Kannabiji Temple 11 on the Iwami Kannon pilgrimage

 

Kannabiji is one of the oldest temples in the area I live. It was founded in 746 and it is said that Kobo Daishi later visited and converted it to Shingon.

It was located halfway up a mountain and was supported by the Ogasawara Clan who operated from the nearby Maruyama Castle. In 1872 the area suffered a big earthquake known as the Hamada Earthquake and it caused the spring at the temple to dry up, so the temple was forced to relocate to its current location.

When I visited in early May the azaleas and botanzakura were in full bloom. In the grounds is a very large weeping cherry and by the gate a huge gingko. These last two may have been in the old temple that stood here before Kannabiji was moved here.

I was visiting on day 6 of my walk along the Iwami Kannon pilgrimage, with Kannabiji being number 11. It is also temple 22 on the recently rediscovered Iwami Ginzan Kannon pilgrimage.

The honzon is a Kokuzo Boddhisattva, not a very well-known bodhisattva, but the one that was instrumental in the training of Kobo Daishi..

The Nio are quite cool, and by the side of the main building are a set of rakan statues, (last photo). I cant remember seeing the Kannon statue.

The priest lives nearby in a modern house, but a huge, traditional house sits to the left of the main hall.

The main altar bis quite colourful, with some excellent dragon paintings.

The storehouse is actually a small museum whose prize possession is the remains of a set of samurai armour that dates back to the Heian period and is believed to be the second or third oldest samurai armour in Japan. It is not much to look at but at the art museum in Sakurae Town is a full replica.

On this leg of my walk I walked the route "backwards" from my house upriver. The previous post was on the Zen temple in my village, Hikasaji.

Saikyoji Temple 77 Kyushu pilgrimage

 

Saikyoji Temple is located on a hillside overlooking the harbour of the main settlement on Hirado Island.

It is built on the site of where Kobo Daishi performed his first Goma ceremony after returning from China in 806.

It is a Shingon temple and because of its size is sometimes referred to as the Koyasan of the West, although it must be said I have come across numerous other temples with the same nickname.

It was established in 1607 by the local daimyo Shigenobu Matsuura, who was a fervent believer in Shingon. However, at that time a zen temple existed on the property.

The zen priest refused to leave and so Matsuura burned down the temple with the priest inside. For years Matsuura was haunted by ghosts of the murdered riests until one day they were scared away by the sound of a baby crying. This is said to be the origin of the "Crying Baby Sumo" event held every February at Setsubun. Most Naki Sumo events are held in shrines in May.

The honzon is a statue of Kokuzo Bodhisattva, not one of the more famous bodhisattvas, but important to Kobo Daishi. Kokuzo was the focus of the ascetic practices that Kobo Daishi undertook as a youth.

Within the grounds are an Ebisu Shrine and an Inari Shrine.

Between the main temple and the Okunoin, the path is lined with 88 statues representing the Shikoku pilgrimage.

The temple was well supported by the Matsuura clan and the temples Treasure House museum has many delightful paintings and statues, unfortunately some of which were looted from Korea during Hideyoshis invasions.

The temple is number 77 on the Kyushu pilgrimage and also on the Kyushu Kannon pilgrimage.

Number 78 on the Kyushu pilgrimage is a few kilometers away and is the site where Kobo Daishi set sail on his journey to China. It is an unmanned site so pilgrimage stamps need to be gotten here.

Hirado is an interesting place with a lot of historical connections. William Adams, the English sailor immortalized in the novel Shogun, is currently attracting a lot of interest because of the new remake of the TV drama.

He lived and died in Hirado.

The previous post was on the pagoda at the okunoin of the temple.

Hirado is well worth a visit if you are in the area, and Saikyoji is well worth a visit if you are in Hirado.

Takada Kokuzo-do

The Sasaguri Pilgrimage, like the Kyushu Pilgrimage, does not have a lot of big, grand temples. It does have a lot of interesting and surprising one though. Most of the "temples" are too small to have a resident priest, and are more what could be described as "chapels. One thing they do all have though is statuary, especially Fudo Myo.

Temple 21, but the second to visit if you start at Sasaguri Sation, is just such a temple. With 88 temples within only 50k of walking, the distance between temples is often measured in meters rather than kilometers. Takada Kokuzo-do was onky 5 minutes from the previous temple and less than a minute to the next.

There was a Jizo in a little hut, and a couple of Fudo Myo's in the grounds. The Honzon is Kokuzo Bosatsu, not one of the more well-known Bodhisattvas.

It is however the deity that Kobo Daishi prayed to while training as a young man at Mount Tairyuji and Cape Muroto. In the small temple a statue of Kobo Daishi flanks the honzon

Shikoku88 Temple 12 Shosanji

The twelfth temple, Shosanji, is the first mountain temple of the pilgrimage and the first classified as difficult to reach. It is at almost 800 meters in a wonderful setting of giant cedars that on the day I was there were poking into the clouds.

Shosanji means "buirning mountain temple" and refers to the founding legend which has the famed ascetic En no Gyoja, credited with being the founder of Shugendo, subduing a fiery dragon on the mountain and then founding the temple in the late 7th Century. A hundred years later Kukai came to the mountain and did the same thing. The Kukai legend, not surprisingly, is more common nowadays.

The temple now belongs to the Shingon sect and the main deity is Kokuzo Bosatsu.

Kokuzo Bosatsu is a "wish granting" buddha and was very important to Kukai in the early stages of his path to enlightenment when he was chanting the morning star mantra. Kokuzo is associated with venus, the morning star, and dawn.

Shosanji is the second highest of the 88 temples, and for me at least the temple itself was overshadowed by the forest around it.....