Along the Sanyo-do

 

26th November, 2014, and I set off before sunrise on day 24 of my walk along the Chugoku Kannon Pilgrimage.

I stayed the night near Shin Yamaguchi Station, formerly known as Ogori. My route is SW towards the next temple near Ube.

Instead of taking the main road I take the old Sanyo-do, the imperial highway from ancient times that ran from Yamato down to Shimonoseki along the southern coast of Honshu. This roughly corresponds to todays National Highway 2

Looking back to the built-up area around Ogori.

The old road retains some of its historical charm with plenty of examples of older-style architecture...

There are numerous roadside Buddhist altars...

As is usual for me, I stop in at most of the shrines that I pass. I will cover some of them in the next post...

The only Autumn Colour I encountered was at one shrine....

At times, my route parallels the Shinkansen Line.

It is most pleasant to be away from all the traffic and commercial establishments on the newer Route 2  not far away.

From one shrine that is on higher ground, I catch a glimpse of the Inland Sea...

Economically, the Sanyo region is doing really well compared to my region, the San-in, but there are still some empty and decaying houses, though a tiny number compared to my area.

A heron proved not so skittish...

After passing Hon Yura  Station I pass a newly rebuilt Buddhist "chapel", Mikage-do, part of Bodaiji Temple.

The previous post was on the last temple I visited yesterday, the amazing Ryuzoji.

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Along the Shimoko River

 

2nd of May, 2014, and I begin day 8 of my walk along the Iwami Kannon Pilgrimage from Arifuku, the small onsen resort in the mountains between Hamada and Gotsu.

The paddies are all flooded and will be planted with rice soon.

I stop in at a deserted, though not defunct, pottery.

Behind, some of the climbing kilns, anagama, no longer in use.

I think this may be the Yoshida Pottery, as they specialize in larger more utilitarian pieces, rather than the other potteries nearby which have modern showrooms and make more delicate pieces.

My route for a few days will be roughly SW, inland from the coast, down to where Iwami ends , then up the coast back towards my area of Gotsu.

After leaving the pottery I head over a pass and drop down into the Shimoko River valley and head upstream.

Heading upstream I start to pass numerous ruins of a "ghost railway", the Imafuku Line of a raiway that was planned to run over the mountains to Hiroshima.

It was started in 1933, then halted by the war, and never completed and opened.

Since I first moved here 20 years ago, they have started to turn it, somewhat successfully,  into a tourist attraction.

In Utsuicho I stop in at the local shrine, an Otoshi Shrine.

There are quite a lot of Otoshi shrines in Iwami. Otoshi was a son of Susanoo and is a kami of agriculture and rice.

The previous post in this series on my walk along the Iwami Kannon Pilgrimage was on Fukusenji Temple in Arifuku.

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Ryuzoji Temple 17 Chugoku Kannon Pilgrimage Part Two

 

This is the second part of my post on Ryuzoji Temple in Yamaguchi City. The previous post can be read here.

Above the main buildings is this large Blue Fudo Myoo and attendants

Behind it are the Tsuzumi waterfalls, according to the legend discovered by En no Gyoja, which led to the establishment of the temple.

The falls are 37 meters high, with three tiers of 18, 3, and 16 meters.

The falls were used by yamabushi for training.

The ten-metre high Fudo statue was, I think, created in 1989 as part of a collection of Fudo Myoo's around Yamaguchi, of which it is the12th.

See the previous post for more of the history of the temple.

I visited on November 25th. 2014, day 23 of my walk along the Chugoku Kannon Pilgrimage.

The trail leads up to a small cave which is the okunoin of the temple, but I did not venture that far.

En no Gyoja, the legendary founder of Shugendo and the discoverer of the falls and cave.

I believe these two little demons are the one that En no Gyoja "tamed" to do his bidding.

I then headed in to the temples small Treasure House....

The previous post was on the approach to the temple and the main buildings. with a National Monument Gingko tree and a quite rare statue of Kannon.

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