Hofukuji Jizo-Do

These are a unique form of Nio that I have not seen anywhere else. They are carved as diagonal spars that support the porch roof on the Jizo Do at Hofukuji, a small temple in the Teramachi district of Hagi. Only the Jizo Do remains, the main hall being destroyed in early Meiji.

I have been unable to find out anything about them, so if anyone has seen anything like this before, please leave a comment.

There is a legend connected to a Jizo statue here. A local man married a beautiful woman who died giving birth to a son. The father hired a nurse to take care of his son. Later he remarried and his second wife gave birth to a son. The nurse used to take both boys to play in the grounds of Hofukuji. The wife beacme increasingly jealous of the first so, believing that her son deserved to inherit the family business, so one day took a red-hot poker and struck the first son, apparently killing him.

Next day however, the son was fine with not a mark on him. Later a Jizo statue at the temple was discovered with a burn mark across its face, causing the wife to repent and become a devotee of the statue.

This is a rather unusual statue of Daruma Daishi, the Japanese name for Bodhidharma, the legendary monk who brought Buddhism to China.

Nanzoin Temple part 1

Nanzoin Temple, a Shingon temple in Sasaguri, near Fukuoka, is a big temple complex with lots of statuary. I have already posted about the numerous Fudo Myoo statues and the giant reclining Buddha. Above is an Enmeijizo, a Jizo who grants a long life, housed in a small. thatched structure.

Of course there are plenty of other Jizo statues.

En no Gyoja, the famed 7th Century ascetic, is generally considered to be the founder of Shugendo. He is often depicted with a pair of servants, the husband and wife Zenki and Goki, 2 demons who En no Gyoja converted.

Maneki Neko, the welcoming cat, has obscure origins, but is almost certainly not Buddhist, however this one is more than 2 meters tall.

With their pleated bodies, these would appear to be stone versions of Teru Teru Bozu, the folk dolls usually made of paper or cloth and hung to attract fine weather.

Okazaki Shrine, Kidani

Standing in front of this small, rural shrine in Kidani, southern Okayama, was an unusual torii. I saw another at the shrine in the middle of the village, and my guess is they were constructed to house lanterns for matsuri.

It is an Okazaki Shrine, and as there were no information boards I presume it is a branch of the famous Okazaki Shrine in Kyoto.

As such it enshrines 3 main kami, Susano, Kushinada, &  Yahashira no Mikagami, the last being eight offspring of Susano.

I've mentioned it before, but it bears repeating:- I often hear that Amaterasu is the primary kami in Shinto, but really that is just a hangover from State Shinto that placed here in that position to elevate emperor worship. If you actually check shrines all over the couintry, then shrines to Susano and his lineage far outnumber shrines to Amaterasu and her lineage.

Nanten Inari Shrine

Nanten Inari Shrine is located in a pretty, wooded, narrow valley in the grounds of Nanzoin Temple, between the main temple buildings and the giant Nehanzo.

At first I was not sure if it was in fact an Inari Shrine, as there were no guardian fox statues. There were also no multiple toriis.

At the base there was a small pond with a Benzaiten statue, so I thought it could have been a Benten Shrine.

However, at the small honden at the top of the steps there were a small pair of kitsune figurines.

Churaumi Aquarium

Until 2005, the Kuroshio  Tank at Churaumi Aquarium was the biggest in the world. The acrylic panel holding back almost 2 million gallons of water is  2 feet thick.

Located in the Ocean Expo Park in northern Okinawa, the three floored aquarium is entered from above. After exiting the main building there are other buildings and museums.

It is considered to be the best aquarium in Japan, The Kuroshio Tank features creatures found in the Kuroshio current, the warm waters surrounding the Okinawan Islands, the largest being the Whale Sharks and Manta Rays.

The first exhibit is a large tank of starfishes which can be handled by the public. There is a big exhibit of coral, and lots and lots of fish.

One of the exterior tanks features Sea Turtles.

More Fudo Myo at Nanzoin

Kurikara, the sword of Fudo Myoo, is often represented with a dragon wrapped around it. Occasionally Fudo himself is given a dragon head, like here at Nanzoin.

There were lots of Fudo statues at Nanzoin, as there were at the other temples nearby in the Wakasugi Mountain area. Like the other temples there was a waterfall surrounded by Fudo statues used for ascetic purification practises.

There was also a fudo altar within a cave, something else that is not unusual for Fudo altars.

As well as the numerous Fudo statues, and the largest bronze reclining Buddha, Nanzoin had a lot of other features which I will post next....

Sunset at Nameshi Dam

At the end of a very long first day of my walk over and around the Kunisaki Peninsula I stopped for the night on the banks of the reservoir behind Namiishi Dam.

I had now reached the high country in the middle of the peninsula by walking up one of the numerous valleys that radiate out from Mount Futago, and  the landscape was dramatic with features that made it an obvious site for early Yamabushi to inhabit.

There is a small park here, and that is where I spread out my sleeping bag....

All the posts of this days walk can be found by clicking here, though they will be in reverse chronological order.

Tomorrow I will pass over the high center of the peninsula and hopefully reach the east coast.

Fudo Myo at Nanzoin

This Fudo Myo statue is about 10 to 11 meters high and is located at Nanzoin in Sasaguri, Fukuoka.

Its the first temple on the Sasaguri 88 sacred places pilgrimage, a miniature version of the Shikoku Pilgrimage, but its not part of the Kyushu 108 temple pilgrimage, though I stopped in at the start of my 3rd day of the latter pilgrimage.

It's a Shingon temple, and Fudo Myo is particularly popular in Shingon, so its not surprising that there are a lot of Fudo statues there....

Otomeza Theater Mitarai

The Otomeza Theater in Mitarai on Osaki Shimojima is a fine example of a small provincial theater from early in the twentieth Century.

It was built in 1930 when the port had become less important than in the days of wind, but was still important as an "entertainment" area.

In 1950 it switched to being a movie theater, but following the outlawing of prostitution in 1956 the town went into serious decline and the theater closed. For a while it was used as a vegetable market.

It has been lovingly restored to its former glory and is a rare example of the kind of small theater that were found all over Japan. Like all thge historic sites in the town, entrance is free.

Biggest Reclining Buddha in Japan

Nehanzo, reclining Buddhas, are the least common pose for statues of Buddha in Japan. At Nanzo-in temple in Sasaguri, Fukuoka, there is what is certainly the largest bronze Nehanzo in Japan.

Its dimensions are impressive. 41 meters long, and 11 meters high, it weighs about 300 tons, more than three times as heavy as the Great Buddha in Nara, it is among the biggest bronze statues of the world.

It was completed in 1995 to house some of the historical Buddhas ashes which had been donated to the temple from Myanmar, where Nehanzo are much more common.

Nehan means "nirvana", and statues of the reclining Buddha depict him at the moment of his death when he entered Nirvana.

There is a lot more to see at Nanzoin which I will post soon....

2023 EDIT. I remember reading not long before the Covid pandemic hit that Nanzoin had reacted strongly to industrial-scale tourism, specifically cruise ship tour groups, with some restrictions on visitors. Apparently, any group visit must be arranged in advance, but for individual visits, there are restrictions on what clothing is allowed, and strangely that visible tattoos are not allowed.