Manju-ji Temple Gardens

 

Manju-ji Temple in Matsue has a delightful pond garden behind the main hall, and an extensive, well-manicured karesansui garden in the front.

It is a large Rinzai Zen temple at the top of the narrow Okutani valley to the north of the castle.

Entry to the temple and garden is free, but the temple remains off the tourist radar.

The temple was established in a different location in 1600, some years before the castle was built.

Its original name was Chojuin.

In 1644 it was moved to its current location after being given the site by Naomasa Matsudaira, the new daimyo of the castle.

At that time it was renamed Shobuyama Chojuji.

Later the name was changed to Manju-ji, though a big fire in 1848 destroyed all records, so the date is unknown.

When I visited in June, the azaleas were in bloom, which added to the visit.

One curious feature, seen in photo 4, is an Imperial Messenger Gate in front of the main hall.

To the right of the main hall is a Kannon Hall, and above it is a Myoken Shrine which enshrines Marishiten, Benzaiten, Daikokuten, and Aizen Myoo. From the shrine you can look down on the pond garden.

The front garden is quite sparse, but subtle.

One nice touch was the small turtle at the centre of the concentric circle of ridges.... exactly how it would appear when a turtle surfaces in a pond.

I can find no date or creator for the rear garden, but it appears to be fairly standard.

There is a small one-room teahouse.

And a few koi in the pond.

The previous post in this series on Matsue and Izumo was on Kanden-an, the remarkable samurai teahouse, villa, and gardens not too far from Monjuji Temple.

Matsue has an unusually large number of quality gardens, in large part due to the legacy of the great Tea Master, Fumai Matsudaira, the daimyo of Matsue Castle.

Some recent garden posts from Matsue I recommend would be Fumon-in temple, garden and Teahouse, the gardens at Lafcadio Heans House, and the garden at Gesshoji Temple.

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Tamae Kannon-in Temple 21 Chugoku Kannon Pilgrimage

 

The 21st temple of the Chugoku Kannon Pilgrimage, Kannon-in, is just a couple of kilometers from the 20th temple, Daisho-in.

Located in Tamae, a fishing village that overlooks the Hashimoto River and the castle town of Hagi on the opposite bank.

A temple stood here in the early 9th century but fell into disuse and disrepair.

In the mid 16th century it was revived and made a Rinzai Zen temple. 

The honzon is a Shaka Nyorai and the Kannon Hall enshrines an 11-faced Kannon, siad to have been found in the nets of local fishermen. Consequently, the temple has been favoured by fishermen for protection at sea.

The temple has burned down several times, but each time the statues survived.

The main hall and Kannon Hall date to the mid 19th century.

The previous post was on the garden at Daisho-in, a few kilometers away.

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Daisho-in Temple 20 Chugoku Kannon Pilgrimage

 

First stop on day 29 was Daisho-in, the 20th temple on the pilgrimage.

It is believed that a temple stood here in the 9th century, but nothing is known about it.

Later, it was revived as a Rinzai temple with the name Kanki-ji but it fell inrto disuse and almost disappeared during the16th century.

The temple was revived by Mori Tsunahiro, the second daimyo of the Choshu Domain, in the mid 17th century.

It was renamed after the posthumous name of his father.

On this visit the main hall of the temple was completely enclosed within a building to enable its renovation.

A couple of windows allowed visitors to view the reconstruction process.

In the meantime the Shoin was used as a temporary main hall and many of the temples statues and treasures could be viewed.

The whole temple burned down in the mid 18th century, but was rebuilt in 1750.

The main hall, sutra repository, kuri, shoin, and impressive bell tower gate all date from that time, and are all Important Cultural Properties.

Next to the temple is one of the Mori family cemeteries. The other is on the opposite side of Hagi at Tokoji Temple.

The lords and their families were buried at alternate sites.

Here at Daisho-in there are 47 graves for the families of seven daimyo.

Most impressive are the 605 stone lanterns donated by vassals and samurai of the domain.

Of the two temples with Mori cemeteries, I prefer this one to Tokoji as it is far less crowded.

There is a garden next to the shoin, though it is not so well maintained. I will cover it in the next post in the series.

The previous post in this series was on my walk into Hagi the previous afternoon.

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