Let me introduce myself . 私のことを紹介させてください。 My name is Mami Yoshida.
私は吉田真実です。
I was born in Zentuji City, Kagawa Prefecture, Japan on September
8, 1984. 私は1984年9月8日、日本の香川県善通寺市で生まれました。
I am a first year student at Kagawa Junior Calege. 私は香川短期大学の一年生です。My major
is Infant Education. 私幼児教育を専攻しています。
My hobbies are listening to music, reading children's books,
and sleeping. 私の趣味は音楽を聴くことと、絵本を読むことと、寝ることです。
My home Page address is: 私のホームページアドレスは・・・
http://www.geocities.co.jp/CollegeLife-Labo/4001/2004/503063.html
My Favorite Links
My Friends
Kumi Fujihara
Akiko Nishikawa
Tomoko Hiraki
Web Searches
Search Engine Google
Directories Yahoo! Japan
| NTT goo
Textbook Links
English-Japanese Vocabulary
Quizzes
Better Engｌish Exercises
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
island has always been the spiritual sanctuary of 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 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 osland 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 thet 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, political and economic 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 osland of Honshu and neighboring Kyushu.
Naturally those visitors brought something new with then 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 of 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' - 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 produced people like the father of the Shikoku Pilgrimage,
who is often credited as a father of Japanese culture, the man
two aired the idea of the Sito Ohashi Bridge, and two young men
who turned out to be most instrumental in cattying 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 inspiring on this island.
We hope 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!
Takamatsu City
- the Gateway to Shikoku -
Takamatsu is the capital Kagawa Prefecture, which has taditionally
been called the gateway to Shikoku, with the whole land of the
prefecture jutting out into the Seto Inland Sea like a porch.
JR Takamatsu Station next to Takamastu Harbor is the terminal
of the Kotoku Line for Tokushima Pref., 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
Chikko just opposite JR Station is the terminal of Kotoden trams
to and from Kotohira, the seat of `Kompira-san.'
The New Takamatsu Airport handles non-stop flights to and from
Seoul, Korea.
Another place in Takamatsu appropriate as a gateway to Shikoku
is the Takamatsu Heike Monogatari Historical Museum, Takamatsu
Heike Monogatari Rekishikan 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.
Takamatsu 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 fief of 120,000 koku.
One ninth of the former castle ground is preserved as Tamamo
Koen Park Tamamo Kouen 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 yen .
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 terminals at Takamatsu Chikko Takamatsu Chikuko just opposite
JR Station.
Ritsurin Koen Park
@ 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 Scenic Spot. This spacious
garden laid out with shapely mounds, cool ponds and about 160
varieties of trees and flowers provides a classic example of a
Japanese garden or even a Chinese Taoist paradise fit for meditation.
Originally it belonged to a locai warlord, and then to Lord
Ikoma. When it was transferred to the Matsudairas, they spent
five generations developing it into a larger stroll-type garden
for their villa. Seasonal charms of flowers and blossoms such
as ume(Japanese plum blossoms) in Fenruary, camellias in March,
cherry blossams in April, wisteria and azaleas in August, and
Japanese bush clover add to the pleasure of strolling.
Kikugetsu-tei, one of the pond-side teahouses, was originally
one of the Matsudairas'formal buildings. The museum just inside
the main gate Sanukimingeikan houses a variety of mostly local
handicrafts. There is a zoo, too, inside the gate.
Open daily. Admission to the park: About 300 yen.
Yashima Plateau
Bus: 30 minutes' ride from Chikko to the terminal (Kotoden
Bus for Yashima-sanjo or Yashima Hilltop).
Tram + Cable: 30 minutes' tram ride from Chikko to Yashima
(Shido-sen Line) + 5 minutes' cable-car ride.
Yashima, a pine-wooded tableland to the northeast of downtown
Takamatsu, is one of the warld'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 Inland Sea,
features Yashima-ji, an aquarium and observatories all linked
by forest promenades.
One of the observatories, Dankorei, commands a view of the
inlet fringed with mamorials to the Gempei Yashima Battle
(the second last battle in Gempei War fought between the two rival
clans, the Minamotos and the Tairas).
Once a British poet, Edmund Blunden, visited Yashima and wrote
a poem that was engraved on a stone here at Dankorei observatory:
Like a long roof, men say, and will they say,
This hill of warrior ghosts surmounts the plain...
Gempei War
In 794 Kyoto became the capital of Japan and it enjoyed 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. Tow 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 Emperor" or "the Ex-Emperor".
In 1181 the patriarch of the clan Taira no Kiyomori died just
when the Tairas faced more battles against the Minamotos, who
were gradually consolidating their power.
In 1183 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.
Yashima-ji Temple treasures in its museuma 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 be-tween 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 later. 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, Yoshistsune had greatly helped Minmoro no Yoritomo,
hia elder brother, who in 1192 was to establish the first Shogunate
at Kamakura. But Yoshitsune 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,
based on what is called Yoshitsune Literature.
Very few Japanese visit Yashima without being reminded of an
episode shown in the picture above:
It was on the afternoon of February 19, 1185, that Minamoto
no Yoshitsune mounted another surprise attack against the Tairas
at the then Yashima Island. Frightened by the imagined immensity
of enemy forces, the Tairas 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 vessel parted from the Taira legions and stopped abouto
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 does she mean?" said Yoshitsune.
"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 Yoshitsune.
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 water 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 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's
archery. Then Yoichi got another order and shot down the dancing
man, too. Some said, "Good shot!" But others said, "Not
fair."
The Tairas were silent this time. Was it a precursor of their
demise? Two months later, the Tairas finally fell.
Shikoku-mura Museum
* 3 minutes' walk after leaving the bus at Toshogu-mae (Kotoken
Bus: Yashima-sanjo-Toshogu-mae-Chikko)
* 3 minutes' walk from the cable-car station.
This is an open-air museum laid out at the foot of Yashima
Plateau. About 20 old rural buildings from various parts of Shikoku
have been reassembled here, including a Farmers' Kabuki Theater,
peasants' houses, a fisherman's house, a sugar mill, a shed for
steaming mulberry bark to make paper, and workshops for making
soy sauce and so on. There is a reprica of Kazura-bashi from Nishi
Iyayama-son, too.
Open daily: 8:30 - 16:30. Admission: \500
* On May 5, people including children from Shodoshima Island,
from which the Kabuki Theater came here, stage an annual performance
of their traditional farmers' kabuki.
Takamatsu Heike Monogatari Historical Museum
* 3 minutes' walk from Nohon Tabako-mae Bus Stop after 10
minutes' ride from JR Takamatsu.
* 30 minutes' walk from JR Takamatsu Station.
Japan's largest wax doll museum. The first floor is dedicated
to the 41 dolls of historical figures or modern men and women
of celebrity who have been closely associated with Shikoku.
The one of Kobe Daishi in his Nyujo has its own corner as a
special exhibitin.
The other dolls include:
- Sakamoto Ryoma
- Nakaoka Shintaro
- Nakahama Manjiro
- Wenceslau de Moraes
- Inokuma Genichiro
- Takahama Kyoshi
- Ninomiya Chuhachi
- Setouchi Jakucho
- Makino Tomitaro
- Yasuoka Shotaro
- Kagawa Toyohiko
- Terada Torahiko
- Abe Yoshishige
- Nambara Shigeru
- Masaoka Shiki
- Kotoku Shusui
- Nakae Chomin
- Kikuchi Kan
- Manabe Hiroshi
- Yoshida Shigeru
- Itagaki Taisuke
The second floor exhibits about 300 dolls portraying the 17
scenes from the Heike Monogatari or The Tale of the Tairas. The
Saga, composed of a large number of revealing episodes, was and
still is an inexhaustible source of Japanese literature and art.
Some of the most famous scenes took place at the foot of Yashima
Plateau at the northeastern tip of Takamatsu.
One hi-tech doll seen at the end of the exhibition is what
was called biwa hoshi or blind biwa- playing bard who traveled
around chanting The Tale of the Taira Family evena before it was
written down in the first half of the 13 century, Its opening
passage is especially famous for its Buddhist idea of impermanence
that goes as follows:
The bell of Gion Monastery tolls
The impermanence of all worldly things.
The color of sal blossoms shows the truth that Even the most
prosperous inevitably decline.
The proud will fall like a drama on a spring night.
The valiant must perish, too, as Frail as dust blown by a puff
of wind.
The doll begins to talk and sing the first line of the opening
passage when it senses visitors approaching. Open daily. Admission:
\1200 (High school students:\800 Children:\600)
* Yoshida shigeru (1878-1967), Prime Minister from 1946 to
1954, is credited with giving Japan direction through her most
difficult times after the war.
The Seto Ohashi Bridge
The Kojima-Sakaide Route, popularly known as the Seto Ohashi
Bridge, was completed in 1988. It is the world's longest two-tiered
bridge system, stretching 13.1 km from Kojima to Sakaide, connecting
the 5 islands in between.
The 11 bridges in the system include 3 suspension bridges,
2 twin cable-stayed, 1 truss and 5 viaducts. The upper level accommodates
a motor expressway of four lanes, and the lowar contains Japan
Railway's system for a dual track superexpress line in the future.
The first person to air the idea of the Seto Ohashi Bridge
was Okubo Jinnojo, a Kagawa native, who at thet time was constricting
the first Shikoku Roads to link all the prefectures on the island.
In 1889 Jinnojo disclosed his dream in a congratulatory in Shikoku
between Marugame and Kotohira.
Exactly a century later, the Bridge came into being after decades
of planning and ten years of construction, 13 million workers
involved (with the loss of 17 lives), and costing 1,190,000 million
yen.
Surprisingly, Jinnojo had also foretold man's traveling to
the moon in his favorite drinking song of his own making, which
went as follows: I'll tell you, dear, don't laugh at me, a hundred
years from now, I'll be seeing you flying to and from the moon
in a space ship. Its port, let me tell you, dear, will be thet
mountaintop over there!
One of the best points to view the Bridge is Yoshima Island,
a central pier of the Bridge. It also serves as a sightseeing
outpost for the Shikoku and Inland Sea Districts, providing 2
parking areas for those who like to enjoy bridge-viewing, seafood
and shopping.
* To Yoshima: 20 minutes from JR Sakaide by Seto Ohashi Express
Bus.
Another is a rotating tower 132 m tall at the Seto Ohashi Memorial
Park at the foot of the Bridge in Sakaide. The Memorial Hall provides
all kinds of information on the Bridge and its construction, while
the park itself applies modern art to stone and water.
Admission to the tower: \800.
Admission to the Hall: \510.
* To the Seto Ohashi Memorial Park: 10 minutes from JR Sakaide
by shuttle bus (free of charge).
The Gold Tower near JR Utazu Station offers a marvelous view,
too. The 144 m tower made of half-mirror glass is the tallest
of its kind in Japan, housing the Sky Lounge, restaurants, stores
and a World Toilet Museum.
Open daily. Admission to the tower:\800 / \1000
* To Gold Tower: 8 minutes' walk from JR Utazu.
* Bridge-viewing cruises are available from Keihan Fisherman's
Wharf on Yoshima, Memorial Park and Sakaide Port.
Marugame City
- Castle & uchiwa-
* 25 minutes' train ride from JR Takamatsu.
* To the Castle: 15 minutes' walk from JR Marugame.
The three-storied donjon on top of a green hill crowns the
city of Marugame. When a Marugame Province of 53,000 koku was
formed in 1641,an old castle was reconstructed and the castle
seen today dates back to 1660, one of the few genuine Edo Period
castles remaining in Japan.
The present-day Marugame is famous for uchiwa or round paper
fan manufacturing, producing about 90% of these fans in Japan.
The Castle Park, 15 minutes' from JR Marugame, is surrounded
by moats, featuring the donjon, a couple of main gates (all Important
Cultural Properties) and walls from the 17th century. The 4-level
60 m ramparts, the tallest and among the most beautiful in Japan,
also contribute to the beauty of the castle.
Banshoen Garden built in 1688 as a villa for the Lord of the
Province is 10 minutes' there houses Chinesev ceramic ware and
a collection of Iranian earthenware and glassware dating back
2500 B.C. through the 1200' s A.D. Open daily.
Zentsu-ji Temple
Zentsu-ji Temple, is known as the birthplace of Kobo Daishi
Kukai. Kukai is one of the greatest geniuses Japan has ever produced.
He made a great contribution in remolding Japanese religion, while
making unparalleled achievements as a scholar, poet, artist, calligrapher,
sculptor, architect, educator, social worker, inventor, discoverer
and civil engineer.
The giant camphor trees near five-storied pagoda in the East
Precinct are said to have already been several hundred years old
when Kukai was born in 774. The Mieido Hall in the West Precinct
at the foot of the green hill is the Birthplace.
Visitors may traverse the basement of the hall along a pitch-dark
path. This introspective journey is called kaidan-meguri. The
entrance fee includes the admission to the Museum.
The utter blackness along the path symbolizes the darkness
of the human mind or human ignorance of the Truth. The notice
says: 'Go along with the palm of your left hand pressed against
the left-hand wall. The wall, painted with mandalas, angels and
lotus flowers, is the Buddha's Way. You will be safely guided
as long as you are His Way.'
After the Kaidan-meguri, arrows guide you to the Museum. The
temple treasures exhibited there include a small clay pagoda Kukai
molded at 7, a bowl used by Kukai as mendicant priest, a robe
and a ritual stick (a National Treasure) of Indian make, both
presented to Kukai by his Chinese master Abbot Hui-kuo,and a sutra
scroll (a National Treasure) with each of the Chinese characters
accompanied by a little Bodhisattva on o lotus pedestal, Kukai
did the calligraphy, his mother the painting.
Shorinji Kempo
- an art of self -defence -
Shorinji Kenpo is not merely a sport or martial art, but a
religious exercise to approach the Buddha's spirit in the principles
of "self - realization " and " help each other.
"
It was started by So Doshin I (1911-1980) in 1947. Two years
before he had been repatriated from Manchuria, the northeastern
part of China that "Imperialist Japan" held for 13 years
till the end of World War II . Doshin had seen how people could
be dehumanized in the dire extremities of war and its aftermath.
"Developing good humanity is the only way to save Japan and
the warld at large," he kept saying to himself. Doshin, who
had learned various martial arts in China, pondered over the Zen
philosophy of Bodhidharma, trying to restore the martial art that
Bodhidharma himself was said to have practised about 1,500 years
ago when he brought Zen from India to China. Finally, Doshin succeeded
in restoring and reorganizing the whole body of that art, which
he named Shorinji Kenpo. Now its Headquarters has more than 100
branches in 23 countries in the warld.
Kotohira - gu Shrine
- the mecca of Kompira worshippers
-
Kotohira-gu, a great shrine complex, of ten affectionately
called Kompira-san, has been a celebrated destination for pilgrims
and tourists for hundreds of years.
According to legend, Kompira-san came into being when Kumbhira
- a guardian god of Buddhism, originally a Hindu crocodile god
of the Ganges, was beckoned by a Buddhist priest of Matsuo-ji,
a thousand-year-old temple in this neighborhood.
Kumbhira from the holy waters of the Ganges was naturally believed
to be a mighty patron deity for seamen, fishermen and rice-growing
farmers, and in later years came to be considered a Great Incarnation
of the Buddha himself.
But the temple remained a Shinto shrine
in part, with Omononushi-no-mikoto, the native got of fertility,
medicine and commerce also summoned from the mythological land
of Izumo. Omononushi-no-mikoto, along with Daikoku-ten representing
Chinese folk religion, were then identified with the Indian god
Kumbhira (Kompira), a case of religious internationalism in classical
Japan.