Achi Shrine Kurashiki

 

Achi Shrine is located on a hilltop overlooking the Bikan Historic District in Kurashiki, and is now the pre-eminent shrine of the area.

The chinowa, the circular "rope" of grass for purification can be found at different times of the year at diferent shrines. Here it was mid August.

It is believed that in ancient times this was the site of a garden belonging to the local ruling clan and there is supposed to be remnants of a cran and turtle island stone arrangement from that time.

Around tye time the area started to develop as a political and merchant centre, a Myoken Shrine was moved here from a nearby temple.

Until 1868 it was known as Myoken-gu and changed the name to Achi Shrine at the time of Shinbutsu bunri.

The first shrine buildings were built in 1620.

The three main kami are now said to be the Munakata Princesses, Tagirihime, Tagitsuhime, and Ichikishimahime, collectively known for marine safety.

Myoken was a very popular shrine in Japan, dedicated to the Buddhist deity of the North Star. When most Myoken shrines were changed in 1868 they switched to a pair of obscure kami from the Kojiki. Why they chose the Munakata Kami here is a mystery.

There are a wide variety of secondary shrines and kami in the grounds including a Susano shrine that also brought in several other local shrine kami in the so-called shrine mergers of 1910.

A Tenmangu shrine also enshrines Yamato Takeru, Sarutahiko, and Omononushi as well as Sugawara Michizane. Curiously there were lots of Daruma dolls at this shrine.

Another sub-shrine enshrines Okuninushi, Kotoshironushi, and Homusubi.

There is also an Inari shrine brought here from nearby in the early 20th century. The shrine grounds has quite a famous Wisteria, and a Noh stage also.

I visited at the start of day 8 of my walk along the Chugoku Kannon Pilgrimage as I headed south out of Kurashiki towards the next temple, Rendaiji. The previous post was on Kurashiki Silhouettes the evening before.

Yamate Kannondo Temple 52 Sasaguri Pilgrimage

 

Day 2 of our walk along the magnificent Sasaguri Pilgrimage began where it had ended the day before, at Chikuzen-Yamate Station.

Temple 52 is easily noticed by the unusual tall structure. Included at the site is the Watatake Inari Daimyojin Shrine.

Next to it is the tall structure with a tall painting.

The painting is of  a fairly young Kobo Daishi and was the result of an old monk named Mori Jundo who sat by the roadside and begged for donations from passers-by around 1949-1952. 

Like all the other little "temples" on the pilgrimage there is a large, eclectic collection of small statuettes of a range of Buddhas and Kami.

The honzon is an Eleven-faced Kannon, although I believe the one now is a newer relacement of the original stone one which is also on display.

There are also quite a few statues of Fudo Myoo, in fact, as I have mentioned before, I have never encoubtered so many Fudo statues as here in Sasaguri...

The previous post was on the last two temples of day one, both very close to ths one.

Tanga Daigongen

 

After descending from Shichiga Pass I start to head down a narrow valley towards Yuasa and cannot fail to notice Tanga Daigongen.

Built on a steep slope, the site is a collection of colourful orange metal torii with numerous shrines behind them.

According to the legend, Emperor Shirakawa fell ill at this spot while on a pilgrimage to Kumano and a white-haried old man appeared and helped him, so Shirakawa enshrined him here as Tanga Gongen.

There are several Inari shrines here, and several shrines to Fudo Myo.

The main kami though appears to be Tanga Daigongen which I believe is a manifestation of Kono Zao Gongen, the head deity of Shugendo. Photo 10 is a statue of Kono Zao Gongen.

Photo 9 is of En no Gyoja, the legendary mystic who is said to be the founder of Shugendo and who here is named Shinben Daibosatsu.

Also enshrined here are a Koyasu Daishi, a Tatee Jizo, and an Eleven-Headed Kannon as well as several more kami.

I love these kind of places as they mix so many strands and layers of religious history across all the artificial barriers of sects and schools...

Very "folk" as opposed to so many of the bigger establishments that are overtly political and somewhat sterile.

This was day 7 of my walk on the Saigoku Kannon Pilgrimage, said to be the oldest "circuit" pilgrimage in Japan, and still following the Kumano Kodo Kiiji Route at this point.

The previous post was on the route up to the pass. Once I reached Yuasa I jumped ahead by train to Kimiidera Temple.

Unome Inari Atago Inari Shrine

 

For those who follow this blog, I'd like to wish you all the best for the new year, and thanks for visiting.

On top of Mount Atago in Fukuoka, within the grounds of the Washio Atago Shrine, is an Inari Shrine.

I can find almost no info on the shrine other than it is a branch of the head Inari Shrine in Japan, Fushimi Inari near Kyoto. Shrines will get their "divided spirit", bunrei, usually, but not always from the head shrine.  More Hachiman shrines got their bunrei from Iwashimizu Hachimangu rather than the head shrine at Usa, indicating that specific local versions of kami, and Buddhas,  may be considered to have more power or other attributes.

This Inari shrine also has numerous smaller Inari shrines within it, something quite common to Inari shrine. This again indicates that the universality of kami and Buddhas is not absolute. each Inari shrine will be for a particular, local, manifestation of an Inari.

This was the last stop of my epic 77 day walk around Kyushu on the Kyushu Pilgrimage. From here I headed to the station and headed home. I did the walk in about 8 legs, spread over about 15 months. I passed through all of the prefectures of Kyushu and walked during all 4 seasons, though I was mostly able to avoid too much bad weather by fortuitous timing.

In total I have posted about 560 posts on this particular pilgrimage. Because of the structure of Blogger they can be seen and read in reverse chronological order by clicking the Kyushu108 tag at the bottom of the post.

In theory I could do a page where I list all the links in chronological order, but that would take a lot of work and, quite frankly, I don't have enough readers to make it a priority. I have been posting Kyushu Pilgrimage posts about every other post, so from now on I will do the same for my Chugoku Pilgrimage posts, that is to say, every other post will be a Chugoku post. The posts in between I will continue to post on the other pilgrimages... Shikoku, Shikoku Fudo Myo, Shodoshima, Saigoku, Iwami, Kinki Fudo, Kyushu Fudo, and Sasaguri as well as the other series like the Japan Sea Coast.

In the Kyushu Fudo Myo Pilgrimage walk I at times follow the same route as this pilgrimage but at others venture to different places via different routes.

The previous post was on the views from Mount Atago.

Inari Shrine at Ikuta Jinja

 

Ikuta Shrine is a major shrine in Kobe. It was the third ranked shrine of the province and hence the area around it is now called Sannomiya.

In the NE corner of the grounds, near the east gate is a small Inari Shrine.

What struck me was the concrete wall alongside the torii tunnel.

Ikuta shrine claims an ancient history back to Empress Jingu, but I can find no info on this Inari Shrine.

The newness of the shrine suggests to me it was rebuilt when the neighbouring apartment block was constructed.

This visit was at the end of my third day walking the Kinki Fudo Myoo Pilgrimage.

The previous post was on the Kobe Maritime Museum and Kawasaki Good Time World.