Life Tips & Miscellaneous Travel and History Zen Philosophy and History Art and Sport Navigation of this blog
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 29 Akita Sampo.
In the previous article, I wrote about a stroll in Yokohama. This time, I will describe my walk in Akita.
Akita Stroll, Matsuo Basho, Masumi Sugae, and Ningyo Dosojin
This time, I would like to describe my walk in Akita. The journey begins at Scaphaiman-ji Temple, where Ryotaro Shiba’s war buddy is the chief priest, and then from Zogata, with its unique landscape of many small islands scattered among rice paddies, to Akita, Noshiro, and then to Kazuno. The journey continues on to the stories of Ryokichi Kano, a prominent scholar of the Meiji era, and Konan Naito, the founder of Oriental historiography.
For Ryotaro Shiba, the Tōhoku region is special, and it is said that he feels a high level of civic sense and spiritual aristocracy toward Tōhoku people. In his Akita Walk, he did not start his journey suddenly, but began by talking about several famous people from the Tohoku region. First, Rikugakko-nan (陸羯南. Rikugakko-nan (陸羯南; born in Aomori, Aomori Prefecture, Japan) was a Meiji era journalist. He was the organizer of the newspaper “Japan” and is known as the protector of Masaoka Shiki until his death), and Takashi Hara (born in Iwate Prefecture. Born in Iwate Prefecture. A Meiji-era public speaker. He later entered government service, then became a political party politician in an effort to overthrow a clan faction, and became prime minister in 1918, earning him the nickname “Prime Minister of the Common People. He became prime minister in 1918 and was called “Prime Minister of the Commoners.” In 1926, he was inspected by a young man at Tokyo Station and died) and Korekiyo Takahashi (born in Miyagi Prefecture. Born in Miyagi Prefecture. A financier. After returning to Japan, he worked as a teacher at a preparatory school and later entered the government service and worked in the field of finance. Born in Akita. A great non-specialist intellectual of the Meiji period. A collector of a vast collection of books, he is best known for his discovery of the mid-Edo period thinker Masamitsu Ando. He became president of Kyoto University’s College of Cultural Studies in 1964) and Naito Konan (内藤湖南, born in Akita Prefecture. Born in Akita Prefecture. Writer of newspaper editorials in the Meiji era. Discovered the existence of Tominaga Nakamoto during the Edo period. Konan’s academic caliber had an overwhelming influence on subsequent Oriental studies at Kyoto University).
The last two were prominent figures at Kyoto University with whom Ryotaro Shiba had close ties when he was a newspaper reporter, and he would travel around Akita to follow in their footsteps.
The first place they were to head for was the Shonai Plain. In the name of the year, this would be Tsuruoka City and Sakata City. (The lower star on the map above.) In terms of old clans, this is the Shonai Clan, which is said to differ from the other Tohoku clans in terms of culture and temperament.
The city was a key point on the Japan Sea route during the Edo period (during the Edo period, trade on the Japan Sea route was prosperous due to the high risk of the Pacific route), so the Kamigata culture was highly permeated. It is said that Akita was a special place for Ryotaro Shiba, as it was a rare place where the three tides of Kamigata, Edo, and Tohoku converged.
In the end, we decided to give up our trip to Shonai and headed for Kisakata in Akita, flying from Osaka to Akita Airport, located about 15 km southeast of Akita City, and then driving from Akita Airport to Kisakata, about an hour away by car.
Zogata becomes a unique landscape of 103 or so islands scattered at the foot of Mt. Chokai, which appear to float in the countryside. This topography is the result of a collection of small mountains called “Nagareyama,” which were formed by the accumulation of huge boulders that slid down from the top of the mountain, forming an inlet that floats in the sea, 1 km from east to west and 2 km from north to south. The scenery of Zogata is shown in the roadside station “Zogata”. The scenery of Zogata can be seen from “Nemu-no-oka” Roadside Station.
Zogata is also the place where Matsuo Basho wrote “Zogata, rain and Saishi ga Gohan no Hana” and “Shioetsu, crane shin wet and the sea cool” in “Oku no Hosomichi”. Since Oku no Hosomichi was published in 1705 (Genroku 15), the aforementioned haiku describes the state of the inlet before it was uplifted by an earthquake.
It also mentions the island of Nouin Island, where the residence of Nouin Houshi, the poet who composed “The world is passing by, and the Ama no Tomaya of Zogata is my inn.” It also mentions Saigyo Houshi, who composed “The cherry blossoms of Zogata are buried in the waves, and the Ama’s fishing boat is paddled over the flowers.
Zogata has been visited by many poets since ancient times.
To the southeast of Zogata is Mt.
Chokai is an active volcano, although it is not currently billowing smoke. During the Heian period (794-1185), it frequently erupted in great numbers, and each time it erupted, it was given a rank by the Imperial Court to appease its anger, and when it exploded in 939, it rose to the rank of Shonin (second highest). Incidentally, the Shonin rank corresponds to Left Minister and Right Minister in the Ritsuryo system of government, and was also the rank held by the shoguns of the Muromachi and Edo periods during their terms of office.
The aforementioned song, “Zogata Ya Ame ni Xishi ga Nebu no Hana” is a song about Xishi, a beautiful woman in the ancient Chinese Spring and Autumn period. It is said that he composed the above-mentioned poem after seeing the flowers of nebuhu (a kind of flower that blooms in the Zojiao lagoon).
Basho visited Kanman-ji Temple in Zogata.
Basho translated the view from this temple as “To the south, Mt. Chokai supports the sky, and its shadow is reflected in the bay. To the west, the Ariyamu-no-Seki barrier blocks the road. To the east, a dike has been built, and a road leading to Akita Castle is far to the east. The sea is to the north. The sea is to the north, and the place where the waves come in from there is called Shioetsu.
The temple is now a Soto Zen temple, and its chief priest is Kumagai Yoshinobu, who was a comrade-in-arms of Ryotaro Shiba (now Kumagai Ukinobu, who is believed to be his son).
From the temple, we returned to Akita City and visited the grave of Masumi Sugae, looking at a map of Akita City.
Masumi Sugae was a traveler of the Edo period, rediscovered by Kunio Yanagida, who left travelogues not only in Akita/Ou, but also in Ainu, Shinano, and other parts of Japan. In recent years, he has attracted attention as the first person to record in detail Akita’s ningyo dosojin (gods of folk beliefs found at village borders and along roadsides).
After visiting the tomb of Masumi Sugae, he headed north to visit the former Nara Family Residence in Kinzoku.
This is an old private house built in the mid-Edo period, where the aforementioned Masumi Sugae stayed. It was built around 1750, making it about 270 years old. The structure is complex, with both ends of the building projecting out in front, and is a typical farmhouse architecture of the central coast of Akita Prefecture.
Next, the group headed for Mount Kanpu in the center of the Oga Peninsula.
After that, we headed to Hachirogo and had curry and rice.
Heading to the coast, we will see the unique sand prevention forests (Kurita-style afforestation method: through careful observation, old straw mats and kaya are bundled to prevent flying sand, willow and gummi trees are planted behind them, and pine seedlings are planted once they take root) constructed by Sadanosuke Kurita along the Akita coastline in the Edo period.
It is said that he did not do this project by order of the clan or the shogunate (he proposed it but was rejected), but as a project of his own.
The Akita trip ends in Kazuno City, where Ryokichi Kano and Konan Naito are discussed.
In the next article, I will discuss the Hida travelogue.
コメント