Views From Konjiji Temple

 

Konjiji is a mountaintop temple in Tokushima.

It is the 12th temple on the Shikoku Fudo Myoo Pilgrimage, and also the okunoin of Dainichiji, the 13th temple on the famous Ohenro pilgrimage.

It is located at about 310 meters above sea level, about 120 meters below the peak.

The views out over the Yoshino River valley and plain and over Tokushima City are stupendous.

It is about 30 meters higher than the viewpoint on Mount Bizan overlooking the city...

The previous post in this series on my walk along the Shikoku Fudo Myoo Pilgrimage was on Konjiji Temple.

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Konjiji Temple 12 Shikoku Fudo Myoo Pilgrimage

 

Konjiji, temple number 12 on the Shikoku Fudo Myoo Pilgrimage, is a mountaintop temple with a strong Shugendo past.

It is also the okunoin of Dainichiji, the 13th temple on the famous Shikoku 88 Pilgrimage.

Like so many mountain temples associated with Shugendo, Konjiji is said to have been founded by the legendary En no Gyoja in the 7th Century.

More than a century later, Kobo Daishi visited and practised austerities and had a vision of Kongo Zao Gongen and so carved an image of him and placed it in a cave.

Each of the 36 temples on this Fudo pilgrimage has a statue of one of the 36 young acolytes called Doji. The one here is called Harahara Doji.

Susuharae is an old traditional ritual of sweeping away soot, dust, cobwebs etc from under the eaves of shrines and temples  for the new year using a takesao, a long bamboo with straw or leaf "brush" at the end. A short video of it being done ceremonially at Dazaifu Tenmangu in this old post.

The temple fell into disuse but was revived at the end of the 16th century by Hachisuka Iemasu, the Daimyo of Awa Domain. He took the Zao Gongen statue and enshrined it within the castle town but strange things happened so he made a copy and placed the copy back at Konjiji. Strange things continued to happen so he realized the statue need to be returned which is why there are two statues now.

The temple sits at an elevation of 310 meters, and has superb views down on Tokushima and the Yoshino River. I will post more of the views in the next post in the series.

About 500 meters from the main temple is a waterfall used for ascetic training. I suspect that the ladder I passed on the trail up the mountain was one way to get to the falls.

I believe the masks pictured below were carved by a famous Noh mask carver from Shiga.

The first two masks are Tengu, but the third is a Noh mask representation of Fudo Myoo

The previous post was on the way up the mountain to the temple.

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The Way to Konjiji Temple

 

Konjiji is temple number 12 on the Shikoku Fudo Myoo Pilgrimage.

It is also the okunoin of Dainichi-ji, temple 13 on the Shikoku Ohenro Pilgrimage.

It is located high on a mountain and was renowned as a shugendo site, a training place for yamabushi.

For those on foot it is a great opportunity to get off the main roads.....

As would be expected, there are lots of Fudo statues....

And numerous sacred sites along the way....

Including a small waterfall with shimenawa and fudo....

I don' know where the ladder goes.... I climbe part way up, but as I had a very heavy pack I chose to come back down....

The previous post in this series on the Shikoku Fudo Myoo Pilgrimage was on the garden at Dogaku Temple, the previous temple down beow the mountain.

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Shoyoen Garden at Dogakuji Temple

 

Dogakuji Temple in Tokushima on Shikoku is the temple where Kobo Daishi studied as a young child. It is the 2nd of the 20 extra temples on the famous Shikoku Ohenro Pilgrimage, but also the 11th temple of the Shikoku Fudo Myoo Pilgrimage, which is why I visited it.

Behind the main buildings is a small pond garden named Shoyoen.

It is thought to have been built in the late Muromachi Period, the mid to late 16th century.

It features a lot of rock, native Awa Bluestone.

Some of the rock is not brought in and positioned, but original to the site.

Noticeable are the bridges, each composed of a single, very thin slab of stone.

It is said that the great 20th century garden designer and scholar Mori Shigemori liked his garden and spent a lot of time here....

The final three photos are from a small garden between two of the buildings.

The previous post was a large one on Dogakuji Temple itself.

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.