Gontazaka

Hakone Ekiden on New Year's Day running on National Route 1. Gontazaka is known as a difficult place for Ekiden runners and is also familiar on TV broadcasts.
There is a slope that goes away from the Ekiden course and leads from Motomachi Bridge to the prefectural Koryo High School near Sakaigi Junior High School. This is Gontazaka on the old Tokaido.
It is now a gentle slope paved, but at that time, it seems that the steep slope followed the first slope and the second slope. In particular, the first slope is a long bent slope, about 40 meters from the direction of Motomachi, and it seems that it was a severe uphill for travelers who left Edo early in the morning and were tired of walking.
The origin of the name of the slope is that when a traveler asked an old man about the name of the slope, he thought he was asked for his name and answered "Gonta", and the name of a developer named Gonzaemon Fujita There is a theory that what was called has changed.
When you go up Gontazaka, you will find Sakaiki Jizo-son. It is reported that Jizo, who settled on the coast of Kamakura, liked this place while being transported to Edo, and stopped moving, so he built a temple and enshrined it.