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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Jorinji Temple & an Explanation

 

Jorinji Temple is a very small temple just a few hundred meters from Shotokuji Temple in Sufu. Jorinji is one of the "extra" temples on the Iwami Kannon Pilgrimage.

Kannon pilgrimages usually have 33 main temples and 3 or so "extra" temples. The Iwami Kannon Pilgrimage has 33 main temples, but about 17 "extra" temples. I think I have figured out why.

I have seen a map of the original Iwami Kannon Pilgrimage, and a lot of the temples, especially in the western part of the pilgrimage, simply no longer exist, and I wondered how they came up with the current pilgrimage. During the Edo Period Iwami was split into two, with the Gonokawa River being the dividing line.

East of the Gonokawa was Iwami Ginzan, with all the land controlled directly by the Shogunate. West of the river was the Hamada Domain. Because of the wealth of the silver mine, travel into the area was severely curtailed, so pilgrims could no longer do the Iwami Kannon Pilgrimage. Both Hamada Domain and Iwami Ginzan set up there own 33 temple Kannon pilgrimages, so Iwami ended up with about 70 different Kannon pilgrimage temples.

After Meiji, when the domains were abolished and Shimane was created, was when many temples disappeared, so I think the reason the contemporary Iwami kannon Pilgrimage has about 50 temples is because they used a combination of the what was left of the two Edo period pilgrimages. This is why it is called the Iwami Mandala Kannon Pilgrimage.

I visited on day 35 of my walk along the Chugoku Kannon Pilgrimage which was also day 16 of my walk along the Iwami Kannon Pilgrimage. The Iwami Pilgrimage started in Oda and then went inland and followed the mountains all the way down to Tsuwano when it then heads to the coast at Masuda before heading up the coast to finish close to the starting point.

When I arrived in the Sufu area on day 35 of the Chugoku Pilgrimage, I had also gotten to about the same point walking the Iwami Pilgrimage. As the Chugoku Pilgrimage only has one temple in Iwami, rather than hurry on through, I decided to make small detours so I could finish off the Iwami pilgrimage at the same time.

So for the next 3 or so days of the Chugoku Pilgrimage I will be visiting many of the Iwami Pilgrimage temples.

Clear as mud, right?

The previous post was on nearby Shotokuji Temple.

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Tanoura Coast to Orii Coast

 

After the Tanoura Beach my route heads inland and then starts up towards another pass.

It's May so paddies are flooded and in some cases planted.....

Miniature farm machinery is one of the reasons rice is so expensive in Japan. Every farmer, who has a tiny farm , must buy machinery to plant and a different one to harvest. Each is used for just a couple of days a year. I my little village there is some sharing, but still Yanmar, Honda, etc are very profitable for a reason...

In many cases after the machine has planted humans must go in finish tings off....

A tiny narrow road over the pass..... I love these roads.... no traffic and wide enough....

Coming down into the tiny settlement of Imaura.....

Really, ormer settlement would be more accurate..... there was a couple of inhabited houses among the abandoned ones, but by now they too are abandoned.....

There is a substantial shrine, and a little harbour without any buildings....

The shrines name is Imoyama Shrine but I can find no sources on which kami are enshrined or any history.

It does have a kaguraden that is still in use, so I guess there are enough scattered farms in the surrounding mountains to support an annual matsuri.

There seems to be just a couple of small boats at the harbour, out of the water.

It is a popular spot for recreational fishermen ( and women)....

After climbing out from Imaura harbour I pass by the Orii Cliifs, top photo of this post. A little while later I look down on the Orii Coast and Mount Taima looms ahead.

Then I drop down to Orii Beach, well "protected" by lines of tetrapods. On the way down I pass another abandoned love hotel..... at Orii Station I hop on a train and head home.

The previous post was on the walk from Kamate to Tanoura...

if you would like to subscribe by email just leave your email address in the comments below. It will not be published and made public. I post new content almost everyday, and send out an email about twice a month with short descriptions and links to the last ten posts.