Kasuga Shrine & The Great Chestnut Tree of Hoki

 

Valleys radiate out from the peak of Mount Daisen, and the one heading almost perfectly NE, carrying the Kaseichi River, is somewhat wider than most.

As the sun was approaching the horizon, I came across the entrance to a shrine and had to explore.

In front of the shrine was a huge, sacred tree, the Great Chestnut Tree of Hoki, a National Natural Monument.

It is one of the biggest chestnut trees in all of Japan, being 15 meters tall with a branch spread of 15 meters in one direction and 22 meters in the other.

At chest height, the trunk has a circumference of 9.7 meters. What is surprising is that it is still very healthy and producing fruit. It is one of the  100 Famous Giant Trees of Japan.

The shrine is a Kasuga Shrine and so enshrines the Kasuga kami, a collective of 4 kami.

It was founded in the mid to late 9th century by inviting the kami from Kasuga Taisha in Nara.

Takemikazuchi fought one of Okuninushi's sons during the Kuniyuzuri myth when Okuninushi gave Japan to Amaterasu and her descendants. The defeated son, Takeminakata, went into exile in Nagano and is enshrined at Suwa Taisha there.

Amenokoyane, the ancestral kami of the Nakatomi/Fujiwara was involved in the rites attempting to lure Amaterasu out of the cave she hid herself in. Kasuga Taisha is the tutelary shrine of the Nakatomi-Fujiwara.

Futsunushi is associated with Takemikazushi and accompanied him in the Kuniyuzuri myth. He is also considered the andestral kami of the Mononobe Clan. The fourth kami is Himegami, a name that usually refers to the "wife" of major kami.

In 1915, as part of the shrine consolidation program, 5 shrines were brought in and amalgamated with the Kasuga Shrine. One shrine enshrined Oyamatsumi, another enshrined Gozu Tenno, so is now considered Susanoo, and three Kojin shrines, which here have been all equated with Susanoo.

The sun was getting low, so this seemed like a good place to stop for the night.

The previous post in this series on day 46 of my walk along the Chugoku Kannon Pilgrimage was on the walk westward across the lower valleys of Mount Daisen.

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Hamahara Bridge to Hamahara Dam

 

Behind me is Mount Sanbe, the highest mountain in Iwami, a volcano that last erupted about 4,000 years ago.

The first 3 days of my walk upriver, the river, though wildly twisty at times, roughly headed east to northeast. Now for the next few days walking it heads south to southeast.

It's cherry blossom season, and they are not hard to find. Japan went on an orgy of cherry tree planting in the early years of the twentieth century, and then again in the postwar period.

At this point on the river, this bank continues to be the less settled bank, with the quieter road

However, I do pass through Takibara.

Big enough to have a shrine and a temple. 

I passed on the opposite bank a few days before writing up this post, and now Takibara is home to a big, modern canoe centre, but it was not there when  I passed through on this trip.

I have a dislike of Hamahara Dam. It floods my garden.

For some reason it cannot release floodwater until it is full, so it then releases so much water we get flooded downstream. It does not start releasing the water slowly as it builds up so the river would rise slowly and not flood downstream.

Apparently 70% of dams in Japan are built this way.

It was completed in 1953.

Water in the reservoir behind the dam travels in pipes through the mountains to a gravity-fed hydro power station further downstream. I passed by it on day 3 of my walk, but didnt take a photo.

The previous post in this series was on the section from Kasubuchi to Hamahara Bridge.

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Roller Coasting Westwards

 

I use rollercoasting in the title because, turning west, the road now goes repeatedly up and down as well as turning back on itself many times.

Coming down the mountain towards the north often had switchbacks and changes of direction, but at least it was always downhill.

The scenery is still changing, and somewhat dramatic, but with more open spaces as I cross valleys.

The photos that look like early morning light burning off the mist in the forest,... something I have seen and photographed a couple of times, is actually smoke.

Someone was burning dried weeds on agricultural land...... technically illegal I think, but common anyway.

....makes for very cinematic photos....

Not much else to report.... no shrines or temples....

Some rice being harvested...

and plenty of cylindricall white, plastic bales..... for the cows to eat in winter in the many dairy farms in the area...... not sure if it is forage or silage...

My final stop for the day as I reach the plain extending to Kurayoshi, the site of the next pilgrimage temple, is at an interesting shrine with a remarkable tree..... that's the next post in the series...

The previous post in the series was on the morning descent from Daisen.

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Jodogaura Sunset

 

The Jodogaura Coast is one of the many scenic coastlines on Dogo, the largest of the Oki Islands.

The gulls were settling in for the night.

As was I. This was as far as I reached on my first day of a 3 day walk around the coastline of the island.

Fortunately, there was a free campsite here, and I was the only guest.

So, some more boring sunset photos.....

Living in a narrow valley, I see neither the sunsrise or sunset, so either are a treat for me...

The previous post was on the coastline, Paradise Bay in English, in daylight...

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