Rubbing Statues with Reiko

Spring has been unusually cold, rainy, and howling windy. Coordinating an umbrella with my party wardrobe and eye shadow is a real pain in the patootie but what can you do? Raindrops pitterpattered in the Sumida River the day the Ikebana gals went to Asakusa by boat, the JAW party planners scrambled to find an indoor venue for pinata bashing at last Friday's Fiesta (apparently pinatas are verboten in the Officers' Club although I don't recall my officer having a say on that rule), and Reiko and I postponed our jaunt to Kurihama on account of nasty weather. The last was a good call because the weather was glorious on the following Monday when we met in front of the Keikyu Kurihama station.

Only four train stops (10-15 minutes) down the coast from the central Yokosuka train station near the base, Kurihama is home to Yokosuka's high school, Godzilla, and scores of intriguing shops and restaurants. Why haven't I spent more time there?

Reiko was studying a map inside a glossy trifold brochure when I spotted her outside the station. I love maps in general and maps with dotted lines in contrasting colors make me swoon. We chose the shorter, two and half hour hike, knowing full well it would take us longer because one of us tends to dawdle. Our route would take us past two shrines, through Flower World, and down along the beach where, on July 14, 1853, Commodore Matthew Perry came ashore, cleared his throat, and hollered, "Open your ports to the ships of other nations! We want to trade some of our stuff for some of your stuff. Your people want Krispy Kreme donuts and we want Nintendos!"

The first interesting thing we saw was this statue of Sugawara Michizane riding a bullock. Reiko is rubbing the bullock to ward off senility. I wasn't sure if the bullock preferred rubbing or petting so I did both. If I can find a place that sells those hats, we're going to have a Conehead theme party when I come back to the States.

This statue is on the grounds of a Tenjin Shrine about halfway between the train station and Flower World. There are more than 11,000 Tenjin shrines in Japan. All of them are consecrated to Sugawara Michizane, who was a prominent scholar and an important government official during the Heian Period. His jealous enemies, many of whom were members of the Fujiwara family, conspired to have him exiled to Kyushu (the southern island) where he died in 903 CE.

Here comes the good part. The weather took a turn for the worse right after Sugawara died. Torrential downpours and major lightning flashes resulted in the deaths of several members of the Fujiwara family. When people started thinking Sugawara's wronged spirit was responsible for the devastation, the emperor set his mind to assuaging the angry spirit. Soon a proclamation was passed declaring that Sugawara Michizane was henceforth to be worshipped as Tenjin, or 'Sky Deity'. Yup, he was posthumously deified.
We ambled across the yard to examine another statue, this one showing a dog and her puppies inside a circle formed by the twelve signs of the Japanese zodiac. Reiko said this is where younger-than-us women come to pray for an easy childbirth because -- learn something new every day -- dogs seldom have difficulties delivering pups. As I was digesting this tidbit, Reiko spotted a fairly new sign off to the side of the statue. The sign, I'm paraphrasing, said "News Flash! It has recently been determined that women who are not pregnant can rub this statue and pass the benefits along to their daughters and/granddaughters." Isn't that nice?

I'm hoping I didn't rub it the wrong way.