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is a 1.8 km street in Kamakura, a city in Kanagawa Prefecture in Japan, unusual because it is at the same time the city's main avenue and the approach () of its largest Shinto shrine, Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gū. Over the centuries Wakamiya Ōji has gone thorough an extreme change. A heavily trafficked road today, it used to be, to the contrary, off limits to most people as a sacred space. At the time of the Kamakura shogunate it was an essential part of the city's religious life, and as such it hosted many ceremonies and was rich with symbolism. Since its construction Wakamiya Ōji has been the backbone of the city's street planning and the center of its cultural life.〔Kamiya Vol. 1 (2008:15-16)〕 The street has been declared a Historic Site and was chosen as one of the best 100 streets in Japan. ==History== Like most of Kamakura's famous things, Wakamiya Ōji was built at the time of the Kamakura shogunate. Its builder, first Kamakura shogun Minamoto no Yoritomo, wanted to imitate Kyoto's .〔Kamakura Shōkō Kaigijo (2008:56-57)〕 The name Wakamiya Ōji means "Young Prince Avenue" and derives from its having been built in 1182 as a prayer for the safe delivery of Yoritomo's first son, future shogun Yoriie. That name appears also in the Azuma Kagami, but from historical records it seems likely that the avenue at the time was more often called .〔 In fact, all other Kamakura streets called Ōji by the Azuma Kagami, for example Ōmachi Ōji and Komachi Ōji, are also called Kōji in other medieval texts.〔 During the Muromachi period Wakamiya Ōji was called with a number of different names by different sources, including , for example in Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gū's official records, in the , and or in a poetry collection called .〔 The word Nanadō ("seven times") refers to the number of times the shogun's representative for the Kantō region (the "Kantō kubō") would walk around the ''torii'' gate called "Hama no Torii" (see below) in a ceremony part of a whole week of religious celebrations.〔 Analogously, the term Sendō ("a thousand times") refers to the custom of praying a thousand times while on this sacred avenue.〔 Recent excavations have revealed that Wakamiya Ōji was originally 33 m wide (much more than now), was flanked by pine trees (now present only next to ''Ichi no Torii'', see below), and on its sides run a 1.5 m ditch.〔 Next to its upper course, on the two sides there were empty spaces where the remains of a market have been found.〔 Being a shrine's approach, the avenue passes under three ''torii'', or Shinto gates, called respectively ''Ichi no Torii'' (first gate), ''Ni no Torii'' (second gate) and ''San no Torii'' (third gate). The ordinal number decreases with the distance from the shrine, so the closest to Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gū is actually ''San no Torii''. All were destroyed and rebuilt many times. Today's ''San no Torii'' and ''Ni no Torii'' were built in reinforced concrete in 1934 and are painted bright red, the remaining one is made of stone and was erected by Tokugawa Ietsuna in the 17th century.〔 We know from the Shinpen Kamakurashi that until the Edo period the gate closest to the shrine was called ''Ichi no Torii'', the middle one ''Ni no Torii'' and the one closest to the sea ''Hama no Ōtorii'' ("Great Beach Torii") (see the section Hama no Ōtori below).〔Kamiya Vol. 2 (2008:221-222)〕 This was by far the holiest of the three, a symbolic link between the city and the sea from which it depended.〔Takahashi (2005:86-88)〕 Wakamiya Ōji itself was a sacred and ceremonial road which led to a sacred beach, and was used only for the shogun's pilgrimages to the shrines in Izu and Hakone (see also the section Yuigahama), and during official visits of important dignitaries.〔 In May 1185〔Gregorian dates obtained directly from the original Nengō using (Nengocalc ): Bunji 1, 5th month)〕 Taira no Munemori, captured after the decisive Minamoto victory at the battle of Dan-no-ura, entered Kamakura with his son through Wakamiya Ōji.〔 Normal people were rarely allowed on it, but the Azuma Kagami records that on this occasion it was lined with onlookers.〔 The Azuma Kagami tells us that, on its east side, in Komachi, there were the houses of the powerful and, for almost the entire Kamakura period, the seat of the government (called ''Utsunomiya Bakufu'', first, and ''Wakamiya Ōji Bakufu'' later).〔 The entrance of all buildings not belonging to the Hōjō or the ''Bakufu'' (with the curious exception of houses of ill repute) had to face away from Wakamiya Ōji (today's Hongaku-ji is a good example).〔〔 Like today, the social class of those living to the west of the avenue was in general lower.〔 The reason seems to be that, because six of the Kamakura's Seven Entrances faced west and any attack was in any case likely to come from Kyoto, which lies in the same direction, Wakamiya Ōji had a military value as a line of defense, and positions on its east side were desirable.〔 Further south social status dropped even further, because near Geba (see below) there were the pleasure quarters.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Wakamiya Ōji」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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