Tombs of the Tengu Party

Yesterday I set out to go exploring. A couple weeks back, while going over a map I found a location with an interesting name: Tombs of the Tengu Party. Tengu are a kind of demon, sort of. They mostly have red skin, humanoid, and either have bird faces or very long noses. They live on mountains and are considered fairly dangerous. So, quite the evocative name to just pop up.

The map didn't show a direct route but while riding the train to work I spotted a cemetery poking out of the hillside of a small forested mountain. With a bit of a more clear direction I set out to find a way to that hillside cemetery. The journey to the forested mountain was difficult, few paved roads lead to this part of the mountain, I eventually find a path that brings me to the cemetery. The cemetery was built straight into the mountain, some of the stairs carved right out of the dirt and clay. And the surprising thing was, after climbing these earthen stairs, the graves on top were some of the most well tended.

About half way up, I found it, the Tombs of the Tengu Party. Turns out the Tengu Party was a political party from the late Edo period. They were part of the Sonno Joi Movement (revere the emperor, expel the foreigners). The Tengu Party raised an army at Mount Tsukuba and were killed by Shogunate forces. One sect of the Tengu Party made it to Kashima, where they were tracked down, 23 were arrested, decapitated and their bodies thrown into the Daijo-Beta horse dump. In the Meiji Era a monument stone was placed under a Chinese blackberry tree out of remembrance.

After finding the tombs I decide to hike up the mountain. The nature was beautiful but eventually the path was blocked with fallen trees and mudslides. I head back and circle around the mountain and find an old farm road up. From the top of the mountain the view is marvelous.