Awa Ichinomiya

 

Immediately adjacent to Dainichi-ji Temple is the Ichinomiya Shrine of Awa, the old name for Tokushima.

Dainichiji Temple  is now temple number 13 on the Shikoku Pilgrimage, but prior to the Meiji era it was the shrine that was the 13th site of the pilgrimage. The Kannon statue was removed from the shrine and placed in Dainichiji.

In ancient times local people worshipped a huge, sacred stone at the site.

The shrine itself was founded in the mid-9th century, and at that time the Ichiniomiya for the province was Oasahiko Shrine across the Yoshino River.

This shrine became the Ichinomiya a couple of centuries later as Oasahiko Shrine was too far from the provincial capital and so considered inconvenient.

The three kami now enshrined here are Ogetsuhime, Amanoiwatowake, & Yakurahime.

Ogetsuhime is more commonly known as Ukemochi. Usually seen as the Goddess of food, she is sometimes a he. Different versions of the myths have her being killed by either Susanoo or Tsukuyomi, and from her corpse all the various foods of Japan sprang forth. She is also sometimes equated with Inari.

Amanoiwatowake is the name for several different kami, but one of them is the ancestral kami of the Imbe Clan, and so that is the most likely version here. The Imbe "colonized" the Awa region to grow hemp for the Imperial court.

Yakurahime is considered another name for Amaterasu.

Secondary shrines within the grounds include a Sarutahiko Shrine, a Tenjin Shrine, and Inari Shrine, an Okuninushi & Kotoshironushi Shrine, and a Munakata Shrine.

A Wakamiya Shrine enshrines several generations of the lords of nearby Ichinomniya Castle.

Due to the proximity to the castle, the shrine was completely destroyed by battles in the Warring States Period of the 16th century.

The honden is an Important Cultural Property. It was built in 1630.

The previous post in this series on day 8 of my walk along the Shikoku Fudo Myoo Pilgrimage was on the neighbouring Dainichiji Temple.

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A Walk Down Mount Daisen

 

!5th October, 2015, at 3 in the afternoon, I started my walk down Mount Daisen.

I planned to get as far down as I could before sunset as I would be sleeping out and every meter lower I could get would be that little bit warmer.

The road I took headed roughly north down towards the Sea of Japan. In another 6 weeks, the road closes until March.

I looked down on Yonago and the long, curving spit of land that runs up to Sakaiminato. In the Kunibiki myth, this piece of land was a "rope" that attached the Shimane Peninsula to Mount Daisen. At the opposite end of the peninsula, it is held in place by a "rope" that is the long, curved beach that runs from Inasa Beach and connects to Mount Sanbe.

The road passes by several ski slopes....

Never ever been skiing myself, so have no idea if these slopes are any good.

At this elevation, it seems Autumn is about a month earlier than down where I live...

Not sure who this statue is. I suspect it may well be Sanbon Kojin, who had a shrine behind the Amida Hall at Daisenji. His hair stands straight up, but he usually has six arms. It also suggests this section of the road was one of the early pilgrimage trails radiating out in all directions from Daisenji.

The road has quite a few switchbacks so the view changes quite often...

After all these years living in Japan, I am still intrigued by the concrete "nets" that cover the mountainsides...

I find a good place to sleep beside the Amida River. I only managed to descend about 200 meters from 830m elevation to 630m elevation, but that translates to a much warmer night. There is some colour in the sky as the sun sets...

The previous post was on Daisenji Temple, the reason for my climb up the mountain.

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Sakaiminato Ferry Terminal

 

Sakaiminato Ferry Terminal is one of two ferry terminals serving the Oki Islands.

The other terminal is at Shichirui, not too far away.

Both terminals were designed by Shimane architect Shin Takamatsu, whose work I am quite fond of.

The first time I saw the Sakaiminato terminal it was from the other side of the channel, and I presumed it was some kind of silo buildings for cargo ships, with 5 large cylinders.

However, on the side of the building facing inland it has a quite different appearance with 7 narrow, triangular towers.

To quote the architect's own website concerning this building, " The original program was a ferry terminal, but it ended up being a dissipative collection of different public facilities scattered on the site without an integrated system. This overly morphological architecture is generated by our ambition to unite this dispersed arrangement with its inherited characteristic - the intensity of the form. Architecture in some cases may slightly outlive the system.

As well as the Shichirui Ferry Terminal, named Meteor Plaza, and this one, Takamatsu also designed the Nagasaki Minato Ferry Terminal.

If you click the Shin Takamatsu tag at the bottom of the post you will see all the other posts I have done so far on his work. My favorite is one of the least seen, a religious chapel in the mountains.

The previous post was on the Yumeminato Pavillion.

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