Wednesday, November 11, 2020

Mysterious Road Marker

It’s easy to miss .... located near the tracks, off to the left from the entrance to historic JR Yokosuka Station...

Surrounded by a fence, and behind an explanatory pillar-sign, is an old road marker, a stone-made direction signal .... not sure how to best describe it.... So here are some pictures:



  




























Turns out this is a small monument which was built many years ago to give visitors directions for the way to go see the tomb of William Adams, which is located on top of a nearby hill...


      


















Who was William Adams?

Check out this link: 


Apparently, there are a couple of other markers located on the pathways leading up to the top of "Anjin Zuka", where the old stones commemorating Adams and his wife are located in a cool park...

"Anjin Zuka is a set of memorial stone monuments built by the will left by William Adams, a British man with the Japanese name Anjin Miura, who played an active role as a foreign adviser to the first shogun of the Edo Period (1603 to 1868).  It is believed that the monument on the right is for Anjin, and the one on the left is for his Japanese wife.  Anjin Zuka is registered as Japan's historic site.  The name Anjin means a coastal pilot, and it is said that Adams's was named Anjin because he was a navigator.  He had earned Ieyasu Tokugawa's trust to be given a territorial land in Hemi-mura in Miura-gun (the current Yokosuka area) and worked as a foreign adviser.  He had also introduced the Western civilization to Japan such as gunnery, marine architecture, and navigation techniques.  Tsukayama Park, where the towers are, is known as a famous spot for sakura cherry blossoms.  During the sakura season every year, the William Adams Cherry Blossom Party is held in commemoration of Miura Anjin.  It is a 25-minute walk from either the Anjin Zuka Station or Hemi Station on the Keihin Kyuko Line."

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