Sennyoji Daihioin Temple 82 Kyushu Pilgrimage

 

Sennyoji Daihioin Temple is located high up on Mount Raizan, a 955 meter high mountain in the Sefuri Range that straddle the Fukuoka-Saga border.

It claims to have been founded in the year 148 by an Indian monk who has been given the Japanese name of Seiga Shonin.

This is about 400 years before the official introduction of Buddhism into Japan.

During the Kamakura Period it was an important prayer temple against the Mongol invasions.

At its peak it is believed at least 300 monks lived here.

It was located a little higher up the mountain and was part of a shrine-temple complex with Raizan Shrine.

After the Kamakura Period it fell into decline with only the main temple building remaining.

In 1753 the daimyo of Fukuoka, Kuroda Tsugutaka built Daihioin Temple at the current location.

In early Meiji when the edict separating Buddhas and Kami came into force all the statues and documents from Sennyoji were moved to Daihioin and Sennyoji was demolished.

In this post I will just look at the buildings and artwork on the lower level of the temple. The Kannon Hall and Founders Hall are higher up and will get their own post later.

There was a small waterfall for practising purification by water, and several smaller Fudo Myo statues were around it.

Dosojin were in earlier times phallic stones that later became carvings of a male-female couple, usually "cute". This one combined both ideas.

To view the pond garden you enter the Reception Hall and it had numerous artworks on display incuding a picture of Raijin, (final photo) the God of thunder and lightning after whom the mountain is named.

There was also a nice painting of Enma, the King of Hell ( second to last photo)

Like all the other 108 temples on this pilgrimage, Sennyoji Daihion is a Shingon Temple.

There will be a couple of other posts on this temple as there is plenty to see, so well worth the trip off the beaten track to visit.

There are infrequent buses up to Sennyoji so you need a car, or as I did, walk it.

The previous post was on the gardens at the temple, including one based around a 400 year old maple tree said to be planted by Kuroda Tsugutaka. The next post is the 500 rakan statues on the hillside., and the final post is on the Kannon and Founders Hall.

Things Seen Between Kannabiji and Chokoji

 

Late April, 2014, and I am on day 6 of my walk along the Iwami Kannon Pilgrimage. Visiting two temples today and I started from my home and headed upriver. First pilgrimage temple was Kannabiji, and the next is Chokoji. These photos are from things I noticed between the two temples.

Not far from Kannabiji is/was Mizunokuni, the top photo. A  museum specializing in water, I have visited often and most vistors I took rated it very highly. It closed down in 2018. Some shots from a last visit....

The second photo is a kura, storehouse, that has been beautifully restored. This third shot is one of the many roadside statues found everywhere. This one looks to have not been tended in quite a while.

From the water museum I head away from the Gonokawa River and up a side valley. I am pretty certain that on most days there is absolutely no traffic as it is a forest road that doesnt have any habitation along it.

A little further and you catch a glimpse of Sakamoto Falls. Climbing over the roadside crash barriet and edge along a rock outcropping and it becomes more clearly visible.

I can find no details about, height etc. I seem to remember that twenty years ago is was marked on maps as "Big waterfall".

A little further up the valley and I reach the side road that climbs out of it and over to Mihara. Right there at the junction is the skeleton of a wild boar.

A pretty big one, and it has been picked clean. Hard to believe it would have been a road kill as any traffic would be moving pretty slowly.

The road climbs through the forest and emerges in the farming settlement of Mihara. Nearby is Maruyama, a conical mountain on top of which once stood Maruyama Castle. The lord of that castle was a big supporter of both Kannabiji and Chokoji temples.

The rice paddies are all being flooded in preparation for planting in a week or two.

I head east across Mihara and then start to descend another empty, rural road towards Yudani where I will find Chokoji. No matter where you go in Japan you are never far from an expanse of concrete, whether it is on a mountainside or a coastline.

This badger was out and about in the middle of the day. Usually active at dusk and in the night, I have seen them occasionally during the day. here are a couple of post with short videos of badgers around my house. The previous post was on Kannabiji Temple.

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.