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daeva_neesanHere's another report of my adventures in Japan!
I know that I shouldn't tell it, as he was one of Nobunaga's strongest enemies (even if they were allies, for a short time!), but he's my favourite Sengoku General right after Nobu :D
On top of it, I don't know why he's always portrayed like the "wild" type... He always gave me the impression of the rigourous type, he was accomplished as both a poet and a scholar, and when he's compared to Uesugi Kenshin, I don't know, but they both really feel quite similar to me, I don't understand why Kenshin is always portrayed as a delicate pretty boy :/ !
Anyway, leaving from Tokyo, I graciously headed to Kofu, this joyful city squeezed in the middle of the Japanese Alps, with a stunning view of Mount Fuji, all wrapped in sakura.
I didn't get to see any Fuji nor sakura, but sure it gave me the impression of a joyful city!
As I gave for granted that I would have found lots of maps and infos on the Inishie no Michi, the "Historical Path", at the local touristic spot, I headed there with very little infos on the whole thing, that now I realized was a problem.
To be honest, the ladies at the Touristic spot were quite kind and gave me tones of maps and infos on the city but everything was in Japanese and not so foreigner-friendly XD
The most useful map that I got hold of what this one, you can still see the scribbles of me and the lady who explained me the stuff:
JAPANESES AND THEIR MAPS, one of the greatest issue of the average traveller.
Anyway, I thanked everyone, tucked all the informative pamphlets in my bag with no intention of ever letting them out from there, and started to follow the Shingen spots on the map.
First stop, the statue of Shingen in front of Kofu Station.
C'mon, this was easy to find:
After this, the ladies suggested me to take a peek to the Kofu Castle Ruins (甲府城跡), now a park for viewing Mount Fuji and sakura:
Anyway, this castle has nothing to do with Shingen as, as you know, he never built a castle in Kofu.
These are the ruins of Maizuru Castle (舞鶴城), that was built by one of Hideyoshi's subordinates in 1583, and later became the residence of a certain Yanagisawa Yoshiyasu, the favourite of the fifth shogun Tokugawa Tsunayoshi.
I grumbled to myself, got back to the station 'cause Iam a moron realized that I really needed to buy at least an ekiben if I didn't want to die there at the yamasuso, and proceeded with my tour.
I reached Chozen-ji (長禅寺), a pretty cool temple, with a damn overpass placed right in front of it (to take this picture of its gate I had to stay under it and I accidentally stamped on a dog's shit D:)
It's a temple of the Rinzai school of Buddhism (the one favoured by samurai families) and it's the temple of his mother family relocated in Kofu.
Shingen's mother was Ooi-no-kata, and her burial is here.
This temple is also one of the Kai Hyakuhachi Reijo (甲斐百八霊場), one of the 108 Sacred Sites of Kai. It's placed at the 58th stage of the pilgrimage.
The ladies of the Touristic Spot told me that I really had to go to the Mitarashi Dai (みはらし台), an observatory placed on a hill from where you could enjoy the prettiness of Kofu city.
I checked out where it was located and I decided to pass, since the last thing that I wanted to do was climbing another freaking mountain.
My next stop was the Keko-in (華光院), and I got happily lost before reaching it.
After walking across the whole neighbourhood, I reached another nice slop-- This little temple was right on top of it, in the midst of greenery:
I was now walking on top of the feet of the damn mountains, so to reach the Daisen-ji (大泉寺).
Another important temple of the area, here is preserved the tomb of Nobutora.
This is also the 59th temple of the Kai Hyakuhachi Reijo :3
Then it was the time to look for the Tomb of Shingen, located in the place where his remains were burnt-- AND THIS WAS EXTREMELY DIFFICULT TO FIND ToT
The map that I had was quite INSUFFICIENT to located, as it was hidden under a little slope covered by private houses!
--In fact whoever I found did their best to give me directions-- I was just too retarded to understand them, but in the end I managed to get there, as random signs saying "Shingen Tomb Here!" (in Japanese, of course XD) started to give me a clue ToT !!
Next on the list is the huge Eikon-ji:
This was easy to find, as I located it already when I was looking for Shingen's tomb XD and it's a very huge temple...
As usual it's located on a slope, but at this point it was too much for my poor feet, and I just took a picture of its entrance XD
This is the second most important temple of Kofu, one of the five gozan together with Chozen-ji, and the 60th temple of the Kai Hyakuhachi Reijo.
It's part of the list as this place hosts another tomb of Shingen, and the burial of Lady Sanjo, one of his wives.
This is the entrance of the Gokoku Jinja (護國神社):
There are temples like this, sharing the same name, across the whole Japan.
I don't know what's the relationship with Shingen, but it was on my map, so I took a peek.
Finally, I reached the last stage of my tour, the amazing Takeda Jinja (武田神社) (look at the policeman posing for my picture XD):
The story of this building was extremely charming: Nobutora came with the motto "People is a castle, people is a wall, people is moat", meaning that he had no need to build himself a castle, as the people of Kofu were the best defense and protection for their lands, and he definitely had nothing to fear from his fellow townsmen.
Here I finally ate my delicious pork-based ekiben!
Outside of the temple's precints there was an interesting map showing the locations of the houses of the Takeda's key vassals:
1. Itagaki Nobukata
2. Oyamada Nobushige
3. Sanada Nobutsuna
4. Kosaka Masanobu
5. Naito Masatoyo
6. Yamamoto Kansuke
Also, here's a close-up of the palace's plant:
I left Kofu with a smile on my face, some seriously sore knees and some cheap yet cute souvenirs to remember of Takeda's awesomeness:
And that's all ^_^
Next time it'll be the turn of another Sengoku General, the good ol' Date Masamune :D
I know that I shouldn't tell it, as he was one of Nobunaga's strongest enemies (even if they were allies, for a short time!), but he's my favourite Sengoku General right after Nobu :D
On top of it, I don't know why he's always portrayed like the "wild" type... He always gave me the impression of the rigourous type, he was accomplished as both a poet and a scholar, and when he's compared to Uesugi Kenshin, I don't know, but they both really feel quite similar to me, I don't understand why Kenshin is always portrayed as a delicate pretty boy :/ !
Anyway, leaving from Tokyo, I graciously headed to Kofu, this joyful city squeezed in the middle of the Japanese Alps, with a stunning view of Mount Fuji, all wrapped in sakura.
I didn't get to see any Fuji nor sakura, but sure it gave me the impression of a joyful city!
As I gave for granted that I would have found lots of maps and infos on the Inishie no Michi, the "Historical Path", at the local touristic spot, I headed there with very little infos on the whole thing, that now I realized was a problem.
To be honest, the ladies at the Touristic spot were quite kind and gave me tones of maps and infos on the city but everything was in Japanese and not so foreigner-friendly XD
The most useful map that I got hold of what this one, you can still see the scribbles of me and the lady who explained me the stuff:
JAPANESES AND THEIR MAPS, one of the greatest issue of the average traveller.
Anyway, I thanked everyone, tucked all the informative pamphlets in my bag with no intention of ever letting them out from there, and started to follow the Shingen spots on the map.
First stop, the statue of Shingen in front of Kofu Station.
C'mon, this was easy to find:
After this, the ladies suggested me to take a peek to the Kofu Castle Ruins (甲府城跡), now a park for viewing Mount Fuji and sakura:
Anyway, this castle has nothing to do with Shingen as, as you know, he never built a castle in Kofu.
These are the ruins of Maizuru Castle (舞鶴城), that was built by one of Hideyoshi's subordinates in 1583, and later became the residence of a certain Yanagisawa Yoshiyasu, the favourite of the fifth shogun Tokugawa Tsunayoshi.
I grumbled to myself, got back to the station 'cause I
I reached Chozen-ji (長禅寺), a pretty cool temple, with a damn overpass placed right in front of it (to take this picture of its gate I had to stay under it and I accidentally stamped on a dog's shit D:)
It's a temple of the Rinzai school of Buddhism (the one favoured by samurai families) and it's the temple of his mother family relocated in Kofu.
Shingen's mother was Ooi-no-kata, and her burial is here.
This temple is also one of the Kai Hyakuhachi Reijo (甲斐百八霊場), one of the 108 Sacred Sites of Kai. It's placed at the 58th stage of the pilgrimage.
The ladies of the Touristic Spot told me that I really had to go to the Mitarashi Dai (みはらし台), an observatory placed on a hill from where you could enjoy the prettiness of Kofu city.
I checked out where it was located and I decided to pass, since the last thing that I wanted to do was climbing another freaking mountain.
My next stop was the Keko-in (華光院), and I got happily lost before reaching it.
After walking across the whole neighbourhood, I reached another nice slop-- This little temple was right on top of it, in the midst of greenery:
I was now walking on top of the feet of the damn mountains, so to reach the Daisen-ji (大泉寺).
Another important temple of the area, here is preserved the tomb of Nobutora.
This is also the 59th temple of the Kai Hyakuhachi Reijo :3
Then it was the time to look for the Tomb of Shingen, located in the place where his remains were burnt-- AND THIS WAS EXTREMELY DIFFICULT TO FIND ToT
The map that I had was quite INSUFFICIENT to located, as it was hidden under a little slope covered by private houses!
--In fact whoever I found did their best to give me directions-- I was just too retarded to understand them, but in the end I managed to get there, as random signs saying "Shingen Tomb Here!" (in Japanese, of course XD) started to give me a clue ToT !!
Next on the list is the huge Eikon-ji:
This was easy to find, as I located it already when I was looking for Shingen's tomb XD and it's a very huge temple...As usual it's located on a slope, but at this point it was too much for my poor feet, and I just took a picture of its entrance XD
This is the second most important temple of Kofu, one of the five gozan together with Chozen-ji, and the 60th temple of the Kai Hyakuhachi Reijo.
It's part of the list as this place hosts another tomb of Shingen, and the burial of Lady Sanjo, one of his wives.
This is the entrance of the Gokoku Jinja (護國神社):
There are temples like this, sharing the same name, across the whole Japan.
I don't know what's the relationship with Shingen, but it was on my map, so I took a peek.
Finally, I reached the last stage of my tour, the amazing Takeda Jinja (武田神社) (look at the policeman posing for my picture XD):
The story of this building was extremely charming: Nobutora came with the motto "People is a castle, people is a wall, people is moat", meaning that he had no need to build himself a castle, as the people of Kofu were the best defense and protection for their lands, and he definitely had nothing to fear from his fellow townsmen.
Here I finally ate my delicious pork-based ekiben!
Outside of the temple's precints there was an interesting map showing the locations of the houses of the Takeda's key vassals:
1. Itagaki Nobukata
2. Oyamada Nobushige
3. Sanada Nobutsuna
4. Kosaka Masanobu
5. Naito Masatoyo
6. Yamamoto Kansuke
Also, here's a close-up of the palace's plant:
I left Kofu with a smile on my face, some seriously sore knees and some cheap yet cute souvenirs to remember of Takeda's awesomeness:
And that's all ^_^
Next time it'll be the turn of another Sengoku General, the good ol' Date Masamune :D
no subject
Date: 15/11/14 08:34 (UTC)no subject
Date: 15/11/14 10:12 (UTC)no subject
Date: 16/11/14 00:34 (UTC)My profession is "technical draftsperson", i create technical drawings. Nowadays its also called "design engineer", I think thats because there was a shift from 2D to 3D CAD in the past. During my apprenticeship, ten years ago, i had to work on a drawing board using indian ink pencils on transparent paper. It was a pain when you made a mistake, then you had to scratch off the lines with a razor. It helped building up a certain amount of discipline though ^^" Today i mostly do 3D, first modeling the part and then deviating the drawing from that. After school i didnt really know what to do and i applied for all kinds of jobs. I was unemployed for over a year before i finally got something. I just wanted to do "something with media", becoming a technical draftsperson was like an accident. I cant say i really regret it, although its not that well payed and you often have to do the same work a university engineer has to do. Today i know i should have become a webdesigner, but i'm too afraid switching professions now and theres tons of people in this business, its too risky ( pathetic lol ). Long story short, i am familiar with technical illustrations and there can be a certain beauty in them.
Although they are not really technical, the maps in this post caught my eye. You can see the effort it took to make them and you can see the ambition. I just love the japanese symbolism and typographical artstyle they developed.
Hah, look at me rambling xD normally i'm too shy to comment and i dont like to type on my shitty tablet. Its a daily routine for me to read rss-feeds when i go to bed. I cant remember how i stumbled across your blog, i think i was searching for something related to jojo's bizarre adventure. For me its a hidden gem and, like i told you before, your stories and posts tend to make me happy (so i can doze off with a smile on my face lol).
Keep it up <3
no subject
Date: 17/11/14 19:58 (UTC)Don't be unsatisfied with your job, is still pretty interesting! At least you're allowed some level of creativity, and your products are useful for people :D
I can understand your admiration for such maps, but trust me, THEY ARE FREAKING TRAPS.
I gathered a lots during my travels, if you're interested I could share some ;D
The one I liked the most was the one about Miyajima, it was also kinda useful, until I decided to follow the trails to Buddhist temples and got lost D:
And I'm really glad to hear that you find my blog so "curative" x'DDD
I'll do my best to keep it interesting :3
no subject
Date: 15/11/14 09:24 (UTC)Ah yes, tourist maps - they are very helpful and easy to follow when you already know the locations inside and out, but if you're new to the places they depict, you're shitto outo ofu rakku. XD
no subject
Date: 15/11/14 10:11 (UTC)(XD)
There are various levels of touristic maps, usually they are intuitive if not correct, Japanese ones are just TRICKY! Like, they tend to omit little side roads, or give roads different sizes compared to reality, and are generally WTF!
I managed to visit and find the most places on my list because I printed the most of maps beforehand from Google Maps, but I underhestimated the issue with Kofu and went BAREHANDED! I was naive! XD
no subject
Date: 15/11/14 10:13 (UTC)no subject
Date: 15/11/14 10:54 (UTC)no subject
Date: 16/11/14 15:09 (UTC)no subject
Date: 17/11/14 20:02 (UTC)I started the walk around 1200 and finished around 1500... And the map says that it should take around 2 hours XD