Wonderful bike & train tour in Fukushima 福島大好きおじさんの自転車・鉄道旅日記 Shortia flowers at Mt. Seki, Shirakawa, April 7, 2019. （白河の関山でイワウチワ開花２０１９年４月７日）

Shortia flowers at Mt. Seki, Shirakawa, April 7, 2019. （白河の関山でイワウチワ開花２０１９年４月７日）

（Shortia habitat at Mt. Seki, Shirakawa, April. 7, 2019. 白河関山イワウチワ 4/7/2019）
Today I visited Mt. Seki (618m) or Sekisan at Shirakawa. The mountain is famous that a legendary haiku poet Matsuo Basho visited the mountain in 1689 on the way of his journey to Michinoku or Tohoku region. It is also known that a part of the mountain slope is a natural habitat for a mountain plant Iwauchiwa or shortia. At this time around the plant starts blooming. Picture above shows a view of the plant just started to bloom with its cute pink flowers.
本日は、白河の関山（６１８ｍ）を訪ねました。山は、俳人松尾芭蕉が１６８９年に通ったことで有名です。また、山野草のイワウチワの自生地があることでも知られています。イワウチワは、この時期に開花し、写真のようなピンクのかわいい花を咲かせます。

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（Basho's memorial at Mt. Seki, Shirakawa, April. 7, 2019. 白河関山芭蕉自筆の碑 4/7/2019）
Today I approached Mt. Seki from the north. At the trail head, there stood a memorial stone for Basho as shown above. A short passage from his travel essay “Okuno-hosomichi”, which meant “unbeaten track through Tohoku region”, was inscribed on the stone with Basho’s own writing. It said “It has been uneasy through this travel so far, but as I passed the Shirakawa-no-seki milestone I was determined to continue.”
今日は、関山には北から入りました。登山口には、写真の芭蕉（とその弟子曽良）の記念碑があります。芭蕉の紀行文「奥の細道」からの一節が、直筆で彫られています。「心もとなき日数を重るまゝに白河の関にかかりて旅心定まりぬ」

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So I started walking on the trail from the north and I took a right-hand route when I came to a branch shortly later and made to the summit. Then I descended on the other route and halfway on the route there was a large sitting Acala stone statue as shown above. A mountain slope in the back of the Acala statue was the habitat of Iwauchiwa or shortia plant as you can see a narrow trail on the right.
北からの登山道を入り、分岐点で右手（烏天狗の道）に行き山頂までいきました。その後、別のルート（満願寺参道）を降りると、中間点に写真の不動明王の坐像があります。この裏手の山の斜面が、イワウチワの群生地になります。不動明王の右手の細い道（写真）で行けます。

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（Shortia habitat at Mt. Seki, Shirakawa, April. 7, 2019. 白河関山イワウチワ 4/7/2019）
Some close-up views of the shortia flowers today are shown above.
今日咲いていたイワウチワの近接写真のいくつかです。

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（Shortia habitat at Mt. Seki, Shirakawa, April. 7, 2019. 白河関山イワウチワ 4/7/2019）
I also found white flowers as shown above.
写真のように、白い花もありました。

The trail head was located near the JR bus stop “Sekibe”. We can take the bus either from Shirakawa or Shinshirakawa Station. Today’s GPS trace is shown in the map at the bottom.
北側の登山口は、ＪＲバスの「関辺」バス停から１５分ほどにあります。白河駅からでも、新白河駅からでも乗れます。（一番下にある地図のＧＰＳトレース参照）

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Shirakawa City is qualifying people in terms of knowledge about local history and culture. There are three grades, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grade. If you pass the official test conducted by the city office then you get a certificate such as shown above depending on the grade you are qualified. Any people can take this test, no conditions. This was very useful not only for studying Shirakawa but also for all Fukushima and even for all Japan.
白河市は、歴史や文化について「しらかわ検定」を始めています。１級、２級、３級とあり、市が行うテストに合格すると写真のような証書がもらえます。条件なく、誰でも受けられます。白河の勉強のみならず、関連して福島県や日本全体の学習にも大いに役立ちます。

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。