Anti-Shogunate Pilgrimage in Kyoto

We climbed Kiyomizu-zaka Hill, where my wife and I walked up to find Shoki several years ago, to Kiyomizu-dera Temple. The street was packed with people and cars as it was the middle of Golden Week. Our duty this time was not to find Shoki but to visit Bakumatsu-related places. Yes, we were going on another Bakumatsu pilgrimage.
My daughter, however, had changed her political stance from pro-Shogunate to anti-Shogunate. In other words, she is a Ryoma freak now. Sakamoto Ryoma has been one of the most popular historical characters all the time, and has been attracting not only freaks but also even "believers." He lived in Bakumatsu period, the end of Edo era. He successfully allied Satsuma and Choshu to overthrow Tokugawa Shogunate.
In front of Kiyomizu-dera Temple, people were crowded around ticket booths. Its famous terrace, Kiyomizu no Butai, was jammed with crowds. The line to Otowa no Taki, Otowa fountains, was too long to add us to. It was too nice a day, and the second day of the second half of the Golden Week, and to make matters worse, according to the weather forecast, it would rain for the next two days. The last chance to visit outdoor resorts.
On the way down from the temple, we called on two teahouses; Shita-kiri Chaya and Chuboku Chaya. I had noticed the teahouses on my earlier visit there, but had never realized their meaning. Gesho was a royalist monk, who later commited suicide under the pressure of Shogunate. One follower, Kondo Masanori, bit his own tongue to keep their secret, and his wife was allowed to open a teahouse to provide for their family, Shita-kiri (Tongue-Cut) Chaya. Another servant of Gesho, Otsuki Shigezo, followed him to his end, and was permitted to run another teahouse to support his later life, Chuboku (Faithful-Servant) Chaya. The incidents suggest that Kiyomizu-dera Temple was KUROMAKU of some royalists at the time. Every history has its dark side, anyway.
A young child asked his mother what the phrase "shita-kiri" has to do with the teahouse, and she, however, carelessly started mentioning Shita-kiri Suzume, a popular Japanese falk tale. Of course, the story has nothing to do with the legend of the teahouse.
We kept walking along San'nen-zaka Hill, Ninen-zaka Hill, and Ryoma-zaka Hill to get to Ryozen Museum of History. The museum is known (well-known? or who-knows?) with its exhibition of Bakumatsu stuffs; San'jo Sanetomi's (a royalist noble) slippers, Takasugi Shinsaku's (a royalist bushi of Choshu) iron fan, Katsura Kogoro's (another royalist bushin of Choshu) finger bowl... Most of them are daily necessities which have nothing to do with the revolution, but were breathtaking for my daughter as well as for other Bakumatsu freaks.
Ryozen Museum is built within Ryozen Shrine, which is one of Gokoku (national gurdian) shrines which were established in Meiji Era. The exhibition's character is naturally anti-Shogunate and royalist. However, its souvenir shop had rental Shinsen-gumi HAORI for the guests to take photos with it on. My daughter can, it seems, safely evade being called a political opportunist. Who cares if a certain hero belonged which party as long as he is a hero?
Ryozen Shrine has a huge grave yard, which has graves or monuments of more than 300 of those who sacrificed themselves for the Meiji Restoration. If you count in who doesn't have his own grave but is memorialized in a group, the number will rise to over 1300! The souvenir shop sells a national map which is dotted with the sacrificed. No wonder Bakumatsu pilgrimage never goes out of fashion. The number and the map suggest almost every town in Japan has its own Bakumatsu hero. One web page of a city officially recognizes, with honour, that Kondo Masanori was born in the town without showing any proof. Moreover, the number, of course, excludes those who sacrificed themselves against the Meiji Restoration, such as Shinsen-gumi. The total number of Bakumatsu heroes will surely soar.
Going down Ishin-no-michi (Restoration Street), and turning to the right, the street was packed with tourists again. The street is called Nene-no-michi after Toyotomi Hideyoshi's first wife's name, as it runs along Kodai-ji Temple, where she spent her latter half of her life after Hideyoshi's death to see Toyotomi sovereignity overthrown by Tokugawa Shogunate.
Geshin-in Temple is a part of Kodai-ji Temple, and once stationed a faction split from Shinsen-gumi. It has a quiet Japanese garden, which is something of a miniature of Ginkaku-ji Temple's. There we were served MACHA, Japanese powdered green tea. It was incrediblly quiet there. The crowded street was just a mud wall away. The faction led by Ito Kashitaro might have peacefully kept the Emperor Komei's grave, the predecessor and father, who might have been poisoned, of the Emperor Meiji, until they were slaughtered by their former comrades, Shinsen-gumi.
We were in and out of crowds from time to time. Streets, and alleys, and hills were always crowded with people sightseeing Kyoto at large. Our specific destinations were always quiet or ignored by other sightseers. I, however, was surprised to find significant number of people visiting the spots. Even at the top of the grave yard in Ryozen, which were many stone steps above the lowlands, I found some pilgrims who screamed for joy to find their own heros', or others who were silently looking at a certain grave.
We were walking along Kawara-machi Street, one of the busiest streets in Kyoto, looking for stone monuments. Furutaka Shuntaro's monument was in front of a pub. Nakaoka Shintaro's was in front of a sweet shop. Omi-ya, a soy sauce shop, where Ryoma was assassinated, had been replaced with a tourist office. We were obviously out of place. Some were busy walking toward somewhere else. Some were preparing to open pubs later in the evening. They were all busy doing something else. In their eyes, we might have been stragers who behave strangely and block their ways.
Finally, we arrived at Su-ya, a lumber house. The house was, to our surprise, there. The house has been trading woods and lumbers for more than 280 years. Ryoma's company, Kaien-tai, used to be stationed in a room at the house, as it was connected with the sea via Takase-gawa Cannal, Fushimi Port along Yodo River, and Osaka. The house, and his room, or the company's office, have been kept for 3 generations. It is used as a museum to commemorate him.
At first, the entrance fee, 300 yen, to such a tiny room sounded expensive. Thinking of their generations of effort, especially that of after the assassination, it seemed reasonable. Owing to them, we could see the building, not a small stone monument, anyhow. I, however, dared not buy a lumber to show my respect for them as a souvenir.
Su-ya holds a writing contest every year. You are invited to write "a letter from Ryoma" to today's Japanese people. You are supposed to identify with Ryoma, and write a letter, thinking of today's Japan. Honestly speaking, I wonder if he would write a letter to Japanese people today. He worked hard to unify Japan, finding it ridiculous that Japan was divided into more than 200 feudal domains, and feudal clans are competing or sometimes even fighting one aother to make the most of their private interests. If he did live in today's world, he would surely write a letter to the whole human beings, finding it ridiculous that the world is divided into more than 200 countries, and.....