石積みの町 坂本 : The stone walls constructed by Ano-shu （Shiga, Japan）
穴太衆の石積みで有名な坂本の町を撮影いたしました。日が昇り始めると、どことなく石垣島や竹富島のような雰囲気を感じました。 The town of Sakamoto in Otsu, Shiga Prefecture originally prospered as a shrine town built around the two major shrines of Enryaku-ji and the Hiyoshi Taisha. Many traces of the town's past still remain even today, and you can see where Enryaku-ji's monks retired at satobo, as well as the houses people lived in, and the old fences. The famous stone walls here were built by a historic stonemason society called Anoshu. The stones were stacked together without processing the stones found in nature, utilizing the surfaces and corners of the stone to hold them together. A particular feature of the walls is the variety of stone sizes. Anoshu is also said to have been involved in the construction of castles such as Azuchi Castle, Fushimi Castle, and Nagoya Castle. The stone walls surrounding the satobo on the road to Hiyoshi Taisha are particularly beautiful, and this is a very popular spot. On the north side of Hiei Sakamoto Station there is a statue of Saicho who opened the Tendai Buddhist sect in Japan, as well as Shogenji's temple bell. When the samurai Oda Nobunaga laid siege to Mt. Hiei and set it ablaze, it was said that this bell was rung to alert the villagers of what was going on. In addition to the Hiyoshi Taisha and Enryaku-ji, there are numerous other tourist attractions such as the Hiyoshi Toshogu, Saiko-ji, the Hakko-do Sentai Jizo, Hiyoshi Chaen, and Sakamoto castle ruins.