Reikyu Shrine Shimabara

 

Reikyu Shrine is located in Reikyu Park in the  Bentenmachi district of Shimabara City in Nagasaki.

The park also contains a small Inari Shrine, a Steam locomotive, and a nice pond garden.

It was originally founded in the mid 17th century by Koriki Tadafusa  who had been given control of the domain following the Shimabara Rebellion.

In the grounds is a Senryosono Shrine, pictured above, but there is no information on the shrines history or the kami.

Initially Reikyu Shrine was a Toshogu, a branch of the Tokugawa mausoleum at Nikko that enshrines Tokugawa Ieyasu.

In the late 19th century the shrine name was changed to Reikyu and the seven generations of Matsudaira lords who ruled the domain following the Koriki, were enshrined here.

Also enshrined at the same time was the Munakata kami and Inari.

The previous post in this series on Day 61 of my Kyushu walk was on the Nabeshima Mansion Garden, further north on the peninsula.

Kishu Toshogu Shrine

 

Kishu Toshogu is a very colorful shrine in Wakayama City. Kishu was the feudal domain of the Edo Period that was roughly what is now northern Wakayama Prefecture and part of Mie Prefecture.

Toshogu is the name given to shrines enshrining the deified first Tokugawa Shogun, Tokugawa Ieyasu. The main and first Toshogu is in Nikko.

It is located in the Wakanoura area in the south of Wakayama City. Wakanoura means Bay of Poetry and is a revered location that has had many poems written about it since ancient times.

By the end of the Edo Period there were about 500 branches of Toshogu established all over Japan, but that number has been seriously reduced since then.

From the parking lot and shrine offices, a stone stairway called Samuraizaka leads up to the shrine. It is composed of 108 steps, an important number in Buddhism.

The Romon, main gate, is very colorful and ornate, like many of the other structures, and also registered as an Important Cultural Property.

The original Toshigu in Nikko is famous for being extremely colorful and ornate, and many branch Toshogu's have tried to emulate that. Here at Kishu artworks were executed by Hidari Jingoro and Kano Tan'yu, among others.

The main gate contains a pair of fine Zuijin, Shinto Shrine Guardians.

Kishu Toshogu was built in 1619 by Tokugawa Yorinobu, the tenth son of Ieyasu, who became the first daimyo of Kishu Domain. He was also enshrined here after his death.

As far as I can tell this makes Kishu Toshogu the very first branch of Nikko Toshogu.

Ieyasu was deified as Toshogu Gongen, said to be a manifestation of a Buddha, using a variation of Sanno Shinto, a sect based on the Tendai complex at Mount Hiei.

Before the official separation of the kamis and Buddhas in 1868 there was a pagoda and a Yakushi-do here.

The previous post in this series exploring Wakayama was the Museum of Modern Art.

Ochidani Shrine

Ochidani Shrine is at the far end of Ochidani Park a little to the south of Tottori castle ruins in Tottori City. There is a long approach and obviously it was a grand shrine in formner times. before Meiji it was named Inaba Toshogu.

The Nio that once inhabited the gate would have been removed after shinbutsu bunri , the separation of the buddhas and kami, which is also when the name was changed. Toshogu shrines enshrine Tokugawa Ieyasu as  Toshu Daigongen, and the most famous Toshogu is the original one at Nikko.

There were once 500 Toshogu throughout the country but now only 130 remain.

This one in Tottori was built in 1650 by the local Daimyo, Ikeda Mitsunaka, who was a great grandson of Ieyasu.

The gate, haiden, and heiden, are registered as Important Cultural properties.