Walking along Mito Kaido | Discover Susanoo Shrine! | Nijyuku - Nihonbashi

I once walked along the Mito Kaido from Nihonbashi to Kameari in 2011. However, since I walked with an acquaintance, I didn’t take many photos and couldn’t write about it.

So today, the middle day of a three-day weekend, I decided to walk again.

However, walking the same way as last time was not very artistic, so I decided to reverse the direction and walk towards Nihonbashi.

Ni-juku

Sakura saw me off and I left

I had found a signpost for the branch from Mito Kaido to Teishakuten on my previous walk, so I decided to start walking from Shibasha Station.

The character for “Mata” in “Shibamata” has a dot in it.According to the Kanji Dictionary, “Mata with a dot” means fork, and “Mata without a dot” means further. It makes more sense to have a dot.

Huh? Has there always been a bronze statue of Sakura?
Sakura is the younger sister of the main character in the famous movie Tora-san.

This statue was unveiled on March 15, 2017. It hasn’t been a year yet.

Sakura asked me, “Are you leaving, big brother?” I left in front of the station with the intention of saying, “I’m sorry, Sakura.”

Since I had been to Teishakuten many times before, I decided not to stop by and headed northwest.

This no-go road is the way to Mito Kaido.

At this fork in front of the Nijyuku Kotsu Park, you will also take the left side, the one that prohibits vehicles from entering.

The Nijyuku Traffic Park has a mini-SL and is a park that children will enjoy.

The junction with Sakura Kaido

About 1.7 km from the station, you will come to a junction with Mito Kaido Highway. At the base of a large tree in front of us is a signpost that says “Taishakudo.” I took a picture of it the last time I walked here, and it is quite a tasty signpost.

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About 300 meters from the signpost, you will reach Route 6. This is the junction with Sakura Kaido (Narita Kaido) Highway. Sakura Kaido extends in the direction of the street lights on the other side of the median. Turn right here to head toward Nihonbashi.

From Nakagawa River to Arakawa River

This photo was taken in the middle of the Nakagawa Bridge, looking downstream.

At the right end of the building on the right, sticking out like an antenna, is the Tokyo Sky Tree. Can you see it? Today, I plan to pass by it to get to Nihonbashi.

I found a rather stylish streetlight near Horikiri 8-chome. It looks like a seesaw between the roadway side and the sidewalk side, which gives a sense of design. However, the next streetlight on the roadway side was replaced with an LED one, probably because it was fragile.

When I walk around, I often come across these flood warning signs. I remember when it used to be just numbers. Recently, however, red tape has been wrapped around the sign, making it more realistic. Here, it seems that the water could come up to a little higher than my height. (That’s a lie. I’m holding my hands high in the air to make myself look better.)

Mito Bridge is a bridge over the Ayase River. It had been replaced in the seven years since my last walk.

The origin of the name “Mito Bridge” is said to be that when a child raccoon who had become a monster in an attempt to avenge his parents was about to be exterminated by Mitsukuni Mito and his group, a Jizo took his place. But if the story is based on that, shouldn’t it be “Raccoon Bridge”, “Jizo Bridge” or “Peaceful Bridge”? If it is to be called “Mito Bridge”, then there is no need to bother with raccoon dogs or Jizo.

I think the name was given in honor of Mitsukuni’s prestige, or simply in reference to the Mito Highway.

There was a lumber store. I used to see them here and there, but recently they have become fewer and fewer. The walls are made of bricks, probably for fire prevention.

This is a shot I took looking back just before reaching the riverbed of the Arakawa River.

The path is narrow, and its thickness seems not to have changed much since the Edo period. Perhaps the reason why the road is straight is because they were able to construct the road freely after it was washed away by the flood.

Riverbed of the Arakawa River

In the Arakawa River, there are no bridges nearby that can be crossed on foot. So I decided to go north to Route 4 and use the Arakawa Shin Bridge.

On the banks of the Arakawa River, I walked on the dirt. The cushioning makes it easy on the soles of my feet and knees. After walking on the soil for a while, I found it hard and uncomfortable to walk on the asphalt.

Even though the Arakawa River is an artificially excavated spillway, it is rich in nature. Veronica persica had also started to bloom. Seeing this makes me think that spring is just around the corner.

I came to the Arakawa Shinbashi Bridge.

I wonder if the large letters on the ground are a landmark for helicopters flying over.

Around the huge arched structure on the other side of the Arakawa River is the Adachi Ward Central Library.

Senju-juku

Across the river, the building of the Tokyo detention house can be seen clearly.

The cells are radial, aren’t they? The Abashiri Prison, a museum in Hokkaido, has a five-winged radiating one-story building, but the design concept seems to be the same even for the state-of-the-art detention house with a helipad.

This narrow road is Mito Kaido, turn right and head towards the Joban Line.

Kitasenju area

After passing the Joban Line, we came to the Oiwake junction with the old Nikko Road.

I couldn’t take a good picture of the split in the road, so I took a picture of the road sign. It says that the road we just walked on is the old Mito-Sakura road.

I thought it would be uneconomical to have the Oiwake here, since it would mean two ferry crossings of the Arakawa River. But it was no problem, because the Arakawa spillway is a man-made excavation road started in 1911, and in the Edo period, each was just a flat road.

According to the tourist information center, the east side of Senju was not burned down during the war, so there are still some old buildings left. Incendiary bombs pierced the roof of the Yokoyama Residence, but it still retains more than a hundred years of history.

I was hungry, so I went into “Temomi Ramen Fukushin.”

I had the “Nira Soba” (590 yen). The spiciness was just right, and it was delicious.

As I approached the Sumida River, I saw wooden signs posted in front of the houses indicating the store names. Before the war, this was a place where many wholesale stores of green groceries were located, and it was called “Yacchaba” from the call of “Yacchai Yacchai” at the auction.

When I looked back from the Yacchaba sign, I saw that Matsuo Basho had written a poem called “Yuku Haru ya Tori Naki Uo no Me wa Namida.

Huh? Where is your companion, Sora?

Looking downstream on the Sumida River from Senju Bridge.

The Joban Line at the truss bridge has the Hitachi Limited Express running on it.

The large building in the left foreground of the Joban Line is the refrigerator of the Adachi Central Wholesale Market.

Susanowo-jinja Shrine

I found Susanowo-jinja at the intersection where I was about to turn left towards Minami-Senju station! The deities of the shrine are Susanowo-no-mikoto and Kotoshironushi-no-mikoto.

Susanowo-no-mikoto was born together with Amaterasu, a god of the high heavens, but is considered to be a god of the earth.

Susanowo-no-mikoto’s descendant is Okuninushi-no-mikoto, and his child is Kotoshironushi-no-mikoto. They are like a grandfather and a grandson.

I heard that the legend of Somin Shorai is told at the shrine where Susanowo-no-mikoto is worshipped, and this shrine also had a sign explaining the legend.

There was a monument to Matsuo Basho at the shrine.

There is some debate as to where Basho read his poem about Senju, but the monument is inscribed with the words, “If you go up the ship from a place called Senju…” In other words, if Basho took a boat from Fukagawa, climbed up the Arakawa River (today’s Sumida River) and got off at Senju, he would normally have gone up to the left bank on the north side of the river and would not have composed his haiku on this side of the river on the right bank.

From Minami Senju to Asakusa

“Kotsudori” stretches from Susanowo-jinja Shrine to Minami-Senju Station. The name of the street is derived from the place name “Kotsukappara”.

This photo was taken near the intersection of Kotsudori Street and the Joban Line. If you follow the tracks to the left, you will soon reach Minami-Senju Station.

To the right of the tracks is Ekoin, a building with a gold hollyhock crest that can be seen from the Joban Line.

The area around Ekoin used to be the site of a prison, where Sugita Genpaku and Maeno Ryotaku, who published the Kaitai Shinsho, were present at the autopsy.

Incidentally, Kaitai Shinsho is published by Kodansha Science Bunko and can be read easily even today. One of the things that impressed me when I read it a few years ago was the many descriptions of chyle, which is a fluid that is a mixture of fat and lymph fluid. This was the first time I had heard the term. I had never heard of this term before, but I guess it was considered important at the time.

After crossing the Joban Line, you will come to the Namidabashi Bridge. This is the place where criminals on their way to the penitentiary and their relatives reportedly met for the last time and shed tears.

I found a metal structure in front of a temple a little beyond the Higashi Asakusa 1-chome intersection. It’s an Inuyarai, right?

This is the Tokyo Sky Tree and the Kototoi Bridge.

I remember that I wanted to eat Kototo Dango when there was no cell phone, so I looked around Kototoi-bashi Bridge, but I couldn’t find the store. So the store is located further north of Sakurabashi, which is one north. I’ll definitely try it next time I’m in the neighborhood.

Kaminarimon, the symbol of Asakusa. Many rickshaws were lined up along Kaminarimon Street in front of the gate.

This is the Komagata Bridge. It seems to be undergoing renovation. It is artistically cured.

In front of Bandai’s headquarters, many characters cheered me on. I am almost to Nihonbashi.

At the intersection of Kuramae 1-chome, there were two signs standing side by side, one indicating that there was a rice warehouse of the Tokugawa Shogunate and the other indicating that there was an observatory.

The latter sign indicated that Yoshitoki Takahashi, the mentor of Tadataka Ino, had made observations, and that the foreign language translation bureau set up in the astronomical department later became the University of Tokyo.

Nihonbashi

Passing through the guard under the Sobu Line, turn right just after the Asakusabashi intersection onto Kiyosugi Street, and you will enter Yokoyama-cho Main Street.

This Yokoyamacho Main Street is a one-way street, even though it is called a Main Street. This is probably because it was once a thoroughfare for people to walk along, and also because the street has not been widened unnecessarily, preserving the atmosphere of the old days.

There are many wholesale stores around Yokoyama-cho avenue, mainly in the clothing industry.

Turn left at the intersection of Muromachi 3-chome Minami and you will soon reach Nihonbashi.

Today I took this shot of Nihonbashi from below.
The bridge is dignified in its decorations, the color of the stones, and the way it is constructed.

Walking data

Course: Keisei Kanamachi Line Shibamata Station -> Mito Kaido -> JR Tokaido Line Tokyo Station
Distance: 23.5km
Time: 6h16m