July 14th was Hijiori Onsen's 1204th Anniversary!
On the eve of the anniversary, Hijiori men in white uniform marched the town with the torch, chanting " Namu Jizo Bosatsu". Jizo bosatsu is "Ksitigarbha" a guardian of our hometown and hot spring.
On the morning of the anniversary, Hijiori men in white uniform carried 2 Jizo (one female and one male) to the Hijiori dam to offer prayers to god. We had a ritual of scooping hot spring from one barrel to another.
This year, for the first time, Hijiori community invited 3 men from outside to join as a carrier of Jizo. Alex from USA, Jesse from Finland, and a Japanese guy from Sendai joined the event!
There was another thing new. This year, we had "Mochi Maki". "Mochi" is a rice cake. In many parts of Japan, when building a new house, we do this ritual. The owner of the house throw away lots of mochi, some money and snacks from top of the roof.
It was so exciting to see many kids and elderly people running after mochi! I was too scared to go into the crowd, though... :-b
After "Mochi Maki" was the highlight of the anniversary. Men in white walked around the town, and the audience splashed hot spring water at them. It is believed that pouring hot water on top of Jizo gives you protection from evil and makes you healthy.
Many people were waiting in front of their house with a bucket of nice warm hot spring.
The Jizo march has finished. After taking off totally wet white uniform and getting dressed, Hijiorians celebrated the success of the event with lots of beer and sake :-)
Alex and Jesse, making a speach. They really liked the event! I was so happy and proud that they were able to experience our amazing culture. They appeared on NHK TV news that night!!
Arigato Alex, Jesse!
4 young Hijiori Ryokan owners and I were invited to one of the most famous and successful Onsen in Japan, "Kurokawa Onsen" in Kumamoto pref. Kyushu!!
Kurokawa Onsen was just one of the regular Onsen towns. But now it is one of the most famous Onsen with Roten-buro or Open Bath in almost all the Ryokans. What's amazing is that the Ryokan owners built the open bath with their own hands!
Minami Oguni-town is also registered as "One of the Most Beautiful villages in Japan". We found a gorgeous bus stop with thatched roof. Guess what? These bus stops were built with the financial contribution from the locals!!! One of the villagers told me " If we ask our municipal government to build a bus stop, they will make a cheap looking bus stop. We didn't want that".
Kurokawa Onsen is so beautifully and carefully decorated. Ryokan colors are unified, almost all the buildings and bridges and even the vending machines are either black or dark brown.
The piece of wood in the picture above is like a ticket for taking a bath. You can buy this "Tegata" in any Ryokan. It costs 1,200yen, and you can go to any of the Ryokan and enjoy their bath. This system was so successful that Kurokawa became one of the most popular hot springs in Japan! Many other Onsen towns imitated the system including Hijiori but it wasn't a success. It is extremely important that every Ryokan owners and workers truly understand the concept and the purpose of the "Yumeguri" system. Otherwise it won't work.
2nd day rain was poring in Kurokawa Onsen. We had a meeting with Minami Oguni-machi mayor and Kurokawa Onsen union leader. They both told us about the history and current agenda of Kurokawa Onsen.
We had such lovely lunch at local "Farmer's pension"!
The picture above on the left is "The Most Embarrasing Onsen In Japan!" "Manganji Onsen". The bath tub is literally in the river where everybody can see! The rain was so hard and there was nobody bathing this day :-b, but it was the coolest Onsen I've ever seen.
At night, Kurokawa Young Ryokan owners invited us to a local bar and we drank lots of beer, Sake and Shochu :-) and talked about our future~~~
Kurokawa Onsen is such a lovely place with enthusiastic people. It gave me an opportunity to observe and deliberate the problems Hijiori is facing. Kurokawa Onsen is having a big success and we can learn so much from them. But at the same time, this trip made me realize how special Hijiori Onsen is. It is not as popular as Kurokawa, but doesn't mean that it is not as attractive :-)
Long History is one of the special characteristics of Hijiori. July 14th is Hijiori's 1204th Birthday!!!
