Taiheiji "extra" Temple Iwami Kannon Pilgrimage

 

Tucked away in the outskirts of Ninomiya, Taiheiji is a surprisingly substantial temple.

It is a Soto Zen temple, but I could find no other historical info.

Except that just over the hill is Tabato Shrine, the Ninomiya, second-ranked shrine, of Iwami, and that Taiheiji, under a different name, was one of five temples connected to the shrine.

Of course in 1868 they were seperated.

I have no idea what was inside this tree "room"....

From the temple I cross over the tiny river and thereby enter Tsunozu.

I quite like Tsunozu. It has an old town with lots of alleys and old buildings....

I head for the first of two shrines in the town....

The previous post in this series on day 37 of my walk along the Chugoku Lannon Pilgrimage and day 18 of Iwami Kannon Pilgrimage was on Uyagawa and the Kuroki Shrine...

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Tanoura Kannondo Temple 80 & Tanoura Yakushido Temple 59 Sasaguri Pilgrimage

 

A striking feature of temple 80, Tanoura Kannondo, is the Seigando Hall with around 300 small statues of a seated Kobo Daishi.

Temple 80, Tanoura Kannondo, and temple 59 Tanoura Yakushido, are located adjacent to each other.

Unfortunately there is very little in terms of dates and history.

As usual there are lots of Fudo Myoo statues as well as others....

The "main hall" is a small cave that was a sutra repository about 300 years ago.

The honzon is a Thousand-armed Kannon. There are numerous other Kannon statues at the temple.

There is one particularly fine, huge sugi tree.

A Benzaiten statue next to yet another Kannon statue....

Nest door is the Yakushi-do, temple 59....

A statue of Fujiki Tosukethe founder of the Sasaguri Pilgrimage. It is believed his hermitage was located near here.

There are also many Fudo statues here...

The honzon is a Yakushi Nyorai, commonly known as the Medicine Buddha.

The statue of Kobo Daishi with his dog relates to a legend that while travelling with his dog they were attacked by a wild boar and the dog dies defending Kobo Daishi.

I have not come across this story anywhere else so it may be a local story...

The previous post was on the nearby temple 30, Higyokudo.

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Ankokuji Temple 25 Iwami Kannon Pilgrimage

 

Ankokuji is not far from Tadaji, temple 24, and even closer to Komyoji, temple 26, and is located in Kamiko, a little upstream from Shimoko.

I was surprised by how substantial a temple it was, and then I learned that it has the tombs of several generations of the Masuda Clan, who ruled the area. They were descendants of the Fujiwara governor Kunikane, who changed their names. They later moved from this area, where the national government offices were located, to the area where the city of Masuda is now located.

It was originally called Fukuenji and was said to have been founded in the early 8th century. It fell into disrepair but was revived in the early 12th century as a Tendai Temple and flourished under the patronage of the governor Fujiwara no Kunikane.

It again fell into disrepair after a big fire but was revived as a Rinzai Zen temple in the early 14th century by the wife of Masuda Kanenaga to pray for her deceased father.

In 1348 the temple was chosen to be the Ankoku Temple for Iwami Province.

In 741, the emperor ordered the building of a Buddhist monastery called Kokubunji in each province. It was an attempt to impose central control over the country. These Kokubunji were usually built at the site of the government offices of each province. The Iwami Kokubunji and government offices were located in this area of Shimoko.

In 1348 Ashikaga made Ankoku Temples in each province of the country for similar reasons. Whereas the traditional Buddhist sects were dominated by the Imperial court and their related families, when the warriors took over the country they usually chose Zen temples as they were new sects not yet under the control of the old guard.

There is a fine pair of ceramic komainu.

The hillside behind the main hall is planted with azalea bushes.....

Mu guess is that the red shrine in the pond is a Benzaiten shrine...

There is also a small karesansui garden in the front...

Shachi and other roof ornaments from earlier versions of the temple....

The previous post was on the interior sights of nearby Tada-ji Temple.

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Tada-ji Temple 22 Chugoku Kannon Pilgrimage, Temple 24 Iwami Kannon Pilgrimage

 

I begin day 38 of my Chugoku Kannon Pilgrimage walk at Tada-ji Temple on the mountain top overlooking Shimoko. It is temple 22 of the pilgrimage.

It has been 7 days since the last temple of the pilgrimage, the Tamae Kannon-in down in Hagi.

Tada-ji is also the 24th temple of the Iwami Kannon Pilgrimage which I have been concurrently walking along since yesterday.

The Nio of Tada-ji are truly impressive....

Each is carved from a single piece of camphorwood. I am unable to find a date but they seem quite recent.

The name Tada is unique among Japanese temples, apparently.

It was founded in 806 by a monk who had travelled to China with Kobo Daishi to study.

He returned two years earlier than Kobo Daishi, and while passing through this area had an experience which caused him to establish a temple here around a tiny statue he brought back from China.

The honzon of the temple is a 11-faced Kannon. It is a secret Buddha revealed once a year at the Hatsuumasai Festival.

That takes place on the Day of the Horse, on the second month of the lunar calendar, the festival day of Dakini Ten, a deity on the head of the Kannon statue.

Dakiniten later became equated with Inari, but was originally a set of female demons/goddesses connected with death.

This is one of the three major festivals of Iwami, and unfortunately, I have yet to attend.

At the small Inari Shrine (was it Dakiniten before Shinbutsununri?) there is a viewpoint looking out at the Japan Sea.

Around the Kobo Daishi statue at the base ( top photo of the post) is a miniature 88 temple pilgrimage about ten meters long.

There are two huge, ancient trees in the grounds, a camphor tree said to be over 1,000 years old, and a Cypress said to be over 1100 years old.

There is a Kumano Shrine in the grounds connected to another experience by Ryusei Shonin, the founder.

Tada-ji is believed to be the oldest extant temple in Hamada.

Perhaps the most intriguing sights at Tadaji are to be found inside the main hall, and that I will cover in the next post in the series...

The previous post was on the walk over from Hamada.

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