Hofukuji Jizo-Do

These are a unique form of Nio that I have not seen anywhere else. They are carved as diagonal spars that support the porch roof on the Jizo Do at Hofukuji, a small temple in the Teramachi district of Hagi. Only the Jizo Do remains, the main hall being destroyed in early Meiji.

I have been unable to find out anything about them, so if anyone has seen anything like this before, please leave a comment.

There is a legend connected to a Jizo statue here. A local man married a beautiful woman who died giving birth to a son. The father hired a nurse to take care of his son. Later he remarried and his second wife gave birth to a son. The nurse used to take both boys to play in the grounds of Hofukuji. The wife beacme increasingly jealous of the first so, believing that her son deserved to inherit the family business, so one day took a red-hot poker and struck the first son, apparently killing him.

Next day however, the son was fine with not a mark on him. Later a Jizo statue at the temple was discovered with a burn mark across its face, causing the wife to repent and become a devotee of the statue.

This is a rather unusual statue of Daruma Daishi, the Japanese name for Bodhidharma, the legendary monk who brought Buddhism to China.

Hagi Teramachi

Teramachi, literally "temple town", in Hagi is , not surprisingly, home to many Buddhist temples. I will post on some of these later.

It is also home to the old port, a few shrines, and several old buildings protected by Historic Preservation orders.

Few tourists visit the area, but their are sections that have an ambience of an earlier era.

Well worth a few hours stroll if you have the time when visiting Hagi

Mount Shizuki

At 145 meters in height, Mount Shizuki in Hagi would be called a hill in English, but is symmetry and steepness give it quite a dramatic appearance.

Jutting out into the sea it is particularly dramatic on a misty morning when viewed along the wide sweep of Kikugahama Beach.

Hagi Castle was built at its base. The castle town and a couple of other sites in Hagi have been added to the newest World Heritage site in Japan.

Hagi Pachinko

Pachinko parlors are ubiquitous in Japan. Garish, noisy, usually with lots of flashing lights they can be found everywhere,

Their architecture usually tends towards the flashy as well, and they are often huge multi storey structures that are mostly empty space. They tend to be demolished and replaced fairly often, and I was once told that this made sense for tax purposes.

Hagi, the old castle town in Yamaguchi, is known for being one of the few areas where the old samurai district still remains and one would think that there woud be some sort of zoning to keep unsightly structures out, but apparently not.

This parlor is right on the edge of the temple district, and towers above the surrounding buildings although the high-rise section is pure show and non-functional, merely a shell.

More Statues at Kobo-ji Temple in Hagi

This is the second post on the many statues found in the grounds of Kobo-ji temple in Hagi. This first one looks distinctly bored.

None of the statuary was particularly outstanding, but there were a lot of them and they were quite diverse.



The previous post can be found here

Whatever was hidden behind these multiple layers of curtains has a story attached to it. "This tragic love story is similar to a verse of long epic "Everlasting Regret"by Hakukyoi who was a famous poet during Tang Dynasty. In the Genroku Era ( 1688-1704) some beloved concubine Kikuyo fell in forbidden love with some handsome page Fusanojo. Their employer got angry and banished him to an island. Before leaving her he promised her to make a faire every evening for her until he dies. Two months later its smoke had stopped. In her sorrow, she threw herself into the sea from the nearby Kikugahama Beach. Their employer felt pity and built this lovers grave for them.

The final photo is a figure I am always on the look out for,,,,, Fudo MyoO.

Buddhas & Bodhisattvas at Kobo-ji Temple

Kobo-ji is a small temple on the river bank in Hagi, Yamaguchi. According to the temples founding legend Kukai (Kobo Daishi) stopped here on his way back from China and enjoyed the hot spring located next door.

Sopposedly founded in 807, the year after he was here. It is now a Shingon temple.

There are quite a lot of statues in the grounds, The one above is something I have never seen before and have no idea who it represents. If any reader has any idea please leave a comment.

I enjoy the diversity of statues found at many temples, though it is not always clear to me exactly which figure they are of. Some I know for sure, the one below is Jizo. but many are still beyond my limited knowledge.

Obata Ebisu Shrine & Inari Shrine

Obata is a small fishing port just north of Hagi. Like virtually every fishing harbor in Japan there is a small shrine to Ebisu, the patron kami of fishermen.

However, running fromn the side of the shrine is a path running up the hillside lined with red torii, a sure sign of an Inari Shrine.

Halfway up the path was one, and then further up another. It is possible to find single Inari shrines, but more often their will be several. Inari, like Buddhas, are in a sense "universal" deities, but in Japan they are often localized with specific local identities.

The Inari ( or other kami or Buddha) will have different local manifestations, so you have, for instance, hundreds of different Inari shrines at the main Inari shrine near Kyoto, Fushimi Inari.

Gokoku Shrine, Hagi

The Hagi City Gokoku Shrine is located on a hillside in the far north of the city. Many Gokoku shrines were built on former castle sites to imbue them with authority.

Gokoku shrines are in essence branches of the infamous Yasukuni Shrine, and like it are the product of the modern period and very much a part of what would later be known as State Shinto.

Gokoku shrines enshrine all those who died "serving the Emperor", This one was the first Gokoku Shrine I've seen that was virtually abandoned. This is probably due to the fact that in 1939 the government limited its support to just one Gokoku Shrine per prefecture, and the one in Yamaguchi City was chosen.

There was a really nice old well :)

Tsurue Shinmeigu

Tsurue Shinmeigu is located on a small island in the north of Hagi, Yamaguchi. The channel seperating the island from the mainland is only a few meters wide so it doesnt feel like an island.

The shrine was founded around the end of the Heian Period, 5 centuries or so before Hagi became the Mori clans castle town. It is a branch of Ise Shrine.

Amaterasu is therefore the primary kami, but many others are enshrined within the grounds, including Takamusubi, and Kunitokotachi who were among the group of primary kami that created the universe and then disappeared from the mythology.

Another group of kami enshrined here are Omoikane, Futodama, Koyane, and Tajikarao. These kami all played a part in luring Amaterasu out of the Heavenly Rock Cave and also accompanied Ninigi on his descent to Earth. They are considered ancestors of some of the powerful clans of ritualists of the Yamato.

Also enshrined here and connected to Amaterasu and the Yamato is Ninigi and Tsukiyomi.
From the lineage of Susano there are two kami enshrined, Okuninushi, and Otoshi.
Finally there is an Inari shrine.

Takada Aragami-sha

This little shrine is located between Tokoji and Shoin Shrine in Hagi, Yamaguchi. It was founded in 771 and so precedes the establishment of Hagi as a castle town by almost a millenia. It is the shrine that protects the local area.

Aragami is most often translates as "Rough Deity", though some say it means "evil deity". I prefer "Turbulent Deity". Most instances I have come across the aragami is nameless, but here it refers to Susano. I have heard Susano referred to as aragami elsewhere in Yamaguchi too.

Also enshrined here are Okitsuhiko and Okitsuhime, a male/female pair that are often called the Kami of the Hearth or Kitchen or  sometimes the kami of the cauldron and the pot.

They are both descendants of Susano, through his son Otoshi.

East along the coast is a town called Susa, and when I was first researching Susano I made a trip there to see if there was any connection with Susano, but coulod find none. recently however I can across a local story west of here at Omijima that says Susano used to leave from Omijima on his journeys back to the Korean Peninsula, which makes sense as that is the closest point of Honshu to the peninsula.