Day 32 - Fujisawa To Totsuka, and A Bit About The Japanese Buddhist monk Ippen Shōnin, Walking The Tokaido Road In Japan
Day 32 - Fujisawa To Totsuka, and A Bit About The Japanese Buddhist monk Ippen Shōnin, Walking The Tokaido Road In Japan
We are starting to feel that this pilgrimage is going to be over very soon.
I have mixed feelings about it.
On the one hand, I love walking all day through new locations, seeing and learning new things every day.
But on the other hand, after the pilgrimage we will be going to soak in a rural hot springs in Gunma province, and later going diving in the Philippines, so I don’t mind that the pilgrimage will be over soon.
We ate a simple breakfast of cheese and avocado sandwiches with cucumbers and tomatoes in our room this morning.
Then we met Joseph and Wendy at 8:45am and took the train back to Fujisawa, where we had stopped walking yesterday.
Soon we joined the Tokaido Road.
Traffic signs said that we were only 45 km to Nihonbashi in Tokyo.
But of course this measurement was for the national car road, and the Tokaido is a bit longer as it winds through the old post towns.
In Fujisawa, Wendy noticed that they had missed some of the old sites that Jules and I had already seen yesterday, so they went to see them, while Jules and I visited an old temple that had been a place for pilgrims to stop and pray since before the Tokaido was developed during the Edo period.
It is called Yugyo-ji Temple, also known as Shōjōkō-ji Temple.
The grounds has many blooming cherry trees and the serenity of an ancient temple that is still loved and revered.
It was founded in 1325.
Since its founding, the temple buildings have often been burnt down by fires caused by war or accidents, and reconstructed on every occasion.
The inspiration for the temple was a monk named Ippen Shōnin
He was born in 1239 as the second son of Michihiro Kōno, from a powerful local clan in Iyo Province (Matsuyama City, Ehime Prefecture).
Ippen entered the Buddhist priesthood when he was only 10 years old, and practiced under Kedai Shōnin and Shōdatsu Shōnin of the Seizan branch of the Jōdo-shū.
Later he returned to his hometown, and spent his life as a half-priest, half-layman.
When he was 33 years old, however, he made up his mind to wander all over Japan, distributing tablets with Buddhist teachings.
He recommended that people make a higher connection with the Spirit by dancing invocations.
Unlike the somber sects of Zen Buddhism that advocate simplicity, frugality, silence and meditation, he practiced and shared the joy of invocation through dance with the people.
Shōnin’s practice has similarities to Sufism and the Dervishes, who transcended the body and the physical realm by whirling around into an ecstatic state, experiencing union with God.
Ippen Shōnin later founded the Ji-shū school, a Pure Land Buddhism branch, in 1274.
He became known for promoting the recitation of Amida Buddha's name (Namu Amida Butsu) and the practice of "dancing Nembutsu" (odori nembutsu), which involves ecstatic dances and songs.
Ippen's teachings emphasized that Amida Buddha welcomes anyone who has faith in him to his paradise, making the practice accessible to all, including the poor and the uneducated people.
In other words, you do not have to “earn” bliss, but just enter the energy of bliss, by believing it and becoming it.
The temple was closed for nearly 100 years following a war that burned the temple down, but in 1591, the shogun Tokugawa leyasu donated the land, and the temple was rebuilt by the Toki sect.
After that, it was hit by war and fires that destroyed Fujisawa-juku, and again during the Great Kanto Earthquake.
It burned down several times more, but miraculously, there is still a large ginkgo tree that is over 660 years old, standing majestically in the precinct.
We walked up and down hills on busy Route 1.
There were only signs left of the old Tokaido, and not all of the Ichirizuka ruins remained.
In the past, there were mileposts on both sides of the Tokaido road.
They were set up by the Edo Shogunate every one ri ,(about four kilometers) along the main roads, and were used as travel markers.
The current road was created by excavating and repairing the Edo period sea road, which reached the height of the cliffs, and there were also mileposts along the road, but nothing remains today.
Historical documents show that the Tokaido road was curved and not straight, and that you could see Yugyoji temple in the distance.
It was a much steeper slope than the current Yugyojizaka, although even today it is a hilly climb.
We passed by a part of the Tokaido that was once planted with two lines of Pine Trees.
This road was once very hilly, as can be seen in the Edo period ukiyo-e artist Ando Hiroshige's "Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido," in which a magnificent row of pine trees gave the area a very pastoral feeling.
Most of the trees were sadly lost due to damage caused by pine-eating insects that wreaked havoc all over the country.
We met with Joseph and Wendy and together we walked to Totsuka Juku.
We ate a simple lunch in a casual Indian restaurant that besides serving the usual Nan bread and vegetable curry sides, also had a vegetable Biryani.
After lunch, we walked through Totsuka-Juku.
Totsuka-juku was established in 1604, three years after the neighboring post towns of Fujisawa and Hodogaya were established in 1601.
It was the fifth post town from Nihonbashi, about 10 ri (40 km) from the starting point of Nihonbashi, and was an ideal first stop for travelers leaving Edo in the morning.
It was also a bustling post town because it was located at the junction of the hiking route to Kamakura and the pilgrimage route to Mt. Oyama.
According to the Tokaido Post Town Register (from 1843), the population of the post town was over 2,900 people, with 613 houses, 2 honjin (main inns), 3 wakihonjin (side inns), and 75 Hatagos (lodging houses for commoners), making it the 10th post town with the most accommodation facilities of any of the 53 post towns on the Tokaido road.
The old Tokaido road ran north to south through this area, with a total length of about 12 km.
Of this, Totsuka-Juku is an area of about 2.2 km and it is still bustling at the center of Totsuka town.
We passed by many restaurants and lots of people as we walked through the town, although it still kept a small town feel.
During the Edo period, there were five main routes developed that extended out from the capital, including the Tokaido.
Fifty-three stations were situated along the Tokaido highway, which was about five hundred kilometers long, starting from the Nihon-bashi bridge in Edo (today’s Tokyo). The final destination was Sanjo-Ohashi bridge in Kyoto.
In the year 1601, the feudal government of Edo officially located the post stations based on the stations already established during the civil war period.
Every station had to prepare post horses, and the route was constructed as a public transportation road.
From the ancient period, there were many areas of scenic beauty and historical sites along the Tokaido, and these places became major themes of ukiyo-e woodblock prints, waka poetry and haiku poetry.
During the late Edo period, travel became increasingly popular among the people.
Before that period, travel was restricted or not permitted, as many of the territories were owned by warring lords.
Under such circumstances, a wide variety of series of famous locations of ukiyo-e paintings that depicted the fifty three stations were published, and became popular among people who yearned to travel to see these places.
The publication of the paintings, cards and a "Board Game of the Journey,” all illustrated every station of the Tokaido and the culture cultivated by the Tokaido highway, including the regional foods and typical ways of life.
During the Early Meiji period, the starting point of the Tokaido Highway, Nihonbashi and its cityscape rapidly changed.
City streets were lined with western style architecture, and symbols of modernization like gas streetlamps and telegraph poles, could be seen.
Using new modes of transportation such as rickshaws (rikisha in Japanese), the people tirelessly moved around the city.
In 1869, telegraph services were offered in Japan for the first time between Yokohama and Tsukiji.
By 1872, the service extended to Nihonbashi.
As we walked through Totsuka, I noticed that there were big pieces of artwork posted on the buildings, depicting old Tokaido scenes combined with some athletes from modern times.
Next to traditionally clothed pilgrims in wide brim straw hats, there was a modern days man running.
Two women running, wearing running clothes and ponytails, next to a scene of the Hakone mountain peaks.
A golfer was dressed brightly, next to pilgrims crossing a wooden bridge.
I liked the artwork and the contrast that it brought to light.
Today we saw many people walking the Tokaido, including a very large group.
We made no other rest stops today, except at the end of our walk at a Starbucks, before taking the train back to Yokohama.
It wasn’t a long day of walking, and we stopped early in order to give me more time to rest.
I also wanted to visit a big dive shop in Yokohama, to buy some underwater camera gear and lights.
We left Joseph and Wendy in the Starbucks, and returned to Yokohama.
We went to the dive shop and bought some diving and swimming gear and whatever else I needed for my ocean photography.
They had an excellent selection of clothing and gear and very friendly staff that helped us and even gave us a great discount.
Shopping for my upcoming dive trip got me even more excited about the Pilgrimage soon being over, and us being on our way to Anilao in the Philippines!
After the dive shop, we went to eat dinner at a Taiwanese restaurant in Chinatown that offered vegetarian dishes.
It was a crowded little place with a very doting owner who insisted that we shouldn’t add soy sauce or vinegar to our dumplings, because they were more delicious without it.
We had to sneak the soy sauce without his noticing.
Then we did our laundry and went to bed.
With love and respect,
Tali
Today’s Stats:
Steps - 30,750
km walked - 20 km
Total walked: 599 km
Old Post Towns Visited:
Fujisawa Juku #6
