Ikuchijima Island-Wide Art Museum

On the second day of my walk from Honshu to Shikoku along the Shimanami Kaido I left Kosanji Temple and started walking down the west coast of the island. On the beach looking westward was this statue, a Jizo I think.

A little further, set on a rock in the water was an unusual modern sculpture, "Wings of the Waves" by Susumu Shingu, one of 17 modern sculptures located around the island in what they call the Island-Wide Art Museum

Sunset Beach runs down the coast almost to the Tatara Bridge which crosses over to Omishima.

At the southern end of the beach another couple of sculptures. In the foreground is "Calm Time-Red form / Inclination by Keiji Uematsu, and in the background "Clairvoyance" by Shin Matsunaga.

Art can take many forms, but this old bus is not part of the Island-Wide Art Museum.

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Hill of Eternal Hope Revisited

Miraishin no Oka, the Hill of Eternal Hope is a sculptural work located on a hill above Kosanji, the somewhat bizarre temple located on Ikuchijima along the Shimanami kaido that connects Hishu with Shikoku.

I have posted about it before, the link is here Heights of Eternal Hope for the Future

All the statues and in fact the surface of the hill top, is constructed out of Carrera marble from Italy where the Japanese sculptor, Kazuo Kuetani lives and works.

I revisited it while on my second day walking along the Shimanami Kaido, a route most often cycled by visitors.

Kosanji Revisited

Kosanji

On the second day of my walk along the Shimanami Kaido I stopped in at Kosanji Temple to take some more photos. This first one is a reproduction of the Yomeimon gate at Toshugu Shrine in Nikko.

Like all the buildings at Kosanji that are based on famous historical structures, it is somewhat more colorful and embellished with more details than the original.

The remains of the temple founders mother lie beneath the five storied pagoda which is based on the pagoda at Muro-ji in Nara.

The fifteen meter tall statues of Kannon is based on a statue less than 2 meters tall in Horyu-ji, Nara.

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Ikuchi Bridge

The sun was getting low as I approached Ikuchi Bridge on the first day of my walk from Honshu to Shikoku along the Shimanami Kaido.

Connecting Innoshima with Ikuchijima, it is a cable-stayed bridge built in 1991.

The total length is 790 meters with the main span being 490 meters. The two supports are delta shaped.

Once across to Ikuchijima I had to find somewhere to lay my sleeping bag for the night.

A Walk from Honshu to Shikoku Day 2 (morning)

I woke before the sun and headed off around the north coast of Ikuchijima and enjoyed the sunrise lighting up the surrounding islands. I got into the town of Setoda by 8 and my plan was to stop in at the Kosanji complex that opened at 9 so I sat on a bench and watched the town come to life around me. I had been to Kosanji before, but this was a different time of year, a different time of day, I had a new camera, and I was a few years older, so plenty of chances for new photos. earlier posts on Kosanji can be found here

On top of the hill at the sculpture garden known as The Heights of Eternal Hope for the Future, the brilliant white marble was dazzling in the bright sunlight.

After Setoda the coast road heads south to Sunset Beach, a really nice beach with an Onsen nearby that I had planned to stay at but as it was only lunchtime I decided to push on and try and get over to Omishima and then to Hakatajima.

 

Ikuchijima is home to the "Island Wide Art Museum" which is a series 17 sculptures placed in public places around the island. Near Sunset Beach there were three that I found, including this one, Calm Time-Red Form / Inclination, by Keiji Uematsu.

 

Ikuchijima is connected to Omishima by the Tatara Bridge,the longest cable-stayed bridge in the world when it was built.

Kosan-Ji: the statues...

This pair of Phoenix's stand in the grounds of the Kongo Kan (New Treasure House) across the road from Kosan-Ji Temple.

The Museum houses a large collection of Buddhist art, mostly from Japan but some from Korea.
Entrance to the museum is included in the entrance fee to Kosan-Ji. Within the temple there is also a large collection of Tea Ceremony objects, and a collection of Modern Art.

Most of the statuary within the temple displays the same flamboyance and vividness as the temple buildings.

Kosan-Ji. The architecture,,,

Kosan-Ji temple on Ikuchijima is probably the most unique and unusual temple in Japan.

The temple complex is composed of many "copies" of the most famous examples of temple architecture from throughout Japan.

They are built at a slightly reduced scale from the originals, but have been "improved" and embellished with intricate carvings and color schemes that bear no connection to the originals.

Gaudy is certainly a word that could be applied, and perhaps Kitsch, though there is no concept of kitsch in Japan.

Thye temple officially belongs to the True Pure Land sect, but actually has no congregation. It was built by Kanemoto Kozo for his dead mother, to ensure her passage to paradise.

A large chunk of his fortune has gone into the building of Kosan-Ji, but with an entrance fee of 1,500 yen times the millions of visitors the temple has received over the years, it is probably making a profit now.

Choseikaku Villa

Choseikaku Villa was built in 1927. This nearly 400 sq. m. villa displays many of the features of architecture of this period, with elements of western architecture mixed with traditional Japanese.

It was built by Kanemoto Kozo for his aging mother who lived nearby in Setoda Town on Ikuchijima near Ohnomichi in Hiroshima.

Kanemoto made his fortune from weapons. Interestingly, most Japanese websites about him will just mention that he worked in "steel tubing", but most non-Japanese websites point out that his product was guns.

After his mother died he "bought" a Buddhist priesthood and proceeded to build Kosan-Ji temple around his mother's villa.

A guided tour of the villa costs an extra 200yen on top of the regular entrance fee to Kosan-Ji.

Cave of 1000 Buddhas

The Cave of 1,000 Buddhas is another of the "attractions" at Kosan-Ji on Ikuchijima in Hiroshima Prefecture.

One descends into a labyrinth of underground caves and tunnels past a series of tableaux and depictions of buddhist hells.

Then one enters the realm of the buddhas.

The caves and tunnels are all man-made.

One emerges back into the light at the foot of a giant statue of Kannon.

Tatara Bridge

I found this draincover on Ikuchijima, Hiroshima Prefecture, and it depicts the Tatara Bridge which connects Ikuchijima with Omishima.

Sunrise

When I took the photos it was the longest cable-stayed bridge in the world, with a central span of 890 metres, but last year a longer bridge was built over the Yangtze in China, and a soon to be completed bridge in Hong Kong will cause the Tatara bridge to drop to third.

Sunset

The bridge is one of 10 that connects Honshu with Shikoku along the Nishiseto Expressway, also known as the Shimanami Kaido. Each bridge has a section for cyclists and for pedestrians, and the route has become a popular cycling destination with plenty of campsites and accomodations along the route.

See more Japanese draincovers.