Out of
Metropolitan area, i.e. Yokohama, Kawasaki, Fujisawa, Kamakura, … Kanagawa
Prefecture still has places where we can imagine an intimate life between
forest and agricultural villages of yesteryears. True, many of them are now simply
bed towns of Tokyo with lots of detached houses and condos. Even though, going
through such newly developed areas, we find a large, old, but often dilapidated,
temple with forest and mountain behind. It indicates the area was once a
thriving agricultural community where the forest and a mountain attached to the
temple provided firewood and the other seasonal bounties, in addition to
spiritual center, for the community. A hiking course in the forest surrounding
Iiyama Kan’non Temple 飯山観音 in Atsugi City 厚木市 is one of such places. It is actually a popular destination for local
boy and girl scouts. Let’s go there this week! (Map is here.)
 |
Geranimun thunbergii found in today’s itinerary.
It’s an ingredient for popular folk medicine to stomach ailments.
We can find
lots of them today, i.e.,
this was the place where people utilized
the givings
from the forest. |
Iiyama
Kan’non area is secretly famous among spa lovers in Tokyo metropolitan area.
You take Tomei Express Way and exit from Atsugi IC. In 20 minutes’ time, your
car arrives at Iiyama On’sen (Iiyama Spa 飯山温泉) where a couple of inns
provides spa resort with alkaline hot spring. (The choices for inns can be
referred here.) If you prefer, you can plan today’s itinerary to end at Iiyama
Kan’non and have a rest at spa. Hmmmm … I’m not sure if kids are happy for this
arrangement. So, I stick to family friendly plan, and start from Iiyama Kan’non
Bus Stop 飯山観音前. To go there, take a commuter bus (time table,
here) from #5 bus stop in the plaza of the North Exit of Odakyu Hon’atsugi Station 小田急本厚木駅. Majority services from #5 stop go to Iiyama Kan’non
Bus Stop, but you’d better ask the driver before your ride if they go there. The
service first passes a standard residential area which gradually changes scenery
with random mix of new houses and old farms. It’s a typical sign of
Metropolitan Tokyo where a suburban development is spreading to former rural
communities. In 20 minutes or so, we arrive at Iiyama Kan’non Bus Stop where a
bright red gate says “Welcome! This is the town of Tatsukura Shrine 龍蔵神社,
Iiyama Kan’non Temple 飯山観音, and Kongohji Temple 金剛寺.” Let’s pass the gate and immediately
turn right. Go straight for a couple of minutes and on our right is a farm land
where gorgeous chrysanthemums are smiling during autumn. On our left is
Kongohji Temple.
 |
| Iiyama
Kan’non Bus Stop |
 |
Please
pass this gate.
It’s very obvious land mark of the area. |
 |
| Let’s
take this direction. |
 |
| Beautiful
chrysanthemums |
 |
| Go straight
to Kongohji Temple 金剛寺. |
Legend
says Kongohji Temple was established in AD 807 by Kukai 空海, a superstar monk of Japanese early Buddhism. In a historical chronicle
Azuma Kagami 吾妻鏡 which depicts the civil war of
the 12th century, there is a record of 1182 in which monks of the
temple petitioned to the government. The place was the center of spiritual life
of the village at that time. The principal image of Kongohji is Amitabha 木造阿弥陀如来坐像 which is a wood sculpture in
a typical 11th century’s style. It is designated as an important cultural property of Japan 重要文化財. All sounds impressive, isn’t
it? So, you have to go there and see it by yourself. The temple hall where Amitabha is situated stands, I would
say, slanting. Record says the institution was OK till the 14th
century. Then, another civil war happened and the decline of the establishment
started. In the 16th century, Tokugawa Ieyasu 徳川家康 in Edo (Tokyo) recognized its
existence and allowed to have small vegetable plots around it, which is the
legal basis of its current situation. In early November, in front of the temple
are chrysanthemums and commercial vegetable fields, which indicates until the
hall began tilting the place was a typical village temple serving for the
thriving farmers nearby. We enter the very old-looking gate of the temple, pass
the hall of Amitabha, and take a
trekking path on the left which goes through the temple’s community cemetery.
The atmosphere of village still remains as it was some 100 or more years ago …
 |
The
temple hall of Kongohji.
The institution underwent renovation when
Tokugawa
Ieyasu allowed it to have land in the 16th century.
So, I guess the
structure was built at that time. |
 |
| This
way, please. |
 |
| The
route becomes steps leading us to |
 |
| A
small temple cemetery. |
After
the cemetery, we go through for about 10 minutes a typical Satoyama forest, a
mixture of afforested conifers on the right, and broad leaved spring-flowering
trees on the left. I guess kids of yesteryears took daily excursion here after
their school … Before long we enter a wide open space with a well-kept public
toilet and parking spaces. It’s the territory of Iiyama Kan’non Temple, aka
Chokokuji Temple 長谷寺. Actually, if we go straight with the paved road from the big red gate
next to the bus stop, we can come here straight, after passing Tatsukura Shrine.
The founding legend of the establishment is even older: it is said that Gyoki 行基,
another superstar monk, established the place in 725. In 988, the temple was
designated #6 temple for Avalokitesvara pilgrimage of Kanto region 坂東33観音霊場. Ever since, the place has
been visited by lots of pilgrims, and for the 21st century, parking is the MUST
for such premises … got it? The present buildings for the sanctuary were built
in the 18th century whose condition tells us the temple is
apparently better off than Kongohji Temple we have visited. The power of pilgrimage
tourism. The bell of this temple has an inscription of the year 1442 which
explains why this bell became the property of the temple. It also explains how
people raised the fund to manufacture the bell. The place was popular then
certainly. The trees surrounding the sanctuary are tall and large. It is a
typical feature of precinct forest of Japan where people have seen something spiritual
in the forest of a religious establishment. People’s will has made the trees
very old and large ...
 |
From
Kongohji Temple, on the left is an orchard.
Let’s go straight, |
 |
| a bit
of climbing, and then, |
 |
| An
open space for Iiyama Kan’non. |
 |
This
is the toilet.
In today’s itinerary, this is the last toilet
before we arrive
at Nanasawa Park.
Please use your chance wisely. |
 |
| From
the toilet, we go up a little to … |
 |
| The
sanctuary of Iiyama Temple. |
 |
The
bell.
The direction to strike a bell is toward the mountain always.
The sound
should bounce back to … |
 |
human
community spreading
at the foot of the mountain where a temple locates.
The
design of the bell house here is a sort of textbook example. |
 |
| The
main hall of Iiyama Kan’non Temple. |
 |
There
is a cute stone statue of Avalokitesvara,
which has chop sticks and a rice bowl (we guess, yeah).
“Iiyama” means “Heaped
rice = abundance.”
Bon appetit! |
 |
| Forest
of very-temple |
From
the back of the temple hall, there is a trekking road goes up to the top of Mt.
Hakusan (ASL 283.8m). Soon we meet three-forked crossing. On the right is
Otoko-zaka 男坂, and on the left is On’na-zaka 女坂. Both lead us to the peak.
Otoko-zaka (; direct translation, “Male slope”) is shorter but with a bit
steeper slope. On’na-zaka (“Female slope”) is longer but a gentler slope. (Oh
by the way, it’s not saying about male and female expected life years here!)
Today, we take easier path, so enter On’na-zaka. Almost immediately, there is a
meshed fence and a gate to keep deer out of the temple forest. Also, from about
this point, we can find posters saying “Beware of monkeys.” Hmmm. Large trees
of the sanctuary spread their large boughs beyond the wired enclosure … looks
ideal corridor for tree-top dwellers to move around. Such is human intelligence
… After this site, the vegetation of the forest becomes far more natural than
the temple precinct we’ve passed. As usual in Kanagawa Prefecture, much acreage
is covered by afforested coniferous trees, but the entire area also preserves broad-leaved
trees that were spared from deforestation some 100 years ago for commercial
forestry. We have encountered traces of mountain persimmons whose fruits were
smaller but sweet as the commercial version. No fruit was left, though.
Monkeys! The road is calm and pleasant. After a steep but brief climb, we reach
to the top of Mt. Hakusan, in about an hour from the Temple. Next to the peak
of Mt. Hakusan is an observatory. To the west, we can admire the entire Mt.
Oyama just next to us. To the east is Kanto Plane. Weather permitting, we can
recognize Tokyo Skytree over the horizon.
 |
| Three-forked
crossing |
 |
| A
bunny welcomes us at the entrance of On’na-zaka. |
 |
Anti-deer
gate.
Please close it securely once you enter. |
 |
| But we
are sure they are nothing for clever monkeys. |
 |
| A
trekking road now |
 |
| The
bunny continues to guide us to the top. |
 |
| No
fruit here … |
 |
Botrychium ternatum.
It looks like somebody
planted them for garden
… it’s wild, of course. |
 |
| The observatory
at the top of Mt. Hakusan |
 |
| We
could not see Tokyo Skytree! |
From
the observatory, let’s go down to Nanasawa Forest Park 七沢森林公園. The top of the mountain is a
crossing of three-forked road: from On’na-zaka we came, from Otoko-zaka, and to
Nanasawa Park in the direction of Mt. Oyama in front of us. The basic
vegetation and the scenery we enter now is the same as we came from Iiyama Kan’non
Temple. The difference is, this side is continuous ups and downs going through
the ridgeway descending to Nanasawa Town. This is the forest sandwiched by
Iiyama Spa Town and Nanasawa Town that is another and bigger spa town of Atsugi
City. I guess both communities, agricultural villages of yesteryears, used the
ridgeway forest as a provider of many things … gathering firewood, searching
for materials to charcoal baking and to tools for daily usage, harvesting medicinal
herbs and wild sweet fruits, persimmons included … School-aged girls came here
after school every fall for collecting fallen leaves that could be good tinder
for warming houses coming winter. In the 21st century, such usages
have gone. The trees, like Quercus
acutissima and Quercus serrata,
are a way too large. They are good to bake charcoals, and before once in 12-15
years coppicing was widely done. It was the way to maintain healthy forest. Not
so large deciduous trees allowed enough sun light to forest floors. It would
then encourage smaller plants to thrive. Many of such species were utilized for
daily lives in villages. Now large trees do not allow sufficient sun to their floor.
Ever-green shade trees, such as Aucuba
japonica, have started to dominate the beneath … That’s a landscape we
should think about carefully …
 |
| And
so, picnic benches here and there. |
 |
Though
not so steep,
continuous ups and downs are a bit demanding. |
 |
| It’s
too large … |
About
an hour or so walk from the peak, we reach to Jun’rei Pass (巡礼峠 Pilgrimage Pass). From here,
if we continue to the west to Hinata Yakushi Temple 日向薬師 (; my post for March 24, 2017 to
Mt. Oyama), we follow the Pilgrimage Pass Route for Metropolitan Natural Walk
Way. Though, today, let’s conclude our hike in Nanasawa Forest Park 七沢森林公園 by
going straight at the 3-forked road at Jun’rei Pass. The Park is one of the prefectural
parks Kanagawa Prefecture has for our community. As we enter the park, the road
becomes wide and sometimes with stone paving. There also are lots of sign posts
with maps. It would be easy for you to navigate to the gate of the Park where an
office for park administrators locates. Nanasawa Park itself deserves
independent introduction. Please stay tuned for the time I tell you my
adventure in Nanasawa Forestry Park 😉 From the Forest Park to the nearest bus
stop, Nanasawa On’sen Iriguchi Stop 七沢温泉入り口 (“Entrance to Nanasawa Spa”),
it’s about 5 minutes’ walk. Any services from this stop (; time table is here) will
bring us back to the stations for Odakyu Odawara Line 小田急小田原線, such as Hon’atsugi Station 本厚木, Aikoh-ishida Station 愛甲石田, and Isehara Station 伊勢原.
 |
| Junrei
Pass |
 |
| Inside
the park is mainly like this. |
 |
| To the
gate of Nanasawa Forest Park |
 |
| Nanasawa
On’sen Iriguchi Bus Stop |
If you find an environmental issues
in Kanagawa Prefecture, please make a contact with Kanagawa Natural Environment Conservation
Center 神奈川県自然環境保全センター
657 Nanasawa, Atsugi City, 243-0121 〒243－0121 厚木市七沢657
Phone: 046-248-0323
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