Visiting Kintaro's Childhood Home -- on a mountain! (Patreon)

こんにちは〜〜👋٩(^‿^)۶

Remember the neighbor I have (M-san) who I was having a hard time connecting with? Well, today we chatted and she walked me to a place near our houses that has gorgeous blooming white wisteria that smells incredible. We admired that and chatted some more and she told a secret spot for the best cherry trees not to far from here. I promised to go next year. We might be friends now. **wipes tear**

Hiking up Kintarō's mountain 🦶⛰️

I think of all the folk heroes in Japan, Kintarō has the best and more diverse artwork. He contained multitudes. I love that he started as a legendary figure, a babe born to (or raised by) a yamauba (mountain witch) -- she was very pretty and kind as you can see in the above photo. He grew up to be extraordinarily strong and RED. One story has a red dragon giving him to is soon-to-be mother at the top of Mount Kintoki (also called Mount Ashigara*). Others say he's depicted as red to show how genki and strong he was.

*I'm going to get to that mountain in just a minute.

So Kintarō grew up, talked to animals, had sumo bouts with bears, and battled oni. He's shown during this time as a plump, often red child wearing a full body bib that reads Kin/金! His name, also gold or money. Oh, and he's always carrying an axe.

Here's his storybook persona.

What I love about the Kintarō's story is that it's not a real person whose story turns into the legend, but the other way around. At least I don't think there was a little red-colored boy beating up bears, uprooting trees and smashing boulders with his bare hands in the mountains. But this legendary child grew up and met the great samurai Minamoto no Yorimitsu (real person) and from there on was called Sakata no Kintoki (real person), one of the four samurai team (Shintennō) who went on to defeat Shuten Dōji (a powerful drunken oni) and the Tsuchigumo (Earth Spider).

Okay. I guess his story weaved back into myth again.

Here he is as an adult. Pretty gnarly.

Kintarō or Sakata no Kintoki was said to be born in a couple places, but one of those is Mount Ashigara or more affectionately Mount Kintoki. In my minds eye, I always imagined Mount Ashigara to be in Kyoto somewhere. But a month or so after I came out of the hospital, I discovered it was an hour and a half from my house. [Literally, all I had to do was look at a map.]

So off we went! It was a test of my walking too. I went in knowing I wouldn't make it to the top. But I wanted to see the Kintoki Shrine and the large boulder that's been chopped in half by Kintarō's axe. Or so the story goes. It was about halfway up. Perhaps doable?

Here's Kintoki Shrine. The hike starts from here.

And here's what the hike looked like. It started pretty easy, but got progressively harder, steeper, more rocky. There weren't many people on the trail though, so we just took our time. Richard kept asking, are you SURE you want to keep going? But I had a little hand drawn map that had everything marked in increments, so I knew I just needed to get to 10, and then come back. Plus I had a goal to see that sliced in two stone.

My favorite part of the journey (beside the actual stone and how beautiful everything was after being in the hospital for so long) was while walking down a Japanese man was climbing up. He was looking at his feet, lost in his own world and I guess I was very quiet. Richard was much farther back.

So he looked up, saw me and startled. It's not every day you look up and see a foreigner coming right at you. I laughed and said: Tell the truth, you thought I was a bear. He thought that was funny and we passed each other. A few steps later and I heard him take out his bear bell and attach it to his walking stick.

Very beautiful.

And after an hour or so (I don't remember) we reached our goal. It's called Kintoki Yadori Stone and believed to be where he and his mother lived. We made it. 🙌 That might not look impressive...

Until you compare it to a person.

Me. Posing.

Below is an old postcard of the stone. There aren't all those sticks that people put under it, seemingly to hold it up?

The top of the Mount Kintoki really looks breathtaking. You get a gorgeous view of Mount Fuji if the sky is clear. I think I will try that one day. It doesn't look very difficult actually. I think most people could make it. I'm a little beaten up at the moment 😅.

Time to start training like Kintarō and wrestle bears I guess.

Considering the state of the world at the moment, I talked to Richard and we're going to go get some more (new) relaxing soundscapes with the binaural microphones. Tomorrow I'm waking us up early and driving to this rocky shore I have always loved to capture waves against rocks. I asked R to put it under the next episode. Big thank you to E because now we also have an Insta 360 and we'll get a nice video of that rugged beach as well. I'll post both the audio recording and the video here for you all to relax, study, meditate, or sleep to 💕.

Another idea: I'm checking the weather and I'm going to book tickets for the steam locomotive soon, too. Richard has a busy week coming up, so many after that. That should be super cool. As long as there aren't any hooting and hollering tourists. Cross your fingers 🤞 But the video on that one will also be incredible. It goes through the mountains and valleys and if we're all lucky we might spot a monkey!

Everyone stay safe and well, XO,

terrie

Oh! I almost forgot. I wanted to end with a charming encounter I had while at Kintoki Jinja. I passed a mossy stone lantern and felt I was being watched.

Do you see it?

Zoom in.

Daw ~~~ 😍

Have a lovely, peaceful, and creative day ╰(*´︶`*)╯♡