Kyorinbo in Autumn Splendour

 

Thursday November 24th, 2016, day 39 of my walk along the Saigoku Pilgrimage, and I descended from Kannonshoji Temple in the mountains near Omihachiman in Shiga.

I visited Kyorinbo, a famous spot for Fall Colours and as I had come down the mountain I entered the property through the rear entrance.

Kyorinbo is a Tendai Temple, though it doesn't look like a temple.

It is said the temple was founded in 605 by none other than Shotoku Taishi.

A small statue of Kannon said to be carved by him is the honzon of the temple and is enshrined in a small cave in the grounds.

The temple was destroyed during the Warring States Period but was rebuilt in 1585.

The Shoin, Main Gate, and Storehouse all date from the early Edo Period and are thatched.

The Shoin has two gardens, one to the south, and one to the west.

The one to the south is called the Fudaraku Garden. It contains a path that runs to the main hall and also the cave holding the Kannon statue.

It is also the garden where most of the maple trees are planted. It was created in the Muromachi Period (1338 to 1573). 

The garden to the west is attributed to Kobori Enshu and is believed to date from the early Edo Period.

It is a pond garden with a hillside of moss-covered stones.

Kyorinbo has the nickname of Stone Temple.

The Enshu Garden features a "dry waterfall" and the pond contains the classic Crane and Turtle stone arrangements.

The garden can be appreciated any time of the year, but with the Fall colours it becomes ablaze with colour.

For much of the year, the garden is closed but opens on the weekends  and holidays in the Spring and daily during November.

In November the garden is illuminated and open in the evenings.

The temple was abandoned and derelict in the late twentieth century but a monk almost singlehandedly restored it.

The closest train  is Azuchi Station where taxis and rental bicycles can be found.

Another Enshu garden I covered recently was the one at Raikyuji Temple.

Glimpses of Futagoji Temple

 

Futagoji Temple is a large Tendai temple on the Kunisaki Peninsula in Oita, Kyushu. Pictured above are the steps leading up to the Okunoin.

Situated in the centre of the peninsula and on the lower slopes of its namesake, the highest point, 720 meters high Mount Futago.

Since the Edo Period, it has been the head temple of the Rokugo Manzan, the unique mountain-worshipping religion that is a syncretic mix of Tendai Buddhism and Usa Hachimangu shinto.

The honzon is a Thousand-armed Kannon and the temple has many other superb statues and paintings.

The Okunoin, further up the mountainside is set against a cliff and is well worth the extra climb.

On this trip I passed through the temple grounds fairly quickly as I was pressed for time and had to climb to the top of the mountain.

A few years later I returned and spent much longer here and took many more photos, so that will come in a later post on the Kyushu Fudo Myo Pilgrimage.

Earlier I posted on the approach to the temple which has the largest stone Nio in all of the peninsula.

The previous post was on the 360-degree views from on top of Mount Futago.

Chikurin-in Temple Gunpoen Garden

 

The Gunpoen Garden at Chikurin-in Temple in Yoshino is, along with one of the gardens at Taimadera and the one at Jikoin, classed as one of the Three Great Gardens of Yamato, and while having an intriguing history is hardly known at all.

Yoshino, in the mountains of southern Nara, is and was a centre of Shugendo, the mountain-worshipping cult, but is now most famous for its cherry blossoms, although the Shugendo sites are part of a World Heritage Site.

The small temple of Chikurin-in is now somewhat overshadowed by its lodgings facility, technically a Shukubo, but in essence a ryokan.

Historically the temple was a lodging for Shugendo pilgrims, and it is said many very famous guests have stayed here, including Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Emperor Hirohito.

The temple claims to have been founded by Prince Shotoku which would mean late 6th or early 7th century and it was called  Chinzan Dera. A couple of centuries later Kukai visited and changed its name to Josen-ji.

In 1385 it was renamed Chikurin-in, and in the late 16th century was moved to its current location.

The garden, a stroll-type with a large pond, is said to have been originally designed by Sen no Rikyu, probably the most famous tea master of all, although one of his most important students, the renowned general Yusai Hosokawa, is thought to have done further work on the garden.

What is often mentioned in reference to the garden here is that several cherry trees play a prominent part in the design and that this is quite rare in standard Japanese garden design. When I visited in November, the cherry trees were bare but a few maples were in full colour.

A path leads up to high ground above the garden where there is an archery ground and great views over the Yoshino mountains, the grand Kinpusenji Temple, and the rest of the  town.

The temple was closed down in 1874 with the shiunbutsu bunri edicts but re-opened later as a Tendai sect temple. In 1948 it became a Shingon temple.

Chikurin-in is situated at roughly the boundary between the Naka Senbon area and the Kami Senbon area.

I'm sure that when the cherries are blossoming in the late Spring then the garden is delightful, but a glorious Autumn day was just fine for me. I was the only person in the garden.