Izumo 33 Kannon Pilgrimage Temple 10 Zenjoji

Zenjoji is both the 10th temple of the Izumo 33 Kannon pilgrimage and the twenty fourth temple of the Chugoku 33 Kannon Pilgrimage. It is a mountain top temple and has a fine pair of nio in the niomon at the base.

It is believed to have been founded by Gyoki which would put it in the early eighth century.

It is now a Tendai temple. There were 4 small shrines within the grounds including an Inari and one to Zaogongen.

It is quite a pretty temple and of course has superb views.

Chiroku Shrine

Chiroku Shrine

In the Fukuoka area there are quite a few Chiroku (or sometimes Jiroku) shrines. This one is in Ijiri to the south of Hakata and downtown Fukuoka.

They all enshrine the same male-female pair of kami, Takehaniyasuhiko, the male, and Haniyasuhime, the female, and were both created by Izanagi at the same time he created Susano, Amaterasu, etc while purifying himself after his journey to the underworld to visit the deceased Izanami.

The pair of kami are known as the kami of soil, and according to the myth they were created from Izanagi's feces. As the content of Japanese toilets have traditionally been used as fertilizer for farming, its not surprising that these two kami are considered by some to be the kami of the toilet.

There was no signboard at the shrine so its history remains a mystery. All the shimenawa were new in preparation for the impending new year.

Mitoya Tenmangu

After leaving Mine-ji I passed through the town of Mitoya on my way upriver to the next pilgrimage temple, Zenjoji, and stopped in at what appeared to be the main shrine of the town, the Tenmangu.

The newly reconstructed zuijinmon had curtains blocking off the zuijin from view. Being a Tenmangu, the main enshrined deity is Tenjin, considered to be the spirit of Sugawara Michizane.

Curiously it lists Amaterasu along with Tenjin as the main  kami, though I strongly suspect that she is a fairly modern addition.

According to the signboard Michizane spent a few days here during the reign of the Daigo Emperor, which was the time Michizane was "exiled" to Dazaifu. His route to Kyushu from Kyoto would have been through the Inland Sea, so its not clear to me why he would make a trip over the mountains to Izumo. A few hundred meters from this shrine is a small Sugawara Shrine which would seem to reinforce the story.

There are several smaller shrines within the grounds but the only one I could identify was the Inari shrine.

Shokasonjuku Academy

The Shokasonjuku is located in the grounds of the Shoin Shrine in Hagi, Yamaguchi, and is where Yoshida Shoin taught many of the future leaders of Meiji Japan.

It was originally just a single-roomed structure but was expanded due to the large number of students who wanted to attend. It was also his home as at the time he was under house arrest for his attempt to stow away on an American ship.

Shoin taught here for just one year before he was rearrested and the school forced to close.

His students included Ito Hirobumi, the first Prime Minister of Japan, Yamagata Aritomo, Japan's third Prime Minister, Kido Takayoshi, a senior statesman and another of the architects of the new Meiji state, Inoue Kaoru, another major politician and statesman of Meiji Japan.

Izumo 33 Kannon Pilgrimage Temple 9 Mine-ji

I have been to Mineji before and found it to be really interesting. Details about the temple and its history can be found in this post, and a post about the Nio and Fudo Myoo can be found here. One thing that was new this time was that the roof of the Niomon was covered in solar panels.

Though I already had plenty of photos it was a different day with different lighting conditions and I had a different camera, so I wandered around taking more photos.

Its only 180 meters above sea level, but still has nice views down to the valley and town below.

I hadn't noticed the garden before......  I went to the little office to chat with the priests, a father and son, and learnt that there was something else new.... a small tsuyado, a room offered for free for pilgrims to stay in. The son had walked the Shikoku pilgrimage and had obviously stayed in the many tsuyados there. This is the only one I know about on the Izumo 33 pilgrimage. They offered me the use of it for the night, and though there were still several more hours of daylight and my plan had been to sleep out a bit further upriver, I accepted.

The next morning as I was leaving the son came up and gave me some onigiri and fruit to have for breakfast. I like Mine-ji :)

Manhole Horses

There is archeological evidence that horses have been in Japan for thousands of years, however the earliest records of Japan by the Chinese in the third century say that Japan did not have any horses. It is known that horses were introduced from Korea in the 4-5th centuries and this seems to be from when most Japanese horses are descended. The above manhole is from Mochizuki, a small town in Nagano. The area bred and raised horses for the Imperial court since ancient times.

Kushima, at the southern tip of Miyazaki, is home to a breed of wild pony, the Misaki Pony, considered a Japanese breed. They live on Cape Toi and are a tourist attraction. there are about 100 of them. Misaki means "cape".

This final one is from Ishigaki Island in Okinawa, and other than the fact that the area offers horse riding as an attraction I can find no explanation for the horse on their manhole design.

Izumo 33 Kannon Pilgrimage Temple 8 Hasedera

Hasedera, which may actually be called Chokokuji, like so many temples, burned down in 1607 and all its records were destroyed so the date of its origin is unknown.

What is known is that it was a Shingon temple until 1451 when it switched to Soto Zen.

It is a branch tempele of Tainei-ji which is located on the north Yamaguchi coast near Nagato.

The statue of Kannon, carved out of a single piece of wood and registered as a Prefectural Treasure, is considered to be a fine example of Kamakura era statuary.

Hiroshima Museum of Contemporary Art

The Hiroshima Museum of Contemporary Art was opened in 1989 on top of Hijiyama overlooking the city.
The most noticeable feature is the circular structure at the main entrance.
The gap in the circle is oriented towards the location of the nuclear bomb epicenter.

It was designed by Kisho Kurokawa who designed many museums in Japan and is considered one of the founders of the Metabolism Movement, a contemporary style of Japanese architecture.

It is a very large structure, but most of it is below ground.

The style of the buildings reflects that of traditional Japanese storehouses.

Mishiro Shrine

Mishiro Jinja

Mishiro Shrine is less than 1k from Yaguchi Shrine, and like it is also listed in the Izumo Fudoki and is a shikinaisha, a shrine receiving offerings from the central government in the Heian Period and therefore listed in the Engi Shiki.

Like Yaguchi, it enshrines Susano, but also his "wife" Kushinada, and a grandson Oyamakui, son of Otoshi. Like many of the offspring of Otoshi, Oyamakui has strong links with Korean immigrfant groups in ancient Japan. Oyamakui is the original kami of Mt Hiei and what is now Hiyoshi Taisha. Oyamakui also has connections to the Hata and kamo clans, 2 very powerful immigrant clans .

There is a zuijinmon containing a fine pair of zuijin and their attendant, small, wooden komainu which have a most definite "cute" appearance.

There are 2 smaller shrines within the grounds, an Inari Shrine, and a Takasa Shrine which enshrines Aohatasakusahiko, and all I can find out about him is that he was one of the numerous offspring of Susano.

Shikoku 88 Pilgrimage Temple 23 Yakuoji

With its distinctive hillside pagoda visible from miles away when approaching Hiwasa, Yakuoji is the last of the pilgrimage temples in Tokushima before entering Kochi.

According to the legend it was founded by Gyogi, and Kukai later visited and carved the statue of Yakushi Nyorai. It is a Shingon temple.

Apart from its place in the Shikoku 88 temple pilgrimage, it also receives hundreds of thousands of visitors from all over Japan who come here to pray for protection for their "unlucky" years, ages 41, 42, & 61 for men, and 32, 33, and 61 for women.

The approach to the temple has two sets of steps, the one for men has 42 steps, and the one for women has 33 steps. The steps up to the pagoda has 61 steps. A coin is left on each step as one climbs.

There are some fine views over the coastal town with its small, reconstructed castle....