Information and Access on Travels to Yame City and Kurogi (Fukuoka Prefecture)

The photo above is that of the Yame Chuo Tea Plantation, the iconic symbol of Yame City, Japan's source of its best tea. The same photo is the cover of the Yame City Tourist Guide brochure. We're dedicating this post to share information on travels to Yame City if you come from, say Hakata Station in the city of Fukuoka. We're posting this because there are very few English-language information available online.

With my JR Pass, I took the local train from Hakata Station to Hainuzuka Station in Chikugo City which took 40 minutes. You need to be attentive though and take note of the signs at every stop because many of these signs are in Japanese characters, you might miss your stop. Even the LED information inside the train isn't in English.

Yame City, located south east of Fukuoka city, is out of the way from places tourists commonly visit. But this small and slumbering city has several interesting places worth checking out.

Yame City Map in Japanese

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Reiganji Temple and the Monk who Brought Tea to Kyushu (Kurogi, Fukuoka Prefecture)

Long time ago, a wandering Chinese monk traveled to Japan, bringing with him tea seeds. Before then, there were no tea plantations in the country. He loved the remoteness of the mountain that he eventually stayed to start a tea farm in Kurogi's fertile soil. Soon thereafter, tea plantations spread across the land. So goes the story behind Japan's favorite tea. It was indeed adjudged as the country's best tea for 9 consecutive years by the Department of Agriculture.

Reiganji Temple was built by the Chinese monk. It rises on a hillock teeming with lush vegetation. There are stone lanterns at the front. If you wander to the back, a flight of stairs lead to a trail  to the top of the mountain where odd-rock formations take different shapes. 

The drive to Reiganji Temple was a bit tense due to heavy rains. It didn't help that the roads, though beautifully paved, were sinuous. It took about 30 minutes to get from the border of Kurogi to the mountain site where the temple is. On a good day, you can enjoy the green scenery all over, with tea plantations in most parcel of land - this is the iconic symbol of Yame!

Buddhist pilgrimages include the Reiganji Temple as a final terminus in a pilgrim's itinerary. Wherever it rains, locals call the roads authority to check whether there are road blocks and land slides, so it is advisable to do the same if foreign visitors are planning a visit.  

Reiganji is one of the most beautiful temples I have seen in all of Japan, owing to its location amidst lush vegetation, making it seem like a set of a fairy tale. Every element of natural beauty came together here.

The Chinese monk who started to plant tea in Fukuoka.

You can hike up the mountain to see the rock formations.

#reiganjitemple   #tea   #kyushu   #fukuokaprefecture   #yamecity   #japan

The 620 Year Old Wisteria Tree of Kurogi (Yame City, Fukuoka Prefecture)

You have to respect something that has seen the world for 620 years, right? Like this Wisteria (Fuji) tree in the town of Kurogi. The village has put up a torii in honor of this tree. It has survived earthquakes, wars, typhoons. floods, and economic recessions (hah!) I just wanted to touch its bark and sort of  "shake its hands". It was an honor to have met you, Mr. Wisteria Tree. 

The Wiki page about the tree talks more about it. In this town called Kurogi, a 20-minute drive east of central Yame,  a Wisteria Tree Festival is annually celebrated between mid-April and early May, adjusted to coincide with the blooming of the giant wisteria tree located on the Susano Shrine grounds. 

The tree is said to be 620 years old. Its scaffolding area has a total area of 3,000 square meters (32,290 square feet). Its longest flower clusters measure 150 centimeters (60 inches). 

The giant wisteria was awarded Government-Designated Protected Species in 1928. The government of Kyushu has given this recognition to only two plants; the other one is in at the Miyazaki Jingu Shrine (Miyazaki Prefecture). The festival fills the surroundings with stalls selling food and local products. Meanwhile, a sake brewery in the town opens its doors to the public for tours. 

From Yame, it was a leisurely drive through a tunnel to get to Kurogi. The tree stands in the midst of Susano Shrine, thus you will find the torii near the stairs that lead to it. There's a wooden fence that limits people from getting too near to the tree. Was I able to touch its bark as planned? Nah. And I understand why it isn't recommended. People do have the tendency to destroy wherever they lay their hands on.

But here's a prayer. That it survives another 620 years for my children's children to see.

Tunnel to Kurogi

Fukuoka trains arrive in Chikugo's Hainuzuka Station, then travel about 20 minutes to Yame, and another 20 minutes to Kurogi.

Yame Map

Yamanoi Park of Yame City (Fukuoka Prefecture)

Yamanoi Park stands just a few steps beside a riverine community. The area I visited is sparsely designed with a torii at the front, flanked by pine trees. It looked a bit worn down. There's an interesting stone lantern at the back. There's also a stair at the side and an edifice that could be a temple, which is styled like the machiyas in town, with white walls. Surrounding it is a vast empty space for parking, and the road going towards the hilly town of Kurogi. 

At the other side of the road, there's a small village. Like many places outside the city, places like these feel like ghost towns. The streets are deserted, the surroundings serene.

There's a pond with bridges nearby and trails that lead to a forest up the hills, but I didn't have time to find it because of the rains. I had to go up the mountains to see Reiganji Temple before the roads turn impassable.

A dragon and a flower

This is the part of Yamanoi Park I was supposed to check out. This photo only courtesy of sugikats and Wikimedia.

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The Greater Yame City area includes these political partitions.

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The Giant Stone Lantern (Ishidourou) of Yame City (Fukuoka Prefecture)

At the Yame Dentou Kougei-kan (Yame Traditional Craftwork Center), there is as giant lantern that might as well be a torii or a pagoda because of its size. It is the biggest Stone Lantern I know. 

In the olden times, stone lanterns were light towers that had double purpose: as illumination and as offering to Buddha. These days though, stone lanterns are ornamental elements of Japanese gardens (Nihon teien). 

Ishidourou (stone lanterns) are a constant feature of Japanese Gardens meant to add to the balance, harmony, and enduring nature of the garden. They have become almost iconic in their significance. In its usual form, there's a pedestal that supports the lantern, though they have varied designs. 

Mark Brazil, in his post for Japanese Visitor, traced the origin of Stone Lanterns. 

They were first used as votive lights, not for gardens. Introduced to Japan from China during the 6th century, stone lanterns were part of the arriving Buddhist tradition, with the light held in the lamp representing the teachings of the Buddha that help overcome the "darkness of ignorance."

"As such the lanterns represented important symbolic offerings to the Buddha. Their significance as a votive offering was transferred into Japan's native Shintoism and they began to appear at shrines too. They were eventually adopted not just as votive lights, but also as more practical lanterns to light the precincts of shrines and temples."

"From the 16th century onwards, the value of such lanterns was recognized by the secular community, and they were adopted by masters of the Japanese way of tea, who included them in tea gardens to light the way, and by the wealthy owners of private residences."

"During this period designs specially made for gardens began to appear, and granite lanterns are now a fixed feature of the Japanese garden."

Stone Lanterns are particularly common in Yame City. What follows are their different versions in this out-of-the-way city.

#stonelanterns   #kyusku   #fukuoka   #yamecity   #ishidourou