Along the Yato River, Up the Nagatani Valley, & Over to Arifuku

 

The next temple on the Iwami kannon Pilgrimage is in Arifuku, up in the mountains, and so for a few kilometers I follow the very windy Yato River upstream.

It's a long and fairly steep climb up the valley, passing a small local shrine without any of the external trappings of a shrine other than a very small shimenawa

Not exactly sure what this barn/storehouse is used for but I find the small windows and two little doors quite intriguing.

I think this may have been the local Japan Agriculture Offices in the settlement of Nagatani.... official buildings, like police stations, schools, post offices etc in the early Taisho and Showa periods were built in this "western style". Since I took this photo, it has been demolished.

From Nagatani I head over the mountains to the next valley. This little shrine has always intrigued me as it is far from any settlements....

Dropping into the Uyagawa River drainage, abandoned farms are in the process of being reclaimed by nature...

About twenty years ago on my first walk here I noticed an old, rusty bus stop, so I am guessing that in the 50's, 60's, and maybe even the 70's there was a bus service here, but with a population that is now just a fraction of what it was then the area still survives but is in serious decline...

I believe this is called Hebiyama Falls, "Snake Mountain Waterfall"

I stopped in at one of the many abandoned houses....

This one has now probably conpletely collapsed and returned to the earth....

It is said that once abandoned a Japanese house will completely collapse in 25 years or less.... I have seen it happen to many since I have been here.....

Last typhoon season the Uyagawa River flooded seriously.... This was a new bridge from upstream....

These are a very common kind of commercial building from the early 20th century.... in Atoichi, which, like so many villages, used to have a wide range of shops... now the nearest convenience store is 6 kilometers away.

The previous post in this series on my walk along the Iwami Kannon Pilgrimage was on the Zen temple Fukuoji.

Rice planting maidens. Saotome.

Saotome, rice-planting maidens from last weekends Tauebayashi Matsuri up in Atoichi.

Saotome appear in all kinds of rice planting ceremonies and rituals all over Japan. The link between agriculture, fertility, and sexuality was common to many rites in agricutural societies, though as far as I know in Japan the explicit link still exists at only one shrine up in Asuka.

Nowadays the maidens come in all ages.

It is difficult to overstate the obsession Japanese have with rice.

To the horror of any Japanese who know me, I don't like the plain, white, sticky, stuff!

Barbarian that I am.

Actually for most japanese, rice only became the staple food relatively recently. For most of japanese history the common people subsisted on a porridge made from various grains. White rice was reserved for special occasions.

The rich lived on white rice, and it is believed emperors and lords sometimes died from beri-beri.

Atoichi Children's Tauebayashi Matsuri

I had a thoroughly enjoyable time at the Atoichi Children's Tauebayashi Matsuri.

Following a small ceremony in front of the school, the procession made its way to the rice paddies that belong to the school.

For those whose only experience of Matsuri is at the major sites in the towns and cities, you are missing a very important aspect of matsuri, and that is community. In village matsuris there is a real festive atmosphere not based on alcohol. As at the rest of the time in these remote communities, people are friendly to visitors and one genuinely feels like a guest.

All the generations were involved, even the school principal, seen here on the drum.

The children come from the elementary school as well as Junior Highschool, Highschool, and even a couple of college students.

While Tauebayashi may have its roots in days long gone, it, like Taiko drum groups, Yosakoi dancing, etc are mostly a late twentieth Century phenomenon.

The festival in Atoichi is in its sixteenth year, and I would say it was a success in its aim of keeping alive the sense of village community.

As we were leaving we were given a couple of bags of mochi, rice cakes, made from last years harvest.

Atoichi Elementary School

On Sunday we drove up into the mountains to the village of Atoichi where we found a wonderful example of an old, wooden school building. It was built in 1931, and apparently that makes it one of the oldest.

Most Japanese schools, especially post-war, look like abandoned prisons or factories (which is pretty much what they are in my opinion), but all the wood of this one made it feel quite humane.

One man I spoke to, about my age, said that when he was at the school there were 400 students.

Now there are 19.

There was a big room for practising Tea ceremony. On a chart in the entrance hall was a list of all the local community members, mostly elderly, who volunteer at the school teaching things like art, tea ceremony, etc.

In one of the hamlets that make up Atoichi, the youngest member of the community is 78.

There was a computer room with at least 10 computers, which probably means it has the best computer to student ratio in any Japanese school.

I wonder how many more years it will be till the school is closed and the building begins its descent to becoming one more Haikyo.

It was Sunday, but most of the student body were in the playground, dressed up for Matsuri.

Behind the school buildings are some paddies, where the students grow their own rice, and today was the annual Tauebayashi (Rice planting song and dance) Festival.