Shohachimangu Shrine

Shohachimangu is a very popular shrine located right in the middle of downtown Yukuhashi.

When I visited all the lanterns and banners were still up from the new year, the most popular time at any shrine.

Marked with 4 bamboos connected by shimenawa, this is a temporary sacred space wherein last years ofuda and other lucky charms would have been ritually burned. Mos people purchase new ofuda and amulets etc each new year.

It is not a great distance from here to the original Hachiman shrine at Usa, and before hachiman spread to central Japan it had many shrines across Kyushu. I was unable to find out which kami were enshrined in the various secondary shrines in the grounds.

Bovine Drainspotting

An unusual subject, one would think, for manhole designs in Japan is cows and bulls. This first one is from the highlands of the Chugoku Mountains in northern Okayama, Hiruzen-Kogen, which is apparently the main breeding area for Jersey cows. Who would have thought it?

Chibu, the smallest inhabted island in the Oki Islands group in the Japan Sea off the coast of Shimane, is famous for raising cattle, Unusual for Japan you can bump into them standing in the middle of the roads.

Bullfighting or rather Bull Sumo, is popular in several areas of Japan, including Uwajima on Shikoku.

Bull Sumo is also very popular on Dogo, the largest of the aforementioned Oki Islands. Two of the towns have fighting bulls on their manholes.

Oharahachiman Shrine

Oharahachiman is located not far from the Obasenishikodai-mae train station in Kanda, near Kokura, Kitakyushu. Where this first torii now stands was once the seashore. Now the sea is a couple of k away.

Being early in the new year the banners were up and both the long approach road and the shrine precincts were lined with lanterns.

Though named a hachiman shrine, it is not related to all the other hachiman shrines. The main kami is not Emperor Ojin, but Oharanosukune. Sukune was a name/title that kind of means "land creator" and he is considered to be an ancient leader in the Fukuoka region.

It is obviously a very popular shrine in the region for all kinds of benefits, easy childbirth, wealth, driving safety, etc etc. Being new year it was still all decorated and various good luck charms and such were on sale.....

Getting to the Kyushu National Museum

The Kyushu National Museum is located in the ancient western capital of Dazaifu in Fukuoka.

It's built on a hill overlooking Dazaifi Tenmangu, the temple built around the last resting place of Sugawara Michizane that became a shrine in the Meiji Period, and probably the most major tourist spot in Dazaifu.

To get between the two there is a series of escalators and moving walkways. The museum was designed by the famous Metabolist architect  Kiyonori Kikutake, and I suspect the escalator and walkway too.

What makes it worthy of note and inclusion in my occasional architecture postings is the light show. A sequence of different colors shoot down the tunnel as you travel along, as well different colored lighting along the wall.

A Walk Around Kyushu Day 7 Kanda to Nakatsu

I took an early train from Kokura back to Kanda to begin the days leg of my walk around Kyushu. Today would be a tad over 30 kilometers and would not include any of the pilgrimage temples, though I would visit a couple of small temples are quite a few shrines including a couple of fairy big ones.

The weather was glorious as I crossed over the first of two rivers that cut through Yukuhashi.

Cloudier weather from the south drifted in by the time I crossed the second river, though intermittent sun continued all day.

At Unoshima I passed the big powwr plant. because of the large tanks I am guessing it is oil powered.

I was into the outskirts of Nakatsu by the time the sun set.

Shikoku Pilgrimage Temple 32 Zenjibuji

Located on a hilltop on the Pacific coast south of Kochi City, Zenjibuji is temple number 32 of the 88 temples that make up the pilgrimage.

The grounds contained a lot of rocky outcroppings and is said to resemble Fudaraku, the paradise of Kannon placed in southern India.

The honzon of this Shingon temple is an 11 faced Kannon, said to be carved by Kobo Daishi who is also claimed as the temples founder, though other sources attribute both to Gyoki.

While I was visiting a group of modern day yamabushi were in the process of leaving. In their immaculately clean costumes and air-conditioned tour bus it was hard for me to reconcile them with the yamabushi of old.

Kokura Illuminations

At the end of my sixth day walking the Kyushu Pilgrimage I reached Kanda and took a train back to Kokura where I had a good deal on a hotel room.

It was still early in the new year so the illuminations were still up along the river near the Riverwalk Complex.

And there's not much else left to be said.......

Fudo Myoo of Shikoku part 11

Continuing with more photos of Fudo Myo statues found along the Shikoku Pilgrimage. This first one is at Jofukuji, bangai temple 14, commonly known as Tsubaki-do, in Ehime near the border with Kagawa on the way to Unpenji.

This smaller one is also at Tsubaki-do

When I reached Unpenji there had been snow overnight.....

Set among a group of other statues, Zentsuji, temple 75, is a massive complex due to it being the birthplace of Kobo Daishi.

This final one is at temple 76, Konzoji, not far from Zentsuji.

Matsuo Shrine, Minamikokura

Just around the corner from the Sohachiman Shrine was the back entrance to a smaller shrine named Matsuo Shrine, a branch of the famous Matsuo (or Matsunoo) Taisha near Kyoto.

The two main kami are Oyamagui and his wife Nakatsushimahime,  believed to be the ancestral kami of the Hata clan who founded Matsuo Shrine as well as Fushimi Inari. The signboard here also lists Onamuchi, one of the names of Okuninushi.

It also lists a Taga Shrine as a Massha. Massha and Sessha are secondary shrines usually within a shrine grounds. Historically the two were a little different but the distinction is no longer valid, basically it means that the kami of the secondary shrine has some sort of relationship, often familial, with the main shrine kami.

The kami of the Taga Shrine is unclear.

Kikuya Residence

The Kikuyas were a rich merchant family who helped build and run the old castle town of Hagi. Their residence was built in 1602 and is one of the oldest and best preserved example of Edo Period merchant architecture in Japan.

The interiors of the buildings are filled with displays, including an office area. In many ways the Kikuya residence was built way above their station as merchants were the lowest of the 4 classes with only various "non-persons" below them, but as the Edo period went on they became richer and richer and the highest class, the samurai, became poorer and poorer.

The kitchens and domestic areas are also open and filled with artifacts.

Previously I posted on the gardens surrounding the residence, but next up is the neighboring park-like garden that contains a more modern mansion residence