Shikoku 88, Temple 21, Tairyuji

Tairyu-ji, which means Great Dragon Temple, is one of the few locations on the pilgrimage that can be historically verified as a location where Kukai visited. He spent 50 days on the mountaintop as a youth performing a ritual with a mantra being repeated 1,000,000 times. A statue of him can be found on a mountaintop below the temple.

The temple is at 610 meters above sea level and affords some expansive views....... there is now a ropeway to the summit. Looking back, it is possible to see the pagoda from temple 20 rising through the trees on the next mountain.

Kukai later returned to the site under orders from Emperor Kammu and founded the temple and became its first head priest.

It is a Shingon temple, and the main deity is Kokuzo, whose mantra Kukai recited.

Gakuen-ji

Temple #3 of the Izumo 33 Kannon Pilgrimage is the Tendai mountain temple of Gakuenji, a place I have visited many times and still one of my favorite temples. earlier posts can be found here.

To my great surprise there was for the first time an entrance fee!!!!.... that included a cup of green tea, and once I got over my initial shock I decided that maybe its a good idea. With no parish to provide funerary expenses the temple needs funds to maintain the buildings.

When i first came here many years ago there was a wonderful thatched-roof nunnery. Without maintenance it collapsed and was torn down. Maybe with the income from the thousands who come here in the Fall for the colors and the increasing number of pilgrims who come here can provide some protection for the place.

Before I left the young priest gave me a pamphlet of the Izumo 33 Kannon Pilgrimage. It has a nice map and details of each of the temples, and most useful the temple names are written with furigana so they can be easily read. Gakuen-ji is also part of the Chugoku 33 Kannon Pilgrimage, so I will be back here again when i walk that in 2014.

The Chugoku Nature Trail runs through the temple, and while car pilgrims have to drive back down the mountain and around I can take the trail straight up and over the mountains....

Many More Rivers To Cross

This is a second post on some of the rivers that must be crossed while walking the Shikoku Pilgrimage. The first post can be found here. This first photo is the Hiwasa River where it reaches the sea at Hiwasa in Tokushima, home to temple #23, Yakuo-ji from where the photo is taken.

According at a no longer extant 16th Century guidebook there were 488 rivers to cross on the route, though this may be a symbolic number as it also claims there were 488 hills to be climbed. The second photo shows the Kaifu River at Kaifu, Tokushima.

Many rivers had to be forded, some had paying ferries.  Chozen, a monk walking the pilgrimage in the mid 17th Century, recorded instances of boats left for the use of pilgrims, but also having to beg for rides from passing boats. This third photo is the Shishikui River in Shishikui, Tokushima.

By the end of the 17th Century the pilgrimage had become much more popular and a guide book written by Shinnen, the Michishirube, gave detailed instructions on how and where to cross the rivers and by then there were many more free boats available for pilgrims.

The last two photos are unknown rivers on the east coast of the Muroto Peninsula, just inside Kochi.

Daisho-in Temple, Hagi

Daisho-in is a Rinzai Zen temple in the castle town of Hagi, Yamaguchi.

A little off the regular tourist route in Hagi, the quietness combined with dilapidation make for an atmospheric visit.

The garden and pond are quite nice, but the main sight to see is the family graveyard of the Mori clan who moved here and built the castle and town.

The temple was derelict when the Mori moved here, but the second Lord of Hagi, Tsunahiro, rebuilt the temple in the mid 17th Century as a family temple. He, as well as his father and the 4th, 6th, 8th, 10th, and 12th Lords are interred here along with their wives. The other generations were interred on the other side of Hagi in Tokoji.

Leading up to the tombs are 603 stone lanterns donated by loyal vassals. Thats 100 more than at the more visited Tokoji. Every Obon all the lanterns are lit.

Shuri Castle

Standing on a hill overlooking the modern city of Naha on the Okinawan main island, Shuri castle is a World Heritage site and probably the most visited tourist attraction on the island.

There had been a castle here since at least the 14th Century but the current one is a modern reconstruction as the original was completely destroyed in the battle of Okinawa in 1945.

It was where the Ryukyu royalty lived and controlled the international trading that built the wealth and power of the Ryukyus.

Recently renovated is the garden of the royal living quarters. Shuri was a palace as well as a fortress.

The interior of the main hall is reconstructed as it was originally with throne room etc.

Oh Shrine

To the east of Usa Hachimangu, just outside the shrine grounds, is a hill with a torii at its base and overgrown steps leading up.

At the top is a small shrine, O shrine (or Ou or Oh or Oo). It is a sessha of Usa Hachimangu and enshrines Hachiman.

According to the legend, when Hachiman returned in 765 from his journey to Nara for the unveiling of the Great Buddha at Todai-ji he stayed on this mountaintop for 15 years.

Very few people seem to make it up here, but obviously some do as attested by the offering left.

Inside Shoto-en

Shoto-en is a collection of historic buildings and gardens located in Sannose on Shimokamigari Island in the Inland Sea off Hiroshima. I posted some pictures of the outside here.

Most of the displays are concerned with the many delegations of official emissaries from Korea on their way to Edo who stopped here and were entertained by the local daimyo. A mock up of the lavish banquets given are pretty impressive, and it is said that if the delegations came more often than they did ( 11 delegations stayed on Sannose during the Edo Period) the cost of their entertainment to the daimyo would have resulted in bankruptcy.

There is a big display of Chinese porcelain, gifts from the visiting delegates, which also included the Dutch traders from Dejima in Nagasaki, which is probably where the gifts of lamps came from.

The buildings are in different styles and with different interiors, so there is actually quite a lot to see for the entrance fee of 800 yen. Unless your visit happens top coincide with one of the infrequent bus tours you will also have the place to yourself.

Of course no self-respecting historical museum in Japan can not display agricultural paraphenalia :)

Ikkyu Shrine, Onomichi

The Onomichi Temple Walk also passes by some shrines as well as temples, and the first shrine just after Hodou-ji is Ikkyu Shrine.

Enshrined here is Kibitsuhiko, the major kami of the Kibi region in southern Okayama. According to legend he was an imperial prince sent from Yamato to defeat a demon troubling the people of Kibi. The story of Momotaro is believed to be based on this legend.

When I first visited the shrine it was in late October and the place was a hive of activity with parishioners preparing for the Betcha Matsuri held on November 3rd. as well as the usual mikoshi procession, the Betcha matsuri includes a tengu and 2 demons who beat children and infants with sticks to ensure their good health.

Noshiro Shrine

After leaving Oda the route of the Iwami 33 Kannon Pilgrimage heads along the Sanbe River towards Mount Sanbe. Just below Sanbe Dam is the small settlement of Noshiro with a small shrine.

I know these posts on obscure local shrines are not particularly popular, but a large part of the reason why I started this blog was to document the thousands of shrines I've visited, so..... As of this writing I have only managed to document 124, an index of which can be found here.

Noshiro has an interesting trio of kami enshrined, the main one being Izanagi, the male half of the pair that created the Japanese islands and its kami. Mythologically speaking Izanagi and Izanami are the most important of the kami, but in the seventh Century, and again in the twentieth Century, the government of Japan elevated the Imperial ancestor Amaterasu to the highest position.

The other 2 kami enshrined here are related to Izanagi, Hayatamano and Kotosakano, 2 kami that appear in the myth of Izanagis visit to see his dead wife Izanami in Yomi. At least that is the Izumo version, and as the myth of Yomi is set in Izumo I would tend towards that version rather than the "national" version that has Hayatamano as another name for Izanami. Part of my interest in visiting small local shrines is for the light they shed on the diversity that existed in Japan before the modern, homogenous, centrally imposed, "national" culture was created.

The Delightful Floral Manholes of Beppu

Some places really make an effort with their manhole designs. Yuda Onsen in Yamaguchi with more than 30 different designs being an obvious choice (click here for some examples). Another place I recently discovered is Beppu, the famous hot-spring resort in Oita.
The first one features Cosmos (kosumosu) and Rose Mallow (Fuyou)

Crape Myrtle (sarusuberi) and Sunflower (himawari)

Plum (ume) and Daffodil (suisen)

Wintersweet (loubai) and Pot Marigold (kinsenka)

Bush Clover (hagi) and Canna Lily (kanna)

Peach (momo) and Pansy (panji)

Hydrangea (ajisai) and Daisy (maagaretto)

Another post later as this is not all the ones I found in Beppu.