The Real Koma (aka the page that has got very little to do with the show and has tons of unnecessary details but is there anyway because I think it's cool, and there's not enough on it in English!)
At the very end of the production credits that roll after every episode, I noticed that special thanks went out to a "Koma Shrine" in Hidaka-shi, Saitama prefecture. What? ...A real Koma? No way...
Following that, some searching turned up interesting results. There is a real Koma Shrine (and surrounding settlements) in Japan, and it even has more than 1300 years of history behind it to boot! Not just that, there are other fascinating things around it too.
Awesome, huh? Makes nice material if you want to write fanfics too. Or just mere speculation.
Read on and see if you can spot which bits might have been incorporated into the anime.
Contents
Origins of Koma
Koma (高麗), briefly put, relates to a group of Korean nobles that defected to Japan in 668 AD (the Nara period) when the northern Korean kingdom of Koukuri, also known as Goguryeo (高句麗) fell. Of course, it wasn't called Korea back then and Koukuri extended until Manchuria but you get what I mean, right?
It started off when Jakkou (若光, also known as Yakkwang), a Korean noble, was sent as an envoy to Japan in 666 AD. When Koukuri was invaded by combined forces from Silla (another Korean state) and the Chinese Tang in 668, up to 2000 people fled to Japan and more trickled in during the next decade. Jakkou was a leader of sorts for all these immigrants coming to Japan.
In 703, the Emperor Monmu bestowed the kabane (姓 a type of surname) of Koma on Jakkou, as well as the title of kokishi (王 the kanji for king, but he wasn't really a king) and he became known as Koma no Kokishi Jakkou.
After that, he set up the district of Koma (高麗郡 Koma-no-koori, also Koma-gun) in the province of Musashi, in the eastern Toukaidou area. Jakkou brought over 1799 Korean immigrants living in the provinces of Kai, Suruga, Sagami, Kazusa, Shimousa, Hitachi and Shimono, all also in Toukaidou. Within Koma-no-koori it is said there were two villages (郷 gou), Koma village and Kamitsufusa (上総)village; it is said they roughly correspond to Hidaka (日高) city and the neighbouring Hannou (飯能) city areas
Consequently a lot of related things took on the name as well; there is a river called Komagawa and a highlight of the area is its Koma shrine which actually began worshipping Jakkou as a deity after his death. The postal offices, train stations etc. are also called Koma this and Koma that.
Geography of Koma
The area of Koma is near Hidaka city, Saitama prefecture in eastern Japan. The coordinates are 35° 53 N 139° 19' E. It's not terribly populated, and there are a lot of... fields. There is a rather large forested, mountainous sort of region behind the shrines; of particular interest is this mountain called Hiwada-san. (日和田山) It hardly snows in the actual city of Hidaka, but I don't know about Koma itself.
The most prominent geographical feature would probably be the 33.8km long river that runs through the area, called Komagawa (高麗川). It is prone to causing flash floods. Along the banks of one bend are the Kinchaku Fields (see below).
Koma Shrine
The Koma Shrine (高麗神社 Koma jinja) was set up in honour of Jakkou after his death in 730 AD. (So it is very, very old!)
It was run by successive generations of Jakkou's descendents; it was run most recently by the 59th generation Koma Toshio (高麗澄雄) but he unfortunately passed away on the 20th of December 2006 at the age of 79. (That's just 6 days before writing this article...) His son, Fumiyasu-negi (文康禰宜 negi is a title) is expected to succeed him as the head priest. You can see a picture of two of them taken in July 2006 with a short interview in Japanese about the shrine during and after WWII, over here.
Currently they have a lot of cultural activities going on, and many exhibitions/talks with the aim of providing accurate information about the Korean origins of the temple (especially in light of the rocky relations between Korea and Japan). As with many Japanese temples, the autumn scenery around Koma Shrine is a lovely sight. (Check out their official website below!)
Jakkou is worshipped as a deity over there, and he's even known as a Deity for a Good Career because a whole series of politicians (Osachi Hamaguchi, Reijirou Wakatsuki, Makoto Saitou, Kuniaki Koiso, Kijuurou Shidehara and Ichirou Hatayama) became Prime Minister of Japan after paying the shrine a visit.
Interestingly, the nameplate of the Koma Shrine has a small letter "句" carved in between to make its name 高句麗神社 (Koukuri Jinja), a reminder of the shrine's - and indeed the community's - roots. (second picture on this page)
The Koma Family Residence
Not far from the Koma Shrine is the family residence (高麗家住宅) which has been designated as an important Cultural Treasure (重要文化財). Nobody actually lives in it now, though. You can't get in unless you're a staff member. It was built in the early Edo period (1600s) and has a grass-thatched roof. You can see a picture of it here (second picture).
Here's a satellite image of the residence and its distance from the shrine.
In spring there's some lovely scenes of sakura to be seen around it - take a look at this page.
Shouden-in
The Shouden-in (聖天院) is said to have been built in 751. There is a lovely picture of it here. It was built because Jakkou's trusted priest Shouraku (勝楽) wanted a way to wish for Jakkou to have a blessed next life. Unfortunately, Shouraku died before it could be finished and the task was picked up by Shouraku's disciple, Shouun (聖雲), who was also Jakkou's third son.
It is located a short distance away from the Koma shrine and family house. You can see a satellite photo of it here.
A pair of totem-pole like things grace its entrance (though I don't know if these were moved to the shrine recently). They bear the names and stone heads of... I think they are male and female guardians: 天下大将軍 and 地下女将軍. (This page has pics of them from 1999.)
I think the temple is a member of the Shingon Chiyama sect (真言宗智山派), and its real name is Koma Mountain Shouraku Temple (高麗山勝楽寺 Koma-zan Shouraku-ji?).
There is also a section that serves as the family temple where remains of Koma ancestors are buried, and apparently Jakkou's own grave is located here in a structure called the Koma Oubyou (若光王廟), which you can see here (2nd picture).
Do note that unlike the Shouten-sama in the anime, this is read as Shouden. Not Shouten. Although the kanji is the same.
Kinchaku Fields
One of the most famous attractions of the area is the Kinchaku Fields (巾着田 Kinchaku-da). Originally it was just wasteland but the first immigrants to the area managed to cultivate the area into arable land; and when the river occasionally flooded it probably brought along the seeds of flowers. The word "Kinchaku" means "purse", and it refers to the shape of the area along the river (see the satellite image). It's more like a drawstring pouch type of purse, really.
It's most famous for having, in autumn, a beautiful carpet of equinox flowers (Lycoris radiata; in Japanese higanbana 彼岸花, also known as manjushage 曼珠沙華, also mysteriously called cluster amryllis). And I literally mean a carpet of it! How about you look at some nice pics of it? Here, here and here. I think they look best in the shadows, nested among the gnarled trunks of autumn trees... Do scroll down if you'd like to read a bit more about them (and how they tie into the anime).
Other flowers include the Cosmos flowers in autumn, and in spring there's sakura and yellow rapeseed flowers.
You can see a satellite image of Kinchaku-da, courtesy of Google Earth. Notice the shape of the river?
And this is what it looks like from a higher elevation some distance away. The yellow flowers are probably rapeseed flowers.
The higanbana
You might recognize it as the flower Kakunojou mentions in her opening speech in episode 1 - "赤く咲くのは彼岸花 それより赤い定めの芝居" (Crimson does the higanbana bloom; but redder still is the theatre of fate). And if I'm not wrong, it appears in the opening sequence at Kakunojou's feet near the end with the winter scene.
It's a flower linked to the pathway to hell and has connotations of hatred and loathing, for it's also referred to as Dead Person's Flower (死人花 shibitobana), Flower of Hell (地獄花 jigokubana), Ghostly Flower (幽霊花 yuureibana), etc.
In Korean, it (along with a few other Lycoris species) known as sangsahwa (相思華 in kanji) - the lovelorn flower, because poetically speaking, while the leaves and flowers yearn to be with each other, they actually never appear at the same time. The leaves come out in winter and dry by summer, while the flowers appear in autumn. :( Is that going to happen to our main characters?! :(
Confusion about the name
While reading up about Koma I was initially confused by one very big thing. The kanji for Koma, 高麗 can also be read as Kourai. You have to be careful because:
Other similar places
Koma no Jakkou didn't settle down in the area that would become Koma right from the start. Many immigrants that arrived in 668 went first to other places in Eastern Japan as well. Where can you see the traces of their arrival?
Koma in Ooisomachi, Kanagawa
The biggest similar location is another Koma settlement in the town of Ooiso (大磯町) in Kanagawa prefecture.
There's a mountain, Komayama (JA wikipedia), and on the mountain (also called Kouraiji-san) they had their own temple called Kouraiji. The temple was near abandonment during the Muromachi era beacuse of battles in the area, but someone from the Tokugawa family made it a branch temple of the famous Kan'ei Temple in Ueno, and it came back to life.
However, in 1868 with the Meiji government taking over, a law decreeing the separation of Shinto from Buddhism split it up into a temple (寺 tera) and shrine (神社 jinja). Not long after, the temple was destroyed because it had Tokugawa connections, and in 1897 the shrine changed its name from "Kourai (?) Jinja" (高麗神社) to "Takaku Jinja" (高来神社). Coincidentially though, the kanji for "Takaku" can still be read as "Kourai"... You can see pictures of it here.
Ooisomachi is actually closer to Yokohama than the Koma in Saitama, but this is probably not what the Koma in the anime was based on.
Other places
Aside from Ooisomachi, there's also Komae (狛江市) in Tokyo where 3/4 of Mr. Children comes from (official site here), and Koma-gun (巨摩郡) in Yamanashi prefecture where the 2000 J-drama "Ai kotoba wa yuuki" was filmed; both took their names from a similar source as well.
Extra things of interest
Interestingly, in the province of Musashi - which, as you remember, Koma-no-koori was a part of - there was a famine, and subsequently a peasant-led revolt, in 1866 known as the Bushuu Outburst (武州一揆 Bushuu ikki), Bushuu being another name for Musashi province.
That's just two years before the anime starts, by the way. I don't know how it affected Koma-no-koori, but you can use your imagination. Credit goes to Henrietta-dono for originally pointing it out here.
Another thing Henrietta-dono found out was that a Japanese fan went to the real Koma shrine, and guess what she found there? A poster of the anime (with a "Source material: Koma shrine" pasted prominently on it.) Hoho~u.
Getting to Koma
(The following information is correct as of December 2006)
So, do you want to take a look at the beautiful higanbana of Kinchaku fields yourself? Or do you want to get a whiff of the temple Akizuki himself might have looked at? (...Or do you just want to see if that poster is still there?)
This, my friend, is where Google Earth and Google Maps save your life. Have a look at these maps:
Graphic map of the area | Satellite photo of the mentioned areas and the two closest railway stations
As you can see, the closest stations are Koma 高麗 (on the Seibu Ikebukuro 西部池袋 line, quite close to Kinchaku Fields), and Komagawa 高麗川 (on the JR Hachikou 八高 and Kawagoe 川越 lines, closer to Koma Shrine)
Koma Shrine and the family house are practically next to each other, but the Shouten-in is quite a way off. You have to walk down this longish road... Although I hear you can just walk through the forest and it takes only 3-5 minutes that way.
Kinchaku Fields is quite a way off from there. Koma Shrine's official site says it's about 3 km off and at least a 30 minutes' walk away. At least Kinchaku's site says it's only a 10-minute walk from Koma station. You can also take a Kokusai Kougyou bus from either of the two train stations and get off at the Kinchaku-da bus-stop; it's only a three minute walk from there. Remember higanbana/equinox flowers appear only in autumn!
For more details in Japanese do visit their respective official sites.
Note: I have never been to Japan, let alone these places :( I would love to hear from anyone who's been there and would like to share their experiences...
Websites (all Japanese)
Official sorts
Kinchaku Fields official site
Koma Shrine official site
Saitama page on the area
Hidaka city official site
Whatever this is
Other pages referred to
Study of Musashi Province - Koma section (Has pics)
Short writeup of a trip to Koma by a Korean student (in Korean and Japanese)
Toraijin no katsuyaku by Mineko Masaoka (She talked to the head priest of the shrine too)
A page on Shoudenin
This.
Wikipedia's short pages on Koma Shrine, Koma no Jakkou, Koukuri and Kinchaku Fields.
Bit of info on sangsahwa.
At the very end of the production credits that roll after every episode, I noticed that special thanks went out to a "Koma Shrine" in Hidaka-shi, Saitama prefecture. What? ...A real Koma? No way...
Following that, some searching turned up interesting results. There is a real Koma Shrine (and surrounding settlements) in Japan, and it even has more than 1300 years of history behind it to boot! Not just that, there are other fascinating things around it too.
Awesome, huh? Makes nice material if you want to write fanfics too. Or just mere speculation.
Read on and see if you can spot which bits might have been incorporated into the anime.
Contents
- Origins of Koma
- Geography of Koma
- Koma Shrine
- Koma Family House
- Shouden-in
- Kinchaku Fields
- Confusions about the name
- Other similar places
- Extra things of interest
- Getting there
- Websites
Origins of Koma
Koma (高麗), briefly put, relates to a group of Korean nobles that defected to Japan in 668 AD (the Nara period) when the northern Korean kingdom of Koukuri, also known as Goguryeo (高句麗) fell. Of course, it wasn't called Korea back then and Koukuri extended until Manchuria but you get what I mean, right?
It started off when Jakkou (若光, also known as Yakkwang), a Korean noble, was sent as an envoy to Japan in 666 AD. When Koukuri was invaded by combined forces from Silla (another Korean state) and the Chinese Tang in 668, up to 2000 people fled to Japan and more trickled in during the next decade. Jakkou was a leader of sorts for all these immigrants coming to Japan.
In 703, the Emperor Monmu bestowed the kabane (姓 a type of surname) of Koma on Jakkou, as well as the title of kokishi (王 the kanji for king, but he wasn't really a king) and he became known as Koma no Kokishi Jakkou.
After that, he set up the district of Koma (高麗郡 Koma-no-koori, also Koma-gun) in the province of Musashi, in the eastern Toukaidou area. Jakkou brought over 1799 Korean immigrants living in the provinces of Kai, Suruga, Sagami, Kazusa, Shimousa, Hitachi and Shimono, all also in Toukaidou. Within Koma-no-koori it is said there were two villages (郷 gou), Koma village and Kamitsufusa (上総)village; it is said they roughly correspond to Hidaka (日高) city and the neighbouring Hannou (飯能) city areas
Consequently a lot of related things took on the name as well; there is a river called Komagawa and a highlight of the area is its Koma shrine which actually began worshipping Jakkou as a deity after his death. The postal offices, train stations etc. are also called Koma this and Koma that.
Geography of Koma
The area of Koma is near Hidaka city, Saitama prefecture in eastern Japan. The coordinates are 35° 53 N 139° 19' E. It's not terribly populated, and there are a lot of... fields. There is a rather large forested, mountainous sort of region behind the shrines; of particular interest is this mountain called Hiwada-san. (日和田山) It hardly snows in the actual city of Hidaka, but I don't know about Koma itself.
The most prominent geographical feature would probably be the 33.8km long river that runs through the area, called Komagawa (高麗川). It is prone to causing flash floods. Along the banks of one bend are the Kinchaku Fields (see below).
Koma Shrine
The Koma Shrine (高麗神社 Koma jinja) was set up in honour of Jakkou after his death in 730 AD. (So it is very, very old!)
It was run by successive generations of Jakkou's descendents; it was run most recently by the 59th generation Koma Toshio (高麗澄雄) but he unfortunately passed away on the 20th of December 2006 at the age of 79. (That's just 6 days before writing this article...) His son, Fumiyasu-negi (文康禰宜 negi is a title) is expected to succeed him as the head priest. You can see a picture of two of them taken in July 2006 with a short interview in Japanese about the shrine during and after WWII, over here.
Currently they have a lot of cultural activities going on, and many exhibitions/talks with the aim of providing accurate information about the Korean origins of the temple (especially in light of the rocky relations between Korea and Japan). As with many Japanese temples, the autumn scenery around Koma Shrine is a lovely sight. (Check out their official website below!)
Jakkou is worshipped as a deity over there, and he's even known as a Deity for a Good Career because a whole series of politicians (Osachi Hamaguchi, Reijirou Wakatsuki, Makoto Saitou, Kuniaki Koiso, Kijuurou Shidehara and Ichirou Hatayama) became Prime Minister of Japan after paying the shrine a visit.
Interestingly, the nameplate of the Koma Shrine has a small letter "句" carved in between to make its name 高句麗神社 (Koukuri Jinja), a reminder of the shrine's - and indeed the community's - roots. (second picture on this page)
The Koma Family Residence
Not far from the Koma Shrine is the family residence (高麗家住宅) which has been designated as an important Cultural Treasure (重要文化財). Nobody actually lives in it now, though. You can't get in unless you're a staff member. It was built in the early Edo period (1600s) and has a grass-thatched roof. You can see a picture of it here (second picture).
Here's a satellite image of the residence and its distance from the shrine.
In spring there's some lovely scenes of sakura to be seen around it - take a look at this page.
Shouden-in
The Shouden-in (聖天院) is said to have been built in 751. There is a lovely picture of it here. It was built because Jakkou's trusted priest Shouraku (勝楽) wanted a way to wish for Jakkou to have a blessed next life. Unfortunately, Shouraku died before it could be finished and the task was picked up by Shouraku's disciple, Shouun (聖雲), who was also Jakkou's third son.
It is located a short distance away from the Koma shrine and family house. You can see a satellite photo of it here.
A pair of totem-pole like things grace its entrance (though I don't know if these were moved to the shrine recently). They bear the names and stone heads of... I think they are male and female guardians: 天下大将軍 and 地下女将軍. (This page has pics of them from 1999.)
I think the temple is a member of the Shingon Chiyama sect (真言宗智山派), and its real name is Koma Mountain Shouraku Temple (高麗山勝楽寺 Koma-zan Shouraku-ji?).
There is also a section that serves as the family temple where remains of Koma ancestors are buried, and apparently Jakkou's own grave is located here in a structure called the Koma Oubyou (若光王廟), which you can see here (2nd picture).
Do note that unlike the Shouten-sama in the anime, this is read as Shouden. Not Shouten. Although the kanji is the same.
Kinchaku Fields
One of the most famous attractions of the area is the Kinchaku Fields (巾着田 Kinchaku-da). Originally it was just wasteland but the first immigrants to the area managed to cultivate the area into arable land; and when the river occasionally flooded it probably brought along the seeds of flowers. The word "Kinchaku" means "purse", and it refers to the shape of the area along the river (see the satellite image). It's more like a drawstring pouch type of purse, really.
It's most famous for having, in autumn, a beautiful carpet of equinox flowers (Lycoris radiata; in Japanese higanbana 彼岸花, also known as manjushage 曼珠沙華, also mysteriously called cluster amryllis). And I literally mean a carpet of it! How about you look at some nice pics of it? Here, here and here. I think they look best in the shadows, nested among the gnarled trunks of autumn trees... Do scroll down if you'd like to read a bit more about them (and how they tie into the anime).
Other flowers include the Cosmos flowers in autumn, and in spring there's sakura and yellow rapeseed flowers.
You can see a satellite image of Kinchaku-da, courtesy of Google Earth. Notice the shape of the river?
And this is what it looks like from a higher elevation some distance away. The yellow flowers are probably rapeseed flowers.
The higanbana
You might recognize it as the flower Kakunojou mentions in her opening speech in episode 1 - "赤く咲くのは彼岸花 それより赤い定めの芝居" (Crimson does the higanbana bloom; but redder still is the theatre of fate). And if I'm not wrong, it appears in the opening sequence at Kakunojou's feet near the end with the winter scene.
It's a flower linked to the pathway to hell and has connotations of hatred and loathing, for it's also referred to as Dead Person's Flower (死人花 shibitobana), Flower of Hell (地獄花 jigokubana), Ghostly Flower (幽霊花 yuureibana), etc.
In Korean, it (along with a few other Lycoris species) known as sangsahwa (相思華 in kanji) - the lovelorn flower, because poetically speaking, while the leaves and flowers yearn to be with each other, they actually never appear at the same time. The leaves come out in winter and dry by summer, while the flowers appear in autumn. :( Is that going to happen to our main characters?! :(
Confusion about the name
While reading up about Koma I was initially confused by one very big thing. The kanji for Koma, 高麗 can also be read as Kourai. You have to be careful because:
- Koma (with that kanji) refers to the toraijin (渡来人 immigrants) from around 668 AD, from the old Korean country of Kokuri (高句麗).
- Kourai (also known as Goryeo), on the other hand, refers to a later Korean kingdom (918-1392 AD) that apparently took its name from Kokuri.
- To make things worse, in Japan Koma was used as a word to describe Korean things in general (for a few centuries?).
- For example, Korean court music was called Koma-gaku (高麗楽), and spinning tops were called koma (独楽 or コマ)because they came from Korea. Koma-inu (狛犬) are guardian shrine dog things that originated from Korea too.
- (If you haven't noticed they all use different kanji for the same sound!)
Other similar places
Koma no Jakkou didn't settle down in the area that would become Koma right from the start. Many immigrants that arrived in 668 went first to other places in Eastern Japan as well. Where can you see the traces of their arrival?
Koma in Ooisomachi, Kanagawa
The biggest similar location is another Koma settlement in the town of Ooiso (大磯町) in Kanagawa prefecture.
There's a mountain, Komayama (JA wikipedia), and on the mountain (also called Kouraiji-san) they had their own temple called Kouraiji. The temple was near abandonment during the Muromachi era beacuse of battles in the area, but someone from the Tokugawa family made it a branch temple of the famous Kan'ei Temple in Ueno, and it came back to life.
However, in 1868 with the Meiji government taking over, a law decreeing the separation of Shinto from Buddhism split it up into a temple (寺 tera) and shrine (神社 jinja). Not long after, the temple was destroyed because it had Tokugawa connections, and in 1897 the shrine changed its name from "Kourai (?) Jinja" (高麗神社) to "Takaku Jinja" (高来神社). Coincidentially though, the kanji for "Takaku" can still be read as "Kourai"... You can see pictures of it here.
Ooisomachi is actually closer to Yokohama than the Koma in Saitama, but this is probably not what the Koma in the anime was based on.
Other places
Aside from Ooisomachi, there's also Komae (狛江市) in Tokyo where 3/4 of Mr. Children comes from (official site here), and Koma-gun (巨摩郡) in Yamanashi prefecture where the 2000 J-drama "Ai kotoba wa yuuki" was filmed; both took their names from a similar source as well.
Extra things of interest
Interestingly, in the province of Musashi - which, as you remember, Koma-no-koori was a part of - there was a famine, and subsequently a peasant-led revolt, in 1866 known as the Bushuu Outburst (武州一揆 Bushuu ikki), Bushuu being another name for Musashi province.
That's just two years before the anime starts, by the way. I don't know how it affected Koma-no-koori, but you can use your imagination. Credit goes to Henrietta-dono for originally pointing it out here.
Another thing Henrietta-dono found out was that a Japanese fan went to the real Koma shrine, and guess what she found there? A poster of the anime (with a "Source material: Koma shrine" pasted prominently on it.) Hoho~u.
Getting to Koma
(The following information is correct as of December 2006)
So, do you want to take a look at the beautiful higanbana of Kinchaku fields yourself? Or do you want to get a whiff of the temple Akizuki himself might have looked at? (...Or do you just want to see if that poster is still there?)
This, my friend, is where Google Earth and Google Maps save your life. Have a look at these maps:
Graphic map of the area | Satellite photo of the mentioned areas and the two closest railway stations
As you can see, the closest stations are Koma 高麗 (on the Seibu Ikebukuro 西部池袋 line, quite close to Kinchaku Fields), and Komagawa 高麗川 (on the JR Hachikou 八高 and Kawagoe 川越 lines, closer to Koma Shrine)
Koma Shrine and the family house are practically next to each other, but the Shouten-in is quite a way off. You have to walk down this longish road... Although I hear you can just walk through the forest and it takes only 3-5 minutes that way.
Kinchaku Fields is quite a way off from there. Koma Shrine's official site says it's about 3 km off and at least a 30 minutes' walk away. At least Kinchaku's site says it's only a 10-minute walk from Koma station. You can also take a Kokusai Kougyou bus from either of the two train stations and get off at the Kinchaku-da bus-stop; it's only a three minute walk from there. Remember higanbana/equinox flowers appear only in autumn!
For more details in Japanese do visit their respective official sites.
Note: I have never been to Japan, let alone these places :( I would love to hear from anyone who's been there and would like to share their experiences...
Websites (all Japanese)
Official sorts
Kinchaku Fields official site
Koma Shrine official site
Saitama page on the area
Hidaka city official site
Whatever this is
Other pages referred to
Study of Musashi Province - Koma section (Has pics)
Short writeup of a trip to Koma by a Korean student (in Korean and Japanese)
Toraijin no katsuyaku by Mineko Masaoka (She talked to the head priest of the shrine too)
A page on Shoudenin
This.
Wikipedia's short pages on Koma Shrine, Koma no Jakkou, Koukuri and Kinchaku Fields.
Bit of info on sangsahwa.
