Sakata and the Shrine in the Forest

 I had done a lot of research, trying to find out about the 265 steps to the Five-Tier Wooden Pagoda at Mt. Haguro. Were they steep? Were they inconsistent heights and depths? Were they all in one staircase or separate flights? Given how you can find almost anything on the internet nowadays, especially with the help of AI, I found it impossible. So we booked the tour to the shrine anyway, hoping for the best.

But before we even left the ship in the morning, we were greeted by a drumming band on the pier. If you were on the 'wrong' side of the ship and not going on tour, you might have been a little put off by it! 

It turns out that this is 'taiko drumming', or 'wakaido', a traditional form of drumming that is an integral part of the local culture, usually performed at community gatherings or festivals. In looking this up online, I discovered that it seems any cruise ship arrival at Sakata's port is considered one or the other of them, as a few people have posted video clips from their ships. The drumming is a bit more complex than just standing there bashing at a drum. There are correct stances required to keep in time, along with four principles of performance: movement, attitude, technique, and energy and flow. Had we known about all of this earlier, I would have given them much more of my attention. As it was, this group was very impressive and powerful.

As we set out from the city toward Mt. Haguro, about an hour's drive inland, we passed field after field after field of rice paddy. The northwest of Honshu island is the 'rice basket' of Japan. We had seen fields in other cities, even within neighbourhoods, but nothing to this extent. This is the Shonai Plain, one of the best regions in the country for rice.

This volume of rice field certainly isn't planted or harvested by hand. We saw some tractors in the fields, and it certainly looks like a very messy job! They were just starting planting season when we were there, and farmers were fertilizing the fields in preparation. 

As we approached Mt. Haguro we passed under a gigantic Torii Gate, the Hagurosan Otorii. I was on the wrong side of the bus to get a photo from the road - it is almost 24 metres tall and wide enough for 2 lanes of traffic - but we were in the back of the bus, so we do have one unique perspective:

Larry had a perfect seat to look up the
middle of the bus and out the front window.

And also a good view from the back window!!

The Hagurosan Otorii marks the entrance to the realm of the sacred mountain. Haguro is one of the Three Mountains of Dewa, or Dewa Sanzan. Each one represents a different world, with Haguro representing the present. The other two are Mt. Gassan, the past or afterlife, and Mt. Yudono, the future or rebirth. There is a sacred pilgrimage that visits all three mountains in order - present, past and future - known as the Journey of Rebirth, formerly only done by a sect of monks known as Yamabushi, but now open to anyone to complete.

We were visiting two sites here and, by walking the dreaded stairs, experiencing a section of the pilgrimage route.

The Zuishinmon Gate marking the
entrance to the pilgrimage route

And once we were through the gate, we realized that those 265 steps they were talking about were - all in one go! And not only that, down into a valley - which meant climbing back up them on the way out!

At least it was only 265 of them - all together just on Mt. Haguro there are 2,446 stretching all the way to the shrine at the summit, a total of 1.7 kilometres. As it turned out, we did the rest of the journey on our bus.

The stone steps, which are designated a national treasure of Japan and have been maintained by the priests associated with the shrine for centuries, are actually quite easy to navigate. They are not very high and quite wide.

There were quite a few people there so it
was almost impossible to get a good view
of the steps on the way down or back up.

At the bottom of the stairs we were greeted by a group of wooden shrines, known as massha and sessha, subordinate and auxiliary shrines dedicated to local Shinto deities.  They represent the physical transition from the earthly to the highly sacred place. Being made completely of wood, these small buildings blend beautifully into the environment.

Once past these shrines, we continued along the stone pathway and came to the Haraigawa River and its beautiful red Shinkyo Bridge.

 

The Iwatobun Shrine in front of the Suganotaki
Waterfall. The fall is manmade dating
from the 1600s, diverting water from Mt. Gassan.

It is mind-boggling to think that all of this work - the staircase, path, shrine buildings, bridges and even the waterfall - was done by (then) Buddhist monks. The mountain shrines didn't become Shinto until the Meiji period from 1867 when the Emperor decreed Shintoism as the state religion.

Crossing the stone bridge over the river

Next along the path we came to Jijisugi, the 'Grandpa Tree'. This is a cedar tree thought to be over 1,000 years old and, at over 43 metres (141 feet) tall, also the tallest of the more than 600 cedars on the mountain.

The 'Grandpa Cedar' is also thought to 
be home to Shinto deities, so it has the
shimenawa rope tied around it to ward off
evil spirits.

Ferns just coming up nearby. It is already
beautiful and serene, and will be lush
once the spring plants come out.

And finally, we reached the very impressive five-tier pagoda - and just in time for the sun to come out! The carving on this pagoda is awesome in the truest sense of the word. 

This pagoda was originally constructed somewhere between 800 and 1200, but must have been destroyed, as it was rebuilt in 1372. The natural colour of the wood has been preserved by shirakizukuri, a method of milling, drying and construction that maintains the original colour.

Something I hadn't noticed until I was researching this post - unlike almost all other five-tier pagodas in Japan, on this one ALL of the roofs are the same size. On the others, they get progressively wider toward the bottom. This pagoda was constructed to this design so that only the top roof has to bear the weight of snow in the winter - and they can get up to 10 feet here - rather than having each successive roof taking some of the weight on the outer edges. Apparently the people of Dewa Sanzan take turns climbing up the middle of the pagoda in winter to clear snow off the top roof.

Another interesting feature of the pagoda is the 'earthquake-proofing'. There is a large swinging pendulum inside to counteract any swaying caused by earthquakes. Obviously this works well, given that it has been standing for the past 650 years through countless tremors and quakes.

Just to give you a sense of scale. This pagoda
must have taken a very long time to build!

And yes, we were both here!

After this we headed back up the steps to the bus - no photos here, since we were in the middle of a large group and I followed a gentleman with bells on his backpack all the way - and were driven to the summit of Mt. Haguro to visit the Dewa Sanzan Shrine. 

The Main Hall, or Sanjin Gosaidan, which enshrines the deities of all three
mountains. When not covered in scaffolding it is a huge
vermillion red building with the thickest thatch roof in Japan.
The pond in front is sacred, too, known as Kagama-ike Pond.

One of these buildings is the shrine to Prince Hachiko, who lived in the 6th Century and first enshrined the mountain deities here in 593. Legend goes that he fled after his father was assassinated to search for a sacred Buddhist mountain, the 'Land of Dewa', where he could pray for an end to the world's suffering. He was guided by many people along the way, but it was a three-legged crow that finally brought him to Mt. Haguro. 

This is the monument to the three-legged crow
that led Hachiko to the mountain summit.

This bell was cast in 1274 and is the third largest cast-iron bell in Japan, weighing in at 10 tons! It hangs in a huge belfry with the same style of thatched roof as the Main Hall. It is a remnant of the time when the shrine was a Buddhist temple, as shrines don't normally have bells. Just like at the temples, this bell is only rung on New Year's Eve, the standard 108 times. I can just imagine what it must sound like close in. You can probably hear it all the way to the bottom of the mountain, too.

We had a bit of free time after this to wander around the shrine area. Then our guide gathered us all together and we walked around to Saikan, a restaurant behind the shrine, to partake in a Shojin Ryori. This is a meal of 'devotion cuisine' that was developed over 1400 years by the hermit Yamabushi monks of the mountain. 

There are other shojin ryori offered at Buddhist temples throughout Japan, but the one here at Mt. Haguro is different in that it consists entirely of sansai - seasonal and local ingredients harvested by the local people and Yamabushi. According to information I found online, these ingredients can take a lot of work from the growing to the harvesting and even final preparation. Our guide was able to tell us that everything was vegetarian and local spring harvest, but he wasn't able to translate exactly what many of the dishes were. Nonetheless I found everything delicious. The only thing I couldn't finish was the silken tofu dessert. Yes, all of this food, plus a bowl of miso soup, was for one person!

This was our dining room, which had previously
been a place of worship when the restaurant was
a temple.

After lunch we went back to the bus for the drive back into Tsuruoka, the satellite town of Sakata. According to our guide, there have always been rivalries between the two, sort of like the Toronto-Hamilton sports rivalries at home. But before we headed down from the summit of Mt. Haguro, we stopped at an observation area to get a great view of Mt. Gassan. Gassan is visible from just about anywhere in Tsuruoka,

Rice fields in front with Gassan as the backdrop.

On the way into town, our guide suggested that he ask the driver to pass by his house so he could show us some typical old house architecture. He inherited the house, which is about 80 years old, as well as a sake business which he still runs along with guiding. His family happened to be home, and he brought his daughter out to say hello to us all.

Our next stop was at the Chido Museum, a private museum that was donated in 1950 by the former (and final) Lord Sakai of the Shonai Domain, who wanted to promote local culture and history. Not only are there very interesting displays, including artwork and fishing gear - some of the longest fishing poles I've ever seen - but there are also buildings including the retirement house the Sakai lords built for themselves in 1863,  and two western style buildings: a former police station from 1884 and district administration offices from 1881. Attached to the retirement house is a Japanese style garden which is designated as a Place of Scenic Beauty.

The District Office

The Sakai lords' retirement house

Our friend Karen looking around inside

Some views of the garden. It even comes with its
own pair of ducks!

This is what the town looked like under the Shonai 
Domain. It actually had a triple moat system.

Some of the artwork on display

Our final stop for the day was at Zenpo-ji Temple. This is the 'other' five-tier pagoda in the prefecture; it is usual to only have one temple of great enough importance to have a five-tier pagoda in one region. And we got to see both of them on the same day! At Zenpo-ji you are even allowed to look inside the main level of the pagoda to see the Buddha statues there.

The temple

Some very intricate carving on the pagoda

This pagoda has the more traditional shape
with smaller roofs as you go higher.

The Buddha statues through the open doors.

One of the other temple buildings, the Gohyakurakan-do holds 531 'Rakan' or statues of Buddha's disciples. That is almost as impressive as the pagoda!

The Gohyakurakan from the outside

and the inside! Every one of the 531 statues
has a unique facial expression.

After this stop we headed back to the ship. This was one of the nicer days, so we had a chance to get the ticky-tacky tourist shot of the ship, even with Mt. Gassan in the distance.

Off to Aomori for our next port of call. This cruise has been exhausting with all the tours, but worth it!