The Approach to Futagoji Temple

 

Mount Futago lies in the middle of the Kunisaki Peninsula in Oita, and Futago-ji Temple is situated about halfway up the 720 meter high volcanic peak.

From Mount Futago 28 valleys radiate out, one for each "chapter" of the Lotus Sutra, and with more than 32,000 stone statues, one for each character of the sutra, the peninsula is considered a "map" of the sutra and is home to an ancient yamabushi pilgrimage route.

Rougo Manzan is the name given to the syncretic religious system of the area based on a mix of mountain worship along with Usa Hachiman and Tendai Buddhism.

Futagoji, founded in the early 8th century continues to lie at the heart of this system and the area.

A modern road leads up to parking areas closer to the main temple buildings, but the best approach is the traditional one, crossing the Mumei Bridge and then up a long flight of ancient stone stairs passing though the mountain gate, said to be the oldest temple gate in the Kunisaki area.

The pair of stone nio were made in the early 19th century and at 245cms are the biggest stone Nio in Kunisaki. After passing through the gate the path leads past a large pond with a Benzaiten or Suijin Shrine.

On this visit I was on the last day of a 5 day walk crisscrossing the Kunisaki Peninsula hunting Autum Colours. The previous post was a Yasaka Shrine down the road.

Nagasaki Prefectural Museum of Art

 

The Nagasaki Prefectural Museum of Art opened in 2005 on the waterfront of Nagasaki City.

It is located astride a channel whose walkways are public thourouhfares. The roof gardens are also public spaces.

It was designed by the renowned Japanese architect Kuma Kengo.

The permanent collection concentrates on art, in a wide variety of media, connected to Nagasaki since the Meiji Period.

The museum is also home to the Suma collection of hisorical and modern Spanish world collected by the former Envoy to Spain during WWII, Suma Yakichiro.

I did not go inside so I have no report on the art or the interior architecture.

Earlier on my walk around Kyushu I visited another Kuma Kengo building, the Kyushu Geibunkan.

The previous post in this series exploring Nagasaki was the nearby Nagasakiminato Ferry Terminal.

Seisuiji Temple 7 Iwami Kannon Pilgrimage

 

Seisuiji Temple is a small place up in the middle of what used to be the silver mine in the World Heritage Iwami Ginzan sites.

It is number 7 on the Iwami Mandala Kannon Pilgrimage route, but used to be number 1,  the starting point of the original Edo Period Iwami Kannon Pilgrimage.

It was located high up on the mountain and was probably the most important temple for the mine back in the late 15th, and early 16th centuries.

It was moved to its current location at the base of the mountain in 1878. The gate was moved here in 1931 from a defunct temple that administered the main shrine of the mine. 

The honzon is an eleven-headed Kannon, and the main gate houses a wonderful pair of guardian statues, a Fudo Myo and a Bishamonten. Seisuiji is a Shingon temple.

During the heyday of the mine, the temple received many donations and much support from merchants, samurai, daimyo, and even the Shogun.

This visit was on the 4th day of my walk along the Iwami Pilgrimage, and the previous post was of my walk up through the preservation district of Omori, the town that serviced the mine.

Nagasakiminato Ferry Terminal

 

The Nagasakiminato Terminal is located on the waterfront in Nagasaki.

From here are numerous ferry services, mostly out to the Goto Islands, but also tour boats out to Gunkanjima, the famous "Battleship Island".

The terminal opened in 1995 and was designed by Shin Takamatsu, a Shimane-born architect who has designed several other ferry terminals.

He described the structure as "a 100-meter-long horizontally-oriented oval cylinder with an inverse cone penetrating it."

I am quite fond of Takamatsu's work as we have a lot of his buildings in Shimane.

The ferry terminal is right next door to the Dragon Promenade with its distinctive orange globe.

The spacious interior space created by the "inverted cone" is kind of non functional, but great for my kind of photography.

The previous post on my day exploring Nagasaki on day 60 of my Kyushu Pilgrimage was the Kanko Maru, which I believe is still operating out of the terminal.

Tanezaki to Kajigaura Ferry

 

On the Shikoku Ohenro Pilgrimage, between temple 32, Zenjibuji, and temple 33, Sekkeiji, lies Urado Bay which must be crossed.

The bay narrows to just a few hundred meters at its mouth, and a new bridge, Urado Bridge, carries vehicle traffic 50 meters above the water. It was built in 1972.

Pilgrims on foot or bicycle continue to take a more traditional crossing by ferry.

The ferry connects Kajigaura on the East side of the bay with Tanezaki on the Nagahama side, a distance of about 600 meters

Only pedestrians, cyclists, and small motorbikes 125cc and under are allowed.

I am guessing that in historical times a ferry existed somewhere near here.

The previous post in this series that explores sights seen between the temples on the Ohenro Pilgrimage was Ishizuchi Shrine.

Kanko Maru

 

The Kanko Maru was Japan's first modern warship. Following the forced opening of Japan by Perry's Black Ships the Shogunate realized they needed to modernize their defenses and asked their friends the Dutch for help. In 1855 they gave them one of their steamships operating in the Dutch East Indies. It was built in 1853 and was a three-masted schooner with an auxiliary steam engine powering side paddles.

It was scrapped in 1879 but a faithful replica was built from the original plans in 1987. She operated as a tourist boat out of Huis Ten Bosch, the Holland-themed amusement park near Sasebo, Nagasaki. Now she operates out of different ports around Japan. She has a displacement of 400 tons and is 66 meters in length. The original carried 6 cannons.

She was tied up in Nagasaki on the day I visited as part of my walk around Kyushu on the Kyushu Pilgrimage. The previous post was on the nearby  Dragon Promenade.

Misosogi Shrine Kurotsuchi

 

There are many Misosogi shrines in the Kunisaki Peninsula area, and I recently learned that it was a name given to Rokusho shrines in early Meiji when Buddhism and Shinto were artificially separated.

Not all Rokusho shrines changed their names, and, like Misosogi, there are still many Rokusho shrines in the area.

This is because they are protective shrines for Rokugo Manzan, the unique mountain religion based on a mix of Usa Hachiman and Tendai Buddhism.

Many of these shrines are built into cliff faces.

This one was the former site of Mudo-ji Temple which was moved about 1.5 kilometers upstream at some point in the past and which I had visited earlier.

It was one of ten major pilgrimage temples in the central part of the peninsula and is known now for its wonderful collection of Heian-Period statues.

There was no info at the shrine but I am going to presume that, historically at least, the enshrined kami is Rokugo Gongen.

This was the second day of my walk along the Kyushu Fudo Myo Pilgrimage in which the first few days I followed the old Kunisaki Pilgrimage. The previous post was on the nearby Tsubakido Temple.