2 January: Monju (365 metres), an eminence south of the city, is a convivial place on the second day of the year. Citizens of all ages, from toddlers to pensioners, converge on the summit shrine for their first visit (hatsu-mode) of the year.
A friend tells us that the venerable Masunaga Michio, doyen of the local mountaineering scene and author of Fukui no yama 150 (One Hundred and Fifty Mountains of Fukui), has preceded us to the summit by at least an hour. By the time we arrive, the shrine priest has already run out of dragon talismans.
Monju makes up for its modest altitude by a wealth of cultural associations. A votive tablet by the shrine doors records that the sanctuary was rebuilt after a typhoon with the help of a donation from an adept of Shugendō, the old syncretic mountain religion. What this says about the success of the Meiji-era efforts to disentwine Buddhism and Shintō - and extinguish Shugendō - may need further research …
In the evening, we’re watching TV when a conflagration is reported live from Tokyo’s Haneda airport. An incoming JAL Airbus has collided with a Coastguard plane loaded with supplies for the earthquake victims. The scale of the Noto disaster is only starting to filter through on the news channels.
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