Jizo & Dragons at Taisanji Temple

Taisanji Temple is a mountaintop temple in Tokushima is that is both the first of the extra "bangai" temples over above thye standard 88, and also the first temple on the 36 temple Shikoku Fudo Myo Pilgrimagr which was the pilgrimage I was walking when I visited Taisanji.

There wasn't an awful lot of statuary there, but several of the Jizo statues were lit with the late afternoon sun and made for some nice photos.

Dragons are commonly used as spouts for water prification basins, but they are usually made of metal or sometimes ceramic, but the one here is most unusual.

Dragons also appeared on the carvings of some of the buildings.

This final photo is a statue of a man taking part bin Rikimochi, an annual festival held on the 3rd Sunday of January and when men compete to see how far they can carry a very heavy New Year rice cake, kagami mochi

Taisanji mountaintop temple in Tokushima

Located at about 450 meters above sea level, Taisanji is the first of the bangai temples on the Shikoku pilgrimage known commonly as Ohenro, and the first of the 36 temples on the Shikoku Fudo Myo O pilgrimage. Most pilgrims on the Ohenro don't make the steep detour up to it, as I didn't when I walked it, , but I was on my first day of the Fudo pilgrimage.

According to the legend it is a very ancient holy spot for Buddhism being established in the 6th Century. Later the monk Gyoki, who is credited with founding many of the Ohenro temples, practised austerities here, and later still Kobo Daishi came here and built a building and put a statue of Senju Kannon here. It is said he received the statue from his master when studying in China.

There was a giant, ancient Gingko tree in the grounds but the leaves had all fallen. I had passed through some fall colors on the way up the mountain but at this height it had all gone. I had become intrigued by Taisanji after reading a little about Tachikawa Ryu, a school of Shingon that espoused a type of tantric practise utilizing sexual energy, and Taisanji was one of its centers. It became outlawed and actually classed as heresy by the head authorities of Shingon so all records were destroyed or locked away.

Of course there was no sign of it anywhere I could see.

Married Rocks of Muroto

Heading down the coast road towards Cape Muroto is a familar site to anyne who has walked or cycled the Shikoku Pilgrimage known as Ohenro. As you approach the cape a group of towering rocks becomes visible.

Once there you see that a pair of these rock pillars has a shimenawa, sacred rope, strung between them. These roks are known as Meoto Iwa, or "married rocks". The larger rock is considered male and the smaller, female. They are one of the attractions of the UNESCO Global Geopark of Muroto Cape

Meoto Iwa appear at numerous places around the coast of Japan, and I must have seen half a dozen around the western part of the country, but the most famous ones are on the coast of Mie not too far from the shrine at Ise.

Komyoji Interiors

The main hall of Komyoji Temple in Saijo on Shikoku is entered through a glass corridor that traverses the poolof water surrounding the building. The main construction material is laminated wood. The roof is supported by 16 columns in groups of four.

It was designed by Tadao Ando and he writes that the design evolved but by bit and was influenced heavily by traditional architectural techniques. The result is I think very modern and minimal but certainly retains some feelig of being a traditional temple.

The use of many pieces of wood in the structure of the roof is certainly traditional. However it is much lighter inside than a normal temple.

The interior walls are frosted glass which somewhat mimics the paper screens of tradition,

It is free to enter and would recommend it as an unusual Ando structure. It is a short detour from the Ohenro pilgrimage route that passes through the town.

Tadao Ando's Komyoji Temple

Komyoji Temple

When Komyoji Temple in Saijo on Shikoku decided to rebuild the temple they chose Ando Tadao to design it. Probably the best known internationally of contemporary Japanese architects, Ando is primarily associated with concrete.

Some of the ancillary buildings are made of concrete but the temple's main hall is made out of wood. Somewhat minimal, but inspired by traditional temple architecture, the main hall is surrounded by a shallow pool of water, another Ando trademark.

I had visited the temple once before, on a cloudy day, and took the opportunity to revisit on a nice sunny day to take advantage of the strong shadows that are often found in Ando's work. Sometimes it is illuminated at night, but not the day I visited.

If there is enough interest then I will post photos taken in the interior.

Purchase a selection of ema from GoodsFromJapan

Portraits of Rakan

Rakan, sometimes referred to by their sanskrit name of Arhat, are generally considered to be disciples of the historical Buddha, and in Japan are often found collectively as a group of 500 statues.

One of their features is that every single face is different with a different expression, and that you will be able to find at least one that reminds you of someone you know.

In the rakan hall of Jizoji, temple number 5 of the Shikoku Pilgrimage, there are nowhere near 500 of them, but they are unusually large.

On my first morning walking the Shikoku Fudo Myo Pilgrimage I started at Jizoji before heading up the mountain to the first Fudo temple.

Jizoji Revisited

On Friday 16th December, 2016 I began my walk along the Shikoku 36 temple Fudo Myo-o pilgrimage. At times the route is the same as the 88 Henro, but at other times it is quite different.

Some of the 36 temples are actually bangai temples from the Henro. In fact the first temple is Taisanji which is the first Henro bangai.

I decided to start walking from Jizo-ji, the fifth of the henro temples and the closest one to Taisanji, because I wanted to revisite the Rakan Hall.

I was there a long time before the Hall opened so hung out in the days first light and snapped some pics.

Luminous River

I spent some time in Tokushima last December at the start of my walk along the Shikoku Fudo Myo Pilgrimage and so had the chance to see some of the illuminations.

Rather than the usual style of illuminations, Tokushima has been holding an LED Digital Art show at many sites around the city center. The biggest displays were executed by teamLab, an international arts cooperative. Luminous River, the biggest, was just a stones throw from my hotels so I got to see in many times.

More than 100 giant plastic white spheres floating on the river. Once the sun went down the spheres lit up in an everchanging sequence of colors acccmpanied by new age music piped from speakers along both banks.

The two bridges at either end already had permanent LED artwork installed on them, and on one of the bansk there was also many sculptural artworkd using lED's. Combined with all the normal illumination from the buildings it made for quite a sight....