A Walk Across Akiyoshidai

Akiyoshidai, a karst of about 100 square kilometers in central Yamaguchi Prefecture is the largest limestone plateau in Japan.

About 300 million years ago it was a coral reef under the ocean. With limestone being soluble in water karsts tend to have lots of underground water and therefore lots of caves and caverns. Underneath Akiyoshidai is Akiyoshido, the largest cavern in all of Japan.

The surface of the plateau has lots of sinkholes which makes for a very uneven landscape. There are also loads of rock pinnacle sticking up.

In the late autumn when I walked across it there was a lot of Japanese pampas grass growing. It is a very unusual landscape for Japan. It is semi artificial in that every year the dried grass covering the plateau is burned which tends to inhibit the growth of trees and stops the landscape reverting to forest.

Palace of the Dragon King

Nochigashima is a tiny, rocky islet just off the Hiyoriyama Coast in northern Hyogo. It is home to a collection of structures with a distinct Chinese style. They were built in the 1950's to memorialize an ancient local fairy tale/legend.

The story dates back to the earliest writings in Japan, the Manyoshu, Nihon Shoki, and the Fudoki. Like all such stories it exists in many forms and has been embellished over the centuries but its basic story contains elements familiar to many similar stories around the world.

Urashima Taro was a local fisherman who saved a turtle. He was rewarded by being taken down under the sea to the palace of the Dragon King and was entertained by one of his daughters, a beautiful princess. After a few days he decided to return home. Before keaving the princess gave hima jewelled box but told him never to open it.

Whenhe returned to the surface he discovered that in the few days he had spent in the undersea world  a hundred years had passed up on the surface. He opened the box and suddenly transformed into a very old man. Another version has him transforming into a crane. Both the turtle and crane are Daoist symbols of longevity very prevalent in Japanese culture and art.

A Walk Along the Japan Sea Coast Kuromatsu

In  the wake of the typhoon that had passed by a few days ago the sea was still far more active than normal and as I approached Kuromatsu it seemed somewhat bleaker than usual.

A far cry from the white beaches and calm, turquoise sea that Kuromatsu is known for in the summer.

For me Kuromatsu is associated with one of my favorite festivals, the summer festival, when boats travel out to the small island offshore to bring the goddess to the land. A couple of posts on thos matsuri are here and here.

A typhoon always brings out the surfers..... the waves may not look like much to someone from California or Hawaii, but people travel a long way for them here in Shimane.

Three small rivers/streams empty into the sea in Kuromatsu, though two disappear into the sand of the beach.

On my first ever visit to Kuromatsu I discovered a memorial to the 47th Ronin, the one who didn't comitt ritual suicide in one of the most well known Japanese legends..... but that deserves a post of its own

Konomineji Temple 86 on the Sasaguri Pilgrimage

 

Konomoineji is number 86 on the 88 temple pilgrimage in Sasaguri near Fukuoka, but the temples are not arranged in numerical order, so it was actually the 8th temple we visited.

In fact we had only been walking about an hour and a half to get this far, though the route now headed up into the mountains and the frequency of temples would decrease.

Like most of the temples on this pilgrimage it was unmanned. Also like all the temples on the pilgrimage, no matter how small, there were lots of statues, especially of Fudo Myo.

Though only about 50k in length, it is a surprisingly popular pilgrimage and I would recommend it to anyone who wanted a taster of a pilgrimage, or anyone who is fascinated by Buddhist statuary.

Shorenji Amida-do

Heading down the Kuma River it was not too long before I cam upon another thatched temple. This one was the Amida-do of Shorenji temple.

It was built in 1295 by Yorimune Sagara to memorialize his great  grandfather, Yorikage, who came here from the capital to take over the surrounding lands. The Sagara family controlled this area continuously for almost 700 years until 1867, an unusual situation in the volatile political scene of historical Japan.

The current building is about 570 years old. Inside are some statues that I believe date back to the Kamakura Period. Being an Amida Hall the central place is for a standing Amida.

I am almost certain this is a Jizo. The upper reaches of the Kuma River is an intriguing place and I plan to return there and do a lot more exploring. In fact this leg of my pilgrimage, following the Sendai River upstream and then crossing over to go down the Kuma River was one of the most enjoyable legs of the whole pilgrimage.

Cat Temple Shozen-in

Standing guard in front of the gate to Shozen-in, a small temple in the mountains of Kumamoto, are a pair of cats rather than the more usual nio or komainu. The reason relates to the story of why the temple was founded in 1625

Previously a temple, Fumonji, stood on this spot but was burned down in 1582, and the resident priest,  Seiyo Houin, killed. According to the legend he had been falsely accused of plotting against the local lord.

Following his death, his mother went to a local shrine and there bit her finger and painted the kami statue with the blood and also got her cat to lick the blood. This was all some type of curse and withcraft. A series of misfortunes began affecting the lords family, and some stories involve the cat shapeshifting into a beautiful woman.

Subsequently the lord decided to construct a new temple to pacify the spirit of the son who had been killed.  Pacifying angry spirits and ghosts is a huge part of Japanese religious practise. The disasters ceased.

Earlier I have posted about the Kannon-do of the temple, and of a Cat Shrine in Kagoshima

Kannon-do at Shozen-in Temple

 

The Kannon-do (Kannon Hall) at Shozen-in Temple near Yunomae in the mountains of Kumamoto is rather unusual. It has a thatched roof, which in itself is quite unusual although not so unusual in this area. It is painted black, which is unusual,and its carvings are quite bright.... not so unusual.

It was built in 1625 at the same time as the main hall and was built on the site of a temple that had been burned down earlier. Both the main hall and Kannon-do are Importany Cultural Properties.

The legend of why the previous temple was destroyed and this new one established is a ghostly tale involving curses and a cat and the temple has two cat statues standing guard which  has led to the temple acquiring the nickname "Cat Temple"

But that is for the next post.....

Yunomae Manga Museum

 

After leaving my berth for the night I began the 41st day of my walk around Kyushu by taking the train a couple of stops east to the terminal at Yunomae, a small hot spring resort in the mountains of Kumamoto. The next pilgrimage temple was actually west but I was making a small detour to see some things that interested me.

First stop was the Yunomae Manga Museum, kind of a memorial to a local man, Ryosuke Nasu, who was a political cartoonist and caricaturist from the 1930's and 40's. As well as exhibiting his work they also hold numerous manga events and festivals.

It was too early for me to enter, but I was more interested in the architecture. It was one of dozens and dozens of pieces of architecture around Kumamoto that are part of what is called Kumamoto Artpolis, an attempt to integrate architecture and design in a better way throughout the prefecture.

There are a lot of heavyweight architects who have contributed, but, like here, lesser-known architects. Many of the pieces are in quite remote locations but as I have an interest in modern architecture I will be making a bunch of small detours as I pass through Kumamoto to visit as many of them as I can.

Sleeper Train to Nowhere

 

When I am not sleeping out for the night I always look for the cheapest type of accommodation possible, so I was delighted to find Blue Train Taragi for the night of my 40th day walking along the Kyushu Pilgriumage.

It is three carriages from the former Hayabusa sleeper train that ran, I believe, down to kagoshima and was discontinued in 2009.

One car has reception and a communal area that includes TV and wifi but the other two were sleeping berths which included single rooms. There are no bathing facilities on the train, but the low price includes a ticket to the onsen just across the road.

I have spent a couple of nights on sleeper trains in Europe,  but not yet in Japan. I had a pleasant night on Blue Train and would stay there again. Taragi is on the Kumagawa Railway upstream from Hitoyoshi.

Statues and Fall Colors at Kandaiji Temple

Some of the photos of statues I encountered amoing the autumn colors at Kandaiji Temple, the 51st temple on the Kyushu Pilgrimage. It is located in the upper part of the Kumagawa Valley in southern Kumamoto Prefecture.

I was here in late November on the 40th day of my walk around Kyushu. Not sure who the first statue is, though I would bet it is one of the Buddhas. The second is most obviously Fudo Myo.

Again, not sure about the 3rd photo but in the 4th that is definitely Kobo Daishi on the left and Jizo on the right. This was a Shingon pilgrimage centered on Kobo Daishi.

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This last one has me puzzled. It is on the backside of a Fudo Myo statue, and it is holding a sword, but the hairstyle or headgear does not look like Fudo......