Seikantei Garden Kinosaki

 

Gokurakuji Temple is hidden away in a corner of Kinosaki Onsen and is barely visited by the majority of visitors to the resort town, who will miss a quite remarkable garden.

Called Seikan Tei, it is a karesansui, "dry garden" most often associated with Zen, and Gokurakuji is a Rinzai Zen temple.

It is somewhat unusual in that the garden is in front of the main hall and the entrance pathway cuts right through it. many of the traditional gardens were built to be viewed from the rear of the main hall or from the Abbot's residence.

The most unusual thing, to my mind, was that one half of the garden used areas of white gravel and dark gravel, something I don't remember noticing before.

The light and dark areas are separated by a border made of roof tiles set vertically, something that is quite common.

Actually the light areas inside the dark ground form the Chinese character for kokoro, "heart". This is sometimes the shape of ponds.

The rock and moss "islands" in the sea of gravel  also use standard design representations, there being a Crame Island, a Turtle Island, a Three Buddhas Island.....

The garden uses a red rock brought from Kurama, a blue rock from Yoshino, and Shirakawa sand from Kyoto.

 I have been unable to establish when the garden was built. Most sources suggest it is fairly modern and a photo of it dates to 1976.

One source suggests it was designed by a disciple of Mirei Shigemori.

Entry is free, so if you are in the area it would be well worth a visit.

Later I will post on the temple and its history and the nice rock garden in front of it.

The previous post in this series on Toyooka was on the lower part of nearby Onsenji Temple.

Niomon & Yakushido at Onsenji Temple

 

Onsenji Temple in Kinosaki Onsen, Hyogo, is the guardian temple of the town and was founded in the eighth century by the priest said to have discovered the hot spring.

The main buildings of the temple are located halfway up the mountainside and are reachable by steps from the base of the mountain, or, more commonly nowadays, by the ropeway.

At the bottom of the steps there are several; structures of the temple including an impressive Niomon, and a Yakushi-do.

Constructed in the late 18th Century, the Niomon contains a fine pair of Nio guardians.

The Yakushi-do was constructed a little later in the early 19th Century.

There is another small "hall" with what appears to be statues of Enma and other "Judges of Hell"

In the "foyer" of the Yakushi-do are many ema paintings and a delightful painted ceiling

The Motoyu, or origin of the hot spring is located just outside the temple grounds.

Onsenji is a Shingon temple.

The previous post in this series on Toyooka was on the main buildings of Onsenji.

Onsenji Temple

 

Onsenji is the guardian temple of Kinosaki Onsen in Toyooka, Hyogo, and is located halfway up Daishiyama Mountain overlooking the hot spring town.

According to the legend it was founded in 738 by Dochi Shonin who spent 1,000 days in ascetic practise before a spring arose. It was traditional for visitors to visit the temple before heading to the healing baths of Kinosaki.

There are some temple structures at the base of the mountain where the steps up to te main temple begin, and the temple also has its own stop of the ropeway that goes to the mountaintop where the okunoin of the temple ( photo 8) is adjacent to the ropeway station.

The main hall of the temple dates back to the late 14th century and is the oldest wooden building in the former province of Tajima.

The honzon is a "secret buddha" and is only shown to the public once every 33 years. It is a Thousand-Armed Kannon built from a single piece of wood said to be from the same tree as the honzon of the famous Hasedera Temple in Nara.

Set among some giant trees, the temple has a Tahoto, a Shingon-style pagoda, was rebuilt in 1767.

Though the honzon is not shown, the main hall does have some nice statuary and the settings and architecture of Onsenji are quite picturesque. I will cover the main gate and lower buildings in a later post. The previous post in this series on Toyooka was the Kinosaki Onsen Ropeway.

Kinosaki Onsen Ropeway

 

Kinosaki is a very popular hot spring resort near the Sea of Japan in northern Hyogo that is easily accessible from the big cities of Kansai by regular express trains.

Occupying a narrow valley that runs into the Maruyama River and from the top end of the town there is a ropeway running up Mount Daishi.

The top station is at 230 meters above sea level and from it you have great views down on the town and out to the sea. There is also a cafe here and the okunoin of Onsenji Temple. There is a hiking path down the mountain to the temple and then on down to the town as well as further up into the mountains.

The length of the ropeway is just 676 meters and it takes just 7 minutes. 

Unusual for ropeways, the Kinosaki Ropeway stops at an intermediary station on its way up and down. Onsenji Station is adjacent to the main buildings of Onsenji Temple.

Previously I have posted a brief introduction to Kinosaki Onsen. Another ropeway I posted about recently was the Kankakei Gorge Ropeway on Shodshima.

Kinosaki Onsen

 

Kinosaki Onsen is a very popular hot spring resort located near the Sea of Japan Coast in the north of Hyogo;

Part of its popularity lies, I think, with the fact that it is only a couple of hours by express train from Kyoto and Osaka, and is, therefore, relatively easy to access.

For about a kilometer the banks of the river in the narrow valley are lined with Ryokan, traditional guesthouses, and while these all have their own hot-spring baths fed by the same hot water, there are seven public baths of different sizes throughout the town.

Visiting these seven public baths is suggested as the main cultural activity of the town. Putting on traditional yukata and wearing geta, the noisy wooden clogs, you walk around in the daytime and evening from bath to bath watching all the other visitors doing the same.

Of course, along with sitting in hot water, eating local delicacies is another of the cultural traditions associated with hot springs. In Kinosaki, being close to the sea, seafood is plentiful and in winter Snow Crabs are very evident.(photo 4). Local beef is also touted as a delicay.

Photo 2, above, is a display at the town train station featuring geta from each of the ryokan in the town.  Photo 10, below, shows Mandara-yu, one of the 7 public baths.

If eating and bathing is not quite enough for you, then Kinosaki does have some other attractions worth a visit that I will cover in future posts. In the meantime, here is something that I haven't seen covered in any of the numerous online guides to Kinosaki, a delightful karesansui garden

The previous post in the series exploring Toyooka in Hyogo was the Takuan Temple in Izushi.