Hamada River mouth to Shimoko River mouth

 

The Hamada River curves around the hill topped by the ruins of Hamada Castle before entering a narrow inlet with a narrow opening into the Sea of Japan.

The village at the base of the castle facing the sea is Matsubara, and it is well protected by lines and lines of tetrapods...

I guess it needs protecting from high tide surges, but located in a narrow inlet must mean its a bit of an overkill...

The shrine here is an Itsukushima Shrine, which I covered in the previous post in this series...

Below is the opening into the sea...

The inlet heading in the opposite direction is Tonoura, and it was historically a major safe haven for Kitamaebune ships...

I think this is the first seaplane I have seen in Japan...

The Kotohira Shrine located here I also covered in the previous post....

There are only a few houses now, but previously there would have been numerous lodgings for sailors, and also merchant houses that engaged in the lucrative trade....

From the end of the inlet a narrow road heads up over the high ground seperating the Hamada River drainage from the Shimoko River drainage.

It is surprisingly remote, considering downtown Hamada id so close...

There are some nice views of the rocky coastline....

There are several small settlements, but one tiny fishing village stands out....

From here I drop down to the mouth of the Shimoko River..... the next pilgrimage temple is nearby, but I will visit at the start of the next day....

The previous post was on the two shrines in this area....

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Itsukushima Shrine, Matsubara, Hamada.

This branch of Itsukushima Shrine is located in the fishing village of Matsubara in Hamada at the base of the hill upon which stood Hamada Castle.

The head shrine is the famous Itsukushima Shrine on Miyajima, a World Heritage site. The kami enshrined in Itsukushima shrines is Ichikishimahime, a daughter of Susano "born" when Amaterasu chewed up Susanos' sword and spat out three girls. Ichikishimahime's head shrine is not in fact Itsukushima, but in Munakata in what is now Fukuoka Prefecture. Ichikishimahime and her 2 sisters were kami who offered protection on the sea journey between north Kyushu and the Korean Peninsular in ancient times.

There is a small secondary shrine to Inari in the grounds.

Also a small shrine to Ebisu, another kami with an Izumo lineage. His head shrine is at Mihonoseki.

Sotoura Konpira Shrine, Matsubara, Hamada.

Sotoura is a small settlement at the head of a small inlet by Matsubara in Hamada. The small Konpira Shrine is built on top of a rocky outcropping.

The roof of the honden is odd!... the chigi (cross pieces) are aligned at 90 degrees to each other. I've seen this one time before, and if memory serves me well it was also a Konpira shrine. I have no idea if it means anything, but am still trying to find out.

Konpira is a very popular kami, known mostly as a protector of journeys, kind of like St. Christopher. As most journeys in ancient Japan were by sea, it's not surprising that they can often be found in coastal villages..

Like most Japanese Kami, Konpira has gone through many identities and forms. Originally a Hindu god, for most of the past Konpira was a Buddhist god. In the late 19th Century when the government created the new state religion of Shinto they changed its name to Kotohira, though most people still use the name Konpira. The government also decided that Kotohira was really an ancient Japanese Emperor, ... a lot of emperors werte enshrined by State Shinto, though that was not traditional.