倉賀野へようこそ

　昨日から拙いブログに９００件以上のアクセスがあり、こんなに多くのアクセスを戴いたことは初めてです。感謝申し上げます。

　群馬県の今日の日の出は５時２９分、正午の太陽高度は５５°、日の入りは１７時４６分予定です。夏至の頃に比較すると昼の長さが２時間以上も短くなりました。今朝６時の外気温は２４℃で誠に涼しく感じます。こんな気温の変化は風邪を引きやすいです。お互いに注意しましょう。

　写真の「倉賀野へようこそ」は倉賀野中学校美術部の生徒さんたちが描いたもので、倉賀野駅構内の長い通路に飾ってあります。写真は左下から、天明３年【1783】の浅間山の大噴火では倉賀野にも火山灰が田畑にたくさん積もり、農業が大打撃を受けた当時に造られた農業用水で現在の名は「鯉池」です。巨樹は倉賀野小学校の南にある「欅の木」で、ご覧の通り、幹の途中に不思議な穴が開いてます。持ち主に訊いても「昔から開いていた」というだけで倉賀野で一つの不思議です。右は閻魔様です。下町の追分に位置する閻魔堂内にあり、８月１６日の盆明けの祭りに公開されます。

　一方、倉賀野には古墳がたくさんあったと伝えられますが、その後、多くは田畑にされたと言われます。現在、私が確認できるのは６基です。中でも、浅間山(せんげんやま)古墳、大鶴巻古墳【昨日の写真】、小鶴巻古墳は５世紀頃の原形を留めており、一見に値します。すべて頂上に登れます。このように倉賀野には多くの古墳があり、その後、城下町、宿場町、倉賀野河岸として東西に長く広がり、現在でも、大きく上町、仲町、下町に区分されてます。しかも、奈良・京都に近い方が上町となっていることから、その歴史は優に１０００年以上と推測されます。

　倉賀野という地名の由来については、烏川の南側から見ると「長い崖の上に広がる野原」でした。昔は崖のことを「倉」と呼び、その上に広がる野原であったことから「倉賀野」と命名されたと歴史家は述べてます。

Dear my friends who are crazy about the history and great music.

　The simultaneous interpretation into English for our mutual understanding will be done after my breakfast in Japan time.

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　In Gumma Prefecture, sunrise today was at 5:29 AM, the sun's altitude at noon will be 55°, and sunset will be at 5:46 PM. Compared to the summer solstice, daylight hours are more than two hours shorter. The outside temperature at 6 AM this morning was 24°C, which feels quite cool. Temperature changes like this make it easy to catch a cold. Let's take care of each other.

　The "Welcome to Kuragano" pictured here was painted by students of Kuragano Junior High School's art club and is displayed in the long corridor inside Kuragano-Station. From the bottom left, the image shows an irrigation pond built known as "Carp Pond," which was constructed after the 1783 eruption of Mt. Asama, which caused volcanic ash to accumulate on the fields in Kuragano and dealt a major blow to agriculture. Since my garden used to be a field, layers of volcanic ash are found when I dig in. The giant tree is a zelkova tree located south of Kuragano Elementary School. As you can see, there is a mysterious hole halfway up the trunk. Even when I asked the owner, he simply said, "It's been open since ancient times," making it one of the mysteries of Kuragano. On the right is the statue of Enma. It is located inside Enma-shrine, located in fork, Shimocho-district, and is open to the public during the Bon Festival on August 16th.

　Kuragano is said to have had many ancient tombs, but many of them were later turned into farmland. Currently, I have confirmed six. Of these, Sengenyama-Tomb, Otzurumaki-Tomb (photo from yesterday), and Kozurumaki-Tomb retain their original form since around the 5th century and are worth seeing. You can climb to the top of all of them. As you can see, Kuragano has many ancient tombs, and later expanded east to west as a castle town, post town, and Kuragano-Riverbank. Even today, it is roughly divided into Kamicho, Nakacho, and Shmocho. Moreover, since the Kamicho area is closest to Nara and Kyoto, its history is estimated to be well over 1,000 years old, I guess.

　The origin of the place name Kuragano is that when viewed from the south side such as Karasu River, it was a "field spreading out on top of a long cliff." Historians say that in the past, cliffs were called "kura in Japanese," so that the area was named "Kuragano" because it was a field that spread out on top of them.