Passing by Kawamoto

 

Kawamoto is the biggest town on the Gonokawa River since leaving Gotsu ate the mouth of the river about 35 kilometers downstream.

The river does a more than ninety degree bend here and the town is all on the inside of the curve, with the outside being steep cliffs and mountainside.

However, I choose to walk along the embankment and therefore completely by-pass the town itself.

Photo 6 shows Senganji Temple on the mountainside overlooking the town. I visited it earlier as it is one of the temples on the Iwami Kannon Pilgrimage and that post has several photos looking down on the town.

The town has a big town hall, Police Station, Indoor Swimming Pool and primarily serves as a shopping and services centre for the surrounding rural and mountain communities.

The previous post in this series walking up the Gonokawa River to its source was on the Imbara to Kawamoto section.

Senganji Temple 9 on the Iwami Kannon pilgrimage

 

Senganji Temple, number 9 on the Iwami Kannon pilgrimage, sits on a steep hillside overlooking the small town of Kawamoto on the Gonokawa River.

It is a Soto Zen temple with a Jizo for a honzon, and was founded in 1576.

It was originally located in a valley to the west but was burned down, quite ossibly due to warfare.

On to of the mountain was a castle belonging to the Ogasawara Clan who ruled the area, with the agreement of the powerful Mori Clan.

Senganji and two powerful temples nearby, also both on the Iwami Kannon pilgrimage, all had strong connections with the Ogasawara and were considered clan temples.

Senganji has been uninhabited and rarely visited for some time, and since I visited ten years ago I have seen photos showing a lot of deterioration and collapse in the buildings.

According to one source there were several residences at the temple until about 100 years ago.

The previous post was on the path up the mountainside to the temple which has many statues.

Senganji is also temple number 21 on the Iwami Ginzan Kannon pilgrimage, a recently rediscovered pilgrimage route.

The Climb to Senganji Temple

 

Kawamoto is the next town up the Gonokawa River from my village.

Halfway up the steep hillside across the river from downtown Kawamoto is a small temple, Senganji.

The temple becomes really visible in late Autumn when the trees around it turn orange, yellow, and red.

I have actually only made it up to the temple one time, after walking down from Iwami Ginzan on day 5 of my walk along the Iwami Kannon pilgrimage.

Senganji is temple number 9 on that pilgrimage.

There is no vehicular access to Senganji, only a footpath with more than 200 steps, which is, I think, a large reason the temple has been uninhabited for a long time.

There are numerous statues along the path, inlcuding a lot of Jizo but also some Kannon.

When I visited in the late afternoon in May, the shafts of sunlight illumnated many of the statues quite dramatically.

Tomorrow I will post photos from inside the temple and include what history I have been able to find out.

According to a recent photo I saw, the structure housing this collection of statues has  now completely collapsed.

The temple occuppies a narrow ledge in the steep hillside.

The previous post in this series on the Iwami kannon pilgrimage was Ido Shrine in Omori.

Momiji gari part 2

This is a continuation of an earlier post.

As the heroes lay unconscious in a drunken stupor they are visited by Hachiman, the god of war and the protective deity of samurai. Interestingly in the kagura dance he is referred to as Hachiman Bosatsu, which is his buddhist identity, and as buddhism was mostly purged from Iwami kagura in the early Meiji period, it leads me to believe this is a post-war dance.

Hachiman purifies the heroes and also gives them a sacred sword and so the scene is set for the finale, a wild and frenetic swordfight.

The three demons have new masks and appear in all their fully formed horror.

There is, of course, no doubt as to the outcome. The good guys will win, and the demons will be destroyed.......

Kawamoto Summer Matsuri

On saturday evening we went upriver for the annual summer festival in Kawamoto. One street is blocked off to traffic and a stage erected. Along the street stalls selling food and drink.

The opening event was a rather poor performance of Yosakoi.

Next up was a performance by the local school brass band. Not exactly my cup of tea, but the performance was technically flawless. As it should be considering the amount of practising the poor kids have to do on weekends and during so-called school vacations.

And then some kagura. I noticed that Iwami kagura music now has the same effect upon me as Celtic music or Reggae..... my feet start tapping involuntarily.

Not sure how to describe the next performance. Yoko called it a play.

Next up the local taiko group. I always enjoy Taiko. This group was formed 40 years ago to cheer up the locals who had just suffered a devastating flood.

Thousands of floating candle lanterns were then set off to drift down the river. I would have liked to get closer to get some better shots but the river was fenced off and patrolled by dozens of security guards..... aahh!... safety Japan.

The finale was the obligatory firework display.

Kawamoto is a small town, but it services a large rural area, and the matsuri was well attended.

Kawamoto "civic centre" (inside)

The first part of this post can be found here

The musical instrument museum in Kawamoto is only a few metres wide, little more than a corridor running alongside the swimming pool, but is very tall and gives the impression of being a cathedral.

The complex of buildings were designed by Arai Chiaki, a local architect. The little museum is free, and worth a visit if you are in the area, but probably not worth a special trip unless you are really interested in musical instruments from around the world.

The benches are designed as piano keyboards and are a nice touch.

The foyer also uses height to increase the sense of space.

The auditorium has no particular features, though it was filling up with people for a concert so I wasn't able to wander around and find any interesting viewpoints.

kawamoto "civic centre" (outside)

Kawamoto is a small town upstream of my village on the Gonokawa river. The population is around 4,500, a mere quarter of what it was 50 years ago, yet on the hill overlooking the town is quite a grand civic complex.

There's a heated indoor swimming pool, a library, a musical instrument museum, and a full-size concert hall. I went to the concert hall for the first time a couple of weeks ago to see the world famous taiko group Kodo on their world tour.

The town has a reputation as a "music town", and until recently a full-time music teacher was employed at the center which also has recording studios.

The complex was designed by architect Arai Chiaki, another homegrown Shimane architect, and opened in 1998. The complex does get used by local people, but I wonder if the money would not have been better spent on a decent hospital (nearest big hospital is an hour away) or installing a mains sewage system?