Monjuin Temple & Emon Saburo

 

Monjuin is a small temple to the south of Matsuyama City that is the 9th bangai, or bekkaku, temple on the famous Shikoku Pilgrimage known as Ohenro. bangai are the 20 "extra" temples on top of the 88 regular temples of the pilgrimage.

Monjuin is located between temples 47, Yasakiji, and 48, Saitinji, and was built on the site of the former home of a man called Emon Saburo, whose legend is connected with the foundation of the pilgrimage itself and also the practice of osettai, the giving of alms to pilgrims.

According to the story, Emon Saburo was a very wealthy merchant and one day a mendicant monk asked him for alms. He refused and also broke the begging bowl of the monk who was actually Kobo Daishi himself.

After each of his 8 sons fell ill and died, Emon realized it was caused by his actions against Kobo Daishi and so set off around Shikoku to try and catch up with him to ask for forgiveness. A burial mound near temple 46, Joruji, is said to be the grave of his 8 sons.

After completely traveling around Shikoku twenty times and failing to meet up with Kobo Daishi he decided to reverse his direction of travel and go in an anti-clockwise direction.

 

On the mountainside between temples 11 and 12 in Tokushima, Emon, exhausted and close to death, collapsed. Kobo Daishi appeared and granted him absolution. He asked to be reborn into a wealthy family so that he could restore a neglected temple.

Later a child was born clutching a stone inscribed with the words "Emon Saburo is reborn". Such a stone is on display at temple 51 Ishiteji, in Matsuyama.

The honzon at Monju-in is a "secret" Monju Bosatsu. I was quite impressed with the number of statues and reliefs on display in the grounds of such a small temple.

The previous post in the series was Yasakaji Temple

Yasakaji Temple 47 Shikoku Pilgrimage

Yasakaji Temple 47 Shikoku Pilgrimage

Yasakiji Temple, number 47 on the 88 temple Shikoku pilgrimage, is located at the base of the foothills to the south of Matsuyama City and is just a short walk from the previous temple, Joruriji Temple.

Said to have been founded in 701, it is unusual in that the founder is said to be En no Ozuni, sometimes known as En no Gyoja, the legendary founder of Shugendo. Most of the temples claiming origins before Kobo Daishi tend to claim Gyoki as their founder.

Many historians believe that the Shikoku ohenro was created by numerous smaller Shugendo pilgrimage routes being connected together.

Yasakaji is also often connected to Emon Saburo, the legendary "first" pilgrim who walked around Shikoku numerous times attempting to catch up with Kobo Daishi.

Not far from Yasakaji is Monjuin, a temple believed to be Saburo's family temple, and now one of the 20 extra "bangai" temples, so I will do a fuller account of the Emon Saburo story when I cover Monjuin in the next post in the series....

Connecting the main hall and the Daishido are two passages covered in murals, the way of heaven, and the way of hell.

These last three shots depict scenes from various Buddhist "hells".

Fudo Myoo at Iwaya-ji Temple

 

Last post I showed you inside the cave below the main hall of Iwaya-ji Temple, the mountain temple that is number 45 on the Shikoku pilgrimage. Along with a Jizo and a Kobo Daishi, Fudo is the main statue there.

After starting up the steep trail from the road you pass  a bronze statue of Fudo along with his 36 acolytes.

Iwayaji was a yamabushi site and often at such ascetic sites there will be Fudo statues.

Behind the Kokuzodo near the top of the trail is a small cave with a Benzaiten statue and also this large stone Fudo.

According to the legend, Kobo Daishi carved two statues of Fudo Myo here, both "hidden", one in the main hall and the other u at the okunoin.

However, there are quite a few small carvings of Fudo scattered around, many having been left by worshippers in the past.

As any regular readers of my blog will know, I have posted hundreds and hundreds of photos of Fudo Myo, which posts you can easily access by clicking on the Fudo Myojin tag below......

The most detailed post I have done about Fudo is this one from the Sasaguri pilgrimage....

This final photo is of a statue of  Kurikara, the sword of Fudo which exists as a manifestation of Fudo but also as a separate deity.....

Iwayaji Temple 45 on the Shikoku Ohenro

 

Iwayaji, temple 44 on the Ohenro pilgrimage in Shikoku, is located among towering cliffs and spires of rock high in the mountains of Kumakogen in Ehime.

The surroundings are what I would consider a  classic shugendo environment, and any similar -looking places I have ever seen have all been yamabushi sites. I subscribe to the theory that much of the Shikoku pilgrimage is based on a series of Yamabushi training areas that became linked.

When I met a young priest I commented to him how jealous I was of the location of his home, clinging to the base of the cliff with great views down and across the mountainous countryside.

According to the story, when Kobo Daishi visited here he found a female hermit already living here. He carved two statues of Fudo Myo, one is the honzon in the main hall, and the other is enshrined higher up the mountain in the Okunoin. Because of the snow I decided against climbing up to the Okunoin.

A fire destroyed all the main buildings in 1898. The Kokuzodo, a small structure below the main shrine on the path up, and the Niomon, a little distance from the main temple at an older entrance, both survived and date back to the 18th century.

The current main hall was built in 1927, and is unusually smaller than the Daishido which was built in 1920. The Daishido is registered as an Important Cultural Property because it applarently incorporates numerous western elements into its traditional temple architecture.

There are numerous caves in the area that were used by the ascetics. A ladder leads up to one with a wooden platform where a small structure, the Hokke Sennindo, used to be. From here the views are remarkable.

Below the main hall is an entrance into a narrow 10 metre deep cave with an altar and several statues.

Next up some photos of the Fudo Myo statues and carvings here.

Cimbing Up to Iwaya-ji Temple in Winter

Iwayaji, temple 45 on the Shikoku Ohenro pilgrimage is a favorite of many pilgrims. It is a mountain temple at more than 600 meters altitude ( 700 if you include the okunoin) and is considered a nansho, a difficult to reach temple.

However, a main road ( and a bus) gets to the base of the final climb up which is less than 1k

There is a group of small shops near the start of the ascent selling pilgrim supplies and snacks etc. There are also a pair of bronze nio, not housed in a Nio gate. There is a Nio gate up near the main buildings of the temple but it is on a mountain path that approached from a different direction.

The Sanmon, mountain gate, was not built until 1937, is a good spot to rest as the sections before and after the gate are steep.

There are some giant sugi trees, and much of the surrounding forest is Horse Chestnut.

There are a lot of statues on the way up including a Fudo myo with 36 acolytes (more of Fudo in a later post), a Kobo Daishi, and many Jizo.

Just before reaching the main temple buildings, you pass the Kokuzo-do, actually the oldest remaining structure of the temple following a fire in 1898.

Next up some shots from the main temple.

Ramune

Meiseki-ji Temple 43 Shikoku Pilgrimage

 

Located on a hillside in Seiyo, southern Ehime Prefecture, Meiseki-ji is a pleasant enough temple complex, but strangely unmemorable.

While many of the pilgrimage temples claim Kobo Daishi as their founder in the 9th century, quite a few are attributed to Gyoki a century or more earlier. but Meiseki claims to have been founded in the 6th century.

Since then it has gone through numerous destructions and rebuilding. The current buildings mostly date from late Meiji P

eriod.

There is a nice pair of large sugi trees linked with a shimenawa named as "Married Sugi", but otherwise very little in the way of statuary.

The temple belongs to the Tendai sect and the honzon is a senju Kannon.

Kanjizaiji Temple 40 on the Shikoku Pilgrimage

 

On December 26th, 2011, my 25th day of walking teh famous Shikoku Pilgrimage, I crossed the border into Ehime and reached temple number 40, Kanjizaiji.

According to the founding legend, Kobo Daishi visited here and carved three statues, one of them of Yakushi Nyori, the temples Honzon. It is a "hidden buddha" and only shown to the public every 50 years, the next time being 2034.

The buildings are all fairly modern reconstructions, though the nio guardians are obviously much older.

Techncally this is the temple that is furthest from Ryozenji Temple, the starting point for most pilgrims, and depending on the route you take it is a little past the halfway point, in distance, of the whole pilgrimage.

The temple has a tsuyado, a small room offering free lodgings for pilgrims and this is where I stayed.