Our third “Yu-Yu Ride” met at Circles at 6 a.m. and rode all the way to the monastery in Tajimi. The announcement post is here.
With rain forecast for the rainy season, calling it off crossed our minds, but we figured, “We can probably make it, right?” and went for it!
Apart from the climb up Utsutsu Pass being a bit tough, the route, mostly on back roads, was a comfortable ride.
A solemn atmosphere and Sunday Mass
We arrived at our destination, Tajimi Monastery. The 9 a.m. Sunday Mass had already started, but stepping inside was like entering another world. High ceilings, a domed main altar, and ten side altars, five on each side, hung with paintings of the story of Christ: simple, yet majestic. Nearly 100 people were attending Sunday Mass, and the sight of the women worshippers praying with veils over their heads made a deep impression on me.
I'd seen it in movies now and then, but this was the first Mass I'd ever attended. It's the most important liturgy in the Catholic Church, derived from Christ's Last Supper: a gathering for prayer centered on the Eucharist, in which bread and wine are shared as the “body and blood” of Christ.
We took off our helmets and quietly watched the Mass unfold, following along in the order-of-service booklet.
Why is there a monastery in Tajimi?
Tajimi Monastery was founded in 1930 (Showa 5) by Father Mohr, a German missionary of the Catholic Society of the Divine Word.
Even though the JR Chuo Line between Nagoya and Tajimi was already open back then, I was a little curious why a monastery was built here, so I looked into it. It turns out monasteries are, by nature, built in places cut off from the secular world where they can be self-sufficient, and according to records, Tajimi, located in the center of the Japanese archipelago, was chosen as the site for a “central monastery” to train Japanese monks.
It does sit a little way up from Route 19, and I could imagine that back then the entrance gate looked out over beautiful farmland stretching to the Toki River. Right next door is the famous temple Kokeizan Eihoji, and there are many ancient burial mounds around, so I think it's been a place with good energy since ancient times.
The deep connection between monasteries and wine
This ride had one more big goal: to buy and try the “monastery wine” sold at the monastery shop.
I love digging into the roots of things, and with wine being my personal obsession lately, I wanted to visit a place where you can see the old-fashioned style of winemaking.
In Christianity, wine isn't just a drink. As mentioned above, it's essential to Mass, where it becomes “the blood of Christ.” That's why medieval European monasteries set up self-sufficient systems, growing grapes and making wine on their own grounds so they'd never run out of wine for Mass.
To make “a better offering to God,” monks spent centuries recording how soil and climate affect flavor (terroir), and refined their pruning and aging techniques. The reason we can enjoy delicious wine today is that European monasteries, cut off from the world, served as “winemaking research labs.”
Likewise in Japan, during the Pacific War, when wine imports from overseas were cut off, the wine made at Tajimi Monastery was supplied to churches across the country for Mass, helping to sustain the Catholic faith in Japan.
Today, in cooperation with a social welfare corporation, people with disabilities at “Komaki Winery” have taken over everything from growing the grapes to making the wine, carrying this historic winemaking into the present.
Beautiful scenery and the “Wine Festa”
It's not just knowledge: after actually going there, experiencing it and enjoying the scenery, the story feels very real, and I suspect I'll be thinking of the monastery whenever I drink wine from now on.
After buying wine at the church, we tried it by the Toki River near Tajimi Station.
Every autumn (usually around November), the “AJU Wine Festa in Tajimi Monastery” is held in the monastery's beautiful vineyard. Judging by the photos, it has a really lovely atmosphere, so I made a note of it as a festival I'd like to go to, as I swayed along on the train home with my bike bagged up.
The Yu-Yu Ride is a just-for-fun ride that heads for an interesting destination. We'll be doing it again, so if the timing works for you, please come join us.
