Many Fudo Myoo at Tsubakido Henjoin

 

Tsubakido Henjoin is the collective name for a couple of adjacent temples, Tsubaki Kannon, and Tsubaki Daishi located in the mountains of the remote Kunisaki Peninsula in Oita, Kyushu.

Also nearby is Shunkoji Temple which historically seems to have been connected to Henjoin but seems to be experiencing some kind of "falling out".

Henjoin is on several pilgrimages including the Kyushu 33 Kannon, and the Bungo 88 Henro. I visited when I passed by while walking the Kyushu Fudo Myoo Pilgrimage, though it is not actually a member of that pilgrimage it is home to numerous Fudo Myoo statues.

The origin of the temples is said to be when Kobo Daishi visited here after returning from Chima. He is said to have made a journey to Usa Hachimangu and then come u onto the Kunisaki Peninsula to get a view of his "home" country of Shikoku.

A cave at the site is said to be where he practiced austerities, and it is home to several Fudo Statues.

There is also a sacred spring said to have started when the ground was struck by Kobo Daishi's staff.

The main hall of Tsubaki Daishi also has a Fudo enshrined alongside Kobo Daishi, and a Yakushi.

The temples are very popular and are known for a wide variety of "this worldly benefits", known as genze ryaku in Japanese, and like most such temples there is a profusion of different statues.

The Okunoin has a large number of shamoji, flat rice spoons, with prayers written upon them.

In the next post I will show some of the many other deity and Buddha statues here.

The previous post in this series on the Kyushu Fudo Myo Pilgrimage was Shunkoji Temple.

Inada Shrine & Princess Kushinada

 

Inada Shrine in what is now Yokota, Okuizumo, enshrines Kushinadahime, in English referred to as Princess Kushinada, or simply Kushinada. Also enshrined here is Susano, who became her husband.

According to the story, the shrine is built upon the spot where Kushinada was born. Nearby is a small pond said to be where she was washed as a new-born, and a grove of bamboo said to have grown from the discarded bamboo blade that cut her umbilical cord.

According to the stories, of which there are multiple variations, she was the 8th daughter of an old couple, Asinazuchi, and Tenazuchi. Her seven sisters had all been sacrificed to a Yamata no Orochi, the 8-forked, 8-headed serpent, in all probability sacrificed to the 8 violent tributaries of the Hi River.

Susano turns up and offers to defeat the Orochi in return for Kushinada as his wife. The story is one of the best known of the Izumo cycle of myths from the classics, and the sword that became one of the three imperial regalia was found in the slain serpents tail. The story is also the best known of the Iwami kagura performances.  A series of videos of the Orochi kagura, and more detail of the story,  can be seen in my earlier posts, Orochi Spectacular, and Synchronized Serpents.

After marrying Kushinada, Susano settled first with her at what is now Suga Shrine and there composed what is considered to be the first Waka poem. Suga shrines are the main shrines for Susano and there are thousands of them around the country. Another shrine connected with Kushinada is Yaegaki Shrine near Matsue. In one version of the story this is where Susano hid her during his battle with Orochi.

In one version of the myth, Okuninushi is the son of Susano and Kushinada. In other versions, he is a later descendant. The most famous shrine in Izumo. Izumo Taisha, is now dedicated to Okuninushi, but for at least its first thousand years it enshrined Susano.

The previous post in this series on Okuizumo was Shinsoji Temple.

Monjuin Temple & Emon Saburo

 

Monjuin is a small temple to the south of Matsuyama City that is the 9th bangai, or bekkaku, temple on the famous Shikoku Pilgrimage known as Ohenro. bangai are the 20 "extra" temples on top of the 88 regular temples of the pilgrimage.

Monjuin is located between temples 47, Yasakiji, and 48, Saitinji, and was built on the site of the former home of a man called Emon Saburo, whose legend is connected with the foundation of the pilgrimage itself and also the practice of osettai, the giving of alms to pilgrims.

According to the story, Emon Saburo was a very wealthy merchant and one day a mendicant monk asked him for alms. He refused and also broke the begging bowl of the monk who was actually Kobo Daishi himself.

After each of his 8 sons fell ill and died, Emon realized it was caused by his actions against Kobo Daishi and so set off around Shikoku to try and catch up with him to ask for forgiveness. A burial mound near temple 46, Joruji, is said to be the grave of his 8 sons.

After completely traveling around Shikoku twenty times and failing to meet up with Kobo Daishi he decided to reverse his direction of travel and go in an anti-clockwise direction.

 

On the mountainside between temples 11 and 12 in Tokushima, Emon, exhausted and close to death, collapsed. Kobo Daishi appeared and granted him absolution. He asked to be reborn into a wealthy family so that he could restore a neglected temple.

Later a child was born clutching a stone inscribed with the words "Emon Saburo is reborn". Such a stone is on display at temple 51 Ishiteji, in Matsuyama.

The honzon at Monju-in is a "secret" Monju Bosatsu. I was quite impressed with the number of statues and reliefs on display in the grounds of such a small temple.

The previous post in the series was Yasakaji Temple

Hizen Torii & Other Shrine Details

 

Day 57 of my walk along the Kyushu pilgrimage was largely along the Nagasaki Kaido from saga City to Takeo Onsen. As usual, I tried to stop in at every shrine I passed in the hope of seeing something or learning something interesting. Usually, I would do an individual post for each shrine and do some research on the shrine history, stories behind the kami enshrined etc, but as these posts were never of much interest to many people from now on I will just post highlights. Noticeable in this first shrine is the Hizen style torii. Torii styles tend to be based on other factors than region, but Hizen is unique in this regard.

Offerings of sake and oranges are common at shrines and temples, with oranges being most popular after the new year. Though this was a shrine, the small altar was with a Buddhist statue, something that was outlawed in early Meiji but which is increasingly found nowadays.

Fukumohachimangu is quite a large shrine on a hilltop in Omachi. It became a Hachiman shrine in the 9th century but the earlier shrine is linked to stories of Yamato Takeru and his fight with the Kumaso tribe, one of the two big "tribes" of Kyushu that resisted Yamato control. A series of torii lead from the main road and then up the hill, but only one was in Hizen style.

What Fukumohachimangu had, that most shrines have, was a large sacred tree. In this case it was marked with a shimenawa rope, but many such trees do not have a shimenawa. One way of spotting a shrine from a distance is to see a grove of unusually large trees.....

Kaido shrine lies on the bank of Yaigome Pond, a large reservoir that feeds the rice paddies of the Saga Plain. The torii still retains an influence of Hizen style. Enshrined here are Toyotamahiko, Toyotamahime, and also others including Sugawara Michizane.

The final four photos all were taken at Inanushi Shrine, very close to Fumyozan Koyaji Temple. According to one source, the Hizen style torii which is dismantled and lying next to the approach road was the first Hizen style torii in Saga on the Nagasaki Kaido coming from Nagasaki.

Horse statues in stone are quite rare. Modern ones in bronze or wooden ones undercover are far more common. It was here that I discovered the unusual komainu statues.

There were several Inari shrines in the grounds, including this small stone one, and also tghis larger one housed in a small wooden hall.

Takeo Onsen

 

Takeo Onsen is a hot spring resort in Saga whose symbol is the Romon, Tower gate, that stands at the entrance to the public baths.

The gate is an important cultural property and features on the towns manhole covers.

The gate and the building behind it, the Shinkan, were both built in 1915 by local architect Kingo Tatsuno.

The town is home to numerous hotels and traditional guest houses, but the cheapest was the lodgings at the public baths so that is where I booked a room for the end of my 57th day walking around Kyushu.

Kingo Tatsuno is most famous for designing the original Tokyo Station, now known as Marunouchi Station Building.

I am not a big fan of onsens, but while all the guests were having their dinner I was able to enjoy the almost deserted outdoor bath.

Takeo Onsen is the terminal station for the shortest Shinkansen Line in Japan, the Nagasaki Line. It seems Saga is not keen to have a shinkansen and so from Takeo Onsen to Shin Tosu on the main Kyushu Shinkansen Line you need to transfer to a regular train.

Hizen Komainu

 

Hizen was the name of the province that is now the prefectures of Saga and Nagasaki. The pair of komainu, guardian lion-dogs, in the first three photos are referred to as Hizen style.

They are found in Inanushi Shrine in Koitagata, Saga, close to Fumyozan Koya Temple.

They are almost abstract in design, and not at all sophisticated

.

All the other photos are komainu I encountered at other shrines on the same day as I walked from Saga to Takeo Onsen.

None of them are at all similar in style to the first pair, leading me to think the first pair are not really Hizen style, but rather just locally created by a less than high level mason.

Hizen certainly has its own style of Torii, shrine entrance gate, and to those I turn in my nest post.

Komyoji Temple 102 Kyushu pilgrimage

 

Not too long after leaving temple 61, Koyaji, I came to the second pilgrimage temple of the day, Komyoji.

Quite a small temple, and no one home. It was founded in the Edo period but destroyed in the ant-Buddhist movement of early Meiji, then re-established in 1893.

The honzon is a seated Yakushi, and other than the small Inari shrine on the grounds I know nothing about it,

Takeo Onsen, where I had a room booked, was less than an hour away.....