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Iwate Day 3 A boat ride to the 'blue grotto' at Jodogahama
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| "Legends of Tono" | Strolling around Tono | Tono Municipal Museum | |
| Tono Denshoen Museum | Oshirasama Myth | Matagi | |
| Boat ride at Jodogahama | Jodogahama Beach | Miyako Dinner | |
| Iwate Day 3 - Tono and Miyako | |||
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Noriko booked us to Tono expecting to see Kappa, Tengu, Yamababa and mountain oni walking the streets. Instead we found a large, somewhat dreary provincial city, the skyline dominated by the usual ugly NTT tower. Perhaps our expectations were naive. The place has rich history, only part of which is the folklore. The book "Tono Monogatari' published in 1910 put Tono on the map.
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_23may04-bw_0813.jpg The 1912 book that birthed the madness.  |
_23apr11-bw_1208.jpg Yanagita and Saski Kizen, aspiring "bunjin" - literati or literally "culture people" - talking folk culture.  |
_kappanoyasumi.jpg Promo from "Kappa no Yasumi", an anime movie located in Tono.  |
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_thundergodstale.jpg A clip from "Thundergod's Tale", a 2023 Netflix series.  |
_23apr11-bw_1256b.jpg The "kappayaki" I bought at the museum.  |
_23may04-bw_0815.jpg Souvenir dolls, the Oshira cult. They are formed of silkworm coccoons. Oshira-sama: "The daughter loved the horse and at night she would go to the stable and sleep. Finally, she and the horse became husband and wife. One night the father learned of this and the next day without saying anything to the daughter, he took the horse out and killed it by hanging it from a mulberry tree..."  |
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A leap of imagination is required to visualize Tono before the 20th century. No electric lights; no railroads; located in "the middle of nowhere." The forests of old-growth hardwoods and conifers were denser than rain forests. The surrouding mountains are very steep while heavily vegetated. Yet, they were sparsely populated by shy, scarcely seen mountain folk. Nighttime and the forests were incubators for scary myths.
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_23apr11-bw_0705.jpg Kappa is a mythical creature able to live both in water and on land. It has a little platelike 'sara' on its head and is supposed to get weak when dry. It is known to be a mischievous creature dragging unsuspected people into water.  |
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_23apr11-bw_0706.jpg This suggests that kappa are mammals.  |
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_23apr10-nn_0703.jpg Some kind of store  |
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Tono was quite different from what I imagined. I had the image of a remote village with rural life from Yanagita Kunio's book, but actually it was a fairly prosperous castle town and a center of trade of the region.
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_23apr11-bw_1040.jpg This is a monument to the "deer dance", one of the famed folk traditions.  |
_tonomuseump1.jpg In 2009 the entire museum was rennovated. We found a museum which did an excellent job of telling the various stories of Tono, giving us understanding of what we found here.  |
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_tonomuseump5.jpg In the 1600's an uprising drove the Asanuma clan from Tono. In 1627 the Nejo-Naumbu clan from Hachinohe moved to Tono and took control. A governor was appointed. Markets were held and the region developed quickly. But time and again the cold and harsh climate caused crop failures and famines.  |
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_23apr11-bw_1013b.jpg Click to enlarge this picture. It contains much detail of peasant life of this time.  |
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_tonomuseump9.jpg The Four Season Diarama is great, by what it teaches and its craftsmanship. Must visit to appreciate.  |
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Denshoen Museum is an outdoor museum exhbiting what life was like in old days. It contains an example of the L-plan which was typical in this region in olden times.
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_23apr11-bw_1146.jpg I was impressed by the floor planks surfaced by not a plane but by a chisel adze.  |
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_23apr11-bw_1131a.jpg Various hand-made wooden machines for grain processing.  |
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_23apr11-bw_1131c.jpg wooden hand-made machines for winnowing grain.  |
_23apr11-bw_1133.jpg Most raincoats.  |
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_23apr11-bw_1144.jpg A "new year's tree", an old folk tradition. The hanging spheroids are dyed silkworm coccoons.  |
_23apr11-bw_1133b.jpg Charms and festival figures.  |
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_23apr11-bw_1157.jpg Kappa.  |
_23apr11-bw_1200.jpg Ofuru - heated bath.  |
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On the pieces of silk are written wishes submitted to Oshira-sama. Some of those displayed are darkened by age. This cult originated with one of the "Legends of Tono" accounts.It spread all over Japan.
A pair of dolls is venerated in the folkloric worship of an agricultural spirit in Tohoku. The dolls are made from mulberry wood, one in the shape of a woman, the other in the shape of a horse. "Legends of Tono" tells this story of the woman and the horse. Once upon a time there was a poor farmer. He had no wife but did have a beautiful daughter. He also had one horse. The daughter loved the horse and at night she would go to the stable and sleep. Finally, she and the horse became husband and wife. One night the father learned of this and the next day without saying anything to the daughter, he took the horse out and killed it by hanging it from a mulberry tree. That night the daughter asked her father why the horse was not anywhere around and she learned of the act. Shocked, filled with grief, she went on to the spot beneath the mulberry tree and cried while clinging to the horse's head. The father, abhorring the sight, took an axe and chopped off the horse's head, which flew off to the heavens. It was from this time on that Oshira-sama became a kami. The representation of this kami was made from the mulberry branch which the horse was hanged on. | ||
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"Matagi" are mountain forest dwellers. They live in the deeply forested mountains and have no regular contact with civilization, to this day. They make their own clothes and articles from trees and plants. "Magagi" is thought to derive from Ainu.
The prevelance of magai around Tono in old times could account for some of the mysterious sightings documented in "Legends of Tono". | ||
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We were running late when we got to the Jodogahama inn. They kindly offered to take us to the beach so we could make the last boat ride. The sun was getting low so we were not able to see the blue grotto to the full extent but we got a glimpse of it. It was a short ride (about 20 min.) but the boatman was pointing out sceneries and sea creatures for us. It was well worth it including the feeding of the gulls at the end. Jodogahama (meaning Pure Land Beach) was so named after a known priest visited in the 1680's and said it was just as he imagined the Pure Land to be, so the saying goes.
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_23apr11-bw_1628.jpg The light is reflected into the cave  |
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_23apr11-bw_1636.jpg 'Sai no Kawara' (Riverbank of the river seperating this world and the other world.  |
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_23apr10-nn_1259b.jpg N. holds up the snack  |
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After the boat ride, we walked up to a view point overlooking the beach.
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At Jodogahama, we stayed at a ryokan run by a restaurant. We were treated to delicious sea food dinner. The place was apparently run by a kind and industrious young couple Such people are the hope for Japan's future. Meeting them is the travelers' reward.
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_23apr11-bw_1942a.jpg Noriko is pleased with all.  |