On the Road – Minami-Iyo, Nishi-Tosa Road: Clouds over the Hill and the Date Family in Nangoku

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Summary

Travel is an act for human beings to visit new places and experience different cultures and histories. Through travel, people can actually feel historical events and people’s lives by visiting historical places and cultural heritage sites, and can gain a deeper understanding of history and broaden their own perspectives. In this section, we will discuss the historical background of the trip and the places visited based on Ryotaro Shiba’s “Kaido yuku” (On the Road) about this journey and history.

Kaidou wo yuku Vol 14 Mimami Iyo Nishi Tosa no michi.

In the previous article , I described a trip to the mountains north of Kyoto as part of the Rakuhoku Roads. This time, I will discuss the roads in southern Iyo and western Tosa.

Minami-Iyo, Nishi-Tosa Road: Clouds over the Hill and the Date Family in Nangoku

This time, the southern and western parts of Shikoku. In terms of prefectures, they are Ehime and Kochi. In Ryotaro Shiba’s novels, “Clouds over the Hill” is set against the backdrop of the Russo-Japanese War and features the Akiyama brothers from Matsuyama, while “Kashin” is set at the end of the Edo period and features Masujiro Omura, who was born in Choshu but became very famous in Uwajima, as mentioned earlier.

The tour starts from Matsuyama. As mentioned in “Clouds over the Hill,” Matsuyama is a place where haiku poetry flourishes, and many haiku poets such as Shiki Masaoka, Kyoshi Takahama, Hekigoto Kawahigashi, and Santoka have appeared. In the book “Masaoka Shiki” written by Kyoshi Takahama, there is a scene in which Kyoshi, a junior high school student, meets Shiki for the first time at a military drill ground under Matsuyama Castle, who was then attending a Tokyo university prep school.

There is a military training camp to the north of Matsuyama Castle. One summer evening, when we were playing batching, there were 46 students returning from Tokyo. I was short and had a hand towel tucked in at my waist, just like a student, but they were all dressed in the authentic Japanese style with their knees exposed and the hand towel tucked in at their waist was a red-colored blotched towel, which first caught my attention.

It is said that it was the young Shiki who lent him a bat and started batting. It is said that Ryotaro Shiba read this document and began to draw “Clouds over the Hill” because he was inspired by certain images.

The name of Ehime Prefecture was initially “Ishitetsu” prefecture, a name that the prefectural governor of the time suddenly decided on without any basis (he was on the side of the shogunate at the time of the Meiji Restoration, so the name was also harshly criticized as harassing), but when the prefectural governor was changed, the name was changed to “Shikoku” because the name in the Kojiki, which describes Shikoku as “a country with one body and four faces”, was used by Izanami and Izanagi when they gave birth to Izanami and Izanagi. When the prefectural governor changed the name of Shikoku in the Kojiki (Records of Ancient Matters), he praised the fact that when Izanami and Izanagi gave birth, Shikoku was already divided into four provinces, and each was named after a male and female human life.

My trip to Minami Iyo began when I landed at Matsuyama Airport. The first stop from the airport was Iyomamehiko-no-Mikoto Shrine.

Iyomamefukunomikoto Shrine is located in Doi-cho, a little far from the city center, and is also called “Tsubaki Shrine” or “Otsubaki-san” by the locals. The “Tsubaki Festival” held from January 7 to 9 of the lunar calendar is the largest festival in Shikoku in terms of the number of worshipers, with all Matsuyama residents visiting the shrine.

A short distance south past the shrine is a river called Shigenobu River. Shigenobu River is the river where Matsuyama Castle was built.

It was named after Shigenobu Adachi, a fukushonin under Yoshiaki Kato, who flooded the Iyo River, which was repeatedly overflowing at the time. Next, the group headed for the Omori Hikohichi Memorial Pagoda.

Omori Hikohichi was the man who defeated Kusunoki Masanari and drove him to suicide, as mentioned in the previous Kawachi no Michi, and because of this, ghost stories haunted by Masanari’s grudge spirit were created and became popular in the Edo period. The memorial tower itself is very compact, as shown in the photo above. After seeing the memorial tower, they headed to Tomochi to see Tomochi pottery. Tobe Pottery began with the desire to create ceramics using whetstones for sharpening knives in the Tobe region. Vassals ordered by the lord of the time went to Nagayo in Hizen and Sue in Chikuzen to try to make ceramics using whetstones as raw materials, but that did not work out in the end, and a kiln business using the ceramic stones and glaze they found instead came to be established.

As shown in the photo above, the characteristic features of this porcelain are its rather thick and chunky form, and the indigo-colored blue underglaze blue on the white porcelain.

From Tobe, we headed through the mountains, passing through Uchiko Town, famous for its Japanese candles, on the way to Ozu.

In the Edo period, Ozu was home to a clan called the Ozu clan, and the Ozu Castle, located in the Elk River (famous for its cormorant fishing) that runs through the town, will be a small but elegant old castle.

Also, in recent years, it is said that “castle stays” are available for a limited number of two people per day. However, the high cost of 1,000,000 yen per night makes it difficult for the average person to afford. Ryotaro Shiba and his friends stayed at an old ryokan called Aburaya. At the time, the inn was praised for its tasteful atmosphere, as the building remained from the late Edo period, but it no longer exists as an inn. The name is also “Aburaya”, so is the restaurant owned by the same family?

In Ozu, he also visited Kaimei Elementary School, a whitewashed Western-style building with a Meiji period air.

Many other buildings from the olden days remain in Ozu, which have served as filming locations for numerous movies and TV dramas.

The discussion of Ozu ends here and moves on to our next destination, Uwajima. The first lord of the Uwajima domain was Date Masamune of Sendai, known as the Dokuganryu

He became Date Muneshiro, the eldest son of Date Masamune. However, after the Sekigahara and the Osaka Summer and Winter Campaigns, the Tokugawa shogunate came to power, and Muneshiro, who had been on the Toyotomi side, had no place to go. However, after the Sekigahara, Osaka Summer Campaign, and Winter Campaign, the Tokugawa shogunate came into power.

At that time, Date Masamune supported his son by providing him with excellent subordinates and a large dowry. Uwajima has retained a culture of valuing human resources, and has sheltered Choei Takano, a Dutch scholar who was suppressed during the Edo period, and nurtured Masujiro Omura, a military god at the end of the Edo period who is the main character in Ryotaro Shiba’s novel “Hana-gami” (Flower God).

Atago-yama will be the place to enjoy the view in Uwajima. From the observatory at the top of the mountain, visitors can enjoy the view of Uwajima Castle, the Uwakai Sea, and the surrounding mountains.

The Matsumaru-kaido Road runs from Uwajima to Kochi. The Uwajima area is basically isolated from the rest of Japan and is not well served by JR lines, making Matsumaru-kaido the only means of transportation between Iyo and Kochi in the area.

In the next article, we will discuss various roads in Hokkaido.