Watari to Shikaga Along the Gonokawa River

 

After visiting the Hachiman shrine I carry on up the riverside road through what used to be called Watari but is now just considered Kawagoe.

It used to be a sizable settlement, having a village shrine and a couple of temples.

Now, at least half the properties are abandoned...

Across the river on the opposite bank is the former Mizunokuni Water Museum.

It has been closed now for several years, around the time that the rail line closed. Even though it is on the main road it never had many visitors and I am amazed is stayed open as long as it did. many of my older posts about it no longer have photos, but this one does.

Though we are about 25 kilometers from the mouth of the river, it is still fairly wide at this point.

There may well have been a trail along this section before the railway was built in the  1930"s, but the road, as narrow as it is, was only built at the same time as the train line. Traffic of any kind is very rare, usually a small post office or delivery van a couple of times a day... that it...

Sections of the bank are so narrow that tunnels were necessary.

I am amazed many of the roadside altars are regularly supplied with fresh flowers. As the few elderly inhabitants die off they too will become abandoned.

The next settlement of any size, with a new, concrete bridge across the river, a big shrine, a couple of temples, and the abandoned railway station, is Shikaga. Here I will take a  few kilometers detour  inland.

The previous post was on the Hachiman Shrine in Kawagoe.