JR Tokai is running the “Dokoko Ieyasu” campaign, which allows visitors to experience the world of the drama as a “Zurashi Tabi,” a relaxing trip by shifting the peak of the itinerary and sightseeing spots from the standard schedule. This time, I participated in a two-day and one-night press tour in Shizuoka City, one of the stages of the campaign. The following is a report on the tour of places related to the historical drama and Tokugawa Ieyasu.
Dou de Ieyasu” is currently airing as the 62nd NHK Taiga Drama. Scripted by Ryota Furusawa, the drama is attracting attention for its unprecedented perspective on the life of Tokugawa Ieyasu, played by Matsumoto Jun.
San Shotei survived the Great Shizuoka Fire of 1940 and the Shizuoka Air Raid of 1945 to become the longest-established meat restaurant in the city. The building was constructed over a 10-year period beginning in 1948, and single planks and large pieces of wood were used as is for the ceiling and pillars. The name of the restaurant is said to come from the Chinese legend “Huoxi sanshou,” which means “Three Laughs of the Tiger River. The story goes that Huiyuan, Tao Yuanming, and Lu Shujing were having a pleasant talk on their way home, and before they knew it, they had passed a valley with a tiger in it, and the three of them had a good laugh.
After alighting from the Shinkansen at JR Shizuoka Station, we immediately headed to Sanjo-tei Main Restaurant, which has been in business for over 100 years and is proud of its sukiyaki, a Japanese-style restaurant where you can enjoy carefully selected Shizuoka Prefecture black beef and seasonal vegetables. The proprietress and waitresses cooked the beef right in front of our eyes, determining when it was ready to eat. Not only the meat, but also the green onions, garland chrysanthemum, shiitake mushrooms, thread konnyaku, and tofu are soaked in the secret “warishita” sauce, and udon noodles are thrown in at the end.
Tokugawa Ieyasu spent about one-third of his 75-year life in Sunpu, or Shizuoka City. It is known that Ieyasu, who was born as the eldest son of the Matsudaira family in Mikawa Province, which is now Aichi Prefecture, spent his childhood as a hostage of the Imagawa clan. Shizuoka City is home to Rinzaiji Temple, where Ieyasu received his education, and Shizuoka Sengen Shrine, where he held a ceremony for his ceremonial coming-of-age ceremony. Shizuoka City is also home to Sunpu Castle, where Ieyasu lived during his reign as Grand Prince, and Kunouzan Toshogu Shrine, where Ieyasu is buried. It can be said to be the place where Ieyasu began and ended his reign.
Shizuoka Sengen Shrine and Taiga Drama Museum, where Ieyasu held a ceremony to celebrate his wedding
The next stop was Shizuoka Sengen Shrine, where Ieyasu is enshrined as a deity, and where he is said to have held the Genpuku ceremony. The three main shrines, Kanbe Shrine, Sengen Shrine, and Otoshi Goso-jinja, and the four precincts of Furuyama Shrine, Yachigake Shrine, Shohikona Shrine, and Tamahoko Shrine are collectively called Shizuoka Sengen Shrine, which has been widely revered as the Soshisha and Fuji-Shingu of Suruga Province for a thousand years. Although these seven shrines are visible to the eye, there are actually 56 deities enshrined in a total of 40 shrines.
Lacquer is sensitive to ultraviolet rays, so it loses its luster as it is exposed to ultraviolet rays. This is the reason why the areas that are not exposed to the sun have more luster than those that are. The shrine is currently in the midst of a major 20-year lacquer coating project, costing approximately 300 million yen per year, which will take about 11 more years to complete. All of the shrine pavilions are fully lacquered in the most exquisite colors, and the area covered in lacquer is second only to Nikko Toshogu Shrine in terms of area. The total cost of the repainting will amount to 5 billion yen. The beauty of the lacquered exterior was praised as “the Nikko of the Tokai region” by Kaibara Bikken, a Confucian scholar of the Edo period, as follows: “It is a beautiful shrine. It is a beautiful shrine. Nikko is the most beautiful shrine in Japan, and Asama is the second most beautiful.
The sculptures throughout the main shrine and gate were created by the Tachikawa family, which is based in Suwa, Shinshu and has left numerous sculptures in the Chubu region. The work was passed down from the first, second, and third generations, who were involved in the rebuilding of Shizuoka Sengen Shrine after it was destroyed by fire in An’ei 2 (1867), for about 40 years. The craftsmen involved in this major undertaking took on new and different jobs after the construction work was completed in the Meiji era. This was the beginning of Shizuoka’s local industries, such as furniture making, lacquered geta, plastic models, and mini 4WD. In particular, Shizuoka Prefecture accounts for 90% of domestic production of plastic models. The materials used by craftsmen changed over time, from wood to plastic.
From the Main Shrine to the Main Hall Passing through the romon gate, we proceed to the “Mai-den” (dance hall). While most of the buildings on the temple grounds are lacquered, the Maiden is a bare-wood structure with eaves gables on the front and back, and a gabled gable roof with a santogumi gabled roof. Beyond it is the huge 25-meter-high “Opaiden” (main hall of worship). It is said that Sengen Shrine was built this large for the worship of Mt. Upon entering the hall, I was overwhelmed by the height of the ceiling. It is said that it is very rare for a shrine to have such a large ceiling with 10 ceiling paintings. The two dragon paintings in the center are about 6 tatami mats each, and the paintings of celestial maidens on the left and right are about 4.5 tatami mats each, making them even larger than they appear from below. On the Kamibe Shrine worship hall side, there are carvings of mice and rabbits, and on the Sengen Shrine side, there are many carvings related to cherry blossoms and child bearing, named after Konohana-no-Kaiyahime-no-Mikoto. As I looked up at the sculptures, my eyes met with a “waking cat” peeking out from a beam. It is known that there is a sculpture of a “sleeping cat” in the cloister of Nikko Toshogu Shrine, but the cat sculpture in Shizuoka Sengen Shrine has a tongue sticking out and is awake, hence the name of the shrine. The plant carved with the “Awakening Cat” is presumed to be the Japanese hoooki tree, but the reason for the combination with the cat is not known. This time, we were given a special guided tour to the main shrine. We paid our respects at each of the Kamibe and Sengen shrines. Although clouds prevented us from seeing them on this day, the main shrine faces the direction of Mt. Fuji, and on clear days, one can even see the shape of the mountain. Even when one is at the foot of the mountain, the ever-changing appearance of the mountain can be obscured by a mirage, making it seem as if it is floating in the air, and one can feel that Mt. Of course, a variety of carvings could be seen in the main shrine as well. On the back side, there are three generations of sculptures: “Zhangguaro,” “Rikishi, Tenjin,” and “Awaho ni Uzura,” while the Kamibe Shrine is protected by a kylin sculpture and the Sengen Shrine by a tiger sculpture. While Western architecture and works of art use the materials themselves for a long time, in Japanese art, the soul has been kept in the blueprints. Shizuoka Sengen Shrine, too, was a space where everything, from the gold leaf that adorned the details to the direction of the architecture and the sculptures, was imbued with meaning. However, like the “Mizuin-no Ryu” sculpture on the tower gate, which is said to have escaped the Great An’ei Fire and helped to extinguish it with water in its mouth, I hope that the shrine will continue to exist without being lost due to natural disasters.
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