Disappeared Japan Kirobara Shrine

 

After leaving Kawamoto and passing the Higashi Ohashi Bridge, I headed upstream to the little settlement of Kirobara, and I was excited to revisit a huge sacred tree. I was disappointed to see it had recently been cut down as it had become unsafe. The following pics are from a much earlier visit.

The tree was a Mukunoki, in English, the common name is Scabrous Aphanathe. It is said that in autumn, the leaves can be used as sandpaper. This one was thought to be about 300 years old and had a base circumference of more than 8 meters. The tree was considered to be the community's shrine.

In the first 2 decades of the twentieth century the government began a "shrine consolidation" program that, in esence, closed small local shrines and moved them to a larger shrine in the area. Before the program ended they had closed 100,000 shrines in Japan, about half of all shrines.

The primary reason was to shift people's focus from local, nature-based shrines to the national shrines like Hachiman or Tenmangu, Kasuga, etc. Another reason was that in the old days, Japanese in the countryside.... the vast majority of Japanese.... would take the day off work for matsuris, and in any small area there could be many small shrines each with its own festival day. Not good for the work ethic the government was trying to instill in the population. Western observers in the Meiji Period said that Japan could never industrialize because the population was quite lackadaisical in their work ethic and time keeping.

Yet another reason was that these local shrines were often set in a grove of old, large trees, and once the shrine was closed the trees were able to be cut for lumber. This point was strongly taken up by Japans first "enviromentalist" Minakata Kumagusu.

When the locals here expected their shrine to be destroyed they very quickly installed a small Tenmangu Shrine, pictured above, and their shrine was spared. My own village was not so lucky. The section of forest immediately behind my house used to be the local shrine. It was moved to the next village and since then no-one visits it. The shrine consolidation program is little known but was almost as big a factor in the creation of the modern Japanese religious landscape as the equally destructive separation of the Buddhas and Kami.

The previous post in this series documenting my walk up the Gonokawa River to its source was on the last bridge I passed, the Kawamoto Higashi Ohashi.

Haguro Shrine Tamashima

 

Adorning the roof of Haguro Shrine in Tamashima, Okayamama, is a ceramic Karasu Tengu, and it has become the symbol of the shrine and also a mascot for the town.

Tamashima was a cluster of small islands that have now become reclaimed land due to the efforts of the local daimyo Mizutani Katsutaka who started with the area immediately around where the shrine is now and spread out building embankments and reclaiming more land.

The area quickly became a major port on the trading route of the Inland Sea.

Mount Haguro is a sacred mountain in Yamagata in northern Japan with a major shrine called Dewa Shrine.

It is one of three sacred mountains  grouped together as Dewa Sanzan, and is and was a major Shugendo centre, hence the Karasu Tengu.

The shrine in Tamashima became the centre of the land reclamation project and was supported by the growing merchant population.

The current buildings date back to the mid 19th century and have a lot of fine decorations.

Within the grounds are numerous secondary shrines including a Sumiyoshi Shrine, and a Tenmangu Shrine, as well as a Mizutani Shrine, Kumada Shrine, and a Warei Shrine.

The Seven Lucky Gods are also enshrined and very popular.

There is a small pine tree that has had its branches woven together and is therefore known as Musubi no Matsu.

The figures on tye roof are particularly nice with dragons as well as the Karasu Tengu.

Photos 16 and 17 show two other figures which I believe to be Daoist Immortals. One is riding a turtle and the other a crane, both important Daoist symbols and prevalent in Japanese art and culture, especially gardens.

The kami listed as enshrined here are Tamayorihime, Susanoo, Okuninushi, and Kotoshironushi.

A little off the main tourist track, Tamashima is worth a visit, not least for the artwork adorning Haguro Shrine.

I visited at the start of day 9 walking the Chugoku Kannon Pilgrimage.

The previous post was on the shrine at temple 6 of the pilgrimage that I visited the afternoon previous, Yuga Shrine.

Yuga Shrine

 

Yuga Shrine is unique in having a ceramic torii entrance gate made of local Bizen-ware. It is not the only ceramic torii in Japan. Down in Arita in Saga on Kyushu is a torii made of porcelain at Tozan Shrine.

Yuga Shrine is the now Shinto part of the former shugendo complex of Yuga Daigongen, a syncretic establishment forced tp separate in early Meiji. Post 1945 the shrine and temple began operating again as one entity but in the late 90's a dispute arose between them that continues to this day.

Immediately adjacent to the shrine is the okunoin of the temple. Again, the architecture alone is no help in distinguishing between the shinto and Buddhist parts as they are the same.

The okunoin currently houses a Fudo Myo.

The original kami enshrined here was Yuga Daigongen, a buddhist name and considered a manifestation of Amida and Yakushi.

The kami listed now I suspect were added in the Meiji Period and are Hikosachi no Mikoto, Kaminaohi, and Teoshihobo. They are not well known kami at all.

As well as the torii there are a pair of fine ceramic komainu also in Bizen-ware. The komainu date to 1829 and tye torii to 1894.

There are numerous secondary shrines around the grounds, many clustered around a set of Iwakura, large sacred rocks on the hillside said to have been worshipped since ancient times.

There is a Tenmangu, and also the Seven Lucky Gods are here as well as in the parking lot of the temple.

Interestingly there is a Susanoo Shrine, and here he is considered a god of matchmaking. Males will pray to the female ceramic komainu and females pray to the male ceramic komainu, both with a dark glaze so not technically Bizen-ware.

Yuga Shrine is considered an important shrine for disaster prevention and was historically connected to Konpira on Shikoku with both being connected pilgrimage sites.

The main hall, (photo 9), was built in the early Edo Period and is a registered Cultural Property, as are the ceramic torii and the honden (final photo).

There is a largish Inari presence here, though they list the kami as Kurainakatama no mikoto, not a variation I have ever heard of before.

You might notice the "cute" octopus statue......

This is Owatatsumi, a modern creation by the local fishing culture.....

Though somewhat distant from major tourist sites, and not accessible without a car, Mount Yuga, with all the sights of the temple and the shrine, is well worth a visit.

This was my final stop on day 8 of my walk along the Chugoku Kannon Pilgrimage, and the previous post in the series was on the Buddhist section of Yuga Daigongen, Rendaiji Temple.

Takaue Tenmangu Shrine

 

My first stop after coming down the mountain and reachting the wide open  plain around Itoshima was the village shrine in Takae.

Located atop a small rise covered in trees, with a torii and steps leading up, very much a typical shrine.

There was no signboard so I have no idea how long it has been a Tnmangu. There are a lot of Tenmangu shrines in Fukuoka, but am not sure when they would have been established.

Dazaifu Tenmangu is now considered the head of all tenmangu shrine nation-wide, but it was temple until early Meiji so it didn't spread locally from there. Many shrines in my area became Tenmangu shrines fairly late.

Here in Kyushu the shrine buildings tend to be more open, probably due to the warmer climate. There were a couple of small secondary shrines in the grounds.

The previous post was on the walk down the mountain.