Down the Isa River from Hachimangu to Izuchi Shrine

 

After passing by the entrance to Mount Sanbe, my route continued west down the Isa River.

My first stop, in the village of Yamaguchi, was the village Hachiman Shrine.

It was established in 1095, but I can't find from which "mother" shrine it is from, Usa, or Iwashimizu I think it is a little too early to be a branch of Tsurugaoka.

Curiously it only lists Ojin and Jingu. No mention of Chuai or any consort kami.

The style of architecture with glass doors on three sides of the worship hall is unusual.

Heading down the Isa River, the Yaezakura, the late cherry blossom with thick, pink blossoms appears several times.... I find it much nicer than the Yoshino cherries that dominate...

Of course, lots of other flowers are around at this time..

At some point as I approach Izuchi Shrine I pass from Iwami into Izumo..... it would have been clearly demarcated in earlier times....

Izuchi Shrine is written as Ijitsu Shrine on Googlemaps. It was known as Wakaichi Gongen until 1868.

It enshrines Kunisatsuchi no mikoto, a fairly obscure kami mentioned early in the myths and then disappearing. The honden dates back to 1812.

The previous post was on the delightful scenery of flooded rice paddies around the base of Mount Sanbe.

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To Kasubuchi to end the Third Day

 

A short walk after leaving the Ago Ohashi Bridge, the river turns towards the north and will stay north until the small town of Kasubuchi.

Part of some transformers at a small power station using water piped from upstream and then dropped from a height to power turbines....

Other than a few thatched farmhouses with tin covers, not much of note until reaching Kasubuchi.

I cross via a fairly new bridge, the Akebono Ohashi, completed in 1992.

A little downstream is the old railway bridge. It was unusual in that it also had a pedestrian section.

Unfortunately, since the rail line closed, they also closed the pedestrian section.

The bridge has been dismantled since I was there on this trip.

In Kasubuchi I catch a small, local bus downstream and head home to end day three of my walk along the Gonokawa River to its source. The train used to take between 70 and 90 minutes. The bus will take almost three hours.

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Passing by Ago Ohashi Bridge on the Scenic Gonokawa River

I continue upriver towards the source...... 

Carrying on up the right/East bank of the Gonokawa River after leaving the red Kurihara Bridge

The former Sanko Line railway runs on this bank. Whereas some bridges have been dismantled, mostly in urban areas, here the small bridge remains...

Roadside altars are commonplace everywhere in Japan.... this one is quite substantial.... as usual someone locally keeps the  flowers replaced....

Quite a few thatched houses with metal covering the thatch...

The last time I walked by here the little gas station was still in business....

Up ahead, the Ago Ohashi Bridge comes into view....

It is a two-truss type...

Built in 1954, it is one of the oldest existant bridges across the Gonokawa...

for a purely stone type, this altar is quite big....

For the first 40k going up river, the river and landscape is quite similar and it can be hard to differentiate where you are from a photo...

Up ahead the top of Mount Sanbe. The highest point in Shimane and a volcano was last active about 4,000 years ago.

The river continues to head towards it for about 4 more kilometers before doing a 180 turn and heading away from it....

The previous post in this series was on the Kurihara Bridge

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Sufu Kasuga Shrine & Hinoashi Hachimangu

 

Not far from Shotokuji temple and Jorinji Temple is a Kasuga Shrine with great views over Sufu and the mouth of the Sufu River.

There appear to be few existing records, but as Kasuga Shrine is the family shrine of the powerful Fujiwara family, and the local rulers claim descent from a branch of the Fujiwara family, that makes sense.

The Kasuga Daimyojin consists of Takemikazuchi, Amenokoyane, Futsunishi, and Himegami.

I was impressed with the older-style masks....

About a kilometers away near the mouth of the Sufu River, is Hinoashi Haxchimangu. This shrine does have records.

The governor of Iwami, Fujiwara no Kunikane, established the shrine as a branch of Usa hachimangu in 1114. Thirty years later the shrine was given extensive lands to support it and its festivals. It was the tutelary shrine for 16 villages. The Suo Clan, descendants of Kunikane, made it their family shrine and gave more support. When the Suo moved with the Mori to Nagato a lot of the shrines lands were confiscated.

There is a very popular Inari shrine within the grounds. Over the centuries it has been located at numerous locations.

The previous post in this series on walking the Chugoku Kannon Pilgrimage and the Iwami Kannon Pilgrimage was on Jorinji Temple.

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