Cape Oyama Kannon

Kannon

After descending from Konomine Shrine and Konomineji temple 27 on the Shikoku Pilgrimage, the route heads north up the coast of Lochi and you soon reach Cape Oyama. Not sure of the proper definition of a cape, but to my mind Cape Oyama does not extend out into the sea enough, though it is a pretty section of coast with rocky outcroppings and cliffs.

There is a small cave in one section and it has a small chapel/shrine with a Kannon statue. Or rather it had. It seems that it no longer exists, though it may be reinstated.

It seems that during earthquakes rocks used to fall from the roof of the cave quite easily and so it was always considered somewhat dangerous. There was an elevated cafe in front of the cave and some huge pillars erected to hold up the cave roof.

There was also a statue of Kobo Daishi in the cave which suggests some kind of link with him.

Recent photos show the small chapel destroyed and the cafe closed. Maybe it was storm damage or collapsing rocks, or a combination of both. Maybe it will be restored, or maybe not/

Increasingly I find that the some of subjects of my photographs and blogposts have ceased to exist. Maybe I should have a seperate blog called Glimpse of Disappeared Japan"

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Historic streets of Kiragawa

 

Kiragawa is a small port on the west side of the Muroto Peninsula in Kochi on Shikoku. If you are following the Shikoku pilgrimage in the standard clockwise direction you reach Kiragawa after visiting Kongochoji Temple.

 

Kiragawa is one of the featured sites of the UNESCO Geopark of Cape Muroto, but before that it was registered as  a historic preservation district.

One of the notable features of the architecture is the lines of rooftiles embedded in the plaster walls to help shed water on this storm-lashed coastline.

The port gre to prominence in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by exporting lumber and a particular type of charcoal called Tosa Binchotan. Still made today, it is made from a type of oak and has a metallic ring when struck. Its main feature is that it is odorless and so great for barbecuing.

There are about 120 of these preservation districts throughout Japan, and while some are very touristy and disneyfied, i find the less visited sites like Kiragawa more appealing. A longer guide to Kiragawa I wrote can be found here.

Mikurodo

 

Near the very tip of Cape Muroto in Kochi, Shikoku, is a pair of small caves near the shore that, while not in any way impressive, still get lots of visitors and pilgrims because of their history.

In the first years of the 9th Century a young man named Mao had been trying to achieve Buddhist enlightenment for some years and brought himself to the cape and within these caves set about a grueling program of austerities and meditation.

At the age of 30 he achieved his aim and changed his name to Kukai, a combination of "sea" and "sky" which is what he could see from inside the confines of the cave. 

The mani is now known as Kobo Daishi, a name bestowed on him long after his death, and he is probably the most well-known religious figure in Japanese history, founding the Shuingon sect, and the focus of the Shikoku Pilgrimage.

Married Rocks of Muroto

Heading down the coast road towards Cape Muroto is a familar site to anyne who has walked or cycled the Shikoku Pilgrimage known as Ohenro. As you approach the cape a group of towering rocks becomes visible.

Once there you see that a pair of these rock pillars has a shimenawa, sacred rope, strung between them. These roks are known as Meoto Iwa, or "married rocks". The larger rock is considered male and the smaller, female. They are one of the attractions of the UNESCO Global Geopark of Muroto Cape

Meoto Iwa appear at numerous places around the coast of Japan, and I must have seen half a dozen around the western part of the country, but the most famous ones are on the coast of Mie not too far from the shrine at Ise.

Shikoku Pilgrimage Temple 36 Shoryuji

Shoryuji is one of the temples that was most probably founded by Kobo Daishi. He named it after one of the temples he studied at when he was in China.

It's fairly remote and very pleasant temple, with two pagodas. According to the legend, when Kobo Daishi was in China he threw a vajra and it landed here.

The honzon, claimed to be carved by Kobo Daishi, is a Fudo Myo, and there are several Fudo Myo statues around the grounds.

Pilgrims used to have to take a ferry across the narrow but very long inlet, but now a bridge has been built.

Shikoku Pilgrimage Temple 35 Kiyotaki-ji

At the end of my 17th day of walking I arrived at Kiyotakiji, the 35th temple of the pilgrimage, located on a mountainside overlooking Takaoka in Tosa City.

It's not so high, but with a steep approach. There were some fine Nio in the gate halfway up the final flight of stone steps. According to legend the temple was founded by Gyogi in 723 and he carved the honzon, a statue of Yakushi Nyorai, the Medicine Buddha, which is a National Treasure.

Kobo Daishi visited here later and, in a ubiquitous legend created a spring with his staff, though here it became a waterfall which leads to the temples name which means "Clean Waterfall Temple".

The priests here were very kind, giving me permission to spend the night in the Tsuyado, free accomodations, quite a substantial one. They also asked if I needed any food, which I didn't. It was nice to be able to explore the grounds after dark.

Kuroshio Town Ogata Library

One of the delights of wandering the backwaters of Japan, for me at least, is stumbling upon huge pieces of modern architecture, often quite surreal, which would not look out of place in a big city, but are found in the most rural, depopulated areas.

The number of small towns and villages which are home to massive auditoriums, museums, etc is quite staggering, and most date their inception and funding back to the tail end of the bubble era. Vanity projects for architects, and a cash cow for the ubiquitous concrete and construction industries, the funding for their construction came from the central government, however their maintenance and upkeep fell to the local communities, and many, like the Ogata Library featured here  down near Shimanto in Shikoku have now been closed.

Prince Charles may call these structures carbuncles, and the local people may not think much of them, but for my style of photography they are great. I've been here twice but unfortunately both times were really overcast....

It was built in 1998 and designed by Dan Norihiko,  a relatively young architect. He's younger than me so that makes him young.

Shikoku Pilgrimage Temple 32 Zenjibuji

Located on a hilltop on the Pacific coast south of Kochi City, Zenjibuji is temple number 32 of the 88 temples that make up the pilgrimage.

The grounds contained a lot of rocky outcroppings and is said to resemble Fudaraku, the paradise of Kannon placed in southern India.

The honzon of this Shingon temple is an 11 faced Kannon, said to be carved by Kobo Daishi who is also claimed as the temples founder, though other sources attribute both to Gyoki.

While I was visiting a group of modern day yamabushi were in the process of leaving. In their immaculately clean costumes and air-conditioned tour bus it was hard for me to reconcile them with the yamabushi of old.

Chikurinji Temple 31 on the Shikoku Pilgrimage

Located next to the Makino Botanical Gardens in the south of Kochi City, the 5 storey pagoda of Chikurinji was built in 1980 to replace a smaller three storey pagoda that was destroyed in a typhoon in 1899.

Its the onlly temple on the Shikoku Pilgrimage that is dedicated to Monju Bosatsu, and legend has it that Gyogi carved the statue.

According to the legend Emperor Shomu instructed Gyoki to find a mountain that resembled a sacred mountain in China named Godaisan in Japanese which is why the hill where Chikurinji is located is called Godaisan.

Reputedly Kukai spent some time here. It is now a Shingon temple. The Temples museum contains many National Treasures.

I found the Nio statues quite atmospheric. The top photo is of miniature wooden Jizo, and the 4th photo is at the Inari Shrine in the grounds.

Shikoku Pilgrimage Temple 29 Tosa Kokubunji

Tosa Kokubunji, temple 29 on the Shikoku Pilgrimage has a large Niomon housing a fine pair of Nio. The gate dates back to 1655, though it was dismantled and repaired in 1987

Emperor Shomu ordered the construction of Kokubunji, state-proteting temples, in every province, and the 4 on Shikoku are all part of the pilgrimage. The Tosa Kokubunji was built by Gyoki in the middle of the eighth Century.

According to kegend Kobo Daishi performed a ceremony here. The temple burnt down many times, inluding by Chosokabe, but this was one of the temples he rebuilt when he became a Buddhist towards the end of his life.

There is quite a nice garden that includes poems inscribed in rocks, and a bell tower. The temple is now Shingon and the honzon is a thousand-armed Kannon.