On a trip to Tokyo, I visited Atago Shrine in Minato City.
Atago Shrine stands on top of a small hill called Mount Atago. It is 25.7 meters above sea level, and is said to be the highest natural mountain in Tokyo's 23 wards, surrounded as it is by buildings (from the official Atago Shrine website).
Climbing the Stone Steps of Success
The main stone stairway leading up to the shrine is called the Stone Steps of Success, Shusse no Ishidan. There are 86 steps. The slope is very steep, and looking up from below, it looks like a wall.
The name comes from a story about a samurai of the Edo period, Magaki Heikuro. The third shogun, Tokugawa Iemitsu, was passing below Atago Shrine on his way back from worshipping at Zojoji Temple. Seeing plum blossoms on top of the hill, he ordered someone to ride up on horseback and fetch them. While many retainers hung back, Heikuro, a skilled horseman, is said to have galloped up the stone steps on his horse, broken off a branch of plum blossoms, and presented it to the shogun. Iemitsu praised him highly, and he became known as the finest horseman in Japan. From this story, the stairway came to be called the Stone Steps of Success.
When I climbed, I had no horse, just a big suitcase for overseas travel. I had stopped by in the middle of a journey, with nowhere to leave my luggage. I lifted the bag with one hand and went up one step at a time. Before I was even halfway, I was drenched in sweat. Letting people behind me go ahead, I somehow made it to the top, with my shirt stuck to my back. Magaki Heikuro was truly amazing, I think.
A shrine to the god of fire
Atago Shrine enshrines Homusubi no Mikoto, a god of fire. A god of water, a god of the mountains, plus Yamato Takeru no Mikoto are also enshrined here.
It was built in 1603 (Keicho 8) by order of Tokugawa Ieyasu, as a guardian deity protecting Edo against fire plus disaster (from the official Atago Shrine website). Even today, many people who work with fire, along with those who wish for protection from fire, come to pray here.
Records also remain that at the end of the Edo period, the Mito ronin who attacked the chief minister Ii Naosuke in the Sakuradamon Incident gathered at this shrine to pray before carrying out their plan. Looking down over what was once the city of Edo, I thought this is a place people of many eras have climbed to, each carrying their own wishes.
There was a cat
There was a cat on the grounds. It was used to people, grooming itself at leisure beside me as I sat exhausted from the steps. In the very middle of the city, time seemed to flow slowly in that one spot.
One breath after reaching the top
Shrines in high places take a little effort to reach. But the feeling of the view suddenly opening up once you reach the top is much the same everywhere. Sweating, catching your breath, putting your hands together. That whole stretch of time felt important to me, somehow.
At the top of the steps, I thought how good it would be if I could put something like that one breath into the paintings I make.
Reference: Atago Shrine (official website, Japanese)
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