Tea field is full of creatures, even on the tree top. A bunch of grasshoppers, crickets, mantis, beatles, spiders, and even the lizards. If you look at the ground below, there are more creatures all over the place. Also there are sparrows flying overhead waiting for a feast. At our other tea field, there are wild hogs, as well as wild rabbits. Their droppings become the best natural fertilizer!
A challenge for the Neo Green Tea: How outsider settelers see the green tea ～ one of the toughest farm labor one after another
As we started the resurrection of the green tea field, we learned the things in the hard way. As our farm is small in scale, we cannot use the large machineries, that most large farms use. It means that most of the work are to be done by hand. Just mowing the weeds are one heck of a job. We can cut the open area with a hand held glass mower, but for the most other parts, we have to pull out by hands. There are thorn and ivy all over the place and are really tough to handle them, even with the leather gloves. Also being on our knees all day long is like a penalty.
Just mowing took a day, and pulling out the weeds took another day. Our body was full of pain. But as it proceeded, you can see the other side of the field though the branches, and the sunlight shinning through them was such a relief to see.
To trim the tea tree, we use the hand held two men machine. It has two curved blades which cut the tree top in an arc shape. But as this tea field was abandoned for years, the branches are out of the line and are all over the place. So we have to cut one by one by hand. Also as we have to work in a pair, so our walking speed, hand held height are hard to keep up. It took us good amount of time before we were able to make a clean arc on the top of the tea field.
All this is just a beginning and the tea field, as it starts to reveal it’s real shape. Our story has just began.
Tobikata Mountain Daikou Temple：11 faced Kannon shown to the public only once every 12 years
There are many temples and shrines in Japan. These temples and shrines are normally supported by the locals and supporters. But as time goes by this traditional system has lost it’s form and many temples and shrines are loosing it’s heritage and are being beried in the history. It is more so in the rural area and so is the Tobikata Daikou Temple. Only once every 12 years, its 11 faced Kannon statue is open to the public. But the history and the legend behind it is not known even to the locas of Yame.
It’s history is long and deep. It dates back to 609AD, when the holy monk Nichira visited the area from Kudara, or a modern day Korea. He curved the 11 faced Kannon as well as the Forr Devas, and the two Devas King.This temple consisted of many buildings covering a vast area, but was burned down by the fire caused by the lightning in 774AD
It was later said to be re-built by a famous monk Gyoki, but the timeline does not mach, so it is possible that his disciple had been involved in the reconstruction. And from here the history gets interesting. In Kanpyo era(889AD~898AD), Fujiwara Takafusa of Dazaifu asked Ninkyo from China to obtain a large piece of precious saldalwood for him. Ninkyo was able to find a large enough piece, but was stopped by the local government. So he wrote “ This piece is for Takafusa of Japan” and floated it out to the sea.
And the years past. And the son of Takafusa found the sandalwood washed ashore and found his father’s name written there. He decided to keep his father’s will and decided to head to Kyoto to have the Kannon curved. But as he was passing by Sessyu-Shimashimo region(current day Ibaraki,Osaka),the sandlewood suddenly became too heavy to move. So he promised that as he has the Kannon curved, he will place it there. Then he was able to carry it to Kyoto.
On the way to Kyoto, he stopped by Hase Temple and prayed. On the 7th night there, In his dream he heard a word.”Go quick to Kyoto and you shall meet a curver”. So he left in a hurry and as he arrived, he met a child holding a knife. He claimed “I am a Buddha curver, Leave it to me”. Takafusa’s son joyed but also doubted, so asked to curve him a sample. A child then curved such a beautiful Buddha, so Takafusa’s son asked him to curve for him. “I will curve in 90days” a child settled in the room to curve. Aster 90days, Takafusa’s son took a peek, and the child was nowhere to be seen, but a thousand-armed Kannon standing there. He believed it was an incarnation of Hase Kannon, and as he promised, placed it at Sessyu-Shimashimo area and opend a new temple.
A while later, He brought it back to Dazaifu. But every night Kannon glowed and flew to the direction of Chikugo. So he followed it, and climbed the mountain it had reached, and fould a small alter abandoned with 11faced Kannon inside. He felt sorry for it and made another thousand-armed Kannon and placed it there and built a temple. Tobikata literally means “ to fly” and this mountain was called Tobikata Mountain.
After Onin war in 1748, a famine swept the country, and to make a daily living, the local decided to make a charcoal with a large pine tree near the temple. But with a gust of a wind, fire covered the temple and all burnt to ash except for an arm of a thousand-armed Kannon, which a local retrieved through a small hole he cut thorugh on an alter.
Due to the poverty, no one was able to reconstruct the temple, but one of the local decided to make a thousand-armed Kannon as a replacement with and arm saved from fire place inside. In 1627, a temple was moved again to a current place.
Later on another fire burnt down the temple once again, but the temple was reconstructed in Meiji period with 11 faced Kannon being curved in Fukuoka. It is unknown as to when this once in the 12 years tradtion started.
One very interesting thing is that there is a similar lore at Souji Temple in Ibaraki, Osaka. It seems these historical lores match.
Also there is a local mystery that every year, will-o’- the-wisp fly from Kemari-fuchi(deep pool) to Tobikata Mountain.
No one knows if these lores are true or not, but to imagine it is such an entertainment. Also to watch the old aged locals saying “ This is last time for me to be able to see it” and shooting photo with their smartphone was so interesting to see. Old and new, A history carries on and a time goes by.
Saggicho is an traditional ceremony, on Jan. 15. It is a large scale bonfire.A tower is built with a wodd and bamboo, and New Year’s decorations are placed inside. As the fire is lit, the some rises hige into the sky, and the god returns to heaven.
This ceremony is to send the god home, who have visited us on the New Year’s holiday.There are several variationsfor it’s name. Depending on the region, sometimes it is called Saggicho, Sagicyo,Dondo-yaki, Onibi, Hohkengyo, Saito-yaki, or Onbe-yaki.
There are no clear background as to when and how it started. One theory is that it originated from the event held at an Imperial court in Heian era. Another is that it has an origin in a Chinese Lantern Festival. It will remain a mystery, yet history continues on.
But due to the large amount oh ash falling upon the residencial area, many cities are starting to prohibit the event itself. There is a great possibility that we may soon loose a such an event, before we truly understand it.
Japan has the old ceremony that is called Sagiccyo. It is the fire ceremony to be held on 15th of January. By the Sagiccyo, the people put New year’s decorations in the tower which was made with bamboo or wood and set fire. And smoke is rising from the tower.
Toshigami return to the sky on the smoke. We give a god that I met for New Year Holidays send off through this ceremony. The Sagiccyo varies in a name by an area. Other names of the Sagiccyo are Sagicyo, Dondoyaki, Onibi, Hougenkyo, Saitoyaki, Onbeyaki, and so on.
In fact, the history of the Sagiccyo does not become clear exactly. The opinion to be the Imperial Court event of the Heian era has the origin of the festival, but there is the opinion to be the Feast of Lanterns clause of China. Because there are extremely few documents and articles about this ceremony, I think that it is impossible that people get correct information about the Sagiccyo.
Because a large quantity of ash pours when this ceremony is held, towns prohibiting this it increase. The Sagiccyo seems to become extinct before we know the history of it deeply.
