Kakinomoto Shrine & Tsunozu Otoshi Shrine

 

Kakinomoto Hitomaro is the greatest of the ancient poets and is worshipped as the kami of poetry.

He was a low-ranked bureaucrat from Yamato who was posted here as acting governor around the end of the 7th century. He maried a Tsunozu  girl known now as Yosomi no Otome. Whereas Kakinomoto is considered the most prominent of the poets in the Manyoshu, Yosomi was the female poet with the most entries in that anthology.

There is actually very little known for sure about Kakinomoto. One historian I like  suggests that being sent to Iwami was an exile for being on the wrong side of a succession dispute at court. He suggests that he was poisoned while here and as it was a political murder Kakinomoto was elevated after death to placate his angry ghost.

There used to be a huge, old pine tree here but it was cut down not too long ago for safety reasons. A cross section of the trunk is on display inside one of the shrne buildings. Masuda, down the coast aways, claims to be where Kakinomoto died. There are several of his poems that have been inferred to have been wriyyen about the Gotsu area, including one spot just downriver from my place. Kakinomoto and Yosomi are mascots for Gotsu.

From here it is just a short walk to the main shrine of Tsunozu, yet another Otoshi Shrine.

I have been here quite a few times for their annual matsuri parade. A video and photos of the Miko Mai dance is here. I met the priest soon after moving to Shimane, and am still using the desk he gave me.

In front of the shrine are a couple of small Buddhist altars with colourful statues. They are part of a miniature 88 "temple" pilgrimage around the town and hills.

According to the shrine records it was established in the late 9th century. It moved to its current location in 1711. It is one of the half dozen Otoshi shrines in the region that might be the one listed in the Engi Shiki.

An ancient ritual called Yatate that dates to the time of looking out for signs of Mongol invasion. Samurai would shoot an arrow at a target on a pine tree at the entrance to the shrine. The ritual was discontinued in the Meiji Period.

Sunsiduary shrines in the grounds are Kotohira Shrine, Omoto Shrine, and Itsukushima Shrine.

Like most shrines in the Gotsu area, but not inland in the mountains, there is a Kaguraden. All-night kagura takes place on October 31st and mikoshi parades and miko mai on November 1st. Kids get the day off school.

The previous post was on Taiheiji Temple not far away, just across the river in Ninomiya.

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

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.

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.

Hashi Beach, Harbour, & Tsuto Shrine

 

After leaving Kushiro, the old San-in Do is a narrow, single-lane road that runs near the rail line and  comes into the back of Hashi completely avoiding the new and busy Route 9

Home to a pretty good "Oceanarium", the beach is part of the Iwami Seaside Park and is very popular in summer.

At the far end of the beach is the tiny harbour for Hashi.

On the hillside up above the harbour is Tsuto Shrine.

This is the main shrine for the town, although just over a hundred years ago an Otoshi Shrine and an Inari Shrine were merged with it. It is yet another local shrine listed in the Engi Shiki.

It is believed that the ruling clan, an offshoot of the clan that colonized the Iwami coastal region in ancient times established a shrine to their ancestors here. Their ancestral deity was Komemochitsuki, and in some way he is connected with mochi rice cakes. They are connected to the clan who founded Kushiro Shrine, and the shrines down near Masuda.

This seems to be the eastern limit of their territory. They were obviously placed here by the Yamato as a check on the power of Izumo. Further East and into Izumo it seems the Mononobe were the clan sent for the same purpose.

In 889 the clan enshrined Tagorihime, the elder of the three Munakata, daughters of Susano.

A myth/legend has it that as a young girl  Tagorihime was too volatile even for Susano, so she was sent away and came ashore on Hashi Beach. A local couple raised here as their own. She never spoke.

Later, a signal fire lit to warn of an attack on Izumo by a "foreign" enemy, caused Tagorihime to reveal her true identity and a dream of Susano that if Tagorihime returned, Izumo would be successful in defeating the enemy. Tagorihime set off but her foster parents chased after her to stop her. She hid behind a rock at what is now a shrine in Gotsu. Her fraught foster parents passed by her and died on the slopes of Asari Fujisan, a coastal mountain near my place. Tagorihime reached Izumo and the enemy was defeated.

The oldest version of this story dates to the 15th century at Hinomisaki Shrine, though it is probably much older. It is said that this shrine  and the one in Gotsu where the rock is were both territories of Hinomisaki Shrine.

Around the main shrine building are an Ebisu Shrine, a Konpira Shrine, a Yasaka Shrine, and a Tenmangu Shrine. The small shrine slightly above the main shrine is believed to enshrine Komemochizuki.

The previous post in this series on the Chugoku and the Iwami Kannon Pilgrimages was on Majima and the Benten Shrine I stopped in at on my walk to start heading up the coast again from Hashi.

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.

3 Shrines Around the Iwami Kokubunji Sites

 

The Iwami Kokubinji and Kokubunniji (nunnery) were located on the high ground just up the coast from Shimoko. Neither still exist, but the area is named Kokubu-cho.

The first shrine I visited was the Otoshi Shrine, which is, I think, the main shrine for Shimoko.

It is up a long flight of steps and on the way up offers views over Shimoko.

The main kami is Otoshi, a son of Susano connected with growing rice and also with immigrant clans from Korea. There are several more Otosshi shrines in the towns further up the coast...

Other than that I can find no history or info on secondary kami.....

A walk east toward the main Route 9 brings me to the guardian shrine of the Kokubunji, Kokubunji Kantake Shrine.

It was moved here when the Kokubunji was moved here. I had always presumed that Shimoko was the capital of Iwami all along, but apparently it was originally further up the coast in the Nima area. It was moved here in the early 9th century I think. I must find out why.

The most striking thing for me at the shrine was the pair of ceramic komainu. Unlike any I have seen before, they are quite cat-like.

The main kami of the shrine is Raijin, the Thunder God. I have always considered Raijin, and Fujin the Wind God, to be primarily Buddhist, as they are often depicted in paintings and sculptures at temples.

However, in Shinto mythology Raijin is equated with Ikazuchi, created out of the rotting corpse of Izanami. Ikazuchi is connected to the Kamo shrines that preceded the establishment of Kyoto.

Due to its importance and connection to the provincial capital, the shrine is listed in the Engi Shiki. Also enshrined is Omoto, the local land-goddess found everywhere in Iwami, and also Ebisu.

After passing the site of the former monastery, I head to Route 9, the old San-in Do that ran from Kyoto to Yamaguchi. The original Sanindo turns off from the new Route 9 and I follow it into Kushiro.

Kushiro Shrine enshrines Kushiroame no Koketsuhiko no mikoto, the son of Ama no Tarashihikokunioshihito no mikoto, the ancestor of the Kushiro Clan who settled the coast of Iwami.

More of that story can be found in this earlier post from down in Masuda.

It is also important enough to be listed in the Engi Shiki.

In the early 20th century with the shrine merger programme, the village Otoshi Shrine was merged with it.

In the grounds are an Omoto Shrine and an Ebisu Shrine.

New growth on a Sago Palm....

The Ebisu Shrine....

I carry on up the coast following the old San-in Do for a while. Abandoned properties are numerous.

The previous post in this series was on two shrines in Shimoko...

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