Akemi Ohmae's Home Page
Self-introduction
Let me introduce myself. My name
is Akemi Ohmae .I was born in Tarumicho Marugamecity Kagawaken
Japan on August 7, 1982.
My favorite links
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My favorite region
Quoted from the Shikoku
Bilingual Guidebook
by Akiko Takemoto and
Steve McCarty
PREFACE
Visiting or living in Shikoku is something
special, for this siland has alway been the spiritual sanctualy
or the Japanese peaple. No other place in Japan has been visited
by so many generations of people from all over the countuly.
They have often spent more than 60 days
walking along the whole circuit of the eighty-eight temples that
compose the longest, oldest and most popular pilgrimage in Japan.
Even those who have arrived here in weariness
of life, in unhappiness or weak health, have usually left the
island with a lighter heart, more enlightened, and in many cases
in imporved health.
Though today the island is quite accessible
and tlaveling around it can be very easy, some of the eighty-eight
temples still remain very hard to reach.
This pilgrimage circling the island is
nationally known as O-Shikoku-san, showing that "Dear old
Shikoku Pligrimage" is synonymouse with this island and provides
sanctuary to the soul of Japan. The scens along the Shikoku Pilgrimage
correspond well to what Shikoku offers - the Seto Inland Sea,
the Uwa-kai Sea, the Pacific Ocean, the green monutains that crown
a large part of the island, cosy little towns and middle -size
cities that fringe the coasts.
Its climate is mild ; the seas are bountiful
;the land is fertile, Naturally local people have been content
with their blessed island, even if it has remained underdeloped
since the 8th century. Until then the northern coast of Shikoku
was among the first areas to enjoy civilization in Japan, as proved
by so many archaeological findings.
Remote as it was for many centuries,
however, Shikoku did not stand aloof but observed movement on
the Inland Sea as an artury of Japan's cultual , political and
economic beveloment. On the other hand, Shikoku 's unique attractions
such as the Shikoku Pilgrimage, Kompira worsip and the Dogo Onsen
Hot Spring spa have always drawn a large number of people from
the capitals and other parts of the main island of Honshu and
neighboring Kyushu.
Naturally those visitors brought something
new with them each time, just as refugees and exiles from the
capitals added color to the island's history .They were welcomed
and sometimes the culture they bought here was carefully preserved
or developed or developed even long after being forgotten in its
homeland - language , festivals , arts and techniques . These
cultural assets now peculiar to Shikoku have added another dimension
rewarding travelers to this island .
A new type of attraction in Shikoku is
the fruit of modern technology that the waves of development have
finally brought here in the 1980' s and 90's -the colossal bridges
connecting Shikoku with the main island , pleasure resorts , theme
parks , museums skyline drives and relatively inexpensive golf
courses . So the charm of Shikoku can rightly be called an exquisite
coexistence of tradition and modernity, nature and art.
Last but not least is a spiritual climate
of Shikoku that has prodused people like the father of the Shikoku
Pilgrimage , who is often credited as a father of Japanese culture
, the man who aired the idea of the Seto Ohashi Bridge, and two
young men who turned out to be most instrumental in carrying out
the modernization of Japan , opening Japan's door to the world
as an independent nation. They were all rare cosmopolitans in
Japanese history. There must have been something insoiring on
this islan.
Wehope this guidebook will help you enjoy
Shikoku, and Japan herself seen through Shikoku, finding inspiration
of your own by traveling around this small but great island. Bon
voyage !
Queted from the shikoku Bilingual Guidebook
by Akiko Takemoto and Steve McCarty.
Takamatu is the capital of Kagawa Prefecture,
which has tabitionally been called the gateway to Shikoku, theSeto
inland of the profecture jutting out into the Seto Inland Sea
like a porch.
JR Takamatu Station next to Takamatu
Harbor is the terminal of the Kotoku Line for Tokushima Pref.,the
terminal of the Yosan Line for Ehime Pref. and the Dosan Line
for Kochi Pref ,while serving as the bus terminal to Tokushima
,Matsuyama and Kochi City. Takamatsu Cikko just opposite JR Station
is the terminal of Koroden trams to and from Kotohira,the seat
of 'Kompira-san.'
The New Takamatsu Airport handles non-stop
flights to and from Serea.
Another place in Takamatsu appropriate
as a gateway to Shikoku is the Takamatsu Hike Monogatari Historical
Museum 高松平家物語歴史館 that features not only the famous historical
literature called Heike Monogatari but also about 50 great historical
figures closely associated with Shikoku or native to Shikoku .(p.40)
Tkamatsu became the capital in 1587 with
the advent of Lord Ikoma I as governor of Sanuki Province. The
castle he built on the harbor was succeeded by 4 generations of
his descendants, and then by 11 generations of Matsudaira lords,
governing Takamatsu Province with a frief of 120.000 koku .
One ninth of the former castle ground
is preserved as Tamamo Koen Park 玉藻公園across the street from JR
Takamatsu Station. The donjon is gone, but two of the 15 turrets
and Mizute Gomon Gate from the 17th century (Important Cultural
Properties) survived the air raid in 1945. Admission :￥100.
Traditionally the popular sightseeing
spots in Takamatsu are Ritsurin Koen Park near downtown and Yashima
Plateau overlooking the city and the Inland Sea. They are accessible
by bus or tram, with terminal at Takamatsu Chikko 高松築港 just opposite
JRStation.
Ritsurin Koen Park 栗林公園
◎30 minutes' walk from JR Takamatsu Station.
The busy street in front of JR Takamatsu
is The main street of downtown Takamatsu, and leads to the main
gate to Ritsurin Koen Park, a National Special ScenicSpot. This
spacious garden laid out with shapely mounds, cool ponds and about
160 variteties of trees and flower provides a classic of a Japanese
garden or even a Chinese Taoist fit for meditation.
Originally it beronged to a local warlord,
and then to lord Ikoma. When it was transfereed to the Matsudairas,
they spent five genetations developing it into alarger stroll-type
garden for their villa.Seasonal charms of flowers and blossoms
such as ume (Japanese plum blossoms) in February, camellias in
March cherry blossoms in April, wisteria and azaleas in May, Iilies
in June, giant lotuses in Auguast, and Japanese bush clover in
September, and brilliant maple leaves in November add to the pleasure
of strolling.
Kikugetsu-tei 掬月亭, one of the pond-side
teahouses, was originally one of the Matsudairas' formal buildings.
The musemu just inside the main gate 讃岐民芸館 houses a variety of
mostly local handicrafts. There is a zoo, too, inside the gate.
Open dairy. Admission to the park: About
￥300.
Yashima Plateau 屋 島
Bus: 30 minutes' ride from Chikko to
the terminal
(Kotoden Bus for Yashima-sanjo or Yashima
Hilltop 屋島山上）.
Tram: +Cable:30 minutes' tram ride from
Chikko to Yashima (Shido-sen Line 志度線） + 5 minutes' cable-car
ride.
Yahsima, a pine-wooded tableland to the
northeast of downtown Takamatsu, is one of the word's rare lava
mesas, about 290 m high, 3 km wide, jutting 5 km out into the
sea.
The hilltop, overlooking the archipelago
of the Inrand Sea, features Yashima-ji (No.84) 屋島寺, an aquarium
and observatories all linked by forest promenades.
One of the observatories, Danrei 談古嶺
commands a visw of the inlet fringed with memorials to the Gempei
Yashima Battle (the second last battle in Gempei War fought between
the two rival clans, the Minamotos and Tairras).
Once a British poet, Edmund Blunden,
visited Yashima and wrote a poem that was engraved on astone here
at Dankorei observatory:
Like a long roof, men say, and will they
say,
This hill of warrior ghosts surmounts
the plain...
Gempei War 源平合戦
In 794 Kyoto became the capital of
Japan and it enjyoyed peace for about 350 years (811-1155) - the
longest peace Japan has ever attained in her history.
The last 30 years of this period, however,
were far from peaceful. In 1156 the first battle took place in
the capital, thus opening up a new era dominated by martial, emotions.
Two martial clans - the Minamoto and Taira clans - began to acquire
greater and greater influence in politics through fighting against
each other in the name of "the Empror " or "the
Ex-Emperor."
In 1159, the Tairas succeeded temporarily
in staving off the Minamotos. The 20 years that followed saw the
Tairas rise to increasingly contrpl the Imperial Family, inviting
animosity from the reigning Emperors, the Ex-Empeeoes, powerful
proests, warriors and lords, to say nothing of the Minamotos in
exile.
In 1183 the patriarch of the clan Taira
no Kiyomori died just when the Tairas faced more battle against
the Minamotos, who were gradually consolidating their poewr.
In 1181 the Tairas were driven from the
Capital along with the 6 - year - old Emperor Antoku and his mother,
who was Kiyomori's daughter. They wandered far in search of supporters,
while fighting losing battles.
Now in 1185, Minamoto no Yoshitsune attacked
the remaining Tairas here at Yashima, then at Dan-no-ura in the
westernmost corner of the Inland Sea, where the proud Taira finally
fell, the noblewomen casting themselves into the sea with the
child Emperor Antoku.
Thus the age of ancient nobility yielded
to the age of shoguns (1185-1867)>
yashima-ji Temple 屋島寺 treasures in its
museum a folding screen depicting the Gempei no Kassen Battles.
The bell in the belfry, cast in Kyoto in 1223, was dedicated here
for the repose of the defeated Tairas. But no one can strike the
bell, as there is no hammer. They say, "Strike the bell,
and invoke the ghosts of the Tairas."
On the last weekend in March the Gempei
Yashima Festival is held, whose highlight is the Warriors'Pageant.
It was an insurrection caused by the
discord between Emperor Goshirakawa (1127-92) and Ex-Emperor Sutoku
(1119-64). Sutoku was defeated and banished to Sanuki (Kagawa
Pref.) to die a miserable death 8 years laer. His ashes were buried
at Temple 81.
in 1184 the court elevated him to Shinto
deity to placate his ghost.
Minamoto no Yoshitsune (1159-89): By
bringing about victory in the civil war, Yoshitune had greatly
helped Minamoto no Yoritomo, his elder brother, who in 1192 was
toestablish the first Shogunate at Kamakura. But Yoshitune had
to spend the rest of his life escaping Yoritomo, until four years
later he killed himself. His tragic life and death was so appealing
to Japanese sentiment that he has taken on heroic proportion in
Kabuki, Noh and Joruri plays, basedon what is called Yshitune
Literature.
Very few Japanese visit Yashima without
being reminded of an eoisode show in the picture above:
It was on the afternoon of February 19,
1185, that Minamoto no Yoshitune mounted another surprise attack
against the Tairas at the Yoshitune mounted another surprise attack
against the Tairas at the then Yoshitune Island. Frightented by
the imagined immensity of enemy forces, the Taisas jumped into
their boats and sailed off. A fierce battle lasted for hours.
Now the sun was setting. Both sides began
to retreat, when a fair vessl parted parted from the Taira legions
and stopped about 80 m from the beach. Then a beautiful lady appeared
from the cabin, produced a pole with a bright red fan on its top
and beckoned to the puzzled warriors on the shore.
"what dose she mean?"said Yoshitune.
"Perhaps she is inviting one of
us to shoot the fan. Or she may be inviting you to come out onto
the front line for her archers ," said his attendant .
"Then let it be shot down by someone
," said Yoshitune .
Soon a young man called Nasu no Yoichi
appeared on horseback with bow and arrow in his hands. The north
wind was strong . The boat was tossing up and down. The fan painted
with the golden sun at its center was fluttering on the pole.
All the Tairas in the boats and all the
Minamotos on the shore were watching Yoichi. What would he do?
Would he succeed?
Yoichi rode into the wathr as far as
he could. But it was still about 70 m to the target. He closed
his eyes and prayed. Then the wind fell for a moment. He shot.
The arrow pierced through a little above the rivet. The fan, flying
up a moment or two, came floating down, glittering in the setting
sun. There was great applause from both sides.
Then a man in armor appeared in the same
boat. He began to dance an elegant dance perhaps in genuine appreciation
of Yoichi'