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Yokozawa. I was born in MINO town, Kagawa Prefecture,
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Visiting or living in Shikoku is something special, for this island has alwayd 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 emlightened, and in many cases in improved health.
Though today the island is 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 Pilgrimage" is synonymous with this island and provides sanctuary to the soul of Japan. The scenes along the Shikoku Pilgrimage correspond well to what Shikoku offers - the Seto Inland Sea, the Uwa-kai Sea, the Pacific Ocean, the green mountains that crown a large part 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 content with their blessed island, even if it has remained underdeveloped 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 movements on the Inland Sea as an artery of Japan's cultural, politocal and economic development. On the other hand, Shikoku's unique attractions such as the Shikoku Pilgrimage, Kompira worship and the Dogo Onsen Hot Springspa 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 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 here was carefully preserved or developed even long after being forgotten in its homeland - language, festivals, arts and techniques. These
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 fishimg ports dotted along the Pacific coast are usually busy with small boats that bring in bonito and mackerel from the warm current offshore, and sometimes with big boats that have made six- or seven- momth voyages after tuna into the Indian 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 galiantly generous, obstinately independent, carefree and passionate in his usually unpredictable actions. Womeno of the same type are called hachikin.
Kochi was also a castle town. The approach to the castle gate is liveliest on Sanday as the 3-century- old Sunday Market is held there, the 1.2 km avenue Iined with hundreds of stalls stocked with every kind of local product imaginable -vegetables, fruits, flowers, trees, raw, dried or cookd fisn, coral crafts, toys, kinves, antiques, old clothes, china, earthenware, kittens, puppies, granny's pickles, cookies, candies, rice cakes, pancakes and sundry items.
5 minutes' walk from JR Kochi Station to the en-trance of Sunday Market.
Kochi-jo Castle
Kochi-jo Castle came into begin in 1588 when Chosokabe Motochika, who once subjugated the whole of Shikoku, built his castle here on top of the hill. In 1600 Yamanouchi Kazutoyo took over the castle, rebuilt it, and 16 generations of Lords Yamanouchi reighed until 1869 when the Province was officially returned to the Empepor Meiji.
The Otemon Main Gate built in 1603 still stands. The statue seen on entering the gate is that of Itagaki Taisuke 斅奯戅彆, Ieader of Japan's popular right movement. The other buildings - the highest donjon, turrets and gates - also retain their original style, they were rebuilt around the middle of the 18th century.
The donjion 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 people who in 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 fis part presented the Shogun a petition for the peaceful restoration of imperial rule. As the Shogun accepted it in 1867 a bloodless transference of the reins of government was tentatively achieved though its aftermath, 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 quoted from the postscript to Vol.1 of Ryoma ga yuku, a biographical novel of Sakamoto Ryoma, written by a leading novelist of contemporary Japan, Shiba Ryotaro:
Sakamoto Ryoma 嶁杮棾攏 can rightly be called a miracle in the history of the Meiji Restoration. All the heroes who appeared in those days can be classified into categories. Only Ryoma cannot. He stood alone even among thousands of revolutionaries in that period. It was a miracle in itself, too, that Japan hppened to have this young man at the turning point in history. If the Unseen Hand had not been so timely, Japan might have had a different history.
Indeep( only @< igosso, who was born in 1835 in downtown Kochi as a son of a wealthy samurai.
At 19 he went up to Edo (Tokyo) to sharpen his swordsmanship. But in July of that year (1853), Edo and its vicinity were thrown into chaos: Commodre 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 hundred years. The confusion that followed was unprecedented in the history of this country. Ryoma was simply a bewildered observer at that time.
In 1858 he returned to Kochi as an acknowledged swordsman. Then he met Kawada Shoryo, an artist-scholar, who was already well - informed about foreign affairs through acquaintance with John Manjiro. Shoryo inspired 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 knowledgeable of internal and external affairs at 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 and detached from the Shogunate he served.
Ryomaoffered himself as Katsu'sassistant and learned under him Western navigation and studies including political science, philoslphy and law.
Katsu also introduced Ryomato his colleagues and friends. Some of them were progressive scholars or thinks; others were politically influential. The latter turned out to be instrumental when Ryoma began to carry out his revolutionary plans.
First he started a trading corporation with some of the former students of the Navy Training Institute, established by Katsu in 1864 but closed the next year when it was suspected of begin "a den of radicals" 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 approached the Satuma Clan for a schooner, setting up a corporation 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 hostile to 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 first and then other revolutionary clans.
Ryoma, with his trading company uniting them, made Satsuma and Choshu into allies. From a merchant marine, the company thus developed into the first de facto modern navy in Japan.
His next idea was to have someone bring forward a motion to the Shogun for the Restoration of Imperial 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, slughtly revised by Goto, did prove to be acceptable
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