Awa Ichinomiya

 

Immediately adjacent to Dainichi-ji Temple is the Ichinomiya Shrine of Awa, the old name for Tokushima.

Dainichiji Temple  is now temple number 13 on the Shikoku Pilgrimage, but prior to the Meiji era it was the shrine that was the 13th site of the pilgrimage. The Kannon statue was removed from the shrine and placed in Dainichiji.

In ancient times local people worshipped a huge, sacred stone at the site.

The shrine itself was founded in the mid-9th century, and at that time the Ichiniomiya for the province was Oasahiko Shrine across the Yoshino River.

This shrine became the Ichinomiya a couple of centuries later as Oasahiko Shrine was too far from the provincial capital and so considered inconvenient.

The three kami now enshrined here are Ogetsuhime, Amanoiwatowake, & Yakurahime.

Ogetsuhime is more commonly known as Ukemochi. Usually seen as the Goddess of food, she is sometimes a he. Different versions of the myths have her being killed by either Susanoo or Tsukuyomi, and from her corpse all the various foods of Japan sprang forth. She is also sometimes equated with Inari.

Amanoiwatowake is the name for several different kami, but one of them is the ancestral kami of the Imbe Clan, and so that is the most likely version here. The Imbe "colonized" the Awa region to grow hemp for the Imperial court.

Yakurahime is considered another name for Amaterasu.

Secondary shrines within the grounds include a Sarutahiko Shrine, a Tenjin Shrine, and Inari Shrine, an Okuninushi & Kotoshironushi Shrine, and a Munakata Shrine.

A Wakamiya Shrine enshrines several generations of the lords of nearby Ichinomniya Castle.

Due to the proximity to the castle, the shrine was completely destroyed by battles in the Warring States Period of the 16th century.

The honden is an Important Cultural Property. It was built in 1630.

The previous post in this series on day 8 of my walk along the Shikoku Fudo Myoo Pilgrimage was on the neighbouring Dainichiji Temple.

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Okanari Shrine & Akamatsu Hiyoshi Shrine

 

A little farther up the lower slopes of Mount Daisen, I came to Okanari Shrine.

When this area was being settled and developed, three shrines of the Kumano Sanzan were founded, this one being for Shingu Daimyojin, so the kami here is Hayatamano.

The village was originally named Shingu, but later was renamed Okanari. During the 16th century the shrine was supported by the local warlord, a vassal of the Mori.

In the late Edo Period the shrine functioned as a subsidiary shrine of Ogamiyama Shrine.

In early Meiji the name was chnged from Shingu Daimyojin to Okanari Shrine.

Within the grounds is a Yamaguchi Shrine enshrining Susanoo, Oyamatsumi, and Inari.

A little further, in the village of Akamatsu, I came to a Hiyoshi Shrine. There are no records of its founding, except that as Sanno Gongen, the original name for Hiyoshi Shrines, it has been there since ancient times.

The kami are Okuninushi, Oyamatsumi, Toyotamahime, Ojin, & Inari

In 1913 all the other shrines in the village were merged with Hiyoshi Shrine.

A Myoken shrine, an Ikenojinja Shrine, an Ichinotani Shrine, and an Otani shrine combined to create the mix of kami mentioned above.

The shrine is home to a unique festival tradition the Akamatsu Kojin Festival, held only in leap years, and an Intangible Folk Cultural Tradition. In it a 25 meter long serpent made of straw is carried through the village and then placed at the Kojin altar in the shrine.

This is obviously an extension of the Kojin straw serpents found at just about every shrine in Izumo, and the equivalent of Omoto in our region of Iwami. Straw serpents can be found in most parts of Japan and usually represent the local land kami.

The previous post was on Ogamiyama Shrine.

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Kiyomizudera Temple 28 Chugoku Kannon Pilgrimage

There are many Kiyomizudera temples scattered across Japan. This one is in Yasugi, Shimane, and may very well be the oldest.

Kiyomizudera literally means "Pure Water Temple", and the most famous is the one in Kyoto.

The temple is very old with the date of 587 generally given for its founding.

According to the legend, an itinerant monk named Sonryu investigated the mountain where locals claimed an eerie light could be seen. He found an old man who gave him a statue of Kannon, and so the first, crude structure housing the statue was erected. Not long afterwards a spring of clear water appeared.

The temple had imperial support as well as from local powers and grew in stature.

At its peak it had 48 buildings, though now only 10 are left. It was the premier temple in the whole San-in region.

The main hall is dated to 1393, and is an Important Cultural Property along with several statues dating back to the Heian Period.

One of the huge trees lining the final set of stairs is said to be 1,000 years old.

In the Gomado next to the main hall are several Fudo statues and a Zao Gongen statue.

The stone statue of Fudo at the start of the climb up to the temple is particularly fine. Top photo.

In 847, a disciple of Saicho stopped here on his way back from China, and since then it has been a Tendai temple.

In the battles between the Amago and the Mori in the late 16th century, everything except the main hall was destroyed by fire.

The pagoda, the last remaining 3-storey wooden pagoda in San-in, was built in 1859.

Unusually, visitors are allowed inside to climb to the upper level.

There is quite a large Inari shrine in the temple.

I left via the Niomon and took a trail down the mountain. This suggests that in earlier times the temple was primarily approached from the East.

On the current approach to the temple there are two eateries offering traditional temple cuisine, Shojin Ryori.

The previous post was on the walk here from Unjuji Temple.

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