Stone carvingHakodate · JP
Mutō Zen'yū Poetry Monument (Mutō Zen'yū Kahi)
The Mutō Zen'yū Poetry Monument (武藤善友歌碑, Mutō Zen'yū Kahi) is a quiet literary stone set in the leafy Green Belt walkway of the Toyokawa-cho district in Hakodate's Yamate ("upper town"). It commemorates Mutō Zen'yū (1900–1971), a Buddhist priest from Akita who became one of the driving figures of Hokkaido's modern tanka (5-7-5-7-7 short-poem) world, and it carries a single evocative poem cast in stone. Rather than a grand sight, this is a small hidden treasure for walkers: a slim pillar marking the poet's name and a stele engraved with his verse, half-swallowed by trees beside the old Toyokawa Inari Shrine. The poem itself captures something essential about Hakodate — at sunset over the hillside town, the bells of a Christian church and the bells of a Buddhist temple ring out together.