Yokoguma Hayabusataka Shrine

Japan Shrines

About one kilometer from the previous shrine, Otoguma Tenmangu, the village shrine in Yokoguma was similar in appearance, being situated within a grove of large trees. However, by crossing a small river to get here  I had entered into a different cultural sphere. Whereas almost all the shrines I had visited earlier were Tenmangu shrines, on this side of the river they turned out to be shrines all connected to the mythical Empress Jingu.

According to the story, Emperor Chuai, considered the last of the "emperors" of the Yayoi period, and who was based here in northern Kyushu rather than the Yamato area, received an omen from the kami Takamimusubi who took the outward form of a bird that alighted on a pine tree before flying off to the north.

Takamimusubi is one of the first group of kami who "came into existence" and who has no stories about him in the ancient myths but is considered in some versions to be a grandfather of Ninigi who later descended from the high plain of heaven to begin the rule over Japan.

After Chuai's death, his consort, later known as Empress Jingu came back to this spot and established the shrine with Takamimusubi as the kami.

Hayabusa, in the name of the shrine, refers to the peregrine falcon, believed to be the bird of the legend. Though the original pine tree has long since gone, a group of three centuries old trees are revered here,

My next stop was the nearby Frog Temple, Nyoirinji, and several of the shrines i visited later were also connected to Jingu.

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Funatama Shrine & Tamahime Inari Shrine

 

Funatama and Tamahime Inari are a set of small hokora shrines found along the Nakahechi route of the Kumano Kodo. They lie on the Otonashi River, one of the three rivers that meet at Hongu, the centre of the Kumano Kodo pilgrimage routes and shrines.

According to the founding myth, a kami watched as a spider was drowning in the floodwaters nearby. The kami threw some leaves into the water and the spider climbed on one and paddled to safety. This gave the kami the idea of a boat, ad so he carved a dugout canoe from a tree. This was the creation of the first boat.

The shrine became nationally famous around the end of the Edo Period through a popular folk song. It is believed that around this time the Inari shrine was established.

I visited on day 3 of my walk along the Saigoku Pilgrimage in early March, and was surprised that so many of the New Year decorations were still up.

Although Inari is most commonly associated with rice-growing, there is in fact an uncountable number of different Inaris. I believe this one came originally from somewhere in Nara and is associated with men and women.

Palace of the Dragon King

Nochigashima is a tiny, rocky islet just off the Hiyoriyama Coast in northern Hyogo. It is home to a collection of structures with a distinct Chinese style. They were built in the 1950's to memorialize an ancient local fairy tale/legend.

The story dates back to the earliest writings in Japan, the Manyoshu, Nihon Shoki, and the Fudoki. Like all such stories it exists in many forms and has been embellished over the centuries but its basic story contains elements familiar to many similar stories around the world.

Urashima Taro was a local fisherman who saved a turtle. He was rewarded by being taken down under the sea to the palace of the Dragon King and was entertained by one of his daughters, a beautiful princess. After a few days he decided to return home. Before keaving the princess gave hima jewelled box but told him never to open it.

Whenhe returned to the surface he discovered that in the few days he had spent in the undersea world  a hundred years had passed up on the surface. He opened the box and suddenly transformed into a very old man. Another version has him transforming into a crane. Both the turtle and crane are Daoist symbols of longevity very prevalent in Japanese culture and art.

The cave at Udo Jingu

The shrine, or rather shrines, at Udo Jingu are inside a cave in the cliff overlooking the sea. The main kami is named Ugayafukieazu, though there are variations on the name and its spellings. In the mythology, he was the father of Jimmu, the first emperor.

In the legend his mother, Toyotamahime constructed a birth hut here made out of cormorant feathers. and told her husband Hoori, sometimes known as Hohodemi or Yamasachihiko, not to look while she was giving birth as she would revert to her non-human form as the daughter of Ryujin, the undersea Dragon King.

He peeked and then freaked out at her appearance and she was so ashamed that she left the child and ran away. For some reason the shrine is considered lucky for newly-weds.

Deeper in the cave , behind the main shrine, are numerous smaller shrines that enshrine Yamasachihiko, Toyotamahime, Ninigi, Amaterasu, Jimmu, etc.

In the cave roof are rocks shaped like breasts. It is said that as a baby Jimmu suckled from them. The shrine sells a kind of candy made from the water that drips down the rocks.

The Hyuga Myth Cycle

Part of Aoshima Shrine near Miyazaki is a small museum with tableux displaying the cycle of myths set in Hyuga, the old name for what is now Miyazaki. This cycle of myths are now very well known, but historicaly there were many different versions of the myths. It is only in the modern period that one particular version has been established as the "national" myth. For instance, in this first scene we see Amaterasu, commonly known as the Sun Goddess, giving rice to her grandson Ninigi before his descent to Japan to establish rule over the country. However, several versions of the myth say it was not Amaterasu who sent Ninigi, but another kami. Also, on the 3 tables you can see the 3 imperial regalia, but it seems that for some of the ancient, powerful clans there were only 2 regalia.

Reaching Japan Ninigi took himself a wife and she miraculously became pregnant after only one night. Ninigi suspected the father may not be him and his wife was deeply offended by this. She chose to undergo an ordeal by fire to prove she was telling the truth and in the burning birthing hut she gave birth to 2 sons.

There are several stories about the brothers, but one of them has one brother visiting the undersea kingdom of the Dragon King where he is given some powerful magic objects.

After returning from under the sea he marries a princess who gives birth to a baby boy who grows up to be Jimmu, the mythical first "emperor" of Japan and he sets sail from Kyushu to subdue the tribes of Japan and establish the current ruling dynasty.

There are many variations of the stories, including many versions of the characters names and even their genealogies. There is far more diversity in Japanese myths, histories, cultures, and peoples than the monolithic, homogenous versions being spouted and taught today. In the late 19th Century the people of neighboring Kagoshima were horrified to hear that these myths took place in Miyazaki, as they had similar stories that took place in Kagoshima.

Well of Beauty

Just below Kongo-ji, the thirtieth temple on the Izumo Kannon Pilgrimage, is a pond-well known as the Well of Beauty. The story dates back to the 15th Century and the time known as "Warring States".

A local warlord, Saiga Yoshitomo, came to the temple and asked that the monk there  serve in his army. The monk refused. In retaliation the warlord gathered up all the statues of the temple and set fire to them. All the statues were destroyed except for one, a statue of Bato Kannon, the Horsehead Kannon.

The warlord had a beautiful, young daughter, and after her fathers sacrilegious act she suddenly became cursed with a disfiguring skin disease. The daughter came to the temple and for 7 days and nights prayed in front of the surviving Kannon statue but received no relief. An old hermit, with a long white beard, approached the girl and gave here a red cloth. He told her to take the cloth to the well below the temple and using the water there to bathe her skin.

She did as she was told and as she wiped her skin great blisters arose and then burst and underneath fresh, beautiful skin appeared.

 Small bottles of the water are on sale in a cabinet beside the well, but judging by the cobwebs I would say that sales are no longer brisk.

The White Rabbit of Inaba

The year of the rabbit is coming to a close, so time to tell the story of the white rabbit of Inaba.

Hakuto Shrine is located near the beach a little east of Tottori City. The old province name for this area was Inaba. The kami of Hakuto Shrine is Hakutojin, the kami name for the white rabbit of Inaba.

The rabbit was on one of the Okis islands, about 50kms offshore (now a part of Shimane). He wished to travel to the mainland so he a devised a plan that involved tricking some crocodiles. Incidentally, the story is often told nowadays with sharks instead of crocodiles, but the original story quite clearly does not involve sharks.

The rabbit suggested to the crocodiles that the rabbit clan was much bigger than the crocodile clan, and to prove it he would need to count all the members of the crocodile clan so he suggested that they all line up and as he stepped on them one at a time he would be able to count them and come to a definitive answer. The crocodiles agreed and so the rabbit began to make his way to the mainland using the crocodiles as stepping stones.

The rabbit was just about to the beach when he rather foolishly decided to shout out "Hah! tricked you..." upon which the last crocodile lunged for the rabbit and while not able to kill it managed to strip the fur from the rabbit. The story now intersects with another legend, that of Okuninushi, his eighty brothers, and Princess Yakami.

Okuninushis brothers, the Yasogami, were coming along the beach on the way to see Princess Yakami to see which of them she would choose as a husband. The Yasogami were quite cruel, and seeing the poor suffering rabbit they suggested that it would find relief by bathing in seawater and then standing in the wind. Of course this just caused more pain and suffering for the hapless rabbit. Following along in the rear carrying the baggage for his brothers was Okuninushi. He told the rabbit to bathe is freshwater and then roll in sedge pollen, which he did and was then healed. In gratitude the rabbit told Okuninushi that even though he was just the bagggage carrier he would be the one chosen by Princess Yakami.

Myths, like people, travel great distances. There seem to be several possible sources of this myth. In Indonesia there is a famous story involving a small deer that tricks crocodiles into lining up across a river on the pretense of being counted but really so the deer can cross the river. Also, the Koguryo and Puyo peoples of what is now northern Korea had foundation legends that involve a hero crossing water on the backs of turtles that seem to be derived from older stories from further south in China that had crocodiles fulfilling the same role. There are several more myths from Koguryo that mirror Japanese myths, and all along the Japan Sea coast are shrines dedicated to a variety of kami who came here from what is now Korea.

On top of the world

Just got back from a few days up on Hibayama, straddling the border between Shimane and Hiroshima. I started out at about 750 meters from Kumano Shrine, an ancient shrine considered the gateway to the tomb of Izanagi on top of Hibayama. From the main building, constructed in the early eighth Century, the trail heads up past the Iwasaka, the sacred rock that was the original shrine, past numerous smaller shrines surrounded by 1,000 year old cedars.

About halfway up the mountain i paused at Nachi no Taki, a picturesque waterfall. Another hour and I was on top of Mt Ryuuouzan, a tad over 1200 meters. I came upon a derelict campsite and decided to camp there for the night. I was not attacked by the Hibagon!!.... actually the Hibagon has never attacked anyone, and since 1982 there has been no sightings of it or its tracks. If you are interested in this Japanese equivalent of the Sasquatsch or Yeti, this site has the most complete information in English.

A few hours before the sun I was up and on my way and got to the top of Hibayama not long after the sun rose. The entrance to Izanamis tomb is flanked by 2 ancient yew trees. Izanami was the female of the creator-pair that created the Japanese Islands. The Kojiki places her tomb here on Hibayama. The Nihonshoki places it in Wakayama.

From the top of Eboshisan, the neighboring peak, the views down into Hiroshoima and Shimane were stunning......

The slopes of Hibayama are covered in forests of beech, and now leafless, it allowed the sun to penetrate and bath the mountain slopes in glorious golden morning light.....

Descending down towards the park headquarters with its campsites, ski-lift, and onsen, the tree farms of cedar begin, but remnants of the beech forest survive....

Down at the park center the fall colors are in full swing......

Continuing down for a few more hours I reach Yuki where I catch the train down through Okuizumo and home.....

Koikui Shrine

Koikui is a small shrine just off the Kibi Bike Path.

It has a fine pair of Bizen-style ceramic komainu. It also had a buddhist bell.

Koikui means "carp eating" and refers to the mythical events that took place at this spot.

One of the most well-known folk tales in Japan is Momotaro, the Peach Boy, and it is partly based on a much older story of Kibitsuhiko.

This area was ruled over by a demon, said to be a king from Kudara (Paekche in what is now called Korea). Prince Kibitsuhiko was sent by the Yamato to defeat this demon. During the battle the demon transformed himself into a carp and swam away. Kibitsuhiko turned into a cormorant and caught the carp and killed it at the spot where the shrine now stands.

The White Fox of Yuda Onsen

Images and statues of a white fox appear all over the place in Yuda Onsen, a spa resort next to Yamaguchi City, even on the drain covers.

The reason is that local legend has it that the hot spring and its healing properties were discovered by a white fox.

A priest from a nearby temple saw an injured white fox bathing itself and from then there have been spas in the area.

This occurred in the Muromach period, about 800 years ago.

In 1707 the spas closed down as an eruption of Mt Fuji caused the springs to dry up, but they reopened 3 years later.

Since the onsen boom of the 1980's the number of ryokans and spas has increased dramatically, most of them leaning toward the expensive price range.

The waters have a reputation for healing rheumatism, neuralgia, and dermatitus.