Karashima Island and the origin of Susano

Karashima

Just offshore from the harbour entrance at Takuno near Niima in Shimane is a small group of islets, the largest being called Karashima. Karashima has a shrine named, not surprisingly, Karashima Shrine, and the main kami enshrined here are Susano and his son Isotakeru.

According to the local legend, the island is the stone boat that Susano and his son sailed in from the Korean Peninsula to settle in Izumo. According to the most common version of Japanese mytho-history, the one in the Kojiki, Susano was kicked out of heaven and immediately descended to Izumo. However, in the Nihon Shoki, which was the official version of history before the Kojiki was revived in modern times,  Susano descended to the Korean Peninsula before heading to Izumo. I did read in one medieval text that Susano was believed to have been a prince from the kingdom of Silla. The same text also said Jimmu came to Japan from what is now Okinawa.

I was surprised to find a new statue of Susano in the town. Happily, it was not in the sickly-cute anime style of so many renditions of ancient myths nowadays, but rather as Susano appears in the local Iwami Kagura form of defeating Orochi.

I have not yet made it out to the island to visit the shrine, but discovering it and the associated story set me off on years of exploration and research into the various origin stories of Susano. I had always believed this was a purely local version, for instance up in Okuizumo their story has Susano descending from heaven to a rock near the Hi River.  However, a few years ago while on a boat trip out of Nagato on the north coast of Yamaguchi, the tour guide mentioned that Nagato was where Susano used to depart on his trips back to Korea.

Just around the headland from Karashima is the village and port of Isotake, named after Susano's son. The shrine records there say that Susano used to regularly travel back and forth between Japan and Korea.

Design your own happi coat

Hateiji Temple 5 on the Iwami Kannon Pilgrimage

 

Hateiji Temple was rather curious. On the one hand it appeared deserted and unused, but on the other there was a recently maintained gate with some striking Nio statues.

Other than the nio, and a small bell tower there was nothing else in the grounds. It was however home to a bustling kindergarten. I have seen quite a few smaller temples and shrines that have leased or rented some of their grounds to such establishments. In cities, they often become car parks.

The Nio were quite remarkable and suggested that in earlier times the temple was more important and prosperous. Above the entrance to the main hall the signboard displayed the temple's "mountain name", possibly Toraisan, though I am informed it uses an obscure kanji character.

The paper nameslips attached to the building suggest that this was one of the temples on the original Iwami kannon Pilgrimage that started in nearby Iwami Ginzan. A list of the original pilgrimage temples included more than a third that no longer exist, probably destroyed in the anti-Buddhist violence of early Meiji.

This "new" Iwami pilgrimage I am following starts in Oda City and I am getting close to the end of my third day walking it. This newer pilgrimage is called Iwami Mandala Pilgrimage, and though it has 33 main temples, there are a rather large number of "extra" temples.

Takuno Hachimangu

Takano Hachimangu

On day 3 of my walk along the Iwami Kannon Pilgrimage I eft Isotake and carried on down the coast into Takuno where there was the next pilgrimage temple.

Right next to the temple was the main shrine for the village, a Hachimangu. A pretty standard village Hachimangu, though there were quite a few different styles of komainu.

Hanging inside was an ema, a painting of a kitamaebune, one of the cargo  boats that plyed the major trade route along the Japan Sea coast. I had often thought that Takuno must have been propserous in earlier times as there are a few large merchant houses and warehouses.

If it was a kitamaebune port that would make sense. Just outside the mouth of the harbor are a couple of small islets that would have made the port a safe haven in a storm. According to myth these islets were the boats that Susano and his family came in from the Korean peninsula.

Karakamishiragi Shrine & a serious revising of myth-history

Karakamishiragi

At the far western edge of the village of Isotake is the small fishing port, and next to it a small, fairly standard, little shrine with modern torii, standard, modern komainu, and the large thick shimenawa typical of the region. What is interesting is the name Karakamishiragi Shrine which translates as "gods from Silla Shrine", Silla being one of the countries that made up the Korean peninsula before becoming unified.

The kami enshrined here are Susano and two of his daughters, Oyatsuhime and Tsunatsuhime. His son, Isotakeru, gave his name to the village, but curiously is not enshrined here. According to the local records they all arrived here from Silla and established what later became known as Izumo Culture. It also says they travelled back and forth between here and Korea with local kami, transferring technology.

This is quite different from the mainstream, official version of the mytho-history which has Susano descending directly to japan from the High Plain of Heaven. That version is the one in the Kojiki which nowadays is touted as the oldest book in Japan, but to be quite frank is a very revisionist, political rewriting of the myths to suit a small group of powerful clans who had seized power just before writing the kojiki.

Visiting this shrine not long after moving to the area set me off on a trail of discovery as I followed the local legends and myths that tell quite a different story than the mainstream which became fixed in the early days of the Meiji Period when national myths were needed by the political leaders....It also led me  to a more detailed exploration of Susano, the kami largely dismissed by the mainstream myths in favor of his sister Amaterasu.

Isotake Beach

Isotake Beach

Day three of my walk along the Iwami Kannon Pilgrimage, and to get from the outskirts of the village of Isotake to the harbor and main part of the village I decided to cross the main road and walk along the beach.

We have a lot of nice beaches in the Iwami area, and this one is not bad.

As is normal there was some stuff washed up. Mostly floats and bits of rope... stuff from fishing boats usually.

Isotake is named after Isotakeru, one of the sons of the great Izumo deity Susano. According to the myth Susano and Isotakeru arrived here from the Korean Peninsula, and the shrine at the harbor has more details...

Of course it wouldn't be a Japanese beach without tetrapods...

Into Isotake

Isotake

Early on the 3rd day of my walk along the Iwami Kannon Pilgrimage I reached the coastal village of Isotake. Looking inland I could see Mount Sanbe where I had spent the night of my first days walk.

Isotake is named after Isotakeru, a son of Susano, said to be brother to the sun goddess Amaterasu. There are of course numerous versions of the ancient myths, but round here the story is that Susano and Isotakeru arrived in Japan from the Korean Peninsula at this spot. At the far end of the village is a  fishing port with a shrine whose records tell this story.

A common sight all over rural Japan are collapsing buildings. Once a traditional building is abandoned it doesn't take long for nature to begin the recycling process.

The narrow road through the village was formerly the Sanin-do, the main road that extended all the way from Kyoto. The village has now been bypassed by Route 9, a modern road. Soon it too will be superseded by a 2 lane expressway a little inland carried on tall concrete pillar and through lengthy tunnels.

A Shrine Less Visited

Walking the road less traveled one finds a shrine less visited. Early on the morning of my third day walking the Iwami Kannon Pilgrimage, I left the village of Shizuma and headed towards the coastal village and harbour of Isotake. The main road, Route 9, the old Sanin Do from ancient times, was busy and so I preferred to take a small lane that wound through the woods.

I love these type of roads. Very narrow, but with zero traffic, it's like having a nice, wide, smooth hiking trail. I have walked thousands of kilometers along such roads, usually up and over mountain passes, and there is no hassle with undergrowth, uneven surfaces, etc.. It was mid-December and the sun was low and so giving the light usually associated with "the golden hour"

Some overgrown steps lead up to a torii. This shrine is not marked on my maps, neither googlemaps, which sometimes doesn't have smaller, local shrines, nor my topo map which often has historical shrines marked which no longer exist. A path laid with large flagstones leads into the woods.

A wide pathway, ankle deep with dried leaves leads further into the dark woods. I have take paths like this often. Eventually, it comes to a clearing in the woods and the shrine buildings. As well as the main building there is a second one, probably a kagura den. There are no shimenawa nor komainu.

This must be a closed shrine, with the shintai, the object in the honden in which the kami resides when visiting, as well as any komainu etc being removed to another shrine nearby. A little over a hundred years ago this was the fate of half the shrines in the country as the government closed local shrines and expanded national ones. Here the situation would seem to be the result of the continued depopulation of rural Japan.

This was a sacred place for a community, probably for centuries. Does anyone come here anymore? Do the kami know?

Nibehime Shrine

Nibehime Jinja

On the third day of my walk along the Iwami Kannon Pilgrimage I started the day at Shizuma with a visit to the main shrine in the village. To all outward appearances just a small village shrine, with a large shimenawa in Izumo style. However this was a relatively important shrine in the past.

It's listed in the Engi Shiki, a tenth Century document that, amongst other things, lists all the shrines in Japan that were receiving official offerings from the central government in Kyoto. The shrine also has some interesting kami enshrined here.

The main kami is Haniyasuhime, the female of the pair of kami known as kami of the soil. According to one version of the myth the two kami were created out of the feces of Izanami after she was killed by the kami of fire. The agricultural reference is pretty obvious.

Another couple of female kami are enshrined here also, Oyatsuhime and Tsumatsuhime, both daughters of Susano who arrived near here from the Korean Peninsula along with a Susano son, Isotakeru. All three landed not far from here near the village named after Isotakeru, Isotake. The three kami are known for spreading the seeds of useful trees they brought with them.

Iwami Kannon Pilgrimage Day 3

Iwami Kannon

Sunday 16th December 2012, and I begin my third day walking the Iwami Kannon Pilgrimage with Mount Sanbe silhouetted  inland. Today I will walk from Shizuma down the coast and end at Nima.

There was one of the pilgrimage temples and lots of shrines.  A few mountain roads and a few villages and a nice stretch of beach to walk.

A great day for surfing, I guess,.... we get good surf mostly in the winter it seems.

A couple of the shrines are very intriguing and tell the story of the arrival of Susano from the Korean peninsula. Almost completely ignored in most renditions of the myths and early history of Japan, the two shrines were instrumental in sending me on the search for Susano stories...

Iwami Kannon Pilgrimage Temple 4 Anrakuji

The sun was close to setting at the end of my second day walking the Iwami Kannon Pilgrimage when I arrived at Anrakuji.

I did not expect to see many grand temples on this pilgrimage as it is just around my local area, but the Nio here impressed me.

The temple is located on a hillside outside of Oda City, not far from the sea. It is a Shingon temple and was founded at the end of the 10th Century.

It was a pleasant temple with enough statues to keep me interested......