When history comes to life

Looking back three years I’m not sure what brought me to this point. I’m often asked why I came to Japan. My answer varies vaguely from “I’m interested in the culture” to “the landscape is beautiful.” I usually mention that when I first came here in 2008 I loved it so much I knew I’d want to live here someday. The point is now I find myself asking me why I came here. I think I can only know now why I came after seeing all I have gained from living here: knowledge of a second language, an outsider’s perspective of my own country, a black belt in iaido, a friend that I hope I’ll always have, thousands of awesome pictures and an understanding of Japanese history I could never acquire from books alone. It is because of this last point that I went to Sekigahara. Okay that and Nikki really wanted to go. So off we went early in the morning like true crazy people, driving halfway across the country on local roads, to fulfill our quest: see the ancient battlefield that changed the way of Japan.

The first day was really long but we made lots of stops at omiyage shops, combinis and even a random beach that required nearly killing us as I veered off the highway to circle around these funny turns until I eventually found a place to park. I have a sixth sense for getting to beaches. We had to do a bit of bushwhacking along an overgrown trail, take a set of rotten wooden stairs up and over a fence, and pass beneath the highway but finally we reached the beautiful beach! It was a warmish day so we took off our boots and sucks and jumped through the surf, (yes in winter!) until we noticed the waves were big enough to threaten our abandoned things. We rescued them just in time and then went shell hunting. I found some really cool twirly shells. The waves were so massive and the wind fierce. Finally shivering, we headed back for the car, covered in sand and salt but it was so worth it.

As the day waned we finally made it to Nagoya which was a terrifying city to drive in. I could have probably tried to avoid it but there was a shrine there that I needed to complete a list of three, the sacred places that enshrine a sacred treasures of Japan. The imperial palace in Tokyo holds the jewel, the sacred shrine in Ise houses the mirror and finally the Asuta shrine in Nagoya is home to the sword. While you cannot actually see the treasures, they are far too sacred for mere mortals, it meant something to me to be in the places of them because of a book I’m writing. The precinct was large and heavily wooded. The sky over head was marbled with blue and white as the sun began to set. And if not for the hundreds of people celebrating hatsumode, the shrine was peaceful. Though unable to approach the main altar, if the visitor is respectful, they can walk a wooded trail around it. As the sword has a legend revolving around the dragon king, I lead Nikki around spinning a tale of the great dragon and how he still watched over the treasure entrusted to him.

As the sun set we drove through western Nagoya and I stopped to snap a quick shot of the castle before we carried on to Ogaki. The last part of the day was brutal. The driving took forever and because we took all local roads there was no direct route so we were forced to take side street after side street. It took forever to get to our hotel but when we did we were pleasantly rewarded with an excellent location and the softest of beds. We went out for dinner than tucked in early for our big adventure the next day.

At the hotel I’d seen a poster of Ogaki castle. I hadn’t even realized such a thing existed so of course we had to go check it out. We set out early, driving the sleepy streets of the town along a canal (that would have been simply gorgeous in sakura season) to the castle. We wandered around the castle grounds to this little inari shrine where red tori gates wrapped around a massive tree and the locals were feeding stray cats. While a reconstruction, the castle was really quaint and had an interesting museum inside. At the top I looked out the south window and saw where the valley of Sekigahara lied in the distant mountains, the climax of our adventure.

In the 16th century Japan was at war. Japan wasn’t even really a nation yet, it was a collection of many states that all had a warlord. In theory they were united by the emperor who ruled in Kyoto but he was mostly only ever viewed as a figurehead since the first shogun around the 12th century. The warring era began during a time of conflict with the Ashikage shogunate and after a series of earthquakes and famines. Japan became rather a free-for-all for a couple hundred of years. This was the time of Takeda Shingen, Uesugi kenshin, Date Masamune and all those other ancient samurai I like to gush on about. They all played a role but it was the three unifiers who changed the course of history. Oda Nobunaga first proposed uniting Japan under his rule. He was succeeded by Toyotomi Hideyoshi when he grew too corrupt and was killed. Finally Tokugawa Ieyasu was the one who saw their vision become reality. When Toyotomi passed away he left his son to inherit his power and his five most trusted generals to serve his son until he came of age. Of those generals were Tokugawa and Ishida Mitsunari. Ishida was loyal to his overlord even when he was dead. However, Tokugawa was an opportunist and as he was of a strong bloodline, if he conquered Japan, he had the potential to become shogun, a title awarded by the emperor to the elite.

Some time passed (insert montage here of samurai preparing for war) while Tokugawa readied his armies to the east, where powerful lords like Date ruled, and then in 1600 on October 21 he marched on Ishida’s forces from the west. The battle was the most decisive of Japanese history and took place in a remote mountainous area in the middle of the country: Sekigahara. The west hardly even stood a chance for midway through battle many of Ishida’s forced defected and turned against him. The battle was finished. Ishida was left looking over the battlefield from his camp and realizing he had lost to a former comrade. Okay well that last bit is probably mostly my speculation but all this was going through my mind as we hiked up the wood stairs to Ishida’s camp and looked out over the snowy fields where over 400 years ago hundreds of thousands of warriors fought the to end the age of the warring states. In the end Tokugawa was successful and, with only the exception of the Siege at Osaka castle three years later, there was peace until the Meiji restoration 250 years later. What’s most interesting to me is that the Meiji restoration is rather like the sequel to the battle of Sekigahara for it was the losing clans’ descendents in the west who eventually rose up to overthrow the Tokugawa government after centuries of resentment.

So here we were, driving up this silent little road in the middle of inaka looking for signs of this ancient war. Sekigahara is not really a place of tourism but that’s what made it so charming. It was like a scavenger hunt to find these places that existed so long ago and after a bit of research and fine use of my kanji-reading skills we found what appeared to be an abandoned theme park. Further investigation revealed it to be ‘Warland,’ a concrete reconstruction of the battle that was not entirely abandoned after all. We paid the nominal fee for the park and spent the next hour being the only ones to wander through the warriors frozen in battle as we were overtaken ourselves by a blizzard. It was a strange day full of surprises: first an entire park of stone warriors, then a snow storm when we awoke to blue skies and sun. There were secret omiyage shops to buy souvenirs and the nicest old lady who toweled Nikki and I off when we entered her store soaked from our hike in the snow. There was something very magical about the day. My favourite part was standing atop of Ishida’s camp and looking over the field half concealed by the snow storm. It took some imagination to see the whole valley stretched out before us but I imagined what it must have been to be a commander and watch your army fail you. Oh why must I be in love with the losers of history!? For Nikki’s sake we also visited the Tokugawa camp as she is a champion for the east. Then we waged war in front of this awesome poster I wanted to steal and take home with me.

 

 

We drove through the battlefield, turned rice field, past countless statues marking fallen warriors and important points of the battle, past half-frozen persimmons and trees dressed in snow and all the while we were alone in the countryside. It seemed as if we were the conquerors of Sekigahara. All too soon it was time to return home and as I set our course north I felt that history had truly come to life for me for just one day.

A weekend of Miyagi

Oh the wonders of the Seishun 18 ticket. For so cheap Nikki and I traveled to Sendai. The only catch was, as usual, it took all day to get there. But eight hours later Nikki had finally made it to the domain of Date Masamune, only the coolest feudal lord from Japanese history. I myself have been quite a few times now but I never regret going again. Sendai is about the size of Vancouver and nicknamed the ‘city of trees’ and for that it is a place I really connect with.

We spent the first day exploring the city. Going to the mausoleum of Date, the castle ruins and the Hachimangu shrine which was the family shrine of Masumune. Other than it being winter, when I’d last visited in summer, it was just as wonderful as I remembered. I would go into detail about the history of such a lovely city but I’ll leave that to my summer post from a couple of years ago. That day it just felt nice to explore with new eyes and enjoy a place I love so much with my best friend. We had a wonderful afternoon shopping and snacking and tucked in for an early yet relaxing evening with a wonderful movie.

 

 

The next day we went to Matsushima. The sky was blue with only a few clouds but it felt as if it had dropped quite a few degrees since the day before. This might have also been because we were now out at the edge of the ocean and the sea breeze was not kind. First we went to my favourite bridge in all of Japan! Well that’s not quite fair as I have so many of them: the vine bridge in Shikoku, the megane bridge in Kyushu, Saruhashi of course and just about every little red bridge that I come across. Well if nothing else, this one is the longest red bridge I’ve ever crossed and it leads to a little island. We walked around a bit and took these stairs cut into the sandstone down to a secret little beach where I’d played that first summer.

After, we went back to the mainland for some omiyage shopping and to see some of the sights like shrines and the stone Buddhist caves at the temple. We ate French fries and watched the ocean and finally went to the aquarium.

I always think Nikki is the one dragging me to the aquariums but it always ends up that I’m the one more excited and this was no exception. Affected by the tsunami there were still a few signs of what a disaster it had been but luckily it seems most of the fish survived. There is a sign on the penguin exhibit that shows how close it got though. It was bizarre to think I would be chest deep in ocean had I been standing there on March 11. To cheer us up there was a seal show going on across the way and Nikki and I went to watch what I thought was only in movies! A seal was balancing all sorts of things on his nose and playing volleyball with his friends. I was very entertained. But the best part by far was a dolphin I befriended. I can’t remember its actual type but it was nicknamed ‘panda dolphin’ and it was easy to see why.  I had never seen one before. I went up to the glass to marvel at them when one came right up to the glass and started doing little spins. I ran my hands along the glass and he followed. When I went to the other window he followed me there too, playing around in the water the entire time. He was simple adorable and if I could have taken him home I would have. I settled instead for a panda dolphin stuffy Nikki bought me at the shop instead. It was hard to say good bye yet I was convinced to leave because of the ‘penguin walk.’ The keepers actually let the penguins out of their tanks and they walked around the entrance way to the delight of the audience and myself included. Like I said, I think I enjoyed the aquarium way more than I thought I would.

But alas, cold and tired we headed back to Sendai. We were just about to stop for dinner when the most amazing thing happened: We walked down a covered shopping street with the illumination glowing around us and the sound of a recorded shamisen playing traditional New Year’s melodies. For three days we passed what appeared to be a little shrine tucked down the narrowest of alleys but for three days it seemed closed and unwelcoming. Each time I would stop, looking towards it wishing I could sneak down the alley, ring the bell and awaken the spirit there to listen to my prayers. Instead we kept walking until on the last night we passed by and it radiated warmth. The narrow alley was not lined by cold steel doors as I’d previously seen, it was lined by tiny shops selling green tea, amulets and incense that summoned us towards the shrine at the end. There people were bowing to the gods within and praying for a good New Year. As beautiful as it was I felt I was intruding and turned to leave with Nikki. Just as we did so a man caught up with us and in English asked where we were from. For some reason I chose to play the part of a tourist for once and politely replied I was from Canada leaving out that I lived in Japan. He suggested we go back to the shrine to pray and I looked back as if beckoned there. Before I knew it he’d whisked us back towards the shrine and up the stairs asking us to take our shoes off so we could enter the room and kneel down before altar. There he guided us through the simple cleansing ritual in his broken English. Humbled by his offering I kept my Japanese to myself for he seemed so much more powerful than me in that moment and there was no room for my pride. He put incense on our left hands and told us to rub it all over and on our faces and bodies to cleanse. We prayed, thanked him and bowed to both him and the gods before exiting back down the alley and back into the chaos of the city. I almost thought if I looked back the shrine, the priest who had blessed us would no longer be there.

The last morning we woke early to grab breakfast and catch the train home. I’m so glad I got to bring Nikki to Sendai at last and if there was any reason to justify staying this last year, that was it.

Bringing in the year of the horse

I first came to Japan for the year of the rabbit. That was three years ago. Since then I have seen the dragon, the snake and now the horse. I joke that maybe that’s the real reason I stayed in Japan because I couldn’t leave before seeing the horse. While now here it is! Happy year of the horse.

Nikki arrived just in time. I picked her up at Takao station late one December evening after she’d managed the trains all by herself! We met up and I whisked her back to Fujiyoshida where I gave her a day or two to recover and then the festivities began. For New Year’s we went to Laura’s to celebrate with Sheena and Ken. We ate hot pot and appetizers before sending Ken on a soba run as it’s lucky to eat (and finish) soba new noodles on the last day of the year. Despite eating so much, Laura and I managed to eat them in time as we watched kohaku. Finally it was time for the countdown. We popped streamers, sang Auld Lang Syne in Japanese and walked back home. It was all great fun.

The next morning was brilliantly sunny with a brisk chill but still Nikki and I bundled up and went down to my favourite little shrine for hatsumode, the first shrine visit of the year. It was a smaller turn-out, than I’d witnessed in previous years, as it is a less popular shrine but that’s what gave it the homey feeling and I even ran into one of my teachers. After tossing my charms and arrow from last year in the fire, I purified prayed and wished for a good year. It wasn’t until later at Fuji Sengon shrine that I bought my new arrow though. There they had the cutest horses ever and I gushed over all of them before settling on taking more pictures than souvenirs home with me.

A few days later we drove to Minobu so we could celebrate another tradition. This time a tradition that I came up with. I first visited Minobu my very first year when I came here with Rhee. We had found the amazing little village quite by accident. Since then I’ve gone back at least once a year and collected the tiny statues they sell of the zodiac animals. After climbing the three hundred huge stairs, I went inside to meditate on the cool tatami before the golden altar. Only when we were back down the stairs did I allow myself to purchase my little horse trinket. And so I’ve finished the collection I’ll obtain while living here. I have one third of the zodiac now! Maybe I’ll have to come again to finish the set!

As the New year’s celebrations came to an end and 2014 had officially begun Nikki and I set our sights afar. We wanted to go north to Sendai and south to Sekigahara.