Kaburaiji Temple 11 Kinki Fudo Myoo Pilgrimage

 

Kaburaiji is claimed to be an ancient temple established by none other than Shotoku Taishi in 581.

His mother was born here, and the mountain, Mount Dokko, had been considered sacred long before the temple was established.

The name derives from a kabura given to the temple by Shotoku Taishi. Kabura is a turnip and it refers to whistling arrows which had a turnip-shaped head and whistled when flying through the air.

It is said that Kobo Daishi visited and dug the well here.

It was destroyed by fire several times, including by a forest fire in the Edo Period.

It was rebuilt in 1862, BUT.........

In 1873, a bunch of local "unruly samurai" who named themselves Tenchugumi after a band of samurai who were active in the years running up to the Meiji Restoration of 1868 attacked and burned down temples and shrines in the area, including Kaburaiji.

The temple was abandoned until 1955 when Prince Kuninomiya Asahiko visited the site and prayed for its restoration.

This began in 1959, and in 1965 the Goma Hall was completed.

In 1973, the three-storey Pagoda was erected and then the main hall in 1992 and the Benten Hall in 1994.

Other buildings now in place include a bell tower, Daishi Hall, large guest building and large Kuri, monks quarters.

There is a miniature 88 temple pilgrimage, pictured above.

The temple is now known for raising a species of Lotus thatbdates back thousands of years...

The previous post in this series on my walk along the Kinki Fudo Myoo Pilgrimage was on the koi-filled pond in the small garden at the temple...

I have no idea what this huge barrel is being used as....

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Koi Pond at Kaburaiji Temple

 

Kaburaiji is said to be an ancient temple founded by Shotoku Taishi.

It is located near Sanda in Hyogo, at the site of his mother's birthplace.

I will cover the temple in the next post, but for now some shots of the pond in front of the main hall filled with koi.

I was here as Kaburaiji is the next temple on the Kinki Fudo Myoo Pilgrimage I am walking.

I didn't see them, but the temple is known for growing the oldest type of lotus in Japan.

The previous post was on the interior of the nearby excellent Natural History Museum

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Inside HITOHAKU

 

HITOHAKU in Sanda, Hyogo is a huge natural history museum.

I covered the exterior architecture in the last post in this series.

In English, it is called the Museum of Nature and Human Activities.

When I visited in 2017 there was little information in English, but now the whole museum is covered with smartphone-readable info in multiple languages.

It is not just a museum,but also includes several research facilities.

The museum's collections are staggering, with 152,000 geological items and more than 2,000,000 biological specimens.

Included in that are 1.3 million insects, 68,000 animals, and 641,000 plants.

The museum is spread over four floors and includes sections on the natural history of Hyogo, and the always-popular-with-kids dinosaur exhibits.

The human impact on nature is also covered.

I found the msueum and its displays surprisingly interesting, and good value. The most expensive entry fee is 200 yen.

The previous post in this series on my walk along the Kinki Fudo Myoo Pilgrimage was on the wonderful exterior of the museum.

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.