Numazu's Tale of the Genpei Era -DEC,2024-
Opinions seem to be divided between Shizuoka and Yamanashi as to where the best view of Mt. Fuji is, but the view from Uchiura Bay is quite impressive. Mt. Fuji stands between Awashima and the mainland, but from the front you can see Suruga Bay, Numazu city, Mt. Ashitaka and Mt. Fuji lined up in a straight line, with the gaping crater of the Hoei eruption that erupted 300 years ago. In front of Uchiura Bay is the former village of Heda, which belonged to Izu Province, but was annexed to Numazu City during the Heisei Great Merger, and now Numazu City is a large city that straddles Suruga and Izu.
Minamoto no Yorimasa, who was the first to raise an army as a member of the Minamoto clan following an order from Prince Mochihito, was killed in Uji along with his eldest son Nakatsuna, but his concubine Shobu Gozen is said to have escaped to Aki(Hiroshima). Meanwhile, there is a legend that the remains of Yorimasa and Nakatsuna were taken to Izu Zenchoji Temple and lived there in seclusion, and Matsudaira (Okawachi) Terusada, the lord of Takasaki Domain, who claimed to be a descendant of Yorimasa, renovated and donated the Yorimasa Hall during the Genroku period. Shobu Gozen was from nearby Izu Nagaoka.
After defeating the Heike army in the Battle of Fujigawa, Yoritomo returned to his lodgings near the Kisegawa River, where Yoshitsune, who was being hidden by the Oshu Fujiwara clan, requested to see him. The two men had an emotional meeting, and the stone on which they sat is located at Taimenseki Hachiman Shrine. Yoritomo stuffed his cheeks with a nearby persimmon, but it was so bitter that he inadvertently spat out the seed. Next to the stone is a persimmon tree that had grown from the seed from that time, and the intricacy of the ruins that continue the legend is impressive. As is well known, five years later Yoritomo set out to conquer Oshu, and Yoshitsune was killed by Fujiwara Yasuhira.
Tokiwa Gozen had three sons: Zensei, Gien, and Yoshitsune. Yoshitsune is the most famous for his outstanding performance in the memorial service for the Heike clan, but Zensei is believed to have been the one who was trusted and treated highly by Yoritomo. Zensei married the younger sister of Hojo Tokimasa's daughter, Masako, and was given Ano Manor in Suruga Province (western Numazu City) and took the name Ano Zensei. After Yoritomo's death, as relations between the second shogun, Yoriie, and the Hojo clan became strained, Zensei supported his father-in-law, Tokimasa, but was captured by Yoriie and executed in Hitachi. The graves of Zensei and his fourth son, Tokimoto, are located in Daisenji Temple, and the site is said to be the former site of the Ano family mansion. The samurai Ano family subsequently declined, but Zensei's daughter married the noble Fujiwara no Kinsuke and took the name Ano Kinsuke, and the noble Ano family safely continued through the Meiji Restoration.
Numazu Hiyoshi Shrine was established in 1096, about 100 years before the Genpei War, in the Ooka Manor (eastern Numazu City) owned by the regent Moromichi. Following the trouble between Minamoto no Yoshitsuna and Enryaku-ji Temple/Hiyoshi Shrine that occurred the previous year, Moromichi died suddenly, and his mother (Kyogoku no Kita no Mandokoro), who believed he had been cursed, summoned the spirit of Hiyoshi Shrine. Yoshitsuna was the second son of Yoriyoshi, who played an active role in the Zenkunen War. Unlike his eldest son Yoshiie (the founder of the Ashikaga and Nitta clans) and third son Yoshikuni (the Hitachi Genji), Yoshitsuna served the regent family and aimed to advance in Kyoto, but later his clan was destroyed by Yoshikuni's conspiracy. It coincides with the milestone of the end of the regent government and the start of Shirakawa's cloistered government, and, together with the indigenization of the Minamoto clan in the Kanto Plain, it symbolizes the transition to a samurai society.
Later, after the fall of the Kamakura Shogunate and the rule of Emperor Go-Daigo, Prince Morinaga, who had been fighting in various regions and gaining popularity as the Shogun, gradually became the object of jealousy from Emperor Go-Daigo, and due to slander from Ashikaga Takauji, he was exiled to Kamakura and killed by Ashikaga Tadayoshi. Minami, a concubine who looked after the prince, carried the prince's head and hurried west along the Tokaido road, but the Kise River flooded and she had no choice but to build a mound under a camphor tree and bury him. Prince Morinaga is enshrined in a small shrine in the grounds of Chikata Shrine, and a large camphor tree stands next to it. Incidentally, Emperor Go-Daigo, who moved to Yoshino, handed over the throne to Emperor Go-Murakami, but his mother was the favorite concubine Ano Renshi, a descendant of the aforementioned Ano Matanari. It seems that Inoue Yasushi often rested under this tree when he was attending the old Numazu Junior High School.
Mount Fuji has erupted ten times since recorded history, but it has been peaceful for about 300 years since the Hoei era. The year 4 of the Hoei era (1707) was a disaster year in which two major disasters occurred in a short period of time, as the Great Hoei Earthquake occurred 49 days before the Great Hoei eruption, which was caused by fault rupture across the entire Nankai Trough. Although eruptions and earthquakes are only minor scratches in the dynamics of the Earth's great crustal movements, the Japanese have taken these things with a unique sense of resignation and have continued to pray to the gods. If you drive a short distance from Numazu towards Mishima, you will find Warikozuka Inari Shrine, where Inari has been enshrined on top of a lava flow. It is built on a small hill formed by a dome-shaped bulge of lava flow 10,000 years ago, and it is a warning bell as to how far the lava will flow in the event of a major eruption.
Numazu was the site of fierce battles between the Takeda and Hojo clans, the home of the Mizuno clan, the family of Ieyasu's mother Dentsuin, and the site of the Zen master Hakuin, the restored founder of the Rinzai sect of Buddhism. At the end of the Edo period, it was also the place where Russian Admiral Putyatin and his party were rescued and protected after being shipwrecked during the Ansei Tokai earthquake. The hot springs are also wonderful, and I would like to return.
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