Iwami 33 Kannon Pilgrimage Temple 1 Enno-ji

While searching for the first temple of the Iwami 33 Kannon Pilgrimage in Oda City I thought I had found it when I came across a small, plain, non-descript little buddhist building with a statue of Kannon at the water basin.

Behind it was a small cave with an altar, and from the cave a path led up the small hillside...

Along the path were a series of small statues. Obviously a miniature pilgrimage though I didnt explore further.
I was not expecting much in terms of grand temples on this pilgrimage, Iwami is after all a poor and remote area, but I thought that the first temple would have been a bit grander...

And then 100 meters further along the lane I found Enno-ji.

Established in 894 the main deity is yakushi Nyorai. Now the temple belongs to the Shingon sect.

Kitahachimangu Inari Shrine

Located right next to Kitahachimangu in Oda City is a small Inari shrine.

Its a small shrine with only about a dozen vermillion torii lining the approach.

Inari are very popular shrines, with many larger shrines having Inari shrines within them. The identity of Inari is also very complex having many historical strands, though nowadays the official identity is as Ukanomitama, an offspring of Susanoo according to the Kojiki

Iwami 33 Kannon Pilgrimage: Kitahachimangu

Though I have yet to finish walking the Izumo 33 Kannon Pilgrimage Ive started walking the Iwami 33 Kannon. Being local it means I can do it in one day sections when the weather window allows. I had wanted to do the old Iwami 33 but many of the temples on it no longer exist... victims of Haibutsu Kishaku I suspect.

The old and the new pilgrimages both share a majority of temples but the older one started in Iwami Ginzan and the new one starts in Oda. On my way from Oda Station to the first temple I stopped in at Kita Hachimangu.

A fairly typical Hachiman Shrine, though it was founded in the ninth century, much earlier than many others, and unusually is a branch of the original Usa Hachiman rather than the Kyoto Iwashimizu Hachiman. There are many secondary shrines in the grounds, Ebisu, Aragami, Awashima, Konpira etc

The most interesting of the secondary shrines is this Kinashi Shrine. It enshrines Susano and connects to when he stopped here on his journey from Sila to Izumo. According to local legends he, along with local kami, travelled back and forth between Izumo and Korea from a point a few miles down the coast... Even more interesting is that this shrine was the original shrine here before the Hachimangu was established.

Sanbe San

This is the draincover for the town of Oda, a fairly nondescript town close to the border between Iwami and Izumo. The mountains in the background are known as Sanbesan, and are the highest in Shimane at 1,126 m above sea level.

Oda does not have much to see for tourists, and is pretty much just the rail access point for visitors to the nearby World Heritage site of Iwami Ginzan, but I did wander around last fall hunting the fall colors.

This view of Sanbesan is from near my house, and must be about 25k distant as the crow flies. I took the photo on a winter walk up Maruyama.

On the lower slopes. Sanbesan is actually a cluster of 7 volcanoes, and the highest one is named Osanbesan. We were on our way to visit the Buried Forest Museum, actually a fascinating place where you can go below ground and see 4,000 year old trees that were buried in a major eruption.

This is on the south side, and its where I slept out before climbing to the top early the next morning. I had walked two days from my house to get here. One of these days I will write up that walk :)

More round windows

Photos of round windows have always been popular when I have posted them before, so here are some recent ones from my collection. 3 earlier posts can be found here

This first one is from a tea room at Nagaoka Tenmangu Shrine.

This one is from a temple in Takahashi, Okayama Prefecture.

From a restaurant on the approach to Hofukuji Temple in Soja, Okayama Prefecture.

A shop in Hirado Town on Hirado Island in Nagasaki Prefecture.

An abandoned building in Oda City, Iwami.