I was approaching the 13th station (from Tokyo) of the 53 Stations of the Old Tokaido, a 40-day walk down a 400 year old highway organized for carrying messages between the Shogun in Edo (Tokyo) and the largely-figurehead Emperor in Kyoto. Each Station once had lodgings and supplies for people traveling the Highway, as well as relief runners for the swift transmission of messages.
With twelve days and a quarter of the Stations behind me, one might expect that I had become a bit blase about yet another arrival. However, although it has been subsumed into the city of Numazu, Hara has remained special--to me, at least.
Because it was in Hara that Hakuin Ekaku, called Zenji--"Great Zen Master"--was born (in 1686); became a monk at Shoin-ji, and after being away for three or four years, returned and taught for forty years, drawing hundreds of monks to the area; and at last died (in 1769). He is buried in Shoin-ji's graveyard.
