Looking for Yamamoto Kansuke
If you’ve stayed in Kofu for even the shortest time, you’ve heard of Takeda Shingen. Born almost 500 years ago, his legacy endures. We have Takeda Street, Takeda Shrine, and a Takeda statue. We have the Shingen-ko Festival. His banner, 風林火山 (fu-rin-ka-zan) is pretty well known and inspired the name of Kofu’s soccer team (Ventforet = wind + forest = 風林).
Of course, he didn’t do it all on his own. Also well-known are his 24 generals (武田二十四将). They’ve been featured in an NHK show. The Boston Museum of Fine Arts has a woodblock print of the 24. And in Kofu, in an alley to the west of Yamanashi Chuo Bank, there is a mural of the generals. Walking into the alley, passing them by, last of all you’ll find, with one bad eye and one bad leg, Yamamoto Kansuke.
Yasushi Inoue’s 1959 novel The Samurai Banner of Furin Kazan (just 風林火山 in Japanese) makes Yamamoto Kansuke its main character. He’s a strategist and a capable fighter despite his physical condition. For those interested in reading something Yamanashi-related, The Samurai Banner of Furin Kazan features Yamanashi and Nagano locations, local hero Takeda Shingen, and adopted-son Yamamoto (he’s originally from Aichi Prefecture.)
You’d be welcome to borrow the book from me but, much to my disappointment as I started writing this post, I couldn’t find it. I think I sold it at a flea market. I’ve never seen it at local bookstores either but it is available in English at Yamanashi Library.
I bought a copy at Kinokuniya in Shinjuku
Available at Yamanashi Library
I wanted to see for myself. I hoped the house and grave would maintain an exhibit. So, I went to the tourist information center at Kofu Station’s south exit. The staff told me that Yamamoto is tied to the Hokuto area and that I should go to the Hokuto City offices. She gave me a Hokuto guide map and an approximate location of the grave. She also showed me a photo of the grave from a discontinued tourist brochure. Unfortunately, the Hokuto City offices couldn’t give me any more exact information, so I just drove off to the approximation, hoping to get lucky. At first I thought I was lucky, as I soon saw a sign (1) for his grave. But I couldn’t find any other signs and pulled into a parking lot for Klein Garden (2) to re-coordinate. Lucky again. Right there in the parking lot was a map (3) with a marking for the grave. All I had to do was walk through the garden. But the garden ended (4) before I reached the grave. It seems the grave is on private property. For some time, following the broadcast of an NHK drama based on The Samurai Banner of Furin Kazan, Yamamoto’s popularity warranted opening his grave to the public. Now the family would appreciate some privacy. So I never found him, though I did find another sign, taken down and discarded (5).
(1) Street Sign (the middle sign, pointing left)
(2) Klein Garden
(3) Parking lot map, destination in upper right corner
(4) The path doesn’t continue on the other side of the road
(5) A discarded sign
Brochure photo of the grave
Now things get confusing. Online content seems to conflict with the information from the novel and tourist office. A site called the Samurai Archives/Samurai Wiki says Yamamoto was buried at the site of the Battle of Kawanakajima. Yamamoto’s Wikipedia page shows a photo of his grave, captioned “near site of Battle of Kawanakajima.” Klein Garden and the battleground are over 100 kilometers apart. Can someone have more than one grave? Apparently, yes, and Yamamoto has several. Bones may be in one, some hair in another. One may be in Hokuto, one at Kawanakajima, another in Shizuoka. But what Hokuto can claim is that Yamamoto’s 位牌, his Buddhist mortuary tablet, resides there.
I can’t recommend that you try to find Yamamoto’s Hokuto grave. You might be troubling some people who want their privacy. But don’t forget what a lovely area surrounds it. If driving, you may pass by Yamamoto’s home on the way to Kiyosato or Kobuchizawa. The Uchu Brewery and Gallery Trax are also in the area. So if you stop by for a beer or a coffee, toast a local hero. And as always, you can appreciate the views of Fuji and Yatsugatake.
If you’re not from Kofu, unfamiliar with Takeda Shingen, and can’t understand why I’m going on about Yamamoto Kansuke, I have one more thing to add. In 1969, a film version of Furin Kazan was released. The English title is Samurai Banners. None other than Toshiro Mifune plays Yamamoto. What else do you need?
Toshiro Mifune as Yamamoto Kansuke
Kai - the name for Yamanashi in Yamamoto’s time