Let me intreduce myself. My name is Kumi Fujihara. I was born in Kochi City, Kochi prefecture, Japan on December 26,
I am a first year student at Kagawa Junior Callege. My major is Infant Education.
My hobbies is listening to music.
My home Page address is : http://www.geocities.co.jp/CollegeLife-Labo/4001/2004/503051.html
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* Especially Noted Products: raw and dried boni to,coral crafts, long-tailed cocks, Tosa native dogs and Tosa fighting dogs.
*Especially Noted Cuisine: Sawachi-ryori and Katsuono Tataki (boni to seared only on the surface)
Kochi, the largest city on the Pacific coast, is the capital of Kochi Prefecture, especially known for itsmarine products, forestry and greenhouse culture of vegetables.The fishing ports dotted a long 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 saven-month 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 gallantly generous, obstinately independent, carefree and passionate in his usually unpredictable actions. Women of the same type are called hachikin.
Kochi was also a castle town. The approach to the castle gate is liveliest on Sunday as the 3-cantury-old Sunday Market 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's pickles, cookies, candies, rice cakes, pancakes and sundry items.
*5 minutes' walk from JR Kochi Station to the entrance of Sunday Market.
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 Yamanouchi Kazutoyo took over the castle, 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 that of Itagaki Taisuke, leader of Japan's popular right movement. The other buildings - the highest donjon, turrets and gates - also retain their original style, though 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 pepole 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 his part presented the Shogun a petition for the peaceul 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 Ryomo, written by a leading novelist of contemporary Japan, Shiba 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 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 happened to have this young man at that turning point in history. If the Unseen Hand had not been so timely, Japan might have had a different history.
Indeed, only a few Japanese have been admired so much as Ryoma. He was the archetypical 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: CommodorePerry of the United States arrived at Tokyo Bay, demanding the Tokugawa Shogun sing 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 1862 he returned to Kochi as an acknowledged swordsman. Then he met Kawada Shoryo, an artistscholar, 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.
Ryoma offered himself as Katsu's assistant 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 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 being "a den of radicals" and Kastu 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 Satsuma 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 Lapan.
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, 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 deal of further bloodshed.
That very night Ryoma planned how to organize a provisional government for the 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 himself on the list. Wasn't he the leader of this revolution? When asked why, Ryoma simply answered, "I am not interested in working in an office. I think I' ll go back to sea - the seas of the world."
Yet he stayed busy guiding the Meiji Restoration and planning the new government. But a month later, on November 15, on his 33rd birthday, Ryoma was assassinated in Kyoto.
Before his untimely death, however, Ryoma seemed to have done everything he thought he had to. The administrative policy he had prepared was willingly adopted by the new government.
The Five-Point Imperial Oath delivered by Emperor Meiji in 1868, in effect the first constitution of modern Japan, was derived from the Eight-Point Plan Ryoma had made two years before.
Here comes another igosso, Itagaki Taisuke (1837-1919). During the Boshin Civil War. Itagaki led his Tosa legion to subjugate the pro-Shogunate clan of Aizu(Fukushima Pref.).
During the battle he keenly felt the necessity for the equality of people, when he saw only the privileged class of warriors upholding the Aizu cause in that test 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 from the cabinet in Tokyo, he staryed working to implement the First Article of the Imperial Charter Oath delivered by Emperor Meiji - "Deliberative assemblies shall be 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 first 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 Kochi and established the Risshi - sha society to propagate democratic principles, a pioneer among political societies emerging at that time.
By 1881 the national movement for democratic rights had reached its zenith and finally obtained the government's pledge to inaugurate a National Assembly in 1890.
But when the first Deliberative Council was finally assembled and the Liberal Party was reorganized, it had already lost its original spirit. To the frustration of Itagaki, it was difficult for liberalism, 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 attained it in 1945 only after World War II .
*There is the Memorial Museum of this Movement for Democratic Right, Jiyuminken Kinenkan, on the Sambashi-dori near the ferry port. Open daily except Monday and days after national holidays. Admission: \300 (Students: \100)
Halfway up the castle hill by the stone steps are atatues of a woman and a big horse. She is the wife of Yamanouchi Kazutoyo, widely known as "a model of an exemplary wife."
In one well-known episode, when her husband was still an unknown young samurai in Owari (Aichi Pref.) she heard he was anxious to have a fleet steed but could not afford it, and promptly produced a sufficient cache of money she had 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 or Tosa Province by the Tokugawa 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 justify their secret savings.
Chosokabe Motochika (1539-99), like many other warlords in the Civil War Period that lasted about a century from the close of the 15th Century, fought 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 strongest civil-war baron steadily unifying the country. When Motochika was defeated, he had to give up all the Lands he had invaded - Awa, Sanuki and Iyo. And it was only by helping was formally appointed Lord of Tosa.
Soon after his death, however, his heir Morichika fought a losing battle against the Tokugawa at Sekigahara, only to be deprived of his fief. In 1615 he was kikked during the Tokugawas' siege against Osaka Castle. This spelled the end of the Chosokabe eminence.
When Yamanouchi Kazutoyo became Lord of Tosa, he brought his own samurai from his former fiefdom (60,000koku) of Kakegawa (shizuoka apref.), thus badly icing Chosokabe's samurai called goshi or country samurai all through the Edo Period. No wonder those goshi from Tosa ware among the main forces to over throw the Tokugawa Shogunate.
*25 minutes' bus ride from Seibu Terminal (Tosa Dentetsu Bus bound for Chikurinji).
Chikurin-ji Temple, situated on top of Godaisan Hill, is one of the biggest of the 88 temples. The main image, Manjusri, the Bodhisattva of wisdom and intellect,and 19 other Buddhist images in the treasure house are all Important Cultural Properties.
Just next to the temple is Makino Botanical Garden, a 30,000 m garden with 1,200 species, built in memory of the world-famous botanist Makino Tomitaro (1862-1957). He was an igosso, too. The selt-taught man spent his life traveling to every corner of this country, making a collection of no less than 400,000 specimens, discovering and naming about 1,000 new specise, and writing a number of books containing his own precise illustrations.
Makino Bunko Library in the Garden houses 42,000 volumes from his libratu, part of which is open to the public. Open daily except December 28 -January 3. Admission:\350.
*30 minutes' bus ride from Harimaya-bashi (Kochi-ken Kotsu Bus bound for Katsurahama)
*For Ryoma Kinen-ken Memorial Museum, get off at Hotei Keishokaku mae Bus Stop.
This beach on the Pacific Ocean is among the most popular in Shikoku. The Shell Museum near the bus stop displays a collection of 100,000 specimens. Open daily. Admission: \500.
The Aquarium on the beach is another attraction. Open daily. Admission: \950 (High school studeants: \600)
Looking over the ocean is a statue of Sakamoto Ryoma erected in 1928 by Ryoma admirers on top of a small hill near the Tosa Fighting Dog Center. On another hill behind is the Ryoma Memorial Museum, which was also funded by Ryoma admirers all over the country. High technology is utilized in various ways to introduce his dramatic life. Open daily. Admission: \350
*Another museum dedicated to Ryoma is the Ryoma Wax Doll Museum that features the 25 scenes from his life. As to how to get there, see.
Near Katsurahama Bus Stop there is the Tosa Fighting Dogs Center where a dog fight is shown when they have an audience of 30 or more. (\1000).
Kochi Prefecture is known for the two types of dogs - the native Tosa Dog as a Natural Monument and the Tosa Fighting Dogs, crossbreeds of the native dogs with mastiffs, bulldogs are carefully trained and the game is conducted under strict rules.
A dog that whines or turns its hind to the opponent is judged the loser.
Like sumo wrestlers, the dogs are graded into a hierarchy according to the points they have recently earned.
*The long - tailed cocks called onaga - dori exhibited in another corner are also peculiar to this prefecture. The tail of a fullgrown cock reaches as long as 6 m. How this species came into being is unknown.
(From JR Tosa Yamada on Dosan Line)
25 minutes' bus ride (JR Bus bound for Ryugado).
(From Kochi)
An hour bis ride from Seibu Terminal in Kochi (Tosa Dentetsu Bus bound for Ryugado).
*For the Ryoma Wax Doll museum, get off at Otanibashi in Noichi - cho.
Ryugado Stalactite Grotto deep in Mt. Sampo is one of the biggest three of its kind in Japan. Visitors are guided along a 1 km path, about a quarter of the whole grotto,thought to be 150,000,000 years old.
For those who are not claustrophobic, stalactites of various shapes and sizes highlight a narrow maze where falls resound and atreams murmur. There are about 100 animal species living in the darkness - bats, shrimp, crabs and so on.
When the grotto was discovered in 1931, they found not a few relics from the Yayoi Period (roughly 300 B.C. - 300 A.D.). In one corner, more than a dozen earthenware vessels remained almost intact, together with some stoneware, animal bones and shells. Another corner had a water jar to collect water dripping from above - now a stalactite.
Open daily : 8:30 - 16:30 Admission : \850.
* A small museum outside the cave displays the findings frpm the ancient dwelling along with animals, plants and fossils found in the neighbor - hood. Admission free.
(From JR Kochi ) 2 hours by special express (Dosan Line + Tosa Kuroshio Railroad ).
Shituated on the Shimanto, the largest river in Shikoku, the city is known as Little Kyoto because of its origin, its checkered streets and places named after those in Kyoto. The origin of the city dates back to 1468 when IchijoNorifusa,the former Chief Advisor to the Emperor, chose to live here, taking refuge from the Onin Civil War in Kyoto.
When Norifusa became Lord of Tosa, the small village of Nakamura was made the capital of the Land of Tosa and remaind so for about a century until 1573 when Chosokabe Motochika banished Lord Ichijo's descenden ts to Kyushu.
Ichijo-jinja Shrine 1 built at the site of the residence of the Ichijo family, Fuwa Hachiman-gu Shrine 2 and Taihei-ji Temple 3 are among the historic spots remaining from the heyday of Nkamura. A most spectacular Gion Matsuri Festival (the 1st weekend in August) at Gion-jinja 4 was also started by Ichijo Norifusa.
Tamematsu Koen Park 5 , laid out on the former site of Nakamura-jo Castle built by Lord Temematsu before Ichijo Norifusa arrived, now features a local historic museum housed in a newly-built donjon. The museum displays mementoes of the Ichijo Family, historical assets of this neighborhood and some writings and belongings of kotoku Shusui, a native of Nakanura and another igosso who led Japan's first pacifist-socialist movement.
*The Dragonfly Reservation and Museum represents the local pepple's will to keep the Shimanto - the last unpolluted river in Japan - as it is. There are over 70 varieties seen in summer and early autumn. Open daily except Monday. Admission : \400 (High school students : \300)
*15
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