Koraiji Oimatsu Shrine

 

Koraiji is a village on the edge of the Itoshima Plain at the base of Mount Takaso.

Oimatsu Shrine was ranked as a village shrine in Meiji, but other than that I can find no history of it.

Like several other Oimatsu shrines I've come across in this part of Kyushu it enshrines Sugawara Michizane, and I have been intrigued by why they are not called Tenjin shrines or Tenmangu. One source I recently read suggested that many of the Oimatsu shrines are located on what were land under the control of Daizaifu Tenmangu. Shrines and temples were awarded lands as income and larger shrines and temples had huge estates in Japan.

The hall of the shrine had lots of ema paintings....

The area around the shrine is dotted with historical markers as the mountain was home to an 8th century "castle". Whereas ancient castles in Japan, which in English would be classed as forts, were said to be korean-style, this one was Chinese-style.

The previous post in those series on day 75 of my walk around Kyushu was on the nearby Itokoku History Museum which showcases the rich, ancient history of this region...

Ittekikai Garden at Komyozenji Temple

 

The rear garden at Komyozenji Temple, known as the Ittekikai Garden, was the garden that really first piqued my interest in Japanese gardens, although at the the time I did not realize it was a fairly modern one.

Komyozenji Temple is a Rinzai Zen Temple located close to what is now Dazaifu Tenmangu.

The temple was founded in 1273 and belongs to the Tofukuji Schoolof the Rinzai Zen Sect.

During the Edo Period it was the family temple of those who served at what is now Dazaifu Tenmangu but which at the time was a temple and not the shrine it became in the Meiji Period.

In 1856 it became an affiliate of Dazaifu Tenmangu.

The rear garden of Komyozenji, like the smaller front garden, was designed by Mirei Shigemori.

I can find no exact date for their creation,but he passed away in 1976 so probably in 1960's or 70's.

Like the front garden it is a "dry" karesansui garden, though unlike the front garden it also incorporates a lot bof moss.

In fact one of the temples nicknames is Moss Temple.

What is noticeably different from this karesansui garden to most others is that here it is planted with many trees.

The trees are mostly maple, and so create a stunning display in the Autumn when the leaves turn red and fall.

These first 16 shots wre all taken during a visit in the Spring when the the garden is mostly shaded by the new foliage, but mottled sunlight breaks through.

The last 8 photos were taken during a Winter visit when the bare trees allow much more light onto the garden but the sun is much lower for much of the times.

In 2016 photography of the gardens was banned, and two years later the temple closed to the public for renovations, and it seems to stiill be closed.

Mirei Shigemori was a self taught garden designer and scholar of gardens who was incredibly influential in the twentieth century.

He was very prolific designing and restoring many gardens throughout Japan, but as far as I can tell there is only one other, very small garden by him in Kyushu.

Earlier I posted shots of the other garden here, the Bukkosekitei Garden.

Rakurakuura Shrine Itsukushima Shrine

 

Floating Torii are the torii gates placed in water marking the approach to a shrine from the water. They are found in lakes and the sea and are not uncommon, with the most famous, and also the biggest, being the one in front of Itsukushima Shrine on Miyajima in Hiroshima.

One of my favorites is another quite well known onem at Shirahige Shrine on Lake Biwa, known for its sunsrises.

This one is located in an inlet off the Maruyama River across from Kinosaki Onsen in northern Hyogo.

I think it may have originally been called Ukishima Benten and been a small Benzaiten shrine.

Benzaiten was conflated with the goddess of Itsukushima Shrine, one of the three Munakata kami.

It looks like this island was "rebuilt" at the same time as the land next to it when a large old people home was built and that was when the torii was built and probably when it was renamed.

The previous post in this series on the sights of Toyooka was on the amazing geology of the nearby Genbudo Caves.

Itokoku History Museum

 

The Itokoku History Museum is somewhat larger than your average local history museum as it is in an area with many, many important, ancient archeological sites.

Being the closest part of the Japanese islands to mainland Asia, where people, culture, and technology were introduced from, northern Kyushu is in many ways the cradle of Japanese culture and history.

Not far from here in Karatsu is the site of the earliest evidence of rice-paddies in Japan, and the earliest records of Japan from China mention northern Kyushu. Close to this museum is the Hirabaru Burial Site, and ancient tomb from where many of the items in the museum has been exacavated.

Bronze mirrors are an important archeological marker in ancient Japan. Originally based in Daoist magic, in Japan they are  seen as important status-markers. The most famous bronze mirrors are a group of 100 given by the Chinese Emperor to the legendary Japanese Queen Himiko. She would then have given on many of these to important figures who supported her, and so on. Eventually these bronze mirrors were also produced in Japan.

In Japanese archeology, the presence of mirrors in grave goods is a marker of the importance of the person buried. The bigger the mirrors, and the quantity of mirrors, indicating the status. At the nearby Hirabaru site they discovered not only the largest number of mirrors at a single site, but also the biggest mirror ever found. In recent years a bigger mirror has been discovered near Nara, but it seems to be most unusual. What is clear is that the "king" who lived here was very, very powerful.

There is some English with the displays, and a lot of the museum is aimed at children, but if you are interested in ancient Japanese history, the museum is worth a visit.

The previous post in this series on my walk along the Kyushu Pilgrimage was on nearby Sazareishi Shrine.

Bukkosekitei Garden by Mirei Shigemori

 

Komyozenji Temple is a 13th Century Rinzai Zen Temple adjacent to Dazaifu Tenmangu Shrine in Fukuoka.

The temple is famous for its two gardens designed by the great 20th Century master, Mirei Shigemori.

In 2016 photography of the gardens was banned, and a few years later the temple was closed to the public for renovation.

These photos were taken on two visits to the temple long before the banning of photography and visitots.

The Bukkosekitei garden is in front of the temple and is a fairly simple karensansui-style garden of raked pebbles and rocks.

The rocks are arranged in groups of three five, and seven, Shichigosan.

They are meant to represent the Chinese character for "light", hikari.

There seems to be some confusion about whether the garden can be viewed now. I recently saw some photos of this front garden taken in October 2024, but all websites still have the temple as closed.

The rear garden at the temple is spectacular and was one of the gardens that originally piqued my interest in Japanese gardens and will post shots of it in a couple of days....