The grand wizard and the demon on the bridge
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This is Modori-bashi, or Modori Bridge. This small bridge that spans the Horikawa River has two very big tales from the Heian period (794-1185) woven in to its history, one involving a demon and one a dead father brought back to life. Though not much to look at nowadays, the Horikawa River was a willow-lined waterway that cut through the heart of the ancient capital (so named because Emperor Horikawa built a mansion in the vicinity of the river). In the late 1950s Japan's cities concreted over rivers that flowed through main urban areas and built up emergency drainage ditches to prevent flooding. Kobe had suffered massive flooding and damage pre-WWII from rivers bursting their banks, and forever after the government initiated a policy of controlling waterways within city limits*. Thus the Horikawa now flows beneath the city and the large avenue that follows its course is flanked by a willow-line drainage ditch that is an empty eye-sore out of rainy season. The Modori-bashi now spans this ditch.
Modoribashi is known as the 'Bridge of Revival', all because of one legend from 918 involving the funeral procession of Kiyotsura Miyoshi (a renowed professor of literature) and his grieving son, Jozo. Upon receiving news of his father's death, Jozo rushed back as quickly as he could from the remote Kishu-Kumano. By the time he reached the city, the procession was crossing over the Modoribashi Bridge. Jozo leapt to his father's coffin and cried to the heavens, pleading to speak with Kiyotsura one last time. Maybe the heavens felt merciful that day because Kiyotsura revived and father and son were able to say a few words of farewell. The second tale revolves around the oni (demon) that lived inside the famed Rojomon (Rashomon Gate), the once grand entrance to the city of Kyoto (Heian-kyo). While a samurai soldier Watanabe no Tsuna was holding a party, some of his colleagues challenged themselves to a test of courage. To measure this courage they each walked to the Rashomon gate one by one, knowing well that an ogre had made his home inside the gate. It came to Tsuna's turn. He too went alone and arrived at the gate without incident. He placed a card at the gateway to certify his arrival. Trouble stirred instead upon his return journey. As he passed the (Ichijo) Modoribashi Bridge, an ogre grasped his kabuto (samurai's helmet) from behind. Lightning quick, Tsuna attacked the monster with his sword and managed to scare the beast away. At his feet Tsuna found a big severed arm, still clutching his helmet. The owner of the arm was a demon called Ibaraki-doji, who is still said to haunt the bridge to this day, returning to forever collect his sliced off arm. Across Horikawa avenue from Modoribashi Bridge sits Seimei Shrine where Abeno Seimei**, the famed Heian astronomer, is enshrined. Abeno served six emperors and was said to have been an expert in astronomy, performing fortune telling (onmyodo) about the affairs of the Imperial court and of remote countries, all through gazing at the motion of the stars. He died in 1005 and Emperor Ichijo built a shrine on Abeno's rather massive mansion grounds. At the time Modoribashi Bridge (crossing from the Imperial Palace grounds to the private grounds that belonged Seimei) was believed to be the gateway between the human and spirit worlds. Abeno's own father (Yasumei) was said to have been killed on the bridge by his rival Ashiya Doman. Again there is a story that the corpse was resuscitated for a short time. Modoribashi Bridge was dismantled, but the old railing was preserved at Seimei Shrine, used as a road guard and kept from destruction. Peoples belief in the bridge was so strong that young soldiers on their way to fighting in WWII would cross the bridge for good luck, believing that they would be spared from death if they did so. The veil that separates this world from the spirit world is paper thin upon Modoribashi Bridge still. |
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*Ironically the flooding in Kobe was a direct result of the city government boxing in the natural contours of rivers to make way for housing development. Had they left the rivers alone, it is unlikely any flooding would have resulted. They conveniently forgot this fact and went about burying the rivers underground. **Prisoners did much the same thing, praying for relief from execution.
**Seimei has been described as the Merlin of the Heian World. Stories tell how he could see star constellations others could not, how he could identify demons invisible to others, raise the dead and conjure up human look-alikes. Many believed his mother had been a white fox, an intermediary of the spirit world. Seimei is directly linked to Tsuna's own story, as it was he who Tsuna brought the severed demon's arm after the incident on Modoribashi Bridge. In a different version of the same tale, Watanabe no Tsuna met a beautiful woman who turned into a demon and attacked him. Seimei sealed the arm with a spell. The demon returned to try and reclaim his arm from Tsuna's wife but was thwarted by the strength of the spell.
Another story involves bird droppings which landed on the head of a nobleman. The Grand Wizard examined them and determined that the man was about to be attacked and murdered. Seimei told the man to spend the night in prayer. The next morning a man appeared at his door, begging forgiveness for having wanted to kill him.
Wars in the late 15th Century destroyed the huge Seimei Shrine and only a modest affair was rebuilt swallowed by the cities development. Daishogun-hachi Shrine (close to Kitano Tenmangu) now houses many astrological aids and the Taoist deities that would have been a part of Seimei's world.
