To Sanbe Dam

 

After leaving Mononobe Shrine I head up the Shizuma River.

Then I cut north and headed over the mountains to drop into the Sanbe River Valley.

I carried on up that river ever closer to Mount Sanbe, the highest point in Iwami.

An active volcano with a height of more than 1,100 meters...

The climb gets steeper as I leave the river bank and climb up towards the top of the dam.

A fairly standard dam, unable to release water until full.

The mountainside cloaked in concrete

An earlier post on Sanbe Dam shows more concrete....

Just pass the dam is a little park and cafe, but the cafe closes at 5, so that is where I shall lay out my sleeping bag for the night.

I can't see the actual sunset, but a nice enough show as the sun went down. And so ends day 38.

The previous post was on Mononobe Shrine.

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Tenei Hachimangu

 

3rd of May, 2014, and my final stop of day 9 of my walk along the Iwami Kannon Pilgrimage was a fairly standard village shrine in Mito Onsen, in the Chugoku Mountains near Masuda.

There was no signboard, and I have been unable to unearth any information searching the web.

Plenty of small shrines within the grounds, almost certainly moved there in the early 20th century when local shrines were moved to national shrines.

Stone zuijin are not si common, and this one is quite recent.

As with most village shrines in Iwami, it is set up for annual kagura performaces...

Also unusual were the wooden masks, I suspect there is a mask-carver in the neighbourhood

The previous post in this series was on the day's walk through the remote mountains with an emphasis on wild harvesting...

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Mononobe Shrine

 

By mid-afternoon, after leaving Omori, I stopped in briefly at Mononobe Shrine, the ichinomiya of Iwami.

The primary kami is Umashimaji, said to be the ancestor of the Mononobe Clan. Behind the shrine is a tomb said to be for Umashimaji. The Mononobe were a martial and ritual clan dominant in the rise of the Yamato in Cetral Japan.

The shrine is said to have been established in 514, which fits with the time that Izumo came under the control of the Yamato. It is believed the Mononobe were established here as a check on Izumo power

The Mononobe are probably best known as the clan that fought against the introduction of Buddhism.

They were also ritualists and one of their rituals, the Chinkonsai, a spirit-pacifying ritual, is still practised today in three locations: the Imperial Palace, Isonokami Shrine in Nara, the Mononobe clan shrine, and here at Mononobe Shrine.

This was just a very quick visit, so I will cover the shrine in more detail in a later post.

However, the huge Tengu masks are worth a look....

The previous post was on the delights of Omori at Iwami Ginzan.

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Down the Shimanto & Shimonokae Rivers

 

23rd of December, 2011, and I begin day 22 of my walk around the famous Shikoku Ohenro Pilgrimage by crossing the Shimanto River on the Shimanto River Bridge that carries Route 56 acrossthe river.

There are numerous possible routes down to the next temple at Cape Ashizuri, and I chose this one, if I remember correctly, as it gave me more shrines to visit.

Vast fields of Susuki, Japanese pampas grass, line the banks in places...

I pass under the New Shimanto River Bridge which carries a new expressaway across the river. It is so new that the pilgrim guidebook doesnt even show it...

I suspect these ducks have come from the far north for the winter...

This is one of my favorite times of the year to go walking in Japan. The winter weathe has not yet arrived and the low sun makes for nice photography light.

The days are very short though. Winter Solstice was two days ago, so when sleeping out you spend a long time in the sleeping bag.

I've seen people repurpose plastic bottles to make these bird-scaring windmills, but never seen them painted so nicely.

A little before reaching the sea the route cuts inland over some hilly country towards the Shimonokae River...

Though still more than a week till New Year, there are still daidai citrus fruits on this altar

The Shimonokae is a much smaller river than the Shimanto and not at all well known

I follow it down to the coast and then head down the coast as the sun starts to get low.

I get as far as the tiny fishing harbour of Kohama before stopping on a grassy verge overlooking the sea.

The previous post was on the unusual architecture of the Ogata Library in Kuroshio.

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