Tomogaura World Heritage Site

 

Tomogaura is a small fishing harbour in a narrow inlet and is part of the Iwami Ginzan World Heritage Site.

In the 16th century it was one of three ports used to service the mine and take out the mined silver. When the Tokugawa government took over the mine at the start of the 17th century it continued to be used to service the mines, but the silver was taken out overland to Onomichi on the Inland Sea.

It was the closest port to the mine, and is believed to have been the first. The 7k  route from the port to the mine is also part of the World Heritage Site.

The other two ports were Okidomari and Yunotsu. where I had left early this morning on this walk.

Right next to Tomogaura, now accessible through a small tunnel in the cliff is the expanse of Kotogahama Beach. The previous post in this series documenting my walk along the Sea of Japan coast was the walk from Yuminato Harbour.

Sofukuji Temple Ryugumon

 

The main gate to Sofukuji Temple in Nagasaki must be one of the most photographed sites in the city. Ryugumon means Dragon Palace Gate.

The temple was built in 1629 with much of the architecture built and transported from China.

The Ryugumon was originally built in 1673 but was damaged and rebuilt several times. The current gate dates back to 1849.

Sofukuji is one of four big Chinese temples built in the early 17th century and belongs to the Obaku Zen sect.

Another of these temples, Kofukuji, lies to the north, and between it and Sofukuji is Nagasaki Teramachi, a line of temples set against the hillside.

The next temple on the Kyushu Pilgrimage is in Teramachi and this was where I was heading on Day 60.

The previous post was on one of the Chinese shrines, Tenkodo, in the old Chinese district of Tojin Yashiki.

Hagio Amida-do Temple 47 Sasaguri Pilgrimage

 

Hagio is a small farming settlement in a mountain valley above Sasaguri in Fukuoka. It is said that the inhabitants are descended from samurai who hid out here and returned to farming after their lord was defested.

I passed through Hagio on the way up the mountainside on the first day of walking the Sasaguri Pilgrimage. There is a cluster of three pilgrimage temples in the village, 2 of which, Raionji, and Yakushido, I had stopped in at on my way up the mountain.

Now on my way down after visiting the group of temples higher up in the mountains centred around Nomiyama Kannonji, I stopped in at the third, Amida-do.

There was a fire in the village back in 1883 that caused the principle Amida statues to break into three pieces and so it was replaced with a new one, though to the right of it the original is still on view.

A little further downhill and the route branches off this road and heads toward the Narafuchi Dam and Sasaguri.

The previous post in this series on the Sasaguri Pilgrimage was Tenno-in temple 36.

Fukken Hall Tenkodo Shrine

 

The main gate to Fukken Hall which was built originally in 1868, after the Tojin Yashiki was dismantled.

It was built as a meeting place for Chinese traders from Fujian Province and had a Tenkodo shrine built with it.

The main hall did not survive the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, but the main gate and Tenkodo Shrine did.

Like the other Tenkodo Shrine inside the old Tojin Yashiki compound, this one also enshrines Mazu, the goddess worshipped by Chinese sailors for safety at sea.

For more than forty years after the Dutch were confined to Dejima, the Chinese sailors and traders coming to Nagasaki pretty much were free to go where they wished. Even after the construction of the Tojin Yashiki compound in 1689 the Chinese had more freedom of movement outside the compound, often bought by bribing officials, to visit the various Chinese temples in the town and to conduct business. When the government clamped down in the 1820's rioting ensued.

The previous posts on the shrines of Tojin Yashiki are on the Kannondo Shrine, the Dojindo Shrine, and the other Tenkodo Shrine.

Umeda Architecture Snapshots

 

The high-rise buildings of Umeda in downtown Osaka may be quite familiar to many visitors, but because I live deep in the countryside and rarely visit cities the sights are quite unfamiliar Japan to me and very fascinating.

The cluster of seven temples that comprise the start of the Kinki Fudo Myo Pilgrimage are all located in central Osaka and after visiting the 7th, Settsu Kokubunji, in the afternoon of my second day walking, it was now time to head West towards Kobe where temple 8 lay.

I had a hotel room booked for the night in Nishinomiya so I had no time to explore or engage in any kind of photographic study of the architecture, just snapshots as I passed by.

This is the Umekita Ship Hall, a commercial property on the northside of JR Osaka Station. It was designed by Nikken Sekkei

The unique Umeda Sky Building, designed by Hiroshi Hara, seen from a distance.

A replica of a medieval Belgian church on the 8th floor of the Hotel Monterey Osaka.

The previous post in this series on the Kinki Fudo Myo Pilgrimage was Settsu Kokubunji Temple.

Kannondo Shrine Tojin Yashiki

 

The Kannondo was constructed in 1737 although it was repaired and rebuilt several times with the current building dating to 1917.

The arched stone gate is believed to be older and to date back to before the Tojin Yashiki compound was dismantled in the late 19th century

Kannon is the Japanese name for Guanyin, the bodhisattva that is commonly referred to as the Goddess of Mercy. Originally an Indian deity, Guanyin was believed to be originally male in form but in China and East Asia is now usually depicted as female.

Guanyin also became a popular deity among various branches of Chinese folk religions. Enshrined alongside Guanyin here is also Guanyu,  a popular deity associated with business prosperity and also enshrined in the nearby Tenkodo Shrine.

The only Japanese allowed to enter Tojin Yashiki were prostitutes from the Maruyama district as no Chinese women were allowed to reside within the walls. Unlike at the Dutch compound of Dejima, these courtesans were not allowed to stay overnight.

Minakata Kumagusu Residence

 

Minakata Kamagusu was a Japanese eccentric and maverick who is considered by some to be Japan's first environmentalist. The house he lived in from 1916 until his death in 1941 is open to the public right next door to a modern museum to him in Tanabe, Wakayama.

In the previous post on the memorial museum, I wrote a little about him, but in this post I want to concentrate on the topic that made him famous, the shrine closure program of the government that began around 1910.

The shrine closure program only ran for a few years, and some areas resisted it quite strongly, but somewhere between 35 and 45 percent of all shrines throughout Japan were closed down. These were all local, nature-based deities that were moved, often quite some distance, to a "national" shrine.

Previously during the Meiji Period the government had "separated" the kami and the buddhas, destroying more than a millenia of religious development and in the process installing imperial connected kami in place of deities with Buddhist, Taoist, or non-imperial identities. They also began a program of creating major imperial shrines, some of which, like Meiji Jingi, Kashihara, and Heian, are now very popular.

The shrine closure program was part of this effort to create a new imperial-centered religion but also had a couple of secondary aims. One was to reduce the number of festivals that Japanese celebrated as this interfered with the industrial-oriented work ethic that the state wished to create.

Another factor was the"resource-rich" forest land that these traditional shrines encompassed. There was a lot of valuable timber on these lands when one considers the massive deforestation that the castle and town building of the Edo Period had created. It was this final point that caused Minakata to get involved, although he went on to argue an ecological viewpoint that included the destruction of culture in the formation of the state and national identity. For a more detailed look please click this recent online journal article about him.

The house is shown as it was when he lived there, thanks in large part to his daughter who kept all his possessions, research papers etc which can be accessed in the museum next door.

Tenkodo Shrine Tojin Yashiki

 

The Tenkodo was the second of the Chinese shrines built within the walls of Tojin Yashiki, the compound that confined Chinese merchants and sailors in Nagasaki.

It was built in 1736 by shipowners from Nanking resident in the compound and it enshrines Mazu a Goddess of seafaring.

The shrine, along with the many of the other buildings, burned down in the great fire of 1784 and was rebuilt in 1790. The current building dates to 1906.

When the Chinese ships left China they carried a statue of the goddess  Mazu, and when arriving in Nagasaki the statue would be brought into the Tenko-do, a ritual recreated each year during Nagasaki's Lantern Festival.

Also enshrined in the Tenkodo are statues of Guan Yin, the Goddess of mercy, and Guan Yu, a red-faced, bearded, general from the Three Kingdoms period revered as a god of prosperity.

The previous post in this series was the nearby Dojindo Shrine, the first built in Tojin Yashiki.