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.

Uchihara Oji Shrine

 

Located in Hidaka, a little north of Gobo, for 800 years this was known as Takaie Oji, but was renamed in early Meiji.

It was one of the 100 Oji, shrines along the main pilgrimage route from Kyoto down the coast of Wakayama and then into the Kumano Sanzan shrines.

Shrine records say there was a shrine here in the mid 5th century. I'm not exactly sure when the system of Oji were established, but I am guessing in the Heian Period when the most imperial pilgrimages along this route took place. The primary kami is listed as Amaterasu, with secondary kami listed as Homuda Wake (Ojin), Ichikishimahime, Kagutsuchi, Sugawara Michizane (Tenjin), Kanayamahiko, and  Nintoku.

During the so-called shrine mergers of early 20th century, 30 local shrines were moved here including multiple Benzaiten, Konpira, Tenjin, and Inari shrines as well as many unamed "satogami".

I visited at the start of day 7 of my walk along the Saigoku Kannon Pilgrimage, which in this section follows the old Kumano Kodo Kiiji Route. The previous post was on the nearby Dojoji Temple, a famous and picturesque spot.

The Legend & Treasures of Dojoji Temple

 

Dojoji Temple is a very old Tendai Temple and is thought to be the oldest temple in what is now Wakayama. It is located in what is now the city of  Gobo and is close to the  Kiiji route of the Kumano Kodo pilgrimage route that runs from Kyoto down to Hongu.

It is believed to have been founded in the early 8th century, possibly as early as 701, and is known as the setting for the  ancient story of Anchin and Kiyohime.

The story was recorded in a picture scroll and became famous through the Noh play Dojoji, and also as a puppet play and a kabuki play, as well as lullabies and assorted songs. In all more than 100 versions of the story existed.

Anchin was a young, and of course handsome, monk on a pilgrimage to Kumano in 929 when he spent the night as a guest of a village headman a little to the south of Dojoji.. Kiyohime, the beautiful daughter of the headman, fell in love with Anchin and became besotted with him. He promised to meet her again on his return and continued on to Hongu.

However, on his return journey he took a different route that bypassed the village. When Kiyohime found out she became distraught and started to chase after Anchin, in the process her rage transformed her into a dragon. Fearing for his life, he sought refuge at Dojoji and the monks lowered the huge temple bell over him to hide him. The dragon melted the bell and so incinerated Anchin.

There are many variations and additions to the story, but in the Hobutsuden, a modern building displaying the treasure of the temple, visitors can listen to the story told by a monk from one of the existing emaki, picture scrolls.

The Hobutsuden is a delight. Many temple treasure halls are rather musty and dark, but here it is open, airy, and bright, like a modern museum.

Several of the statues are National Treasures, including a Senju Kannon, and a Nikko Bosatsu and Gakko Bosatsu, all dating from the Heian Period.

Also from the Heian Period are numerous Important Cultural Properties, a Juichimen Kannon, a Bishamonten,  the Shitenno, and a Shaka Nyorai Triad.

Other Important Cultural Properties dating back to the Nara Period include another couple of Senju Kannons.

As evidenced by the statuary, the temple was very prosperous during the Heian Period. Most of the temple was burned down during Hideyoshi's invasion of the Kii Peninsula but was rebuilt in the 17th century with further reconstruction in the 18th century.

The main hall however survived as did most of the statuary. It is a National Treasure and dates to 1357. The Niomon dates to 1694, and the Pagoda dates to 1763. The honzon of the temple is a Senju Kannon.

I visited on the 6th day of my walk along the Saigoku Pilgrimage and Kumano Kodo. The previous post was on the nearby Kishu Railway, in one sense the smallest railway in Japan.

Kishu Railway. The Shortest Railway Line in Japan.

 

As I walked into the outskirts of Gobo City in Wakayama I came across some abandoned railway tracks. A few minutes later I arrived at Nishi Gobo Station of the Kishu Railway, the shortest railway line in Japan.

Actually, there is technically a slightly shorter line, somewhere up near Tokyo, but as it runs on tracks, trains, and drivers leased from another company, that doesn't seem to count to me.

The Kishu Railway runs 2.7 kilometers from Nishi Gobo Station to Gobo Station, with three stops in-between. The abandoned tracks I saw were from the 700 meter section from Nishi Gobo to Hidakagawa which closed in 1989.

The line opened in 1931 as the Gobo Rinko Railway and was never really successful. In 1973 it changed names after being bought by a real estate company who wanted the cachet of being able to call itself a railway company.

The railway owns three diesel carriages but only 2 are operational. There are no passing loops, so a single train shuttles back and forth about twenty times a day.

With at most about 200 passengers a day, and even with unmanned stations and "one-man cars", it cannot be making a profit, but it seems that recently a Chinese company became the majority shareholder. I visited on day 6 of my walk along the Kumano Kodo and Saigoku pilgrimage. The previous post was on Shioya Oji Shrine.