My Village: Ajimaoku
I and my wife have lived in Sasayama so long that out grandson is now older than my daughter was when we moved out here. Anyone who knows how great Sasayama is in terms of its history as an old castle town and its natural beauty might be surprised to know that we had no idea what Sasayama was like when we made the big decision to move here. Being a ceramic artist, finding someplace that allowed me to establish my own home and pottery was enough. (See https://tourism.sasayama.jp/visit/conciergeposts/roofs-in-tamba-sasayama-1/ 　for photos of our house.) But moving to Sasayama was about the best decision of my life, and of all Sasayama, I think the Ajimaoku area we live in is about the best. (Though possibly I’m a bit biased, a friend who previously here and has lived all over Japan and the world for that matter agrees with me.)
Ajimaoku is part of the greater Ajima area, which includes 18 different villages surrounding the Ajima Elementary School, which is fairly close to the Sasayamaguchi train station.

History
For it’s population (currently just under 40,000), Sasayama has a huge land area (377.6 km²) with many different histories and subcultures. And you’ll find that the people in all of the different parts of Sasayama are fiercely proud of their local history and culture. Today I’m restricting my blog basically to the Ajimaoku villiage (an area just under 4 km²), but as you’ll see, even that small area has different stories to tell depending on the specific location within the village. I’ve described two of the subdivisions below, but there is a third one that surrounds the Bunpoji Temple Complex, which is described below.

Lower Ajimaoku: Hatano Hideharu
Before losing in battle to Akechi Mitsuhide under a command from Oda Nobunaga during the unification of Japan, Hatano Hideharu was a castle lord in Tamba, part of which is now Sasayama. (If you’re interested in details: https://www.japanesewiki.com/person/Hideharu%20HATANO.html)
Although there are various stories of what happened to Hideharu after loosing and his family historically, the most likely story seems to be that his descendants resettled to the Ajimaoku area. The former Hatano residence is still in use next door to us. Though all of the buildings have undoubtedly been rebuilt over the years, we were fortunate to meet that last descendant to live there, a very friendly lady getting on in years.
The current residents are not descendants, but they have done a lot of work to fix up and preserve the buildings while modernizing the kitchen and other parts, which will hopefully help the buildings to survive for decades or centuries to come. The house has a similar structure to our house, and undoubtedly the original residents of our place were directly related to Hideharu in some way.

The following photo shows the main entrance way to the house through a huge gate, complete with rooms for a gatekeeper.

The following photos shows Hideharu’s family grave site, which is still maintained at the foot of the mountains near the family home.

CAUTION: Although the grave site is open for visits during some village events, the Hideharu home is a private residence and is not open to the public. If you come to see it, please be satisfied with looking from outside the property and respect the current residents.

Upper Ajimaoku: Kumano Shrine
My wife, being that she was a high school Japanese language teacher, is interested in history and latched onto the fascinating Hideharu story as soon as we moved here. She did not realize that that history was about only part of the village, and particularly people living in the part further to the back of the valley were not impressed: they have a very different history.
That other history derives from the Kumano Shrine shown in the following photo. It historically has a close relation to other Kumano shrines centered around the Kumano Sanzan (three shrines at the heart of the Shinto religion) in Wakayama, which among other things is famous for “Japan’s spiritual origins” and as part of that the Kumano Kodo (“the old Kumano mountain paths”).

New Discoveries
A bypass road though Ajimaoku was recently finished and it runs through the Ajimakita and Ajimaminami villages on the way. In the last stages of construction, they discovered artifacts that attest to the importance of the Ajima area over time. They found artifacts from almost every period of Japanese history, from the Yayoi Period 1,800 year ago through the Kofun, Nara, Heian, and Kamakura Periods 1,600, 1,200, 900 and 700 years ago, including pieces of pottery, foundations of buildings, wooden coffins, and man-made ditches. Even pottery from China and a small sword were found with one of the coffins.
Unfortunately the find was not major enough to preserve the area, but it shows that people lived in this area throughout most of Japanese history, missing only the oldest period, Jomon. (More information and photos: https://www.hyogo-ctc.or.jp/storage/%E4%BD%8F%E5%90%89%E5%B7%9D%E5%8F%B3%E5%B2%B8%E9%81%BA%E8%B7%A1/. Japanese only. Details and more photos in downloadable PDF file on that site.)

Temples and Shrines
Ajimaoku has three main sites for temples and shrines. There are also many small shines and family grave sites in the surrounding mountains, but out of respect I will not provide specifics on them and it would be best not to visit them without a local guide.

Ajimaoku no Kumano Shrine
In the very back of the the Ajimaoku valley lies the Kumano Shrine, which forms the social center for many activities for nearby residents and for the village as a whole. It’s a very small, intimate shrine, but lies in a picturesque environment with large cedars in front and the mountains behind it.
See “Upper Ajimaoku: Kumano Shrine,” above for photo and additional information.

Bunpoji Temple Complex
This complex and the mountains just above it are my favorite places for photos. At its prime, this complex had 22 temples in the Tendai sect. Most were lost during Japan’s internal wars and other events. Now, only three temples remain (two, each with a priest, and one main temple further up the mountain and shared by the other temples). (There was one more temple, but it was sadly lost to a fire this January.)
This complex is also home to the Futamura Shrine, also shown below. Every fall during the harvest festival, seven local areas gather here to celebrate in the morning and return to celebrate more in their local villages the rest of the day.
AND, this temple is the gateway to the mountains above. You can climb up to Matsuo-san (also called Shobi-san), which is the mountain associated with Bunpoji. You can also keep going to Shiragami-dake, the highest mountain in our area of Sasayama. If you’re adventuresome and want to wander around, you might find the grave sites of Buddhist priests, the ruins of an old temple, old road markers, or an old well. I’ve even found the foundation of what I assume to be an old mountain fort. (Matsuo-san also once had a mountain fort on top of it, but little remains expect for the clearing now covered with trees.)
You can learn more about the mountains above the complex in this blog: Mountains above Bunpoji Temple: Matsuosan and Shiragamidake at https://tourism.sasayama.jp/visit/conciergeposts/mountains-above-bunpoji-temple/.
This temple is a popular tourist stop to see the autumn leaves and the spring cherry blossoms.
The photo below of the snowy mountains in the distance was taken looking out from just below the temple complex.
Further information is available here: https://tourism.sasayama.jp/visit/conciergeposts/bunpoji-temple-complex/

Daikokuji (大國寺）
Daikokuji, a Tendai sect temple associated with Antaizan. (“San” or “zan” means mountain and a temple is normally associated with a specific mountain.) But Daikokuji is also designated as a National Important Cultural Property due to the unique structure of the temple building. This temple was not supported by a congregation of followers like most temples are, but rather was supported by the village as a whole. The structure is unique because the outside parts of the building are in Japanese architectural style, while the inner parts are in Chinese style.
This temple is a popular tourist stop in the fall due to the natural beauty of the temple and cedar trees accented by the bright red autumn leaves. And this temple is my family’s eternal resting place: our family grave is there next to the mountains that I love.

For more information: https://sasayama-daikokuji.com/

CAUTION: This website says “Sasayama Station on the JR Fukuchiyama Line,” but the correct station name is “Sasayamaguchi” and from Osaka, the train line is often called the Takarazuka Line.

Agriculture
Ajimaoku is famous for black soy beans, tea, and more recently chestnuts. (Sasayama as a whole has been famous for chestnuts for a long time.) I have written blogs that provide more details on agriculture, including Autumn Delicacies (https://tourism.sasayama.jp/visit/conciergeposts/autumn-delicacies/) and Farming in Sasayama (https://tourism.sasayama.jp/visit/conciergeposts/farming-in-sasayama/).
The history of producing tea in Ajima is older than that in Kyoto, and you can still see beautiful tea rows, which are best in the morning or evening sun, or covered by snow in the winter.

Food
There are also places to get food and refreshments in Ajimaoku. Particularly the Udon noodles are as good as it gets.