Mimasaka Soja Shrine

 

Soja shrines were often established close to government headquarters in ancient Japan as one of the governor's duties was to offer prayers at all the shrines in his district.

For convenience, all the kami from the outlying shrines were gathered together in one place hence making the officials jobs much easier. Such was the case of this shrine in Tsuyama.

According to the shrine history, it was established first further to the west and enshrined Okuninushi. A year later when the Kokufu was established the shrine was moved here and the kami from all 65 village shrines in Mimasaka were brought here.

After the Kokufu became replaced by warrior rule the local warlords continued to support the shrine with grants of land.

The current main building was built by Motonari Mori in 1562 and it was extensively repaired in the mid 17th century.

The shrine is built in the Nakayama-zukuri style, unique to this area. In the early 20th century it was made a National Treasure but has since been downgraded to an Important Cultural Property.

The previous post in this series on the fifth day of my walk along the Chugoku Kannon Pilgrimage was on the nearby Nakayama Shrine, the ichinomiya of the province.

Ishiteji Temple Part 2

 

Through the tunnel to the Okunoin

This is the second part of four on Ishiteji Temple in Matsuyama, Ehime.

It is the 51st temple on the Ohenro Shikoku Pilgrimage but is also very popular with non-pilgrims.

There are two tunnels that lead from the main temple, through the hillside, to emerge in a small valley behind the temple where the Okunoin, the inner temple, is located.

The tunnels have no lighting at all, so you need to take flashlights with you.

What you will encounter are some fairly standard jizo statues,....

But, a lot of very crude, wooden statues.....

I did hear one time that the carver of these statues was a relative of the head priest, however there are dozens and dozens of them throughout the temple, if not hundreds...

I took so many photos of these weird statues, which is why this post on Ishiteji is so big and spread over multiple parts.

There are a couple of "chapels" or altars along the way....

before the tunnel emerges into daylight and an imposing statue of Enma, king of Hell

There are also a series of other crude statues, some type of cement of plaster over a chicken wire frame....

These are already starting to deteriorate....

A huge, almost spherical, golden structure appears.....

This is the Okunoin, guarded by golden komainu.....

but thats for the next post....

Just outside the Okunoin was this skeletal statue of the historicalBuddha fasting.....

Ishiteji Temple Part 1            Ishiteji Temple Part 3

Togitsu Yutoku Inari Shrine

 

Not far from the Honjin I discovered in Togitsu I encountered a small Inari Shrine.

Apparently, it is a branch of the famous Yutoku Inari Shrine not far away in southern Saga and not a branch of the head Inari shrine Fushimi Inari near Tokyo.

As with almost all Inari shrines, there were fox guardian statues. Though Inari is often mistakenly referred to as a "fox god", the foxes are messengers of Inari, not representations of Inari

There were multiple vermillion torii, though no actual "tunnel" as at many Inari shrines.

Surprisingly all the ema depicted horses, as this was spring 2014, a "Horse Year".

There were multiple Inari shrines in the grounds. Inari is well known for being a "peronalized" kami that exists in thousands of thousands of different forms.

The Chinses style guardian lion was unusual, though not too surprising as this was Nagasaki.

Thet two main representations of Inari are either as an old man carrying rice, or, as seen here, as a young maiden on the back of a white fox.

This representation has connections with the primarily Buddhist identity of Inari as Dakiniten.

Inari is sometimes connected to Benzaiten, another goddess with heavy Buddhist-shinto cross-over, and that may be behind the small figurine of the white snakes wrapped around the jewel of wisdom.

The previous post in this series on day 64 of my walk around Kyushu was on Togitsu.

Obama Shrine & its Komainu

 

Obama Shrine is the main shrine of the small, coastal hot spring resort of Obama on Tachibana Bay in Nagasaki.

The current shrine building was constructed in 1995 on the site of the former Kengara Shrine when Obama Shrine and Kengara Shrine were combined.

It seems the original Kengara Shrine was built in 1679 at the same time the nearby Obama Shrine was rebuilt. At that time both shrines had different names.

The kami enshrined here are Okuninushi, and Sukunahikona who is often portrayed as a sidekick of Okuninushi. Sukunahikona is sometimes considered a god of hot springs due to an episode in the ancient myths set at Dogo onsen in Shikoku. The other kami enshrined is Takemikazuchi.

The main building has a ceiling painting of a dragon which was transferred from the older shrine, but, for me, the most interesting thing at the shrine was the two pairs of small komainu that I suspect came from the two older shrines.

The previous post was on the longest hot spring foot bath in Japan which is nearby.

Yasaka Shrine Ebie

 

Ebie is a neighborhood on the bank of the Yodo River in Osaka, west of Umeda. Route 2 crosses the river here and this was the route I was walking west.

The local shrine is a branch of the famous Yasaka Shrine. I visited in 2017 and so a large ema of a Rooster was on display.

There seem to be quite a few Yasaka shrines in this part of Osaka, though I have no idea why. There is no info on the shrine's history, though it is believed to be quite old.

There are several sub-shrines in the grounds including the Ebisu Shrine pictured above, and an Inari Shrine.

The previous post was on some of the interesting architecture I passed by walking through Umeda.