called 御茶屋.
Its warden used to be the Shinohara Family 篠原以左衛門邸 .

Some of the old houses along the old kaido still show the former features of white walls.

Dragon Branches in the Garden

House of a merchant

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in the shade of old trees ...
Jizo waiting for
a travel companion

Jizo with a pilgrim's hat and staff

More PHOTOS of this small place in the village

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Mizokuchi Shrine 　溝口神社

Start the Shrine photos from HERE !

The Sacred Rope, Shimenawa

Main Shrine Building

Stone lantern with special roof structure

Gables with Dragon carving

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hold it right there ...
a demon watching over
an empty town

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Next on the road toward Izumo are the villages of
Kuzumo 車尾 and Tenman 天万

During the Edo period and earlier, the river Hino often was flooded and travellers could not cross it for about three days until the waters lowered for crossing.

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Mizoguchi　 ... Photo Album

BACK TO
Ne-U Machi, Neumachi 根雨宿

NEXT TO
Yonago

More detailed Izumo Entries to enjoy !

Izumo Kaido, The Old Road of Izumo 出雲街道

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Mount Daisen

2008-04-22T22:31:00.000-07:00

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Spring 2008

the beauty of our Japan -
old mountains and modern
electricity lines

Yonago Flower Park 2007

Mount Daisen (大山, Daisen), is a volcanic mountain located in Tottori Prefecture, Japan. It has an elevation of 1,729 metres. This mountain is the highest in the Chūgoku region, and the most important volcano on the Daisen volcanic belt. The Daisen volcanic belt is a part of western Japan volcanic belt, where the Philippine Plate is subducting under the Eurasian Plate.

Mount Daisen is a Complex volcano, which was made by repeated volcanic activities in many thousands years. Eruptions in this area started 1.8 million years ago and made ‘Old Mount Daisen’ by 500 thousand years ago. Today’s Mount Daisen was a ‘New Mount Daisen’ made by second group of eruptions which started 50 thousand years ago on a part of Caldera of Old Mount Daisen till 10 thousands years ago. 50 thousands years ago, this mountain made plinian eruption, and volcanic ash can be found in the Tohoku Region of Japan. This mountain is one of the 100 famous mountains in Japan, and also one of the Chūgoku 100 mountains.

History
Mount Daisen, which stood directly from the Sea of Japan, was regarded as one of the most important mountain for Japanese Shugendo. According to ‘Izumo Kokudo Fudoki, which was completed the edition in 733, this mountain was called ‘Ookamitake’’, literally, ‘Mountain of the great god.’

In the middle of the mountain, there is a Buddhist temple, called ‘Daisen-ji', the temple of Mount Daisen. As a centre of worship on the mountain, this temple has developed since the Heian Period.

Climbing the mountain used to be severely prohibited without a selected monk of Daisen-ji and common people could not access the mountain until the Edo Period.
©　More in the WIKIPEDIA !

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More PHOTOS from here on ! 2008 Spring

Mt. Daisen, my visit in 2005

Izumo Kaido, The Old Road of Izumo 出雲街道

Read my Haiku Archives

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Neu, Ne-U (Izumo Kaido)

2008-04-22T21:38:00.000-07:00

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Postal Town Ne-U (Neu 根雨（ねう）
Now Part of Hino Town 日野町根雨

Stone Buddhas at the village entrance

Many travellers of old, who made it over the steep pass between Shinjo and Itaibara down to here died of exhaustion and were laied to rest here as "Unknown Travellers". Villagers would tend to the graves and memorial stones.

Memorial Stone for Animals

Memorial Stone of the Nichiren Sect

This town was famous for its iron processing, the most famous of the old homes belongs to the Kondo Family 近藤家.

The first Kondo, a certain Denbei, to settle here in Ne-U during the Edo period came from Bingo (now Hiroshima prefecture) to deal in iron. The shop curtain in front of the store even now reads "Bingo 備後".
In the fourth generation, a certain Kichibei started the iron manufacturing business, which expanded rapidly and even now has many factories in Hino Town.

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Neu, Hino town　根雨、日野

Damaged roofs were covered with plastic sheets to prevent leaks in the case of rainfall. The traffic on the Japan Railway Hakubi line was suspended due to rock falls and slope failures.

©　THE 2000 TOTTORI-KEN SEIBU EARTHQUAKE

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Ne-U Photo Album

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KAMOCHI

NEXT TO
Mount Daisen 大山

on the road to Ebi　江尾, an unexpected view of
Mount Daisen

More detailed Izumo Entries to enjoy !

Izumo Kaido, The Old Road of Izumo 出雲街道

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Kamochi (Izumo Kaido)

2008-04-22T21:33:00.000-07:00

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Postal Town Kamochi　金持（かもち）

Town for the "Rich People"
KAMOCHI can also be read "Kanemochi" rich.

step by step
on the way to get rich ...
first spring sweat

You have to fold one coin with a hole into this straw hanger
to make sure it will double and triple in time ...

Money Offerings

Dragon Carving at the gables of the shrine

The Handpainted Dragon Deity
by Mrs. Hamada Juhoo 濱田壽峰

When you climb up a step at the back of the shrine, a light goes on inside and you can marvel at the great painting.

Hamada san is a famous painter of Shinto deities, painting only with her fingers. She uses all fingers very delicately, sometimes only the nail to paint a sharp line. She was born in this village of Kamochi and made an offering of this Dragon Deity (which would fetch quite sum on the art market, as the Shrine maidens whispered to me in a low voice).

. . . My EMA Votive Tablets from Kamochi Shrine

Further down at the small shrine shop, they sell handmade votive tablets (ema) painted by handicapped people of the area. Each paints just a bit according to his abilities and more than 10 people work together to finish one.

Kamochi Shrine Information PHOTO

Shrines worshipping the Deity Ame not Tokotachi are very few in Japan. Here you pray for the prosperity of the Japanese land.
Legend knows, that when a second son of the head priest of Izumo Shrine on his way to a vitit in Ise Shrine passed this area, a talisman stone is his pocket started feeling very heavy. He felt this as a sign of the gods to have him build another shrine here is a place rich with minerals, especially iron.

Maybe the modern word "kanemochi" comes from this place name, "kamochi", which was already famous in the chronicles of the Azuma Kagami during the Kamakura Period.

The nobleman Kamochi Kagefuji 金持景藤 reigned this area here around 1333.

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Kamochi Shrine is located in Kamochi, Hino-cho, Hino-gun, Tottori Prefecture.
The enshrined deities are Ameno-Tokotachi no Mikoto, Yatsuka Mizu Omizunu no Mikoto, and Omizunu no Mikoto. It is said that in 810, when the second son of a shrine priest in Izumo province passed by this place on his way to Ise Shrine, the precious stone that he wore as a talisman suddenly got heavy and he received a divine order to build a shrine at this place.

The village of Kamochi was the production center of Japanese steel, which was thought to be more precious than gold in the ancient times. Also iron was called “kane” in ancient Japan, so the village was called Kamochi, which meant the village with many valleys where “kane (iron sand)” could be obtained.

It is the only one shrine that bears such a lucky name as “Kamochi (金持),” the kanji writing of which can also be read as “Kanemochi (a rich man).” Hoping to be a rich person, people from all over the country visit this shrine to offer a prayer.

In the precinct are the two of 100 Fine Trees of Tottori Prefecture, sawara (a natural tree in a cypress group) and Chinese cedar tree, both of which are said to be over 600 years old.
©　nippon-kichi.jp

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Ame no tokotachi no kami
Ame no tokotachi no mikoto,
天之常立尊（あめのとこたちのみこと）

One of the primeval kami appearing in the myth of the unfolding of heaven and earth. This kami is described as only an abstract being, without shape or other attributes. Most commentators view this kami as an offspring of Kunitokotachi.

According to Kojiki, the kami forming the lineage from the three deities of creation to Umashiashikabihikoji and Amenotokotachi are called the "five separate heavenly deities" (kotoamatsukami), while Kunitokotachi and others are produced thereafter as part of the "seven generations of the age of the kami" (kamiyo).
©　Kokugakuin University / Encyclopedia of Shinto

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Read his legend HERE

Omizunu no Mikoto
淤美豆奴命（おみずぬのみおと）

Part of the Izumo Fudo-Ki records of old.

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Yatsuka Mizu Omizunu no Mikoto
八束水臣津努命（やつかみずおみずぬのみこと）
omi-tsunu is another spelling.

Another creator god of the Land of Japan. He travelled in many places, especially to Silla in Korea and along the Noto peninsula of Japan. When he found a nice piece of land that he liked, he carried it all the way to the Izumo area and added it to the coastline there.

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More Japanese PHOTO reference !

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Kamochi Photo Album

BACK TO
ITAIBARA

NEXT TO
Ne-U 根雨（ねう）

More detailed Izumo Entries to enjoy !

Izumo Kaido, The Old Road of Izumo 出雲街道

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Itaibara (Izumo Kaido)

2008-04-22T21:27:00.000-07:00

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Postal Town Itaibara　板井原
日野町板井原

Map from Shinjo via the 四十曲峠 Pass to Kamochi

Coming from the crowds of Shinjo this is another world.
An almost deserted villge with few inhabitants by the steep Itaibara river. We parked the car at the village entrance on an empty ground, the former village school.

Bridge at the village entrance

an old bridge
which nobody crosses ...
deserted village

The River Dragon ...

Horse-headed Kannon Stone 馬頭観音
by the river.
This is a deity revered by people who used horses as means of transportation. It is reather seldom in these parts of Western Japan.
More in the Daruma Museum:
Batoo Kannon, Horseheaded Kannon 馬頭観音

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Stone memorials before the Village Temple

Buddhist Deities in the Village Temple

There is also a big hand ball (temari) as an offering on the left. See more about these handballs along the Izumo Road in the postal town of Mikamo.

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wood carving decorations on doors and roof supporters

the carp still tries
to climb up the river -
deserted homes

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drying shiitake mushrooms
The nights are cold and there is enough moisture for a generous harvest this year.

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This is a different village, but the story is rather similar than here:

Tuesday, Nov. 21, 2000, Japan Times

Village whittled down to just four elderly souls
Itaibara seeks government funding to rejuvenate area, avoid fate of neighbor across valley
By BRENT KININMONT

ITAIBARA, Tottori Pref. --
The death of this village's sister looms large in the collective memory of its residents.

Local officials believe they can attract sightseers to the village of Itaibara, Tottori Prefecture, if the exteriors of its early-Showa Era buildings are restored. But despite a generous proposal that will pay most of the cost, Hisashi Fujiwara has no plans to fix his house up.

Shimo-Itaibara, just one valley over, became a ghost town after the last villager moved out in the mid-1980s. And now only a handful of shaky buildings are still standing.

"Every time we (Itaibara residents) got together, we often talked about how we must do something about our village, because we don't want to be like Shimo-Itaibara," said Iwao Harada, who was born here 69 years ago.

Depopulation has turned Itaibara, like so many rural communities across Japan, into a settlement for the aged.

The youngest of the four people who still live here year-round is 72 years old. An engraved stone staff marks the spot where the elementary school stood until the last pupil left nine years ago.

The population "swells" to around 15 during planting and harvesting of daikon and other vegetables, with homeowners such as Harada preferring to base themselves 5 km away in central Chizu (pop. 9,773), closer to facilities and their families.

The fate of this waning village, however, is not necessarily entwined with that of its sister.

Town officials in Chizu -- which administrates Itaibara -- believe that if they restore the village to the way it looked at the beginning of the Showa Era, when many of the current structures were built, then sightseers will come.

"You can see the traditional way of Japanese life (in Itaibara)," said Yoshimichi Otsubo of the Chizu Board of Education. "When you come here, you can sense the real heart of Japan, and it's our responsibility to look after it."

The town is proposing to fix up the exteriors of the 130 mostly wooden structures -- including homes, storehouses, bathhouses, outdoor toilets, a temple and shrine -- that are shoehorned by the scarcity of flat land into this narrow valley.

In the absence of full-time care, many structures have suffered with age and weathering. Patch-up efforts are often ramshackle.

Itaibara might have been a potential outdoor showroom for the Meiji Era (1868-1912), or even the last years of the Edo Period (1603-1867), had a fire not burned down nearly all its structures about 100 years ago.

The seven-room house -- plus bathroom, kitchen and storehouse -- that Harada inherited and lived in until 1975 was built by his great-grandparents soon after the fire.
Like most of the 23 houses in the village, it used to have a thatched roof. But Harada plans to use the funding to build eaves and replace with tiles the tin sheets that now cover the tidy two-story house.

Hisashi Fujiwara and his wife, Yoshie, are two of the four people who still live here throughout the year. Despite the seemingly generous offer, Hisashi doesn't plan to alter his house.

"I want to leave it alone and change nothing, because even if I fix it, my son's family doesn't want to live here," the 72-year-old said. "Of course, we would be very happy if everybody came back, but I don't think we can have the life we had before. It's impossible -- it's a really isolated place."

None of Harada's three sons wants to move back either. Still, the band-saw sitting in the kitchen points to Harada's daytime effort to do up -- without prompting from Chizu -- the interior of the home he and his children were born in.

At night, Harada is a security guard at an old people's home in Chizu. When asked if he would be willing to show sightseers in Itaibara how to make charcoal, which used to be his main source of income, the voice of the softly spoken man suddenly increased in pitch.

"I'd love to," he said. "Yes, definitely."
© Japan Times / BRENT KININMONT

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Itaibara Photo Album

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Shinjo (Izumo Kaido)

2008-04-22T21:23:00.000-07:00

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Postal Town Shinjo　新庄村

Main Street flanked by Cherry Trees in full bloom
Gaisen Sakura 凱旋桜（がいせんさくら）

Most of the trees are older than 100 years.

The Pine Marker for the Distance
Ichiri Zuka with Pine

tea for two
in the old postal town -
cherry blossom visitors

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Running Water in the Village

The old system still intact, villagers wash vegetables and keep a few carp in the private ponds.

fresh water
from the nearby mountains ...
all the colors of spring

these petals float
between spring flowers -
village peace

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IZUMO KAIDO SHINJO-SHUKU
[Designated in 2003]

Sounds of village echo in the colonnade of cherry trees as you walk down the old road...

Reminiscence of the town of the ancient posting station colored by the beautiful four seasons.
Izumo Road has been critical since old times connecting Izumo to Yamato ancient capital region. Shinjo was a town of posting station situated at the foot of Shijumagari Pass, the hardest point for the entire extension of the road to go through.

It once prospered as due to the Sankin-Kotai, or the passage of Daimyo feudal lord's processions for alternate-year residence in Edo. The Honjin (feudal lord's lodging) for Matsue Province, Ochaya (resting place), and inns are reminiscent of such prosperity.

Owing to the nostalgic environment of the town, including the "Cherry Trees of Triumphant Return" that were planted in commemoration of the victory in the Russo-Japanese War and the murmur of the brook that was selected as one of the Hundred Japanesque Sound Landscapes, the town was designated by Okayama Prefecture as a "Town Landscape Preservation Area" and was granted the "Okayama Landscape Award."
©　Yume-Kaido Renaissance Project Team

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From Shinjo, the road climbs up steadily and fast. A steep pass let the travellers of olden times to the other side of the mountain ridge, now Itaibara in Tottori prefecture. This "pass with 49 curves"shijuu magari tooge 四十曲峠 can now since 1968 be crossed by car in a long and dark tunnel of more than four kilometers. It goes down quite steep and has many sharp curves and is considered dangerous also becuase of stones falling down.
At its end in the very steep valley of the Itaibara River is a small barrack-like rest area, that does not look very frequented these days any more.

Shinjo Photo Album

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Shinjō
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Mikamo (Izumo Kaido)

2008-04-22T21:17:00.000-07:00

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Check this first !
On the ROAD TO MIKAMO

Postal Town Mikamo 美甘村
美甘宿場桜

a cheeful manhole cover
A little side tour:
Manholes and Daruma San !

Mikamo, just one stop before the famous Shinjo village, was rather deserted and we could enjoy the cherry blossomw without the crowds.
These cherry trees have been planted in honor of the birth of Showa Tenno.

these cherry blossoms
on the fast river ...
a floating world

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Mikamo Shrine 美甘神社

The present building dates back to 1575. It changed the Chinese characters of its name from "Mikamo Jinja" 御鴨神社(みかもじんじゃ)　to 美甘神社 in 1873. The deity honored here is the "Kamo no Kami", かもの神 (加茂神), a son of the Gread Deity of Izumo, Okuninushi no kami.
Legend has it that together with his brother Miwa no Kami 三輪君 they represent the origin of the Imperial Family of Japan.
The whole area took its name after this deity around 650 and started using the Chinese characters 美甘郷 around 715. Later the shrine burned down and two new ones where built, one here and one in the next village of Shinjo. The main shrine festival is in October.

In this shrine, the deity Ajisukitaka Hikone 味鋤高彦根命 ( あじすきたかひこね) is worshipped. (阿遅鉏高日子根神)

Chinese characters used for the KAMO deity 賀茂、加茂、鴨.

大国主命－味鋤高彦根命－天八現津彦命→都佐・長国造
大国主命－事代主－天日方奇日方命→賀茂・三輪君
鴨建角身命－玉依彦－生玉兄日子命→賀茂・鴨県主 (Kamo no Agatanushi)
©　moritaya

We also have this god of the KAMO lineage:
Kamo Taketsunumi no mikoto 賀茂建角身命
Taketsunomi

Mikamo Shrine -
where god and man meet
in spring splendor

In the eaves of the outer decoration, I found small crab carvings.

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Mikamo Temari Handballs
美甘　手まり (手毬)

Temari Balls, Priest Ryokan and Haiku

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Mikamo Photo Album

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Road to Mikamo (Izumo Kaido)

2008-04-22T01:16:00.000-07:00

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Coming from Katsuyama

On the road toward Mikamo

Abandoned estate by the roadside

Momiji in Spring: Red Dragon Branches

dragon branches
all in red ...
another spring

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private shrine and dragon tree

Next is MIKAMO

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ROAD TO MIKAMO :　 Photo Album

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Izumo Kaido, The Old Road of Izumo 出雲街道

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