From Kamate to the Tanoura Coast

 

My route on day 34 of my walk along he Chugoku Kannon Pilgrimage continues up the scenic coastline of Iwami, the westernmost section of Shimane. The last pilgrimage temple was in Hagi, and the next one is in Hamada, so this is a very long section without pilgrimage temples, but with plenty of other sights to see...

When I first came to Japan I was surprised how many temples looked like fortifications, until I learned they actually were....

Those buildings right on the waterfront are a traditional  hot-spring ryokan with great views of the sunset from windows you can lean out of and fish from...... with prices accordingly... Araiso is the name ....

In Tsuchida I stopped in at the local Hachimangu Shrine before climbing up and around the headland on the tiny, narrow road.

I passed by Okami and dropped down to sea level at the huge Misumi Power Plant.

It is coal-powered, shipped from Australia and China, I think.... Japan has reserves of coal but shut down their coal industry in the 1960's to switch to cheaper oil....

There was a lot of serious construction going on to expand the port facilities as the were about to start construction of a second plant..... coal seems to figure in Japanese future plans...

Offshore, seen here at maximum zoom, is Takashima Island, about 12k away.

With almost 4k of coastline, it was inhabited until 1975, though I'm guessing not a lot of people lived there....

After crossing the Misumi River, I stopped in at the interesting Reikoji Temple before walking back to the coast. Mount Taima ahead, and Tanoura Beach....

Along the beach at where another headland protrudes into the sea is Tanoura Beach.

Popular with locals in the summer, it has toilets and showers but nothing else....

There are a couple of nice rocky outcroppings, and plenty of concrete tetrapods....

and of course, excellent views of the power plant.....

I suspect this is wakame seaweed out to dry....

The previous post was on Reikoji Temple nearby with its cool komainu carvings...

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Reikoji Temple Misumi

 

Coming into Misumi after passing the huge power station at Okami, I stopped in at Reikoji Temple.

It is quite a bit more substantial than many local village temples, with some nice greenery, and it is now a Jodo Shinshu sect temple with a statue of Shinran, the founder of the sect.

I suspect it may have been a different sect in the past. It is one of the Hamada Domain Kannon pilgrimage temples, and Jodo Shinshu usually have Amida as honzon, so may have inherited the Kannon when it changed sects.

The carvings of the komainu on the gate were quite special, as was the small hillside landscaping. I can find no other information, unfortunately.

The previous post in this series was on Tsuchida Hachimangu Shrine...

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Murodani Rice Terraces

 

On the southern slopes of Mount Taima can be found the Murodani Rice Terraces.

In 1999 they became classified as one of the top 100 rice terraces in Japan.

There is currently about 1,000 of them here, but in earlier days, there were four times as many.

There are signs and a short path to a designated viewing point. I guess that reduces the amount of trespassing to get good photos.

The best times to view would be around Mat and June, when the paddies have been flooded and seedlings planted....

I recently posted on some other "top" rice terraces, the Nakayama Rice Terraces on Shodoshima Island.

The interesting thing, for me at least, is that these rice terraces, like those up in Okuizumo, were a by-product of the traditional iron industry.

Japan has almost no iron-ore, so domestic iron and steel was produced using iron sand, something the Chugoku Mountains have a lot of. The terraces were made after the valley had been " mined" for the iron sand. I did read a complicated, translated explanation on how the soil and rocks of the ground were separated from the sand, and that this process somewhat started the process of the terraces being formed, but I didn't really understand it.

A couple of years ago, while visited Hagi and its World Heritage sites connected to Japans industrialization in the Meiji period, I can across a tatara, the kind of forge used in creating iron from iron sand, that the Mori Clan had set up to create iron for its building of a western-style ship.

It seems that here in Murodani is where the iron sand came from. It was shipped down to the coast on horses, transferred to Kitamaebune ships and taken down the coast to Abu, near Hagi, then packed up into the mountain site of the tatara by horses again. If you have any interest in the history of tatara I have plenty of posts on Okuizumo about the topic.

If you want to learn more about the Kitamaebune ships, click here.

The previous post in this series was on the views from the top of Mount Taima.

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

Takashima Sunset

This is one of the draincovers from town of Misumi which lies near the Japan Sea coast about halfway between Hamada and Masuda. It depicts a sunset over takashima, a small island just off the coast that has been uninhabited for about 30 years.

The flowers in the design are Azaleas, and Misumi will be having an Azalea Festival soon when the 50,000 Azaleas in the town come into bloom.

I was fortunate to watch a sunset there last year.