“Hōki Town” (伯耆町). Anyone who could read that on first sight is a serious geography buff. Hōki-chō. It’s the “Hōki” of this site, “Hōki Life.”
The town’s name is a country’s name
Hōki comes from the former Province of Hōki (Hōki-no-kuni). It’s an old provincial name dating back to the ritsuryō era, covering roughly what is now western Tottori Prefecture. Mt. Daisen is called “Hōki Fuji” precisely because it’s the foremost mountain of Hōki Province.
In other words, this town takes a whole “country” as its name. It’s a name that aims rather high.
A town with a young name and an old heart
Hōki Town was born on January 1, 2005. Kishimoto Town of Saihaku District and Mizoguchi Town of Hino District merged across district lines to form it.
- The Kishimoto side: the Shōji Ueda Museum of Photography, and the fields and hamlets of Mt. Daisen’s western foot.
- The Mizoguchi side: a land that has built its revitalization around ogres, as “the town of Japan’s oldest ogre legend.”
Though the town itself is only about twenty years young, its contents hold an ogre legend, a famous sword, and the ruins of a Hakuhō-era temple. That gap is what makes Hōki Town interesting, I think.
From here, the stories branch
The “history stories” on this site all connect back to this land.
- The ogre story → The Legend of Mt. Kizumi — Japan’s oldest ogre-slaying
- The sword story → Dōjigiri Yasutsuna · The swordsmith Yasutsuna and tatara iron-making
- The mountain story → The Faith of Mt. Daisen — Daisen-ji and the Ōgamiyama Shrine Inner Sanctuary
A word from the rabbit: Once you can read “Hōki,” you start wanting to quiz someone with it. I did.
References:
- Hōki Town official site, “Introduction to Hōki Town”
- Wikipedia, “Hōki, Tottori”
