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.
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