Deeper into Remote Iwami

I started day 10 of my walk along the Iwami Mandala Kannon Pilgrimage in the mountains of SW Shimane at Akayamatenmangu Shrine. My route will take me roughly south, a little deeper into the mountains. This is an unknown area to me.

For a while, I follow the Masuda River upstream and pass by a small shrine on the hillside.

It's not a big river at this point, so I wondered what the civil engineering was all about...

At first I thought it was tetrapods they were casting, but then I saw they were some kind of tessellate. Not sure what the purpose was, but suspect that down the line even more costly works will have to be done to undo the effect of these works...more profits for concrete and construction companies...

Then a huge rock covered in greenery with numerous little Buddhist statues set inside an overhang.

Nearby a small shrine, and then not far away, a more substantial "hall" with some quite old statues

As usual, I didn't take notes while walking, but now I cannot find such a place on the map...

A clump of banana trees, and then a big surprise: the remains of an industrial installation

Turns out to be a big mine. The Tsumo mining area has been mining copper, zinc, lead, and tungsten since at least 836. During the Edo Period, it was controlled by Iwami Ginzan. One often reads about Japan's "few" natural resources, but they have mined copper, silver, and gold for almost 2,000 years, as well as coal.

During the war, production was increased and Korean slave labour was used. After the war, a huge deposit was discovered, and in the 70s, 200 people were employed here. The mine closed in 1986 as foreign imports were cheaper, the same fate as the coal industry in Japan.

An intriguing sidenote,.... a rare mineral was discovered here with a 1:1 ratio of bismuth atoms to tellurium atoms. This new mineral, Tsumoite, is named after this mine where it was discovered.

Now the area is quiet, and no traffic passed me....

Later, some contemporary mining..... of timber. In the postwar period, the government planted much of Japan with huge tree farms. Foreign-imported wood is much cheaper now, so these huge swaths of monoculture now cause landslides and force bears into the inhabited areas, as well as give a large percentage of the population hay fever. The government is now spending a fortune to try to correct the situation.

I am now getting into the Hikimi area, higher in the mountains and closer to the Hiroshima border.

After climbing over a pass, I am now heading down the Noto River.

The previous post was on Tenei Hachimangu, the last stop yesterday.

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Fall colors: Hikimi Gorge

Hikimi Gorge is located in the mountains of the SW corner of Shimane, near the border with Hiroshima.

There are actually 2 gorges, the Upper Gorge located on the Hikimi river, and the Lower Gorge located on the Hiromi River. Both gorges run into Hikimi Town, and both are fine places for viewing the Fall colors.

The Chugoku Nature Trail, a route which combines footpath and road sections passes through the area. In the Lower Gorge there are cabins for rent.

For most people Fall colors means the scarlet of the maple leaves.

Minoji Yashiki

One of the pleasures of exploring the backcountry of Japan is discovering the unexpected, and so it was with our trip up into the mountains near Hikimi Gorge. The Minoji were a wealthy farming family in the area, and a yashiki could best be described as a manor house. A few years ago the family donated their old home to the town, and it has been restored and opened to the public.

There are hundreds if not thousands of similar "folk museums" scattered across Japan, but this one has many nice touches that elevates it above most, and best of all it is free.

One nice touch was that the fire in the kitchen area was lit. The daikon drying under the eaves, and the arrangements of flowers were also good.

The bathroom was impressive even by modern standards.

The house had the biggest and grandest kamidana I've ever seen.

The largest outbuilding was devoted to a display of agricultural and woodworking tools and equipment, with explanatory maps, diagrams, and some photos.



The 2 floors of the storehouse were given over to displays of domestic items, clothes, tableware, dolls etc. The displays in both buildings were of a high quality.

In the gatehouse is a small cafe.



Tourist attractions in Japan tend to fall into 2 categories, expensive and boring, or cheap and interesting. Minoji Yashiki is definetely in the latter category.

Unfortunately access by public transport is extremely limited.

It is located within the boundaries of Hikimi Town, at the junction of Route 191 and the road that heads down through Hikimi Gorge to Hikimi Town.

It's open from 9 to 4 Tue. through Sun.