The Demons Stairway

The Kunisaki Peninsula in Oita remains one of my favorite places in Japan. Taizoji Temple is the starting point of the Kunisaki Minemichi Long Trail, a 135 kilometer trail that roughly follows an old shugendo pilgrimage route. The first group of temples of the Kyushu 36 temple Fudo Myo Pilgrimage are located along, or close to, the trail, so when starting my walk I started from Taizoji.

Behind the temple is a stone stairway eading up the mountainside. Many of the rocks used to construct it are large and it's very much a jumble of uneven rocks because it is said a demon built the stairs in just one night. They lead up to the Kumano Magaibutsu.

Magaibutsu are relief carvings in cliffs or large boulders, and Kunisaki is home to many of them. The Kumano Magaibutsu were carved about a thousand years ago. The largest is of Fudo Myo and is more than 8 meters in height.

The second figure is believed to be Dainichi Nyorai and is more than 6 meters in height. From the magaibutsu the stairs carry on up to a shrine higher up.

Fudo Myo Statues at Gyoshinji

Gyoshinji is the 35th temple on the Kyushu Pilgrimage. Located near Tsuno in Miyazaki, it was founded in the early 20th Century by a monk who had been practising austerities under the waterfall here.

As is common at waterfalls used for shugyo, there were a small group of Fudo Myo statues right at the waterfall.

Along the path from the main temple building to the waterfall there are 88 stone statues, each representing the honzon of the 88 temples on the pilgrimage, and as some of the honzons are Fudo there were several other statues of him.

This was my twentieth day on the pilgrimage and it had already been a good day with many interesting sights, but this temple was unexpected and probably my highlight of the day, fond as I am of Fudo.....

Tsutenkaku Tower

Tsutenkaku Tower is an iconic landmark in the Tennoji area of Osaka. The original tower was built in 1912 and was modelled on the Arc de Triumphe at the base and the Eiffel Tower at the top. It was 64 meters high.

It was damaged and dismantled in 1943, but following public demand a new tower was built in 1956. This newere tower is 40 meters taller and was designed by the same person that designed the Tokyo Tower.

The queue to go up the tower to the observation deck was too long when I visited. The area around the tower is a very popular entertainment district with cheap food.

It's particularly colorful at night.

Three New Masks

Finally got around to finishing some more masks. This first one is a small Hannya. Made quite a few but the large Hannya are more popular.

This is an Akaoni, a red demon or ogre. This is also very popular with non-Japanese, probably because the Devil is usually red....

This last one is a Tajikarao, the "strongman" who opens the cave in which Amaterasu has been hiding herself.....

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Sakurahachiman Shrine, Kunisaki

Late afternoon on Sunday 25th of November, 2012, I arrived in the small port town of Kunisaki on the East coast of the Kunisaki Peninsula. Yesterday I started my walk at Usa Hachimangu on the West side of the peninsula. Usa hachimangu s the origin of the Hachiman cult and head shrine of all Hachiman Shrines in Japan, by one count the most common shrines.

Before heading to my room for the night I visited the Sakurahachiman shrine in the town. Like many Hachiman shrines in north Kyushu it was painted red and white. Not the vermillion of Inari shrines and shrines with an imperial connection, but a darker red. It was founded in 720,  when the Hachiman cult was a north Kyushu phenomenon and a few decades before it spread to the capital in Nara and from there throughout Japan.

The shrine was founded by the head priestess of the Usa shrine to pray for success in the battle for control of southern Kyushu between the government forces led by the Yamato against the Hayato. Believed to be an Austronesian speaking people, the Hayato, and the Kumaso people, had long resisted Yamato attempts to control them and outnumbered the Yamato immigrants in south Kyushu.

The war was decisive and the Hayato were forced to settle in what is now the Kyoto area, along with other immigrant clans, and Yamato control now covered all of Kyushu.

Amakusa Dolphin Watching

For the last few days I have  been walking across the Amakusa Islands in Kumamoto. Today I joined a dolphin watching boat tour.

Several hundred Bottlenosed dolphins live in the straits of the Ariake Sea between the Shimabara Peninsula and the Amakusa Islands. There are a whole bunch of companies operating tours and as they 99 percent guarantee sightings I shelled out....

There was a chilly breeze and the water was choppy but we did get to spend about 20 minutes in the area where they were breaking the surface. I imagine on a calmer day they are more visible....

Hyuga Ichinomiya Tsuno Shrine

On the afternoon of my 20th day walking the Kyushu Pilgrimage  I passed under a large torii that straddled the road, and soon came into Tsuno Shrine, the Ichinomiya, that is to say, the highest ranked shrine in the former Hyuga Province, now Miyazaki Prefecture.

It was a very large shrine with extensive grounds, woods, and a koi and lily pond as well as numerous secondary shrines. What was surprising was the main kami enshrined here,.. Okuninushi. Being Hyuga one might have expected Ninigi, the grandson of Amaterasu sent from the High Plain of heaven to rule Japan, or his descendant Jimmu, the mythical first Emperor, but these kami only really became elevated in the Meiji period when they became an obsession with the nationalists trying to create a state-based "shinto".

I never did find out why Okuninushi, an Izumo kami, was the main one. There was a small shrine to Daikoku, one of the imported 7 Lucky Gods, who because his name is the same characters as Okuninushi are often equated together.

There were also plenty of heart-shaped ema because Okuninushiis now considered the god of enmusubi, especially finding a lover.

Uzume Mask

Uzume Mask

It has been a very long time since I finished any masks, but the last few weeks I have been hard at it. Most of my older blog posts that featured my masks no longer have photos as they were stored on a site I no longer use, so overthe next weeks I will be posting photos of my new masks.

This one is one of the smallest and is the kami Uzume, the female whose dance in front of the cave was instrumental in luring Amaterasu out. The dance is credited with being the mythological origin of kagura.

Our Hina Matsuri

Tomorrow, 3rd of March is Hina Matsuri and Yoko has set up her collection. She got them from her mother who got them from her mother, so they are about 100 years old.

The craftsmanship is unbelievable. even the drawers, about 1cm by .5cm, open and some contain even tinier objects. In one of the wooden container on the top shelf are wooden teacups 0.3 cms wide.

Late Afternoon View of Tatara Bridge

Alate afternnon shot of Tatara Bridge which connects Omishima Island with Ikuchijima Island along the Shimanami Kaido that connects Shikoku with Honshu.

The 4th longest span of a cable stayed bridge in the world, it opened in 1999.