Tenei Hachimangu

 

3rd of May, 2014, and my final stop of day 9 of my walk along the Iwami Kannon Pilgrimage was a fairly standard village shrine in Mito Onsen, in the Chugoku Mountains near Masuda.

There was no signboard, and I have been unable to unearth any information searching the web.

Plenty of small shrines within the grounds, almost certainly moved there in the early 20th century when local shrines were moved to national shrines.

Stone zuijin are not si common, and this one is quite recent.

As with most village shrines in Iwami, it is set up for annual kagura performaces...

Also unusual were the wooden masks, I suspect there is a mask-carver in the neighbourhood

The previous post in this series was on the day's walk through the remote mountains with an emphasis on wild harvesting...

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Wakamiya Hachimansha, Yasaka Shrine, Kifune Shrine, & Yatate Shrine

 

After leaving the delightful Komo Shrine in the early morning of my 6th day walking the Kyushu Fudo Myoo Pilgrimage, the next section of my walk headed pretty much due East.

As usual, I stopped in at any shrines I passed. The first was called Wakamiya Hachimansha, and curiously the main kami was Emperor Nintoku. In 1908 a whole bunch of other kami were jointly enshrined, including Amaterasu, Susano, Takitsuhime, Ichikishimahime, and Kotoshironushi. I also saw a small Inari shrine in the grounds.

Next stop was a Yasaka Shrine.

Enshrining, of course, Susano and members of his family. Yasaka is the post-Meiji name for many different shrines, one of the most common names being Gion-Sha. No mention on the signboard what the old name was.

No mention of the secondary shrine in the grounds, but the early morning sun made for some striking photos.

The third shrine was a Kifune Shrine, a branch of the famous Kifune Shrine (Kibune Shrine) in the north of Kyoto.

It was located right next to a 6th-century burial mound.

When I first came to Japan, I read that Shinto had an aversion to death, and yet  I started to discover many ancient tombs had shrines built next to them...

Once again, the signboards gave no info on dates, history, or other shrines in the grounds.

The final shrine was Yatate Shrine, the largest of the group.

It is also known as Daikongawa Shrine.

In 720, Otomo no Tabito led an army of imperial and Usa Hachiman troops against the Kumaso in southern Kyushu. He planted arrows in the ground and prayed at this spot for victory.

In 725 a Hachiman shrine was established here and was made one of 8 shrines of an Imperial procession.

In 765, the reed pillow of the ritual from Komo Shrine visits here on its procession to the eight "outer shrines".

The previous post in this series on my walk along the Kyushu Fudo Myoo Pilgrimage was on the large and impressive Komo Shrine.

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Kannonji Temple 69 Shikoku Ohenro Pilgrimage

 

Kannonji, temple 69, and Jinneiin, temple 68, both occupy the same site, but I came into the kannonji side first so it gets posted before 68.

The reason I came into Kannonji first was that I visited the original "temple" 68, which was the Hachiman shrine on the hilltop.

From the hilltop is the viewpoint overlooking the Zenigata Sunae, a huge sand sculpture.

The shrine was founded in the very first years of the 8th century by a monk practising austerities on the hill and seeing a vision on the sea and established the Kotohiki Hachiman Shrine.

The temple was founded as the shrines temple and was named Jinguji Hokoin.

Later Gyoki visited, and then later still Kobo Daishi and he painted an Amida Nyorai and made it the honzon of the shrine. He built several halls and statues at the temple and renamed it Kannonji.

When the government forcibly separated the Buddhas & Kami in 1868, the Amida was brought from the Hachimen Shrine and placed in Kannonji. The shrine ceased to be number 68, and the part of Kannonji holding the Amida became temple 68 and as renamed Jinnein.

The honzon of Kannonji, a Kannon, is a secret Buddha, but recently has started to be shown once every ten years.

As well as the main hall, built in 1677, and Daishi Hall, Kannonji also has an Aizen hall, a Heart Sutra Hall, a Kaizan Hall, a Dainichi Hall, and a Kyozuka Hall.

The main hall is an Important Cultural Property, and in the Treasure Hall are two more: a wooden reclining Buddha dating to the Fujiwara Period, and a silk painting of Fudo Myoo

The previous post in the series was Daikoji Temple 67.

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Kuroki Shrine & the Enshrinement of Regular Folk

 

Coming down from Tsuto Shrine, I pass through a small park before reaching the main road that goes over a small rise into Uyagawa.

A statue of some old guy wearing a suit with tails. Undoubtedly some minor, local elite working for the state, quite probably.y a mayor. During Meiji they became obsessed with making government officials into heroes.

Dikapidated, collapsing farm buildings are everywhere...In England you could sell this for big bucks and convert it into a luxury dwelling.

The Uyu River from where the town of Uyagawa gets its name. Between Hamada and Gotsu I think it is the biggest river.

On the bank of the river and close to Route 9, the national highway that is equivalent to the old Sanin-do, is Uyagawa Hachimangu.

Upriver a ways is the shrine  I am most interested in Kuroki Shrine. Enshrined here is a 19 year old, local maiden by the name of Kawakami Tsujuro. In 1725 she was working as a servant for a wealthy family further upriver in Arifuku.

Someone, it is not said who, built a weir upstream of the village and diverted the water to their paddies. The weir had guards suggesting it belonged to a powerful group. There was a drought and the village downstream had no water and was in danger of dying and losing their livestock.

Tsujuro damaged the weir allowing water to flow downstream and save her village. The guards pursued her and lopped off her head. The villagers found the head and enshrined it in what is now Kuroki Shrine.

This story fascinated me because in my area we also had a shrine for a peasant who stood up to authority and was executed. I had been interested in the enshrinement of the powerful. At the start of the Edo period Tokugawa Ieyasu had himself deified and enshrined, but I had not come across example of lesser people being enshrined.

Later, in the Meiji Period, many lower class people were enshrined as kami, most notably at Yasukuni where everyone who died fighting for the Emperor are enshrined. Also during early Meiji the government went on an orgy of enshrining anyone in history who could be perceived as being pro- the imperial system.

I often remark how well-kept the roadside altars are in Japan. While heading towards Ninomiya I passed this example which is the exception to the rule...

The previous post was on Tsuto Shrine and an associated legend.

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