Last week, Webmaster visited Juroku-rakan-wa – the relief of sixteen Buddhist saints on a rock face in Yamagata Prefecture.
Access to Juroku-rakan-wa:
Tokyo (shinkansen 2:15) Niigata (express train 2:25) Yuza (local train 0:06) Fukura (walk 0:15) @
Haneda AP, Tokyo (plane 0:55) Shonai AP (bus 0:30) Sakata (local train 0:21) Fukura (walk 0:15) @
I took a train to Fukura Station which is the starting point of today’s walk. Mt. Chokai was seen from the window beyond rice fields.
Fukura Station
From the station, I walked along the coast line.
Then, I arrive at the small park after a short walk for 15 minutes.
From there, the visitors need to walk down to the seashore.
Then, the visitors arrive at a plot beside the shore in the southern part of Juroku-rakan-wa,
where there is a cluster of relieves.
Those relieves were made by one Buddhist monk Kankai with the help of local stonemasons from 1864 for five years, for consoling the soul of fishermen who died in the sea and wishing the safety of navigation.
Although this place is called as Juroku-ranan-iwa which means “The rock of sixteen rakan (Buddhist saints)”, in fact there are twenty three relieves in total including sixteen rakan, and they are dotted along the coast for more than 200m to the north from the southern plot.
I tried to visit all twenty three, but could find nineteen only. I`ll show you some of them. If I have a chance to visit again, I would like to visit remaining three.
On my way back, I also visited Maruike Pond and Ushiwatari River where salmons come for spawning.
On a way to Maruike Pond
Maruike Pond with mysterious water color
Ushiwatari River with salmon
I took cold soba noodle (zarusoba) for lunch near Fukura Station and headed for Sakata.
Caution: The footpath is not well prepared to the northern part. The visitors need to walk on natural rocky coast. It is not recommendable to walk there in case of rough sea.
End.