Walking around Atami, elopement case study ~ 2023, DEC

I had never visited Izusan Shrine, where Yoritomo Minamoto and Masako Hojo met, so I visited it when I went to a hot spring inn in Atami. Looking at the map, the distance between the Hojo clan residence and Hirugajima, where Yoritomo was imprisoned, is 1.5-6 km, which is not a great distance, but from this area to Izusan Shrine, it is 15-6 km in a straight line across the mountain. Although these two people live nearby, they would have traveled 4-5 hours each way to meet up at the shrine, but if they left before daylight and returned, their meeting time would be only 1-2 hours during the day. Or maybe they stayed the night for finding any justification.

It is located on a mountain overlooking Sagami Bay, and it takes a lot of energy just to go up and down, but the view overlooking Sagami Bay is amazing. While looking at Izu Oshima, the Miura Peninsula, and the Boso Peninsula in the distance, he must have talked to Masako about his future ambitions, like "I'm not usual person." It was a love that could not be forgiven during the height of the Heike clan, but in order for the elopement to take place, there must be a major obstacle that hinders the love.

Princess Naoko, the daughter of Duke Ichijo, married Prince Haruhito of Kaninnomiya, but divorced after the war and remarried a civilian (a university professor). Prince Haruhito was a military man who graduated from junior high school under the old system to the military academy and was promoted to major general, but it is said that he was gay and had soldiers in his bedroom and went to class with them. It's hard to imagine, but the husband and wife were sleeping next to each other in the couple's bedroom, so even though the marriage was between the Imperial family and Sekkan family before the war, I wonder how they could keep the marriage. This case may not have technically been an elopement, as the couple divorced and remarried, but it was the epitome of an unfortunate mismatch. Naturally, the Kaninnomiya family became extinct with the death of the king. Prince Haruhito's younger sister, Princess Hanako, was married to the Kacho family (former imperial family) before the war and had three children, but after the war she divorced, remarried the man she had an affair with, and took the surname Toda. If Japan had not been defeated in the war and the peerage system had been abolished, these mismatches might not have become public knowledge.

Monzeki(Priest Prince) temples are temples where the children of the imperial family and upper class nobles enter, but Chuguji temple, which stands next to Horyuji temple, has a long history as a nunnery, and I think many people have visited it. Sonsho-ni was adopted by the Ichijo family from the Hiramatsu family, became a monk, became a monzeki of Chuguji Temple, and taught calligraphy, tea ceremony, and flower arranging to children in the neighborhood after the war. It seems that she became gender relation with a high school student named Nakagawa who attended there, ran away from the temple, returned to the secular world, got married, and lived peacefully in Osaka. It seems that the couple had a 15-year age difference, but from a modern perspective, unlike an affair, they weren't causing trouble to anyone, so I would like to say to her that "it was a good thing".

One of the most famous prewar scandals is Byakuren Yanagihara, one of the three beauties of the Taisho era. She is a daughter of an earl and first marries into the Viscount Kitakoji family, but her first husband has severe domestic violence, and although she has one child, she returns to her parents' home at the age of 20. Her second marriage was Denemon Ito, a coal mining magnate in Tsukushi, who was the epitome of a wealthy man, and his relationships with women were complicated, leading to a prosperous but unfulfilling life. While she was immersing herself in tanka and writing, she met Ryusuke Miyazaki, a lawyer and social activist, and they had a child and eloped. Since it was before the war, he was subject to the crime of adultery, so he did something drastic, but his third marriage seems to have been a happy one while continuing to work as a poet and novelist. Ryusuke was the son of Toten Miyazaki, an ally of Sun Yat-sen, and because he had special connections with the Chinese government (Chiang Kai-shek), Fumimaro Konoe tried to use him in diplomacy with China. It is an interesting figure in Showa history.

By the way, the three beauties of the Taisho era are Byakuren Yanagihara, Takeko Kujo, and Kinkin Egi.

Another shrine in Atami is Kinomiya Shrine, where Sakanoue Tamuramaro prayed for victory. Another power spot in Atami, the camphor tree, which is over 2,000 years old, is truly spectacular.

A baby monkey that strayed from the herd showed off a trick in the mountains of Izu. Proceeds from the monkey race are used to cover animal protection costs. They move around the Kanto region, renting out the grounds of shrines for their activities, so if you see them, please come and watch them perform their fun tricks.