A Shrine Less Visited

Walking the road less traveled one finds a shrine less visited. Early on the morning of my third day walking the Iwami Kannon Pilgrimage, I left the village of Shizuma and headed towards the coastal village and harbour of Isotake. The main road, Route 9, the old Sanin Do from ancient times, was busy and so I preferred to take a small lane that wound through the woods.

I love these type of roads. Very narrow, but with zero traffic, it's like having a nice, wide, smooth hiking trail. I have walked thousands of kilometers along such roads, usually up and over mountain passes, and there is no hassle with undergrowth, uneven surfaces, etc.. It was mid-December and the sun was low and so giving the light usually associated with "the golden hour"

Some overgrown steps lead up to a torii. This shrine is not marked on my maps, neither googlemaps, which sometimes doesn't have smaller, local shrines, nor my topo map which often has historical shrines marked which no longer exist. A path laid with large flagstones leads into the woods.

A wide pathway, ankle deep with dried leaves leads further into the dark woods. I have take paths like this often. Eventually, it comes to a clearing in the woods and the shrine buildings. As well as the main building there is a second one, probably a kagura den. There are no shimenawa nor komainu.

This must be a closed shrine, with the shintai, the object in the honden in which the kami resides when visiting, as well as any komainu etc being removed to another shrine nearby. A little over a hundred years ago this was the fate of half the shrines in the country as the government closed local shrines and expanded national ones. Here the situation would seem to be the result of the continued depopulation of rural Japan.

This was a sacred place for a community, probably for centuries. Does anyone come here anymore? Do the kami know?

Aoshima Shrine

Heading down the coast out of Miyazaki City on the 23rd day of my walk I came to Aoshima Shrine.

The small island is now connected by a short bridge, and much of the island itself is rock formed into parallel ridges like a washboard.

Leading from the main building, a tunnel of ema lead to a grove where you can toss small ceramic discs, representing plates I believe, at a target for good ;uck. Underneath the target is a small mountain of broken pottery.

The island is lush sub-tropical jungle, though some say it is tropical. The two main kami are Hikohohodemi, a grandfather of the mythical first emperor Jimmu, and his wife Toyotamahime. The myth about their story is told in a series of tableaux in the shrine museum, and that I will turn to next.....

Some more Ema

Ema 絵馬

Votive plaques, called ema in Japanese, were originally paintings of horses given to shrines with prayers. Nowadays they are mostly small wooden plaques and can be seen at many shrines and temples. By far the most common are pictures of the 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac, but some shrines and temples have designs that are specific to their site. This first one is at the biggest shrine on Awaji Island, Izanagi Shrine. The ema shows Izanagi, along with his wife-sister Izanami, creating the island of Awaji, believed to be the first created.

At a temple in the mountains of Yamaguchi, these ema quite clearly are accompanied with prayers for ample breast milk and for good childbirth. I have seen a lot of these around the Sanyo region, the southern coast of western Honshu.

Rituals blessing your car are a staple income at many shrines and some temples. These ema are for traffic safety.

Increasingly popular are ema for finding a good love match. With Japans falling birthrate and growing numbers of singles,  the number of shrines that "specialize" in love matching prayers is on the increase.

Not sure what the meaning of the peach is.....

Purchase a selection of ema from GoodsFromJapan

Miyazaki Science Center

Located just a stones throw from the main station in Miyazaki City is the Miyazaki Science Center, easily visible by the rocket standing in front. I stopped in befoe heading down the coast on the 22nd day of my walk around Kyushu.

It is very much aimed at kids and is very colorful and noisy and somewhat resembled a games cnter.

The first floor is primarily about space and Japoan's space program which is based a little further south in Kagoshima.

There is also a planetarium and lots of interactive exhibits. There is virtually no information in English but kids would be sure to enjoy it.

Tombi, Japanese Kites (the birds)

Black Eared Kites are by far the most common raptor found in Japan and they can be found especially along rivers and coastlines.

Ive posted pics of them before many years ago, but those old posts have lost their photos so here are some new ones.

I saw this guy as I was walking down the coast of Cape Muroto in Kochi as I was walking the Shikoku Pilgrimage.

Horaisan Chokyuji Temple

Chokyuji Temple is at the base of a small hill called Horaisan in Miyazaki City. I visited it on the 22nd day of my walk along the Kyushu 108 temple pilgrimage of which it is the 38th temple.

I also visited more recently on my 14th day of walking the Kyushu Fudo Myo `pilgrimage. It's the 12th temple of that pilgrimage. It was founded in the late 16th Century.

Horaisan, the small hill behind the temple once had a small castle on top of it. The main hall of the temple is modern and made of concrete with a large Kannon statue in front.

This temple also had a miniature 88 temple pilgrimage of statues in its grounds. As always I was please to find several Fudo Myo statues.

More Mascot Manholes

Though there was reputed to have been a culling of some of the more useless cute mascots that threaten to outnumber the humans in Japan, new one keep appearing and some make it onto manhole covers. These three were all found on my recent trips to Kyushu. This first one was in Omuta which is home to some of the coal mines that have become World Heritage sites.....

This one, found just outside Kumamoto Station celebrates the20th anniversary of Keroro, apparently a famous manga character, and the 70th anniversary of the introduction of theunderground drain and sewage system in Kumamoto.

This last one is thye town mascot for Kurino, a small town up in the mountains near Kirishima in Kagoshima.

Maruyama Konsenji Temple in Miyazaki

Early in the morning of my 22nd day walking around Kyushu I visited Konsenji in the Maruyama district of downtown Miyazaki City.

It's the 37th temple on the pilgrimage and is not an old temple, being founded in the early 20th Century, and it's also an urban temple, but has  a surprising number of statues.

They are the 88 honzons of the all the 88 temples on the pilgrimage.

The main hall is a concrete affair.

Inside Seirei at Nose Myokensan

Looking up from the center of the floor at the Seirei Hall of the Nichiren temple on top of Nose Myokensan.

The altar to the Bodisattva Myoken on the upper floor which is made of glass and is suspended from the roof. Designed by Shin Takamatsu.

Four figures, 2 female and 2 male, representing the Bodhisattvas of the 4 directions hang over the hall.

Only open to the public once a month, I was lucky enough to get permission to photograph inside, but I wish I had more time to spend in this amazing structure. Photos of the outside are in this previous post.

Looking directly up from below the glass floor.

Miyazaki Jingu

Miyazaki Jingu is a shrine set in large, wooded grounds a little north of central Miyazaki City.

It enshrines the mythical first emperor, Jimmu, and is very much a modern creation from the early years of Meiji when thegovernment was building the emperor-centered "State Shinto".

As such it is rather austere and somewhat sterile. In the grounds is the Miyazaki Gokoku Shrine, the regional branches of the infamous Yasukuni Shrine, also a modern invention. Like Yasukuni, there is a small museum here displaying military uniforms and paraphenalia.

There is also an Inari shrine. In the shrine forest is also the Prefectural Museum. Miyazaki Jingu is a popular spot for Shinto weddings, yet another modern invention