Heading West Off the Beaten Track in the Mountains of Yamaguchi

 

After visiting Kanyoji and its wonderful gardens, there were still a couple of hours of daylight left in the day.

The next temple on the pilgrimage was in Yamaguchi City, about 40k almost directly west.

The route was across a very remote section of mountains, although the Chugoku Expressway roughly went the same way.

It was not an area I had ever been to before, and there seemed to be no notable sights or settlements along the way....

I stopped in at any local shrines I passed....

In Suyama,  a Kumano Shrine with two pairs of Ebisu and Daikoku masks...

As the sun gets lower I keep my eyes peeled for a place to sleep for the night.... something I  habitually do even if I am in a car or on a train....50 years of sometimes having to sleep out means I know what to look for ...... I believe the contemporary term is stealth camping...

 

And then over a small pass  from the Seiryoji River valley to drop into the Kushi River valley....

In Kushi, a small park....

And next to it on the hillside a small Hakusan Shrine....

Rusting metal covering thatched roofs are very common around here...

Kushi Hachimangu is quite rare, a shrine with a thatched roof...

It claims to have been founded in the early 8th century

An unusual pairing of masks... a Karasu Tengu with a Daikoku...

The sun has gone down so it seems this is the best place to sleep..... The previous post in this series on day 21 of my walk along the Chugoku Kannon Pilgrimage was on some of the Mirei Shigemori gardens at Kanyoji Temple...

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Along Nagahama

 Continuing with my walk along the Sea of Japan Coast........

After leaving the roadstation at Taki Kirara I headed off along Nagahama, the long beach that runs up to near Izumo Taisha.

Sanpoko Shrine is a small, local shrine, just across from the shoreline. Can't find which kami is enshrined here though there is a small statue of Ebisu.

Not surprising as he is the kami for fishermen. Also was a Kojin straw serpent wrapped around a tree.

I have found one if these at every single shrine I have visited in Izumo, and with some shrines having more than one, which suggests that Kojin is the most common deity in this area...

A small stream with its source just a few kilometers away enters the sea.

It was a pleasant Saturday so lots of people were enjoying the beach. This was late June, 2020, and while social distancing was in operation, there was no kind of lockdown in Japan....

The beach runs pretty much all the way to the Shimane Peninsula, and according to one of Izumo's myths, the Kunibiki Story, the Peninsula was formed by "pulling" land from other areas including the Korean Peninsula.

When the god had drawn these lands together, he anchored them to Izumo with two great ropes. Nagahama was the rope that anchored the western end of the peninsula to Mount Sanbe, the volcanic peak not too far away down in Iwami.

An unusual wind farm in that the wind generators are relatively small....

The other rope that anchored the eastern end of the peninsula was the huge sandbar of Sakaiminato which connected the peninsula to Mount Daisen.

Soon I reach the mouth of the Kanda River, a main river that flows down from the Chugoku Mountains.

Not long after moving to Shimane, one of the first long-distance walks I did was a three-day walk down the Kanda River to Izumo Taisha for Kamiarizuki. One of these days I will write it up and post it.

All the waterways that pass through the Izumo Plain, between the mountains and the Shimane Peninsula, are heavily engineered with straightening and embankments etc. This whole area was the sea 10,000 years ago and in historical times was mostly marsh.

As I am going to be sleeping out on the beach I need to stock up on food and drink and the most convenient convenience store involves heading up the river a little ways and then crossing and heading to the store before coming back to the river and heading back downstream on the opposite bank.

The line of pruned trees is a windbreak protecting an old farmhouse. Called tsujimatsu, these "living walls" are unique to Izumo and traditionally use Black Pine.

A newer tradition of the area is growing grapes for the Shimane Winery.

Near the mouth of the Kanda River another river, the Shinnaito runs parallel with it before joining it. The Shin in Shinnaito suggest that this is an engineered river part of land draining and reclamation.

The fact it has massive flood control barriers also suggests that...

I have never seen cormorants so high up in a tree before....

I'm getting close to my resting place for the night. Up ahead is the famous Inasa Beach next to Izumo Taisha where all the kami of Japan arrive later in the Autumn.

Looking back, Mount Sanbe is clearly visible. The previous post in this series was on the section of coast between Tagi and Taki Kirara...

The Seven Lucky Gods at Anyoji Temple

 

A giant statue of Bishamonten sits atop the gate into Anyoji Temple near Kurashiki where Bishamonten is the honzon of the temple.

Bishamonten is also one of the Shichifukujin, or Seven Lucky Gods of Japan and so Anyoji has statues of all seven in the grounds as a popular attraction.

Bishamonten is one of three of the 7 Lucky Gods with origins in Hinduism. Benzaiten, photo 5 left, and Daikokuten, photo 4 right, being the other two.

Three of the others have their origins in Taoism, Jurojin and Fukurokuju, photo 3, and Hotei, photos 6, 7, and 8.

The only "native" god is Ebisu, photo 4 left.

The exact origin of this grouping of 7 is murky, though by the Edo period they were a very popular group and a visit to shrines for the Shichifukujin at new year is the origin of the Hatsumode tradition nowadays.

Anyoji was part of a major Shinto-Buddhist complex in ancient times, and there is a lot to see here. The previous post in the series was on the Ryujindo in front of the main entrance.