Year: 2025

Posted on

No one knows that Hachinohe alone has three national treasures

hacchi clay figurine3 national teue mark
korekawa ruins2 shade clay figurine
korekawa ruins2 shade clay figurine

The Jomon cultural area can be found in unexpected places.   The Suwa region has long been famous for the area because we know that the Jomon people came from all over Japan to search the place of production of obsidian, the raw material for arrowheads.    But the Hokkaido/Northern Tohoku Jomon Archaeological Sites, which are registered as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, had gone completely unnoticed (no attention was paid to them).   They lived in Hokkaido and northern Tohoku, separated by the strait, for over 10,000 years, forming the same cultural sphere.    We know that they were part of the same cultural sphere because the clay figurines and pottery normaly made by women are almost the same and especially the patterns on them are the same, which means that women of the same blood traveled between these cultural spheres.   

korekawa ruins3 It's my job to cut the grass
Cleaning staff in charge of cleaning around korekawa Jomon Museum

There is the Korekawa Jomon Museum in the outskirts of Hachinohe, where there is a clay figurine with palms together in a sitting position as the National Treasure.    I have never seen a sitting position before.   This clay figurine has female genitalia, so she may be praying for childbirth or a child.    We know that people have been praying with their hands together since the Jomon period.    The Venus of the Suwa region as the National Treasure also looks like a pregnant woman.

korekawa ruins1 palms together clay figurine
korekawa ruins1 palms together clay figurine

Also close to Hachinohe Station is Kushibiki Hachiman Shrine, the guardian deity of the Nanbu clan that has been in operation since the Kamakura period.  Hachiman Shrine is a shrine that offers eternal good fortune in war, and as such, armor and helmets from the Kamakura and Nanboku-cho periods are enshrined there.    However, these national treasure armor and helmets are more magnificent works of art than armor suitable for fighting.

This shrine also has something unique: at the entrance to the shrine, there are a pair of guardian lion statues, but here they are horses statues.    On the side of the main shrine there is a wooden carving of a kappa being trampled by a hawk because of its mischievous behaviour.    Later, when the Nanbu clan was transferred to Tono in Iwate Prefecture, this kappa legend was transferred with it and forms part of the Tono Stories.

Detour

The Sannai-Maruyama ruins, part of the Hokkaido/Northern Tohoku Jomon Archaeological Sites as a UNESCO-registered cultural heritage site, is located near Shin-Aomori Station on the Shinkansen line.    Traces of a village that existed for nearly 2,000 years during the Jomon period remain vividly.    Large-scale raised-floor buildings and pit dwellings have been restored.

 

enburi at brewery (1)
Go back to itinerary

 

 

Posted on

“Enburi” is HIPHOP, a festival that has been going on for over 800 years to awaken spring

garden enburi at kojokaku (2)

The dance, representing cultivating the fields in the face of the harsh natural environment and praying for a good harvest, has been designated an Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property of Japan.    The name Enburi comes from the name of a farm tool used to plow fields.    The event is scheduled to be held every year from February 17th to 20th, in the middle of the coldest weather, making it an incredibly spirited time to awaken spring.    The dancer wears a eboshi hat shaped like a horse’s head, and dances magnificently, swinging his head from side to side.    This can also be seen in hip-hop dance, which includes snake choreography.

Teams are formed in each region and the tunes and movements are passed down.    There are two types of Enburi: the slow and graceful “Naga-enburi” and the fast and heroic “Dosai-enburi.”    In the former, one dancer wears an eboshi hat with  a peony flower and other dancers surround him performing different dances, while in the latter, all dancers wear eboshi hats with five-colored tassels and perform the same dance.    The dance movements represent the entire process of rice farming, from sowing seeds in the seedbed, to plowing the field with a horse, planting the rice, and finally harvesting.    Furthermore, children (and occasionally the elderly) perform blessing performance, which is positioned as something to enjoy during breaks from farm work.    The performance includes dancing with hoops that have coins attached to them, dancing with pine branches, and sea bream fishing.     It seems that spectators sometimes attach gift money to the end of fishing hooks.

<Dosai-Enburi by Nukatsuka team> 


<Naga-Enburi by Nakaibayashi team>


The teams are invited to perform Enburi at various stores and can be seen all over town during the festival.    The Tourist Association has also created a separate event program and arranged a public stage.    The highlight of this program is the “Garden Enburi” which takes place in the courtyard of Kōjōkaku, a mansion of a former financial clique family in Hachinohe that is now registered as tangible cultural property, located in the center of Hachinohe.    You can watch the evening Enburi while sipping on sweet half sake and rice cracker soup in a tatami room.    Reserved seats are sold at the convenience store Lawson from one month in advance, so if you want to watch the show, you should definitely reserve a seat in the first row.    The competition for the first row seats is fierce.    If you’re in the first row luckily, you can set up a video tripod.     Heat packs are distributed to all audience and there is a bonfire, but in any case, you’ll be watching outside in the cold, so you’ll need to wear clothes to protect yourself from the extreme cold.

The second recommendation is the “Brewery Storehouse Enburi” that Hachinohe Shuzo(Brewery) accepts only during this season as a set with a tour of the brewery.     Online reservations are required, but there is less competition than for the Garden Enburi.    Here, in a warm room, you can enjoy some excellent sake while watching the dancers perform right in front of you, almost touching them, making it the perfect opportunity to see their intricate movements.    During this period, several tours are scheduled, so you can check out both Naka-enburi and Dosai-enburi.     It seems that the brewers at this brewery are also participating in one of the groups.    To get to Hachinohe Shuzo( Brewery), you’ll need to take the JR Hachinohe Line from Hachinohe Station to Mutsuminato Station, or take a bus from downtown Hachinohe, but it’s quite close.

<Brewery storehouse Enburi(Dosai) by Hashikami-Toriyabe team>

Sake brewing is also at its peak at this time of year, so we recommend visiting the two major sake breweries: Hachinohe Shuzo, where you can enjoy the Brewery storehouse Enburi performance, and Hachinohe Shurui, located in the city center and with a modern shop building.    Buying sake is a bulky process, but Hachinohe Shurui is surprisingly good at shipping sake with other manufacturers at a low price.     I bought two 1.8L bottles at Hachinohe Shurui and had them delivered.

<Hachinohe Shuzo>

<Hachinohe Shurui>

Detour

Hachinohe Shuzo is located near JR Mutsuminato Station.    It is close to the Tatehana Wharf where the huge and chaotic morning market is held, but of course the market is not open in the middle of winter (though it does have a special market during the New Year).    However, in front of the station, there is a fish and vegetable market in a building that is open from morning until noon, and everything is very cheap.    Sashimi(sliced raw fish) is also packaged in individual portions, so you can choose what you like, and if you order additional rice and miso soup at a table in the back, you can have a decent meal.

Also nearby is Minato Shokudo(dining room), a popular restaurant on social media, where you can try their seasoned flounder rice bowl, although you may have to wait in line (in fact, if you write your name in a notebook at the reception desk, they will call you on your mobile phone when it is your turn).    Apparently, in good seasons, you may have to wait 2-3 hours, but this was my fourth visit to Hachinohe and the first time I tried it, it was mid-winter, so I only had to wait an hour.    Most people arrive on the JR Hachinohe Line and wait in line, and when you board the two-car train at Hachinohe Station, you have to get in directly behind the driver’s seat in the front car because Mutsuminato Station is an unmanned station and the driver of the one-man train also checks the tickets of passengers getting off from inside the train.    I didn’t notice it at first, and assumed that all the doors would open if I pressed the button beside doors when I got to the station, but I was surprised when everyone moved to the front.    Only one door in the front car opened because of the ticket gate.    I later found out that all of these people were heading to Minato Shokudo!    After getting off at the unmanned station, I made a furious dash and overtook about 10 people, but the enemy came in a group of several people, and one of the faster runners got in line first, and the person I had overtaken got in front of the line.

There was nothing to do during the hour-long wait, so I decided to take a walk to the free observation tower (Grette Tower Minato) on the cape beyond Tatehana Wharf and stared blankly at Hachinohe Port, which turned out to be quite enjoyable.    To the east we could see Kabushima island, where black-tailed gulls had not yet arrived because it was not yet spring, and to the west we could see the majestic snow-capped Mount Hakkoda, and to the south we could see downtown Hachinohe and the forest of Chojayama Sinra Shrine, which is the venue for the polo matches at the summer Sansha Festival, as if they were right in front of us, and the hour passed by in the blink of an eye.    Needless to say, the long-awaited seasoned flounder rice bowl was as delicious as SNS had said.     For an additional 200 yen, you can have the miso soup turned into Hachinohe’s specialty rice cracker soup, but there’s no rice cracker soup with a more delicious broth than this one, so be sure to order it.    After that, we once again made a mad dash to Brewery storehouse Enburi, for which we had a reservation starting at 2 p.m.

 

enburi at brewery (1)
Go back to itinerary(Hachinohe where you can enjoy the four seasons)
morioka6
Go back to itinerary(Colorful and spiritual Festival in each region)
Posted on

One of the three sacred places for railway fans

loop and switchback2 business card to pray for promotion

The view of the railway that goes around the mountains is itself a tourist destination.    Jungfrau Railway on the European Alps is a typical example, but due to Hakone’s proximity to Tokyo, Hakone Tozan Railway is now overflowing with foreign tourists.    In order to transfer at Hakone-Yumoto Station and secure a good seat on the Hakone Tozan Railway, the front car of the train from Odawara Station is as full as a commuter train.     I had mixed feelings when I saw foreign tourists dashing onto the Hakone-Yumoto Station platform and being the first to secure seats on the left side for a better view.

loop and switchback4 left line to loop and right line for switchback
loop and switchback4 left line to loop and right line for switchback

Now, on the Hakone Tozan Railway, you can experience three switchbacks, but here on the Hisatsu Line heading towards Hitoyoshi in Kumamoto Prefecture from Hayato in Kagoshima Prefecture, you can see two switchbacks and a loop at the same time around Okoba Station.    It’s sad that railway transportation has not resumed as Hitoyoshi is currently recovering from the flood damage, but instead you can walk along the tracks at the site and get a feel for it.    Furthermore, in February, white flowers of the nearby Hitoyoshi plum grove are beautiful, and in March, the cherry blossoms along the railroad tracks inside Okoba Station are also beautiful.

In fact, the sacred place for railway fans is not here, but the landscape from the train window at “Yatake Goe”, which steeply climbs the inner wall of the Kakuto Caldera Somma, reaching the highest point on the line.    However, railway fans naturally enjoy the switchbacks and a loop around Okoba Station as well.     To get there by car, you need to go from the bottom of the caldera through the outer rim of the mountain, so the road is connected twice by  loop bridges at the front and back.

loop and switchback1 ohba station
loop and switchback1 okoba station

Now, regarding the station building of Okoba, there is an urban legend that if you put a business card on the wall, you will get promoted, and when I went there, I found business cards stuck all over the walls of the station building.        Maybe you’ll find a business card of someone you know.    Now, in preparation for the reopening of the railway, they have been completely removed, and I wonder where the removed business cards are.     It is of great interest to know what happened to the career afterward of the person who inserted the business card.

former shrine2
Go back to itinerary (under construction)
my herb pots
Contact us for your planning