Raising the New Shimenawa at Hozanji

Last week  I visited the mountain temple of Hozanji in Ikoma, when I arrived at the main torii there were preparations underway to install a new shimenawa. I headed into the temple and spent some time exploring and as I later came to leave there were crowds of people around the torii holding ropes that were to lift it.

I decided to hang around and watch the ceremony. After a while a procession of priests arrived accompanied by musicians playing the ancient chinese instruments and the music of the ancient imperial court that is featured at shinto shrines sometimes.



A series of rituals and chants then took place, led by a very aged head priest.



Then the shimenawa was slowly hoisted by the crowd.

Nobeoka to Hyuga City

Sunday, March 24th, 2018, was the 19th day of my walk around Kyushu on the 108 temple Shingon Pilgrimage. The route from Nobeoka down to Hyuga City included only one temple of the pilgrimage, but lots of small shrines to stop in at and explore.

It was a relatively uneventful day with no major discoveries on my part, though I enjoyed the visits to the shrines as for me there is almost always something to see.

On my way down the coast I crossed many rivers and though it was an overcast day and not great for photography light-wise, it was a still day so the water was mirrorlike.

More palm trees appeared so it certainly felt like I was now in Miyazaki. I stopped early in the day as I had reached the hotel I had a room booked in. The view from my room was not particularly great.

Nibehime Shrine

Nibehime Jinja

On the third day of my walk along the Iwami Kannon Pilgrimage I started the day at Shizuma with a visit to the main shrine in the village. To all outward appearances just a small village shrine, with a large shimenawa in Izumo style. However this was a relatively important shrine in the past.

It's listed in the Engi Shiki, a tenth Century document that, amongst other things, lists all the shrines in Japan that were receiving official offerings from the central government in Kyoto. The shrine also has some interesting kami enshrined here.

The main kami is Haniyasuhime, the female of the pair of kami known as kami of the soil. According to one version of the myth the two kami were created out of the feces of Izanami after she was killed by the kami of fire. The agricultural reference is pretty obvious.

Another couple of female kami are enshrined here also, Oyatsuhime and Tsumatsuhime, both daughters of Susano who arrived near here from the Korean Peninsula along with a Susano son, Isotakeru. All three landed not far from here near the village named after Isotakeru, Isotake. The three kami are known for spreading the seeds of useful trees they brought with them.

The last shrines in Tokushima

After leaving Saba Daishi I headed off down the coast on my 11th day of walking along the Shikoku Pilgrimage. By the afternoon I will have crossed over into Kochi Prefecture. I stopped in at every shrine I passed, as is my habit.

Shrines are great spots to take a rest in the shade. Even in urban areas they are quiet and peaceful. The architecture can be interesting and I'm always searching for stories and legends, and it is  at shrines are where you can find signs of them.

The art,... the statuary, masks, etc can also be quite diverse and yet something else I seek out....

And of course there are the trees..... shrines are often home to the oldest trees in the area. All in all I visited more than a dozen on this walk doewn the coast of Tokushima....

South from Saiki: Day 17 of my walk around the Kyushu Pilgrimage

heading south out of Saiki, my next stop would be Nobeoka, and I had a couple of choices of route. Probably the prettiest would be the coast road, but I opted for the inland route over the mountains, pretty much following the rail line, as it would save me 20k. I left at sunrise.

The route went upstream one of the tributaries of the Banjo River. There was nothing of note along the route that I planned to visit.

I stopped in at a couple of interesting looking temples, and quite a lot of shrines.

Pointing to some kind of forest park, this giant Stag Beetle was a curious sight. It was still the height of the cherry blossom season. By sunset I had gone over the pass and was on my way down the Kitagawa River which would take me all the way to Nobeoka.

The Married Rocks of Kamiura

Meoto Iwa, literally "married rocks" are found at numerous points around the Japanese coastline. A larger rock is connected to a smaller rock by a shimenawa.

The most famous Meoto Iwa, and probably the original one, is on the coast near Ise Shrine up in Mie. This one is at Kamiura, a little fishing village, now part of Saiki City in Oita.

Like most of Japan, once you get away from the heavily industrialized and urbanized areas it really is quite pretty.

The "husband" rock is 17 meters tall, and the "wife" rock 7 meters. The shimenawa connecting them is 65 meters long and weighs 2 tons. It is replaced once a year.

Tsukumi to Saiki, Day 16 on my walk around the Kyushu Pilgrimage

21st of March, 2013, the 16th day of my walk around Kyushu was a glorious day. Most of the day was along the coast with no big towns.

During the day I past dozens of small shrines to Ebisu,... not surprising with his association with fishing. Not sure what this shrine was on one of the small offshore islets.

Cherry blossom season was in full swing and there were many trees along the road, but I am more impressed with the mountainsides of Yamazakura.......

At Kamiura I stopped to photograph the meoto iwa..... the "married rocks". The most famous ones are up near Ise in Mie I believe but I've come across lots of others like here....

From the Saiki castle ruins there was a great view across the channel to Shikoku.....

Kumanosha, Kunisaki

As I wander around Japan I notice that some areas seem to have a lot of shrines, and in some areas they are far less common. In the areas with a lot of shrines they usually seem to be well visited. There are plenty of signs of activity, though usually they are empty. In the other areas the shrines seem almost abandoned, with little decoration and grounds not well kept.

The Kunisaki Peninsula is one of the first types of area,... there are a lot of shrines. This one, a Kumanosha, was the fifth one I visited in this morning of my second day walking around the peninsula hunting the fall colors.

According to the signboard it was founded in 725 during the reign of Emperor Shomu. The ony kami listed is Izanami.

The sign also mentioned that in the early Taisho era it was registered as an official village shrine. I suspect this was in response to the governments program of the time that ended up closibg half the shrines in the country. Many more would have been closed but in some areas, like Kunisaki I suspect, the people resisted the governments program and found ways to keep more of their shrines open.

Utsu Shrine

Utsu Shrine is located in the little fishing port of Ocho on Osaki Shimozima Island in the Aki Nada chain of islands in the Inland Sea between Hiroshima and Shikoku.

It was founded in 773 and the kami enshrined here is Yasomagatsuhi no kami which translates as "countless magatsuhi gods" with magatsuhi being a kami that brings about sin, pollution, disaster, disorder etc etc. The kami was produced from the pollutions experienced by Izanagi when he visited Izanami in Yomi, the underworld.

In 1217 a further two kami were added, Kannaobi and Onaobi, which can be translated as Divine Renewal Godm & Great renewal God. They "came into existence" right after Magatsuhi as "rectification".

The shrine became known for protection at sea as well as protection against all forms of "pollution".

Yokote Otoshi-gu

Located out in the rice paddies in Yokote, a village about halfway between Mount Futago and the coast on the east side of the Kunisaki Peninsula, this shrine was a little unusual

The first unusual thing was that there were no stone Nio guardians that are at most of the other shrines I had visited in the area. This might mean that the shrine was established later than when the area flourished as a Shugendo center and most of the shrines, temples,  and statuary were made, in the late Heian early kamakura period.

The other unusual thing for me was the kami enshrined here, Otoshi, one of Susano's sons that is associated with rice. I don't remember seeing another Otoshi shrine during the past 2 days here in Kunisaki. It would be interesting to now the story of the shrines founding.

There was unfortunately no signboard at the shrine nor anyone around, so I couldnt find out any more.

Niigusohimenomikoto Shrine

Niigusohimenomikoto Shrine

This shrine is on the main road not far from Mononobe Shrine and appears to be just a small local shrine, but is in fact one of the oldest shrines in the Iwami region, founded in 731.

It is also listed in the Engi Shiki, which means it received offerings from the government in Kyoto. The kami is Niigusohime, and is considered to be a kami of the 5 grains and farming. Strangely she is also associated with cheese! A kind of cheese from Mongolia was introduced in 650. probably via Korea. So maybe she had something to do with that.

There is a sutra mound within the grounds, not so unusual as most shrines had Buddhist elements in earlier times.

There is a small Kumano Shrine too. The shimenawa is Izumo style, big and thick.