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Chapter 10 The Journey from Miyako to Hamamatsu of Sixty-three Japanese Miles, Being Half the Journey to Edo, Begun on March 2nd 325 On Friday, March 2nd, we left Miyako again, carried in our kago. After nearly an hour we were led to an inn at a place called Awataguchi at the end of the streets of the suburbs . Here we were bade farewell by our innkeeper with sake and sakana (cold snacks), and after an hour’s stay we paid him for this one koban, half that amount for his son, and a bu for his wife. Traveling along a narrow mountain road, we soon reached the long villages of Hino’oka and Yakkochaya, situated about a mile from Miyako, where we drank some tea to clear our heads heavy from the sake we had drunk. This village stretched up to the village of Yabunoshita, which takes its name from the large amount of bamboo growing there. The village also produces a lot of tobacco of the very best quality. At a distance of several gunshots from the highway one could see the monastery of Moroha daimyōjin with a fine torii, or temple gate, built at the side of the road, and soon afterward a Kannon temple with a large gilded Jizō in a six-cornered building. After quarter of an hour we arrived at the village of Iwanochaya and soon afterward at the small town of Oiwake, consisting of a long street with about four hundred houses. Here people were occupied with cutting, turning, carving images, making weights, working wire, and especially with painting and selling pictures and religious images. It took half an hour to be carried through the town. To the right we saw a high mountain covered with snow called Otohayama, and there was also a road branching off to Fushimi. After quarter of an hour we reached the small city of Ōtsu,1 and one hour before dark our quarters for the night in this town, having traveled three Japanese miles. Ōtsu is the first small city in the province of Ōmi and has a long, central road in the shape of an elbow and various side streets. There are about one thousand farm and town houses, including, nevertheless, some handsome inns, which do not lack easygoing women. The town lies at the edge of a clear-water lake, with no name of its own, but simply called the lake of Ōtsu. The area is under direct control of the shogun and is governed by a tax collector. The lake is said to have been created by an earthquake that caused the land to sink and be flooded with water, and it was noticed at the same time that this caused Mount Fuji (which will be discussed later) to rise. The lake is fairly narrow but extends some forty to fifty Japanese miles to the northwest up to the province of Kaga, and goods from Kaga for Miyako are brought here by boat. The lake produces a great amount of fish, such as delicious salmon as well as carp, sheat-fish, and various other kinds. Swarms of wild ducks settle on the lake like clouds. The lake’s excess water flows out in several rivers, one going through Miyako, the other through Yodo and Osaka into the sea. Along the edge of the lake to our left lies a beautiful and famous mountain, Hieizan, which means pretty mountain.2 According to the documents, there are three thousand temples and many villages in its surroundings, and therefore it manages to support many priests and farmers. The mountain has always served the inhabitants of Miyako as a refuge and safe haven in times of civil war. Nevertheless, the callous Nobunaga3 climbed and conquered it, cruelly strangling priests and farmers and burning and devastating the buildings. Behind this mountain is a long mountain range covered with snow, called Hira no take, running along the lake, some two miles from our road. Behind this mountain range are two other difficult and mountainous highways, which are used by some of the lords of the western provinces when traveling to court. On the 3rd of March, a Saturday, we left our inn shortly before dawn so as to reach today the small town of Tsuchiyama, thirteen miles from here. It took nearly half an hour to reach the end of the city streets. We noticed that each house had a four-cornered paper lantern...

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