薄墨を染み込ませては重ねるように、ゆっくりと暮れるあたたかい黄昏時に、春を感じる今日この頃です。
さて、長野の日記がまだ途中でしたので、頭を冬の長野に戻して…
長野2日目。
前夜にちょこっとリンパマッサージとピラティスをしてから眠ったのが良かったのか、温泉が効いたのか、友人の美保さんがストーブで部屋を温めておいてくれたのが良かったのか、はたまたお母さんの用意してくれたふかふかの布団が良かったのか。足が冷たくて良く眠れなかった彼女は言いましたが、私はぐっすりでした。
８時ごろにのんびりと起き出しましたが、布団を出ると寒いので、階下に降りるまで少し掛かりました。居間のこたつに移動しても、またのんびり。
結局朝ごはんを食べるまで随分と時間をかけてしまいました。
この日は前日に立てた予定の通り、まずは象山神社へ。
幕末に活躍した、佐久間象山先生の為に創建された象山神社。
鳥居前に、『車馬下乗のこと』と断り書きが立ててあり、『馬』という言葉に時代を感じました。
叡智の塊、日本の頭脳、象山先生にあやかりたく、熱心にお参りをしました。
その後、白馬にまたがる象山先生の銅像の前で美保さんとと写真を撮ってから、池田満寿夫美術館へ。
池田満寿夫さんの展覧会を見たのはもう随分と前のことなので、久しぶりに生の作品を見れるのは嬉しいことでした。
松代城下町は古い住宅や寺社が多く、私も連れられるままに真田邸、旧樋口家住宅と見学しました。お天気もよく、最高にのんびりと午後が過ぎていきました。
お昼は美術館の隣の、栗おこわが名物だというお店で頂きました。甘い香りの芳しい、竹の葉を敷いた柳行李に、栗たっぷりのおこわ。ゼンマイの煮物とお豆、むかごの煮たものも添えられていました。
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| 栗おこわ steamed rice with Japanese chestnuts |
お腹がいっぱいになった後は昨日できなかったお戒壇めぐりをするために再び車を走らせて善光寺へ。
お戒壇めぐりは、御本尊の居られる瑠璃壇床下の回廊を巡り、「極楽の錠前」を探り当てるとというもの。床下なので、真っ暗です。自分の身体も見えないくらい。
錠前に触れることで、その真上におられる御本尊様とつながり、それはあちらに行った際にお迎えに来ていただけるという約束をいただくのだそうです。
面白そうなので(面白がっては罰があたりそうですが)早速挑戦。
まずは瑠璃壇に向かってお焼香。
百五十畳敷きだという内陣は、しんしんと冷えています。
お香の香りと薄暗闇、黄金の輝きが、私を現実から引き離して行きます。
お戒壇巡りの入り口は床下へと続く短くて急な階段。この時点でも十分暗いのですが、とんとんと降りていくと、前を歩く美保さんの背中がすっと闇に飲み込まれ、後は自分も消えていくようでした。
右側の壁に手を付けてひたすら回廊を進むのですが、何しろ何も見えないのです。
つるつるとした木の板壁の感触が伝わってきます。
何だか天井まで低いような気分になってちょっと中腰になってしまうし、壁は冷たくて指が凍えてくるから離したいのだけれど、離してしまうのもちょっと怖くて離せない。
何も見えないはずなのに、なぜが目をつぶってしまったり。
…そのうち美保さんががちゃがちゃと思い金属に触れる音が聞こえてきました。壁が少し凹んで扉のような感触。手で撫でて探ると錠前がありました。
その後はまた壁づたいに進むと、そのうち上からの明りが射して、床上へと続く階段が見えました。
入る時はとても薄暗く寒かった境内が、暗闇の中から出た後は暖かく、明るく感じました。
これって、人生にも似ているな、なんて思いました。
今が一番つらいと思っていても、もっとつらいことがあった後は、それまでのつらさが何でも無いように思えるし、その中にあったけれど見つけられなかった光も見つけられる。
善光寺さんの後は、前日に行きたくて行けなかった、HEIGOROという洋菓子屋さんへ。
とってもお洒落なお店で、ついつい長居してしましました。
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| 猫をなでなで patting a cat |
夕方、犬のマックスの散歩へ行きました。
山にかかる夕焼けの色が美しかったです。
夜は美保さんのお母さんが用意してくれたお焼き、韮煎餅、焼きおにぎり(信州味噌と醤油の二種類)、などなどを頂きました。『おやつみたいな夕飯でごめんね！』と言われましたが、私には御馳走でした。やっぱり信州はお味噌が美味しかったです。
前夜に引き続き、また温泉に行きました。
今回は美保さんの甥っ子と姪っ子も一緒です。
お風呂でたっぷりと温まり、帰ってみると悪いことした罰でマックスがベビーサークルに入っていました。私たちが林檎を食べ始めると、マックスはのこのこと出て来て林檎を狙い、またまた怒られておりましたが…。
美保さんに夜行バスのインターチェンジまで送ってもらいました。
夜行バスに乗る時は、いつも早めに出かけるので疲れるのですが、今回は彼女の家から車で5分。
あっという間にバスはやってきて、バスに乗り込み、朝までぐっすりと眠りました。
次に長野を訪ねるのは春です。
その頃には杏の花が咲いているよ、と美保さんが言っていました。
彼女のウェディングまであと少し。
最後まで気は抜けません。
長野に行くならお勧めです。
信州 善光寺
象山神社
Wind carries Japanese apricot scent.
These days I feel spring has come in the
warm and slow twilight as if someone is seeping layers of thin
Indian ink into the sky.
Well, I
still haven’t finished writing about Nagano, so I rewind my brain time to
the winterly Nagano...
On the
second day in Nagano.
Though my
friend Miho told me she couldn’t sleep well as her feet were so cold during the
night, I had a very good sleep. Probably because of some lymph massages and
Pilates before I went to bed, the hot spring, the warm bed room which Miho
kindly warmed up with a stove, or the fluffy futon her mom prepared for me.
At 8-ish,
we lazily got out of the futon, but it was so cold once we did, so it took us
a bit more time to go downstairs. After we went down in a living room, we
lazily stretched ourselves in kotatsu (a Japanese foot warmer frame) again.
We took
lots of time till we had breakfast in the end.
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| HEIGOROにて at HEIGORO |
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| stylish ♥ |
As we
planned on a previous day, we went to Zōzan shrine.
It was a
shrine built for Mr. Zōzan Sakuma (usually called Shōzan Sakuma) who played an active and important role at the end of Edo era (mid
19th century) in Japan.
At the
outside of Torii gateway, there was a note saying Off Your Horse and a Carriage. I felt of the times by a word Hourse.
Mr. Zōzan Sakuma was a wisdom itself. He
was a brain of Japan. I wanted to share his incredibility and I eagerly wished
myself good luck at the shrine.
After that we took a picture in front of a stature of Mr. Zōzan on his whie horse, and we went to the Ikeda Masuo Museum.
After that we took a picture in front of a stature of Mr. Zōzan on his whie horse, and we went to the Ikeda Masuo Museum.
It was a long time since I saw his exhibition, so I was very excited to see his
works again.
Matsushiro, where Miho lives, used to be a castle town, so there are still so many old houses and shrines and temples. I saw some old houses such as the Sanada’s residence and the old Higuchi’s house. It was a very fine day and the afternoon went slowly.
Matsushiro, where Miho lives, used to be a castle town, so there are still so many old houses and shrines and temples. I saw some old houses such as the Sanada’s residence and the old Higuchi’s house. It was a very fine day and the afternoon went slowly.
We had
lunch at the restaurant next to the museum where Miho told me it’s famous for steamed
rice with Japanese chestnuts. They served it in a bento-box size wicker trunk with
a sheet of sweet-smelling bamboo leaf. There were lots of chestnuts in steamed
rice. It was accompanied with delicate dishes of flowering ferns, beans, and bulbils
of Japanese mountain yam.
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| Zozan Shirine! 象山神社の2人 |
After we
filled our stomachs, we drove to Zenkōji again to do Okaidan-meguri which
we couldn’t do last time.
Okaidan-meguri is to go down right
under the main Buddha in the dark and find a padlock of the heaven’s door. Going under the floor means pitch
dark you can’t even see your own body.
By touching
the padlock, you are connected with the main Buddha above it and get a promise
he will greet you at the heaven’s gate when you get there.
Sounded
interesting enough for me to throw myself in a dark (I know it’s not a pious
attitude), but I tried right away anyways.
At first,
we went to Nai-jin (inner temple) and faced to Ruri-dan (where Buddah sits) to
burn incense.
Nai-jin has
about a hundred and fifty tatami mats and it was icy cold.
In the
dark, the scent of incense and gleams of gold decorations were slowly taking me
away from the reality.
The
entrance of Okaidan-meguri was short
but steep steps toward under the floor. It was dark enough already, but as I went down
step by step, Miho who was going in front of me melted into the darkness and I
felt like I was vanishing away when I stepped into it.
We had to
go forward as we keep touching the wall on our right hand side, but it's too dark
to see a thing.
I sensed a
feeling of the smooth wooden wall.
Darkness made
me feel like the ceiling was low and I bent my knees a bit so I wouldn’t hit my
head on anything. My fingers were frozen up by touching an icy cold wall so I
wanted to let my hand go and warmed it up a bit, but it was kind of scary to do
so.
I closed my
eyes every now and then even in a complete darkness.
...By and
by, I heard a sound of rattling heavy metals which Miho must be creating by touching the
padlock. I felt the wall concaved like there was a door so I glided my hands on
the place where it seemed as a door. Then there is was. The padlock.
After that
I carried on going through the darkness by touching the right hand side wall
and I eventually saw an arrow of light from above and steps to the floor.
I thought that the inside of the temple was dark and cold before I went down the floor, but after I came out of it, I feel warmer and blighter.
I
thought it’s kind of similar to life itself.
Even if you
feel like this is the hardest time ever happened to you, after you had even
harder time, you feel nothing about the one before. Sometime you even find some
good things you couldn’t see in it before.
After Zenkōji, we had some tea at a cake shop HEIGORO
where we couldn’t go on a previous day.
It was a very
fashionable place so we stayed longer than we thought we would be.
In the
evening, we went for a walk with Miho’s dog Max.
Dusk light
over the mountain was beautiful.
For dinner,
Miho’s mom prepared us some oyaki (well-known Nagano’s local dumplings), savoury
pancakes with nira (onion-ish taste Chinese chive), and grilled rice balls (soy
source favour and miso fravor). She said sorry for very snack-like dinner, but
it was gorgeous enough for me.
Nagano is
very famous for miso, and I loved it.
We went to
the same hot spring as we did on a previous night.
This time,
Miho’s nephew and niece came along with us.
I warmed
myself up in the hot spring and when we got back, we found Max was in a naughty corner. But once we started to eat some apples, he shamelessly came
out of it and he saw scoled again...
Miho gave me a lift to the night coach stop.
Miho gave me a lift to the night coach stop.
Usually I need
to go to the coach station earlier just in case of something happened and that
makes me really tired. But this time, the stop was only 5 minutes drive from
Miho’s place.
Before long,
the night coach came and I got on it. I slept all the way through until the next
morning.
Next time I’m
visiting Nagano in spring.
We’ll be
able to see Japanese apricots in bloom around that time, Miho said.
Soon, her
wedding comes.
I still can’t
lose my concentration yet.
If you are going to visit Nagano, I recommend them.