An Urban & Industrial Walk to Iwakuni

 

When I got off the ferry on the mainland, the rain had stopped, though it looked like drizzle back on Miyajima.

A dull and overcast day and my route was confined to busy roads through built-up and industrial areas with little to look forward to. No-one ever said pilgrimages were supposed to be fun and pleasant all the time.

However, I was able to find interesting subjects for my photographic compositions.

When Japan planned its rebuilding after the war, it decided to place as much industry as it could on the coast between Tokyo and North Kyushu. Close to the ports where raw materials would be imported, the population was encouraged to move to where the jobs were and so most of the population now lives in that strip. This was the primary cause of the depopulation of the countryside and the other parts of Japan, especially the Sea of Japan side where I live.

Not sure what kind of factories I passed, lots of refineries and chemical plants, methinks. Must have been hell 60 and 70 years ago before they installed pollution controls.

This huge paper mill was located just before the border of Hiroshima and Yamaguchi and so I would be spending the first of many nights in Yamaguchi.

The view from my hotel room was colourful....

The previous post in this series on my walk along the Chugoku Kannon Pilgrimage was on my early morning walk on Miyajima.

A Rainy Morning on Miyajima

 

Day 17 of my walk along the Chugoku Kannon Pilgrimage promised to be a wet one.

It had rained most of the night, and the rain still continued at first light.

Fortunately, I had a roof over my picnic bench and table in the small park.

There were some rental cabins in the park, and one group of young Japanese had been drinking heavily and made a fair bit of noise until the early hours. Every time I have been kept awake in a hotel room by rowdy guests they have been talking and shouting in Japanese, not noisy foreigners...

I was woken in the early hours by a small critter trying to take my small plastic bag of food. I think it may have been a weasel, but it had the bag in its teeth and wouldnt let go when I pulled it until I punched it on the nose....

I have no idea how scallops are farmed, but the piles of scallop shells suggest that it's not just oysters growing around Miyajima....unless scallop shells are used in some way....

A tunnel is the only land route around to this side of the island.

The locals are out and about before the tourists arrive, and don't seem at all phased by the rain....

The rain makes the color contrast a little stronger.....

Back past the two shrines from the evening before....

The mountains of Miyajima are obscured by clouds....

On the mainland, where my route now heads down the coast, it seems just as rainy..... the previous post in this series on walking the Chugoku Kannon Pilgrimage was the walk of this post in reverse yesterday evening

A Night On Miyajima

 

From Daisho-in Temple the views down onto Itsukushima Shrine and its iconic torii are quite impressive.

Daisho-in administered  Itsukushima Shrine until 1868, and it was, like most religious sites in Japan at the time both Buddhist and "shinto" hence the pagoda....

It was getting late and my plan was tp sleep out in a park on the back-side of the island.

I didnt go into the shrine..... too expensive, too many visitors, and having been there several times before, not much to see....

Said to be the biggest rice-spoon, shamoji, in the world...

Miyajima has numerous shrines on the shoreline, and originally all of them were only visited by boat, no-one lived on the island

Now there is a road on a small section of the coast of Miyajima, but still some of the shrines can only be reached by boat.

On the back side of the island, there are lots of oyster farms.

My room for the night was a bench in a small park. The previous post was on Daishoin Temple.

Daishoin Temple 14 Chugoku Pilgrimage Part 2 Jizo, Kannon, Enma, Autumn Colours

 

This is the second part of my post on Daishoin Temple on Miyajima. The previous post is here.

Not sure exactly who this is but I suspect it is one of the Wisdom Kings.....

I believe this is a Kokuzo Bosatsu statue in what is called the Nyo Garden,,,,

The Hensho Kutsu is an artificial cave with an impressive ceiling of lanterns.

Here are 88 statues and a small amount of earth from each of the 88 temple on the Shikoku Pilgrimage.

There are many, many versions of Jizo here.....

The Amida-do enshrining an Amida trinity.

For more details on the history of Daishoin please check my previous post....

A tengu......

Some miniature Jizo....

Enma..... the Judge of "Hell"....

yet anither Fudo....

Theer are numerous Kannons here, including the one that was the main Buddha of Itsukushima Shrine until the separation of Buddhas and kami in 1868

The previous post was 28 photos of the first half of my visit to Daishoin.