Kindergarten of baby pines: Koyurugui Greenery of Oiso 大磯こゆるぎ緑地

Although the rim of Sagami Bay 相模湾 is adorned by greenery, often they are not natural vegetation. The coastline of Miura 三浦半島 and Izu 伊豆半島 Peninsulas is less intervened area, as the mountains of the peninsulas rapidly descend and dive into the bay. i.e. Not much flat area is available for humans … That would be one of the reasons in Atami City 熱海市 with massive debris flow and lots of death. In a fashionable resort city of Atami, people tried to have nice-view houses in upstream, reclaimed land by filling natural valleys, and triggered humongous collapse of the mountain … In contrast, from Zushi 逗子 to Odawara 小田原, the coastal land is relatively flat or having alluvial fan. People lived in these smooth area for millennia. The problem is, such place is easy to be eroded by Pacific Ocean. Sandy beach will bring constant mini-sandstorms on sea breeze … Worse, once tsunami comes, all could be washed away. So, people have tried to deal with the problem in one way or the other. Creating greenery along the coast is one of such traditional approach.

Pacific Ocean

I told you my adventure for tending such artificially created “forests” near Tsujidoh Beach 辻堂 (; my post on October 12, 2018). They were about 60 years old with tall and lush enough pine trees sufficient to prevent sandy wind from constant ocean wind. Yeah, inside, their forest floor on sand is not much as in forests of Tanzawa 丹沢 or Hakone 箱根. We keep crossing our fingers they will sustain the ground from rising sea levels of global warming … Of course, before reaching to such working stage, any seaside protection forest must start from somewhere. Unlike for fertile land, for sandy ground to have a sustainable forest, it would be better to nurture seedlings that would stay there without disturbance of their root. i.e., People plant seeds on the shore, and nurture them patiently. Actually we can visit and enjoy such baby seaside protection forest in Oiso Town 大磯. It is called Koyurugui Greenery こゆるぎ緑地.

In 1986, following the National Trust model of the UK, Kanagawa Prefecture established trust fund to secure greenery especially in urban area of the prefecture. At the same time, the prefectural assembly established public interest incorporated foundation named Kanagawa Green Trust かながわトラストみどり財団 that raises and manages the fund. By this scheme, in 2003 Oiso Town and the Green Trust bought a sliver of ocean-facing land, 0.17ha to be exact, almost glued to the former summer house PM Saionji Kinmochi 西園寺公望 (12th and 14th PM), and later of the 14th Governor of BOJ, Ikeda Shigeaki 池田成彬 (; my post on March 25, 2021). The volunteers of Oiso Town are sowing pinecones since 2008 and tending seedlings there. Now they are pine kids standing neatly in the secured land, with nice strolling path for human visitors.

The strolling path for Koyurugui Greenery

The access to Koyurugui Greenery is easy. First, please go to the residence of the final Crown Prince of Korean Empire, Prince Yi Un 李垠, which is now currently undergoing complete reconstruction (; my post on March 24, 2021). At the corner of the west-most part of Crown Prince’s place, there is a small way from National Route 1 国道1号線. The entrance part of this small road is the gate for PM Saionji’s summer house, but the alley itself is sneaking further to the sea and Seisho Bypass Motor Way 西湘バイパス. Please take this. It’s slightly going up, and at the “peak” of this sandy hill on our right, there is small steps with a sign saying “Koyurugui Greenery.” Welcome to the kindergarten of black pines.

Please turn left here.

Then,
we see this former summer house for PM Saionji on our right.

Please just go straight.

Here it is. The sign post.

The “forest” of black pine kids is spreading along Seisho Bypass Motor Way but we can see the Pacific Ocean beyond the toll road. It is a very bright forest, almost an oxymoron of forests in Kanagawa. As trees are 2-3 meters high at a max, and 10 or so centimeters in diameter at the fattest, there is no imposing atmosphere whatsoever from the pines. The forest floor is the same as the sandy beach so that we cannot find much undergrowth. A pedestrian route runs flat in the middle of the forest, demarcated at around 50cm high ropes. It’s almost a garden, and a quiet place. The strolling path has stools here and there so that we can relax in this well-lit forest with tea in hand, gazing blankly the Pacific Ocean over there … Although the trees are still young, they bear lots of pinecones. Many of them are rolling around the sunny forest floor. The trees look healthy and fine. Yeah, it’s a nice kindergarten!

Pacific Ocean over there

Sturdy stools

Healthy kids!

The other side of the entrance

The pedestrian way of Koyurugui Greenery runs on the ridge of sandy hill. The Greenery itself is rapidly descending to Seisho Bypass. Between the motorway and the forest, there is a pedestrian/cyclist route running along the Seisho Bypass. It’s a part of Pacific Cycling Road of Japan, running from Chiba Prefecture 千葉県 to Wakayama Prefecture 和歌山県 to Osaka 大阪. For Oiso Part, the beginning is at Oiso Fishing Port 大磯漁港 where we can borrow a bike for in-town usage. Last spring, the town opened a new café in the port where we can enjoy fresh catch of the day for nice lunch. Instead of entering Koyurugui Greenery from National Meiji Memorial Garden 明治記念大磯邸園, you can walk/ride from the Fishing Port along the Pacific Cycling Road, with packed lunch purchased in the port. Anyway, this summer, the Oiso Town again decided to close Oiso Northshore 大磯北浜 due to COVID-19. It might give us a chance to enjoy less-congested ocean side of Oiso Town in summer … (Whoops, the Town recommends “Not to Come!”)

Pacific Cycling Road

The Café in Oiso Port

If it had been fine,
we could have admired Mt. Fuji
 beyond Hakone mountains …

Oiso Town Hall 大磯町役場
183 Higashikoiso, Oiso-cho, Naka-gun, Kanagawa, 255-8555
〒255-8555 神奈川県中郡大磯町東小磯183
Phone: 0463-61-4100
Fax: 0463-61-1991
http://www.town.oiso.kanagawa.jp/isotabi/index.html http://www.town.oiso.kanagawa.jp/oisomuseum/index.html

Immunized: partial opening for Meiji Memorial Garden of Oiso 明治記念大磯邸園

In Oiso Town 大磯町 on the sites of summer houses for former Prime Ministers of Japan, the construction works continue for National Meiji Memorial Garden 明治記念大磯邸園 (; my post on August 14, 2020). The COVID-19 made a havoc for their schedule. I guess they planned to open partially the place before July 2020, as the nearby Oiso Prince Hotel becomes a satellite Olympics Village for Sailing Competition … The actual opening ceremony was held in the Garden last November. Then, another wave of COVID-19 hit the Megalopolis Tokyo. Tourist Information in Oiso Town was closed till 21st of March. Meanwhile the accessible section of the Garden, about 1/4 of the planned space, has been open without entrance fee, during the State of Emergency. Not many people visited there. It was a sort of chance to see the place sans congestion, so I thought. I sneaked in the place early March.

The rice balls I bought for my lunch
 from a shop located in front of the Memorial Garden.
 Pure vegan, and De-Li-Cious!!

This is the shop, called Maru Sho-ya. Please try!

The opened part of the Meiji Memorial Garden is where the summer houses stand for PM Okuma Shigenobu 大隈重信 (8th and 17th PM) and Foreign Minister (1892-1896) Mutsu Munemitsu 陸奥宗光. The current plan also includes the residence of the final Crown Prince of Korean Empire, Prince Yi Un 李垠, (i.e. the summer house of 1st, 5th, 7th, and 10th Japanese PM Ito Hirobumi 伊藤博文). The Crown Prince’s part is currently undergoing complete reconstruction so that we cannot enter the site at all. The west of the Prince’s seat was also a summer house of PM Saionji Kinmochi 西園寺公望 (12th and 14th PM), and later of the 14th Governor of BOJ, Ikeda Shigeaki 池田成彬. The area is at the moment excluded from the plan for Meiji Memorial Garden, but their mansion which is a rare amalgam of Art Deco and English Tudor style, still stands. The rumor is, the site will eventually be included in the National Garden. Let us see …

The map of the Memorial Garden.
 The section with icons of trees and information center is
 open to the public.

The former residence for Prince Yi Un is
 under complete reconstruction.

The mansion standing next to the Crown Prince’s place.
 Yeah, it’s closed.

The two summer houses for PM Okuma and Minister Mutsu are presently closed for earthquake reinforcement work. At least now, between the structures there is no wall or the like at all. We can enjoy the Gardens of these two guys as one. I guess when the houses are open to visitors we will know how two families arranged their neighborhood when they were here ... Compared with Hotel New Otani’s garden in the center of Tokyo we’ve visited before (; my post on September 20, 2019), the Gardens of Okuma and Mutsu are definitely open and relaxed. Indeed, New Otani Garden was the property of viceroy feudal lord Ii 井伊家 who commuted from there to his office in Edo Castle for Tokugawa Shogunate. This one in Oiso was for summer houses. Beyond the forest (and Seisho Bypass Motorway) is the sand beach facing the vast Pacific Ocean. It should have a peaceful atmosphere. Even so, the character of the place might be due to the spirit of the era, rapidly industrializing Japan before the World War I ...

The entrance to opened portion for
 Meiji Memorial Garden of Oiso

PM Okuma’s summer house.
 He loved to have party here every weekend.

Minister Mutsu’s summer house

We walk straight through
 the ocean facing section of PM Okuma’s place,
 and find this Minister Mutsu’s.
 There’s no barrier at all.

Here and there they provide panels
 describing how the owners used this place.
 They provide English version as well.

Since Oiso Town is on the crushing point of Eurasian and Philippines Plates, the beachfront area has creased-up edges of Eurasian Plate as continuous small hills running parallel to the shore. The Garden uses the peculiar geographic feature cleverly. The summer houses stand at the “hill top,” and the rock gardens and planting design expand over the slopes going down and up before descending to the beach. Mutsu’s Garden has an artificial water cascade (which is now dry due to the construction work) with strategically located rocks to recreate “ideal” scenery of deep mountain. The strolling path is surrounded by azaleas, roses, citrus trees, and the others with lawns. Here and there are formidable black pines and camphor trees. A part of the garden has both black and red pines both of which were well taken care of to admire the contrast of black and red trunks. I suppose the gardeners here have been superb as they nurtured beautiful red pines in such a humid sea front. (Red pines normally thrive in dry mountainous area.) This tells wealth and power of the former owners of the Garden.

The Garden. We can go up to the point
 where the sheet covers the route.
 Beyond it is under construction now.

The color contrast of boughs of red and black pines …

I guess this place has lots of flowers of Azalea
 in two months …

Beautiful Camelias

The artificial cascade in Mutsu’s garden.
 I return here when the water flow is resumed …

Minister Mutsu was a protagonist to conclude the first Sino-Japanese War / War of Jiawu (1894-95). Though, at the zenith of his career his tuberculosis became serious, which made him quit the post in 1896. After resignation, he spent long time in his summer house in Oiso, and visited Hawaii for recuperation. Unfortunately, he did not last long and died in 1897. Er, well, Hawaii is, and perhaps was, a paradise on earth. But Mutsu’s Oiso Garden also could have been gorgeous and restful. Why did he have to travel such a long way to Waikiki with his sick lungs …? How was Japan at the turn of the century …? Did people need paradise that much …? I wonder.

One of those formidable camphor trees in the Garden.
 Come to think of it,
 camphor is a tree for aroma therapy and medicine.
 Maybe, they were needed for summer houses of
 ministers spending stressful weekdays in Tokyo …

I then noticed these towering pines have many tags stamped on their trunks. What are they? Some keeps legible words written on them. They say “Immunization, (day)/(month)/(year); Drug name, xxx; Methods of administration, yyy; Administrator, zzz Co.” Wow. They are vaccination passport against pine wilt. I cast my eyes to the outside corner of Okuma’s Garden. There is a tall, but withered pine tree. All the beautiful pines here are struggling to cope with the attack of pine wood nematode … Whatever the Prime Ministers or Diplomatic Treaties, killing diseases by bacterium, nematode, or virus, have been here for more than centuries … When my turn comes, I’m going to be vaccinated against COVID-19!

Immunized!

Or, dying …

This one stood outside the entrance of the Garden.
 Experienced veteran …

Meiji Memorial Garden
Showa Kinen Park Oiso Office, Kanto Regional Bureau,
Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport, and Tourism
国土交通省関東地方整備局
国営昭和記念公園事務所大磯分室
Phone: 0463-79-8700

Oiso Town Hall 大磯町役場
183 Higashikoiso, Oiso-cho, Naka-gun, Kanagawa, 255-8555
〒255-8555 神奈川県中郡大磯町東小磯183
Phone: 0463-61-4100
Fax: 0463-61-1991

http://www.town.oiso.kanagawa.jp/isotabi/index.html http://www.town.oiso.kanagawa.jp/oisomuseum/index.html

Resilience: Forests in Komayama Park 高麗山

 

From Shonandaira 湘南平, without using driving road or going back the same route we’ve taken so far, there are two routes to return to the beachside. Two roads divert after we check the highest point of Komayama Park 高麗山公園, Mt. Sengen 浅間山 of ASL 180.9m. So, let’s go to Mt. Sengen first by taking the ridge road to the east. This part of our itinerary could be the most well-prepared route in our adventure of Komayama Park. It is a wide road with several garden trees intentionally planted by humans. Local volunteers take care of such trees, including a row of hydrangea and a field of turf lilies. Also, the place is one of two secretly famous spots for Japanese bird watchers to observe migratory birds commuting between Southeast Asia and Eurasian Continent via Pacific Ocean. For those species spending their summer in Siberia, passing over Komayama Park to the south would be around the second week of September. There are not many obstacles for us on the ridgeway to see the creatures enjoying the final stopover before crossing the Ocean. If you have any chance to come here in September, please try which bird you could find! (Another mecca for Japanese bird watchers is Cape Irago in Aichi Prefecture 愛知県伊良湖崎. The season to go there is also in the second week of September.)

The road is wide.

In winter, the ridgeway of Komayama Park has
 several colonies of daffodils.
 Smells nice!

At the top of Mt. Sengen, in winter.

Roughly 300 or so meters after Mt. Sengen to the east, we come across a Y-crossing. One road directly going down is the route bringing us to Komashimizu Bus Stop 高麗清水. From there by Kanchu Bus Hira 平 33, 35, and 36 services we can return to JR Hiratsuka Station in 20 or so minutes. (Timetable is here.) Although the road is a narrow trekking route, it’s a one-way going down, and physically less demanding compared with another route. We can enjoy this road for its rich forest floor vegetation. If you prefer walking for leisurely nature observation from Shonandaira, I recommend this route.

The Y-crossing to the Bus Stop

Damnacanthus indicus in Komayama Park,
 typical bush tree for warm coast in Japan

Autumn leaves here will be its peak
 in late December.

Komashimizu Bus Stop
 to Hiratsuka Station

Another route from the Y-crossing is visiting Mt. Koma 高麗山, ASL 168m, then goes down to Oiso Town 大磯町 via Takaku-jinja Shrine 高来神社. Whenever you find the name of place “Koma 高麗” in Japan, it is a safe bet it’s a Japanese abbreviation of Goguryeo (高句麗), the ancient Korean Kingdom thrived between the 1st century and 7th century. Why is a Korean name for Japanese places? It’s because the kingdom had several political crises that created many political asylum seekers emigrated to Japan. For Mt. Koma of Oiso, the written historical document recorded such thing happened after Goguryeo was overthrown by Chinese Tang Dynasty in 668. According to Mr. Koichi Nakajima of Kanagawa Natural Environment Conservation Center 神奈川県自然環境保全センター, members of Goguryeo royal family flew from the Korean peninsula and settled here. As we’ve encountered Yokokuji-yato Tunnel Tomb 楊谷寺谷戸横穴群, and in the mythology for Mt. Hakone called Hakoneyama Engui 箱根山縁起 there are mentions about Goguryeo gods living in Oiso, the place may have been known by Korean nobles as some sort of spiritually desirable place … and some 1200 years later, a crown prince of their kingdom made Oiso his home (; my post on August 14, 2020) … The Koreans with advanced technology developed the area with iron manufacturing. It means, the forest of present day Komayama Park had a massive deforestation in the 7th century (; about steel making and deforestation, please see my post on January 15, 2016).

The ridgeway continues to the peak of Mt. Koma.

Before reaching to the top of Mt. Koma,
 we’ll meet this Y-crossing.
 Please cross the wooden bridge.
 For another road going down, I’ll mention it shortly.

To Mt. Koma

Then, in 717 famous monk Gyoki 行基 established Takaku Temple 高麗寺 around Mt. Koma, with Takaku Shrine. The temple grew bigger by the 10^th century having tens of wooden temple buildings for hundreds of monks in this tiny area. So, people deforested the area further. From then till Tokugawa Shogunate 徳川幕府 was established in 1600, the area of Komayama Park was destroyed so many times for construction, or for the medieval civil wars. By the early 17^th century, it was a bold mountain. Shogunate government decided to be a patron of the big temple-cum-Shintoism shrine, and aggressively afforested the seaside arid hill by black pines (Pinus thunbergii). Thanks to the strict control for forest management by Shogunate, Mr. Nagajima reported the vegetation of the area slowly recovered with pines from Shogun and oaks villagers around the hill planted for harvesting fuel logs. Those are the origin of present-day oaks here. At the time Oiso Town was becoming a celebrity town of the PMs, the forest was still of pines and deciduous broad-leaved oaks with lots of sunshine and humid winds from ocean reached to the forest floor. The place became the property of the prefecture who decided to keep the style of forest management as Shogun did. Though, the big temple at Mt. Koma was abolished and the buildings were destroyed. So, when we walk around the top of Mt. Koma now, we can find large afforested trees of 300-100 years old and a vacant space where once the temple structures stood.

The top of Mt. Koma where
 once the main temple building for Takaku Temple stood.

The steps of the temple remain.

To the Shrine from the remain of the Temple,
 it’s simply going down.

When Japan rushed into the World War II, many of the trees in Komayama Park were chopped as a part of resource mobilization for the total war. Yet, the Shogunate methodology of managing the forest of Komayama Park remained after the war till around the 1960. Then, petrol replaced the logs for energy and the forest was abandoned. Not much care was given. Around this time, massive die down occurred for 300 years old afforested pine trees due to pine wilt nematode. It gave chance for Machilus thunbergii, Castanopsis sieboldii, and Japanese camellia (Camellia japonica) to dominate the area with sasa bamboos covering the floor. The evergreens block the sunshine and sea breeze to penetrate in the forest. Now, remained or forgotten oaks have grown big enough to be a victim of Japanese oak wilt … So, it takes 400 years after the afforestation for the forest to be in the current form. The forest of Komayama Park is of old trees, but it certainly preserves the feeling of “man-made-ness.”

I think the feel here is a bit different from, say,
 the forests in Tanzawa mountains,
 in terms of “wildness.”

Still, it’s impressive forest, don’t you think?

Downtown Oiso is over there.

Although Takaku Temple was demolished, Takaku Shrine survived in the foot of Mt. Koma, which is the goal of our hiking in Komayama Park. The Shrine has two big annual festivals, whose photos and information are available in Oiso Municipal Museum 大磯郷土資料館 we visited. One festival is in summer with boats where fishermen ask good catch and prosperity for the town. Another is in spring for carrying a Mikoshi (portable shrine) from the Shrine to the top of Mt. Koma. From Takaku Shrine to the top of the mountain where once Takaku Temple situated, there are two routes. One is relatively smooth zig-zag trekking road, called On’na-zaka. Another, called Otoko-zaka, is definitely steeper and rocky way sometimes requiring rock-climbing. In spring festival, people carry Mikoshi to the hilltop intentionally using the steeper and more dangerous Otoko-zaka slope. The spring festival was originally for Takaku Temple, not for the Shrine, started in the early 17^th century. Now the route proceeds in the dark evergreen broadleaved forest, but for the first 300 years, Mikoshi should have carried in a brightly sun-lit forest of early spring. There must have been some reason people chose that slope …

Do you remember another road
 we met before arriving the top of Mt. Koma?
 It comes down here,
 behind the main building of Takaku Shrine.

Takaku Shrine

From Takaku Shrine, we can return to JR Oiso Station via National Route 1. If you like, please take small detours here and there along the present-day Route 1. Oiso Town preserves ancient Tokaido Street as commuter road for residential area where several 400 years’ old black pines still stand. Considering the damage pine wilt disease did for Komayama Park, it may be miraculous we still see such old pines just outside ordinary residences … The festivals for Takaku Shirine were cancelled this year due to COVID-19, and no one knows if they’ll be held next year. Who knows what the slow destruction of COVID-19 would do for our culture? But, even if a mountain became completely bold, it eventually has some vegetation on it ... I hope in hundreds of years’ time, we’ll have some recovery, just like Komayama Park.

Route #1 running in front of Takaku Shrine.

A detour along Route #1, which was
 once for the Post Town of Oiso for Tokaido 東海道.
 Now it’s completely a residential area
 with descendants of original black pines.

If you find 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/