July | 2013 | Seven Lucky God Walks

23 Seven Gods Walk – Tsudanuma

This 10km walk is not one of the best in the book…even the book pictures don’t look great. In all of the 30 I would say it is in the bottom third. You would really only do this walk if…

a. You live near-by
b. You are really bored
c. You have an insane idea to complete all the walks in the book!

So here is the map:

There are no real “outstanding” stops along this walk, though there is an interesting distraction. So on with the walk. I completed this walk at the end of July and it was HOT. It really was not worth doing this walk in hard walking weather, but I fall into category three… Anyway, the walk takes place around Tsudanuma, all Wikipedia has on the area is “Tsudanuma is a residential area, largely by virtue of being a commuter suburb of Tokyo. It is mentioned in Haruki Murakami‘s novels 1Q84 and Sputnik Sweetheart.” And that is the entire entry, though I am sure the people from the area love it and its shrines.

The first stop is the home of Bishamonten, a recent home..he only moved in in 1966. Even though there are no special stops…each one has a shrine that has a glass door. So for once, you can see all the actual effigies.

There was a statue in the shrine, but my picture didn’t come out due to reflection 😦 In this shrine, there were little statues of all the gods. All the statues seem to be made of wood.

The next stop is dedicated to Ebisu and is quite close to the first one. It was established in 1532.

The next stop is also quite close…after that, the distance between the stops increases to about 2km which is tiring in the heat. The third stop is dedicated to Fukurokuju and was established around 1704. This stop was my favourite of sorts for the walk. It has a beautiful green roof.

The fourth stop is dedicated to Daikoku. There were a few large stone slabs at this site and a beautiful wooden house behind it.

The fifth stop, dedicated to Hotei, doesn’t look like the picture in the book as it has undergone recent refurbishment…. and was my least favourite….due to a great big dog that ran straight at me and frightened the life out of me. All bark and teeth..then I heard the lovely sound of a chain becoming taut….. I waited for it to really hold. Then, breathing out slowly and making the yama kanji sign with my fingers.

The book says the site was established in around 1716, but obviously, this isn’t the original shrine. Here is the home of Hotei though.

On the walk to the next shrine I passed a weird display outside a house. Weird, but rather neat and I thought I would add it to the map and blog. Everything seemed to be made out of PET bottles and cans.

Cool eh?

The sixth stop for Benzaiten is a cute little shrine with an appropriate pondly home for her. It was established around 1673. To see the actual statue you have to cross a tiny stone bridge.

An interloper! Hello Hotei…are you telling jokes to Benzaiten?

Seems not.

And finally stop number seven which looks like a brand new shrine, there is no date in the book. Lucky Jurojin…a little unlucky for me as the clouds finally unleashed their heavy load.

Luckily I was prepared with a waterproof bag and an umbrella!

And that is it. The end of the walk is right next to a station which was awesome!

As for me…5 walks to go!

18 Seven Gods Walk – Chofu

This is an 8.3km walk around Chofu starting at Sengawa. I completed the walk at the beginning of July and it was HOT, HOT, HOT… about 35 with a real feel of around 40 degrees. I took a handy friend who reminded me to drink plenty of water. Plus we wore neck coolers…it was still hard going. It is a great walk though with lots of great distractions. I highly recommend this walk if you have a spare day or weekend.

Here is the map:

The first stop is close to the station, it was established in 1596 and is dedicated to Jurojin. It is a lovely little shrine with a very impressive gate.

The next stop is almost 2km away so be prepared. It is worth the walk, Benzaiten’s home has lots of attractions. When we were there we saw a few inflatable characters along the way..actually this walk turned into a character spotting day.

There was also this Tanuki sign, though we didn’t see any this day…I think they were being very sensible and staying out of the sun.

The entrance to this shrine is also impressive, you are confronted by a large wall and a few steps. Benzaiten’s home was established in 1884.

The walk to the next stop is very far or felt so that day, on a cooler day the 3km would have been ok….so for the first time ever I took a taxi. It was the best move ever because it meant we got more time at the next stop.

Stop three was one of the best on the walk and a little treasure. It is the home of Bishamonten and has been since around 733. If you ask at the shop you can get a pamphlet in English about the site. Another great entrance at this stop, this one seems obsessed with another set of characters. I don’t know much about Japanese manga, but I think these are from GeGeGe no Kitaro. I found a great website that says you can stay at this tea house for the night..it would be a great idea if you want to really explore the area.

On each side of the main entrance, there are shopping and eating streets. You can try the famous buckwheat noodles here.

This is the actual Bishamonten part of the site. You will notice it by the large Kanji out the front!

Around the back of the site is Jindai Botanical Garden. We didn’t visit it this day as I have visited it a couple of times before. I would recommend it though, but make sure you set off very early if you want to add this stop to a one day walk. It would be a great place to have a picnic.

We walked from here, no more taxis. On to stop number four for Fukurokuju which is even older and was established around 729.

It is a tiny site and these pictures are really all you see, so we moved on to Hotei’s home which was where we saw the only image or statue of an actual God on this walk.

This site was established around 1596.

I really liked this stop. It was small, but it had character…a big fat one 🙂

It made the disappointment at the sixth stop easier to bare. After the heat and all the walking, the entrance to the next stop was BARRED…BARRED I tell you. Little annoyed. Luckily there was a lovely temple next door, but still….a seven god walk and one of the stops is closed 😦

Here is the entrance….

And here is the BAR…Ebisu is out fishing.

Oh well, we went next door instead….hope you have better luck.

And on to the last stop, home of Daikoku which was established in 1698. The walk to this stop was uninteresting, but the shrine was nice…and another terrific gate at the entrance.