December 28th, 2015, and I begin day 5 of my walk along the Shodoshima Pilgrimage with a couple of small hermitages close to each other.
Both are located to the NE of Tonosho, the biggest town and main port of the island. Most pilgrims start in Tonosho and go around the island clockwise. I, however, started in the SE of the island and roughly started at temple 1 and went clockwise, so I am approaching Tonosho for the first time.
I ended up taking 8 days to do the pilgrimage, and as this is thye start of day 5 I have technically passed the halfway point.
Number 49, Torin-an, was in the past a fully-fledged temple called Manganji, but now is downgraded to a hermitage. It's primary statue is a wooden Jizo. As with all these tiny, community supported establishments, there was a well kept undercover seating area for pilgrims.
Very close by in number 50, Yuku-an, with a large lotus pond in front, though at this time of the year no sign of the lotus plants.
Yuku-an is a little more substantial than Torin-an. Its main statues is a Yakushi Nyorai, though it has several other statues inside and a large stone Jizo outside...
The Jizo is probably a Kosodate Jizo.
Flanking the Nyorai, which is a "hidden Buddha", is a statue of En no Gyoja, photo 11, the legendary founder of Shugendo.
With so many mountain cave temples on the pilgrimage, this points to its origins with shugenja and yamabushi.
The final photo shows the remains of last year's lotus plants....
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!! Especially the last photo.
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