The Flickr Feudallord Image Generatr

The Honda clan ruled the surrounding streets and fields and many hamlets, too, from the early 1600s until the Meiji Period began in 1867. In those times the average height of Japanese, rich and poor was smaller than today. So the grandeur of the 5-tier tombstones (gorin-to) would feel all the bigger to people who saw them long ago. But even to modern eyes they are magisterial in their presence; even moreso when elites wore swords and could kill people in some circumstances. Knowing this stone was quarried, transported, and cut without the benefit of modern machines makes the enduring tombs especially impressive.

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Across the street from the main library in Toyooka and at the base of the mount where once the lord's castle stood for times of trouble, this wall still stands, 156 years after the abolition of feudal government and the rise of the Meiji Constitution that followed. This photo shows one end of the wall where some of the plaster and wood covering have come loose, thus exposing the inner layers of its construction.

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For 9 generations the Honda-clan from today's Shizuoka prefecture occupied the government leadership of the Tannan plain around the Hino River at Mt. Murakuni (today's Echizen-city) in Fukui-prefecture. This stitched panorama shows the west side of the Ryusen-ji (Soto Zen) temple grounds where man of the Hondas lie at rest. The large white signboards give brief historical sketches of some of those named, including the first daimyo who arrived around 1603, the honorable Honda Tomimasa and whose 5-tiered stupa (gorin-to) is the biggest one on the left half of the photo.

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"Hanami" is a centuries-old Japanese tradition of picnicking under a blooming sakura, which started during the Nara period (710 - 794), but by the Heian period (794 -1185) cherry blossoms started to attract more attention, and hanami was synonymous with sakura.
At the beginning, this custom was reserved to the élite of the Imperial Court, then to the samurai society and by the Edo period also to the common people.
Tokugawa Yoshimune planted areas of cherry blossom trees to encourage this tradition. Under the sakura trees, people had lunch and drank saké in cheerful feasts.

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Most of the first half or more of the evening's worship was led by the 4 priests. Then a guest speaker told about a period of alcoholism in his life and the struggles as well as harm from that time. Finally, all parishioners and other visitors joined in with the priests in chanting the nenbutsu (nembutsu): Na Mu Ami Da Butsu - calling out to the merciful Buddha. The larger emblem on display is a sign of the Shogun during the Edo period, the Tokugawa family line.
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Behind the 3.5 meter wall of steel is the site preparation to begin erecting a new city hall, directly behind the existing one and on top of the feudal era Lord's governing residence (archaeological remains). Owing to the strategic location near the river, probably there are traces of life before the 1600 start of the feudal period, too. But all that will be built over with the help of the 9 companies and contractors identified in these flags (the middle Green Cross stands for safety). The printed data attached to the panels of steel gives public details of the project, including contact persons.
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This part of Ryusen-ji's cemetery includes the towering 5-tiered stupas for the feudal era's Lord Honda family; some members marked in huge stone, others in modest markers or not present at this site at all. For a history detective or archaeological anthropologist there is a lot to decode here: the memorial stones and choice of wording, the family or personal markers, the range and variation of styles and materials and the technology for stone cutting, transport, and carving changed, along with the the economics of stonework.

Mapping the relationships of those named could reveal some meaning, as could the tomb orientation (much of Buddhism uses the image of a golden land in "the west"). Plantings are very few and of specific botanical type - there, too, some meaning lies, no doubt. Not all plots are tended equally vigorously, which speaks to the connection of the living and dead today.
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Just above the reddish roof at the side of the picture is the large gorinto (5-tiered stupa) that belongs to the first feudal lord in the Honda family line, Tomimasa, along with other stupa along the back (west) wall of the Soto-sect Zen temple's cemetery. The Hindu heritage of the Buddha broke all matter, including human life, into the 5 elements represented: spirit, wind, water, earth, and fire.

In the background is one of the shopping mall entrances where a weekly indoor farmers' market is hosted. Flowers seem to be featured today. But in the foreground is a large color printout of a digital picture that shows the excavated stone wall laid down to form the inner moat of the feudal lord's residence and governance center of the town, laid down early in the 1600s and ruled by the same Honda family line for 9 generations.

The yellow sticky-note asks, "did you see it?" The rest of the text had announced a final public viewing and witness and farewell to the rare sight, having been buried when the property was converted to an early public school yard and buildings. Then in the 1950s the present city hall was built.

Today's mayor has pressed for siting the new city hall where this historical archaeological site was found and was excavated down to the time horizon around the start of the Edo period, but perhaps there are earlier uses and artifacts below that. In the course of events leading to ground breaking there were several corners cut and slipshod process according to critics and outside observers. The same mayor is answering other accusations in court for improper process on different matters as of fall 2017.

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With the light fading some of the tombs can still be seen in the gathering dusk. A seated Buddhist figure atop one grave differs from the more common design of squarish pillar engraved with the lineage/family name, beneath which the cremains of multiple family members are placed. Many of the sects assign a death name for the pilgrim soul seeking its way to the Blessed Land (Jodo). For genealogists who consult the names on the stone, this makes for an added complication - figuring out which pilgrim pertains to which mortal person whose name in life was something different to the pilgrim name. In the middle distance at the center of the frame are neat rows of 25 or 30 service men who were killed during the years of the Pacific War. The modified pyramidal top and the 5-pointed star on the front above the person's name and rank and branch of military typify the government issue stone markers of that time.

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