Hot spring therapy in Yamashiro ~ September 2024 ~

I took my parents to Yamashiro Onsen, taking advantage of the opportunity of my high school reunion. We went to Wakura last year, but the damage from the Noto earthquake at the beginning of the year is still great, and most of the inns have not yet reopened. I have visited the Hamadori area of Fukushima Prefecture regularly for work, so I have had a fair amount of opportunities to see and hear about the reconstruction process. Disasters in depopulated areas are difficult because there are few people to carry out the reconstruction, but I think that the reason people still want to continue living there or want to move there is that, apart from money, the charm of the town, such as its culture, climate, and history, are important factors. I have time and travel expenses, so I would like to take my time to write about what I saw and heard and felt. Near the inn, the house where Kitaoji Rosanjin lived for over half a year was open to the public as the "remains of his residence."

In short, Rosanjin was an all-round artist, with a wealth of talents in calligraphy, seal carving, pottery, painting, cooking, and gourmet cuisine. He stayed in Yamashiro when he was still in his early 30s and had just started to become popular as a calligrapher. He was discovered by Kanazawa's Sinologist Hosono Entai and asked to make a sign for the Yamashiro Onsen Ryokan, and it was here that he developed his talent as a potter. However, he did not have a blessed life. He was born into a family of shrine priests at Kamigamo Shrine in Kyoto, but was an illegitimate child born from an affair by his biological mother and his father committed suicide before his birth out of shame. After his birth, his mother also disappeared and he was passed around from house to house until he was adopted by the Fukuda family, but he eventually reconciled with his biological mother and inherited the Kitaoji family. Although he had such extraordinary talent, he lived a life of fire (marriage and divorce six times), but I think he lived a life of conflict that ordinary people cannot imagine.

A 15-minute drove from Yamashiro Onsen takes us to the border between Kaga and Echizen (the border between Ishikawa and Fukui prefectures). There is not much difference in distance between Kanazawa and Fukui or Toyama, but the reason why Kanazawa feels closer to Toyama is because the former Kaga domain's territory covered almost the entirety of Ishikawa and Toyama prefectures, and Fukui domain was a relative of Ieyasu's second son, Yuki Hideyasu, and was, so to speak, a virtual enemy of Kaga domain. The third head of the Maeda family, Toshitsune (grandson of Toshiie), divided his second and third sons into the Toyama domain and the Daishoji domain (total of 1.2 million koku), respectively, but before that, Toshiie's fifth son served as a page to Shogun Hidetada and was fiefdom-holder of the Nanokaichi domain in Kozuke (Gunma prefecture) (10,000 koku), so there were actually four Maeda families. Incidentally, after the Meiji Restoration, the head Maeda family adopted a son-in-law from the Nanokaichi domain, and has continued to exist to this day.

However, before the Ritsuryo system was established in the 8th century, both Kaga and Noto were part of Echizen Province. During the Nara period, Noto was annexed to Etchu and then became independent, and it was during the time when Noto was incorporated into Etchu that Otomo no Yakamochi was appointed as provincial governor and composed poems in various parts of Noto. Legend has it that Yamashiro Onsen was discovered and developed by Gyoki around the same time. Now, Yoshizaki Gobo, where Rennyo, the 8th head of the Honganji family, barricaded himself, was located near this "border."

The Jodo Shinshu sect that Shinran founded in the early Kamakura period also split into several branches around that time, and the abandoned head temples continued to exist as branch temples of Shoren-ji Temple. Rennyo's temple gradually regained strength, and after being persecuted by Enryaku-ji Temple and fleeing to Yoshizaki, he later built Ishiyama Hongan-ji Temple and built the foundations for a temple that would one day be able to confront Nobunaga, and he came to be known as the "founder of the Hongan-ji revival."

When you get there, you will find that in addition to the branch temples of the East and West Honganji temples, there are also Eastern and Western temples surrounding the ruins of Yoshizaki Gobo, which can make you confused as to where to visit.

First, I visited the remains of Yoshizaki Gobo, where Rennyo was based, and on the way, I visited Gankei-ji Temple and heard a valuable story from the head priest. I also saw the real mask related to the famous "Yomeodoshinikutsukinomenengi", and it seems that Mana Ashida also listened to the story on a certain TV program recently.

He stayed in Yoshizaki for over 30 years, and used it as a base to unite the Ikko followers of Echizen and Kaga. Although the area was overrun by the Asakura clan, Kaga became a country of Ikko followers until the arrival of Shibata Katsuie.

The Hokkoku Kaido was one of the important stages of the Genpei War. Kiso Yoshinaka moved his large army from east to west and attacked Kyoto, and three years later Yoshitsune and his servant Benkei fled from west to east, heading for Hiraizumi in Oshu. Taira no Koremori, who suffered a major defeat at Kurikara Pass and was trying to recover, met Yoshinaka's army near Katayamazu Onsen (Battle of Shinohara). According to Kujo Kanezane's diary (Gyokuyo), Yoshinaka's army was outnumbered by 5,000 against 40,000 Taira soldiers, but as a result Koremori was defeated and Saito Sanemori, who was on the Taira side, was killed in battle.

He was the great benefactor who had carried the two-year-old Yoshinaka, whose father had been killed, to Kiso 28 years ago, but Sanemori had dyed his hair black, so Yoshinaka did not immediately recognize him, and when he washed his head in the pond to inspect it, Yoshinaka burst into tears upon seeing that it had turned white. This is a famous scene from the Tale of the Heike, and I joined my hands in prayer at the Kubiairaike Pond.

500 years later, Matsuo Basho and his disciple Sora entered the castle town of Daishoji Domain and stayed at Zenshoji Temple. After traveling north to Kisakata in Ushu, he was going down the Sea of Japan and entering Echizen from Kaga, but then he headed to Ogaki to end his long journey.

Zenshoji Temple has a stone monument bearing a haiku poem, but the 500 Arhats (the actual number is 517) made at the end of the Edo period are magnificent. Basho never got to see them, but he must have thoroughly enjoyed the atmosphere of the islands of Kisakata before they were uplifted by earthquakes, and Yoshizaki Gobo, which could only be reached by sea.