Kiyotakisan Magnificent Cave Temple

Kiyotakisan Magnificent Cave Temple

Above the main gate into Kiyotakisan Temple on Shodoshima is this unusual carving of a cat. I have been unable to find the story behind it.

Alongside the steps leading up to the gate are statues, and after entering you pass a large altar with a statue of Kobo Daishi above. The 88 temple pilgrimage on Shodoshima is dedicated to Kobo Daishi and is a small version of the famous pilgrimage on nearby Shikoku. Kiyotakisan is number 14.

Kiyotakisan Temple is a little more than  450 meters above sea level and is the highest of all the temples on the pilgrimage. The views, consequently, are stunning

There are a huge number of statues scattered around the nooks and crannies of the area around the temple, including numerous Fudo Myo statues, not surprising as this was a site for yamabushi training.

It can take a while to find all the side trails that lead to overhangs and crevices where even more statues abound.

For the adventurous, there are chains to be used to help climb the really steep sections.

The main hall enshrining a "hidden" Jizo leads into a cave at the base of a towering cliff.

Another cave houses a Fudo and this is where the Goma fire rituals are held. Unfortunately when I visited it was locked and there was no staff around.

This is the largest of the Fudo statues, measuring 10 meters from the base up to the top of the flames.

I was there at Christmas, so the red foliage had passed, but the views are worth it any time of the year.

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Christmas Morning on Shodoshima Day Two of the Pilgrimage

Christmas Morning on Shodoshima Day Two of the Pilgrimage

Friday 25th December, 2015.

Christmas day, and I'm awake at 4am, not, as when I was a little child, to eagerly explore what Santa had brought me, but because I have a very long day ahead of me. Its still pitch black when I take the first bus a few kilometers to the convenience store where I stock up on hot coffee and food for the day as there will be few opportunities to shop later.

 Before it lightens and I can begin to find my way to the first temples I explore the big shrine on the hill near the conbini. When it's light enough I head off the main road into the maze of narrow streets and find the first couple of temples. Nothing much of note.

I pass a small soy sauce factory and recognize the name.... its the brand my wife buys, organic, not so common in Japan. I start to head up a small river that runs down from the mountains where I will be heading. They are still shrouded in cloud.

The next temple has a pyramid of gravestones. These are muenbotoke, gravestones for those deceased souls who have no descendants to look after their graves.

  

The next temple is quite large and is approached along a path lined with miniature bonsai pine trees. Looking up at the mountain the mist is clearing and against the ochre cliffs I see a glint of vermillion and turquoise, Kiyotakisan, the highest temple on the pilgrimage that I am heading to next. The road climbs out of the town and narrows as it becomes farmland.

When I reach the dam the sun has broken through and I can enjoy the colorful reflection in the reservoir behind. Another kilometer and I leave the road and start up the mountain trail.

I am really pleased that so much of this pilgrimage is on trails rather than roads. It's a warm, sunny day as I climb up through the forest.

Crossing a stream that gurgles over rocks, there is a small statue of Fudo Myo. Further still the remains of an old teahouse that used to provide refreshments to pilgrims on the trail. There are still pilgrims, like myself, who walk the trail, but the vast majority of pilgrims will travel by car or tour bus.

The last few hundred meters are the steepest and I emerge on a big mountain road with the temple complex under the cliffs across the road. There is a lot to explore and see here,.... many statues, a couple of cave halls, and of course fantastic views across the sea and the island below.

I will post on Kiyotakisan next time......

Leaving the temple the road starts to descend. Rounding the bend I can see in the distance the buildings at the top of Kankakei Gorge, where I will be heading to later. It appears to be just a little higher than where I am now. As the road continues to descend I become disheartened. I didn't realize I was going to have to go back down quite so far as that means more climbing later.

When I reach the next temple,Hotogekataki, I am surprised that it look like a regular temple. There are buildings and bell towers, and an old lady sweeping the steps. But it's another cave temple. Going in through the narrow entrance it opens up to a dome shape with a natural pillar of rock in the middle. Most curious is the woodstove burning away. The little old lady show me around and points out the various altars and gives me half a dozen small oranges as Osettai, gifts for pilgrims. From the covered platform in front of the cave there are sweeping views over the lower part of the Kankakei Gorge.

From here the road carries on down down a few hundred meters to a junction. From here I have two choices. One kilometer away is the ropeway up to the top pf the gorge, from where I can take the trail down to the next temple, or I can take the trail up to the next temple and then carry on to the top of the gorge and take the ropeway down......

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Mukai-an Temple Koshin-do Temple & Saisho-an Temple on the Shodoshima Pilgrimage

Mukai-an Temple

Christmas Eve, 2015, was fast drawing to a close, and I still had three more temples to visit on the route back to my ryokan. I had just come down  from Mount Dounzan and the amazing cave temples, Dounzan and Goishizan, and then stopped in at Jokoji, temple 8, on this, my first day walking the Shodoshima pilgrimage.

Temple number 7, as with 9 and 10, was just a small unmanned building. The honzon is an Amida.

Just a couple of days past the winter solstice, the sun was rushing down and it becane obvious that it would soon be dark so I did not tarry nor explore

Temple 9 was Koshin-do, a site of the very popular Koshin cult. A Daoist cult/faith, it is most well known nowadays for the three monkeys. Many Koshin sites also have these strange looking dolls called Sarubobo in some places.

Many Koshin sites are now classed as Shinto shrines, and some, like here, as Buddhist temples. The honzon here is a Fudo Myoo.

My route now took me along the main road of Noma. There was some nice traditional architecture, though my favorite of the day was the old school house that was made famous in a movie.

The sun dipped below the hills as I passed through the biggest soy sauce factory of the island. 

It was almost dark when I reached  Saisho-an, number 10. It was created in the separation of shrines and temples, and the honzon, an Aizen Myoo was originally in the shrine next door.

It was completely dark by the time I got back to my room, and a little while later there was a knock at my door. It was the old priest I had met at Kannonji, and then later at Dounzan. He had brought me a gift, a delightful print of Fudo Myo!! A truly excellent day to start the pilgrimage with, that bodes well for the coming days.

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Jyokoji Temple 8 Shodoshima Pilgrimage

 

I reached Jokoji, number 8 temple on the 88 temple Shodoshima Pilgrimage, after coming down from the mountains visible in this first photo where I had visited the amazing mountain cave temples of Dounzan and Goishizan high up in the mountains.

The large, walled compound and belfry gate was quite a contrast, and I think this was the biggest temple I had visited on my first day walking the Shodoshima Pilgrimage.

The temple was founded in the mid 8th century by Gyoki, though it was located furter up the side of the mountain. It was destroyed in the 16th century when a Christian daimyo held sway over the island and destroyed many temples.

The temple was rebuilt in the mid to late 17th century. The small Yakushi-do in the precincts dates to 1665 The main hall was rebuilt in 1986. The honzon is a Yakushi Nyorai and the temple belongs to the Shingon sect.

Flanking the Yakushi statue is a statue of Fudo and one of Kobo Daishi. The ceiling is covered in paintings done by members of the temple. They seem to be mostly fruit, vegetable, and flowers..

It seems it was once a very rich and poerful temple. In the mid 19th century a Christian believer was found in the parish and the temple was punished by having the tax-free status of its lands rescinded. In the Meiji Period with Shinbutsu Bunri, it lost control of several shrines, and in the postwar land reforms, most of its properties were confiscated.

Goishizan Temple 2 Shodoshima Pilgrimage

 

This is one of the iconic views of the Shodoshima Pilgrimage. Temple number 2, Goishizan is only a few hundred meters from Temple 1, Dounzan, and the car park at Goshizan is a good place to park to explore Dounzan and the okunoin of temple 3.

At the open parking lot there is a view down the mountain and a small, modern, concrete hall topped with an oversize statue of Kobo Daishi, the focus of this 88 site circular pilgrimage.

From here you pass through a torii gate and head along the mountainside until eerging from the trees at another torii. From this torii a step of very steep, rough steps lead up to the Gyoja-do, an ascetic route. From the Gyoja-do you can see a small k9npira Shrine perched on top of a rock pinnacle nearer the summit.

Like the famous 88 temple pilgrimage on Shikoku, on which this Shodoshima pilgriage is modelled, many of these mountain sites would have been Yamabushi sites before becoing incorporated into the pilgrimage .

Carrying on past the torii you come to a small structure that leads into the cave which is the main hall. The hinzon is a Namikiri Fudo, a wave-cutting Fudo Myo.

There is often someone here on duty selling candles, incense, and pilgrimage supplies.

Dounzan Temple 1 on the Shodoshima Pilgrimage

 

The main hall of Dounzan Temple is, like many of the temples on the Shodoshima Pilgrimage, a cave. It is located high up near the top of 434 meter high Goishizan in the SE of the island. It is temple number 1 on the pilgrimage, but very few pilgrims nowadays start here. I reached it towards the end of my first day walking the pilgrimage.

Arriving at the temple you first visit a standard temple building, the Daishi-do, enshrining Kobo daishi, the focus of this 88 temple pilgrimage. From there the path heads up through a stand of giant sugi trees to the first cave, Here is a spring that, like so many springs around the island and also on Shikoku, is sid to have been created by Kobo Daishi himself.

In the cave is a very slender statue of Kannon. A few days on either side of the summer solstice the sun hits the cave in such a way that the shadows create an image on the wall that looks like Kannon. The statue takes the same form. The temple is sometimes referred to as Geshi Kannon because of this.

The path then skirts the cliff face until a set of steps that have been built leading up and in to the main hall, the cave called Zaundo. Before the steps there would probably have been a set of chains hanging down for ascetic pilgrims to climb up into the cave.

Inside the tall cave is an eight-sided shrine housing a statue of Bishamonten, the honzon of the temple.