Tennenji Temple & Misosogi Shrine

 

Located above  the Kawanaka Fudo Magaibutsu, Tennenji Temple and Misosogi Shrine are in essence the same place.

They are fairly rudimentary structures, one with a thatched roof. A flood in 1941 washed the original temple away and there have been no resident priests since then and the remaining statues have been looked after by local people.

These 4-5 meter long torches are in readiness for the Shujo Onie fire festival in early February where dancers dressed as demons dance with fire to bring good fortune. These fire festivals take place at several sites around the Kunisaki peninsula. The one I visited at Iwatoji Temple can be seen here.

Next door is a museum devoted to the Shujo Onie festival but which also houses many of the ancient statues from the original temple.

The shrine building has a male-female mask combination. This is fairly common at many shrines, and most would say that the red-faced mask with the long nose was a Tengu, but I think it is a Sarutahiko mask as it is not wearing the tokin, the small black hat that yamabushi wore.

Sarutahiko is considered one of the origins of Tengu. According to the ancient myths, Sarutahiko guided the Yamato heavenly deities down to Japan and later married Uzume and that leads to the combination of masks seen here....

Uzume later became the model for the Otafuku character.....

The shrine, and temple, have their inner sanctuaries under overhangs in the cliff face....

Middle of the River Fudo Myo

Middle of the River Fudo Myo

Kawanaka Fudo is a large relief carving of Fudo Myo flanked by his two attendants. It is carved into a huge boulder in the Nagaiwaya River in the Kunisali peninsula of Oita in north Kyushu.

I arrived here after climbing down from Choanji  Temple on the morning of my second day walking along an old pilgrimage route around the peninsula that I was following as the start of my walk along the Kyushu Fudo Myo pilgrimage.

Yesterday right at the very start of my walk I visited a much larger cliff carving of Fudo at the Kumano Magaibutsu, magaibutsu being the Japanese word for cliff carving.

This one is much  smaller at only 3 meters in height. Above the riverbank is Tennenji Temple and Misosogi Shrine, a syncretic sacred site typical of the form of shugendo that operated here for centuries.

Rokugo Manzan, the name of the system that was a combination of Usa Hachiman Shinto and Tendai Buddhism, was responsible for the many magaibutsu in the area. Oita has more magaibutsu than any other area of Japan, and the Kunisaki area has the most in Oita. Some of the other ones I visited yesterday can be seen here.

In fact, the whole landscape of the Kunisaki peninsula is inscribed as a mandala. This river valley is one of 28 that radiate out from the centre of the peninsula. The Lotus Sutra contains 28 chapters. There are more than 32,000 Chinese characters in the Lotus Sutra, and it is said that the exact same number of stone statues and cliff carvings were made in this area.

here are a couple of other small magaibutsu  in the vicinity. This area is one of my favorite areas in all of Japan, and typing in "Kunisaki" or clicking any of the tags below will bring up dozens and dozens of posts.

Ramune

Flowers & Statues at Choanji Temple

Choanji

The gardens at Choanji Temple in the Kunisaki peninsula  spread up the hillside from the main buildings towards the biggish shrine above.

As I cam over the mountain I encountered the gardens before the temple. As I mentioned in the previous post, the gardens seemed somewhat unkempt, though to my mind that is not a criticism. I'm no great fan of flowers so I realy gon't know what they were, except for azaleas which I do recognize.

It was still really early so there were no visitors or staff around. In the treasure hall is said to be a small wooden statue of a deity called Taroten. It was enshrined in the large shrine that was the okunoin of the temple until 1868. The statue looks like a kami statue but is associated with Fudo Myo and also tengu.

There wre a few statues around the grounds, and at least three pairs of the stone Nio guardians that are ubiquitous in Kunisaki

More posts on this tri around Kunisaki can be found by clicking the Kyushu Fudo label below, or from an earlier trip by clicking the Kunisaki Fall Walk label.

The principal statuem te honzon, was theis Edo-period statue of a Thousand-Armed Kannon.

Ema

Choanji Flower Temple

Choanji

Choanji is a mountain temple in the Kunisaki area that is known locally as a flower temple because of its extensive gardens.

In ancient times it was the most important temple in the region as it was the head temple of Rokugo Manzan, the syncretic shugendo sect based on Hachiman and Tendai Buddhism that dominated the area.

In the heyday of its power and wealth more than 1,000 monks were based here. Excavated in the grounds have been 19 bronze plaques inscribed with the Lotus Sutra. These sutra burials were popular in the late Heian period, though occurred mostly in areas outside of the capital area.

During the Warring States period a warlord built a small castle above Choanji. When he was defeated control of the Rokugo Manzan was shifted to Futago Temple, where it remains to this day.

When I visited in early May, 2016, the gardens were not well kept and there was no-one around, though it was only 7:30. I had arrived from down the mountain, following the trail that roughly follows the old shugendo pilgrimage route. This was my second day walking along the Kyushu Fudo Myo-o pilgrimage

I was impressed with how many pairs of stone Nio there were. More photos of colours and statues will come next.....

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Ramune

Mishima Shrine & Misosogi Shrine

Mishima

I was excited to start day 2 of my walk along the Kyushu Fudo Myoo pilgrimage. A good chunk of the days walking would be along mountain trails. After waking early at my stopover at Nameshi Dam, I walked across the dam itself and headed into the woods.

The first seven temples of the pilgrimage are all located in the Kunisaki Penisula, but to visit them I decided to walk the Kunisakihanto Minemichi Long Trail, a route that closely follows the old yamabushi pilgrimage route that circumnavigates the peninsula. This was my third visit to Kunisaki and I would be revisiting some sites but visiting many more for the first time.

Not far into the forest I come upon the first stop, a shrine set against a cliff with the honden and a secondary shrine both under a rock overhang. The map says this is Mishima Shrine, though there is no information about it.

I am very fond of shrines that cannot be accessed by motor vehicle. From here an ancient road leads up a little higher before crossing over a pass and dropping into the next valley.

The Kunisaki Peninsular is a roughly circular volcanic cone, and from the central high point a series of 28 valleys raditae out. What this means is that to walk around the peninsula involves an awful lot of ups and downs.

As I approach a qiute large temple I first pass by a substantial shrine. My map says this is Misosogi Shrine, but another says it is Choanji Rokusho Shrine. Choanji is the temple nearby connected to this shrine, and Rokusho is the name of several shrines in the area, related I am fairly sure, to  Rokugo Manzan, the Tendai- Hachiman syncretic cult that formed the areas unique religious landscape.

Koinobori

A room with a view at Nameshi Dam

Nameshi Dam

Early evening on the 2nd may, 2017, and I arrived at the place I would spend the night. A wide roof with a wooden bench overlooking the small reservoir behind Nameshi Dam on the Togo River near the centre of the Kunisaki Peninsula.

I havent used a tent in more than 30 years, preferring to sleep under the stars when possible, and in a bivvy sack if its wet. Here I had toilets nearby and drinks vending machines. There is a small shop but it has never been open whenever I was here. There is a replica waterwheel, many cheery trees that have passed theor blossom by date, and a small house used as a vacation rental I believe.

I had slept out here about four and a half years previously in November 2012. Then I was at the end of my first day of a 5 day walk across and around the Kunisaki Peninsula and I had started the day at the famous Usa Hachiman Shrine, and I was exploring sites along the anciet Hachiman-Tendai Shugendo pilgrimage route. Photos of the sunset that day are here

On the next day of that trip, I carried on east up along the river and then over the centre of the peninsula and on to the coast. On this trip, I will be heading over the dam and into the mountains and be following, to a large extent, the Kunisakihanto Minemichi Long Trail which closely follows the old pilgrimage route. I'm actually on the first day of my walk along the Kyushu Fudo Myo Pilgrimage, but as the first clister of temples are all here on the Kunisaki Peninsua I decided to visit them by useing the Minemichi trail.

It has been an excellent day and as the next days route is largely along mountain trails rather than roads I am excited. Here are links to the sights of my first day.

Taizoji                 Demons Stairway                 Not the Village of Dolls                 Treasures of Makiodo

            More Kunisaki Cliff Carvings                                             Tachibu Motomiya Hachimansha 

Fuki-Ji Temple                             Yama Shrine                                 Umi Shrine

Megaliths in the Bath House Ruins

 

Megaliths in the Bath House Ruins is the title of this installation by the art collective Teamlab at Mifuneyama in Saga, Kyushu.

Mifuneyama is a park and hotel near Takeo Onsen, and each year Teamlab put on a series of installations, some indoors, but mostly outdoors throughout the patk.

The interior pieces can be viewed by visitors during the daytime, but most people will visit in the evening.

The installations mostly consist of computer controlled lights, sounds, and projections. While the technology is certainly state-of-the-art I do find Teamlabs stuff to be somewhat retro and 70's-ish

The original bath house for the hotel is no longer operational, but for the artwork they fill the pools up with water.

I visited in the winter of 2019 while walking the Kyushu Fudo Myo Pilgrimage, but I read today that the exhibition, called A Forest Where Gods Live: Ruins & Heritage, is open again from now until November.

I have posted earlier about another Teamlab installation I saw in Tokushima called Luminous River.