Japan (April 2019): Tsuwano
At a distance of 23km from the Sea of
Japan, Tsuwano (pop. ~7,500) is a small castle town
nestled in the valley of the Tsuwano river and
surrounded by high hills. Despite its low elevation (~160m) it almost feels
like a mountain town. It is pretty and peaceful, but its center is clearly
geared toward tourism, with several fancy shops selling delicacies and
locally-made artefacts. During the two weekdays I spent there I saw few
visitors, but I guess that weekends are much busier with people coming from
Yamaguchi, Hiroshima, and other cities of southwestern Honshu, attracted by the
religiously important Taikodani Inari shrine and the
quiet atmosphere of the old samurai quarter.
Views of Tsuwano:
From the Taikodani
Inari shrine.
From the top of the chairlift leading to
the castle.
Streets of Tsuwano:
White walls and water canals (home of
big carps) bordering the former samurai quarter on Tonomachi
street.
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Catholic church on Tonomachi
street. Tatamis rather than pews! This churh is dedicated to Saint Francis Xavier, who visited
Japan in 1549-50.
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These two statues at the end of Tonomachi street celebrate Sagimai, the heron dance. This dance, which originated in
Kyoto in the 14th century, spread into other parts of Japan. It has been very
popular in Tsuwano for hundreds of years. It is
performed here every July during a week-long festival. The two main dancers
represent a male and a female heron performing a mating dance, with other
dancers playing music around them.
Old Sake breweries along Honmachi street.
Some interesting houses on other streets.
[Meigetsu
ryokan (my home in Tsuwano), a beautiful
one-hundred-year-old house.]
Castle:
The castle was built in the late 13th
century, extended in the 17th, and demolished in 1878 during the Meiji era.
Only the impressive foundations walls remain on top of a ridge 200m above town.
I visited them on a foggy afternoon. The combination of the mist and the
colorful fresh tree leaves made the place particularly beautiful.
Babasaki Yagura (″yagura″ means ″turret″), a remnant of the
Tsuwano castle located next to the Tsuwano river on the valley floor and used as a watchtower.
Taikodani Inari shrine:
Built in 1773 to pray for the safety of
the castle, it is one of the five greatest Inari shrines in Japan, hence
attracting many religious visitors from southwestern Honshu. But the
eye-catching ″tunnel″ of several hundred vermilion torii is also a major lure for religious and non-religious
visitors. Although it is by far the most visited religious site in Tsuwano, I found this shrine too flashy and commercial,
definitively much less interesting than the Buddhist Yomei-ji
temple (see further down in this page).
The tunnel of torii
seen from the opposite side of the Tsuwano river. This tunnel covers the foot ascent path to the
shrine.
Inside the tunnel.
Main plaza reached at the end of the
tunnel of torii. The prayer hall is on the left. The
first floor of the building on the right is filled with shops selling
memorabilia and delicacies.
Main prayer hall: exterior and interior.
[Note the two foxes on the sides of the altar. They
are the messengers and guardians of the god Inari.]
Ema (wooden prayer tablets) board.
Shinto priest performing exorcism and
purification rituals (harai) for a new car in the
basement of the shrine. After saying prayers in front of an altar, the priest
shakes a haraigushi, a wooden wand to which are
attached folds of paper, over the car (both its exterior and its interior).
During the ceremony the two owners (not visible in the photos) sit on a bench
on the right side of the car.
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Yasaka shrine:
This Shinto shrine was originally built in
1660 and rebuilt after a fire in 1853. It is located close to the entrance of
foot path to the Taikodani Inari shrine. A
600-year-old selkova tree (that does not look in
great shape) stands on its right.
Yomei-ji:
Originally established in 1420 this Zen
Buddhist temple was the family temple of the successive lords of Tsuwano. During the Edo period (1603-1868) it was one of
the two great temples of the Soto Zen sect, along with the Daijo-ji
in Kanazawa. With its superb shoro (bell tower), old
thatched roof, lord chambers, gardens, treasure room, and mystical atmosphere,
I consider it the most interesting place to visit in Tsuwano.
Yet, it gets almost no visitors.
Roofs of the temple seen from the
cemetery.
Main hall with its thatched roof.
The shoro.
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View of the main hall from within the shoro.
Interior of the main praying hall.
Garden outside the main hall.
Wall decorations and paintings inside
the audience and resting rooms of the lord chambers (located on the right side
of the main hall).
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[The above scroll calligraphy represents Bodhidharma, known as Daruma in Japan,
an Indian sage who lived during the 5th or 6th century and is considered the
founder of Zen Buddhism.]
The lord chambers open into a beautiful,
peaceful garden.
Paintings and sculpture in the treasure
room (located on the left side of the main hall).
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Great onigawara
at a temple next to Yomei-ji.
Chapel of
Saint Maria:
This chapel was built in 1951 as a memorial for
Japanese Christians persecuted and tortured in Tsuwano
by the government during the Edo and early Meiji periods. A group of Christians
were imprisoned in a Buddhist temple on this site. Several of them died before
freedom of religion was established in 1873.
Former
residence of Nishi Amane:
Nishi Amane
(1829-97) was a philosopher born in Tsuwano during
the Meiji era. Following a two-year stay in the Netherlands, he contributed to
introducing Western-style philosophy into Japan.
