Scenic Ferry Ride from Tsuneishi to Onomichi

 

After leaving Abuto Kannon, I walked up the west coast of the peninsula until as far as Tsuneishi from where I hopped on a small car ferry heading to Onomichi.

Japan is an archipelago of thousands of islands, and one of the areas of Japan where this is most obvious is the Inland Sea between Honshu and Shikoku.

A good chunk of the shipbuilding industry is centred here as the waters are relatively calm.

This curious piece of architecture is called Ribbon Hall and seems to be used primarily as a wedding chapel at a resort.

Nowadays many of the islands are connected by bridges to each other or two the main islands of Hinshu, Shikoku, or Kyushu,  but small ferries are still needed for the numerous unconnected islands.

Looking back, I had earlier walked past the Utsumi Bridge which connects the Numakuma Peninsula to Tajima Island.

First stop of the ferry was Momojima Island.

The "floating torii" of Itsukushima Shrine in Urasaki was built in 1977 emulating its head shrine on Miyajima.

A small car ferry links Tozaki on the peninsula with Uta on Mukaishima Island.

The Inland Sea, Setnaikai in Japanese, was the main transportation route in historical Japan, a country with many mountains, few wheeled vehicles, and few roads.

Getting closer to Onomichi, the big shipbuilding area lies to the east of the town.

The channel between Onomichi  and Mukaijima is as narrow as a river, but some serious, ocean-going vessels are built and repaired here.

While so much of Japan has been "renovated" there are still remnant of a funkier type of architecture, as below....

The Shimanami Kaido, an expressway that links Honshu to Shikoku via 6 islands, crosses the narrow strait. The small bridge carries non-expressway traffic.

Striking because of its rarity, a domestic house with stylish, modern architecture, rather than the cooki-cutter houses of most of Japan...

Just a few minutes away from the destination....

The final two photos are of the two pilgrimage temples, Jodo-ji, and Senko-ji, that I will visit once the ferry docks.

The previous post in this series was on Abuto Kannon, the striking vermillion temple overlooking the sea.

Suwa Shrine & Mikiinari Shrine Kobe

 

Suwa Shrine is located on the lower slope of the mountains behind Kobe and is reached up a steep slope.

Though ostensibly a Suwa Shrine, as one approaches it appears to be an Inari Shrine, and the local nickname for the shrine is Suwayama Inari.

According to the legend the shrine was founded in the year 400 as protection of the detached palace of Princess Hatta or Yatta. She was the half-sister and consort of Emperor Nintoku.

As a Suwa shrine the main kami is Takeminakata, son of Okuninushi who was exiled to what is now Nagano after the transfer of the land from Onuninushi to Amaterasu.

Suwa Taisha is a major shrine with branches nationwide.

Later the mountain became named Suwayama.

However, in 1778 a branch of Fushimi Inari Shrine was established here, now known as Miki Inari.

For whatever reason the Inari identity overshadows the Suwa identity, with fox guardians guarding the Suwa shrine as well as all the numerous Inari shrines now scattered around the grounds.

One ceramic kitsune was particularly impressive.

Theer are several other shrines in the grounds other than the numerous Inari shrines, and they include a Sarutahiko Shrine.

I visited very early in the morning on day 4 of my walk along the Kinki Fudo Myoo Pilgrimage.

From here a trail leads up the mountain to the next temples on the pilgrimage.

The previous post in the series was on Ninomiya Shrine in Kobe that I visited the evening before.

Abuto Kannon

 

Abuto Kannon is a Kannon Hall perched on a rocky outcropping overlooking the Inland Sea at the southern tip of Numakuma Peninsula between Fukuyama and Onomichi.

It has been promoted by local tourist authorities in recent years but is still hard to reach and virtually unkown.

It is part of Bandai-ji Temple,  which claims  an origin of 992, and is now a Rinzai Zen temple

However, the real history is lost in time, although for sure it is said to have been rebuilt in 1338 and then once again fell into disrepair.

It was certainly rebuilt in 1570 which is when Mori Terumoto built the Kannon Hall.

The legend says that a local fisherman found a Kannon statue in his net and placed it on the rocks where the hall is now.

The kannon Hall is a registered National Important Cultural Property.

I arrived from Tomonoura on a footpath that leads down from the main road and then approaches the hall from the East.

From the temple a covered corridor leads up to the hall which has an open veranda on three sides.

The views are amazing.

As well as safety at sea, the temple has a reputation for childbirth and child-rearing.

Abuto Kannon has the biggest collection of breast-shaped ema votive plaques I have seen outside of Karube Shrine which I had visited a few days earlier.

There is no public transport to Bandaiji Temple.

A nearby ryokan will organize a viewing of Abuto Kannon from the sea if enough people sign up.

This was my first stop on day 11 of my walk along the Chugoku Kannon Pilgrimage and entailed making a long detour off the most direct route, but was well worth it.

The previous post was on the Yosakoi dancing at the Fukuyama Summer Festival the evening before.