Heading West Off the Beaten Track in the Mountains of Yamaguchi

 

After visiting Kanyoji and its wonderful gardens, there were still a couple of hours of daylight left in the day.

The next temple on the pilgrimage was in Yamaguchi City, about 40k almost directly west.

The route was across a very remote section of mountains, although the Chugoku Expressway roughly went the same way.

It was not an area I had ever been to before, and there seemed to be no notable sights or settlements along the way....

I stopped in at any local shrines I passed....

In Suyama,  a Kumano Shrine with two pairs of Ebisu and Daikoku masks...

As the sun gets lower I keep my eyes peeled for a place to sleep for the night.... something I  habitually do even if I am in a car or on a train....50 years of sometimes having to sleep out means I know what to look for ...... I believe the contemporary term is stealth camping...

 

And then over a small pass  from the Seiryoji River valley to drop into the Kushi River valley....

In Kushi, a small park....

And next to it on the hillside a small Hakusan Shrine....

Rusting metal covering thatched roofs are very common around here...

Kushi Hachimangu is quite rare, a shrine with a thatched roof...

It claims to have been founded in the early 8th century

An unusual pairing of masks... a Karasu Tengu with a Daikoku...

The sun has gone down so it seems this is the best place to sleep..... The previous post in this series on day 21 of my walk along the Chugoku Kannon Pilgrimage was on some of the Mirei Shigemori gardens at Kanyoji Temple...

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