More Yuushien

here are photos from the second half of my walk around Yuushien, the graden located on daikon Island. It has a large karesansui, the dry garden mostly associated with Zen

Most commonly the rocks are seen as islands and the raked sand as water.

There are a few buddhist statues scattered about the garden, and coins left in their hands as offerings....

There are also several small waterfalls though its necessary to take side paths to see them.

The best views, perhaps, are in the restaurants and tea rooms where the windows provide the frame to see the garden as paintings.

As well as the peonies, Yuushien is also famous for growing ginseng, a plant notoriously difficult to grow. The gift shops are stocked with ginseng products.

Yuushien

Yuushien is a Japanese garden in the middle of Daikon Island in the Nakaumi between shimane and Tottori.

This is where we went to see the peonies in bloom recently.

While the peonies were certainly the stars of the garden in May, there were other flowers in bloom too including wisteria.

Its a circuit walking garden with a few side paths to explore.

There are different flowers in bloom at different times of the year and for the fall foliage the garden is illuminated and open late.

There are buses to Daikon Island from Matsue and Sakaimoinato.

The garden is open from 8:30 to 17:30. 7 days a week and entrance is 600 yen

Mefu Shrine

Mefu Shrine is yet another shrine in Matsue that is listed in the 8th Century Izumo Fudoki which means it was in existence for about 1,000 years before Matsue was built.

It is located not far from the station, on the south bank of the waterway that connects Lake Shinji with Nakaumi and the sea, so its not surprising that the main kami is Haya Akitsuhi the kami of inlets and straits,created by Izanagi and Izanami.

A secondary group of kami are Isotake and his 2 sisters Oyatsuhime and Tsumatsuhime, the three children of Susano that came to Japan with him from Korea.

Behind the main honden are a couple of shrines to Funadama, the kami of boats, and Konpira the kami of safe journeys

Other smaller shrines include Ebisu, Wadatsumi, the dragon kami of the sea, and an Aragami. The shrine is noted for a fine pair of komainu.

Peony Porn

I am not usually a huge fan of photos of the sexual organs of flowers, but today I make an exception.

Yesterday we visited Daikon Island in the Nakaumi, the lagoon that straddles the border of Shimane and Tottori, to see the peonies in bloom.

They have been cultivated on the island since the Edo Period, and Daikon Island is now the largest producer of them in Japan.

Called Botan in Japanese, they were introduced into Japan from China as a medicinal plant in the eighth century. During the buddhist proscription against eating meat "botan" was a euphemism for wild boar meat.

Apparently they bloom all year round but the peak is around now.

A strange woman followed me around the garden so I asked her to pose next to a bloom to give an idea of the scale.

Suetsugu Shrine

Suetsugu Shrine is located on the shore of Lake Shinji right next to the main bridge coming into Matsue, though as the shrine is listed in the Izumo Fudoki it has probably been in existence for a millenia before Matsue was built.

The two main kami enshrined here are Susano and his "mother" Izanami, and there is also a group of three uncommon kami, Hayatamano, Kotosakano, and Kukurihime, who are all connected to Izanagis visit to see Izanami in the underworld, Yomi.

There are numerous small shrines within the grounds to various aragami including kojin, and also an ebisu shrine.

Right next to the main building is a small shrine that seems particularly popular that I think may be to Benzaiten as there were several small depictions of snakes on the altar.

Tahara Shrine

Tahara Shrine is a large shrine located at the foot of the hills north of Matsue castle. It is approached up a long flight of steps flanked by dozens of stone lanterns and komainu. Notable are a pair of komainu that are the largest in the San-in region. Most if not all of the komainu and lanterns are made of Kimachi sandstone, quarried not far away on the shore of Lake Shinji.

Another interesting feature is that 12 of the lanterns are topped with small sculptures of the 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac.

Also known as Tawara Shrine, it includes a branch of the Kasuga Taisha, and the main halls shimenawa is I believe Kasuga style, being braided rather than twisted. The shrine is listed in the 8th Century Izumo Fudoki and has therefore existed for close to a thousand years before Matsue and its castle came into being. The shrine was originally located 500 meters away but was moved here during the war between the Amago and Mori clans.

One of the secondary shrines in the grounds had a polypropylene shimenawa that shows how even plastic can achieve wabi sabi!!

The shrine features a twin pair of hondens. In the east honden are enshrined Futsunushi, Takemikazuchi, and Amenokoyane. The latter two kami are considered ancestors of the Nakatomi-Fujiwara clan, and Futsunushi is the ancestor of the Mononobe. In Izumo records it was Futsunushi who came from the High Plain of Heaven to entreat Okuninushi to give Japan to Amaterasu and her descendants. According to Yamato stories it was Takemikazuchi and Futsunushi, and appears to be a rewriting of the myths to favor the powerful Fujiwara.

The west hinden enshrines Ukanomitama, the child of Susano now mostly identified as Inari.

Behind the hondens a path leads into the forest and a grove of sacred trees with numerous altars scattered around their bases.

Secondary shrines within the grounds include Inari, various aragami, Kojin, Suijin etc

Children's Inari Shrine

The 4th shrine I visited on my walk around Matsue was yet another Inari Shrine, knowns as the Children's Inari. It is well known mainly due to the writings of Lafcadio Hearn.

It was built by the Lord of Matsue as a subsidiary shrine of the Jozan Inari within the nearby castle grounds and he named it Komori Shrine which means child guardian.

In Hearns day mothers would come here to ask for help with their children that refused to take baths or have their heads shaved.

Nowadays those two problems are rare but parents leave prayers for any kind of problems they are having with their children, most often illness.

There is a smaller Inari shrine just behind the main building. There are many Inaris. According to the signboard at the shrine the main kami is listed as Uganomitama, the female as opposed to the more usual male Ukanomiama.

Otobe Inari Shrine

The tjhird shrine I visited on my little walk around the neighborhoods east and north of Matsue castle was yet another Inari Shrine. It was hard to find, perched on a piece of high ground surrounded by houses, I eventually found a narrow gap between 2 houses with the steps leading up to it.

It looked as if there was not much activity here nowadays, and if it wasnt for the shimenawa it might be mistaken for a shed. The badly damaged statue to the right of the komnainu is all thats left of the fox statues.

The shrine was built by the Otobe family who were high-ranking retainers of the Lord of Matsue, and this location was chosen to protect the castle from the NE, in the same way that Enryaku-Ji on Mt Hie was chosen to protect Kyoto from that inauspicious direction.

Jozan Inari Shrine

Matsue has a lot of Inari shrines. This one is in the grounds of the Fumon-in temple about 500 meters from the castle in Matsue. Though still in the grounds of the temple it was officially "separated" from the temple with the shinbutsu bunri of Meiji.

It has the same name as the famous Jozan Inari in the castle grounds, and I would guess was set up as a subsidiary shrine of the former. Incidentally, Jozan can also be read as Shiroyama, and that is the name Lafcadio Hearn used.

Inari is mostly known as a kami of rice, but according to Hearn in the Matsue area it has stronger links to the cult of Fox witchcraft, and the Lords of Matsue were supposed to be masters of the cult, using foxes to send messages to Edo in hours rather than weeks.

The previous shrine I visited this day was also an Inari shrine, as was the next.

I could actually find very little information about this one, except Hearn has a ghost story from this temple.

Jizo at Togaku-ji

I was up in Matsue last week and took the opportunity to walk around the area north of the castle and visit some shrines and temples.

One temple I visited I had not been to before, Togaku-ji, had a big collection of Jizo.

The main hall oif the temple was being renovated, hence covered in green tarp, so I couldnt see what art may have been inside.

As well as all the jizo there was also a hall containing 500 statues of the Rakan, which I believe were disciples of the Buddha. Photos of those will come later.

The raked gravel along the entranceway hinted that this was a zen temple, which it turns out to be. It belongs to the Soto sect.

I could find no stories or historical personages connected to the temple, so it won't be found in any tourist guides, but like many shrines and temples off the beaten track it was filled with fascinating art.