[Special]Take a walk for your health and have an enjoyable cultural experience at the same time!
Use the walking tour app and check out the memorial museums in Magome Bunshimura (Magome Writers’ Village)!

“Hanepyon Kenko Points” is a health support app run by Ota City. It allows you to accumulate points by walking through the designated courses and locations using the pedometer function in a device, by recording health goals and participating in health-related events, and by going to a medical checkup. You can use the accumulated points to enter drawings for chances to win various prizes.

Please see the following link for more details and download.
https://www.kirari-kenko-ota.hanepyon-point.jp/

“Hanepyon Kenko Points” has 25 preset recommended walking routes, but we won’t be using them at this time. Instead, we will be using a function called Mission (ミッション) to set an original fun course to visit three designated checkpoints where you can earn stamps, while walking the slopes and steps in an area well known for its terraces and the many writers who have resides here. This is also a great thing about the app, the ability to freely enjoy the walk.
We will start from Omori Station, and walk around Sanno and Magome to reach our goal, Nishimagome Station, which is a total of 5 to 6km. Let’s start!

At the starting point, the West Exit of Omori Station, we’ll check the data about the walk. The walking distance is 1,754m with 2,541 steps.
From the West Exit of Omori Station, across Ikegami Street, we can see the steps going up to Tenso Shrine located up on the hill. There, we can find a guide sign “Magome Writers’ Village Walking Courses” and a relief of the related writers and their ways of living back then.



We will climb these steps and head northwest. What we noticed while walking the course was that there are a lot of ups and downs! This whole area was called the Ninety-nine Valleys (tsukumo-dani) from the ancient time due to its alternating hills and valleys, and now we know how true that is. It’s a lot of fun to walk this course as it’s diverse and challenging.



After walking for about 15 minutes, in the middle of a steep slope, we see the entrance to Soho Park. Within this park surrounded by the old stone walls and coppices lies our goal, Sanno Sodo Memorial Museum.
That’s right; don’t forget to check the app here!


When you are close to a checkpoint, the app will display the screen shown in the image to the left, letting you know that you’re very close to the location. Tapping the “Check” (チェック) button at the bottom will grant you points and a Hanepyon Stamp.
Now, let’s take a look at Sanno Sodo Memorial Museum.

After publishing Japan’s first general news magazine Kokumin no Tomo, Soho Tokutomi published the newspaper Kokumin Shimbun. He started working on his masterpiece Kinsei Nihon Kokumin shi when he was 56 years old (in 1918) and saw its completion when he was 90 years old (in 1952). Of its 100 volumes, more than half were written when he was in Omori Sanno.
Soho moved to this residence in 1924, and until 1943 when he moved to Atami Izusan, he called the place Sanno Sodo and enjoyed living here.
Within the residence, there used to be the Seikido Bunko (library) of about 100,000 Japanese and Chinese books collected by Soho. It is now in the care of the Ishikawa Takeyoshi Memorial Library.



Sanno Sodo Memorial Museum was opened in April 1988 after Ota City inherited Soho’s old residence from The Shizuoka Shimbun and Shizuoka Broadcasting System in 1986. Soho’s manuscripts and documents in his original hand as well as his epistolaries, for he was known for his love for writing letters, are exhibited in the museum.
n the building named Sanno Sodo by Soho himself, you can also check out parts of the preserved residence of Soho. The entrance to the museum was built by restoring the old residence’s entrance. His study was on the second floor and it was restored for the museum. Starting from Soho’s books and manuscripts such as Kinsei Nihon Kokumin shi to letters from related people such as Katsu Kaishu and Yosano Akiko and her husband are exhibited.
Soho’s favorite stationery items and seal are preserved as he left them to evoke the atmosphere of when he was actually living here.

Departing Sanno Sodo Memorial Museum and onto Ryushi Memorial Museum. On the way there, we encounter another steep slope of the Ninety-nine Valleys. Going down these steps will take you to Sanno Itsukushima-jinja Shrine, and they also offer a great view.



Looking up at the steps from Sanno Itsukushima-jinja Shrine where Benten is worshipped; enjoying the rolling terrain is another appeal of the walk.



We will now walk across Route 318 from Sanno Itsukushima-jinja Shrine, and walk west for a while to get to Usudazaka. There are old residences of Magome writers all around the Usudazaka area. Taking your time to walk the slopes while thinking about the lives of the writers here would be fascinating.



Right before the end of Usudazaka, there is an alley on the side with information explaining about the old residences of Yasunari Kawabata and Yojiro Ishizaka. You can find these explanation boards of writers all over Magome Writers’ Village.



After going down Usudazaka and walking west, we will soon see an attractive building. This is the Ryushi Memorial Museum. In front of the museum is Ryushi Park where Ryushi Kawabata’s old residence and atelier are preserved.


Here’s another point to obtain points and a stamp.

Ryushi Memorial Museum was built in 1963 by Ryushi Kawabata (1885-1966), an esteemed master of modern Japanese painting, to commemorate his reception of the Order of Culture award and his 77th birthday. It was originally run by Seiryusha, but after Seiryusha disbanded, Ota City succeeded its business in 1991 as Ota City Ryushi Memorial Museum.
The museum houses about 140 Ryushi works from the early Taisho period to right after WWII, introducing his artwork from various perspectives. In the exhibition room, you can enjoy works with a strong touch painted on large canvases.


Along with Ryushi’s works, also exhibited are his favorite painting tools. In Ryushi Park, which is across from the building, his old residence and atelier that Ryushi himself designed are preserved. You can take a look at them with the guide of the museum staff.

There is a stand of tall trees near Ryushi Memorial Museum, so we decided to take a look. We see a platform there, and as we go up the steps...



This is a spot with a great view of Omori and Kamata in the distance! With a bench on the platform, there is no doubt this will be a great place to rest your feet on a warm sunny day.



This hill is called Saikiyama Green Hill, which was developed by Ota City using the area where Saiki Nutrition College used to be. Saiki Nutrition College was founded by Tadasu Saiki, a pioneer of the study of nutrition. Up on the hill, there is a point of interest with Doctor Saiki’s statue.



After leaving Saikiyama Green Hill, as we are walking along Sakuranamiki Street (unfortunately, no cherry blossoms were seen due to the season being winter at the time of writing), we see a guide sign for the Kumagai Tsuneko Memorial Museum. There are about 100m to ascend up the slope after taking a right here.



Of course, we’ll be getting some points and a stamp here as well. This alone really motivates you to take a walk.

Kumagai Tsuneko Memorial Museum was opened in April 1990 by renovating Kumagai Tsuneko (1893-1986)’s residence. She is the first modern female kana calligrapher. About 170 of her works are housed; the museum allows you to take in the world of Tsuneko’s calligraphy. The exhibition changes depending on the theme.


Her study is preserved as she used it, and the whole building exudes the atmosphere of her residence built in 1936. Rather than a museum, in the familiar setting of a house, Tsuneko’s works feel close.

From Kumagai Tsuneko Memorial Museum to Nishimagome Station, it’s about a 10-minute walk to reach the goal. As a side note, the total walking distance was 6,380m with 9,567 steps.

This time, we set our original course to focus on three memorial museums and their premises, but the app already has 25 preset courses. Furthermore, there are over 300 locations designated as checkpoints! Part of the fun is that you can enter drawings with chances to win prizes once you accumulate points. Every 1,000 points gets you one entry. The prizes vary from a selection of 100 souvenirs of Ota City, health-related goods, convenient home appliances, to Hanepyon goods.

We should also mention that Hanepyon Stamps have lots of variations, so completing the character collection is an added value. Every 50 stamps, you’ll be awarded with Bronze/Silver/Gold Medal Hanepyon Rare Stamps.

This is a fun app where you can enjoy one of the preset courses, create your own walking course, and obtain points for a chance at winning a prize, etc.

Magome Writers’ Village still has many museums and points of interest that we couldn’t introduce this time. We encourage you to download the app and take a walk around!