A Forest where once girls gathered fallen leaves (perhaps): Iiyama Kan’non Hiking Course 飯山観音ハイキングコース

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 12^th 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 11^th 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 14^th century. Then, another civil war happened and the decline of the establishment started. In the 16^th 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 16^th 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 18^th 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 21^st 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 …

Descending is steep first.
 From here to Junrei Pass (巡礼峠 Pilgrimage Pass),
 it’s a part of Kanto Fureai no Michi
 (関東ふれあいの道・首都圏自然歩道 Metropolitan Natural Walk Way).

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

You can send an enquiry to them by clicking the bottom line of their homepage at http://www.pref.kanagawa.jp/div/1644/

The Road to Mt. Oyama: Oyama Pilgrimage大山詣り road, now

Japan has numerous roads of pilgrimage. The most famous one would be to go around Shikoku Island 四国 as Ohenro お遍路 that you might have heard. Though not so demanding for worshippers as Ohenro route, Kanagawa Prefecture has at least 2 Shinto shrines that have an established course to visit. As they are for Shintoism, they inevitably accompany forests. One of them is to Enoshima Island 江の島, and the other is to Oyama Afuri Shrine 大山阿夫利神社. I keep Enoshima for warmer season, and this week I begin to tell you my adventure with Oyama Mairi (大山詣り Oyama Pilgrimage). Since 2015 Michelin Green Guide Japon gives one star for the itinerary so that you may have known the place already. In July 2016, the route was designated as one of the Japanese Cultural Heritages by Agency for Cultural Affairs of Japan. For kids grew up in Yokohama, visiting Oyama Mt. is often a menu of school trips, i.e. an educational thing. My elementary school had a program to go there for 5^th graders every year, except for our classes … we really don’t know why. (Huh, there must have been some adult reason!) And hence, I’ve never been there. Meanwhile by keeping posting this blog for 2 years, I’ve realized we are using the route to Mt. Oyama in our daily lives no matter. If you live in the inland area of the City of Yokohama, the Oyama Pilgrimage Route pierces through your town inevitably (the reason, below).

First, it would be better to tell you the history of Oyama Pilgrimage. Afuri Shrine at the top of Mt. Oyama (1252m) has been there for millennia, literally. Archeological digging at the peak found artifacts of more than 2000 years ago. Up until the 16^th century, the place was a sort of exclusive as an aficionados’ training ground of spirituality. Shintoism and, to some extent, Japanese Buddhism have a tradition of mountain worship and there are priests, called Yamabushi 山伏 or Shugenja 修験者, exercising meditation and the other rituals in Tanzawa Mountains especially around Mt. Oyama. Do you remember Gomayashiki Spring 護摩屋敷の水 when we did a small walk around Yabitsu Pass ヤビツ峠? That was a place where the hermits had wonderful tea secretly deep within mountains, admiring Mt. Oyama from the west. As such, the area attracted rich and powerful who had money and time to visit a remote sacred area, even if they did not visit the summit by themselves. Around Mt. Oyama there are several temples and shrines that had patrons of famous historical figures. Later, I tell you my visit to Hinata Yakushi Temple 日向薬師, Sekiunji Temple 石雲寺 and Oyama Temple 大山寺, which are the religious institutions with this kind of history. I guess people believed that the power of Mt. Oyama provided good foundation to establish a place of worship at the foot.

Very popular Gomayashiki Spring these days.
People from far come to collect once exclusive sweet water.

In the 17^th century after the civil war was ended in Japan, ordinary people started to have money and time to think about “weekend” trips and bucket list travels. Secretly fashionable places for rich and powerful, like Mt. Fuji, entered in the must-visit list of common folks. Within the roll was Mt. Oyama that locates near Edo, i.e. Tokyo. The place was suitable for mini-vacation for Tokyonites … er …  Edoners? Perhaps? Conveniently, the mountain was in Kanto Region 関八州 where a million residents of Edo could have a 3 to 4 days schedule without exit-visa from Kanto. (At that time, ordinary Japanese could not travel outside their registered area unless they had valid and expensive visa, called Tegata 手形.) People formed a travel club, called Koh 講, saved money together, and visited Oyama in turn among members. Meanwhile, the shrine town of Oyama was established by tourist agencies, called Onshi 御師, who promoted the Oyama pilgrimage package nation-wide. Back then, each Koh club carried an absurdly long wooden sword as an offering to the Shrine, mimicking the first samuirai Shogun, Minamoto no Yoritomo 源頼朝, who offered his sword to Oyama Temple for his victory. The attire became a symbol of Oyama Pilgrims, and appears in Ukiyoe or Kabuki describing city-life in Edo. The Afuri Shrine has a record of 200 thousand annual visitors in the late 18^th century. Wow. There are several routes for Oyama Pilgrims from all over Japan. The most famous itinerary started at Akasaka Gate 赤坂御門 (; there is no gate now, but the remnants of stone wall of the gate in front of the Official Residences of Chairpersons for the National Diet 衆・参院議長公邸) / Sakurada Gate 桜田門 of Edo Castle (i.e., the Imperial Palace) and went through Aoyama 青山 and Shibuya 渋谷 (through that Shibuya Crossing) to cross Tama River 多摩川 at Futakotamagawa 二子玉川 … i.e. the current National Route 246 up to around Odakyu Isehara Station 小田急伊勢原駅, then turned to the right to Mt. Oyama. So, when you live near 246 in Yokohama, you live near Oyama Pilgrimage Road. I didn’t realize it until I started visiting Citizen Forests near home!

A historical house along Oyama Road
in Mizonokuchi Town of Kawasaki.
The premises have been a pharmacy since 1765,
started to serve tourists from Edo to Oyama.

Though, the present day Route 246 is the road straightened for the 21st century traffic of any kind (from pedestrians to military equipment … no for nothing the US Camp Zama and the CNIC are along the way). If we want to find genuine Oyama Route along 246, we have to dig in sideways … where sometimes the name Oyama Road remains. When you get off the Den’entoshi Line at Futakotamagawa Station 東急田園都市線二子玉川駅, cross Tama River 多摩川 along 246, and dive straight, instead of turning right with the wide 246, you enter the road whose name is Oyama Road 大山街道 leading us to (Musashi-)Mizonokuchi Station 武蔵溝ノ口/溝の口駅. On this street, the City of Kawasaki has a small museum, called Oyama-Kaido Furusato-kan 大山街道ふるさと館, dedicated to the history of the area along the Oyama Pilgrimage Route. The beauty of this tiny place is, it has lots of English explanation about Oyama Pilgrimage and its role for the development of their community. If you come near to the area and have some curiosity about Oyama pilgrimage, please just drop in (admission free) 😉

The present-day Oyama Pilgrimage Road
near Mizonokuchi

Oyama-Kaido Furusato-kan 大山街道ふるさと館 is here.

From there the route goes roughly along 246 to the west, until around Nagatsuda Station 長津田駅 where it’s directed a bit south to Niiharu 新治 and Miho 三保 Citizen Forests. A piece of ancient pilgrimage road remains along the southeast outer road of Miho Forest which had an old signpost of “Oyama Road 大山道” at O-1 point in the map. I simply guess before the Oyama Route was like there. According to the suggested Oyama Pilgrimage Route by Kanagawa Prefecture, from Miho Forest, the road crosses the present day Route 16 off Yokohama Zoorasia, skirts the north of Oiwake 追分 Citizen Forest and Hodogaya Country Club, and goes under Tomei Express Way to Kan’nonji Temple 観音寺 of Yamato City 大和市. The Temple is at the beginning of Shimotsuruma Town 下鶴間宿 for the Pilgrimage Road, where Edoners often changed their wore-off sandals to a new pair in order to pay respect to the god of Mt. Oyama. Around here, the antique route is disrupted by the CNIC, but reaches to Kokubunji Temple 相模国分寺 that was the center of Kokubu Town 国分宿, now the Ebina City 海老名市. The path then proceeds to the west to cross Sagami River 相模川 at the north of Ebina IC of Tomei Express Way, reaches to Atsugi Shrine 厚木神社, diagonally crosses the downtown of Atsugi City 厚木市, and joins 246 after passing the Atsugidaini Elementary School 厚木第二小学校 and the flyover of Odakyu Odawara Line 小田急小田原線. We can now simply follow 246 more or less near to the municipal office of Isehara City 伊勢原市役所 which is about 500m north from the Odakyu Isehara Station 小田急伊勢原駅. We are approaching to the shrine town of Oyama …

Niiharu Citizen Forest 新治市民の森 seen from the Miho-Nenjuzaka Park 三保念珠坂公園.
I guess the pilgrimage road went along the houses over there.

O-1 point of Miho Citizen Forest.
On the left of “WC” direction, could you see
a dated rectangular stone that says Koshinto 庚申塔 in Chinese character?

The left surface of the signpost says
“To the left, Oyama Pilgrimage Road.”

Before Oyama Pilgrimage Road could have been like this
… around P-4 point in Miho Citizen Forest.

Another Koshinto 庚申塚 near Zoorasia to Route 16.
There are 5 monuments in this shack.
As a Koshin monument is built every 60 years
in the year of Koshin, i.e. Wood Moneky,
from the oldest monument to the newest one
we can count at least 240 years of community activity.
It would be a signal the road was popular among lots of ordinary folks.

Looking Mt. Oyama from Ebina Station,
near Lalaport Ebina Shopping Mall.
The highest one in this photo!

Next week, I’ll post my visit to the 3 temples in the hills of Mt. Oyama that had once rich-and-powerful patrons. The City of Isehara is brushing them up to be tourism destinations once again … Touristic or not, they are quiet religious institutions within the silent mountain, which could explain why they have attracted visitors for almost millennia. Spirituality within the deep forest, don’t you think it sounds attractive for your 21^st century weekend?

When you are interested in cultural heritages, like Oyama Pilgrimage Road, in Kanagawa Prefecture, you can check the phone numbers listed in the homepage of Kanagawa Prefectural Government at

http://www.pref.kanagawa.jp/cnt/f211/p3302.html

About the registration of Oyama Pilgrimage for a Japanese Cultural Heritage by the Agency for Cultural Affairs of Japan, the site at Isehara City may be helpful. The access is at

http://www.city.isehara.kanagawa.jp/bunkazai/docs/2016042200047/

Oh, by the way, there are lots of travelogues in search for Oyama Pilgrimage Road in Japanese internet. As you may have noticed, the 90% of the way is now deep within the ocean of Tokyo Megalopolis buildings, i.e., a bit separated from the forests, and hence their post is more of city walk. In other words, you can start your own Oyama Pilgrimage from your nearby alleyway of Tokyo this evening. The one I found cute is a family walk from Akasaka to Shibuya (access, here). Good luck for you, too!