Day 8, Hiraizumi

The main theme of my stay in northern Honshu is the feudal ‘old Japan’. Sadly, this was the only period that the region had any significant influence on Japanese history. Since then, the region went into decline, and even nowadays, among the Japanese, it has the image of the simple undeveloped rural country. It gets completely ignored by foreign tourists, which is logical because the Tokyo area and Kansai are much richer in sights. Maybe this is also the charm of the region. Nowhere in Japan did I encounter such friendly people as in northern Honshu and Hokkaido.

Typical for Tohoku (the common name for northern Honshu literally means ‘East-North’) is the history of the town of Hiraizumi. This history is roughly as follows: around the 11th and 12th century, most of Japan was ruled by the Fujiwara clan. The most powerful clan members lived in Kyoto, but in the 12th century a certain branch of the clan manages to gain control of all of Tohoku. The capital of their land is Hiraizumi. Because of the local goldmines, the branch becomes so rich and powerful that at a certain moment Hiraizumi has 100 thousands inhabitants, and can rival the splendor of Kyoto. One of their achievements was the construction of a huge Buddhist temple complex, Chuzen-ji. They meant this to be a sort of Buddhist paradise on earth, and the Kyoto clergy was not very happy with that.

So of course a reaction followed. One of the most powerful warriors of the time, Yoritomo, attacks his younger but talented brother Yoshitsune, apparently out of jealousy. Yoshitsune flees to Hiraizumi, and gets protected there. However, after the ruler of Hiraizumi dies, his son falls for the pressure and he betrays Yoshitsune. Finding himself in a hopeless situation, Yoshitsune sets his castle on fire and commits suicide with his family. The traitor also gets killed in the end, because from the start Yoritomo’s actual goal had been the destruction of the Hiraizumi branch, in order to increase his power in Kyoto.

Hiraizumi went into decline, and in the 14th century almost the whole temple complex burns down too. Only two buildings survived and those now form the heart of the Chuzen-ji complex. I visited it today (Yukie had recommended it) and luckily the weather was very nice. It was also extremely crowded as it was a national holiday today (sports day, if I understood correctly). The top photo shows a monument erected for Yoshitsune. Inside is a doll with the armor that he apparently wore. The middle photo shows one of the temple buildings of Chuzen-ji.

After visiting the temple, I took a walking trail through the hills surrounding Hiraizumi to another temple. This Motsu-ji has also been completely destroyed by fire, but you can still view the nice central lake. Apparently it is a typical Buddhist ‘pure land’ lake, containing stylised elements of nature, such as a beach, a peninsula, rocky coasts, an island, a bay, etc. The path through the hills was very quiet because most tourists (they were all Japanese) traveled in groups and took the road. I quite enjoyed the nature and nice views over the valley. And just as I was about to make a photo of that view, a snake came slithering across the path. The Steve Irwin in me woke up and I rushed towards (yes, towards) the snake. When the snake noticed that I was approaching it froze, pretending to be dead, or maybe just posing for the picture…

Tomorrow will be a quiet day, as I’m moving to Aizu-Wakamatsu, which is another famous samurai castle town.

PS: The North-Korean nuclear test totally dominates the news here.