The Way to Konjiji Temple

 

Konjiji is temple number 12 on the Shikoku Fudo Myoo Pilgrimage.

It is also the okunoin of Dainichi-ji, temple 13 on the Shikoku Ohenro Pilgrimage.

It is located high on a mountain and was renowned as a shugendo site, a training place for yamabushi.

For those on foot it is a great opportunity to get off the main roads.....

As would be expected, there are lots of Fudo statues....

And numerous sacred sites along the way....

Including a small waterfall with shimenawa and fudo....

I don' know where the ladder goes.... I climbe part way up, but as I had a very heavy pack I chose to come back down....

The previous post in this series on the Shikoku Fudo Myoo Pilgrimage was on the garden at Dogaku Temple, the previous temple down beow the mountain.

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Jorinji Temple & an Explanation

 

Jorinji Temple is a very small temple just a few hundred meters from Shotokuji Temple in Sufu. Jorinji is one of the "extra" temples on the Iwami Kannon Pilgrimage.

Kannon pilgrimages usually have 33 main temples and 3 or so "extra" temples. The Iwami Kannon Pilgrimage has 33 main temples, but about 17 "extra" temples. I think I have figured out why.

I have seen a map of the original Iwami Kannon Pilgrimage, and a lot of the temples, especially in the western part of the pilgrimage, simply no longer exist, and I wondered how they came up with the current pilgrimage. During the Edo Period Iwami was split into two, with the Gonokawa River being the dividing line.

East of the Gonokawa was Iwami Ginzan, with all the land controlled directly by the Shogunate. West of the river was the Hamada Domain. Because of the wealth of the silver mine, travel into the area was severely curtailed, so pilgrims could no longer do the Iwami Kannon Pilgrimage. Both Hamada Domain and Iwami Ginzan set up there own 33 temple Kannon pilgrimages, so Iwami ended up with about 70 different Kannon pilgrimage temples.

After Meiji, when the domains were abolished and Shimane was created, was when many temples disappeared, so I think the reason the contemporary Iwami kannon Pilgrimage has about 50 temples is because they used a combination of the what was left of the two Edo period pilgrimages. This is why it is called the Iwami Mandala Kannon Pilgrimage.

I visited on day 35 of my walk along the Chugoku Kannon Pilgrimage which was also day 16 of my walk along the Iwami Kannon Pilgrimage. The Iwami Pilgrimage started in Oda and then went inland and followed the mountains all the way down to Tsuwano when it then heads to the coast at Masuda before heading up the coast to finish close to the starting point.

When I arrived in the Sufu area on day 35 of the Chugoku Pilgrimage, I had also gotten to about the same point walking the Iwami Pilgrimage. As the Chugoku Pilgrimage only has one temple in Iwami, rather than hurry on through, I decided to make small detours so I could finish off the Iwami pilgrimage at the same time.

So for the next 3 or so days of the Chugoku Pilgrimage I will be visiting many of the Iwami Pilgrimage temples.

Clear as mud, right?

The previous post was on nearby Shotokuji Temple.

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Namba Parks

 

Shopping malls are true cathedrals of consumption, especially in a country wherein many people claim shopping as a hobby.

Most are featureless boxes, but a few have had some serious money spent on their architecture.

Namba parks is one such location, and from one angle one might understand the name "parks" as having some rekevance.

However, most visitors will see a dark canyon with beckoning lights enticing people into magical lands where things you don't need call out to be bought...

The canyon metaphor is also literal.

The architect, American Jon Jerde, modelled the architecture on the sandstone canyons of the Colorado Plateau in the American Southwest.

As a photographer, I like it.

Jerde has also designed another couple of shopping malls in Japan that I like: Riverwalk in Kokura, and Canal City in Fukuoka.

I notice common elements to all three...

Namba Parks is my least favourite, though that may be simply because I have visited it less than the other two.

I was about to write that after multiple visits to these malls I had never actually bought anything, but then I remembered that Canal City used to have a Wendys that I visited once, and Riverwalk has a Freshness Burger and a map museum that I had visited...

As well as the shopping mall, Namba Parks consists of a cinema, and an office building and a residential building. The rooftop gardens don't seem to get much use...

I currently only have one post on Riverwalk, here, and one on Canal City, here.

The previous post in this series exploring Namba, Osaka, was on sights seen between Namba Hips and Namba Parks.

if you would like to subscribe by email just leave your email address in the comments below. It will not be published and made public. I post new content almost everyday, and send out an email about twice a month with short descriptions and links to the last ten posts.