Myoo-in Temple 9 Shikoku Fudo Myoo Pilgimage

 

Fudo has 36 young boy attendants, and is often depicted paired with two named Kongara and Seitaka.

At the 36 temples of the Shikoku Fudo Myoo Pilgrimage, each temple has one of the 36 usually, like here, as a small statue.

Myoo-in is located a few kilometers up the Kawata River from the Yoshino River, a little over halfway from Miyoshi to Tokushima City.

I can not find a lot of history or background information. 

The main hall is fairly new, replacing one from the last years of the Edo Period.

There is this group of new Six Jizo, and somewhere here is enshrined an older said to be carved by Kobo Daishi himself.

In the Daishi-do there was a small Aizen-Myoo in front of the Daishi statue.

Up the steps was this unusually two-storeyed structure.

It may be a kind of pagoda.

Built in 1574, some sources say it enshrined a Fudo Myoo and a Bishamonten.

Through a narrow slit I am guessing this is a Bishamonten

For me, the most interesting was in the Enma-do...

Great King Enma is the head of the 13 judges of hell who decide where you go after death, specifically which of the numerous "hells

Statues of the other 12 judges flank him here.

In Chinese Buddhism there are only a total of ten judges.

Enma derives from the Hindu deity Yama.

In Japan he is depicted in the dress of a Tang China government official.

I was here on Christmas Eve 2016, day 6 of my walk along the Shikoku Fudo Myoo Pilgrimage.

The previous post was on the nearby Kawada Hachiman Shrine.