Gardens at Raizan Sennyoji Temple

 

The pond garden at Raizan Sennyiji Temple is said to be one of the oldest gardens in all of Kyushu.

The temple is situated on the slopes of Mount Raizan in southern Fukuoka near the border with Saga.

The temple itself is said to have been founded about four centuries before Buddhism was officially introduced to Japan in the 6th century.

The pond garden is said to date back to the Muromachi Period (1336-1573)

Many temple gardens, like this one, were designed to be viewed from the Shoin study.

That is closed off to the public, but from the Reception Hall there are several viewpoints looking into the garden.

The main hall is above the garden, and from the corridor leading up to it there are also some views looking into and then down onto the garden.

The first garden you see on entering the temple grounds however is a dry landscape garden built around a huge maple tree.

Said to be 400 years old, the maple was planted by Kuroda Tsugukata in 1573 when he restored the temple.

There are a lot of maples at Sennyoji, so it is a popular spot in the autumn.

It also has a remarkable Thousand-Armed Kannon.

Sennyoji is somewhat off the beaten track with very limited access by bus, so most people drive.

I visited on day 75 of my walk along the Kyushu Pilgrimage.

I will be doing three more posts on this temple as it has a lot to see, including the lower temple area and the rakan statues on the hillside, and the Kannon and Founders Hall.

The previous post was on Ryuzenji Temple which I visited earlier in the morning

Omirokusama Shrine

 

Popular shrines will often have large numbers of objects left or donated by worshippers who either are praying for something, or giving thanks for something. Votive tablets, known as ema in Japanese, or even simple wooden torii gates like those found at many Inari shrines are common, as is leaving miniature statues.

At Omiroikusama Shrine in Tosa, Kochi you will find lots of ema, lots of torii, and literally thousands and thousands of miniature frogs.

Frog statues and figurines can be seen at quite a few temples. The word for frog, kaeru, also means "return" and so is often used a symbol meaning safe return. Such homophones are quite common in Japan as the Japanese language is composed of relatively few sounds.

However the frogs here have nothing to do with returning, rather the frogs skin reminds people of warts, and at Omiroku Shrine the tradition is that you pray here for relief from warts, and if successful then you come back and leave a small frog.

The fame of Omirokusama Shrine has spread and people from all over Japan make the journey to Shikoku to pray at the shrine and nowadays a new twist has been added as the idea that cancer is a form of internal warts has taken hold.

The origin of the shrine lies in 1899 when a local farmer dug up a sacred object of some kind. Most sources say a"shrine", but it is not clear exactly what that means.

He took it home and placed it in his storehouse. Later he and his family became plagued with warts and other skin ailments. He consulted a Shinto priest who told him the kami was upset at being moved and the man should return the "shrine" to its original spot.

This he did, and so the shrine began. The rest, as they say, is history. Incidentally, Miroku is the Japanese name for Maitreya, a Buddhist bodhisattva known as the Future Buddha.

Though tiny, this is a fascinating site to visit. Very much a creation of "folk" and having nothing to do with imperial shinto, the influence of Buddhism is also very "folk".

When walking from Tanemaji Temple, number 34 on the famous Shikoku Pilgrimage, to Kiyotakiji Temple, number 35, Omirokusama Shrine is located on the riverbank immediately after crossing the Niyodo River on Route 56. The previous post in this series exploring the sights found along the routes between the temples was on the walk to Tanemaji Temple from Wakamiya Hachimangu.

Ryuzenji Temple 107 Kyushu Pilgrimage

 

Ryuzenji Temple is located in an urban area of Itoshima, the area to the southwest of Fukuoka City that was very powerful politically in prehistoric Japan.

It is a fairly recent temple being founded in the late 1950's, though I can find no information other than that.

The honzon is a Shogun Jizo which seems to be a medieval Japanese version of the bodhisatvva.

It has a strong connection to Mount Atago near Kyoto and is often depicted riding a boar. Perhaps the most well-known one is the one carved by Kobo Daishi himself, the honzon of temple 5 on the Shikoku Pilgrimage, Jizoji Temple.

The new stone Nio guarding the driveway are of the now common style. Im guessing cut from the same data by computer as the other identical copies.

There are several statues around the grounds including a set of six Jizo and the almost obligatory standing Kobo Daishi.

There were a couple of Fudo statues, always nice to see.

As well there is a small rocky area with a water source for ascetic purification under cold water.

Such sites are normally found in the mountains with real waterfalls and are especially connected to yamabushi and Shugendo..

A statue of Fudo and also Kurikara, his sword wrapped with a dragon, are commonly found at such places.

This was my first stop on day 75 of my 77 day walk around Kyushu on the Shingon Kyushu 108 temple pilgrimage. The previous temple was Shinkoin, temple 106.

Kyu Sentoji Temple

 

The "kyu" in the name means "former" as it refers to the site where the temple once stood.

Down the mountain on the main road is the new Sentoji Temple, built, I believe after 1968 when a forest fire detroyed the last vestiges of the original temple.

Once the grandest of all the Rokugo Manzan temples in the central Kunisaki Peninsula area, some sources also suggest it was the first to be built.

A Torii tands on the path to the ruins, typical of the syncretic cult that existed here with Nio guardians at shrines, and torii at temples.

A pair of Nio stanf guard at what was the Goma Hall of the temple.

Sento-ji, as well as 27 other temples, are said to have been established in 718 by legendary monk Ninmon. This is of course legend, as records from this time are minimal, but Ninmon was a historal figure and his grave, and also the cave where he is said to have died, is a little higher up the mountain next to the Okunoin.

The temple was mostly detroyed, probably in 1560, when Otomo Sorin fought against and subdued the armed monks of Usa Hachimangu.

The Rokugo Manzan cult had strong connections with Usa Hachiman, being a Tendai-Hachiman cult primarily.

Obviously something continued to function here until the forest fire of 1968.

From the main temple site a path leads through the forest and up the mountain to the Okunoin.

Like most such places here, it is built into a cave. There are other caves with statuary and the cemetery that has Ninmons grave. 

I was here at the start of day 4 of my second walk around Kyushu, this time following the Kyushu Fudo Myo Pilgrimage. For this first week I was roughly following the Kunisakihanto Minemichi Long Trail which closely follows the ancient yamabushi pilgrimage from Usa Hachimangu and then around the Rokugo manzan sites.

The previous post was on the Rokugo Shrine in Ebisudani.