According to legend, Mt Homan was the birthplace of Shinto Muso Ryu Jodo. Tradition within the ryu states that Muso Gonnosuke suffered a decisive defeat to Miyamoto Musashi. History doesn’t tell us what Muso Gonnosuke did immediately following this defeat, but we are told he came to the Kuroda clan territory in northern Kyushu. Here he came to Kamado Shrine at the base of Mt Homan, and found a cave in which he undertook physical and spiritual austerities for 37 days. In this cave, whilst sleeping, a dream came to him in which a deity appeared and gave him the words which are central to the style he founded. His vision of the deity took the appearance of a small boy, and said “maruki o motte, suigetsu o shire”. Upon his enlightenment he devised the method of using the stick to defeat Miyamoto Musashi.
This is the map of Mt Homan, from the shrine side. The cave is on the far side of the peak.
Here we are. It was the beginning of Feb 2007, and as we both knew that this would be our last year living in the land of the rising sun, it was clear to us that the pilgrimage to Kyushu was a must. With the purpose of retracing the steps of the founder of SMR, we bought our package deal from the Japanese Travel Bureau which included flights, hotels and rent a car. We figured that without Miyamoto, Muso Gonnosuke may never have founded the ryu that we are preserving. Thus we also made a point of visiting the area and places where Miyamoto Musashi spent his last years.
We arrived on Friday morning, and used this first day to acquaint ourselves with the city of Fukuoka. Of course we gravitated towards the castle and major shrine nearby, and to our surprise we learnt that a jodo demonstration was taking place on the following Sunday morning. “Cool!” we thought, as this was our chance to observe the Kyushu style of SMR Jodo first hand. For dinner, we of course tried one of the specialties of Fukuoka, namely ramen (which also happens to be the speciality of hundreds of cities in Japan). As we weren’t quite satisfied with just one serving of noodles in broth, we continued searching the area for more specialties, all of which were washed down with the local brews. Skipping the famous night district of Fukuoka (one of the top 3 in Japan alongside Tokyo and Sapporo), we retired to our hotel at a reasonable time as we had big plans for the next day.
Bright and early on Saturday morning, we set off by car (which we picked up at the airport on arrival) to the Dazaifu area. Luckily we were armed with kaa-nabi (GPS navigation in the car), and arrived within about half an hour to the base of Mt Homan. Luckily the snowy weather had passed over the area, and the morning was cool and clear. We parked, and took jackets and our gear for keiko, and were enthusiastic about seeing Muso Gonnosuke’s cave and then performing an embu at the shrine.
We climbed the stairs to the first temple, and paid our respects. There we met with the kannushi-san (Shinto priest), who was very friendly and gave us all the information we needed (in Japanese). We asked if it was possible to perform a demonstration in front of the Muso Gonnosuke shrine, and to our delight he showed us where we should demonstrate and even allowed us to leave our gi’s and weapons in his care while we climbed the mountain.
We set off on foot from the main shrine at the base of Mt Homan, and took our first steps on the mountain. We were soon to discover that this area is also a popular area for nature and hiking enthusiasts. More often than not they were much better prepared than we were, with the latest and most fashionable snow hiking gear, raincoats, outdoor kitchen sets and of course cameras. But some were different. Sometimes we saw entire families (grandpa’s and dogs included) who seemed prepared for a stroll in the park. We even chanced upon a salary man in full amour including suit, necktie and briefcase! We supposed that if these families were strolling up here, then the climb to the peak was going to be easier than we imagined.
As we ventured further up the mountain we beheld a large tori (Shinto gate) at the extent of our vision. This gate, we figured, was the first of the three stages to the peak. The Kamado shrine has the main shrine at the base and one at the peak of Mt Homan, with two large tori gates in between. Up to this gate, there were relatively well constructed stairs, and not too much snow.
But from this point onwards, the condition of the path deteriorated and the snow was becoming icy and slippery underneath the feet of the hikers who went before us. We noticed the slowly gathering clouds and cool winds and suddenly the sunshine we saw at the base was a faint memory. In some parts of the path, one needed the help of attached ropes to scramble up the steep and slippery rocks.
As some snow started to fall, we took the steep stairs that paved the final ascent to the peak. We joined the small crowd of gathered hikers, some of whom were preparing tea on their cooking sets. There were a couple of nice view points around the little shrine on the peak, although the view of the surroundings wasn’t especially amazing. We only rested for a short time, as we still had to get to the cave to complete our mission and in spite of the worsening weather conditions our will reminded strong! We descended to a small camping area on the far side of the peak, and asked some hikers if they had heard of the Fuchi Cave. To our surprise no one knew of the cave, and our map of the Mt Homan area was more detailed than anyone else’s there.
