Kannon at Myo-On-Ji Temple

Myoonji

Myo-On-ji is temple number 15 on the Sasaguri Pilgrimage in Fukuoka. If you follow the suggested route it is the 11th temple you visit since starting, just a few hours earlier. It is the biggest temple so far, though there are no grand buildings, rather a large number of smaller "halls", and like all temples on the pilgrimage, a huge number of statues.

Previously I posted some of the Fudo Myo statues at Myo-onji, and then later an even larger selection with more detail about the deity Fudo. This time I will post what I believe are all photos of Kannon, and offer a few details about her.

Known as Kanzeon Bosatsu in Japan, and commonly referred to as the Goddess of Mercy in  English, Kannon began, as did many Buddhist deities, in India, where he is known as Avalokiteshvara, and where he is almost always considered to be a male deity, also in Tibet and SE Asia. In China he became mixed with a female Daoist deity and so in China, Korea, and Japan is considered female. 

Kannon comes in many forms, the most iconic perhaps being the 1,000-armed Kannon, though actually not many of the statues actually have a full 1,000 arms. 11-faced Kannon is fairly common, as is Jibo Kannon, usually depicted wearing white robes and holding a baby.

Bokefuji Kannon is an increasingly popular form of Kannon as she protects against senility and dementia and also increasingly popular is Mizuko Kannon, like Mizuko Jizo, prayed to for the souls of deceased babies and abortions. Kannon has many motherly qualities, and during the pre-modern period when Christianity was outlawed statues of Kannon were used as a substitute for Maria.

There are some giant-sized statues of Kannon in Jaan that are so big you can climb up inside to viewing platforms. There are also numerous pilgrimages to Kannon, usually consisting of 33 temples. I have walked the Izumo Kannon Pilgrimage, the Iwami Kannon Mandala Pilgrimage, The Chugoku Kannin Pilgrimage that covers Okayama, Hiroshima, Yamaguchi, Shiman, and Tottori, and the oldest pilgrimage route in Japan the Saigoku Pilgrimage in Kansai.

Clicking any of the pilgrimage links above will take you to a listing, in chronoloical reverse order, of posts on those pilgrimages. The only one that i have completely posted is the Izumo, all the others I am only as far as the frst few days in posting.

A Lot More Fudo at Myo-on-ji Temple

Myo-on-ji

I usually limit the number of photos in a post to just 5. This time I post a lot more, mainly because I realize that at my current rate of posting I will be dead long before I get to post everything. I previously posted 5 different Fudo Myo statues from Myo-on-ji temple, a small temple near the start of the Sasaguri Pilgrimage near Fukuoka.

All 11 photos in this post are also just from Myo-on-ji temple, and just statues of Fudo-Myo-O. My guess would be that while walking this 4 day pilgrimage I encountered at least 1,000 statues of Fudo Myo, probably much more. My fascination is with the wide diversity of forms that this deity takes and his incredible popularity.

The statues come in all manner of sizes and are made of a range of different materials, and of course, some of the sculptors will have been made by  highly skilled professionals and some by less than gifted amateurs. This in itself makes for a complex diversity, but there are other factors at play I think that means there is no one single identity for Fudo, but many, and this is why a single site like Myo-on-ji temple can have so many different altars to Fudo and statues of Fudo.

Fudo in Japan has an incredibly complex and rich history, and this has led to a wide set of fluid identities. Most commonly Fudo began as a Hindu deity, though some sources suggest an even earlier origin. Adapted into Indian Buddhism, Fudo spread with Buddhism to China and Korea. In China he picked up attributes from Daoist deities. before coming to Japan where, especially in the medieval period,  he picked up connections with an array of what are now called Shinto kami.

Within Japan he is most commonly associated with the two esoteric schools of Shingon and Tendai, but also within other sects. most notably Shugendo. His cult, or cults, spread through individual lineages and sub sects and his form and identity changed at specific temples and locations.

He appeared in a variety of different rituals and mandalas, as well as varying forms as statues. When researching his identity and attributes, as with any of the deities in Japanese religious traditions, one comes across all kinds of associations, for instance a particular figure may be ..... conflated with....., equated with......., identified with......., symbolizes......., an emanation of....., trace of....., manifestation of....., identical to....., representation of...., reincarnation of....., coresponds to...., interpreted as....., are all common phrases explaining identities and attributes of Japanese deities, not least Fudo.

These one-to-one relationships among deities come about for a variety of reasons, similar attributes etc but a common one is through language. Homophones are words that have the same sound but different meanings. With a relatively small range of sounds the Japanese language is rife with homophones and is why puns are so very common in Japanese humor. Another linguistic convention is the use of kanji, Chinese characters, which each have multiple meanings and pronunciations. A clear example of the latter is the conflation of the Buddhist deity Daikokuten, originally a Hindu deity, with Okuninushi, the famous Izumo kami, both names written with the same kanji.

As well as one on one identities of different deities, Fudo, like most others, exist in patterned relationships with groups of other deities in such things as rituals and mandalas. Pairing is very common, obviously reflecting the very basic yin-yang, male-female, light-dark, heaven-earth, structure. Triads are also common. Patterns of 5 are very common in Japan, and China too, with Fudo being the head of the five Wisdom Kings. patterns of seven are quite common and 12 is very common. With Fudo, 36 plays a part. All Fudo Myo-O pilgrimages are of 36 temples, whereas Kannon pilgrimages are 33.

So each statue of Fudo obviously shares many common features and attributes with other Fudo statues, but each identity can have multiple meanings, right down to each individual one being different. Oaths in historical Japan were not made to universal deities like Hachiman, Amida, or Amaterasu, but to the specific deity of a location, the Hachiman of a particular shrine, or to a particular Buddhist statue.

Karen Smyers excellent book "The Fox and the Jewel: Shared and private meanings in contemporary Inari worship." shows this rich and complex set of identities of Inari, one of the most popular deities in Japan. Bernard Faure"s book "The Fluid Pantheon" is an excellent source for digging into the meaning and identity of Fudo Myo-O. I am currently reading it so that's why I ramble so much in today's post.

A gentle reminder........ if you download and share any of my photos without supplying a link back to the original here, then you are in fact stealing. I am happy if you share my work, but I keep finding my photos around the interweb without any link back to my original, and that is sad.

Fudo Myo at Myo-on-ji Temple

 

Myo-on-ji is temple number 15 on the miniature Shikoku Pilgrimage in Sasaguri, Fukuoka.

Only a few hours into walking the pilgrimage, it is clear that there are an amazing number of statues of Fudo Myo. Myo-on-ji is an uninhabited temple, like most on this pilgrimage, though a little larger than many that just consist of a single, small "hall"

Soeof the Fudo are small, and some much larger. Some are stone, some wood, some bronze. Some are well-crafted by skilled artisans, some are cruder and made by "folk".

From here we leave the urban part of Sasaguri and start to head up a small mountain road. From now the distance between temple will be a little greater.....

Konomineji Temple 86 on the Sasaguri Pilgrimage

 

Konomoineji is number 86 on the 88 temple pilgrimage in Sasaguri near Fukuoka, but the temples are not arranged in numerical order, so it was actually the 8th temple we visited.

In fact we had only been walking about an hour and a half to get this far, though the route now headed up into the mountains and the frequency of temples would decrease.

Like most of the temples on this pilgrimage it was unmanned. Also like all the temples on the pilgrimage, no matter how small, there were lots of statues, especially of Fudo Myo.

Though only about 50k in length, it is a surprisingly popular pilgrimage and I would recommend it to anyone who wanted a taster of a pilgrimage, or anyone who is fascinated by Buddhist statuary.

Shurin-ji Temple 35 on the Sasaguri Pilgrimage

Shurin-ji is a small temple in Sasaguri, but it was the largest temple so far on my first day walking the Sasaguri Pilgrimage. It was the only one so far that was big enough to have a priest's home. It belongs to the Jodo, Pure Land,  sect, and its honzon is Amida

However, the part of the temple that is the site for the pilgrimage is a small shrine in the grounds called Yakushi-do, which houses this statue of Yakushi Nyorai, commonly known as the Medicine Buddha. Temple 35 on the Shikoku pilgrimage has Yakushi as its honzon, so the corresponding number 35 here in Sasaguri is the same.

There is also a small Kannon-do housing a nice Kannon statue and several other statues in the grounds.

This one has been adorned with a traditional pilgrim hat.

I have no idea who this statue represents but it could be a rakan, a disciple of the historical Buddha.

Sasaguri Pilgrimage Temples 37 & 69

Temple 37 of the Sasaguri Pilgrimage was just 20 meters from the previous temple, number 21, Takada Kokuzo-do. Takada Amida-do looked like a shed but inside was a small shrine with a bark roof. This was originally in the grounds of the local Tenjin Shrine. It houses a small statue of Amida Nyorai. Outside was a small structure with a group of stone statues.

The next temple was number 69, Takada Kannon-do. This was the 4th temple we visited on the pilgrimage and by now we had walked almost a whole kilometer.

Like the previous three temples there were numerous statues outside the small hall, imcluding this Fudo Myo.

The main statue was a Kannon. As should be obvious, the temples are not numbered sequentially, and we started from the most common starting point, Sasaguri Station, rather than from temple 1. For those who want to try a pilgrimage the Sasaguri one I would very highly recommend
.

Takada Kokuzo-do

The Sasaguri Pilgrimage, like the Kyushu Pilgrimage, does not have a lot of big, grand temples. It does have a lot of interesting and surprising one though. Most of the "temples" are too small to have a resident priest, and are more what could be described as "chapels. One thing they do all have though is statuary, especially Fudo Myo.

Temple 21, but the second to visit if you start at Sasaguri Sation, is just such a temple. With 88 temples within only 50k of walking, the distance between temples is often measured in meters rather than kilometers. Takada Kokuzo-do was onky 5 minutes from the previous temple and less than a minute to the next.

There was a Jizo in a little hut, and a couple of Fudo Myo's in the grounds. The Honzon is Kokuzo Bosatsu, not one of the more well-known Bodhisattvas.

It is however the deity that Kobo Daishi prayed to while training as a young man at Mount Tairyuji and Cape Muroto. In the small temple a statue of Kobo Daishi flanks the honzon

Sasaguri Pilgrimage Honmyoin

Though it is numbered 33 in the 88 temples of the pilgrimage, Honmyoin is often the first temple visited as it is located close to Sasaguri Station.

The honzon is Yakushi Nyorai, the "Medicine Buddha", and there is some connection with temple 33 on the Shikoku Pilgrimage which also venerates Yakushi, though it is a Zen temple and this one is Tendai.

There was lots of statuary considering how small the temple is. Not sure who this is but I like its lack of sophistication.

There were several Fudo Myo's, an indication of how popular statues of him are on the pilgrimage. There is often a priest on duty and it is possible to buy stamp books and other supplies here.

Sasaguri 88 Temple Pilgrimage

Sasaguri, in the mountains just north of the sprawling metropolis of Fukuoka, is home to a miniature version of the famous 88 temple Shikoku Pilgrimage. It is less than 50 kilometers in length, but took me 4 tough days to walk because it is up and down, up and down.

Some of the temples are quite large complexes, in fact the pilgrimage stops at Nanzoin, home to the largest reclining Buddha in Japan. Many of the temples are small, wayside chapels, unmanned but usually with quite a lot of statuary. Surprisingly, in such a small area, the route also passes by many other temples that are not included in the pilgrimage.

Being in the mountains there is a high percentage of temples with waterfalls that are used for ascetic training, consequently there are many, many statues of Fudo Myo,..... literally hundreds of them.
The highest point reached is 680 meters above sea level, to a cave on top of Mount Wakasugi where Kobo Daishi spent time after he returned from China.

A few kilometers are along busy main roads, but most of the route is either well marked walking trails or narrow mountain roads with no traffic. You pass through a lot of bamboo forest including one on the 3rd day that was the most enchanting bamboo forest I've ever been in....