Ichibata Yakushi Temple 26 Chugoku Kannon Pilgrimage

 

I head inland from the coast of the Shimane Peninsula and reach Ichibata Yakushi Temple, number 26 on the pilgrimage.

From the car park and main entrance a road is lined with 108 stone lanterns.

At this level are several large halls, including the Hodo and the Honboshoin.

The temple was founded in 894 and the honzon is a statue of Yakushi Nyorai, known as the Medicine Buddha.

A fisherman "caught" the statue in the sea while fishing and took it home with him. After praying to it his mothers eyesight improved and he became a monk.

Several weathered Fudo Myoo stand at the start of a short flight of steps that leads up to the Niomon.

The temple is renowned for the healing of eye problems and is in a sense the Lourdes of Japan for eye ailments.

The temple was originally a Tendai sect temple, but in 1327 converted to Rinzai Zen and changed names to Setokuji.

Unusually, the Nio have lines of small statues of Enma and the other "judges of hell".

In 1653 it was renamed Ichibata-ji.

In 1790 it switched schools within Rinzai to the Myoshinji School.

In 1953, it became the head of its own school and now has 50 branch temples across Japan.

There is a nice set of full-size Rakan statues in front of the main hall, and other sights of interest..

Most of the architecture dates to the 19th and early 20th centuries...

There are some fantastic views looking down on Lake Shinji...

The last 2 photos are of some Fudo statues at the bottom of the stairs. There are 640 steps in all, but many are actually only a few cms high so its not a bad climb.

The railway line that stops at the bottom of the valley near Lake Shinji is called the Ichibata Railway and was built to bring pilgrims from Matsue and Izumo.

An irregular small, local bus runs up to the temple's car park.

For me, the most intriguing sight at the temple is the 84,000 Yakushi statues....... that will be the next post...

The previous post was on nearby Koizu Port and its two shrines.

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Umaki Fudoson

 

Coming into Izumo along the Kando River after visiting Zenjoji Temple, I was struck by a vermilion gate and had to explore.

It is Komyoji Temple, but more commonly known as Umaki Fudoson, and is home to one of the top three Fudo's in Japan.

Of course, that may be like the top 3 Inari shrines, where the first two are well established, and the third varies depending on the region, but I was surprised not to have heard of it.

One theory holds that the temple was established in ancient times and was among those mentioned in the Izumo Fudoki.

In medieval times, it was a Shingon temple, then converted to Zen, and in 1631 became a Nichiren sect temple.

At the site of the old Fudo Hall stands the Water-Pouring Fudo. Though only dating to 1976, the decades of water poured over it have made the moss grow thick...

The main Fudo statue in the new Fudo Hall is said to have been carved by Gyoki.

It is 157 cms tall and is carved out of a single piece of wood...

The previous post in this series on day 40 of my walk along the Chugoku Kannon Pilgrimage was on the mountain temple  Zenjoji, the 24th temple of the pilgrimage

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Ryuukoji Temple & Many Fudo Myoo's

 

In Shimizu, there is just one small temple, though it is intriguing for me because of the multiple Fudo Myoo statuettes in the grounds.

I recently learned that it is a temple of a relatively new sect called Nakayama Shingo Shoshu, founded in the early 20th century and with the head temple in NE Saga close to the Fukuoka border.

I believe this is a statue of the founder of the sect, Kakue Shonin, and the story of this temple in Shimizu is that a local man, in 1947, had a series of dreams about Kakue Shonin and so established the temple.

I can't say I understand much about the sect, except that Fudo Myoo is the main object of worship, that asceticism is encouraged, and that so is charity and social engagement, all plusses in my book.

The last photo of the post is a signboard showing a trail up the mountain with numerous small halls and with a Fudo carved into a rock face and a waterfall at the top.

I have yet to find the trail and walk it, but plan to this autumn.

It reminds me of another small temple in my area of a modern sect that also practises asceticism with a small waterfall, Zenkakuji.

The previous post in this series on my walk along the Iwami Ginzan Kaido while on day 38 of my walk along the Chugoku Kannon Pilgrimage was on the little settlement of Shimizu where this temple is located.

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Konjiji Temple 12 Shikoku Fudo Myoo Pilgrimage

 

Konjiji, temple number 12 on the Shikoku Fudo Myoo Pilgrimage, is a mountaintop temple with a strong Shugendo past.

It is also the okunoin of Dainichiji, the 13th temple on the famous Shikoku 88 Pilgrimage.

Like so many mountain temples associated with Shugendo, Konjiji is said to have been founded by the legendary En no Gyoja in the 7th Century.

More than a century later, Kobo Daishi visited and practised austerities and had a vision of Kongo Zao Gongen and so carved an image of him and placed it in a cave.

Each of the 36 temples on this Fudo pilgrimage has a statue of one of the 36 young acolytes called Doji. The one here is called Harahara Doji.

Susuharae is an old traditional ritual of sweeping away soot, dust, cobwebs etc from under the eaves of shrines and temples  for the new year using a takesao, a long bamboo with straw or leaf "brush" at the end. A short video of it being done ceremonially at Dazaifu Tenmangu in this old post.

The temple fell into disuse but was revived at the end of the 16th century by Hachisuka Iemasu, the Daimyo of Awa Domain. He took the Zao Gongen statue and enshrined it within the castle town but strange things happened so he made a copy and placed the copy back at Konjiji. Strange things continued to happen so he realized the statue need to be returned which is why there are two statues now.

The temple sits at an elevation of 310 meters, and has superb views down on Tokushima and the Yoshino River. I will post more of the views in the next post in the series.

About 500 meters from the main temple is a waterfall used for ascetic training. I suspect that the ladder I passed on the trail up the mountain was one way to get to the falls.

I believe the masks pictured below were carved by a famous Noh mask carver from Shiga.

The first two masks are Tengu, but the third is a Noh mask representation of Fudo Myoo

The previous post was on the way up the mountain to the temple.

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