Paddies, paddies: to defend Odawara Castle I

 

Meow …

We start walking Odawara Sogamae 箱根総構え from Hakone Itabashi Station 箱根板橋 for Hakone Tozan Train 箱根登山鉄道. The community around the Station is an old town. They have been defined as a suburb of Odawara City 小田原市 since the 1500s. Now the place consists of mainly houses and small businesses along National Route 1 国道1号線 entering Hakone Mountains 箱根. Before, this area was a farming community sat at the beginning of the water system providing water to the downtown from Hayakawa River 早川. Until in 1933 the modern system provides water to Odawara from Sakawa River System 酒匂川水系, Itabashi was a damned important community. Why did people switch the water source from Hayakawa River to Sakawa River? Well, modern life needed more water and the water of Lake Ashi 芦ノ湖, the main water source of Hayakawa, was to neighboring Shizuoka Prefecture 静岡県 (; my post on June 23, 2023). Hayakawa reached the limit at that time, you see? It is still a contentious issue between communities of Kanagawa and Shizuoka Prefectures ... Anyway, Hakone Itabashi was an area for water. That‘s the point for Odawara Sogamae fort.

Hakone Itabashi Station

Near Hakone Itabashi Station,
there still is a water intake from Hayakawa River.

But the amount of flow for Hayakawa River is
certainly too low for 190 thousand people of Odawara.
I took this photo of the river from the water intake point.
Water? Where is water?

As a suburb, the community of Itabashi was outside of the defence system. But it had a large rice paddies spreading to the west. The successive warlords of Odawara Castle defined the area as the most outer layer of mort system. They sometimes built stone walls or small hills at the eastern hedge of rice paddies in Itabashi area. The structure was expected to act as a wall for downtown when artificial floods were activated over the paddies. The most well-preserved remains for such embankments near sea can be found in Odawara Castle Hayakawaguchi Gate 小田原城早川口. Until the end of the 16th century the place was the main gate to enter the Odawara Sogamae Fort when you came from the west. To go there, we leave Hakone Itabashi Station and walk a bit on Route 1 to the direction returning to Odawara Station. Find Itabashi-mitsuke 板橋見付 traffic light, and turn to the right at that crossing. The road enters an ordinary housing area going to the south. We simply follow the meandering road and eventually meet an old small tunnel going under Tokaido Line 東海道線. It is another historical structure. Proud engineers of more than 100 years ago built it during the 1910s in western style for then-the-most-advanced transportation technology called steam locomotive. Immediately before the tunnel on our left, there is a parking space which was demarked by a stone wall. The wall is one of the remains of Sogamae Mort. This means the place we stand was once rice paddies acted as mort when enemy forces advanced to Odawara Castle.

Looking elevated railway for Hakone Tozan Train
from Itabashi-mitsuke Crossing.

Turning left to enter residential area

And here is an ordinary looking parking lot with a cat.
Could you see the stone wall?
It’s a historical artifact.

 And the civil engineers of the early 20^th century
surely utilized the medieval structure for their work.

The other side of the tunnel is the beginning of Route 135, the scenic (and always congested) road runs along Sagami Bay reaching Shimoda City 下田 where in 1854 the first US Consulate located. After finding Route 135, walk a bit to the south and cross the first traffic light to the ocean side. From there it begins another commuter road entering the housing area. Soon we find fairly well-built stone walls on our left. The wall naturally enters the municipal garden which is the remain of Odawara Castle Hayakawaguchi Gate. Archaeologists found the mort structure here was double folded with firmly piled-up boulders harvested from nearby remains of pyroclastic flow from Mt. Hakone. The height of the wall was more than 2m high … Yeah, they were prepared for war, for sure.

Out from the tunnel, there is this small crossing.

And here is the direction pole showing us
the way to Hayakawaguchi Gate.

In no time, there is another stone wall.
Come to think of it,
they stands in this condition 500 years later.
People built it so firmly.

The road we are walking now
next to the stone wall was rice paddies once.

The double structure of the mort can be seen here.
The other side of the small elevation on our right
is the stone wall in the above photo.
Then, people of 500 years ago dug another mort inside,
and piled up boulders on our left.

Once upon a time, the stone walls continued to the seashore at the mouth of Hayakawa River. i.e. The Sogamae fort was using rice paddies along Hayakawa River, Hayakawa River, and the sea as mort to defend the city around Odawara Castle. In this regard, the downtown Odawara City facing Sagami Bay was treated exactly like commercial areas of European medieval walled city, and warlords were happy to protect commers’ area during the wars. Yeah, they were not fools. Who else could provide money for their troops? Even now, the structure of downtown Odawara keeps the characteristics for walled medieval community, but digging into the matter is a bit out of purpose for this forest blog. So, let us return to Itabashi-mitsuke traffic light next week. As the river and rice paddies, the owners of Odawara Castle fully utilized the geology, geography, and vegetation.

Returning to Itabashi-mitsuke.
The name of this crossing itself comes from the defense structure.
More to it, next week.

For enquires about sightseeing in Odawara City,

General Incorporated Association, Odawara Tourism
一般社団法人 小田原市観光協会

250-0042 350-1, Hagikubo, Odawara City
〒250-0042　小田原市荻窪350番地の1 小田原合同庁舎内2階

TEL:0465-20-4192 

FAX:0465-20-4194

Once upon a Time in War Zone: Forests and Odawara Castle Sogamae I 小田原城総構

 

Now thanks to the advancement of global communication tools, we are bombarded with the images beamed from war zones. Everywhere with bombs, the scenery is barren with rubbles and charcoaled somethings. It’s not rocket science to see huge environmental problems … Tons of heavy metals from weapons seeping in the barbecued soil, forests are disappearing after air strikes, people left in the battle zone are surviving in dusty “former” towns probably inhaling microparticles of hazardous substances wafting from the destroyed buildings. I really hope nukes won’t come … There, I guess greenery does not have meaning except for covers of soldiers. They are aggressively destroyed to kill the enemy … And that’s the reason why yesteryear warlords in Japan preserved forests. Let me explain.

Japan is registered as a nation of forests whose forested area is 66% of the entire territory. We are situating ourselves at the third position among OECD countries for this rate (; the first, Finland, the second, Sweden). The reason why we are so is at least partially owed to the history. The most famous historical figure who aggressively protected the nation’s forest was Tokugawa Ieyasu 徳川家康 (1543-1616), the founder of Tokugawa Shogunate. He ordered “not to deforest” in the area around Edo = Tokyo. If somebody violated his order, the person was subject to death penalty. Before Ieyasu, Japan was suffering civil wars and warlords everywhere in the archipelago took the same strategy for defense. The reason? Japan is mountainous and our climate is ideal for deep temperate rainforest. Before tank battles and airstrikes, encircling one’s territory with deep forest was the best strategy to build security walls. In Japan we do not have large scale walled cities as historical (aka tourists’) towns, like in Europe and Continental Asian places.

The forest around Mt. Takao.
This is one of the most famous examples
Ieyasu preserved 300 years ago.

When the civil war was settled, the strategically protected forests began to provide materials for constructions and other services such as herbal medicine. i.e. Keeping the forest was profitable. People did not have reason to destroy the gainful forest coverage for quite some time … Those were the days. The 1960s came when international trade of cheap imports annihilated Japanese lucrative forestry industry. Petrol started to dominate the material for many things. Many forests, especially in main cities and towns, where Prefectural Offices and the other modern-day utilities located, were bulldozed to build offices and suburbs for workers. In Japan, almost all such towns have history as a castle town for warlords. They once had deep forest. They are gone. It would be a good thing as we no longer had to think about civil war. But … sad for disappeared forests.

Yokosuka City in Miura Peninsula.
Now this is a port town for
 Japanese Defense Force and the US 7^th Fleet,
i.e. strategically important location for the defense of Tokyo.
 When Tokugawa Shogun governed Japan,
the area was off-limit for ordinary forks and
 Shogunate Guard stationed to watch
 any ship entering into the Tokyo Bay.
At that time, the scenery of this photo must have been
 massively covered with green forests.

Even though, some places show the memory of forest-fortress for those who know it. One of the most famous historical places in Japan in this regard is, well, Tokyo. The castle for Tokyo is Imperial Palace, and the forests of surrounding areas including Kanagawa Prefecture acted as a protective wall for the Capital. It’s too big to dig in casually the structure of this megalopolis … Rather, to experience the historical Japanese fortress-forest, we have a compact sized example nearby. It’s the area around Odawara Castle 小田原城. This week I begin to tell you my adventure in the forest, existing or remnants, of previous centuries’ war zone; that is Odawara City.

The Donjon for Odawara Castle

Let me begin with Japanese lesson. The city planning for defense of a castle in yester-centuries is called Sogamae 総構え. To translate this word, I would say “Everybody Ready to Defend Castle City.” The most basic elements for Sogamae are mort and fort. The mort for Imperial Palace is constructed with elegant stone walls built by Tokugawa Ieyasu. But this is the most inner mort for defense. Normally, a castle is protected by multiple layers of morts. For Japanese castle, they are often built utilizing our mountainous geology (more to it next week). Fort is the same. The most inner parts of the design are of stone walls preventing intrudes come in to the castle. But fort is also a system of layers which is designed according to the geographical characteristics for the area surrounding a castle. When the town to be protected was in a plain (which was rare in this country), the mort tended to be deep and wide with not so high forts with gates. The most famous example in this category was Sakai Town 堺 that was once an independent self-governing town of merchants, just like the medieval towns in Europe. When a thing to be protected, like a castle, was on the top of a hill, Sogamae system fully utilizes the geographical features for morts and forts, which we can observe in Odawara City.

The stone-walled inner mort
for Odawara Castle

Probably another unique feature of Japanese Sogame defense system is, it incorporates the existence of rice paddies surrounding up and down towns of a castle town. In time of emergency, the paddies would be intentionally inundated by the attached irrigation system. The paddy became the most outer layer of morts’ system which was expected to hinder the advancement of enemy troops. Do you remember, to the north of Kozukue Castle (; my post on July 3, 2015) there are farmlands called Akata Yato, or Red Rice Paddy. In 1478, a battle made the rice paddies-mort protecting Kozukue Castle became a blood-bath, and hence its name. You may notice Sogamae defense system is not only for protecting a castle situated in the center of a city, but also for the entire castle town including its suburbs. Next week, I tell you an itinerary for Odawara Sogame. It’s about 6-7 hours of town walk. Odawara Castle was BIG. For noticing how big it was, please stay tuned!

Once, here was a blood bath.

For enquires about sightseeing in Odawara City,

General Incorporated Association, Odawara Tourism
一般社団法人 小田原市観光協会

250-0042 350-1, Hagikubo, Odawara City
〒250-0042　小田原市荻窪350番地の1 小田原合同庁舎内2階

TEL:0465-20-4192 

FAX:0465-20-4194

The Last Dish of Spring: Cooking Japanese butterbur

 

Now the flowering season of spring ephemeral is over. Day by day, gardens, parks, forests, etc. are covered more and more with green leaves. The colors of leaves started from pale green, then become darker. We’re entering the season of mowing. We keep crossing our fingers for this summer not being so harsh as the last year … We could avoid perils of heat shocks during forestry work, couldn’t we? Well, before walking into the inferno, we have a small pleasure in a prep of scything. We harvest butterbur.

Minois dryas

Butterbur, Petasites japonicus or Fuki in Japanese, is herbaceous plant native to Japan. Sometimes farmers nurture them for their business. And we can find wild Fuki in forests around us. It loves sunny, wet, and less windy margins of forest. They multiply through its underground stem, just like bamboos. From the rhizome, green stems shoot out and at the top is a heart-shaped large leaf. Kids can play with the leaves, making face masks or umbrellas of forest. In our climate of Kanagawa Prefecture, fuki won’t grow much tall nor with larger leaves compared with those in more northern areas of Japan. Still, in Yokohama they can be 50cm or so tall and with approx. 30cm in diameter leaves. As long as the condition is met, they dominate the field as “weed.” So, in Niiharu Citizen Forest we mow them at the end of spring to control their spread. Never mind. They will cover the ground again before winter. Oh, one more thing before cutting hard. We have to harvest them for our spring dish.

Fuki is covering completely the ground.

Yeah. Young fuki is edible. Professional farmers of colder climate distribute them for supermarkets as spring delicacy. Theirs can have 1m long with Ø1cm or more of stems. The way to cook them is similar to angelica. We peel the skin of it before cooking and stew in soy sauce, et al ... a bit cumbersome process. In Yokohama, we won’t expect that size from our fuki. Actually, it’s easier to cook Yokohama size. Let me tell you how.

Harvested fuki

First, we cut off the leaves from harvested fuki. In this recipe, we need a certain amount of fuki stems. They will be mowed as weed before long. i.e. Be greedy to have as much stem as possible! Several regional cuisines cook the leaves as well. I once tried it, and found they gave us an “acquired taste of bitterness.” Also, rhizome and roots of fuki are poisonous. Please be careful. In this post, I tell you about an easier dish with stems only.

Lots of stems

Next, cut the stems in 1 inch or so long BEFORE washing. Chopped fuki stems will be washed under running water until the downy hairs covering the surface are rinsed over. They can be removed easily in this way. If you find relatively thick stems, peel their skin. Otherwise, Yokohama-size, Ø0.5cm or so, can be prepared tender without peeling. Don’t worry.

Chopped fuki before washing.
I add salt for rinsing the fuki.
Though, it is not necessary.

By washing, hairs can be removed this much.

Chopped and washed stems are thrown in a pot. Cover with a lid, and heat it over medium heat for 30 to 50 minutes. The stems are steamed with their own moisture. I cooked 400g of fuki stems for 30 minutes. A senior of Niiharu Lovers who every year cooked fuki with this recipe said, “I normally cook 4 kg or more of it.” In her case probably 50 minutes of steaming would be appropriate. After heating, leave and cool the pot overnight with a lid.

Chopped and washed fuki stems

Next morning, add 6 tbspn (for 400g of fuki) of soy sauce, put a lid, and heat the pot until it resumes steaming. When the steam comes out, turn off the burner and leave it cool naturally. In the evening, shake the cooled pot to stir the content, then turn on the heat again until the pot emits the steam. Stop the fire and cool it naturally overnight.

After first steaming

On the third day, add 2 tbspn of sugar, and follow the same routine as above.

Cooled fuki after sugar added

And for the final day, add 5 tbspn of Sake in the same way as for soy sauce and sugar. Let it cool overnight. In the next morning, the dish is done.

Cooled fuki after sake added.
This recipe gives glaze over the veggie when it’s done.

It’s a nice dish for a spring breakfast with steamed rice. Mine was only 400g. The cooked fuki will be eaten up quickly. My Niiharu senior with 4kg of cooked fuki freezes her dish and defrosts necessary amount when she provides it for a family meal. “Oh, it can last for 10 months or so if you wish. But for my family it does not take that much to finish. 😊” Sweet and salty with Umami taste from glutamic acid of soy sauce softens the bitterness of fuki. It’s the end of spring treat. When you have a chance, please try.

Good morning!

If you have any questions about Yokohama’s Green Tax and Green Up Plan, please make a contact with

Strategic Planning Division, Green Environment Bureau, City of Yokohama
横浜市みどり環境局戦略企画課

Phone: 045-671-2712
FAX: 045-550-4093 

Email: mk-kikaku@city.yokohama.lg.jp

Ebb and Flow: a small observation tour for water creatures of sea at Enoshima 湘南江の島

 

As a river water monitor for Kanagawa Prefecture, I’m getting familiar with observation sessions in rivers these days. But I haven’t done the same for creatures in sea … Er, to be exact, I haven’t done this for tens of years. When I was a first grader, I made a box of specimens I collected in the south rocky shore of Enoshima Island (; my post for June 30, 2017). At that time, the place was not so much gentrified for tourism, and finding crabs, sea shells, et al was an extreme fun for 6 years old. I was excited to many chitons and found sea slugs in tide pools ... Long time ago. Then, suddenly this spring I had a chance to join an observasion session for sea creatures in none other than Enoshima. This time, the place for the session was not the south shore facing Pacific Ocean, but the west shore of Sagami Bay. Beyond us was misty silouette of spring Mt. Fuji. The air was warm. Lots of people relaxing around Sagami Bay.

er … could you figure out Mt. Fuji over there?

The definite difference between the south and the west shores of Enoshima is, the south shore is very rocky thanks to the seafloor uplift by 1924 Great Kanto Earthquake. In contrast, the rocky area of the west shore is undersea unless it is the time of spring time. I recalled I visited there when we had observation session for wild birds a couple of years ago (; my post for 17, March 2023). The difference of geology between two places for a tiny island of Enoshima is due to the plate tectonics. Great Kanto Earthquake was caused by movements of Sagmi Trough which is continuously receiving humongous stress from the crush of Phillippines and North American Plates. The direction of pressure is from the Pacific Ocean to the north of Honshu Island. Enoshima is sitting on this squeeze, and so the south shore looks like washboards. The west shore of the island is spared from such stress to some extent, and the facing deeper area of Sagami Bay and so-so substantial mass of Izu Peninsula. The beach can maintain a continuation of sandy beach of Kugenuma. The wave is not so direct as from the Pacific Ocean.

When it‘s not spring tide,
the place we visited  for the above photo is undersea like this.

I’m not sure if such geological difference affect the findings we did during the observation session. But I haven’t met chitons or sea slugs at all. Instead, baby sardines in tidal pools are escaping around our looking eyes. Hermit crabs lived easygoing lives with sometimes broken shells. The spring tide lowered the tide by more than 20cm compared with the average. It locked up the dopy creatures in tidal pools. Many kids (and parents) were hooked on the mini expedition. “Dad, look, I caught a baby jellyfish!” Many people gathered around his proud handy aquarium where a jellyfish of less than 1cm diameter floating leisurely.

It’s indeed a wonder of the earth.
Such a wide open space for tidal pools we’ve met.

The wave was not much.

Below the seaweed, baby sardines quickly hide.

These two seashells are actually hermit crabs.

On that morning, we could observe tombolo connecting Honshu mainland and Enoshima. By the time we concluded the observation, the tide was returning and covering the tidal pools. We released our catch to the sea. Goodbye hermit crabs. We may see you again sometime, don’t you think so? It was a fun and relaxing holiday. I thought maybe the dragon forest on the mainland saw such easygoing and beautiful Enoshima Benten sisters and easily fell in love with them (; my post for June 30, 2017) … May peace on earth.

Tombolo is widening.
Warning: unless the city of Fujisawa opens the gate
 of steps at Enoshima side,
even if you walk tombolo from Honshu side,
you cannot land on Enoshima Island.
It is extremely dangerous
you try this when the gate is closed.
To walk seafloor,
please check the HP I listed below
if the City opens the gate on that tombolo day.

At the time of closing for our observation tour,
tombolo was closing.

And the tidal pool are submerging.

Before leaving the beach,
we returned our catch to the sea.

The session I‘ve joined was arranged by NPO Papalagi. They have several fun nature events around Sagami Bay, mainly for kids. If you and your family are interested in their future programme, please visit their homepage. Mind you, they are popular. For safety reason, each session has limited capacity, and so RSVP. The seats are taken quickly normally within a couple of days after opening. Good luck. 😉

Papalagi people explaining sea creatures
before we actually went the finding mission.

If you find environmental problems in Enoshima Island, please make a contact to

Local History Section, Continued Learning Promotion Division, Fujisawa City
Fujisawa Plaza, 1-2 Kugenuma-Higashi, Fujisawa, 251-0026
Phone: 0466-25-1111 (ext.) 5313,
FAX: 0466-27-0201

藤沢市生涯学習部郷土歴史課
〒251-0026 藤沢市鵠沼東1番2号 藤沢プラザ5階

You can send an enquiry to them from their homepage at https://www.city.fujisawa.kanagawa.jp/cgi-bin/simple_faq/form.cgi