For me, one of the great joys of walking these pilgrimages is not so much the temples themselves, rather the unexpected thibgs seen and experienced in the spaces between the temples. Day 10 was a day that alternated between light rain and heavily overcast.
My route was south, overland from Kitsuki till I hit Beppu Bay at the old castle town of Hiji. Tgere was a pilgrimage temple here, but more interesting was a much larger temple that had a garden designed by the great Zen artist-monk Sesshu, who lived for a while in the area.
The temple is also home to what is classed as the biggest Cycad in Japan. A very ancient species of palm, I believe its related to the sago palm. The Sesshu garden was not in great condition.
From here it was a long walk around the curve of the bay, stopping at any shrines I passed, until I reached the famous host spring "resort" of Beppu, which to me looked more like some sort of dystopian industrial hellhole with all the charm of an Albanian oil refinery, though I suspect in the sunshine it wouldnt look so bad.
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"the charm of an Albanian oil refinery" made my day! :-D
ReplyDeleteWonderful pictures, as always! ♥
How nice to learn the story of Sesshu and the rat, new to me. A very great artist indeed. But Beppu perhaps not on any future itinerary of mine. Thank you as always.
ReplyDelete"Albanian oil refinery" - colourful language. One gets the impression that Beppu did not come high on your list of favourite places.
ReplyDeleteI'm really enjoying the Kyushu pilgrimage from your viewpoint.
Great to follow along.
ReplyDeleteWonderful fish carving.
Nice cycad, hope the garden gets some care