(A) Mt. Himekami

Hanadate Village, Senboku County, Akita Prefecture, is located at the confluence of the Omono and Tama rivers. It used to be at the foot of the Matsuyama on the opposite shore, but the flood moved it to where it is now. Matsuyama is a former castle site. This castle is also called Tsurunohagata Castle. It is the old castle of the famous Abe clan*.

confluence（名）合流点

Long ago, when Hachiman Taro** besieged this castle, Shika-hime, the daughter of the lord of the castle, saw him who is an enemy general and was consumed with a burning love interest until she secretly visited the enemy's camp during the siege, finally became pregnant and gave birth to his child. No wonder the lord of the castle was angry when he found out about this. At last, he sent his pursuers to capture her and her child and bury them alive, which is now the top of Mt. Himekami***. On the way from Mt. Miizuga-dake to Mt. Jinguji-dake, there is a place called Shinobi Ridge, the ridge the princess secretly (shinobi) passed, and Fue-ga-sawa River the road she passed while blowing her flute (fue). The Katsura-sawa River, which flows from the first torii gate on Mt. Yakushi toward the foot of Mt. Himekami, is poisonous water because it is said to be the remains of a wig (katsura) dropped when the princess escaped and was captured. If you drink it, you will surely lose your life.

besiege（動）包囲する

general（名）将軍

consume（動）夢中にさせる

siege（名）包囲攻撃

pursuer（名）追跡者、追手

poisonous（形）有毒な

Every year on the evening of May 4, the waters of the streams of Mt. Himekami turn temporarily white. It is said that this is because the princess washes the rice with her own hands. On May 5, you can see a lot of white flags on top of the peaks when no one is standing. It is said that the dead soul of her baby is raising them, but it is believed that anyone who sees this white flag will lose their life within three years. (Shoen Taguchi, Oomagari, Senboku County, Akita Prefecture)

(B) Great Ginkgo

There is a castle site* called Shiroyama on the northern edge of Oyama Town, Shimotsuke Province. It is not high, but you can see half of the eight provinces in the Kanto region.

On July 7, 1574, Toyotomi Hideyoshi attacked this castle. It was a foggy morning, and the enemy's troops were invisible but heard. People inside the castle thought it must have been a surprise attack by Hideyoshi's army, and when they went up to the turret, they saw a lot of flags and banners around the castle. The lord of the castle made up his mind that his luck had run out and fled about 500 ~ 600 meters, but he finally killed himself there. He had a princess, who also threw herself into a well by the back gate.

troop（名）群れ、一団

turret（名）小塔、やぐら

banner（名）軍旗

There is still a great ginkgo 21 to 24 meters high and more than six meters around the well. This is called the staff of the princess. Also, what people thought were flags and banners were corn. Even now, Oyama doesn't grow corn on its premises and doesn't celebrate Tanabata** on July 7. (Hei Kimura, Oyama, Tochigi Prefecture)

ginkgo（名）イチョウ

About a mile east of the famous Tago Stele* in the south of Takasaki City, Gunma Prefecture is a gourd-shaped mound called Mt. Nanakoshi**.

stele（名）碑、記念碑

gourd（名）ヒョウタン

Locally, the main character of the Tago Stele is called Hitsuji no Tayu. There is also a story that this man was praised for his loyalty by the emperor at that time because he mysteriously traveled hundreds of miles every day from the capital of Nara to Tago in Keno***.

One day, Hitsuji no Tayu vaguely sees Toneri (an administrator) taking a nap at a security post, and mysteriously sees token feathers growing under his armpit. Toneri is a man who hauls his horse to the capital every day. When Hitsuji saw it, I don't know what he thought, but he ripped off one of his wings of him and pretended not to know. The next day, however, the horse slowed and the Toneri could not run as usual. Visiting was fine, but the sun went down after they had gone only 10 miles. In the capital, Hitsuji, who came every day, didn't come, so he thought he must have raised a rebellion, and immediately sent a punitive force to surround his castle. Hitsuji put the seven princesses to escape in golden litters wrapped in straw mats, and he committed seppuku.

vaguely（副）漠然と

token（形）形だけの

armpit（名）脇の下

haul（動）引っ張る、運ぶ

rip off......剥ぎ取る、もぎ取る

rebellion（名）反乱、謀反

punitive force......討伐軍

The seven litters had not gone a mile when they were cornered by enemy soldiers, and the lives of the flower-beautiful princesses vanished fleetingly by the thunderous wind that cruelly wielded their swords. But the seven litters they were riding in, along with their seven bodies, were buried in this mound by the benevolence of the local people. According to local legend, it has since been called Mt. Nanakoshi (seven litters). (Shunpo Arai)

litter（名）担架、輿

fleetingly（副）はかなく

thunderous（形）雷のような

benevolence（名）善行、慈善

Note: To the east of the mountain, which is said to be the site of the castle where Hitsuji no Tayu was besieged, lies Mt. Yatsuka**** across the Osawa River. It is said that the ruins of the castle on this mountain are where his vassal, the exceptionally large and powerful Yatsuka Kohagi, lived. The pines that grow on Mt. Nanakosi always have seven separate trunks. Hitsuji escaped to Ike Village and killed himself in a bamboo grove. His body turned into a white snake and went into a nearby well. It is said that the present Tago Stele was built beside the well. Locals call the Tago Stele the Hitsuji-sama. There are two large overlapping rocks called Suriusu Rocks (mortar rocks) in the middle of Mt. Yatsuka. Hitsuji had rumbled the rocks like a mortar. There is also a depression in the rock, about 1 foot 4 ~ 5 inches long and 5 inches wide, which is his footprint. Hundreds of years' worth of rainwater have accumulated and fallen pine needles and other objects have sunk inside. (Yuto Ura at the foot of Mt. Yatsuka)

vassal（名）家臣

mortar（名）臼

rumble（動）ガラガラ鳴らす

accumulate（動）溜まる

(D) White Horse and White Costume

The site of the castle, commonly called Shiroyama (castle mountain), is west of Lake Hakkaku* in Togane Town, Kazusa Province. Honzen-ji Temple, a large Hokke sect** temple, is at the foot of the mountain.

Once upon a time, Sakai Kotaro, a retainer of the Hojo*** family, was in this castle, ruling an area with 50,000 gokus**** (9,000,000 L) of rice productivity nearby and boasting military authority everywhere, but in the Tokugawa era, Honda Heihachiro Tadakatsu*****, a major vassal of Ieyasu, attacked in the Keicho era (1596 - 1615), and the castle was already captured by the time of the horse on that day, and Kotaro died as fleeting as dew with a grudge. Since then, the temple has stopped ringing bells during the day, calling the time of the horse inauspicious. If they hit it, the ghost of Kotaro, dressed in gory white******, appears on a white horse and goes around Shiroyama and Hakkaku Lake. Even now, at noon, the sound of drums echoes over the lake instead of bells.

retainer（名）家臣

productivity（名）生産性

grudge（名）恨み、怨恨

inauspicious（形）不吉な

gory（形）血まみれの

(E) The Cursed Temple

There is a temple of the Jodo sect called Zendou-ji Temple in Hara Town, Agatsuma County, Kozuke Province. On the roof of the main hall is a magnificent giboshi*, a cathedral as large as anything else in the world at first glance. However, when I went inside, I thought there might be a reason why it was neither splendid nor pretty, and when I asked, it had a lot to do with it.

cathedral（名）大聖堂に似た壮大な建築

splendid（形）壮大な、立派な

To the west of Hara Town, there is Mt. Iwabitsu**, a rocky mountain that pierces through a cloud shaped like a chest. A long time ago, when there was a castle on this mountain and Azuma Taro Yukimori was the lord of the castle, it was attacked by Takeda Shingen. Shingen took them as a starvation tactic, but they didn't surrender long because there seemed to be one other source of water that Shingen didn't know. Shingen deceived the chief priest of Zendou-ji Temple and asked. Seduced by profit, the chief priest told him about the secret water source without hiding it. The castle was easily captured, but strangely, the temple burned down shortly thereafter. No matter how many times it was rebuilt, it burned again. It was such a strange fire that they had no idea where it came from. It burned so many times that they were attributed to the curse of Yukimori that they refrained from finishing the construction neatly, leaving only one area unfinished, and it has not burned since.

pierce（動）貫く

seduce（動）誘惑する、そそのかす

Recently, thinking that the curse of Yukimori would be gone, they spent a lot of money to finish it neatly, but it still didn't work. The roof caught fire and was instantly reduced to ashes. That was about 10 years ago.

Note: Locals say these are footprints left by the lord of the castle, Yukimori, on his horse as he fought his last battle. (Kuntaro Imaizumi)

(F) Raikyu Gongen Shrine

The castle site is located on Mt. Hachikoku*, Kashiwazaki, Echigo Province. A long time ago, there was a dispute over territory between the lord of the castle, Mori Daiman'nosuke, and the lord, Kitajo Tango-no-kami**. Since Mori was a warrior of great military merit, Kitajo devised a plan and made Mori the husband of his daughter, and at one point invited him to entertain him with a feast. Without hearing Mori's wife stop him, he went to Kitajo's castle and stayed overnight to take a bath, where they locked the door from outside and turned up the fire so that Mori was brutally steamed to death, and every person who went to the castle with him was killed. Later, when a suspicious fireball appeared on Mt. Hachikoku and caused a disturbance by flying toward Kitajo and thundering, which made the locals distressed, the fourth chief priest of Fukou-ji Temple in Kitajo prayed to calm Daiman'nosuke's vengeful spirit and built the Raikyu (thunder stop) Gongen Shrine to enshrine him. That is the origin of this shrine. (Toshinori Nakanishi)

merit（名）功績

disturbance（名）騒ぎ

distress（動）苦悩している

vengeful（形）復讐の

(G) A Demon That Protects Mt. Seta

Sakurai Beach, a projecting part in the east of Iyo Province where the Hiuchinada Inland Sea* waves gather, is said to have been the place where fishermen, feeling sorry for Sugawara no Michizane when he was relegated to Dazaifu, saw that the sea was rough and he was having a hard time, so they used a 1,000-hiro** rope as a rug and invited him on top of it to comfort him, and Tunashiki (matted rope) Tenmangu Shrine is still enshrined there. Climb one pass at a time at the top of the torii and you will reach the mountain pass of Mt. Seta***. This is where it is called Jakoshi (place where the snake crossed).

projecting（形）突き出た

relegate（動）追放する、左遷する

Long ago, in the middle of the Kenmu**** period (1334 - 1338), Wakiya Gisuke*****, a meritorious retainer of the Southern Court, built a castle on Mt. Karako in Kokubunji village, and Odachi Ujiaki****** built a castle on Mt. Seta, where they interacted with the Kono, Doi, and Tokuno clans, the powerful families of Iyo, and owned the Seto Inland Sea with their pirates, the Kurushima and Murakami clans. However, as the Southern Court's power gradually declined and the Hosokawa clan's power grew stronger, castles in Iyo surrendered from one end to the other, and Seta Castle was in danger at last. At the foot of Mt. Seta is a deep blue marsh called Snake Pond. The giant serpent in this pond is the master from the beginning of this castle and is the demon that guards Mt. Seta. Shinozuka Iga-no-kami********, a great general of the castle, used an iron rod as a stick in his final decisive battle at the castle and went on alone to defeat the cavalry and took the heads of many enemies, but because there were so many enemies and so few allies, he gave up and threw the heads he took with iron rods into the Snake Pond, along the beach to the port of Imabari, crossed by boat to the Oki Island, watched the smoke coming from the castle at Mt. Seta and cut his belly crisscross. His heroic actions apparently moved the giant serpent living in the pond. Suddenly there was a tornado in the center of the pond, and in a terrible rainstorm, the giant serpent immediately appeared on the surface of the pond and crept over the ridges to the beach of Kawarazu. Then a rock by the pond collapsed, and it is said that every enemy general and soldier sheltering from the rainstorm behind the rock was crushed, and now the rock mountain is named Kuzureiwa (collapsed rock).

rod（名）棒、竿

decisive（形）決定的な

belly（名）腹

crisscross（副）十字に

ridge（名）尾根

The top of Mt. Akatsuchi, where the giant serpent crawled, still bears traces of streaks. On a sunny day, the trails become wet, and on a rainy day, they dry, and the long shape of a giant serpent is clearly visible. The giant serpent went to the offshore Heichi Island and still lives there. And it travels back and forth between Oo-heichi and Ko-heichi a few times a year. It has ears on its head and oysters on its scales, local fishermen say as if they had seen it. (Raian Kuwabara, Higashi-Ookubo, Tokyo)

streak（名）筋

(A)

*Abe clan: The clan ruled Mutsu Province during the Heian period. Abe no Sadato and his father defied the imperial court in 1051 and won (Former Nine Years' War). However, he was killed in action in 1062.

**Hachiman Taro: Minamoto no Yoshiie. He was a military commander in the Heian period. In 1057, he fought against the Abe clan with his father, Minamoto no Yoshiie, and in 1083, he suppressed the Kiyohara clan conflict in Mutsu Province (Later Three Years' War). He is also known as Hachiman Taro because he performed astrology at Iwashimizu Hachimangu Shrine, which enshrines the god Hachiman.

***Mt. Himekami: A mountain in Morioka, Iwate Prefecture, with an elevation of 1123 meters.

(B)

*castle site: Oyama Castle or Gion Castle. The Oyama clan was one of the warlord families that ruled Musashi Province since the Heian period, and this castle was built by them. In 1576 they surrendered to the Hojo clan and the castle was surrendered. When Toyotomi Hideyoshi defeated the Hojo clan in 1590, the Oyama clan was transferred to Utsunomiya, and the castle was abandoned. Today, the castle remains are maintained as a park and designated a National Historic Site. There is no historical fact that Toyotomi Hideyoshi attacked this castle.

**Tanabata: A Japanese festival originating from the Chinese Qixi Festival.[1][a][b] It celebrates the meeting of the deities Orihime and Hikoboshi (represented by the stars Vega and Altair respectively). According to legend, the Milky Way separates these lovers, and they are allowed to meet only once a year on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month of the lunisolar calendar. On this day, people hang cards from bamboo with their wishes written on them. The day also marks the beginning of the Bon festival, when graves are cleaned.

(C)

*Tago Stele: a Nara period stele discovered in the city of Takasaki, Gunma Prefecture. The stele was submitted by Japan for inclusion in the UNESCO Memory of the World Programme in 2017. It is a square pillar, 125 centimeters high and 60 centimeters wide, with six lines of 80 letters carved on the front. It contains an order from the administrative office that had jurisdiction over Tago County when it was established in 711. The man inscribed on the monument, Hitsuji, is believed to have been a county mayor, but he is known locally as a legendary figure.

**Mt. Nanakoshi: A mountain in Fujioka, Gunma Prefecture. Originally a tumulus, it is 145 meters long and 16 meters high and thought to have been built in the first half of the sixth century.

***Keno: One of the ancient regional areas corresponding to the southern part of present-day Tochigi Prefecture and Gunma Prefecture. It was later divided into Kamitsuke and Shimotsuke.

****Mt. Yatsuka: A mountain 453 meters above sea level in Takasaki City, Gunma Prefecture, where the castle remains.

(D)

*Lake Hakkaku: A lake in Togane City, Chiba Prefecture. A man-made lake whose pond was expanded when Tokugawa Ieyasu built his residence.

**Hokke sect: Kenpon-Hokke sect. A sect of Buddhism that was founded in the 14 century by Nichiju and branched off from the Nichiren sect. It merged with the Nichiren sect in 1941.

***Hojo: With Hojo Soun as its progenitor, it ruled the Kanto region as a feudal lord during the Warring States period, but was overthrown by Toyotomi Hideyoshi in 1590.

****goku (koku): Chinese-based Japanese unit of volume. 1 koku is equivalent to approximately 180 liters.

****Honda Heihachiro Tadakatsu: A military commander from the Warring States period to the early Edo period. He is also one of the Four Heavenly Kings of Tokugawa. He served Ieyasu from an early age and participated in more than 50 battles. When Ieyasu established his base in the Kanto region, he became the lord of the Otaki Domain in Kazusa Province. In the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600, he captured Gifu-jo Castle and became the first lord of Kuwana Domain in Ise Province.

******white: In premodern Japan, the dead and attendees wore white costumes at funerals.

(E)

*giboshi: A traditional architectural ornament that is placed on the steps and parapets of bridges, shrines, and temples. The object displayed at the top of the pagoda is not a giboshi but a housh.

**Mt. Iwabitsu: A mountain in the town of Agatsuma in Gunma Prefecture at an altitude of 802 meters. On the hillside is Iwabitsu-jo Castle, where the Azuma clan was the lord of the castle during the Kamakura-Muromachi period. The Saito clan then became the lord of the castle, but in 1565 it was captured by the Sanada clan under the control of the Takeda clan. There is no historical fact that Azuma Yukimori was captured by Takeda Shingen while he was the lord of the castle.

(F)

*Mt. Hachikoku: A mountain 518 meters high in Kashiwazaki, Niigata Prefecture.

**Kitajo Tango-no-kami: Kitajo Kagehiro. A military commander in the 16 century. He became the lord of Mayabashi Castle in Maebashi City, Gunma Prefecture. When internal conflict broke out among the Uesugi clan, he marched into Echigo Province and fought there, but was killed in battle in 1579.

(G)

*Hiuchinada Inland Sea: The area on the Shikoku side of the central Seto Inland Sea between the Shonai Peninsula in Kagawa Prefecture and the Takanawa Peninsula in Ehime Prefecture.

**hiro: It is a unit of length used in ancient China and Japan, measuring about 1.8 meters.

***Mt. Seta: A 339-meter mountain in Saijo City, Ehime Prefecture. It was used as a castle in medieval times.

****Kenmu: An era name in the Muromachi period. Emperor Godaigo, who defeated the Kamakura government, took charge of national affairs and changed the name of the era. In 1336 he came into conflict with the first Shogun of the Muromachi bakufu, Ashikaga Takauji, and Japan was divided into the Northern and Southern Courts.

*****Wakiya Gisuke: (1305 - 1342) A warlord from the late Kamakura period to the early Muromachi period and the younger brother of the famous warlord Nitta Yoshisada. He was based in Wakiya, Nitta County, Kozuke Province, and joined the battle with his younger brother to overthrow the Kamakura bakufu. In 1335, he fought with his younger brother in various places in Japan when Ashikaga Takauji disobeyed Emperor Godaigo, but he died of illness in Iyo.

******Odachi Ujiaki: (? - 1342) A warlord. He served with his father, brother and Nitta Yoshisada in the battle to overthrow the Kamakura government. In the period of the Northern and Southern Courts, he became an administrator of Iyo Province, but was attacked by the army of the Ashikaga side and committed suicide.

*******Hosokawa: Hosokawa Ujiharu (1304 - 1352). He was a feudal lord from the late Kamakura period to the early Muromachi period. He served the Ashikaga clan, and in 1342, he attacked and destroyed the Ota clan in Iyo.

********Shinozuka Iga-no-kami: Shinozuka Shigehiro (1309 - 1342). A warlior from the late Kamakura period to the early Muromachi period. He was a close associate of Nitta Yoshisada and one of the Four Heavenly Kings of Nitta. In 1342, he was besieged in Seta Castle in Iyo and fought Yoriharu Hosokawa but was routed and died on an Oki island.