Fukushoji Temple Cherry Blossoms, Sacred Waterfall, & Tengu Legend

 

After crossing over the small Kamo River in  Kitsumoto, the Kiiji Route of the Kumano Kodo starts to head uphill towards the next pass, but a huge swath of cherry trees in full bloom beackon to take a small detour.

The climb up to Fukushoji Temple was well worth it, as evidenced by the large group of day-walkers also there...

Not only a ton of sakura, but great views, and a sacred waterfall....

I have to say that this section of the route, from Yuasa to Kainan, was one of the best sections of the Kumano Kodo for me....

The falls are named Urami no Taki, given that name by Yorinobu Tokugawa, the first daimyo of the Kishu Domain.

It is possible to walk behind the 20 metre high falls.....

It is said to be a bit more spectacular after a period of heavy rain, when it can be up to 30 meters wide.

Not sure when the temple was founded, but it is recorded that Kobo Daishi visited the temple in 804 and performed rituals in preparation of his upcoming trip to China.

The honzon is a Thousan-armed Kannon, but there are also a a Kokuzo and a Fudo Myoo.

The main hall dates to at least 1512, maybe earlier. The Gumonji Hall dates to 1650 as does the Bell Tower. All three are Important Cultural Properties.

The legend about the tengu is as follows..... One lived in one of the huge sacred trees behind the temple, but as it was cold in winter a local family allowed him to stay in their storehouse.

The daughter-in-law of the family would bring the tengu food, and he would respond with requests to be able to offer something in return as it was driving him crazy just taking and not being able to repay the kindness...

Eventually the daughter-in-law suggested that the uncle of the family was old and now bedridden but had always wanted to visit the Kumano Sanzan, and so the tengu carried the old man on his back down the pilgrimage trail to Kumano.

There is the imprint of a tengu foot in the floor of the veranda of the temple, though I didn't notice it...

The previous post in this series on my walk along the Saigoku and Kumano Kodo Pilgrimages was on a couple of nearby shrines connected to the introduction of mandarins into Japan.

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Baby Sumo & the God of Sweets

 

Kitsumoto, a remote settlement along the Kumano Kodo, turned out to be a delightful surprise. Not only is it a scenic, traditional village in itself, but the two shrines in the village are both home to some unique features.

Located on the Yuasa to Kainan section of the Kiiji Route of the Kumano Kodo, the old Imperial route from the capital down to the Kumano sanzan shrines, I was walking in reverse as the first part of the Saigoku Kannon Pilgrimage.

At the first shrine I came to, Yamaji Oji Shrine, a small sumo ring was just inside the grounds. This was for Naki Sumo, sometimes called Crying Baby Sumo. It is fairly common and found in numerous sites around Japan. a "bout" will involve a pair of infants, with the first infant to cry being declared the winner. If they cry simultaneously, then the louder baby wins. The Japanese believe that a crying baby can ward off demons and that loud crying increases the health of  a baby.

Yamaji Oji shrine is one of the 99 Oji shrines along the imperial route that were resting and stopping places for elite pilgrims.

In earlier times this one was known as Ichitsubo Oji or Kutsukake Oji.

An inscription on the main building is dated to 1680, which suggests that is when it was constructed.

The bell tower has the name of the temple that was part of the site until its removal in 1868.

As a tutelary shrine, Yamaji-oji is listed as an enshrined kami, along with Ojin (Hachiman), and Amaterasu. I would also suspect that the Kumano Sanzan are now enshrined here.

Heading down the long, narrow valley, the next shrine is Kitsumoto Shrine.

It is also the site of an Oji shrine, Tokorozaka Oji, but is most well known for enshrining the "God of Sweets"

The kami enshrined here is Tajimamori. According to the myth-legend, he was sent by Emperor Suinin to a mythical realm to find a magical fruit. What he brought back was Tachibana, said to be the source of all the mikan fruits in Japan.

A tachibana tree in the shrine grounds is said to be the latest of cuttings made from the original tree planted here. The daimyo of the domain in the Edo period made mikan production a priority as the hills were too steep for rice terraces, and so that is why I had been passing through so much orange country the last day.

In ancient times the fruit was considered a sweet, and so Tajimamori became known as the kami of sweets. Confectionery companies of all kinds send offering to the annual festival here, although there are other shrines in the country connected to Tajimamori as well.

The previous post in this series on day 8 of my walk along the Kumano Kodo and Saigoku Pilgrimages was on the walk over the mountain pass to get to Kitsumoto.

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Over the Hai no Toge Pass on the Imperial Route

 

After leaving Itoga and its intriguing temple with a cinderella story, and also the oldest Inari shrine in all of Japan, I continue north and head across the Arita River.

It is 28th March, 2016, the 8th day of my walk along the Saigoku Pilgrimage.

While pilgrimage is a fairly universal phenomenon, most of them seem to be based on one particular site, with maybe many different routes from different directions to get to that site. Think the pilgrimage to Mecca or the famous Camino de Santiago in Spain. Japan has those types of  pilgrimages, perhaps the most famous being the pilgrimage to Ise during the Edo Period, but it also has what might be referred to as circular pilgrimages.

It is generally believed that the Saigoku Pilgrimage that I am walking on in this series of posts, is the oldest of such circular pilgrimages to a series of sites. It visits 33 temples that have a particularly noteworthy Kannon statue. Kannon is one of the most popular bodhisatvas is Japan and is largely derived from the Chinese goddess Guanyin which became equated with Avalokiteshvara the original Indian deity that spread with Buddhism into China.

There are 33 different forms of Kannon, so the Saigoku Pilgrimage has 33 temples. Many other parts of the country created their own version of the 33 temple Kannon Pilgrmage, in fact, the pilgrimage I am most posting about on my blog right now is the Chugoku Kannon Pilgrimage, a fairly modern pilgrimage created in the 1980's.

The first temple on the Saigoku Pilgrimage is Seiganto-ji, way down at the southern end of Wakayama Prefecture. The next temple is Kimiidera, located in the northern part of the prefecture. For the past 8 days I have been walking from the first to the next. However, the route I have been walking corresponds to anothet pilgrimage route, the Kumano Kodo.

The Kumano Kodo is a set of three sacred sites in southern Wakayama and the pilgrimage routes between them, and more importanty the series of pikgrimage routes that converge upon them, are now a designated World Heritage Site. The routes close to the 3 sites are the most popular, and are very touristy. However the section I have been walking for the past few days, called the Kiiji route, is more accurately known as the Imperial Route as it was the route used by emperors and other nobles from the court in Kyoto.

The Imperial route has 100 "oji", shrines spaced along the route where these high-ranking pilgrims would  worship and stop overnight at. There are  few, if any, tourists on this section nowadays, but it seems to be becoming more popular among travellers and those with more than a passing interest.

So this post covers about a 10 kilometer section of the route, starting at the river.

The route climbs to the Hai no Toge pass at more than 300 meters above sea level before dropping down into Kitsumoto.

The way is mostly on very narrow mountain road with almost no traffic and also no shops or even veding machines until Kitsumoto. No pilgrimage infrastructure except a couple of public toilets and sign at historical markers.. I did not pass any other walkers, though occasionally exchanged greetings with locals 

I did pass by a couple of the oji shrines, and at times there were some really nice views.

This was very much orange country, with the steep mountain slopes terraced and planted with citrus.

This seems to me to be a fairly modern thing, and I wonder what the several mountain villages I passed through did before the citrus industry came to dominate.

Fruit on trees enclosed within paper bags is  something I see quite often, but am pretty sure they are not oranges.

I guess it is to protect the fruit from damage by insects or birds. An example of why fruit in Japan is mostly a luxury price....

The previous post was on the Tokujoji Temple with associated princess legend.

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