To Mihara Castle Ruins

 

There is not a lot left of Mihara Castle, but what is left is somewhat striking.

I arrived in Mihara at the end of day 12 of my walk along the Chugoku Kannon Pilgrimage and took a ferry from Ikuchijima Island after having visited temple number 11 Kojoji, with its marvellous 15 century National Treasure pagoda.

Mihara is quite a busy little port with numerous ferries servicing the islands of the Inland Sea and even across to Shikoku. There is also some shipbuilding.

The castle was built in 1567 and greatly expanded over the following decades. It was built on a couple of small islands in the mouth of the Nuta River. At high tide it appeared to be floating on the sea and was known as the "floating castle".

The base for the tenshu is pretty much all that remains now, and it was built during expansion in 1595, though no tenshu was built. It was a pretty large cattle measuring 1 kilometer by 600 meters and had 14 gates and 32 yagura.

It was the easternmost fortification for the Mori Clan and the important Sanyodo highway passed through the outer fortifications.

In the Edo Period it was controlled by the Asano Clan since 1619 and was a branch castle of the Hiroshima Domain.

In the early Meiji Period most of the buildings were dismantled and sold as lumber. In 1894 with the construction of Mihara Station much of the stonework was taken away and used in the construction of Itozaki Port. Land reclamation moved the seashore further away and the final straw was the expansion of Mihara Station for the Shinkansen in 1975.

The previous post in this series on the Chugoku Pilgrimage was Kojoji Temple and its ancient pagoda.

Kojoji Temple 11 Chugoku Kannon Pilgrimage

 

The 11th temple on the Chugoku Kannon Pilgrimage is located on an island in the Inland Sea between Hiroshima and Shikoku.

Kojoji is a Soto Zen temple that was founded in 1403, though at the time it was founded as a Rinzai Zen Temple.

It is said to have been founded by the Zen Master Daido who founded Buttsuji, incidentally the next temple on the pilgrimage.

At the height of its power it was home to 100 monks.

It fell into disuse but was revived in the early 17th century when it was converted to Soto.

Some of the temple buildings burned down in early Meiji and others were dismantled.

Only the Pagoda, gate, bell tower and kitchen remained.

In 2010, a new Main Hall was built.

The star of the temple is the pagoda dating back to 1432 and is rightly registered as a National Treasure.

My understanding and recognition of historical Japanese architectural styles and details is somewhat limited, but most sources mention that the pagoda is in Zen style that includes various Chinese elements.

Kojoji is a little off the beaten track, and other than the pagoda there is not actually a lot to see, however if you are visiting nearby Kosanji then it might be worth a look.

The previous post in the series was on the walk from Innoshima Island to Ikuchijima Island.

From Innoshima Island to Ikuchijima Island

 

I came down the west side of Mount Shirataki and reached the road running along the shoreline of Innoshima Island.

I then headed south to the bridge that would take me over to Ikuchi Island

I have covered the Ikuchi Bridge previously when I walked the Shimanami Kaido, so if you want any specs please check this link.

To get to the path for pedestrians and cycles to access the bridge meant passing under the bridge. Fortunately for pedestrians there was a short-cut so I didn't have to follow the very long and shallow-sloped cycle path.

An unusual little "park" made by someone local methinks.

Ikuchi Bridge only has one level so pedestrians are are in the open and can enjoy the views a bit better.

Once on Ikuchijima I headed around the north coast of the island, avoided the main attraction of the island, Kosanji, and headed towards Kojoiji Temple, my destination.

The last two photos in those post were not at a religious site, rather outside a stonemasons factory....

The previous post in this series on day 12 of my walk along the Chugoku Kannon Pilgrimage was on the hundreds of statues atop Mount Shirataki.

Ikuchijima Island-Wide Art Museum

On the second day of my walk from Honshu to Shikoku along the Shimanami Kaido I left Kosanji Temple and started walking down the west coast of the island. On the beach looking westward was this statue, a Jizo I think.

A little further, set on a rock in the water was an unusual modern sculpture, "Wings of the Waves" by Susumu Shingu, one of 17 modern sculptures located around the island in what they call the Island-Wide Art Museum

Sunset Beach runs down the coast almost to the Tatara Bridge which crosses over to Omishima.

At the southern end of the beach another couple of sculptures. In the foreground is "Calm Time-Red form / Inclination by Keiji Uematsu, and in the background "Clairvoyance" by Shin Matsunaga.

Art can take many forms, but this old bus is not part of the Island-Wide Art Museum.

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Hill of Eternal Hope Revisited

Miraishin no Oka, the Hill of Eternal Hope is a sculptural work located on a hill above Kosanji, the somewhat bizarre temple located on Ikuchijima along the Shimanami kaido that connects Hishu with Shikoku.

I have posted about it before, the link is here Heights of Eternal Hope for the Future

All the statues and in fact the surface of the hill top, is constructed out of Carrera marble from Italy where the Japanese sculptor, Kazuo Kuetani lives and works.

I revisited it while on my second day walking along the Shimanami Kaido, a route most often cycled by visitors.

Kosanji Revisited

Kosanji

On the second day of my walk along the Shimanami Kaido I stopped in at Kosanji Temple to take some more photos. This first one is a reproduction of the Yomeimon gate at Toshugu Shrine in Nikko.

Like all the buildings at Kosanji that are based on famous historical structures, it is somewhat more colorful and embellished with more details than the original.

The remains of the temple founders mother lie beneath the five storied pagoda which is based on the pagoda at Muro-ji in Nara.

The fifteen meter tall statues of Kannon is based on a statue less than 2 meters tall in Horyu-ji, Nara.

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Ikuchi Bridge

The sun was getting low as I approached Ikuchi Bridge on the first day of my walk from Honshu to Shikoku along the Shimanami Kaido.

Connecting Innoshima with Ikuchijima, it is a cable-stayed bridge built in 1991.

The total length is 790 meters with the main span being 490 meters. The two supports are delta shaped.

Once across to Ikuchijima I had to find somewhere to lay my sleeping bag for the night.