yonezawa | Japanese Countryside Travel Notes

Sasano Kannon is one of the 33 Kannon pilgrimages in Okitama area, but it is especially admirable because the lord of the Yonezawa domain had visited it　repeatedly. The roof is very large compared to the lower structure, and the sculptures under the eaves are rich and detailed.

sculpture of dragon and crane

good foot prayer

Kannon aims to relieve people’s suffering by changing 33 forms and faces, so 33 Kannon pilgrimage routes had been established in various areas, and it is interesting that industries such as local specialty products are flourishing there.

entrance gate of Sasano Kannon

facade of Sasano Kannon

In Sasano Kannon, lord Youzan Uesugi encouraged the hawk carving by only one engraving tool, and its technology has been passed down to the present day near the Kannon.
The hawk’s carvings made from the Enju tree, Japanese Pagoda tree, have a reddish exposed core that forms part of the design (see below left). It is said that Enju is good for longevity and success in life because it is written in Kanji, Japanese character, that the life span extends. Japanese people like these word games !

Hawk sculpture1

Hawk sculpture3

The famous saying* is displayed (see above right) because the store name is ‘Youzan’, which President Kennedy had respected.
>Please read detail another post.

*)”If you try to do, it can be achieved, if you don’t, it will never be achieved. Achieving nothing is due to one’s own intention to not try.”

Hawk sculpture0 shop

Hawk sculpture2 workplace

I found something valuable in this shop. It’s a basket woven from mountain vines and sells for $3,000 to $4,000 per department store in Tokyo. See for yourself how much is here.

Mountain grape basket1

Mountain grape basket2

Mountain Pass Station0 — Go back to itinerary

By the end of the 19th century, British travel explorer Isabella Bird called the Okitama area including Yonezawa basin ‘the Arcadia of Asia’.

The place name of Okitama is not familiar to modern Japanese people, but it is based on the Ainu language. It is a large granary area surrounded by deep mountains. Perhaps she was impressed by the green land spreading in front of her after crossing a difficult mountain. But that’s not all for the arcadia.

Okitama area had been dominated by the Uesugi family in the Edo period. Everyone knows that a pioneer warlord of Uesugi family, Kenshin Uesugi, had ruled Niigata area, not Okitama area. In addition, every year during the cherry blossom season, the Kawanakajima battle between Kenshin Uesugi and Shingen Takeda (actually done at Nagano) is reproduced in Yonezawa !

At the end of the Warring States period, Kenshin’s successor ruled Aizu under the order of Hideyoshi Toyotomi, but after Ieyasu Tokugawa took power, the Uesugi family, his hostile, had been moved to Okitama, which had a low rice production. The Uesugi family and chief retainer Kanetsugu Noe did not dismiss their subordinates and developed cultivated land.

150 years later, Youzan Uesugi, the new lord appeared to save the financial difficulty by educating people instead of dismissing them and creating new industries that continue to this day.

“People belong to the nation, not the king.”

This is what he advocated and is exactly the idea of modern democracy. President Kennedy reportedly raised Youzan Uesugi, Yonezawa lord, as a Japanese politician he respected in his inaugural interview. There are many Japanese who do not know this person, but the following sayings, rather than as a poem written by him, have been heard at least once .

“If you try to do, it can be achieved, if you don’t, it will never be achieved. Achieving nothing is due to one’s own intention to not try.”

What the two reformers had in common was that they value people and thought that people were property. The arcadia may have been created by people who were carefully protected in this countryside.

By the way, Kenshin, a successor Kagekatu and Youzan in Uesugi family were not related by blood but adoption. It’s cool !

Yonezawa castle3

Yonezawa castle2

As you walk along the Yonezawa Castle Ruins, the center of Arcadia, imagine the history of hardship. If the time is right, you can see the Rakuchu Rakugai folding screen (National treasure) donated by Nobunaga Oda to Kenshin Uesugi. Incidentally, Masamune Date has been moved to the northern part of Miyagi Prefecture from the Okitama area by the order of Hideyoshi Toyotomi. Therefore, at the battle of Sekigahara, Date was attacking Uesugi as an excuse to side with Tokugawa. Places like each other.