蝉丸せみまる

The Ōsaka Barrier was a checkpoint on the border between Yamashiro Province and Ōmi Province (present-day Kyoto and Shiga).
This picture, from the Ise Sangū Meisho Zue (an illustrated guide to famous places on the pilgrimage to Ise), shows people coming and going on the Tōkaidō road near the site of the Ōsaka Barrier.

See it on the map

In Ōtani-chō, Ōtsu City, Shiga Prefecture, near the top of the pass on National Route 1, stands a monument marking the site of the Ōsakayama Barrier.

Some point out that the monument is not where the barrier actually stood. Even so, the place helps us picture how it once was. Today cars speed over the pass, and almost no one walks there.

But standing in front of the monument, it is fun to imagine the bustle of travelers and the sound of ox carts carrying loads that Semimaru may have heard.

(Video taken August 12, 2025)

This is part of the folding screens of scenes from The Tale of Genji, "At the Pass" and "Channel Buoys" (Genji Monogatari Sekiya Miotsukushi-zu Byōbu), painted by Tawaraya Sōtatsu, an artist of the Edo period. It shows Chapter 16, "At the Pass": Hikaru Genji's party, on its way from Kyoto to Ishiyama-dera Temple to give thanks, happens to pass Utsusemi's party at the Ōsaka Barrier as she returns to Kyoto with her husband, whose term as Vice-Governor of Hitachi has ended. Genji seems to be in the ox carriage on the right of the screen, and Utsusemi in the carriage stopped by the mountainside on the left.

Semimaru Shrine, in Ōtsu City, Shiga Prefecture, was founded in 946. It stands right by the monument at the site of the Ōsakayama Barrier. It honors two gods: Semimaru, known as a master of the biwa, and Sarutahiko no Mikoto. Semimaru is worshipped as a god of the performing arts, and Sarutahiko as a god who protects travelers on the road.

(Photo taken August 12, 2025)

At Seki Shrine, a branch shrine of Ōji Shrine in Kita City, Tokyo, Semimaru is honored as the ancestral god of hair.

According to a story, Semimaru invented the kamoji (a hairpiece) for his elder sister, who was troubled about her hair, so he came to be worshipped as a god of hair.

On the grounds stands the Kezuka, a memorial built in thanks for hair, and the stone fence around it lists the names of many hair-related businesses, such as wig makers and the hairdressers who tie sumo wrestlers' hair.

It is about a 5-minute walk from the North Exit of Ōji Station on the JR Keihin-Tōhoku Line.

(Photo taken August 23, 2025)

This print is by Utagawa Kuniyoshi, one of the greatest ukiyo-e artists of the Edo period.
It shows the lively Ōsaka Barrier, with many travelers hurrying past.

Look at the poor thatched hut: Semimaru is peeking out of its small window. With a calm face, he quietly watches people meeting and parting again and again.

The red cord-like sashes the women wear also catch the eye. One theory says such red cords were thought to ward off evil. To people in Edo, too, this kind of dress must have looked old-fashioned, so it may have helped create the feeling of an earlier age.

Tsukioka Yoshitoshi was a brilliant ukiyo-e artist active from the end of the Edo period into the Meiji period. His late masterpiece, One Hundred Aspects of the Moon (Tsuki Hyakushi), shows Semimaru playing the biwa alone and quietly under the moonlight.

The cracked walls and rough pillars with the bark still on them, and his long, untrimmed hair and beard after cutting himself off from the world, show the striking presence of a hermit who lives freely, unafraid of being alone.

He plays for no one, a deep and mysterious sound that seems to answer the moonlight. Only the rustle of the pampas grass in the wind softly joins the music of his biwa, and it all seems to melt into the quiet darkness of the night.