Kaido yuku – Kawachi-michi

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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.3 Kawauchino michi

From Vol 3 .In the previous article , I discussed the Hisatsu no michi. This time, I will describe the Kawauti no michi.

Kawachi-michi

This time, we will travel to Osaka/Kawachi, the hometown of Ryotaro Shiba, who lived in Higashi-Osaka City. The Kawachi area is said to be the site of the ancient Japanese Yamato dynasty, which created huge burial mounds such as the Ojin and Nintoku Imperial Tombs, as the Miwa dynasty returned to the Kawachi dynasty over the Ikoma Mountains after its decline in the Yamato Basin (Takenouchi Highway and Katsuragi Road mentioned in the previous article).

The Kawachi area has countless swamps and rivers, which apparently remained in that state until the Hoei era (around 1700) in the early Edo period (1603-1868). The Tokugawa Shogunate changed the flow of the Yamato River, which was flowing into Kawachi at that time, in the direction of today’s Sakai City, and this is said to be where the river dried up. Kawachi is also famous for its “Kawachi-ben,” a so-called “bad-tempered” language characterized by the use of “we” in the second person and “ke” as a questioning particle. The 1970s hit song “Kochi no Ossan no Uta” (Song of the Old Man of Kochi), which is full of such words, is also nostalgic.

The Kawachi Michi continues with a discussion of the roots of the Kawachi region, followed by a discussion of temples and religious figures associated with the area. First, he goes to Kōki-ji Temple, a Shingon sect temple founded by En no Gyōsha, mentioned in the previous Katsuragi Michi, and describes Kobo-Daishi Kukai, who is said to have lived there in peace, and the Shingon sect.

According to Ryotaro Shiba, the Shingon sect of Buddhism, which is based on the belief in sokushin-jyobutsu, is a very cheerful sect, and its sutras are free from the gloomy atmosphere of Buddhist poison. For example, the Amida Sutra of the Jodo-shu and Jodo-Shinshu sects, which advocate the death of a person and his or her death to the Pure Land, has a tone that, because of its subject matter, is very funeral-like and stimulates mourning for the dead and makes one weep, whereas Shingon Esoteric Buddhism, which Kukai started, has the mysterious idea of being absorbed into the universe through immediate rebirth. The assimilation of the dead is the same as that of the ninja in the movie “Ninja”. This assimilation is done by gradually raising one’s mind through various actions, such as making seals and chanting mantras, and eventually melting into the universe in one’s own body, just as the ninja warriors do in the movies. Kukai, who was in Chang’an at the time, encountered it, systematized it thoroughly, and created it through a process that was like turning a liquid into an individual body and then into a crystalline body.

For further details on the ideological content, see Jodo-kyo and the Power of Amida Buddha, which introduces the concept of parallel worlds for Jodo-shu, and the Internet and Vairochanabutsu – Kegon-kyo and Esoteric Buddhism for Shingon-shu. See also.

Kokyoji Temple is a Ritsuin where the Ritsu of the Shingon sect is practiced (“Ritsu” refers to the code of life of monks, and a temple established exclusively with the Ritsu is called a Ritsuin), and is like a monastery in Catholicism. The temple is small, without extra decoration, and does not charge a tourist fee.

At the Koukiji Temple, one can see a mysterious calligraphy written by Jiun-sonja, who was a monk at the temple, as well as the weeping cherry blossoms.

After passing through Koukiji Temple, the next stop would be Koukawa Temple.

Hirokawa-ji Temple is said to be where Saigyo spent the last years of his life and where his tomb is located. Saigyo was a poet who witnessed the collapse of the Fujiwara system in the late Heian period, the rise of the warrior class in the Hogen and Heijidoki wars, the rise of Taira no Kiyomori and the creation of the Heike clan’s movie era, the further downfall, the rise and fall of Kiso Yoshinaka and Minamoto no Yoshitsune, and the establishment of the Kamakura shogunate by Minamoto no Yoritomo.

Saigyo is also said to have been an excellent monk of the aforementioned Shingon sect.

One of the most famous figures in the Kawachi area is Masanari Kusunoki.

Masanari Kusunoki was the leader of the Kawachi guerrilla force that overthrew the Kamakura Shogunate, and later became the chieftain of a local warrior group known as the “bad guys” who fought and died in battle against the samurai government forces led by Ashikaga Takauji, who created the Muromachi Shogunate in an attempt to restore the emperor system. His name remained the most sacred hero in Japanese history from the Meiji Restoration to the end of the Pacific War, but with the end of the war, the historical view that praised him was relegated to war criminal status, and at the same time, he disappeared from textbooks.

The place where Masanari Kusunoki fought is the Chihaya Pass on Mt.

A more prominent religious organization in Kawachi is the PL cult. Originally a new religion that originated on the outskirts of Kawachi, it was once called Hito no Michi. It was suppressed during the Pacific War and ceased to exist, but was revived in Shizuoka and reestablished under a new name, PL Kyodan, which was taken from the English acronym for “complete freedom. The most common name for the PL Order is the PL Gakuen high school baseball team. The huge concrete tower is also said to be a famous landmark.

In the next article, I will discuss the various roads in Rakuhoku, stalwart monks, mountain priests, and monk soldiers.