The Garden at Kokokuji Temple

 

The top ranked garden in Japan, according to the Journal of Japanese Gardening, is consistently the Adachi Museum Gardens in Shimane.

Other gardens in Shimane are in the list of top Japanese gardens, including this one at Kokuji Temple near Hirata in the Izumo area.

In 2005 it was ranked 8th, and in 2006 it was ranked 12th.

And yet it is barely known and rarely visited.

Kokokuji is a Rinzai temple founded in the 14th century.

The garden, however, was created in the early 19th century.

It is a relatively small garden consisting primarily of a dry garden with Kinkyoike, a small resevoir behind it.

The borrowed scenery is completed with Mount Tabushi and the Kitayama mountains behind.

The garden was designed by Sawa Gentan, the gardener employed by the great Tea Master Fumai Matsudaira who ruled the Matsue Domain.

Many other gardens in the area are said to have been designed by Sawa Gentan, including the magnificent ones at Hirata Honjin, literally just a couple of kilometers away. Several gardens at the Izumo Cultural Heritage Museum, and the Gesshoji Temple Garden are also attributed to Fumai and Gentan

The small entrance fee to view the garden includes a green tea and sweet, photo 3 above.

This, and many other gardens in the region are known as Izumo Style, and sometimes Gentan Style.

One of the features of Izumo style is that the stepping stones are a combination of round and rectangular.

Another feature mentioned by many is that an Izumo style garden will be a combination of a traditional garden and a Teahouse garden.

Hidden away on the right hand side of the garden here is a teahouse, and the stone path leads to it.

There are a lot of other gardens in the Matsue and Izumo region, including many I have not covered yet. If yiu are interested please let me know. Yuushien, Meimei-an Teahouse, Lafcadio Hearns House, Yakumo Honjin, and the several already mentioned earlier, are just a few already covered...

Next I will cover Kokokuji Temple itself....

Shinkoin Temple 106 Kyushu Pilgrimage

 

ShinkoinTemple has an elegant, wooden main hall, though being a fairly modern temple.

It is situated directly on the coast of Fukuoka in the area known as Itoshima.

The temple moved here recently in 1989, prior to that it was in Fukuoka City, and prior to that it was in Sasaguri, where it was founded in the Taisho Period (1912-1926)

The honzon of the temple is an unusual one that don't remember ever hearing about before, Daizuiku Bosatsu.

Unusual in being a female Buddhist deity, as is often, with roots in Hinduism. Known for offering protection and for granting the wishes of all. Kiyomizu Temple in Kyoto and Ishiteji Temple in Osaka, both have statues of her.

There is also a Wave-Citting Fudo Myo enshrined along with the other four Myoo.

There are several small sone Fudo's in the grounds as well.

There are several shrines in the grounds including the temple guardian, Kiyotaki Daigongen, and also an Otsuna Daimyojin. The grounds have some nice landscaping and gardens.

The previous post was on Kumonohara Shrine in Karatsu.

Art of Hashikuraji Temple

 

Hashikuraji is a mountain temple in the mountains that border Tokushima and Kagawa on Shikoku.

It was the "inner temple" of Konpira-san, once a major pilgrimage destination in its own right, and since Meiji Konpira became a shrine.

While not all temples have komainu guardian statues, Kashikuraji has quite a few. It also has several shinto torii gates. The top photo is the older type of komainu, wooden and kept indoors.

There are also plenty of carvings adorning the buildings at Hashikuraji. In fact when I was there I noticed free worksheets for kids available at the temple that encouraged kids to explore and find all the examples of animals, including mythical ones, at the temple.

Hashikuraji was a major centre for Shugendo and yamabushi and so has a pair of big wooden Tengu masks.

As is fairly typical, there was a pair, one of the long-nosed Tengu, and one of the Karasu Tengu with beak;

The honzon of the temple is a Konpira Daigongen, though it is a secret buddha and the last four generations of head priest have not even seen it.

There are a few statues scattered around the rounds though.

One of the newer ones is a Bokefuji Kannon. prayed to for protection from dementia and Alzeimers, this is a new version of Kannon that is becoming very common. Typically the standing Kannon will have a small, elderly couple at its feet.

There is a large outdoor altar to Fudo Myoo, and in fact this was what I had come here for, while walking the Shikoku Fudo Myoo Pilgrimage.

The previous post was on the temple buildings and the temples history.

Hashikura Temple 4 Shikoku Fudo Myo Pilgrimage

 

While being temple number 4 on the Shikoku Fudo Myo Pilgrimage, Hashikura-ji is probably more well known for being temple 15 of the 20 "extra" bangai temples of the much more famous Shikoku Ohenro pilgrimage. However, it is also a temple of the Shikoku Kannon Pilgrimage, and the Awa Saigoku Pilgrimage.

It is located at 600 meters above sea level looking down on the Yoshino River valley that cuts right throiugh Tokushima.

The temple is accessible by a ropeway which offers a great view of the impressive Niomon gate on the way up.

The ropeway stops at the main level of the temple near the priests residence, and right next to it the Gomaden. Though it had been really sunny for a few days, it was late December and there was snow around the grounds.

According to the temple, Hashikiuraji has performed the goma ceremony twice a day, every day, since the temples founding.

It was founded by Kobo Daishi himself in 828 when he climbed the mountain. Hr had a vision of Konpira Daigongen and carved a statue of him.

Hashikiraji became the okunoin, or inner temple, of Konpira, the complex that since Meiji has been a Shinto Shrine.

Further along is a massive Bell Tower and the Heart Sutra Steps that lead up to the main hall.

With 278 steps, the same number of chracters in the Heart Sutra, when added to the steps from the Niomon up to this first level, in total the climb to the main hall has 769 steps.

This is just a little less than the 785 steps that lead up to the actual Konpira Shrine.

A major fire in 1769, and then another in 1826, destroyed almost all the buildings, so everything standing now dates back to the late Edo period.

It is a large complex with a lot to see, and relatively few visitors. There are a lot of nice carvings and statues and so I will do a post on them next.

The previous post in this series on day 5 of my walk along the Shikoku Fudo Myo Pilgrimage was on the interesting old house and museum across the river that documents the local tobacco industry.