Someone told me in the Kumamoto dialect to take precautions against heatstroke when I was traveling in Yatsushiro, Kumamoto Prefecture, in scorching late summer.

I was at one of the city's tourist spots, Oriya, which used to be a cheap inn where wandering haiku poet Santoka Taneda (1882-1940) stayed for a few days in the early Showa era (1926-1989).

Was that Santoka's voice I heard?

The person who stood in front of me was Shoichi Ikeda, one character away in Japanese from Shoichi Taneda, Santoka's real name.

Ikeda, 77, who runs a liquor shop, acts as a PR person for the city by dressing like a begging priest, as Santoka did. Ikeda is very aware of the strange coincidence that he was born on March 10. In Japanese, the date can be read San (March) and Toka (10th).

Oriya, in the Hinagu hot spa area, is preserved in almost the same state as when the poet rested there. There are many places in the country that are associated with Santoka, but this former inn has a superb quality.

It was my strong love of Santoka's poems that brought me here.

"Wading through and wading through, but green mountains still."

"Me--Helpless and good for nothing, walking."

--Santoka

But, there is another reason why I visited Yatsushiro.

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A writer in his own time

When the word "shohinken" is typed into a computer in hiragana, it is converted to Chinese characters meaning gift voucher. But there is also a homonymous villa, Shohinken, which the central government has designated as a place of scenic beauty, located near the ruins of Yatsushiro Castle in the central part of the city.

The villa, normally called Hama no Chaya, was built by Matsui Naoyuki, lord of Yatsushiro, for his mother in the late 17th century. Back then, the villa commanded a fine coastline of white sand and green pine trees.

The writer Hyakken Uchida (1889-1971) visited Yatsushiro 10 times, although it took him more than one day by train to get there. Uchida is well known for the Aho Ressha (Idiot Train) series--humorous short stories about his travels around the country by train. He apparently loved the garden of Shohinken, where he stayed overnight. The villa is not presently open for accommodation.

"Crabstick" Uchida is the god of writing to me. His travel for the series was aimed only at riding trains, and nothing else. Uchida was always accompanied by his old and tired friend Saburo Hirayama, who was an employee of what was the then Japan National Railways.

Their conversations during the long train rides are hilarious. In Yatsushiro, Uchida never went sightseeing, but was satisfied with staying in Shohinken. Then they went home.

During the whole hour I spent there, there wasn't a single visitor.

The villa's garden is famous for its Akamegaike pond and its higo shobu--a species of Japanese iris grown mainly in the prefecture--but the flowers' season had already passed when I visited. Under the scorching sun, the garden was filled with the screams of cicadas and the caws of crows. I was observing small insects fighting or mating under my feet and felt the time flow in the same way as Uchida.

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Lights in the distance

"You may be tired, but let's go up there," said Hideaki Takada, 68, the president of a guides association of the Hinagu hot spa.

After walking through nostalgic inns, storehouses and tiny alleys, we headed to the "hot spa shrine" that stands on a bluff.

According to folklore, the hot spa was discovered 603 years ago by a dutiful son who received a divine prophecy when he came here to pray for the healing of his father's sword wound.

"I've seen the shiranui (a kind of mirage) from here. Before I knew it, there were suddenly many lights from the fishing boats offshore," Takada said. The Yatsushiro Sea is also called the Shiranui Sea.

The Kumagawa river flows into the sea. The Yatsushiro Shrine is familiar to the local people as Myoken-san. There are various tourist spots in the city, including the Yatsushiro Municipal Museum, which has retro-themed exhibits.

The memory of Yatsushiro in late summer will remain in my mind for a long time.

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Travel Tip

It takes about 1 hour 40 minutes from Haneda Airport to Kumamoto Airport. It takes about 1 hour by bus from the airport to JR Yatsushiro Station.

For more information, call the Yatsushiro city tourist promotion office at (0965) 33-4115.

(Sep. 30, 2012)