Dennis Banks in Yamaguchi

On Sunday I was privileged to finally meet one of my heroes. We went down to Tokuyama in Yamaguchi to see the last public event of Dennis Banks 2013 Japan Tour. For those who don't know who Dennis Banks is, he was a founding member of AIM and has continued to work for native issues, which by its very nature also means peace and environmental issues.

He spends a lot of time in Japan and after this last gig he was off to nearby Iwaishima to meet with the nuclear resisters there.

First there was a video of his life story, from the early days of AIM up through the Longest Walks and on to projects he is working on now. Then he spoke for a while and the afternoon ended with some traditional Ojibwa dances. It was good to hear the beat of the drum again, both literaly and metaphorically. Afterwards we spoke together about mutual friends, both living and those passed on.

Later we went and enjoyed some of Tokuyamas christmas illuminations.

Ushitora Shrine

The next stop along the Onomichi Temple Walk is Ushitora Shrine, founded in the mid 9th Century and therefore believed to be the oldest shrine in the town.

The shrine is set in a grove of massive camphor trees the oldest of which is more than 900 years old. The ropeway up the mountain now passes over the shrine.

The 4 kami enshrined in the main shrine are Izanagi, Amaterasu, Susano, and Kibitsuhiko.

There are a lot of secondary shrines in the grounds including a large pyramidical rock, but the only one I could be sure of was an Inari Shrine.

Kamo Cultural Hall Revisited

To start the second leg of my walk along the Izumo 33 Kannon Pilgrimage I took the train to Komonaka Station from where it was a few kilometer walk along the river to where I could rejoin the route where I left it at the end of Day 2.

I passed close by the Kamo Cultural Hall so could not resist stopping in to take some more photos of this strange piece of architecture.

I had been here a couple of times before and a previous post with more photos and details can be found here.

I don't think it is particularly good architecture,.. I detect an influence of Le Corbusier maybe, and local residents dislike it, but it has whimsy, so that cant be a bad thing.

Enjo-ji Temple

Enjo-ji is the first of the "extra" temples on the Iwami 33 Kannon Pilgrimage, that is to say it is not one of the 33 but still considered part of the pilgrimage. It has a fine pair of Nio

It is the only Tendai temple within Oda City and was founded sometime in the first half of the tenth century.

The honzon is a 16th century statue of Senju Kannon, the thousand-armed Kannon.

From the temple there are great views of Mount Sanbe the top of which I planned on reaching by the end of the day.

On the hillside behind the temple is a Noshiro Shrine which I am presuming is a branch of the shrine in the village a few kilometers downstream that enshrines Izanagi. A post on that shrine can be found here.

Iwano Yakushi-do

My final stop on my way to the station at the end of my second day of walking the Izumo 33 Kannon Pilgrimage was this small temple next to the station.

A statue of Yakushi Nyorai is enshrined in the small building at the top of a flight of stairs. This statue was at the bottom of the stairs and is not the Yakushi, which was hidden and could not be seen. According to the signboard it is one of 7 Yakushi Nyorai statues that date from the time of Emperor Shomu who ruled in the middle of the eighth Century.

The statue was originally in a cave but sometime in the ninth Century a young woman who had just lost her parents was sleeping in the cave and had a dream that told her she shoukld marry a certain gentleman who lived over in Kitayama. She did, and with her new husband built the hall and moved the statue to it.

Judging by the number of prayer slips left here it continues to be a popular site.

And so that was the end of my second day....... looking forward to the next leg....

Floral Interlude

I'm off wandering in Kyushu for a while so will not have chance to post for a while so I leave you with a floral interlude.

I am poor at flower recognition and naming so I won't even bother....

Carbon Emissions

Japan has recently revised its target for reduction of carbon-emissions in its drive to reduce pollution and global warming.

The original target was for a 25% reduction over 1990 levels.

The new target is a 3% INCREASE over 1990 levels.....

Since 1990 Japan has moved a lot of its polluting industry offshore, mostly to China and SE Asia, and the population of Japan is shrinking, so I guess the increase must be down to more consumption...

Fukushima, the scapegoat for anything negative that happens in Japan nowadays, is being blamed.

Two Tanuki

For a couple of months I have been enjoying the daily visit to my backyard by the local badger.

A couple of weeks ago there was an enormous fight right outside my window. It was dark and the weeds were high so I was unable to see what was fighting.

Since then the badger has not been seen, but each afternoon or early evening we get a visit from a pair of tanuki. I'm guessing it was they who fought the badger and won, though I am surprised. I would have thought the badger was stronger, but the tanuki are faster and there are two of them....

I'm guessing they are a mating pair as fall is the mating season. In English they are called racoon dogs. They look a little like racoons but are unrelated. They are related to dogs and foxes.

They are common to see, though its unusual to get to see them so close. They are the most common form of roadkill.

Iha Shrine

Walking out of the village of Naoe towards the train station there is yet another shrine. Iha Shrine is recorded in the Izumo Fudoki so is therefore at least 1300 years old. It was until 1750 on top of Mount Iwano but then relocated down to its present location.

The map shows it as Iha Shrine, as does the signboard, but the new stone marker in front says KamiNaoe Hachimagu. I can find no explanation.

At some point in the not too distant past the whole shrine has been reconstructed. The main kami of the shrine is Okuninushi.

There are several smaller shrines collected together in the grounds but they are listed as unknown kami.

There is also the almost obligatory Inari shrine....

Ebisu Shrine, Naka, Tokushima

After coming down from Tairyuji I stopped in at the local Ebisu Shrine. The villagers were cleaning up after the flood caused by the typhoon the day before, hence the pile of rice.

There were some enormous Giant Cedars lining the path into the shrine and a statue of Chosokabe the warlord who ruled over all of Shikoku for a while before Hideyoshi sent his armies in.

There was no signboard so I could not find out anything about what secondary shrines and kami there were, other than the obvious main kami Ebisu, no equated with Kotoshironushi. There was a zuijinmon with a fine pair of zuijin.

The shrine was built on the site of the former Niu castle, though I guess it must have been quite a small and unimportant castle.