If you wish to return to Seibu Chichibu Station from here, turn right when leaving the temple, returning to the main road you crossed earlier. To the left on this road is the Kinshō-ji bus stop, in front of a liquor store. Timetables for buses to three different designations are listed. The two left-hand columns give the time for buses to Seibu Chichibu Station 西武秩父駅, the farthest to the left for Mondays through Saturdays, the next column for Sundays and holidays. (You might wish to look at the timetable when you first cross this road after Araki Kōsen.)
If you elect to continue your pilgrimage, turn left after leaving Temple 4. At the fork, bear left and walk through the village of Yokoze, with Mt. Bukō watching over you. Many small silk spinning and weaving factories were located in Yokoze until shortly after World War II. It is said that silk farming and weaving were known in this area as early as the seventh century. A reminder of this old tradition is a small shrine dedicated to the goddess of weaving called Orihime-jinja 織姬神社. To visit it, turn left when you reach a 丅 intersection; the shrine is around the corner to the right. Notice the distinct Korean style of the buildings, suggesting the origin of the silk farming and spinning expertise transmitted by immigrants.
Continue along the main road, you will pass another Canon factory and a few weaving factories. The Kannon hall of Temple 5, CHOKO-JI 長興寺 is located right on this road. When you come to a crossroad with a large white signboard on a left corner, indicating the temple 長興寺経所, look to the far left for the red-roofed temple. The Kannon hall, however, lies ahead along the main road, with its rustic niō (guardian god) gate protected by red-and-white steel railings. Visit the Kannon hall first before going to the temple. Though most drivers rudely ignore it, the Kannon hall bears the romantic alias, Goka-dō 語歌堂, or Hall of Poetry. It is believed that the hall was donated by a wealthy man called Magohachi, who was inspired by the teachings of Jikaku Daishi, a famous ninth-century Buddhist saint. Magohachi happened to possess a Kannon statue by this saint and so built the temple to house and preserve it.
Magohachi was well schooled in classical poetry. Once he spent an entire night discussing the art of verse with a visiting stranger, who mysteriously vanished at dawn. Magohachi was puzzled, but later learned that the mysterious traveler was in fact an apparition of Prince Shōtoku, the early seventh-century regent of Japan and an ardent supporter of Buddhism. In commemoration of the miracle, Magohachi gave the hall this elegant name.
Apparently the hall fell into ruin after his death, and another legend tells how it was revived. It happened that a poor old woman who lived in the province of Shinshū (in present Nagano Prefecture) led a penurious existence with her only daughter, who suddenly disappeared one day. Half-crazed with grief, the old woman looked everywhere, praying to Kannon for help, but in vain. She crossed the mountains and came to the Chichibu area, but collapsed from the fatigue of the journey. Semiconscious, she thought she heard her name called and, opening her eyes, saw her daughter escorted by Kannon. In appreciation of the recovery of her beloved daughter, the woman worked to restore the abandoned hall to its former beauty. Although such stories may be dismissed as mere legends, they reflect the joys and sorrows, hopes and aspirations of the local people, and indicate some of the hardships involved in a pilgrimage.
The existing Goka-dō, dating from the late-Edo period, looks rather prosaic, with few design features other than the knobbed railings and the arrangement of the rafters. Some old hollowed trunks of wood can be seen to the left of the hall; these were formerly used as shells to launch rocket fireworks. At Temple 4, also, some of these hollow trunks are kept in a side section of the front gate. The people of Chichibu love fireworks and use them lavishly at festivals. They claim that formulas for gunpowder and shell-making were developed by medieval warriors from the region, who used them to send signals over mountains and forest, and that only later did these technologies find their way to Edo.
At Chōkōji, the inscription is done at a counter behind the slatted doors in the right-hand section of the temple building. Leaving the temple, backtrack a short distance and take the first small path on the left, leading straight away from the front of a house on the right with a nameplate 若林 on the gate. The footpath soon becomes a paved road through lush fields. Mt. Bukō beckons from the far distance.
This neighborhood is noted for its preservation of the traditional art of folk puppetry. Called Yokoze ningyō 横瀬人形, after the name of the area, the hand-puppet show retains an old style popular before Bunraku. It flourished in the days when entertainment was rare in rural villages. Each puppet is operated by one man, who uses his right hand for manipulating the puppet’s head and arms, and his left for moving the strings controlling the eyelids and mouth. The performance is given to sekkyōbushi 説教節 an old style of ballad, older than gidayū for Kabuki and Bunraku. Romantic stories of tragic love or adverse destiny, which originated from Buddhist sermons as the word, sekkyō, implies, are sung to a pathetic tune of the shamisen string instrument. The popular entertainment enthralled the masses in the seventeenth century and was transmitted to Chichibu by a musician from Edo on his way home from a visit to Mitsumine-jinja. The villagers adapted the performance style to their own taste by incorporating local dialect and erotic jokes. The vulgar style died out in Edo, but has been preserved in this area. Today, performances are given several times a year at local festivals or by special request for a fee.
At the end of the path, turn left and follow the road around the edge of the fenced-in sports grounds. This is where the village holds its autumn festival on the last Sunday of October, and where the puppet show is performed. Follow the road to the right; past the sports grounds, take the left uphill fork. As the steady ascent seems to somewhat level off, there will be, on the left of the road, a wooden signpost, painted brown and topped with a decoy kingfisher, pointing to the right for Temples 6, 7, and 9 and Yokoze Station 札所六•七•九 横瀬駅. Follow the sign. The town of Yokoze should be highly commended for their well-marked guide for visitors. You can count on with these wooden posts, which will lead you along the winding downhill, and almost at the bottom of the downhill, to the left to Temples 6 and 7. Past a farm on the left 川原田農園, where grapes and mushrooms may be picked for a fee in the season, the road will curve first to the right and then to the left. Still another sign will guide you straight ahead to the entrance to Temple 7, which is marked by a tall gray granite pillar inscribed with several kanji characters 青苔山法長禅寺. It stands on the right, across the road from a shop. It is perfectly acceptable, and more convenient if walking, to visit Temple 7 before Temple 6.
Temple 7, HŌCHŌ-JI 法長寺, has a large main building with beautiful white walls and bell-shaped windows. The spacious building is almost overwhelming and has large carved panels in the transoms. The panels illustrate a story related to the origin of Temple 86 on the Shikoku pilgrimage. The temple was founded to enshrine a statue of the Eleven-headed Kannon, and a jeweled ball was sent from China as an offering to the Kannon, but was snatched away by the Dragon King. A woman diver, praying for the Kannon’s protection, dived deep to the bottom of the sea and got the ball back, risking the King Dragon’s desperate chase, but died upon landing on the shore. The story was dramatized by Chikamatsu for a jōruri ballad and has also been adapted for Noh. The stone statue of a lying cow in front of the main hall represents a legend relating to this temple. The tale goes that a tenth-century warrior fled here after defeat in a battle only to die. However, when peace arrived, his wife happened to pass by this area and dreamed of her dead husband, who said that because of many sins he had committed as a man of sword, he had been turned into a cow and was having a hard life. Awake from the dream, she immediately became a nun to pray for the salvation of the poor man’s spirit.
Leaving the temple, retrace your steps to the granite pillar and turn right. At the next crossroad, make a sharp left. Continue straight ahead, passing a small shop on the right-hand corner of the next crossing. When you come to a fork in the road, go right, following the sign with a red arrow pointing to Temple 6, BOKU’UN-JI 卜雲寺. There will be a small stream