Okanari Shrine & Akamatsu Hiyoshi Shrine

 

A little farther up the lower slopes of Mount Daisen, I came to Okanari Shrine.

When this area was being settled and developed, three shrines of the Kumano Sanzan were founded, this one being for Shingu Daimyojin, so the kami here is Hayatamano.

The village was originally named Shingu, but later was renamed Okanari. During the 16th century the shrine was supported by the local warlord, a vassal of the Mori.

In the late Edo Period the shrine functioned as a subsidiary shrine of Ogamiyama Shrine.

In early Meiji the name was chnged from Shingu Daimyojin to Okanari Shrine.

Within the grounds is a Yamaguchi Shrine enshrining Susanoo, Oyamatsumi, and Inari.

A little further, in the village of Akamatsu, I came to a Hiyoshi Shrine. There are no records of its founding, except that as Sanno Gongen, the original name for Hiyoshi Shrines, it has been there since ancient times.

The kami are Okuninushi, Oyamatsumi, Toyotamahime, Ojin, & Inari

In 1913 all the other shrines in the village were merged with Hiyoshi Shrine.

A Myoken shrine, an Ikenojinja Shrine, an Ichinotani Shrine, and an Otani shrine combined to create the mix of kami mentioned above.

The shrine is home to a unique festival tradition the Akamatsu Kojin Festival, held only in leap years, and an Intangible Folk Cultural Tradition. In it a 25 meter long serpent made of straw is carried through the village and then placed at the Kojin altar in the shrine.

This is obviously an extension of the Kojin straw serpents found at just about every shrine in Izumo, and the equivalent of Omoto in our region of Iwami. Straw serpents can be found in most parts of Japan and usually represent the local land kami.

The previous post was on Ogamiyama Shrine.

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Ogamiyama Shrine

 

Ogamiyama Shrine has a long and somewhat unusual history. It is mentioned in the Izumo Fudoki, and is listed in the Engi Shiki, and is the Ninomiya, second-ranked shrine, of Hoki Province.

Mount Daisen has long been a sacred mountain, and the shrine's origins lie in a small shrine built high up on the mountain by ascetic monks.

As the mountain was covered in deep snow during the winter, a second shrine, this shrine, was built down below so people could worship in the winter. The top shrine became known as the summer shrine and this one was the winter shrine.

The kami enshrined here is Okuninushi. In ancient times, when the Fudoki were written, Okuninushi was considered to reside in/on Mount Daisen. All the stories of Okuninushi come from what is now Tottori, and at the northern base of Daisen is a Yayoi settlement that was one of the biggest in all of Japan, a strong possibility for the capital of an Izumo Polity that ceded the country to the Yamato.

As the mountain shifted to a more Buddhist-oriented mountain worship, the main deity of the mountain became Jizo.

The mountain was a huge shugendo centre with at one point 189 sub-temples and a community of 3,000 "warrior monks". The most famous warrior monk was Benkei, and there are stories that he spent time on Daisen.

The current shrine buildings date to the mid-Edo period. The grounds have 1,000 Hydrangea bushes, and this is one of the top hydrangea spots in Tottori.

The Tottori Association of Shrines says that along with Okuninushi, also enshrined here is Oyamatsumi, Susano, & Sukunahikona.

Secondary shrines in the grounds include a Misaki Shrine enshrining Amaterasu and two other kami.

In 1868 with the separation of Buddhas and Kami, Jizo was removed from the shrine at 900m, the summer shrine, and it became the Okumiya, inner shrine; this shrine, the winter shrine, became the main shrine.

Flanked by two foxes is the "worship from afar" shrine, enabling those unable to climb the mountain to the inner shrine to worship from afar.

As well as the hydrangeas, the large shrine grounds also includes one of the biggest Iris gardens in the San-in region.

The previous post in this series on my walk along the Chugoku Kannon Pilgrimage was on the walk into Tottori that ended the previous day.

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Rokusho Shrine

Rokusho Shrine

Not far from Kamosu Shrine is Rokusho Shrine, one of the 6 Shrines of Ou and the main shrine of the Provincial Government Offices in the Nara Period.

For me, however, the most interesting thing here is the 5 different Kojin altars with their serpents made from rice straw. An earlier post on the Kojin here.

The vast majority of shrines in Izumo have at least one Kojin altar. The five here would have been brought in from nearby areas during the "shrine consolidation" program of the late Meiji government.

The Kojin here are not as impressive as some of the ones at Adakaya Shrine, a few kilometers away, but still have the stylistic head and jaws. In Iwami, the similar kami is called Omoto, and our serpents have much smaller heads and narrower bodies.

Rokusho means "six shrines" and refers to the six kami enshrined here: Izanami, Izanagi, Amaterasu, Susanoo, Tsukiyomi, & Okuninushi.

There appear to only three secondary shrines other than the Kojin altars, but in ancient times when the provincial government was in operation Rokusho Shrine was the Soja Shrine wherein all the kami from the shrines in the province that the governor should visit are collected together in the Soja Shrine so he didn't have to travel.

Behind the shrine is a historic site where the layout of the government offices can be seen.

The previous post was on Kamosu Shrine with its National Treasure main hall.

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National Treasure Kamosu Shrine

National Treasure Kamosu Shrine

Day 44 of my walk along the Chugoku Pilgrimage began at Kamosu Shrine, SE of Matsue, the castle town and capital of Shimane.

Kamosu Shrine is quite famous for having a National Treasure, the honden, said to be the oldest existing piece of Taisha Zukuri, the style of architecture of Izumo Taisha and only found within Izumo Province.

Photos 9, 15, & 18 shows the honden. It is believed to date back to 1583.

The shrine has an unusual history: it is not mentioned in the Izumo Fudoki or the Engi Shiki because it was originally a private shrine of the Izumo no Kuni Miyatsuko family, the province's governors and head priests of Izumo Taisha, and it enshrined their ancestral deity, Amenohohi.

The first mention of it as a public shrine is in the early 13th century, but it is believed to have been public for some time before that.

The district where the shrine is located, Ou, contained the provincial government offices, in essence the provincial capital, and so, as governors, their family home would have been nearby.

The Six Shrines of Ou, the district where the shrine and government offices were, are Kamosu Shrine, Kumano Taisha, Manai Shrine, Yaegaki Shrine, Iya Shrine, and Rokusho Shrine, all important and interesting shrines.

Now the primary kami is Izanami, with the secondary kami being Izanagi. Not far from here, near Iya Shrine, is the entrance to Yomi, the underworld, where Izanagi fled from after visiting his wife/sister Izanami there.

There are many secondary shrines within the grounds, the largest structure belonging to the Okama Shrine. An Okama is a kind of large cauldron and Amenohohi rode an Okama when he descended here. The Okama ritual is held in December.

Other shrines include a Toshitokujin Shrine. I have found Toshitokujin shrines at several other shrines I have visited in the Izumo region but don't remember coming across them before. They enshrine an Onmyodo deity of prosperity and good fortune. Onmyodo, called Yin-Yang Theory sometimes, was very prevalent in Japan but has now been subsumed into "Shinto", as has a lot of Daoism.

There is also a Kitsuki Shrine enshrining Susanoo & Okuninushi, an Ise Shrine enshrining Amaterasu and Tsukuyomi, a Kumano Shrine enshrining the three Kumano kami, an Aragami Shrine, a Toyama Shrine enshrining Ugayafukiaezu, the father of Jimmu, a Buyu Shrine enshrining Futsunushi, & a Hiroku Shrine.

The Kibune Inari Shrine enshrines both the Kibune kami Okaminokami, and the Inari kami, Ukanomitama. The structure is an Important Cultural Property as it dates to 1356, a few years older than the central pillar of the honden (main hall), a survivor of a lightning strike that destroyed the rest of the building.

If you happen to visit on the days of any of the festivals, the doors of the honden are opened and you can glimpse the brightly painted interior murals on the wall and doors.

Nearby Yaegaki Shrine has the oldest shrine murals in Japan.

The area around Kamosu Shrine contains a lot to see if you are interested in ancient history and ancient shrines.

There are a lot of kofun, burial mounds, in the area and quite a nice little museum, the Yakumotatsu Fudoki no Oka Museum with some good exhibits and tombs in the grounds,

Several of the Six Shrines of Ou are within a short walk, although in general the area is not well served with public transport but there are buses from Matsue Station to Kamosu Shrine and the Museum.

The previous posts in this series was on yesterday's walk along the shore of Lake Shinji and a visit to the interesting Nutashi Shrine.

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