本経寺 五色塀 Honkyoji-temple and Goshikibei in Omura

 

小倉から長崎まで続く長崎街道。大村はかつて宿場町でした。

長崎街道は様々な人や物が通った道です。象まで歩いて通った記録もあるそうです。

時には旅人は日記をつけます。

日記によると　評判の良い宿場町と悪いのがあって　あの町は道の脇にきれいに木が植えてあってよいとか　美人が多いとか　ある宿場のあたりはなんだかいつもきたないので　泊まりたくないとか。　

大村藩はそんな人々の”評判”を気にしました。

かつては大村藩の人々全てがキリシタンでした。禁教後は大村藩は仏教を信仰する藩として生まれ変わらなければ　藩は取り潰されます。ささいな理由で頻繁に取り潰しが行われていた江戸時代、実際　大村藩はいつ取り潰されてもおかしくない状況だったはずです。

街道を行く人々に　”大村藩は他の藩と同じく仏教を信仰する町で　しかも美しい町である。”　という良い印象を与えたかった。それはきっと　うわさとなって幕府の耳にも届くはず。

大村藩の人々は考えました。　

”街道のお掃除をちゃんとして清潔にするのはもちろんだけど　屋敷の塀を色とりどりの五色の石でつくったらきれいじゃない？きっと評判になるよ！”

写真は大村特有の”五色塀”です。

塀はその頃のものではありませんが　きれいですよね？

The Nagasaki-Kaido, from Nagasaki to Kokura, was part of the trunk road that leads to Edo ( Tokyo ) from Nagasaki. Omura is beside the Nagasaki-Kaido, one of the towns where people take a rest at cafes or stay at hotels in the night. It is said that numerous people with a load passed by there and some people even saw an elephant walking on the road to Nagasaki or to Edo. Nowadays, we learn a great deal from the diaries that such tourists kept about 400 years ago. If you read the journals you'll find many compliments or complaints about the towns that they left. One traveler liked to see stunning rows of trees beside the road, and one was pleased to find there were many beautiful women in one town. One tourist hated one somehow messy town.

Omura was a town which was keenly concerned about such reputation. There was a reason. In the Edo period, when the government smelled out any resistance, no matter how much tiny and insignificant it looks, didn't hesitate to destroy the clan and take away its land. The Omura clan had owned the land for a long time, which had been very famous town due to the fact that all of people once were Christian. After Edo-government banned Japanese people to believe in Christianity, no one could exist in Japan as a Christian. Thus, Omura people was desperate to give travelers the new and good impression of this town so that they could survive. They wanted to show tourists "Omura town is no longer Christian one. All of us are earnest Buddhists. Our town is beautiful and people are totally innocent." But, how? I assume that people in Omura must have mulled over how to show a good town, Omura.

The picture is part of walls in Omura City. This is called like "Five-color Walls". Those unique walls were placed in Omura town along the Nagasaki-kaido to represent a refined sense of taste that Omura people have.

 

 

１６０８年　日蓮宗の本経寺は建立されました。

それまで大村には寺や神社はありませんでした。キリシタンにひとつ残らず破壊されてしまったからです。大村の殿様　大村喜前は　お友達大名　熊本の加藤清正にいろいろ教えてもらってこの寺を建てました。

その頃はまだ　キリシタン弾圧がまだ　さほど激しくなかったのに　教会を取り壊した跡地にわざわざ建てています。キリスト教の”キ”の字も残してはならない　という決意でしょうか。　

ところで　お寺の屋根をよく見てください。中心がずれてませんか？移築された建物にしばしば見られるらしいので　このお寺は移動して運ばれてきたのかもしれません。　２３０年前に一度焼失しているので。　本堂に続く石畳は約４００年前そのままです。

In 1608, Honkyoji-temple was built in Omura as a Nichiren sect temple. Back then, there was no temple or shrine around there. Of course there used to be but Christian totally demolished all of them. Now, Omura needed to have Buddhist things immediately, the Omura feudal lord, Yoshiaki Omura, asked his friend, the famous Kumamoto feudal lord, Kiyomasa Kato, for a helping hand. Kato send him some experienced Buddhist monks. The Omura feudal lord intentionally built the Honkyoji-temple on the place where a church used to be. I feel Yoshiaki's strong will: "Now look at my people , all of them in Omura are no longer Christian. We all have revived as Buddhist."

BTW, please take a look at the roof of the temple. Do you find the center of the roof should be a bit more rightward? In other words, the centers of the roof and the foyer look different. A history instructor of mine said it's not that rare phenomenon. It often occurred when the temple was moved from somewhere to the other place. Given the original temple was burned down 230 years ago, this sort of new temple must have been brought here from somewhere. If you get a chance to look at whatever temples, watch the roof! Just for the record, I have never found such a kind of strange roof before.  

The stone path forward has been there for some 400 years.     

本経寺の百間塀が街道にそって長く続きます。

”りっぱな　お寺だ。”　そう旅人に思ってほしかったのでしょう。

This is a long fence of the Honkyoji-temple, called like "A hundred-ken fence". A ken is 1.818 meters. The road is just part of the Nagasaki-kaido. The Honkyoji-temple is not that big temple but the fence is oddly long. Probably Omura expected tourists to find that this town has a great temple.

本経寺の塀の外を普通に歩いているだけでたくさんの墓石が見えます。

様々な形の美しい石造美術品のようです。大村は石がたくさんとれて　それを加工する技術にも優れていました。五輪塔、笠塔婆といわれる石を積み上げた塔のような形の墓石が多く見られます。驚くのはその大きさ。２～７メートルまであります。

江戸幕府が段階的に進めていた鎖国が完成し　長崎から小倉までをむすぶ長崎街道が整備された時期に墓石の大きさはそれまでの２倍、６メートルに達します。

やはり　街道をゆく旅人へのアピールです。

”大村藩は仏教を厚く信仰する藩で　こんなに立派な墓を建てるのだ。だから　どうぞ　キリシタンの藩というイメージはもう忘れてください。”　

個人的には　街道に配した五色塀、巨大な墓石や　ただ長い壁は、パッとしないアイデアだなと思います。

五色塀などは　正直言うと垢抜けない感じが　私は好きではありません。

でも　勝手な想像ですが　だからこそ　きっとお城の中でセンスのないオヤジ達（失礼！）がおでこをくっつけて　一生懸命に考えたに違いない・・・と思えるのです。

小さく貧しい大村藩。でも全ては藩として生き延びるために。みんなで知恵を出し合ってがんばったのです。　

私はもともと歴史には全く興味なかったけど　なぜか長崎、大村の歴史はとても面白い。　　

If you just walk along the fence, you will see many tall gravestones above it. Omura was a good source of stones. It is said that there used to be many professional stone artisans. If you get inside of the Hongyo-ji, you'll see many stunning tombstones that are beautiful and some of them are really big. The shapes are unique, they are categorized into "The five-story pagoda" and "The stupa". I think the standard shape of common headstones is just rectangle. Maybe I should've taken some photos of them but I was just scared in the graveyard.

As you know, during from 17th to middle 19th, the Edo-government had been under an unique diplomatic maneuver dubbed "Sakoku". Japan shut out all of the foreign counties besides China and Holland. The Nagasaki port was the only place in Japan to trade with them. As Sakoku proceeded, Nagasaki-kaido was needed to be completed as a trunk line to Edo. And at the same time the height of the tombstones in the Honkyoji-temple gets nearly 6 meters so that many tourists can see it above the fence. The six-meter gravestone is twice as tall as ordinary ones. As you can see,  Omura fudal lord had been craving for a nation-wide recognition of the new Buddhist Omura in order to survive with his people.

Well, personally I don't buy the idea of so to speak "The five-color wall". I can't take it they are beautiful. I mean they are not my cup of tea. How about way too tall headstones and too long fence? Gee, I don't know...no offence, but I think they are cheesy and tatty ideas as such. Whereas I like them. What with the poor ideas inspire me to imagine that perhaps, in the Omura castle, unrefined vassals had meetings day in and day out to work out how to survive and ended up making such poor stuff. Turned out the ideas did work. Some tourists wrote about the beautiful walls or neat and nice Omura in their diaries. I like Omura people struggling to survive. The feudal lord, his vassals and his people corresponded to get over the crisis that might have destroyed the Omura clan.

I don't call myself a history person. I didn't like any history as a student because I didn't remember any numbers nor names ( even now ). Added to that, I don't read a book. It's surprising and I don't know why but the history of Omura and Nagasaki is very interesting for me. 

  

 

鈴田牢 The Suzuta Jail

 

 

夕方のウォーキングコースです。自宅をでるとすぐに大村湾。

大村湾はぐるりと陸に囲まれている内海なので

海の向こうには必ず山が見えます。

水鳥がたくさんいて　”白鳥がいる！”と思ったら

ゆうたん曰く　”どうみても　ガチョウでしょう？”　(TAT)

In the evening, I regularly take a brisk walk to keep in shape. It's a creek of Omura Bay. Omura Bay is such a small sea enclosed with the land, you can see hills anywhere over it. Yesterday, I thought I was seeing a swan with many water birds. I told Yutan and he said "Mom, that's obviously a white goose, I'm afraid."  

この地点からすこし歩いたところ　海を見下ろす小さな丘の上に　

鈴田牢という牢屋がありました。１６１９年キリスト教が厳しく禁じられた江戸時代に宣教師や信者を閉じ込めるために作られました。

鳥かごのような構造の狭い牢屋が海風の吹きすさぶ岬に建てられ　小さなそのカゴに大勢を詰め込んだため何人もその中でなくなりました。収容された人たちはその後長崎の西坂などで処刑されました。　

A little bit away from this point, there is a pretty small hill on which there used be a jail called Suzuta-Jail. In 1619 when the Edo Government strongly banned to believe in Christianity, it was built to lock Christian priests and believers up into it. The jail was just like a cage made of bamboo and that was very small and located on the top of a small and windy cape. Too many Christians were packed up into the cage, many people died in it, others were executed for their religion in Nisizaka in Nagasaki or other places. 

外国から来た宣教師の一人は　鈴田牢から自国の教会あてに手紙を出しています。その中で　自分たちキリスト教信者が日本でどんなにひどい目にあっているかを訴えていたそうです。

このきれいな夕日を　どんな気持ちで鳥かごの中から見つめていたのでしょうか。

One of the priests from overseas, mailed some letters from the Suzuta Jail to his country to let the church know how awfully Christians were treated in the current Japan.

I see the same beautiful sunset which the dying Christians probably saw too. It breaks my heart to think about them.

キリスト教国　ポルトガル、スペインに国を侵略されることを恐れた豊臣秀吉。

キリスト教以外は認めないと大村の寺社仏閣をことごとく破壊しつくした教会。

神の前では皆が平等であるという教えに救いを求めた貧しい農民。

士農工商の身分制度をゆるぎないものにしたかった江戸幕府。

この小さな町では激動の歴史を身近に感じることができます。

Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who was afraid of being invaded by Christian countries such as Portugal and Spain.

A church which demolished Buddhism and Shinto by totally destroying all of the temples, shrines, statues and books in Omura.

People who believed that no one is segregated when believe in Christianity.

The Edo government which wanted to control people throughout Japan with the new tight caste system.

What can I say? In the past, too many things happened in this small town.   

入り江にそって　たった２二両編成の短い電車がゆきます。

外国から来たＮＯＶＡの先生たちもこの電車で諫早の寮から大村に通うそうです。

後にこの辺りは埋め立てられ地形は少し変わっています。

Nowadays a short train which consists of only two coaches comes and goes along the bay. Some English instructors from overseas commute from Isahaya in where their dorm exists to Omura every day.

Later on, part of this area was land-filled, the landscape has changed accordingly. 

歴史 The history

ゆうたんママは長崎県に引っ越してから家の周りや行く先々で　ふるーい　歴史のありそーなものをとてもよく目にするので　歴史が好きになりました。歴史に関する本なども読んだりして。ゆうたんパパに　読んだままのうんちくを語るととても嫌がられるので今日は　アナタに　語らせていただきます。
Since I moved here in Nagasaki, I've noticed to be surrounded by many historical places. That fact made me love the history. So far,I reallly didn't like history because I didn't have good memory for numbers and names. Now that I like history of my town, Omura, I read some books. Then I itch to tell someone some *interesting* stories picked up from the books, my husband is aggravated by me telling same stories over and over again. So, today, I attempt to tell YOU about part of Omura's history!

去年の８月から月一回の歴史講座に通ってました。先日がその最終回だったのですが　いくつか史跡もまわりました。講義でも説明をしてくださる市役所の方がとてもとても物知りで　鳥かごに飼って史跡を連れて歩きたいほどでした。７０名くらいの参加者のほとんどは　たぶん地元のシニアのかただったと思います。行く先々でご自分の子供の頃を振り返って独り言のように昔のことを語ってくださり　それを聞くのがまた臨場感があるというのでしょうか　とても楽しかったです。
I've taken a course of history held by the city since last August. I went to the last one of the program last Saturday. Not only listening to the lecture but also we went to historical places. I've been amazed by an instructer who dearly knows many things about my town. Thanks to him, we got a great deal of Omura's history. We attendants were 70ish in all, many of them were senior. At the places we went together, they used to tell stories in their childhood. They told tales so lively that I enjoyed to listen to them very much.
　
長崎街道を大村から佐世保方面へ少し行ったところ　刃物で有名な　"松原宿"　の松原春日神社にある土俵です。昔から松原には強いお相撲さんがいて江戸時代の力士の大きなお墓もあります。秋にはお祭りがあって　お相撲大会　やってましたよ！
This is a Sumo wrestling ring in Matsubara Kasuga Shrine. Matsubara Town is in Omura city and famous for good knives. There used to be strong Sumo wrestlers and massive grave stones of some of them in the Edo period. In Matsubara town, they have a Sumo match in every Fall. I actually saw it last Fall. That was amazing. ( Oh, I'll have to have a little break since I have to make dinner for my family right now. I'll be back in a bit soon!! See you then :-D )



松原宿は昔は旅人がお茶でも飲んで少し休憩をした場所のようです。ここには茶屋の塀だけが残っています。お向かいには当時の旅館が残っていて中を見学することができますよ。
In the Edo priod( 1603-1867 ) Matsubara was a place travelers took a break sipping a cup of green tea in a cafe. This picture is part of a gate of a cafe.



This used to be a hotel long time ago in Matsubara. This hotel is a museum now. You can get in this museum to look at inside for free. If you do, watch your head. The ceiling is very low because old Japanes were shorter than modern Japanese.





ご存知のように　大村は昔　長崎街道が通っていたところです。ふつうに毎日のように通っている道にも　ココが昔は長崎街道だったんですよ　と示す　”長崎街道”の看板を見ることができます。江戸時代から　どんな人がどんな思いでここを通ったのか、大村の町の人たちはどんな思いで　街道をゆく旅人達を見送ったのか・・・なんだかわかる気がする身近な街道です。　
大村は　日本ではじめてのキリシタン大名　大村純忠の領地でした。純忠の領民はすべてキリシタンとなり、寺社仏閣、仏像までもキリシタンによって　ことごとく破壊されました。キリスト教の禁教後は　キリスト教に関するもの、キリスト教を連想させるものはすべて取り壊されました。当時は幕府によるお家取り潰しが頻繁に行われていて大村藩が生き残るために　藩は大村がいかに仏教を信仰する町として生まれ変わったか　素晴らしい町であるかを　町の中を通る長崎街道を利用して　街道をゆく人々にアピールしました。たとえば　６，７メートルもある巨大な墓石や　五色の石を埋め込んだ珍しい塀を街道沿いに配置したのです。
それらが美しいのかセンスが良いのか判断によりますが　大村を守ろうとする人々の必死な思いを強く感じます。
日本初のキリシタン大名であった大村純忠もはじめは　ポルトガルやスペインとの貿易をするために布教をみとめたようです。貧しい大村の力のない大名が　領地を占領されないため　貿易によって領地がうるおうようにと必死だったのでしょう。
関が原の合戦や幕末の混迷のなかで　大村藩の人々は藩の存亡をかけて必死です。こっちがハラハラします。

じつは　ゆうたんの通っている剣道場も創立１５２年になります。１５２年前の道場の床板の上でゆうたんは”やー”とか”どー”とか言ってお稽古をしています。
なんかいいですよねー。

In the Edo period, a long main road from Nagasaki to Edo (Tokyo) was made by goverment. Part of the main road in Kyusyu island was called "the Nagasaki Kaido". Common travelers walked, noble or rich people got in basket palanquins or on horses to travel. Now that I can see many signs that say "This road used to be the Nagasaki Kaido" along the road. The road is very familier to people in Omura. Many cars and people come and go everyday. I sometimes imagine what did travelers think passing by Omura on Nagasaki Kaido. Did they like this place? Did they hurry to Nagasaki for some reasons? How did local people see the travelers?
Omura is famous for Sumitada Omura who became a Christian as a Japanese feudal lord. He had all of his poeple become Christians. Then according to priests' demand, he totally destroyed all of Buddhist or Shinto things such as temples, shrines and any statues. Afterwards, believing in Christianity was banned by the goverment for some reasons, a new feudal lord in Omura, a son of Sumitada Omura, destroyed all of churches and anything came from Christianity. I don't think the new feudal lord did dislike Christianity. Yoshiaki obviously wanted to demolish the fact all people in Omura used to be Christians to protect his land and people. Otherwise, the goverment would take the land of Omura away from the Yoshiaki, eventually Omura wouldn't exist in the future. That's certainly cruel but happening at times in the Edo priod. The feudal lord, Yoshiaki Omura, used the Nagasaki Kaido to appeal to the goverment let alone travelers that Omura town is beautiful and has changed to be a Buddhist one. Yoshiaki placed massive Buddhist grave stones and beautiful special fences along the Nagasaki Kaido. We can see them as remains. I don't really think those are beautiful. On the other hand, I feel the strong will that people in Omura used to have to protect their land and peaceful living.
In fact, it is said that Sumitada Omura, the first Christian fedal lord in Japan, got to be a Christian merely for a trade with Portugal and Spain. Because people from the two countries strongly demanded to be allowed teaching Japanese their religion. After all, Sumitada turned out to be a strict Christian during his lifetime. Anyhow, Sumitada was just a weak feudal lord in a poor small town and desperately wanted to trade with foreign countries to make some profit for his people. In other words, the feudal lords in Omura loved their land and people so much. People loved their town and lord as well. I love the fact and can feel their soul in my town. You can see their strong will for protecting Omura town at some turning points such as a turmoil in the end of Edo period. It's certain gripping for me.
The Kendo club that Yutan belongs to has been established since 1854. According to the fact, the floor in the studio has been used for 152 years. Yutan is practicing Kendo on such old historical floor. Isn't it just amazing? Hopefully, Yutan would show excellent performance at Kendo for his many seniors' sake.
Thank you so much for reading. Writing this was challenging and fun for me.