 |
Let me introduce My name is Haruko Matsumoto.i was born in Takamatsu Town,Kagawa Prefecture on March27,1985.
I am a first year student Kagawa junior College in japan. My major is Nutrition.
My hobbies are listening to music, cooking,and reading bookes.
✰✰My
Favorite Links✰✰
Search Engine :Google
Directories:Yahoo!Japan | NTT goo
Visiting or living in Shikoku is something special, for this island has always been the spiritual sanctuary of the Japanese people. No other place in Japan has been visited by so many generations of people from all over the country.
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 improved health.
Though today the island in quite accessible and traveling 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 provides sanctuary to the soul of Japan. The scenes along the Shikoku Pilgrimage correspond well to what Sea, the Pacific Ocean, the green mountains that crown a large pary of the island, cosy little towns and middle-sized cities that fringe the coasts.
Its climate is mild; the seas are bountiful; the land is fertile. Naturally local people have been remained underdeveloped since the 8th century. Until then the northern coast of Shikoku was amog the first areas to enjoy civilzation in Japan, as proved by so many archaeological findings.
Remote as it was for many centuries, however, Shikoku did not stand aloof but observed movemeats on the Inland Sea as an artery of Japan's cultural,political and ecomonmic development. On the other hand, Shikoku's unique attractions such as the Shikoku Pilgrimage, Kompira worship 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 brought tere was carefully preserved ru developed even long after being forgotten in its homeland- language, festivals, arts and techniques. These vulturl 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 siland, pkeasure resorts, theme parks, museums, skyline drives and relativelt inexpensive golf courses. So the charm of Shikoku can rightly be called an exquisite coexistence of tuadition and modernity, nature and art.
Last but not least is a spirirual climate Shikoku that has produced people like the father of the Shikoku Pilgrimage, who is often credited as a father of Japanese culture, the man who airde the idea of the Seto Ohashi Bridge, and two young men who turned out to be most instrmental in carrying out the modernization of Japan, opening Japan's door to the world as an independent nation. There must have been something inspirig on this island.
We hope this guidebook will help you enjoy Shikoku, and Japan herself seen throrgh Shikoku, finding inspiration of your own by tuaveling around this small but great island. Bon voyage!
Especially Noted Products;raw and dried bonito,coral crafts,long- tailed cocks,Tosa native doge and Tosa fighting dogs.
Especially Noted Cuisine ;Sawachi-ryori and Katsuono Tataki (bonito seared only the surface)
Kochi,the largest city on the Pacific coast,is the capital of kochi Prefecture, especially known for its marine products, forestry and greenhouse culture of vegetables.The fishing ports dotted along the Pacific coast are usually busy with small boats that drinfg in bonito snd mackerel from the warm current offshore,and sometimes with big boats that have made six-or seven-month voyages after tuna into the lndian Ocean,the Tasman Sea, even the Atlantic.
Men in this prefecture have long been known for a trait called igosso.When a man is called igosso, it means he is gallantly generous, obstinately independent,carefree and passionate in his usually unpredictable actions. Women of the same type are called hachikin.
Kochi was also a catle town.The approach to the castle gate is liveliest on Sunday as the 3-century-old Sunday Matket is held there,the 1.2 km avenue lined with hundreds of stalls stocked with every kind of local product imaginable-vegetables,fruits,flowers,trees, raw, dried or cooked fish,coral crafts,toys,knives, antiques,old clothes,china,earthenware,kittens,puppies,granny'pickles, cookies,candies,rice cakes,pancakes and sundry items.
5 minutes' walk from JR kochi Station to the en-trance of Snuday Market.
❃❃Kochi-jo Castle❃❃
Kochi-jo Castle came into being in 1588 when Chosokabe Motochika ,who once subjugated the whole of Shikoku,built his castle here on top of the hill. In 1600 Yamanoushi Kazutoyo took over the castie,rebuilt it, and 16 generations of Lords Yamanouchi reigned until 1869 when the Province was officially returned to the Emperor Meiji. The Otemon Main Gate built in 1603 still stands.The statue seen on entering the gate is the gate is that of Itagaki Taisuke, leadar of Japan's popular right movement. The other buildings - the highest donjon, turrts and gates - also retain their original style, though were rebuilt around the middle of the 18th century.
The donjion of houses a museum exhibiting a large collection of mementoes of the Yamanouchi Family and historical assets of the province , with one wing dedicated to local peole who in the the 1860's became a driving force in overthrowing the Shogunate and restoring imperial rule.
Tosa was at the vanguard when Japan was at this critical turning point in her history .The 15th lord of Tosa Province,Yamanouchi Yodo for his part presented the Shogun a petition for the Shogun accepted it in 1867 a bloodless tranference of governmath, the Boshin Civil War, was far from bloodless.
At the entrance hall of the museum, there are some exhibitions concerning two of the favorite sons of Tosa Province - Sakamoto Ryoma and Nakaoka Shintaro.
One of the captions is qutoed from the postscript to Vol.l of Ryoma ga yuku, a biographical novel of Sakamoto to Ryouma, written by a leading novelist of contemporary Japan Ryotaro:
Sakamoto Ryoma can rightly be called a miracle in the history of the Meiji Restoration. All the heroes who appeared in those days can be classied into categories. Only Ryoma cannot. He stood alone even among thousangs of revolutinares in that period. It was a miracie in itself, too, that Japan happened to have this this yong man at that japan turning point in history. If the Unseen Hand had not been so timely, Japan might havehad a different history.
Indeed, only a faw Japanese have been admired so much as Ryoma. He was the arche-typical igosso,who was born in 1835 in downtown Kochi as a son of a wealthy samurai.
At 19 he went to Ebo to sharpen his swordsmanship. But in July of that yesr,Edo and its vicinity were thrown into chaos: Commodore Perry of the United States arrived at Tokyo Bay, demanding the Tokugawa Shogun sign a treaty . Japan had maintained a national isolation policy for over two hunderd years. The confusion that folloed was unprecedented in the history of this country.Ryoma was simply a bewildered observer at that time.
In 1858 he returned to Kochi as acknowledged swordsman. Then he met Kawada Shoryo, an artist-scholar, who was already well-informed about foreign affairs through acquaintance with John Manjiro.Shoryo inspireb Ryoma with a vision of modern Japan as a nation fortified against Western colonialism.
In 1862 he returned to Edo after disenfranchising himself of goshi status in his home province. Soon he came to know Katsu Kaishu, the Shogun's Commissioner of the Warship Department. Katsu was among the most knomledgeable of internal and external affirs that time. Two years earlier he had been to America as the captain of the first Japanese boat to cross the Pacific, when the Shogun sent a delegation to Washington to conclude a treaty of friendship and commerce with the U.S.A He was a man of foresight, too, curiously unselfish unselfish and detached from the Shogunate he served.
Ryoma offered himself as Katsu's assistanat and learned under him Western navigation and studies including political science, philosophy and law. Katsu also introduced Ryoma to his colleagues and friends. Some of them were progressive scholars or thinkers; others were politically influential .The latter turned out be instrumental when Ryoma began to Carry out his revolutionary plans.
First he satrted a trading corporation with some of the former students of theNavyTraininglnstitute,establishedby Katsu in 1864 but closed the next year when it was suspected of being "a dan of radicalsa" and Katsu was dismissed.
Now Ryoma knew ships were his passion and that the future of Japan was on the sea- in trading. To begin with Ryoma approacted the Satsuma Clan for a schooner, setting up a corpotion in Nagasaki with the Satsuma Clan as a major shareholder. This was Japan's first joint stock company.
His second plan was to include the Choshu Clan as another shareholder. Satsuma and Choshu had been hostileto each other, but if united, they could be a formidable power to overthrow the Shogunate, which was now turning to a European colonialist to subjugate Choshu firsrt and then other revolutionary clans.
Ryoma, with his trading company unitig them, made Satsuma and Choshu into allies. From a merchant marine, the company thus developed into the first be facto modern navy in japan.
His next idea was to have someone bring forward a motion to the Shogun for the Restoration of lmperial Rule.Rule. Ryoma brought his Eight-Point Plan to Goto Shojiro , Chief Secretary of Lord Yamanouchi Yodo in Tosa,his home province. Goto felt it could be acceptable not only to the Emperor but also to the Tokugawa Family if not the Shogunate itself.
In fact, his Plan, slightly revised by Goto, did prove to be acceptable to all sides including Lord Yamanouchi who agreed to present the motion in his own name. On October 15, 1866, the Shogun Yoshinobu adopted it to avoid a great of further bloodshed.
That very night Ryoma planned how to organize a provisional government for new era to come. The next day he produced a list of cabinet personnel.Both were agreed upon by all concerned. At first they were surprised not to see the name of Ryoma himelf om the list. Wasn't he the leader of this revolution?When asked why , Ryoma simply answered, "I am not interested in worling in an office. I think I'll go back to sea-the seas of the world."
Yet he stayed busy guiding the Meiji Restortion and planning the new government. But a month later, on Novenber 15, on his 33rd birthday, Ryoma was assassinated in Kyoto.
Befor his unimely death, however, Ryoma seemed to have done everything he thought he had to. The admimistrative policy he had prepared was willingly adopted by the new government .
The Five-Point Imprial Oath delivered by Emperor Meiji in 1868, in effect the first constitution of modern Japan was derived from the Eight-Plan Ryoma had made two years before.
Here comes another igosso Itagaki Taisuke(1837-1919). During the Boshin Civil War, Itagaki Ied his Tosa le-gion to subjugate the pro-Shogunate Clan of Aizu(Fukushima Pref.).
During the battle he keenly felt the necessity for the oquality of people, when he saw only the privileged class of loyalty. The other classes, who had long been left in the cold simply fled. Itagaki said to himself, "It's only natural;only where there are rights is there duty."
A few years later when Itagaki retired form the cabinet in Tokyo, he started working to implement the First Article of the Imperial Charter Oath delivered by Emperor Meiji -"Deliberative assemblies shall be established on an established on an extensive scale, and all measures of government shall be decided by public opinion."
In 1873, he and other members of the Aikoku Koto Party- the f irst political association of the Meiji era- presented a resolution to the government, requesting the establishment of a parliamentary government, but without success. He returned to propagate democratic principles, a pioneer among political societies emerging at that time.
By 1811 the national movement for democratic rights had reached its zenith and finally obtained the government's pledge to inaugurte a National Assembly in 1890.
But when the first Deliberative Coumcil was finally assemled and the Liberal was reorganized, it had already lost its original spirit. To the frustration of Itagaki, it was difficult for librtlism, especially in politics, to take root in Japan.
Yet Kochi is regarded as the birthplace of Japan's Movement for Democratic Rights. It was also in this prefecture, in the town of Kamimachi in 1880, that women first acquired suffrage, 65 years earlier than women in the rest of the country, who attaimed it in 1945 only after World War2.
There is the Memorial Museum of this Movemet for Democratic Riight Jiyuinken Kinenkan, on the Samdays after nater national holi- days.
Halfway up the castle hill by the stone steps are statues of a woman and big horse. steps are statues of Yanamouchi Kazutoyo, widely known as "a model of an exemplary wife." In one well-known episode, when her husband was still an unknown young amsurai in Owari have a fleet steed but could not afford it, and promptly produced a sufficient cache of money she hsd carefully saved. By virtue of that wonderful horse, Kazutoyo's readiness to help his master was first recognized by Oda Nobunaga, ultimate victor of the long Civil War from 1477 to 1573. Kazutoyo continued his successful career until he was appointed Lord of Tosa Province by the Tokugwa Shogunate with a fief of 240,000 koku,the largest in Shikoku. Naturally many wives in Japan still like to cite "Yamanouchi Kazutoyo's wife" to justefy their secret savings.
Chosokabe MotochikaChosokaba Motochika(1539-99), like many other warlords in the Civil War Period that lasted about a century from the close of the 15th Century, forght for his autonomy and for the increase of his fief until he finally subjugated the whole island of Shikoku(1584). But soon he had to fight against Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the successor to Oda Nobunaga as the stuongest civil-war baron stesdily unifying the had to give up all the Lands he had invaded-Awa, Sanuki and Iyo. And it was only by helping Hideyoshi subjugate Kyushu that Motoshika was fornally appointed Lord of Tosa. Soon after his death, death, however, his heir Morichika forght a losing battle against the Tokugawa at Sekigahara,only to be deprived of his fief. In 1615 he was killed during the Tokugawas'siege against Osaka Castle. This spelled the end of the Chosokade eminence. When Yamanouchi Kazutoyo became Lord of Tosa, he brought his own samurai from his former fiefdom (60,000 koku) of Kakegawa (Shizuoka Pref.), thus bably icing Chosokabe's samurai called goshi or country samurai all through the Ebo Period. No wonder those goshi from Tosa were among the main forces to over throw the Tokuganwa Shogunate.
- 25 minutes' bus ride from Seibu Terminal
- (Tosa Dentetsu Bus bond for Chikurinji)
Chikurin-ji Temple, situated on top of Godaisan Hill, in one of the biggest of the 88temples. The main image,Manjusri, the Bodhisattva of windom and intellect,and 19 other Buddhist images in the treasure horse are all Important Cultural Properties.
Just next to the temple is Makino Botanical Garden, a 30,000
Return to the Kagawa Junior College Internet English Classes Home Page