When
we google Earth, West Kanagawa is covered with green. On the border between the
grey cities and green forest, the City of Sagamihara 相模原市 situates itself. Geologically
speaking, the city can be divided in 2 areas both of which were created by
Sagami River 相模川. One is Sagamihara Plateau where the downtown Sagamihara is spreading
and creates a grey concreted area in Google Earth. Another is river terraces,
where Sagami River runs in the middle of greenery. Actually the latter area is
a gateway to climb the main ridge of Tanzawa Mountains 丹沢山系, and as such it’s very
mountainous area. For millennia, the area has been the main route connecting
mountainous middle Japan (I mean, Yamanashi, Nagano, and Gifu prefectures) and
Kanto region. During the medieval period, a powerful warlord of Yamanashi,
Takeda clan 武田氏, and another big chieftain of Odawara 小田原, Hojo clan 北条氏 who
governed the entire Kanto region, faced-off each other in mountainous east
Sagamihara, and so the present day border between Kanagawa and Yamanashi was
determined. The largest fortress for Hojo family was strategically located on
the border between the diluvial plateau and the river terrace of Sagami River.
The place once-called Tsukui Castle 津久井城 is now Tsukuiko Shiroyama Parkof Kanagawa Prefecture 神奈川県立津久井城山公園. This week, I report you my adventure in Shiroyama
hill 城山 with well-maintained trekking roads where parents can bring their
venturesome kids to try their hiking skills. As remains of medieval fortress,
it’s the biggest in Kanto region. I experienced how tough those samurais were
in Shiroyama. They fought tooth and nail to defend their territory in such a steep
mountain slopes. Amazing.
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| Shiroyama
fortress, which is now a deep forest. |
If you
come to Tsukuiko Shiroyama Park outside of Kanagawa Prefecture, the easiest way
is via Kenoh-do Express Way 圏央道 by car and exit from
Sagamihara IC to reach to Tsukui Lake 津久井湖. (More to this lake in my
later post: it has a deep connection with Yokohama.) Go to Shiroyama Dam 城山ダム, and
beyond the dam, there is Tsukui-kanko Center 津久井観光センター, a tourism center of Tsukuiko
Shiroyama Park that has an ample free-parking space. When you use public
transportation, first go to Hashimoto Station 橋本駅 of JR Yokohama Line, JR Sagami
Line, and Keio Sagamihara Line. Leave the station from the North Exit to take Kanachu
bus service Hashi-01 橋01 (time table, here) to Mikage 三ヶ木 at bus stop #1 or #2. It’s
about 30min ride to Tsukui-kanko Center Mae Stop (i.e. in front of the parking
space) or its next, Kita-Negoya Stop 北根小屋. Those are the bus stops to
hike Shiroyama forests. Around Shiroyama Dam is one of the best spots for
cherry-blossom BBQ party in the area, and due to its proximity to the
population center of west Tokyo, the place could be uber-congested in
March-April. If you plan to go there in early spring, better to have a good
planning.
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The tourism
center of Tsukuiko Shiroyama Park.
They daily sell local sweets, and fresh
produce. |
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It’s a
bit tricky to find #1 and 2 bus stops
in the north exit of Hashimoto Station.
When
you exit from the ticket gate,
turn left and go to the open space
constructed
above the bus-terminal.
Once you find the sign of this photo,
simply follow the
arrows leading us to #1-3 stops. |
77.7ha
park on the western edge of Tsukui Lake is consisted of 2 flower gardens next
to the dam (and the parking), Hana-no-enchi 花の苑地 and Mizu-no-enchi 水の苑地, a forest
hill, i.e. the Shiroyama fortress, and an outdoor archeological museum called Negoya
根小屋 area where the ancient samurais for the fortress lived with their
family. (2pp map of the park is here and here.) For you who are interested in
Japanese history and archeology, the booklet here (in Japanese) explains the
story of the place. According to this document, the place had a substantial
expansion till April 1590 when the samurais of Hojo Clan protected the place
surrendered to the army of Tokugawa Ieyasu 徳川家康. The museum is explaining
medieval way of life of samurais. I think the nearest access to the museum is
from Kitanegoya Bus Stop. From the bus stop, go back a bit to the traffic right
and enter the community road going to the direction of the hill. The road meets
with T-crossing and we turn left here. The third corner after turning left
shows small shrine (Koami Suwa Shrine 小網諏訪神社) and steps ahead on the left
showing the way to enter the hill. At the end of the steps next to the shrine,
there is a bio-tech toilet with a nice view of Tsukui Lake, and a paved
pedestrian road that connects the tourism center on the shore of the lake and
the museum behind the hill. Turn right here and a 10min-or-so walk will bring
you to the archeological site.
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| Shiroyama
hill seen from Kitanegoya |
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Could
you figure out the steps over there?
By the way, the community along the lake
was built
in the 1960s by the people who moved
from the ancient communities
along Sagami River.
They had to move due to Shiroyama Dam, operational since
1965.
So, the shrine next to the steps was moved
from the original place now in
the bottom of Tsukui Lake. |
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The
paved road to the museum.
A structure on the right along the road is … |
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A
bio-tech toilet.
Your droppings will be processed by microbes
living underneath
the toilet seats.
No water flushing is necessary
(; you must use the toilet
paper provided there.) |
The
Shiroyama Hill itself is now remains of medieval fortress covered with a well-established
forest. The trekking roads within Shiroyama have 4 viewing spots, 3 to the
north and 1 to the south. This was the frontline for medieval wars, and the
view from the fortress is located damned reasonably. The viewing spot to the
south (in the map, the location with No.6) is at the entrance of museum coming
from the bio-tech toilet where visitors can observe the entire village nestled
in the beginning of Tanzawa Mountains. Beyond the samurai village was a fierce battle
ground in 1568 with 40,000 soldiers of Takeda and Hojo Clans. The view along
the road running near the toilet (No.4) is observing Tsukui Lake, along which
runs National Route 412 connecting to Route 20 near JR Sagamiko Station 相模湖駅. From
here, sentinels could spot the army of Takeda clan coming from the west. Another
two (No.11 and 12) locate in the east of the Park looking down the megalopolis
Tokyo. So, when the army of Tokugawa came from Tokyo (Edo), this was the spot
for the watchmen of Hojo to find out. Actually, from No. 12 point, on a fine
winter day, it’s possible to figure out beyond the trees Tokyo Skytree to the
north. The current trekking roads in Shiroyama are remains of roads of the
fortress connecting these viewing spots with the last stand of the lord of the
castle at the peak (375m ASL). Naturally, they are ringed roads strategically
connected by spokes.
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| A view
from the toilet. Nice, isn’t it? |
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Unfortunately,
when I’ve been there,
it was a short window of rainy summer days of 2017.
This
was the best shot I could take
for a view from Shiroyama No. 12 to Tokyo. |
Roughly
speaking, the fortress has 3 ringed roads circling the peak which was the last bastion
for the Lord of Tsukui Castle. The design of the routes is following the
standard war strategy. The north side of the ringed road around the foot of the
fortress contains the steepest and sometimes trickiest feature of the road
within the park, including fragile ridges and long and rocky slope equipped
with chains for the climbers. The entrance to the bastion was made difficult. (In
the map, it is from Point No.1 è No.4 è No.60.è No.7èNo.8èNo.11èNo.12èNo.13èNo.2è No.1.) The second inner ring-road
running through Point 18 and Point 15 is a utility road that does not require
difficulty for the hikers who have managed the outer circle road of the
fortress. The inner-most road, called Honjo Kuruwa 本城曲輪 (meaning, “the corridor of
the last stand”), is more of a hallway within the castle around the peak. We
can stroll Honjo Kuruwa in woods just like wandering in an urban park. Honjo
Kuruwa has still ongoing archeological excavation so that please keep off from
the cordoned-off places. These 3 ringed roads are connected by steep slopes all
of which let us recall this is the place of war so that the approach to the
peak cannot be easy.
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The
trekking route between points #2 and 13
equipped with chains to support hikers. |
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Though
steep,
Kanagawa Prefecture maintains the roads well. |
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| Viewing
Tsukui Lake from Honjo Kuruwa |
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The
archeological study is going on
at the peak of Tsukui Shiroyama. |
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| There
is a toilet at the peak. |
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In
Honjo Kuruwa, they situated many boards
explaining the history and design of
the castle (in Japanese).
The place is like an open-air museum. |
By the
way, #18 sign post of the second inner circle of Shiroyama is a photo point for
Kanto Fureai-no-michi (Metropolitan Nature Trekking Route 関東ふれあいの道). It’s a sort of programme
orchestrated by the Ministry of Environment of Japan to encourage metropolitan
dwellers to experience nature surrounding the Kanto region. Kanagawa has 17
routes for the scheme (the detail is here), and you collect your photo taken at
the designated points, send them to Kanagawa Natural Environment Conservation
Center, and they will give you a certificate of “conquering all the routes in
Kanagawa” and a budge. (The address of the Center will be at the end of this
post.) If you do the same for all the 7 prefectures in Kanto region, you send
your photos of the last prefecture together with the certificates of the other
prefectures. Then, you’ll receive a grand certificate and a special budge of
your achievement. It’s a project of walking 160 courses of roughly 1800km … "Why
did you want to climb Mount Everest?" "Because it's there."
George Mallory.
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Inside
of the fortress,
the sign posts are located in a strategic point
so that in
case you lose your route,
you can simply return to the sign post
to figure out
your intended direction.
To report your achievement to the Conservation Center,
you take your photo with these signs. |
There
are only 3 openings to the second inner circle road from the outer ringed road.
The easiest is from the museum area to No. 15. The road is steep but the widest
and there remains a little bit of the stone-pavement. A part of second
ring-road from the museum area is called “Kuruma-zaka 車坂,” i.e., Car Slope. It was
possible for 2 cavalries to proceed on this route side by side. The staff of
the fortress must have commuted to their office daily, sometimes with supplies
loaded on a cart. The other 2 roads are trickier. One from the northwest of
Koami Suwa Shrine, and another from the southeast No.13 point, both of which
are very steep. At point No. 13 (approx. 350m ASL) there is a pond named
Takaraga-ike 宝ヶ池, aka Treasure Pond, which is said to be never dried-up. Also, the water
of the pond is always cloudy so that people believe when samurais were busy in
Tsukui Castle, they must have washed tons of (sometimes bloody) Japanese swords
there. I don’t know the legend was true, but the pond is surely the evidence
that Tsukui Castle had maintained an abundant supply of water even under emergency.
Next to the pond there is a small shrine, Iizuna Shrine 飯縄神社, that is a home of Iizuna-gongen
who is an apparition of Acala presiding, needless to say, war. Iizuna-gongen’s
main home is Takaosan (Mt. Takao) situated northeast of Shiroyama. Mt. Takao
was also the territory of warlord Hojoh who treated anything connected with Iizuna-gongen
well. It’s no wonder they donated another home for this deity within one of the
most important fortresses in their territory. The road system around the
shrine, called Iizuna Kuruwa 飯縄曲輪, is precipitous and contains
lots of remains of dry mort and sentinel points including fire beacon platform
site. Unless we pass this point we cannot enter the second inner circle road
from the east.
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| Kuruma-zaka
to point #15 |
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At #4
there is this box for hikers to pick up a map of the fortress.
It’s the same
map downloadable from the sites I cited above.
This is very useful info. |
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A way
from #4 to #18 is
steep and winding trekking road. |
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| Takaraga-ike |
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| Iizuna
Shrine |
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The
view to Mt. Takao from the top of Shiroyama.
Takao is not that far from here. |
From the
second inner circle road to enter the Honjo Kuruwa corridor of the last stand,
there is only one road. It starts from Point No.15. In the middle between No.
15 and the peak, there is a relatively flat space called Taiko Kuruwa 太鼓曲輪,
which is considered to be the remains of a house for the second commander of
the castle. After this pace, we face a small but very sharp valley called
Horikiri 堀切 that was artificially created by digging the ridge to defend the last
bastion. Now it’s just a short and steep going down and up, but before the
place was almost a cliff and the samurais threw there a wooden rudimentary
bridge named Hikihashi 引橋 that could be easily removed when enemies approached. At the end of
climbing Horikiri, there is a large stone monument erected in the early 19th
century by Shimazaki Tadanao 島崎律直, the village chief of the
current museum area. He was a descendant of one of the followers of the defeated
Lord of Tsukui Castle, Naitoh family 内藤氏, and paid cool 50 thousand
Ryo in 1812, equal to USD 25 million now. It was a commemoration of the killed
souls some 220 years ago then … Really, people remember such things for a very
long long long time …
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| Point
#15 |
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Taiko
Kuruwa.
Taiko means drums, and, for this case, war drums.
Academics are
debating
the meaning of the name Taiko Kuruwa here.
I think it is natural
for the second commander
to be in charge of war drum.
Don’t you think so? |
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Horikiri.
At the beginning of this place, there is … |
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| Educational
board explaining the logistics of war at that time. |
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Crossing
Horikiri,
the slope is steep … |
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| And
there, this is a handsome 25 million dollar monument. |
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In Honjo
Kuruwa, there is a post
inviting you to drop your own haiku or poem
depicting your impression of Tsukui Shiroyama.
Your
art will be displayed in the museum of Negoya. |
So, the
ground of Shiroyama Hill probably absorbed lots of blood, and now the soil must
be very fertile. Also, the place keeps the underground water very high. Near
Takaraga-ike, 350m ASL, there is a remnant of gigantic cedar tree that was
thunder-struck in 2013 and died at the age of approx. 900 years old. Cedars
cannot grow that long and big unless there is enough groundwater. Naturally, the
vegetation of Shiroyama Hill is rush and I found lots of mushrooms sprouting when
I’ve been there during a pocket of wet summer days. Near Point No.2, they have
a beautiful forest of cypresses planted some 120 years ago. The atmosphere is
filled with the aroma of noble Japanese cypresses … The Park Office provides a
nice free nature-guide booklet (in Japanese, downloadable from here). According
to this document, Shiroyama Hill was a bald mountain when it was a fortress.
Er, well, as a battle ground, of course lots of trees were simply obstruction. Samurais
must have cut vegetation vigorously. Then, after conquering Tsukui Castle, Tokugawa
Ieyasu grabbed the land and ordered to afforest the entire area massively in
order to create a buffer zone, in case another enemy approached to Edo (Tokyo)
from the northwest. Later, this defense policy was transformed to industrial
policy of timber production. Now the border area between Tokyo, Yamanashi, and
Kanagawa Prefectures have vast “public forest mountains” originated from the
afforestation ordinance by Tokugawa Shogunate government. It’s a sort of
important when we consider Yokohama’s water and forests. I return to the topic
in my later posts.
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Wooooooooow.
A cedar with violent death. |
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| “I’m shy.” |
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The cypress forest here is designated as
one of the
“Kanagawa’s best 50 forests.” |
If you find environmental problems in
Tsukui Shiroyama Park, please make a contact to the Park Center,
Tsukui Shiroyama Park Center 公園管理事務所（根小屋地区パークセンター内）
162 Negoya, Midori-ku, Sagamihara,
252-0153
〒252-0153 神奈川県相模原市緑区 根小屋162
Phone: 042-780-2420
FAX: 042-780-2422
The contact address for Kanagawa Natural Environment Conservation
Center 神奈川県自然環境保全センター is
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/
