愛宕越えと東国の巡礼者

西国巡礼路の復元

抄録

The Saikoku Thirty-three Kannons Pilgrimage is a folk-religious phenomenon and it attracted a number of pilgrims from most parts of the country during early modern times. Therefore it is very significant to study this pilgrimage from the view point of history of religions, cultural history, folklore, and especially historical-geography. Geographically, the Saikoku Pilgrimage, which consists of thirty-three sacred places called Fudasho, is united with a larger and organized sacred place as a whole called“The Saikoku Pilgrimage Place”.
This study aims at reconstructing the two ordinary kinds of pilgrim routes from the 19th Fudasho, Ko Do Temple in Kyoto, to the 22nd Fudasho Soji Ji Temple in Ibaraki. One is the original and authorized rout between these Fudashos, and the other is the expanded and extraordinary route or Climbing Route over Atago Mountain. We compare them through the Tokoku pilgrims' records.
As research materials we used the guide stones on the routes, the pilgrim's guidebooks, the illustrated pilgrim's maps, and the various records of pilgrims.
As a results of this investigation we can conclude that the original pilgrim route from Yotsu Zuka in Kyoto to the 20th Fudasho, Yoshimine Dera Temple, is a relatively flat course. But the following section from Yoshimine Dera Temple to the 21st Fudasho, Ano Dera Temple in Kameyama takes a more steep course over the border mountains between Yamashiro and Tamba provinces and the next route from Ano Dera Temple to Soji Ji Temple is oals a steep course a cross the border mountains between Tamba and Settsu provinces.
On the other hand, the Climbing Route over Atago Mountain begins from Seiryo Ji Temple, Kyoto, takes the same path through which people used monthly to visit the Atago Shrine on the top of Mount Atago, and then goes down towards Kameyama to arrive at Ano Dera Temple. The following section from Ano Dera Temple to Yoshimine Dera Temple is a reverse course of the original route. The route from Yoshimine Dera Temple to Soji Ji Temple follows the flat and comfortable Saikoku Highway, one of the main roads in that era in Japan.
One pilgrim guidebook especially pointed out the lack of inns and resting houses on the original of the two routes, from Ano Dera Temple to Soji Ji Temple. But the Climbing Route over Atago Mountain has no such deficiency, but rather has many advantages along it through the path for the Atago Shrine and Saikoku Highway, which are different from the original route.
By taking the Climbing Route over Atago Mountain, pilgrims could visit well-known and famous shrines or temples, for example, Komyo Ji Temple, Iwashimizu Hachimangu Shrine, Kannon Ji Temple, Hoshaku Ji Temple and so on.
Moreover most of the guide stones confirmed by the author's observation point one way to Yoshimine Dera Temple, though some guide stones point two or more ways.
These above mentioned facts seem to give a preference to the Climbing Route over Atago Mountain. According to their records, so many pilgrims from Tokoku in fact would go past the Climbing Route over Atago Mountain. Perhaps this route has been used since the Genroku Era.