We were hoping to have left the rain behind by the time we reached Shimonoseki; it turned out to be a perfect day. The captain had announced before we left Hiroshima that instead of docking at Moji as originally planned, we would be on the other side of the Kanmon Strait that separates Japan's largest island of Honshu from Kyushu.
Our excursion was the Shimonoseki Heritage Tour. We lucked out with our guide - she was married to an American who taught English at a school where they preferred that he didn't know Japanese so he wouldn't be tempted to talk to the students in their native language. Her English was great, and she had some amusing stories to tell.
Shimonoseki is the hub of Samurai heritage in Japan, where the Samurai rule was established, and where it ended. We visited two temples, one with significance to the beginning and one to the end.
Our first stop was at Kozan-ji temple, founded in 1327, and it is the oldest example of the Zen Buddhist architecture style in Japan. Its main temple or Butsuden, is the oldest building of this design in Japan.
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| Main Gate to the Temple |
The temple's claim to fame is that Samurai Takasugi Shinsaku used it as a base to collect and train a rebel army to overthrow the Tokugawa Shogunate. Recall from earlier posts that this was the family that ruled Japan for over 200 years and kept it in isolation from the rest of the world.
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The temple bell and the statue.
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A statue of Takasugi on horseback to
commemorate his work for Japan's
freedom from the Shogunate |
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A side temple on the site along
with some lovely blooming wisteria. |
Takasugi was the first to create an auxiliary militia, allowing everyday Japanese men of all classes to own weapons. Only samurai who would have to be loyal to the shogunate were allowed to do so under the feudal system. He saw the advantages to using the financial wealth of merchants and farmers to support improving military strength without depleting the domain's finances to do so. After Japan was invaded by an international fleet of warships in 1864, the leaders of the shogunate realized that their military was woefully inferior and called on Takasugi to lead its reform, and also to negotiate peace with the British, American, French and Dutch who had invaded. Ultimately after much fighting between the conservative factions and the modernized military led by Takasugi, a civil war broke out between two of the domains or provinces in the shogunate in 1865 and led finally to victory over the shogunate's forces. Their discredit was strong enough for other domains to adopt Takasugi's military framework and the Tokugawa dynasty was overthrown. After this Emperor Meiji took the throne and the Meiji Restoration began in 1868.
Takasugi died at age 27 in 1867, so he never saw his dream of defeating the shogunate come true. He certainly achieved a lot in such a short life, and should possibly be more celebrated than he is.
So this visit defined the end of the shogun rule for us. Our walk back to the bus took us through a residential district that had been occupied by samurai warriors in the 1800s. It is a very interesting neighbourhood with some of the houses dating back from that time.
Everyone associates Japanese gardens with the colourful koi fish. They are actually a species of carp and are bred to have different colorations. They are considered sacred in Japanese culture, so they are always found in the ponds near temples and shrines. In this case they were also in a stream that runs alongside the road in this samurai neighbourhood. Koi fish are known as 'living jewels', and some of them can have the price of a substantial sized diamond. If you manage to raise a large multi-coloured koi you might sell it for up to one million dollars!
We found a couple of other interesting things in the neighbourhood as well. When we left the temple we found a vending machine outside a nearby building, decorated on the side with a samurai warrior.
Japan is known for vending machines selling everything from drinks to ready-to-eat noodle bowls. Quite often you'll see banks of 4 or 5 machines together on a street corner, and many convenience stores are famous for having aisles full of them. One of our tour guides mentioned that there is approximately 1 vending machine per 23 Japanese people. Considering there are 122 million people in Japan, that's 5.3 million machines!
The other thing we discovered was that Shimonoseki is the pufferfish capital of Japan. Our guide told us that it takes quite a total of 7 years for someone to become licensed to prepare it, known as fugu fish for those who consume it as sashimi. There are major exams to be taken and at least 3 years of on-the-job-training under a licensed chef before you can be trusted to remove the poisonous parts of the fish and serve it. Apparently about 5 tons of pufferfish is brought in every day to support the demand in Japan. We found all sorts of puffer-related things in the area:
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A Japan Post mailbox in the samurai area
with a pufferfish on top |
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The manhole covers in the area with
pufferfish on them |
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And even the upholstery on our bus
seats had pufferfish on it |
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and ultimately, a lovely pufferfish platter
at the local fish market. The price converts
to about $108 CDN. |
Our next stop was at the Chofuteien. This garden once belonged to one of the vice-leaders of the Chofu clan, the conservative shogunate leaders that Takasugi fought against. The gardens were only opened in 1993, but some of the buildings date back to the 1600-1800s.
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| The Shōin, or old residence |
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The whole garden is quite beautiful, especially
in the sunshine! |
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Stonework depicting all sorts of
Japanese motifs like dragons and lanterns |
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| More views around the pond |
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These storehouses date back over
200 years |
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| Yes, we were here! |
It was a lovely interlude, especially after the rain we had at the garden in Hiroshima. After our half an hour here we headed for the bus again and our final stop at an important shrine by the strait.
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As we sailed in to the port, I noticed
a bright red temple and took some
video and photos... |
...and then I discovered that it was one of the places we would be visiting on our tour! But first, our guide gave us some interesting information about the Kanmon Strait. Not only is it very narrow, but when the tides go in and out every 6 hours, the direction of flow of the water changes from eastbound to westbound and back again. And the current can be quite strong. Along with the standard navigation aids there are signs indicating which direction the water is flowing and the strength of the current on a scale from 1 to 10. Anything above 8 and no ships are allowed into the strait as it is dangerous for navigation. We've never seen this anywhere else.
Our final visit here was the Akama-jingu Shrine. The significance of this place has to do with the beginning of the samurai period in Japan. According to our guide, the legend is that in the late 1100s there were two warring clans in the Imperial House of Japan. The problem for 8-year old Emperor Antoku and his regents was the the clan of his cousin, who was only 2 years old himself, and excluded from the line of succession, wanted to fight for his right to rule. After a number of skirmishes, the cousin's side began to gain strength and, rather than have her grandson be taken by the enemy and killed mercilessly, Antoku's grandmother took him into the Kanmon Strait and drowned them both. A fisherman caught the small emperor's body in his net not long afterward, and the shrine was erected to him at that spot. The cousin's clan was the first to establish a shogunate in Japan not long after Antoku's death. The Shogun were the military rulers of Japan and the samurai were their retainers, maintaining control over the country.
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| This fresco on the shrine gate is of Antoku on horseback |
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Antoku's grave is behind these doors. The chrysanthemum motif
on the doors is reserved only for the emperor as we've seen
in other places. The ONLY person ever allowed beyond
these doors is the current Emperor of Japan. |
Before we left the pier, we were treated to some local music and dance. It was interesting to watch the drummers take turns about every five minutes beating out the rhythm; it must be quite a strenuous job!
Another very interesting port! Next up was Yeosu, South Korea, our first stop of four in that country.
