| Because of the rain,
you won't see a lot of photos today. Keeping the camera dry is a
priority.
When I woke up this morning, the
typhoon was still in full force. It had come up during the night,
and continued unabated. Tom and I had planned to leave his house
around 9, but changed our plan when we saw the storm.
Around 10:30 there was a break, and we
decided to run for it. Of course, by the time we were ready, it
was back again! We got soaked going to the station (umbrellas--or
big straw hats--do little in weather like this).
My plan was simple: Put my bag in a
locker at Totsuka and start walking. But I had had some problems
with this website in the morning, so I sat down on the platform at
Totsuka, pulled out the computer, and fixed it. By the time I was
finished, the rain had stopped, so I stashed my bag and I was finally on
my way.
Now for the details.
In
Totsuka, I stopped at the monument to the honjin, or
official inn. This is in front of the shrine
where I said last night's prayers. Check out yesterday's Logbook
for Hiroshige's print of Totsuka.
Then I headed down the road. As I
said above, I didn't shoot many pictures because of the rain. And
to be honest, there wasn't that much to see. Lovely little temples
and shrines, but nothing I haven't already shown you.
I
did like the looks of this ichi-ri-zuka west of Totsuka.
Like the one past Kawasaki, it has a
shrine planted on top.
By the way, a word
about terminology. On the maps, places are often indicated as
"ato." This could roughly be translated
"the site of." So if the map says "ichi-ri-zuka"
there may be something to see, but if it says "ichi-ri-zuka
ato" there probably won't. This one said "ato"--only
the site. But the little shrine was cute.
Lunch and a nap at Denny's, then the
highlight of the day.
YUGYOJI. For some reason,
the name of this temple at Fujisawa rang a bell, but I couldn't quite
place it. There's a sketch--with no explanation--in one of my
guidebooks.
So I wandered around, took some
pictures--including this one as my representation of Fujisawa--then
headed back to have my place-of-prayer register signed before I said my
prayers.
.And that's where
I realized where I was. A priest came out while a deshi (disciple)
was signing my book, and gave me a pamphlet (in Japanese) indicating
that this temple belonged to Jishu, the Ji sect. At first I
couldn't place it; then, when he said "Ippen," I got it.
You can read much more about Yugyoji,
but here's the basic idea.
Ippen was a lay monk given to ecstatic
dance in worshipping the Amida Buddha (object of "Pure Land"
or Jodo Buddhism). His "trance dance happenings"
in Kamakura attracted so many people that he was banned from the city.
So he moved up here to Fujisawa--not far from Kamakura--and this temple
was ultimately built.
Ippen's priests are a happy lot. They
received me warmly, and a funny thing happened. They gave me four
large cookies (Kamakura's famous dove cookies--that look like a chicken
to me). They gave me an amulet. They gave me a pamphlet.
I've received all of these from temples before.
But they also gave me cash, and asked
me to pray for them. This is a major role reversal.
Usually the priest takes the cash and says the prayers. I was
stunned--and delighted. Not so much by the cash value, of course,
but by the idea.
Take a look at the temple and my new
friends in today's only Words and Pictures.
When I left Yugyoji, I strolled down the
pretty little shuku (station) area. By the way, the JR
Tokaido site says that Fujisawa "grew and flourished as a town
at the temple gates of Yugyoji" and not vice versa. It also
serves as a jumping off point to Enoshima (see below).
I had set a modest goal for today: stop
here at Fujisawa, around 8 kilometers. But I felt great, and it
was before 5:00, so I pushed on, and came within an hour's walk of
Chigasaki. I took a bus, checked in to my ryokan (Japanese-style
inn), had dinner, went back to Totsuka for my bag, had a bath (ahhhh...)
and slept. It's early Tuesday morning as I write this--and it's
been raining all night.
Hiroshige's Tokaido:
Fujisawa, Station #6 on the Old Tokaido
Hiroshige has illustrated
the road leading from Fujisawa to Enoshima. I don't have enough time
to go there on this trip, but have been entranced there many a time.
You can learn more about Enoshima--the "Mont St. Michel of
Japan"--here.
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HISTORY
