Rakurakuura Shrine Itsukushima Shrine

 

Floating Torii are the torii gates placed in water marking the approach to a shrine from the water. They are found in lakes and the sea and are not uncommon, with the most famous, and also the biggest, being the one in front of Itsukushima Shrine on Miyajima in Hiroshima.

One of my favorites is another quite well known onem at Shirahige Shrine on Lake Biwa, known for its sunsrises.

This one is located in an inlet off the Maruyama River across from Kinosaki Onsen in northern Hyogo.

I think it may have originally been called Ukishima Benten and been a small Benzaiten shrine.

Benzaiten was conflated with the goddess of Itsukushima Shrine, one of the three Munakata kami.

It looks like this island was "rebuilt" at the same time as the land next to it when a large old people home was built and that was when the torii was built and probably when it was renamed.

The previous post in this series on the sights of Toyooka was on the amazing geology of the nearby Genbudo Caves.

Genbudo Caves

 

The Genbudo Caves are not really caves, but are nonetheless intriguing geological phenomena.

They are cliffs of basalt formed into columns. In the Edo Period local people began quarrying it for buildimg materials and created the openings in the cliff face.

Created about 1.6 million years ago, following a volcanic eruption the magma cooled causing cracks forming polygonal columns.

Different sections of the exposed cliffs have named after mythical creatures, Genbu, Seiryu, Byakko, and Suizaku.

The area is a registered National Natural Monument.

The site is also part of the Sanin-Kaigan UNESCO Global Geopark.

Genbudo Park is located on the bank of the Maruyama River in northern Hyogo, a few kilometers south of Kinosaki Onsen.

It has its own JR station, but on the opposite bank of the river which necessitates a short ferry crossing. The park has a modern museum and cafe with its own entry fee.

The previous post in this series on attractions of the Toyooka area was on Mugiwara Zaiku, the local straw craft.

Mugiwara Zaiku Traditional Straw Crafts

 

Mugiwara Zaiku is a traditional type of craft that nowadays is practiced in just one location in Japan, Kinosaki Onsen in northern Hyogo.

It uses dyed wheat straw that is cut into intricate patterns kind of like marquetry and other types of inlay.

It is most commonly used to decorate boxes, though it is also used for other objects like fans or dolls.

The straw is prepared, dyed, then cut and flattened.

Nowadays modern chemical dyes allow a wide range of sometimes bright colours, but traditionally the colours would have been more natural earth tones.

As well as being cut, like veneers in traditional marquetry, the strips of straw are sometimes woven into patterns before being used.

In the early 18th century a visitor to the hot springs from Tottori, a certain Hanhichi, made small objects out of the local straw to help fund his travels.

Local people imitated his work and now Kinosaki is the only place in the country where it is still practiced.

The European physician Siebold took examples of mugiwara zaiku back with him in the 19th centuryand are on display at several museums in Europe.

The collections are of such good quality that craftsmen from Kinosaki traveled to Europe in 2001 to study them. As well as shops selling the crafts now in Kinosaki there is also a small museum dedicated to the craft housed in a former storehouse. Here visitors can take classes and produce their own articles.

The previous post in those series on Toyooka was on Gokurakuji Temple

Gokurakuji Temple Kinosaki

 

Gokurakuji Temle is a Rinzai Zen temple tucked away down a back lane in Kinosaki Onsen and is hardly visited by most visitors to the town.

In front of the main gate is a hillside rock garden dotted with statues and a pond with what I presume is a Benzaiten Shrine.

The temple dates back to around the beginning of the 15th century, but fell into disuse and was revived in the early 17th century by the Zen monk known as Takuan after the pickle he is said to have invented.

He resided for some years at Sukyoji Temple in the nearby castle town of Izushi and is said to have been a frequent visitor to Kinosaki's onsens.

On the hillside just above the temple is a Rakuju Kannon statue that I didn't visit, but the rock garden in front of the main gate has several other Kannon statues as well as a Fdo and a Jizo.

The main hall is registered as an Important Cultural property even though it was built in 1921, it seems quite elegant. The main gate is also registered and dates back to the late 17th century.

The water in the Tsukubai basin is piped from a sacred spring behind the temple famed for its healing qualities and said to have been discovered by the monk who discovered the hot spring and founded the nearby Onsenji Temple.

The jewel in the crown of the temple though is the Seikantei "dry" garden which features sections of both black gravel and white gravel .

 The honzon of the temple is an Amida Nyorai, and there is also a Koshin-do in the grounds (photo below)

The previous post was on the magnificent Seikantei Garden. Also nearby is Onsenji Temple

Seikantei Garden Kinosaki

 

Gokurakuji Temple is hidden away in a corner of Kinosaki Onsen and is barely visited by the majority of visitors to the resort town, who will miss a quite remarkable garden.

Called Seikan Tei, it is a karesansui, "dry garden" most often associated with Zen, and Gokurakuji is a Rinzai Zen temple.

It is somewhat unusual in that the garden is in front of the main hall and the entrance pathway cuts right through it. many of the traditional gardens were built to be viewed from the rear of the main hall or from the Abbot's residence.

The most unusual thing, to my mind, was that one half of the garden used areas of white gravel and dark gravel, something I don't remember noticing before.

The light and dark areas are separated by a border made of roof tiles set vertically, something that is quite common.

Actually the light areas inside the dark ground form the Chinese character for kokoro, "heart". This is sometimes the shape of ponds.

The rock and moss "islands" in the sea of gravel  also use standard design representations, there being a Crame Island, a Turtle Island, a Three Buddhas Island.....

The garden uses a red rock brought from Kurama, a blue rock from Yoshino, and Shirakawa sand from Kyoto.

 I have been unable to establish when the garden was built. Most sources suggest it is fairly modern and a photo of it dates to 1976.

One source suggests it was designed by a disciple of Mirei Shigemori.

Entry is free, so if you are in the area it would be well worth a visit.

Later I will post on the temple and its history and the nice rock garden in front of it.

The previous post in this series on Toyooka was on the lower part of nearby Onsenji Temple.