Chikusei's charming castle town @ Kasama ~JAN,2026~

When it comes to the three biggest 〇〇 in Japan, there are often four or even five in total, and Inari Shrine is no exception. Fushimi Inari and Toyokawa Inari are the undisputed first and second, but the third place varies by region, and in the Kanto region, Kasama Inari is generally considered the third place.

In the first place, the main deity of Inari Shrine is Ukanomitama-no-Mikoto, the god of grain, and this is probably evidence that the area has been a grain-producing region since ancient times. Inari Shrine is famous for the foxes that are the god's "messengers," but it seems that there are a certain number of people who mistake the foxes for the god himself, and I had to smile wryly at the impressive warning sign.

Kasama Castle was built by Kasama Tokitomo in 1219, two years before the Jōkyū War. He was a member of the prestigious Utsunomiya clan of Shimotsuke, which ruled the area until Hideyoshi's Odawara Campaign. While most of the famous families of the Bandō region trace their ancestry back to the Kanmu Taira clan, represented by Taira no Masakado, Fujiwara no Hidesato, who defeated Masakado, or Minamoto no Yoriyoshi and Yoshiie, who played important roles in the Zenkunen and Gosannen Wars, the Utsunomiya clan claims to be descendants of Fujiwara no Michikane. Michikane led a turbulent life, deceiving Emperor Kazan into becoming a monk, serving as regent for only a week before dying of illness. The mainstay of the regent family shifted to his younger brother, Michinaga, and his descendants fell into decline.

The Utsunomiya clan did not remain in their home town of Shimotsuke as powerful vassals, but expanded to include the guardianship of Iyo and Buzen (the Kii clan), but neither clan survived the Sengoku period to the end. The Kasama clan was destroyed by the head family (the Utsunomiya clan) before Hideyoshi came to Odawara, and while the head family initially received confirmation of their ancestral lands from Hideyoshi, they were later stripped of their title. Of the famous families of the medieval Kanto region, the only ones to survive as daimyo were the Satake clan, who were exiled to Akita, and the Yuki clan, who adopted Ieyasu's second son (Hideyasu), but the latter has essentially disappeared, and it is moving to occasionally come across these historic sites that resemble vestiges of the Middle Ages.

Into the Edo period, it continued to be used as the main castle of the Kasama domain, and some of the stone walls from the early modern period remain. Although it has been designated as one of the another 100 Great Castles of Japan, excavation and maintenance are still ongoing, and it is not yet possible to walk around casually. The castle is located on Mt. Sashiro, which is 207m above sea level, but the remains of the castle tower at the top have still been destroyed by the 2011 earthquake.

Meanwhile, the remains of the lower residence at the foot of the mountain have been developed into a park, and visitors can stroll around the area, including Kasama Inari Shrine and the surrounding temples.

Kasama Domain was the former domain of the Asano clan, responsible for the "Pine Corridor Slash" incident. It was transferred to Ako Domain during the time of Naganao, the grandfather of Asano Naganori, who committed seppuku. As mentioned in Ichiro Mayama's song poem, the domain's fief was 53,000 koku. The Asano clan's founder, Nagamasa, received the Kofu fief from Hideyoshi as the head of the five magistrates. Upon his retirement, Ieyasu bestowed upon him the fief (Kasama), which was inherited by his fourth son, Nagashige. Asano Nagaakira, head of the Hiroshima domain, married Ieyasu's third daughter, Furihime, and Nagashige married Ieyasu's adopted daughter, deepening their ties with the Tokugawa clan. The site of the residence of the Oishi clan, the chief retainer, is also located here. Oishi Kuranosuke Yoshio, who carried out the revenge, also moved to Ako during his grandfather's generation. Today, Kasama City and Ako City are sister cities due to this connection.

Not many traces of the castle remain, but Shinjoji Temple does have a turret that was purchased by the head priest in the early Meiji period. At the start of the Meiji period, many castle structures across Japan were abandoned, and while there are cases where gates were partially moved to temples and other buildings, turrets are rare.

To investigate traces of the Kasama clan, I visited their family temple, Ryogonji. The main gate and the wooden standing statue of the Thousand-Armed Kannon are designated as important cultural properties, and the location of the gate indicates that the temple grounds were quite large during the Muromachi period.

The standing statue of Thousand-Armed Kannon that Tokitomo had made is inscribed with an inscription dated 1252 (Keicho 4), and is presumed to be of the Kei school (the generation after Unkei).

The Maitreya statue that Tokitomo had built in 1247 is also kept in the Miroku Hall of the nearby Sekijoji Temple, which was abandoned in the early Meiji period. I think it's great that the designation as an Important Cultural Property has provided national funding to build a storage facility, but I often feel it's a shame that it's housed in a bland concrete building and can't be viewed casually.

Hodai-in Temple, which was restored by Kasama Tomosada, a feudal lord during the Muromachi period, has recently undergone renovations to its large temple complex, and is popular with visitors as a temple of flowers, including rhododendrons.

I'm not an expert on temple management, but with the collapse of the parishioner system, there are only a limited number of temples that can build new cemeteries and create eye-catching monuments, and I think that in recent years, especially with the declining birthrate, the number of temples and shrines that are becoming unmanned is increasing. There are quite a few Important Cultural Property Buddha statues sleeping in the concrete mentioned above, and I feel that temples and shrines that have the relative means to do so should take steps to become places of worship as well as centers for learning about the culture and art that have been preserved in each region.

The former Inada town was incorporated into Kasama city in 1955, and here is Saienji Temple, which was the base (Inada's Hermitage) for Shinran's missionary work in the eastern provinces. It is said that "Kyogyoshinsho" was written here.

As befits Shinran's ancestral site and a special head temple, the temple boasts a magnificent main hall, and we were able to pray inside. Apparently, this region was heavily affected by the famine during the Edo period, and seeing the plight of the Kasama domain, whose productivity had yet to recover, the temple illegally invited Shinshu farmers from the Kaga and Echigo domains. I heard the same thing in Soma, where I visited last year, but since Shinshu specifically prohibited thinning, the Hokuriku region, where there were many followers, was relatively prone to overpopulation, and became a source of food for the Tohoku and Kanto regions, which were struggling to recover their productive populations. However, the Kaga domain did not ignore this situation and lodged a fierce protest with the Kasama domain, resulting in the anecdote that the temple's head priest took responsibility and committed suicide.

I stopped by this new shrine, which was separated from Izumo Taisha in 1992. Its large shimenawa rope rivals the original shrine's. In recent years, the shrine has been involved in disputes with the Association of Shinto Shrines over its management policy, and is now independent from Izumo Taisha and known as Hitachinokuni Izumo Taisha. It's managed aggressively, and the grounds are home to a cemetery, gallery, restaurant, glass workshop, and more, making it a unique place to spend time while visiting the shrine.

Kasama is a town where the Joban Expressway and the Kita-Kanto Expressway intersect, making it an easy day trip from Tokyo. The Kasama Inari Shrine Historical Exchange Center, located at the end of the street in front of the shrine, is housed in an inn that has been in operation since the Edo period, and has a very charming atmosphere.

In front of the building is a relief of Tomogoro Ono, a local hero. He was a professional surveyor active from the end of the Edo period to the Meiji era. He was a samurai of the Kasama domain, later became a shogunate official, and went to America as the navigator of the Kanrin Maru. It is written that he was the first person in Japan to learn differential and integral calculus, which was not possible with Japanese mathematics, so he was the first to master it.

Apparently, Sakamoto Kyu was evacuated to this area during the war, and visited Kasama many times during his lifetime, even holding his wedding at Kasama Inari Shrine. Let's walk with our heads held high today as well. Rest in peace.