On the Road to Shigaraki in Kouga and Iga

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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 Volume 7 Iga Kouga no michi.

The previous trip was to Tanegashima and Yakushima in Kagoshima Prefecture and the Amami Islands. This time, it will be the road to Shigaraki in Kouga and Iga.

The journey begins at Iga-Ueno Castle. Iga-Ueno Castle was built in the late Warring States period, and after Oda Nobunaga conquered Iga, the lord of the castle changed several times. When Tokugawa Ieyasu was planning to attack Osaka Castle, Todo Takatora became the lord of the castle, which was built as a last fortress in case of defeat during the winter battle of Osaka.

The novel “Owl’s Castle,” set in Iga, was the first work for which Ryotaro Shiba won an award (the Naoki Prize), and it is also where his historical novels began. This work has been made into a movie twice, in 1963 and 1990.

The first scene of “Owl’s Castle” begins at the Otogitouge Pass. When the capital was in turmoil, the second son and under of the Kouga and Iga were hired as foot soldiers, and over time they acquired battlefield intelligence skills and refined their abilities to hide in grass and ponds, set fires, and infiltrate enemy territory to discover enemy intentions. They are said to have become ninjas.

The Kouga and Iga people were familiar with the inner workings of power in Kyoto, and knew not only the circumstances, but also the talents, personalities, and even the faces of those in power. Such knowledge was useful to the lords and feudal lords of the Warring States period, and they were allowed to stay at the mansions of powerful families simply by saying, “We are from Iga, Whatemon’s hand, that we are.

Minari Pass is located on a mountain overlooking the Iga Basin.

Crossing the Minari Pass from the Iga side, one comes to the Kouga of Omi Province. There were fifty-three small powerful clans in Kouga, each of which established a collusive organization similar to a kind of republican system, and they were called the “Fifty-three Families of Kouga.

The ninja of Koga first came to prominence in history during the Muromachi period (1336-1573), when Ashikaga Yoshihisa (Yoshihisa; son of the famous Hino Tomiko) and Rokkaku Takayori, a feudal lord and protector of Omi, fought a battle in which Rokkaku Takayori was defeated by Ashikaga Yoshihisa, a feudal lord of Omi. In this battle, Rokkaku Takayori was defeated, and the Kouga people took him into hiding.

After crossing the Minari Pass, the first mountain village is Tarao. The first mountain village after crossing the Minari Pass is called “Tarao.” A man named Tarao Michikazu was a military strategist, and he was taken in by Oda Nobunaga and became a member of his clan. In contrast, the Iga were opposed to Oda Nobunaga and were almost completely annihilated when Oda’s forces entered Ise and Iga.

The Kouga continued to successfully ride on the coattails of the powers of the time, and after the Oda period, many of them became feudal lords or near feudal lords.

There is a theory that the old Showa-era movie “The Man with Seven Faces” (Tarao Bannai) was based on this image of the Kouga ninja.

Banai Tarao is an aloof and outgoing private detective who runs the “Tarao Detective Agency,” always humorously strolling about. Whenever a mysterious incident occurs, he visits the police station to exchange information and begin his investigation. His disguises are often dull, such as Tarao himself, the “one-eyed chauffeur,” or the “hunchbacked man,” or eccentric, such as “the mischievous gentleman who likes magic tricks,” “the magician,” “the Indian magician,” or “the wealthy Chinese millionaire. The case is stirred up by the investigations and machinations of Tarao and the five people he disguises, and instead of being solved, the situation becomes more complicated and even deadly for those who get caught up in it. In many cases, the cases were not solved, but rather complicated, even leading to the deaths of those who were caught up in them. Thus, Bannai comprehensively takes control of all the people involved in the case, and he manipulates them into coming together for the grand finale.

One can imagine the world of a good old-fashioned movie.

A short distance beyond Tarao, we come to the Shigaraki basin, a town famous for its pottery. Shigaraki is famous for its pottery, and in ancient times was the site where Emperor Shomu established the capital, Shigaraku Palace. Emperor Shomu believed in the worldview of the Lotus Sutra, as described in “Buddhism, Scripture, and the Mahayana School of Buddhism” and he was the Emperor who created the Great Buddha statue in Nara (Todaiji Rushanabutsu) on the belief that the world could be saved by the Buddha.

Shigaraki ware is one of the six oldest kilns in Japan, and is characterized by the warm scarlet color produced by firing in climbing kilns and cellar kilns, and by the taste of bead-glazed and burnt glaze produced by natural glaze, demonstrating the unique taste of Shigaraki clay. The Shigaraki clay is fireproof and fireproof. Shigaraki clay is said to be fire-resistant, plastic, and strong, making it suitable for making large pieces and easy to work with for making small items.

Shigaraki ware is mainly used as tea ceremony utensils, stone lanterns for gardens, water basins, and flower vases, but in recent years it has also become popular as interior goods and tableware, and its unique texture, handmade feel, and designs that harmonize with nature make it a favorite of many people.

One of the most famous Shigaraki ware products is the tanuki (Japanese raccoon dog) figurine.

The history of Shigaraki ware raccoon dog figurines is relatively short, and the first one is said to have been made by Tetsuzo Fujiwara, a potter in the Meiji period [10]. The raccoon dogs were so impressed by the endless scene that they composed a poem about it, and the story was reported in newspapers, making the Shigaraki raccoon figurines well known throughout Japan.

This ornament is appreciated as a good-luck charm, and is often placed in front of the eaves of stores as a fashionable reminder of prosperous business, since raccoon dogs are associated with “overtaking others. The standard Shigaraki ware figurine is the so-called “sake-buyer boy” type, which depicts a plump raccoon wearing a woven hat and standing with a bank book in his left hand and a bottle of sake in his right hand while tilting his head slightly, in reference to the Shigaraki ware eight-phase omiku.

The next trip will be centered on Oita Prefecture, home to more than 40,000 Hachiman shrines nationwide, Nakatsu and Usa in Oita Prefecture, Yufuin, a hot spring town, and Hita, called Kyushu’s “little Kyoto.