DAY 22 香川/讚岐 涅槃的道場 -3- Kagawa Prefecture
I had different feeling when I entered Konzo-ji (#76 金倉寺). One prestige Japanese led garrison troops in this temple for 3 years, General Nogi Maresuke (乃木希典, A.D. 1849-1912), he was well-known for Taiwanese, too. During Taiwan under Japanese ruled (A.D. 1895-1945), Nogi Maresuke was the third Governor of Formosa, his wife had planted a pine tree in person here. This is a temple which connected with my historic sense.
By the way, why Nogi Maresuke made me so impressive, the reason is utterly not he was a Governor in Taiwan. Contrarily, he thought it was not good business to rule Taiwan Islands, so he felt like to sell France Formosa then. The reason I kept his name in mind because he killed himself by seppuku, (which is regarded as a genuine Samurai way ended his life in early time) after his lord (明治天皇 Meiji Tennō) passed away. Usually Samurai did seppuku just sliced his belly in one line (From left side to right), but General Nogi as a legend, he sliced his belly as a cross-shaped. (Must be more painful....) Then Mr Nagawa and me went to Doryu-ji (#77 道隆寺), it is at Marugame City (丸龜市) , famous for Udon Product, we cloud see many beautiful Udon golden fields on our way. The Henro shop that in front of Doryu-ji (#77 道隆寺) offered a lot of Henro Stuff, very good shop to supply yours. If you missed here you only can search for in the last temple Okubo-ji (#88 大窪寺). We arrived at Gosho-ji (#78 鄉照寺) lately because we got lost for approximately 1 hour... Mr Nakagawa asked the 3rd people who indicated the right direction at last... What happened to another 2 persons?? The routine to Tenno-ji (#79 天皇寺), Kokubun-ji (#80 國分寺) and Goshikidau Plateau (五色台, Shiromine-ji #81 白峰寺 and Negoro-ji #82 根香寺 are over there.) was not in the same direction if you read the whole map of Kagawa Prefecture. Hence, Mr Nakagawa decided to overcome the challenge of hills first, it meant the routine to Goshikidau Plateau, left behind Tenno-ji (#79) and Kokubun-ji (#80) today. We found a Zenkoyado just next to Gosho-ji (#78 鄉照寺), this was the first we contacted with the lodging at so early time I remembered, this Zenkoyado is called Utangura (Sorry, I don't know its real meaning...) This Zenkoyado was opened by the senior couple, they were kindly received our belongings in Utangura, and we continued our adventures easier. Suddenly, the weather began to drizzle, and the Goshikidau Plateau was uneasy to ride even walk as I calculated. We left our bikes in the entrance of Mt 高島, here is an obvious Jinjia (神社), according to the introduction, we needed to climbs 1000 stairs for reaching Shiromine-ji (#81 白峰寺). I was not sure the 1000 stairs indeed existed or not, anyway, this route has a lot of stairs without doubt! From Shiromine-ji (#81) to Negoro-ji (#82 根香寺) has two accesses to choose: Vehicle Way or Walking track in the woods. We usually will choose the walking track without bicycles even it is in the woods and the distance is 3.4 KM one way. This tracks almost took one hour one way, the weather was worse and worse... This was a rough day for getting 2 stamps in Goshikidau Plateau (五色台) We back Zenkoyado before evening. Mr and Mrs 入江 are experienced host, their Utangura seems be prestige Zenkoyado in worldwide, I heard many Taiwanese pilgrims ever stayed here before. The fare is ¥1000 one night and offers breakfast in next morning, male and female has a separated dorm room, you can take a nice bath here, too. Moreover, they provided pilgrims washing machine for free using. Here came a reporter of Asahi TV, he was shooting a program about Osettai Culture in Shikoku... I was forced to speak some words to the reporter. It shall be okay to speak English, even they asked me to speak some broken Japanese for a while~~ I was a little embarrassed and shy, but this program perhaps just broadcasts in Japan, I will never see it after I back Taiwan. |
Roxie
From PENHU of Taiwan, where is noted as the Island of Fisherman. Categories
All
Archives |