Note: E stands for time en route; S for stopover time. This first-day itinerary is very packed. Those who wish to complete it at a more relaxed pace should take the 7:30 a.m. Red Arrow for Ikebukuro Station. Or, you might wish to split it into two: Temples 1 through 4, and Temples 5 through 9 or 10. To start your day at Temple 5, take a taxi or ride the same bus as for Temple 1 to Goka-bashi 語歌橋; backtrack a short distance and turn left, and then right to come to the Kannon hall on your left (need to double-check). To go to Chōkōji, take the next right.
卍 Temples 10 through 18
Starting once again from Seibu chichibu Station, tell the taxi driver Jūban, in Chichibu meaning Temple 10. The taxi driver will stop at a large Jizō statue on a high pedestal. You could also take the bus for adamite-Milano (from bus stand two in front of Seibu Chichibu Station) and get off at Fukazawa 深沢. Backtrack a little and take the right fork to arrive at the statue of Jizō on a pedestal. Go up the steep stone stairway behind the statue and walk through the weathered, roofed gate of Temple 10, DAIJI-JI 大慈寺.
When I first visited Daiji-ji, an old woman in a house near the Jizō was sewing zabuton (floor cushion) covers. She told me that she made a cap and bib for Jizō on the last Sunday of February every year, so that he would be ready to meet the first wave of pilgrims in the spring. She also informed me that women in the neighborhood get together to sew saru (stringed, stuffed figures), every Year of the Horse (1990; 2002, and so on, in the twelve-year cycle of the Oriental zodiac). These are special years for the pilgrimage temples from the association of Kannon and the horse, and they open their inner shrines to visitors. (What they actually do is fix a large colorful rope between the inner shrine and the outer portico, so that pilgrims can hold one end of the rope and be symbolically joined with the Kannon inside.) The women used to hang the chains of saru from a Japanese umbrella to create a large decoration in the Kannon hall. Nowadays, traditional-style umbrellas are expensive and hard to find, so a plastic ring usually used to hang laundry is substituted.
Daiji-ji is a quiet, attractive temple that enjoys enthusiastic support from the neighborhood. The simple Zen-style building has sliding doors covered with senja-fuda, origami figures, sutras written on paper, and many other small items donated by pilgrims. Inside is a beautifully carved altar, where lighted candles are offered. On both sides of the altar hang silk banners decorated with gold and silver phoenixes. A gently worn, carved figure near the doors on the left is a god in folk belief called Obinzuru-sama, originally, an Indian saint Pindola. This saint is supposed to have saved many ill and suffering people with his medical knowledge and skill. Worshipers therefore rub the parts of the statue that correspond to their own ailments, praying for a cure. Wherever you see Obinzuru-sama, his statue is smooth and shining. Temple inscriptions may be obtained in the building on the right.
Bidding good-bye to the Jizō, turn to the right. At the traffic lights, bear right and walk some distance toward the large I intersection at Route 299 and turn right (the diagonal road to the right just before the 丅 is a shortcut.) On the hill the other side of Route 299 is Hitsujiyama Park. Continue about five hundred meters, hugging the hill on the right and passing two traffic lights. To the right just past the second light, half hidden behind a house, you will see a stone torii. A stone pillar to its left marks the entrance to Temple 11, JŌRAKUJI 常楽寺. From the entrance road, Chichibu City can be seen beyond a cement factory and Route 140 ahead. The well-cared-for Kannon temple was rebuilt in 1880 after the original edifice from the Edo period, complete with a front gate guarded by niō guardians, was lost to a fire. Deprived of its past glory, the modest temple continues to withstand heavy pollution from the mundane world below. Temple inscriptions may be obtained from the building just before the Kannon hall. If there is no one around, ring the small bell placed on a table there; or, call at the white building on the left, the monk’s living quarters.
➩ A trail winds upward through many vermilion torii and tall cedars. The red wooden gates and banners near them are offerings to Inari, a popular god in folk belief, a shrine to whom is located at the top of the hill. To the left of the shrine, a hiking path leads in the direction of the Chichibu Folk Museum 秩父市立民俗博物館. Though it is a pleasant half-hour walk, particularly in the spring when forsythia or dogwood are in bloom, it is in the opposite direction from that of the next temple, so it might be best visited at another time. However, it will be introduced here in the hope that readers can take time to see it some day.
Housed in a charming Meiji-period, Western-style building, the museum was originally built in 1885 with funds donated by the French Minister to Japan. The old wooden museum annex is also attractive; it was originally the Chichibu Railroad Station. The museum’s main displays are based on the collection of utensils and farming tools donated by the late Bonkai Tajima, the monk of Temple 14. Other materials on display reflect the life of prewar silk merchants, and the Chichibu Rebellion of 1884. (Open 9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.; closed Mondays, days following national holidays, and New Year holidays.) The cemetery in front of the museum is planted with many plum and cherry trees. A path on its right side leads to Temple 3 through cedar woods.
Leaving Temple 11, backtrack to the traffic light, cross Route 299, bear left (not a sharp left) and walk straight. Cross a small stream and take the first left. Continue straight ahead, crossing several small intersections. You should come to a red-and-white “no entry” sign and curved traffic mirrors. Although your destination is straight ahead, on a fine day you might enjoy an alternative route to the left, through Hitsujiyama Park 羊山公園 on the hill. Another suggestion is a short detour to the right to visit a landmark of silk industry in Chichibu. If time or weather permits neither of these options, skip the next three paragraphs and keep walking straight.
➩ If you turn right, and right again at the second crossroad, you will soon find a charming tile-roofed building with porte-cochere, formerly a prefectural research institute for quality control of local silk industry. The institute was closed down in 1998 and will be reopened shortly as a history museum and workshop to commemorate the glorious tradition of Chichibu silk. The exhibition will feature, among others, meisen, a taffeta-like fabric and special product of Chichibu, which enjoyed large sales until the 1960s. Originally makeshift of reject fibers after the fine quality yarn was sold to merchants, the crisp fabric for daily kimono had won popularity since the eighteenth century. Demand increased dramatically in the early twentieth century owing to technical improvement to create reversible fabric with decorative designs, an accomplishment by ingenious Chichibu weavers. Japanese working women in prewar years all wore meisen kimono at the office, but their modern counterparts prefer suits.
➩ The left turn will guide you to the top of the hill. As you climb you will notice a small pond with a water wheel on your left. It was built recently in memory of Wakayama Bokusui 若山牧水, a poet who visited Chichibu in the early twentieth century when the area was humming with the silk industry. He composed a waka, a thirty-one syllable poem, describing the neighborhood, which has been inscribed in a stone by the pond. A sign at the crest of the winding ascent points to a natural history museum and Yamato Art Museum やまとア一トミュ一ゾアム, respectively. If you like, take a short detour to the left to see a small, but good collection of woodblock prints by Shikō Munakata 棟方志功 (open 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.; closed Tuesdays). Just before these museums, a bronze statue of a man in formal kimono stands on a high pedestal to honor a local