Wonderful bike & train tour in Fukushima 福島大好きおじさんの自転車・鉄道旅日記

（Driving a bare horse at Nomakake, Odaka, July 29, 2019. 野馬懸の野馬追 小高 7/29/2019）
Today I was one of the large spectators at Nomakake, the last day event for 3-day Soma-nomaoi Festival in Soma region. Nomakake retains the very original style of the Soma-nomaoi, which was originated in military exercise in 900’s started by ancestors of Soma clan. At that time, wild horses were released as mock enemy. Today, three unsaddled horses were once released, one at a time, and then several mounted horsemen drove the horse into a corral in front of Soma Odaka Shrine. After all the three horses were driven into the corral, then several men, called Okobito, wearing white Shinto clothing and headband tried to catch the horses with their bare hands. Once the horse was captured, then it was offered to the shrine, where guardian god for Soma clan was enshrined. Photo above shows a horseman leading a bare white horse along a slope toward the corral.
本日は、相馬野馬追の最後のイベント、野馬懸を見ました。野馬懸は、900年代に相馬家の祖先が始めた相馬野馬追の原型を残している行事です。当時、軍事訓練で野馬を敵に見立てたのが始まりです。今日では、3頭の野馬が1頭ずつ放たれ、騎馬武者達が小高神社前の敷地に追い込みます。そのあと、白装束と白はちまきをした「御小人」達が、素手で野馬を捕まえようとします。捕らえられた馬は、相馬家の氏神が祀られている神社に奉納されます。写真は、騎馬武者が白い野馬を導いて坂を登る姿です。


（Conch shell horn blowers at Nomakake, Odaka, July 29, 2019. 野馬懸 の ホラ貝吹き 小高 7/29/2019）
Right before the horse driving began, conch shell horn blowers, as shown above, came in the middle of the slope to signal a start. You may see the closer view of the conch shell here.
馬の追い込みが始まる直前には、写真のように、ホラ貝吹きが坂の中間にきて、合図の準備をします。ホラ貝の形がよく見えます。


After the bare horse led by a mounted horseman, several chaser horsemen followed, as shown above, running up the hill.
野馬の後には、写真のように、数人の騎馬武者が追って駆け上がってきます。

By watching a short footage below, you may feel the atmosphere of the scene of driving a horse up the hill. This was of the second horse drive.
下の極短いビデオを見ると、野馬を追い込むシーンの雰囲気が少しわかると思います。
これは、2番目の野馬でした。



In the last drive, an unsaddled horse chased by mounted horsemen from behind barely crashed into spectators’ area as shown above. (No one was injured.)
最後の野馬の場合は、写真のように見物客の極近くまで迫り、危ういところでした。（問題ありませんでした。）


（Chasing bare horses at Nomakake, Odaka, July 29, 2019. 野馬懸 の 野馬追 小高 7/29/2019）
Photo above was a scene that three horses driven into the field in front of the shrine are trying to escape from Okobito men in white shrine suits trying to catch them.
写真は、3頭の野馬が神社前の囲い敷地で、白装束の「御小人」達に捕まえられないように、逃げている場面です。

And here is a very short video that a young Okobito man tried to catch a horse but finally failed at this time. You may feel the atmosphere.
下の極短いビデオでは、1人の御小人が野馬を捕らえかけましたが、最後は失敗しました。雰囲気がわかると思います。


During the first and second days of Soma-nomaoi Festival, I attended a group as a translator. But the last day was free and I stayed overnight there and visited this event for the first time. The event venue was Soma Odaka Shrine which was located 20-minute walk from JR Odaka Station.
相馬野馬追の最初の2日は、あるグループの通訳ガイドでした。しかし、最終日はフリーとなり野馬懸を初めて見ました。会場は、JR小高駅から徒歩20分の相馬小高神社です。
（お客の数は、前日より減りましたが、会場ぎっしりでした。）

The exact route and locations are shown in the map below. The map can be scaled up and down with a click and scroll. GPS data for a part of the section from Odaka Station was missing due to slow detection of my GPS device, so I added a line on the map.
ルートと場所は、下の地図を参照ください。地図は、クリックとスクロールで、拡大・縮小が可能です。但し、小高駅から少しの間、GPSデータが無く（機械の反応が遅く）地図上に線で補足しました。

（Iwaya Kannon, Fukushima, July 20, 2019. 岩谷観音 福島 7/20/2019）
This morning, I visited a couple of attraction sites close to each other on the foot of Mt. Shinobu in Fukushima City. This visit was on the sideline of a monthly regular workshop for Omotenashi Guide Fukushima group at FIA (Fukushima International Association). One of the sites was Iwaya Kannon, where a number of Buddha and Kannon statues were carved on natural rock walls. A part of them was shown in a picture above. It was a magnificent landscape which was passed down to date from more than 800 years ago.
今朝は、福島市の信夫山の麓にある2カ所を訪ねました。この2カ所は、歩いて5分ほどの近くにある場所で、今回はおもてなし福島通訳ガイドの会の月例会の場所（福島国際交流協会）に行く途中に皆で寄りました。そのうちの1つは岩谷観音で、磨崖の仏様や観音様が写真のように、天然の岩壁にたくさん彫ってあるものです。800年前から彫られているもので、壮観でした。






（Iwaya Kannon, Fukushima, July 20, 2019. 岩谷観音 福島 7/20/2019）
The history of Iwaya Kannon was described on a panel on the site as shown in the top picture above. Today we see a total of 60 Buddha and Kannon statues on the site, some of them are also shown in the pictures above, and it began in the late 1100’s and most of them were completed in the year 1710. And those include 33-Kannon statues from the Lotus Sutra. This was the only site in the city that Buddha and Kannon statues were carved on natural rock walls and was designated as the city’s important cultural asset.
岩谷観音の歴史は、現地にある写真（上）の説明板の通り、平安末期から鎌倉時代頃から彫られ始め、江戸時代の1710年頃に完成したようで、上の写真のものも含め全部で60体ほどあります。三十三観音も含まれており、市内ではここだけです。市の重要文化財指定です。


Yuji Koseki Memorial Hall, as shown in a photo above, was located about 5-minute walk from Iwaya Kannon.
古関裕而記念館（写真）は、岩谷観音から徒歩5分ほどです。


It was a museum for a distinguished music composer Yuji Koseki (1909-1989) who was born in Fukushima City. His statue was placed on the 1st floor of the hall as shown above.
福島市出身の著名な作曲家の古関裕而（1909-1989年）を記念して建てられたもので、1階には写真の肖像もありました。


He composed about 5000 music which ranged in a wide variety of area from march for sports event to school songs and theme music for radio and TV. One of the most known music worldwide would be Olympic March for Tokyo Olympics in 1964. You can hear a tiny part of the march in a very short video above captured at the facility today, in order to remind it, although there was surrounding noise.
古関裕而は、生涯に5000曲ほど残しており、スポーツ大会の行進曲、学校の校歌、ラジオやテレビ番組のテーマ曲など多岐にわたります。なかでも、世界によく知られたのは、1964年の東京オリンピック大会の行進曲「オリンピックマーチ」でした。上のビデオは、記念館の1階のビデオで流れていたものをごく断片撮ったもので、（周辺のノイズもありますが）曲を思い出すことができます。

The exact route and locations are shown in the map below. The map can be scaled up and down with a click and scroll.
ルートと場所は、下の地図を参照ください。地図は、クリックとスクロールで、拡大・縮小が可能です。

（Japanese serow at Mt. Karo, Shinchi, July 1, 2019. 鹿狼山 の 日本カモシカ 新地 7/1/2019)
Today I walked along a countryside road and mountain trail in Shinchi Town which was a northernmost town in the coastal Fukushima. The route was mostly along Shinchi section of Michinoku Coastal Trail or walking trail along the coastal area of Tohoku Region. This was defined and promoted by Ministry of the Environment of Japan aiming to revitalize the coastal region which was devastated by the earthquake and tsunami in March 2011. Today’s route was 17km long and included light trekking on Mt. Karo (430m). When I was descending along the ridge, I suddenly came across a Japanese serow near the northern end of the trail. He was grazing on the vegetation. Both of us were frightened but he just stared at me and showed no sign of intimidation. I took his picture as shown above and then he moved away.
本日は、福島県沿岸部の最北端の新地町を歩きました。コースは主に、みちのく潮風トレイルの新地町部分です。東日本大震災で被災した東北沿岸部の復興を目指し、環境省が設定した歩くコースです。本日のルートは、約17kmで鹿狼山（430m）の軽い登山を含みます。今日後半、尾根伝いに降りていたら、山道の終わり近くで、日本カモシカに出会いました。両者共にびっくりしましたが、カモシカは私の方をじっと見たまま脅かす様子はありませんでした。私は熊鈴を鳴らしていましたが、カモシカには効かないようです。そういうわけで、写真を撮っていたらそのうち逃げていきました。


I started to walk from JR Shinchi Station this morning as shown above. When I visited the town four years ago (2015) by bike there was no railway station. It was destroyed and washed away by the tsunami. But today the new station was built as well as many new public facilities, hotels, and residential area with new homes in the vicinity.
今朝は、写真のJR新地駅から歩き始めました。4年前（2015年）に来たときは、駅も無かったです。破壊され津波に流されていました。でも今日は、新しい駅舎で電車の運行もしており、周りには新しい公共施設やホテル、住宅地の新しい家もたくさん建っていました。




In about two hours of walking I arrived at the trailhead for Mt. Karo. A pair of animal stones called “komainu”, deer on the left and wolf on the right, welcomed me as shown above. These were for Karosan shrine or Mt. Karo shrine, where deity of the mountain was enshrined. A local legend described on the panel shown above said the animals were always with the god.
2時間ほどで、鹿狼山の登山口に着きました。写真の狛犬、鹿狼山神社の鹿と狼が出迎えます。神社には、この山の神が祀られています。現地の説明板（写真）には、この地の伝説が語られています。


Shortly after, I came to a hydrangea habitat as shown above. But today it seemed not the best season for this flower.
登っていくと、すぐに写真のアジサイの自生地が現れます。でも、旬の時期ではなかったようです。


In about an hour I came to the summit where second-order triangulation point was placed. It was very foggy, misty and even rainy at the top, but for a very short period of time a glimpse of blue sky appeared on top of sea of clouds as shown above.
1時間ほどで、2等三角点のある頂上に着きます。今日は、霧やもやがかかり雨も時折降る天気でしたが、一瞬だけ写真のように青空と下の雲海がのぞきました。


In the last half of the route there were two watering places along the way which was very grateful for walkers. Both were natural spring water. The first one was Mayumi spring water as shown above. This has even been used as the source of public tap water supply for local residents until some 40 years ago.
後半には、有り難い水場が2カ所あります。湧き出る清水です。最初は、写真の「真弓の清水」と言い、40年前の昭和時代にこの地区の公共水道としても使われてきました。


Another one was called Ukon spring water. A small rest area with roof has been built as shown above. “Ukon” was named after Date Ukon who was a descendant of Date family and who lived and loved this place and the water. I also refreshed myself with these excellent spring waters. It took 7.5 hours to get back to Shinchi Station.
もう1つは、右近の清水と言い、写真のように屋根付きの休場もありました。伊達家の子孫である伊達右近が、この地区に住みこの水を愛飲したことにちなみ、名前がつけられました。私も両方の水場で水を補給し休みました。7時間半かかり、新地駅に戻りました。

The exact route and locations are shown in the map below. The map can be scaled up and down with a click and scroll. However, today, the GPS data did not reach the goal of Shinchi Station due to battery outage.
ルートと場所は、下の地図を参照ください。地図は、クリックとスクロールで、拡大・縮小が可能です。但し、GPSのバッテリ切れで終点の新地駅まで描いていません。