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. Famous Places and Powerspots of Edo 江戸の名所 .
. kawa 江戸の川 -- 江戸の河 the rivers of Edo .
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Tonegawa 利根川 / 刀禰川 River Tonegawa, Tone river
Bandoo Taroo, Bandō Tarō 坂東太郎 Bando Taro
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The Tone River (利根川 Tone-gawa) is a river in the Kantō region of Japan.
It is 322 kilometers (200 mi) in length (the second longest in Japan after the Shinano) and has a drainage area of 16,840 square kilometers (6,500 sq mi) (the largest in Japan). It is nicknamed
Bandō Tarō (坂東太郎); Bandō is an obsolete alias of the Kantō Region, and Tarō is a popular given name for an oldest son. It is regarded as one of the "Three Greatest Rivers" of Japan, the others being the Yoshino in Shikoku and the Chikugo in Kyūshū.
... The Tone River was once known for its uncontrollable nature, and its route changed whenever floods occurred. It is hard to trace its ancient route, but it originally flowed into Tokyo Bay along the route of the present-day Edo River, and tributaries like the Watarase and Kinu had independent river systems.
For the sake of water transportation and flood control, extensive construction began in the 17th century during the Tokugawa shogunate, when the Kantō region became the political center of Japan. The course of the river was significantly changed, and the present route of the river was determined during the Meiji period, with the assistance of Dutch civil engineer Anthonie Rouwenhorst Mulder.
Its vast watershed is thus largely artificial. ...
- More in the wikipedia -
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... By strict definition, the river begins on the 大水上山 Ōminakami Yama Ōminakami Mountains (literally, “Great Headwaters Mountains”) in Gunma Prefecture and empties out into the Pacific Ocean at 銚子 Chōshi in Chiba Prefecture. That said, the entire watershed is littered with towns and waterworks which reference the river, despite being off the official government designated course. The Arakawa and Edogawa are often cited unofficially as exit points of the river.
The Tone River as it flows through Maebashi (present day Gunma Prefecture).
... The history of the river is really long and complicated ...
- source : japanthis.com/2014... -
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Tonegawa barabara matsu 利ね川ばらばら松 / 利根川ばらばら松
Scattered Pines”on the Bank of the Tonegawa River
Scattered Pines beside the Tone River
広重 Utagawa Hiroshige
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. 河童 / かっぱ / カッパ - Kappa, the Water Goblin of Japan! .
Neneko 禰々子 / 祢々子河童 / 弥々子河童（ねねこがっぱ) Neneko.
A female Kappa living in the river Tonegawa.
She became known around 1850. Every year she moved to a new place in the river and people, especially children drowned when she moved.
There was also a family which has the hand of a Neneko,禰々子の手 and venerated it, but the hand has been lost in recent years.
子ヽコ Neneko kappa in Tonegawa zushi by 赤松宗旦
Akamatsu Sōtan,1855
Tonegawa zushi 利根川図志 is an illustrated history of the Tone River. The book records the history and folklore of the communities found along the Tone. According to Sōtan, the river was believed to be home to the
neneko kappa, illustrated here. With webbed claws and scaly skin, it was a dangerous creature that moved location every year, causing chaos wherever it went.
- British Library, London
Other tales from 利根川図誌 Tonegawa zushi
kawabotaru カワボタル river fireflies
In Chiba 千葉県, 印旛村 Inba mura
Two villagers went fishing at night. Suddenly the weather seemed to change to a storm and it became pitch-dark. A light came up from the water and begun to rise to the sky like a flame.
The villagers begun to pray for their safety.
But this kind of river fireflies is quite a natural phenomenon in the region, they learned later.
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enkoo えんこう Enko Kappa
Kappa like Sumo wrestling, But even if someone wins, he will loose his mind. By simmering Shikimi for a tea and make him drink it, he will come back to normal.
. shikimi 樒 Skimmia, Illicium religiosum .
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利根川中・下流の年中行事 Yearly festivals and rituals along the Tonegawa
大林太良 Ohashi Taryo (1929 - 2001)
- including legends about the Kappa
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- 利根川流域における水神信仰 -
直江広治 Naoe Hiroji (1917 - 1994)
- including legends about the 河童 Kappa and the water deity Benten
Generally, Kappa is seen as 水神 a water deity, who looks like a monkey with a water plate on its head. He is very tall and has four long extremities. He looks like a turtle, since he carries a 甲羅 shell on his back.
He is usually thick.
Kappa seen along the Tonegawa in 群馬 Gunma, 栃木 Tochigi, 茨城 Ibaraki and 千葉県 Chiba:
Kappa is seen as 水神 a water deity. In the midstream region they say he looks like a
kame 亀 turtle.
Some tales know of a Kappa getting caught while trying to pull a horse in the river. To get free again he had to promise to protect children from water accidents.
- - - - - nekoko ネココ Nekoko
Along the Tonegawa there lives a Kahaku called Nekoko. At that part of the river is a huge swirl. On the river shore there is a large yanagi 柳 willow tree, which has grown from the roots of a tree taken down be flooding.
. kahaku, kawa no kami, kawako 河伯 River Deity, "river chief" Kappa .
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. Legends and Tales from Japan 伝説 - Introduction .
There are rivers named Tonegawa in other parts of Japan.
................................................................................. Aomori 青森県
sunamaki-danuki 砂撒狸 a Tanuki throwing sand
They are known in 筑後久留米 Chikugo Kurume, 三井郡宮陣村 in the Mii distrct and other parts.
Also in Aomori, Tsugaru, Niigata, Aichi and Fukuoka.
A Tanuki climbs on a three at the dam of the upper Tonegawa, his body covered with sand or a bag of sand. If a human passes by, it shakes its body and splashes sand on the person below it.
source : youkaitama.seesaa.net/article...
砂を撒くという動物 suna o maku dobutsu . . . animals splashing sand
in Aomori 青森県三戸郡五戸町
sunamaki kitsune 砂撒き狐
fox
. tanuki 狸 - mujina 狢 － racoon dog, badger legends .
................................................................................. Chiba 千葉県
sunamaki neko 砂撒猫 a cat throwing sand
A villager took a walk on a full-moon night along the banks of Tonegawa. He saw something like a cat running along the bank, rolling around and running back again. When he walked along under a tree, there was sand thrown on his head from above.
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銚子市
Choshi
kame no tatari カメのたたり the curse of the turtle
Toward the end of the Meiji period, around 1912, some workers on a maschine boat on the Tonegawa caught a 海がめ sea turtle and ate it.
That day when they finished work and wanted to go back to the harbour, the sea suddenly turned wild and the boat capsized. Only one of the workers made it back to the shore alive.
Others found him mumbeling "this turtle, this huge sea turtle . . . " and then he breathed his last too.
The fishermen of Choshi say this was the curse of the sea turtle and have great respect for this animal.
................................................................................. Gunma 群馬県
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吾妻郡
Azuma district 高山村
Takayama
hata o oru bijo 機を織る美女 a beauty weaving
On the 8th day of the 4th lunar month in 858, an old man lost his hatchet on the riverpool 揺動淵. He looked for it and stepped into the river. He found it next to a beautiful women weaving. The woman gave him delicious food and drink and then he went home. There he made offerings of ritual Sake.
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沼田市
Numata 薄根村
Usune
Along the river 田釜川
Dengamagawa is a riverpool with many large boulders, called
kama 釜
The Kettle.
This part is an access to 竜宮 the Dragon Palace and a
Kappa lives there.
. ookami 狼 Okami, wolf legends .
Once a wold was howling loud and painful, so the villagers came closer to see what was wrong. The wolf had a bone stuck in his mouth, so they pulled it out to help him. The wolf was very happy and greatful and came every day to protect the villagers on their way to the river Tonegawa.
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邑楽郡
Ora district 板倉町
Itakura
- - - - - Folk belief knows this:
If suddenly many frogs come out, there will soon be a strong rain. If the frogs try to go inside a house, there will be a big flooding of the river.
Benten sama no tatari 弁天さまの祟り the curse of Benten
North of the home of 小林角蔵 Kobayashi Kakuzo is the oldest shrine for the deity
Benten, 弁天ヤシキ Benten Yashiki.
When he tried to make some fields there, his house almost burned down.
The Benten Deity later moved on to Mount 筑山 to the 雷電沼 Raiden-numa swamp.
雷電神社(らいでんじんじゃ) Shrine Raiden Jinja, 群馬県邑楽郡板倉町板倉
. Benten 弁天 Benzaiten .
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太田市
Ota
. ダイダラボッチャ Daidarabotcha / Daidarabotchi ダイダラボッチ Monster .
Daidarabochi, the Giant, sat on 赤城山 Mount Akagisan and put his feet into the river Tonegawa to wash them. The footprints are now the two ponds
吉沢の池
Yoshizawa no Ike and 東金井の池. Higashi-Kanai no Ike.
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勢多郡
Seta district 赤城村
Akagi
. daija, orochi 大蛇 the huge serpent, great snake .
Once upon a time
a huge serpent came swimming down from upstream Tonegawa. She climbed on a rock called 龍王の岩
"Rock of the Dragon King". Between this and another rock was a small riverpool, and at its bottom is said to be a 竜宮 Dragon Palace.
................................................................................. Ibaraki 茨城県
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稲敷郡
Inashiki district 新利根村
Shin-Tone Mura
. byooninda 病人田 Byoninda "the field of ill persons" .
This is a field that will bring bad luck to the one who plow and use it.
Once upon a time, to prevent the flooding of Tonegawa, 河内屋 Kawachiya took it and wanted to build something. But he came to a hard layer of earth and could not continue. So for the rest of his life he was angry and died soon after. The field is now cursed.
................................................................................. Saitama 埼玉県
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加須市
Kazo
. ikenie (ikinie) 生贄 / 生け贄 / 生けにえ human sacrifice .
- - - - - hitobashira 人柱 "human pillar
Once upon a time
there was severe flooding of the Tonegawa during a long period of rain. The village was on the verge of being flooded and the villagers thought it was a curse of 竜神 Ryujin, the Dragon Deity.
To appease him, they decided to make a human sacrifice of a young girl. Just then a mother and daughter on a pilgrimage stayed in the village and so they threw the girl into the water. The mother, observing this, hurled herself into the water too.
And oh wonder, soon the water retreated and the flooding stopped.
But a few years later people became ill and the harvest was bad. A mendicant monk told them this was a curse of the soul of mother and daughter and their human sacrifice.
So the villagers build a shrine, 川圦神社
Kawairi Jinja at Kazo village, to appease their souls.
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- reference : nichibun yokai database -
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- - - - - H A I K U and S E N R Y U - - - - -
- Kobayashi Issa
刀禰川や只一ッの水馬
tone-gawa ya tatta hitotsu no mizusumashi
Tone River--
only one solitary
water strider
Tr. David Lanoue
. Water strider, amenbo アメンボ、水馬.
- - kigo for all summer - -
"Clouds over Bando Taro" 坂東太郎（ばんどうたろう）
Bando Taro (bandoo taroo) is an old name for the Tone river, which flows through Edo/Tokyo.
. clouds - kigo for summer .
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. kawa 江戸の川 -- 江戸の河 the rivers of Edo .
. Edo bakufu 江戸幕府 The Edo Government .
. Famous Places and Powerspots of Edo 江戸の名所 .
. Doing Business in Edo - 商売 - Introduction .
. shokunin 職人 craftsman, craftsmen, artisan, Handwerker .
. senryu, senryū 川柳 Senryu poems in Edo .
. Japanese Architecture - Interior Design - The Japanese Home .
. Legends and Tales from Japan 伝説 - Introduction .
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- - - - - #tonegawa #rivertonegawa - - - -
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