Leaving the Tokaido at the Hinaga fork, Yaji and Kitahachi went south along the Ise pilgrimage road and at last reached Yamada in the province of Ise.
In the Edo period, the Ise pilgrimage was a commoner's dream of a lifetime. As the song went, "I want to go to Ise, I want to see the Ise road, at least once in my life," and every year hundreds of thousands came to worship from all over the country. In the years of the "okage mairi," mass pilgrimages that came roughly once every sixty years, it is said millions flocked to Ise.
At Ise there were Shinto officials called oshi who took care of pilgrims' lodging, guidance and offerings of sacred kagura dance. The two too stayed at an oshi's house and were treated to lavish food and drink.
In Yamada the two made trouble here as well. Kitahachi, playing the Edo sophisticate, teased a Kamigata man he met at the inn, only to be put firmly in his place. They also went out to the Furuichi pleasure quarter, where they were snubbed by courtesans and made a great fuss about a lost purse.
When at last they worshipped at the Outer and Inner Shrines, the two purified themselves in the Isuzu River, and even they felt reverent in the solemn air of the sacred precinct. Yaji composed an unusually pious poem: "arigata ya / kami no megumi no / Isuzugawa / nagare no sue wa / itsu made mo taezu" (How grateful I am: the blessings of the gods are like the Isuzu River, whose flow will never cease).
Their pilgrimage done, the two said, "Since we've come all this way, let's see Kyoto and Osaka too," and set off from Ise along the Yamato road toward Kyoto. Their journey was far from over.