Kochi Castle

 

Kochi Castle is not one of the biggest Japanese castles, but is known as being the best preserved.

Whereas only 12 Japanese castles still have their original tenshu, central tower or keep, Kochi castle is the only one that retains all of the original structures within the Honmaru, or inner bailey.

This includes the Daimyo's "palace" which was attached to the main keep.

Kochi Castle is situated on top of a small hill in the middle of what is now Kochi City on the southern coast of Shikoku.

Fortifications had been built upon the hill, Otakayama, during the late Heian or Early Kamakura Periods, After being defeated by Hideyoshi in 1585, Motochika Chosokabe started to build a new castle on top of the older fortifications, but because the area was prone to flooding moved to Urado on the coast to the south.

In 1600, following the Battle of Sekigahara, control of the domain was given to the Yamauchi Clan and they decided Urado castle was not suitable so began enlarging the castle on Otakayama which was renamed Kawanakayama Castle and later Kochi Castle.

A major fire burned down most of the castle in 1727 and it was rebuilt from 1729 until 1753. Most of the current buildings date from this period.

As well as the main keep and the Daimyo's palace, six gates still remain.

The Yamanouchi held the castle until it was decommissioned in 1868.

It was spared the government ordered destruction that befell the vast majority of Edo Period castles, and also was unscathed during the bombings of WWII

Major repairs were undertaken in the postwar period. Just outside the castle is a castle museum with extensive displays.

I visited at the end of my 16th day walking the Shikoku Ohenro Pilgrimage. The previous post in this series was Hata Shrine. The previous castle I posted about was Tsuyama Castle.

Giant Torii of Ryugu Sumiyoshi Shrine

 

Walking up Route 206, the main road up the western side of Omura Bay in Nagasaki, in the town of Seihi there is a giant vermillion torii straddling a side road.

The road leads to  Ryugu Sumiyoshi Shrine which is part of the Head Temple of Seicho No Ie, a "new" religion founded in 1930. The shrine and temple was established in 1978.

Said to combine elements of Shinto, Buddhism, Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and various philosophies and psychologies, it claims to be a  monotheistic religion. The founder, Masaharu Taniguchi, claims to have had guidance from Sumiyoshi Okami, hence Ryugu Sumiyoshi shrines are associated with Seicho No Ie properties.

I did not venture up to the shrine on this trip though I had visited it on a road trip earlier. I can find no info on the dimensions of the torii.

The previous post in this series on day 65 of my Kyushu Pilgrimage was on sunrise a little earlier that morning.

From Orekiji Temple to Kakaji

 

Mount Shiritsuki, 587 meters, is clearly visible as I leave Oreki Temple and carry on up the road.

For a couple of hours, the road is forest and mountain with no habitations of any kind.

I'm on the second day of my walk along the Kyushu Fudo Pilgrimage, which for this first part also follows the old yamabushi Kunisaki pilgrimage now followable along the Kunisaki Hanto Minemichi Long Trail.

Every now and then the view opens up to the typical Kunisaki Peninsula landscape of cliffs and spires of rock, the kind of place that attracted yamabushi.

Eventually the road lead down past some mountain farms and eventually reached the main road running along the Takeda River. The next temple is not far upstream but that will be where I start on the next leg as I am heading home now.

The road runs north towards the coast where I will take the ferry across to Honshu.

Along the way I stop in briefly at some local shrines, a Wakamiya Shrine, a Yasaka Shrine, and a Hie Shrine, none with any interesting attributes, and none part of the syncretic shinto-buddhist Rokumanzan culture that is so intriguing in this area.

The largest settlement on the coast is Kakaji and there is a big shrine here for me to explore, but that will be the next post.

The previous post in this series was Oreki Temple.

It is the first week of  May and so the carp streamers are up......

Nagaura Sunrise

 

Friday, March 7th, 2014, day 65 of my walk around Kyushu and a wonderful sunrise.

I spent the night at a minshuku right on the water's edge in Nagaura on an inlet of Omura Bay.

I once lived in a place where I could see the sunrise and sunset every day, but for the past twenty-some years I have lived in a narrow valley so normally see neither...

So please excuse my indulgence...

The previous post was on the shrines I had visited the previous day

Tameshigiri Testing a New Samurai Sword

 

Tameshigiri is the art of testing a new sword. In the good old days this would often be done using the body of an executed criminal, but sometimes on a live criminal.

When this no longer became practical a substitute was discovered that mimicked the properties of human bodies. Wet goza, the reed mats that cover tatami flooring, when wrapped around bamboo, was close to a human limb.

Nowadays Tameshigiri is a kind of an exhibition martial art, but the goza is not wet and is not wrapped around bamboo.

There are a variety of different cuts and arrangements in Tamegishiri. One of the more difficult is called Tsubamegaeshi. A vertical roll of goza is first cut with a 45 degree downward cut from left to right. then followed by an upward 45 degree cut from right to left below the first cut. Then before the cut piece can fall it is cut in half horizontally from left to right, and a final cut on the remaining standing piece of roll is cut horizontally from right to left. All in the blink of an eye. see Photo 3

This video and these photos were taken at a demonstration of Tamegishiri at the Okuizumo Tatara and Sword Museum and the sword master is Mr. Yoshihara.

Shrines along the way on Day 64

 

Early March, 2014, and on day 64 of my walk around Kyushu I walked from Nagasaki, up the coast of Omura Bay, to Nagaura, stopping in, as usual, to as many shrines as I passed.

In Togitsu I stopped in at a branch shrine of Yutoku Inari, and  not too long after I spied the succession of red torii on a hillside that led to a small roadside Inari Shrine.

A little further, still in Togitsu, I visited a branch of  Kumano Shrine. Enshrining Susano, Hayatamano, and Kotoshironushi.

There was not anything particularly interesting or unusual, though I did notice a sumo ring.

Further on I climbed up the steps to a branch of Katori Shrine. The shrine history has it being established in 1637, but at that time it was dedicated to Bishamonten, one of the Shitenno, four heavenly kings, of Buddhism. It became a Katori shrine in 1868.

Katori shrines enshrine Futsunushi, mythical ancestor of the Mononobe clan and linked to swords and warriors. Bishamonten was also lonked to warriors and so tye switch was kind of easy.

It also featured a small sumo ring in the grounds. I have noticed that only a few areas of Japan tend to have sumo rings in their grounds.

My final stop is marked as a shrine on the maps, has a torii and shimenawa, but enshrines Yakushi, the Medicine Buddha, and also has a statue of Amida in the grounds. Called Rurikoden, not sure why its identity is so confused, though that is not as unusual as many think. Whether something is a shrine or a temple is a somewhat arbitrary distinction made by politicians.

The previous post in the series was on Nagaura, the small fishing harbour where I spent the night.