From Onbara to Kurihara Bridge

 

On the third day of my walk up the Gonokawa River towards its source, I have passed through the boundaries of Gotsu City and Kawamoto Town and have entered Misato Town, a huge area of scattered vullages and uninhabited mountains straddling the river for the next few days.

I leave the small settlement of Onbara after visiting its shrine. A very quiet little place that the "main" road along the river bypasses.

It's mid-October and the Goldenrod is in full bloom. It's originally an American plant but since the mid 20th century and spread across Japan. It occupies the same ecological niche as the native Susuki, often referred to as Japanese Pampas Grass. Goldenrod is an invasive species seemingly taking over. In the US, Susuki is an invasive species seemingly crowding out Goldenrod. Balance of a kind I guess.

A narrow lane leads back to the riverbank. Kurihara Bridge is just ahead.

Several roadside altars have some offerings of coins and fresh flowers, and swept clean, attesting to the care given by at least one of the locals....

The previous post in this series was on Onbara Hachimangu, the local shrine.

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Onbara Hachimangu

 

After walking through the small settlement of Onbara on the bank of the Gonokawa River, I stop in at rhe local shrine.

It's a Hachimangu, not surprising, and appears to be a fairly typical local shrine of the area...

However, with a bit of digging I was able to find a few stories in its history.

The Hachimangu was established in 1603, but prior to that the villagers were parishioners of an Amatsu Shrine which is about 4 kilometers upriver and on the opposite bank. That in itself is quite unusual, though Amatsu Shrine was obviously fairly important as it is ranked as a Sannomiya.

For those villagers that couldn't make the journey to Amatsu Shrine, they would gather on this hill and set up altars and perform rituals to worship it from afar, so it looks like the establishing of the Hachimangu was on a site already with spiritual significnce to the villagers.

In the 18th century someone stole the goshintai of the shrine, the object inside the honden that the kami inhabits when visiting. No info is given on what the goshintai was, though it was often a Buddhist statue or sometimes a rock. Nowadays, we are told that goshintai are supposed to be a mirror, though that is a largely modern "tradition". A new goshintai was enshrined. However, in the 19th century the old goshintai was discovered in the grounds so it was enshrined in a new structure named the Old Hachimangu. It now stands next to another small shrine, a Yama Shrine that used to be located at an old mine nearby that closed down.

The previous post in this series on my walk up the Gonokawa River to its source was on my walk into Onbara.

if you would like to subscribe by email just leave your email address in the comments below. It will not be published and made public. I post new content almost everyday, and send out an email about twice a month with short descriptions and links to the last ten posts.