The Chugoku Kannon Pilgrimage is modelled on one of the oldest pilgrimage routes in Japan, the Saigoku Kannon Pilgrimage, however the Chugoku Pilgrimage is a fairly modern creation, dating back to the 1980's, and therefore its route is based on the modern transportation system and is basically geared towards driving.
However, a few parts of it do coincide with older pilgrimages, and some of these still have sections of footpath, a case in point being this section I am walking on day 8 of my walk along the Chugoku Pilgrimage. South of Kurashiki is Rendaiji, temple number 6 of the pilgrimage, and it has been a site of pilgrimage in its own right for centuries.
Known as Yuga Daigongen, it was a syncretic site now split into a temple and a shrine, but it was a fairly major pilgrimage destination, and connected to Konpirasan on Shikoku, with both sites often being visited on the same journey.
There were 4 routes to reach Yuga Daigongen, depending on which direction you were coming from, but the most travelled route was known as Kitasando and approached from the north.
After visiting the Kumano Shrine and its associated temples in Hayashi, a few kilometers further south a large torii across a minor road show the way to Yuga Daigongen.
Soon a path leads off the road and heads through a huge grove of bamboo. Whenever I am fortunate enough to pass through a bamboo forest I think of all those poor tourists in Arashiyama, crowded shouder to shoulder, viewing a manicured bamboo forest behind a fence while I have a huge, silent one all to myself.
Along the trail are several small wayside shrines, none visited often and with almost no upkeep.
The trail leads to a narrow mountain road and passes a village shrine, photo 11
The torii says its name is Eki Shrine, but it was renamed Susanoo Shrine in 1943.
Earlier that morning I had stopped in at
another Susanoo Shrine that had also previously been called Eki Shrine.
The road then passes a series of vegetable gardens... well protected against wild boar, monkeys, and deer.
and then skirts a village...
before once again becoming a trail....
As we get closer to the shrine-temple complex, more indications of the destination appear...
It was an absolute delight to spend an hour off of asphalt and traffic....