Utago Miho Shrine

 This small shrine goes overboard with marine-safety gods, has the most strangely looking Fudo Myoo, and proves that angry ghosts can be horses.

The main shrine in the old fishing harbour of Utago is a Miho Shrine on what was until the 1700's a small island named Ebisujima, but which was connected to the mainland by a man-made causeway.

As a branch of the famous Miho Shrine in Mihonoseki, the main kami is Kotoshironushi, now equated with Ebisu. Also enshrined are a whole slew of other kami with connections to maritime safety.

The Sumiyoshi Sanjin are enshrined here, the three kami associated with Sumiyoshi Shrine, and then there are Omononushi and Emperor Sutoku, the two kami of Konpira shrines, and finally Ichikishimahime, one of the three Munakata kami associated with the safety of travel between Japan and Korea, and alone often equated with Benzaiten, a water kami.

Standing at the side of the main shrine building is a very unusual statue of Fudo Myoo. No longer carrying a sword, it is carved out of some kind of eroded black rock. My feeling is a kind of volcanic rock but it is full of holes. The head in particular is most weird.

Behind the shrine in an altar among rocks is a horse made of straw. I had seen similar things before at shrines on the Tottori coast, but this one comes from a fire that badly damaged the village and in the process, killed a horse. Subsequently, fires kept breaking out until they figured out it was the angry ghost of the dead horse causing the fires and so created the straw horse and altar to propitiate it. Angry ghosts are never far away in Japan....

The previous post was on the village of Utago where the shrine is.

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Izumo Shrine Suo Ninomiya

 

The Ninomiya, second-ranked shrine, of the old Suo Province was the Izumo Shrine in the Tokuji District on the banks of the Saba River north of Hofu.

It is said tat it was established to appease the Izumo tribe as they expanded into the Saba River basin. It is generally accepted that Izumo controlled a large confederacy that reached from northern Kyushu up to the Niigata area.

It is recorded that it was established in 715 and in 738 it was granted imperial permission to be the Ninomiya of the province.

The shrine was well supported by the Ouchi Clan who ruled the area and then later by the Mori who took over from the Ouchi.

The main kami listed are Okuninushi and Kotoshironushi, although I note that until the 16th century the main kami of Izumo Taisha was Susanoo. The current building dates to 1750.

There are a couple of different Hachiman shrines in the grounds and twenty smaller shrines gathered from around the area.

Most interesting to me was the giant Sugi tree..... this would have been the kind of tree Chogen would have been looking for....

It is 43 meters high, with a 12.5 metre circumference at its base, and a diameter of 7.2 meters.

The previous post was on the monk Chogen and his rebuilding of Todaiji with lumber from this area...

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Mitate Shrine

 

Mitate Shrine is the main shrine of Saijo in the mountains of Higashihiroshima, and is located just north of the towns main railway station.

It moved to this location in 1910, along with the nearby Wakamiya, Hachiman, Ebisu, Kanazaki, and Daiichi shrines.

The Otateinari Shrine is on the approach to the main shrine.

The original Mitate Shrine is said to have been founded in 706 after the local people prayed to Gozu Tenno and successfully stopped a plague.

Gozu Tenno has been associated with Susano for a long time, but since the Meiji Period all instances of Gozu Tenno have been officially changed to Susano.

Along with Susano, the other main kami listed are Kotoshironushi, and Ichikishimahime.

The shrine has numerous pairs of komainu, in a variety of styles.

Most seem to date to the mid 19th century before the shrine moved to the current location.

One pair date to the early 20th century, after the move.

It seems that before the Meiji Period it was called Gion Shrine.

In the mid 20th century a branch of Matsuo Shrine was established in the grounds.

Matsuo Shrine is the patron shrine of sake brewing, and, like Fushimi Inari, was established by the Hata Clan.

Saijo is one of the major sake brewing towns in Japan, and often calls itself  the Sake Capital.

Though right in the centre of the town the shrine is within a large park and so has plenty of greenery

The previous post was on Yamatogen Shrine....

I have not seen anything like this before.... a tanuki dressed as a Shinto priest and a device for, I guess, whispering something into iys ears.....

Haguro Shrine Tamashima

 

Adorning the roof of Haguro Shrine in Tamashima, Okayamama, is a ceramic Karasu Tengu, and it has become the symbol of the shrine and also a mascot for the town.

Tamashima was a cluster of small islands that have now become reclaimed land due to the efforts of the local daimyo Mizutani Katsutaka who started with the area immediately around where the shrine is now and spread out building embankments and reclaiming more land.

The area quickly became a major port on the trading route of the Inland Sea.

Mount Haguro is a sacred mountain in Yamagata in northern Japan with a major shrine called Dewa Shrine.

It is one of three sacred mountains  grouped together as Dewa Sanzan, and is and was a major Shugendo centre, hence the Karasu Tengu.

The shrine in Tamashima became the centre of the land reclamation project and was supported by the growing merchant population.

The current buildings date back to the mid 19th century and have a lot of fine decorations.

Within the grounds are numerous secondary shrines including a Sumiyoshi Shrine, and a Tenmangu Shrine, as well as a Mizutani Shrine, Kumada Shrine, and a Warei Shrine.

The Seven Lucky Gods are also enshrined and very popular.

There is a small pine tree that has had its branches woven together and is therefore known as Musubi no Matsu.

The figures on tye roof are particularly nice with dragons as well as the Karasu Tengu.

Photos 16 and 17 show two other figures which I believe to be Daoist Immortals. One is riding a turtle and the other a crane, both important Daoist symbols and prevalent in Japanese art and culture, especially gardens.

The kami listed as enshrined here are Tamayorihime, Susanoo, Okuninushi, and Kotoshironushi.

A little off the main tourist track, Tamashima is worth a visit, not least for the artwork adorning Haguro Shrine.

I visited at the start of day 9 walking the Chugoku Kannon Pilgrimage.

The previous post was on the shrine at temple 6 of the pilgrimage that I visited the afternoon previous, Yuga Shrine.