Tozan Shrine Arita: Japan's Porcelain Shrine

 

Tozan is the popular reading of the kanji for Sueyama, the official name of this shrine in the old town of Arita in Saga.

While most torii entrances are made of stone, concrete, wood, and even sometimes metal, the one here is made of porcelain.

Not only that, but some of the komainu, lanterns, and other features are also made of porcelain.

Arita is said to be the origin of Japanese porcelain, when kaolin, the fine white clay used to make porcelain was discovered nearby in the early 17th century.

The local legend has it that it was a man named Yi Sam-pyeong, a Korean known in Japanese as Kanagae Sanbee, who discovered the kaolin deposit , and a bust of him stands in the shrine. (photo 3)

The shrine was founded in 1658 as Arita Sarayama Sobyo Hachimangu, with the name changing in early Meiji to Sueyama Shrine.

As a Hachimangu the primary kami would be Hachiman, considered an incarnation of Ojin a semi-mythical early Emperor.

In 1923 Nabeshima Naoshige was enshrined here. He was the local Daimyo credited with "bringing" many Korean potters to the area during his retreat from Korea at the end of Hideyoshi's invasion.

Many sources use fairly passive verbs to describe this "resettling" of Koreans but in reality they were kidnapped and enslaved.

Many of the estimated 50,000 to 200,000 Korean captives were farmers but technicians like potters were much sought after. Kidnapped Korean potters were responsible for Satsuma ware and Hagi ware, but also mining engineers, movable-type printers and even Confucian scholars were also kidnapped accompanied by massive looting of art such as temple bells and statues.

The previous post in this series exploring Arita was on the surrounding Historic Preservation District.

Hokao Shrine Arita

 

Hokao Shrine is a small, local shrine on top of a rise next to the river at the southern end of the old town of Arita in Saga.

It is built in concrete, and something about it struck me as more attractive than many concrete shrines.

It has two pairs of komainu, the first pair dating to early 21st century.

There was no signboard, and no information I could find on the web. Like many local shrines, origin and even kami enshrined are lost in time.

The second set of komainu dated back to the 1920's.

I found this small Ebisu statue intriguing. Ebisu is very popular in the area, as in all of what is now Nagasaki and Saga.

The previous post was on Arita Porcelain Park.

Nishinomiya Ebisu Shrine

 

Nishinomiya Ebisu Shrine is certainly the most popular and well-known shrine in the city of Nishinomiya in Hyogo.

Nishinomiya means "West Shrine" and the shrine the city is named after is actually Hirota Shrine.

To the north of Nishinomiya Ebisu, Hirota Shrine was in ancient times a very important shrine, and it is believed that the Ebisu Shrine was sometimes referred to as "Southern Shrine" indicating its branch relationship to Hirota.

There are three hondens behind the main shrine. One enshrines Ebisu, one enshrines Amaterasu and Okuninushi, and the third enshrines Susano.

The enshrinement of Amaterasu and Okuninushi occurred in the early years of Meiji when the shrine officially separated from Hirota. Not sure when the Susano enshrinement happened.

There seems to have been some dispute over the Okuninushi Shrine. It seems at one point the whole shrine was renamed Okuninushi Shrine but then later separated from the Ebisu Shrine. After 1945 the Okuninushi became a sub-shrine of the Ebisu.

The main hall is a post-war reconstruction of the 17th century building. I also believe it underwent further reairs following the Hanshin Earthquake.

There are numerous secondary shrines within the large grounds, including the aforementioned Okuninushi Nishi Shrine which also enshrines Sukunahiko, and a Kojin Shrine (photo 4 )

There is also an Atago Shrine, and an Okiebisu shrine, enshrining the "wild/turbulent" aspect of Ebisu relocated to within the grounds  in early Meiji. (second to last photo)

There is a Benzaiten Shrine and a Rokkosan Shrine, an Inari Shrine, but also an Ugatama Shrine from before Meiji when Inari became equated with Ugatama. There are two shrines connected to sake brewing, a Matsuo Shrine, and an Umemiya Shrine.

The most interesting subsidiary shrine for me was the Hyakudayu Shrine which enshrines a kami connected to puppeteering. It is said that one of the reasons for the widespread adoption of Ebisu nationwide was due to Ebisu stories told in puppet plays.

Nishinomiys Ebisu is considered by some to be the head shrine of all Ebisu shrines nationwide, and the version of Ebisu here is the one based on Hiruko, sometimes called "Leech Child" born of Izanagi and Izanami who failed to follow the correct protocol and so their first child was born without limbs or skeleton. It was placed in a basket and set adrift.

One version of the story has the basket sailing to Hokkaido where the child is raised by Ainu. Another version of Ebisu is equated with Kotoshirunushi, a son of Okuninushi, and so some consider his main shrine of Miho Shrine in Shimane to be the head Ebisu shrine.

Certainly the pairing of Ebisu and Daikoku, another variation of  Okuninushi, as two of the Seven Lucky Gods, explains Ebisu's popularity among businesses and commerce, whereas Ebisu as the patron deity of fishermen suggests a different heritage perhaps.

The Toka Ebisu Festival takes place on January 10th and includes the Lucky Man Race wherein thousands of hopefuls race from the main gate to the main shrine building.

I was here very early on June 10th and preparations were underway for a ceremony at the Okiebisu Shrine.....

This was my first stop on day 3 of my walk along the Kinki Fudo Myo pilgrimage. The previous post was on my last stop of day 2, the Kifune Shrine in Amagasaki.

Shioya Oji Shrine

 

Shioya Town, now art of Gobo City, lies on the southside of the Hidaka River on the West coast of the Kii Peninsula in Wakayama.

The shrine is said to have been founded in 805 by a man who began the salt-producing and salt trade that the town is named after.

In the 11th century, when imperial pilgrimages to Kumano were at their height, 99 subsidiary shrines called "oji" were established along the route.

Shioya Oji Shrine was in the first group of seven Oji established and so is considered one of the oldest and most important. Yesterday I had stopped at Kirimie Oji, and the day before at Takajiri Oji, another two from the first group of seven.

The shrine was also known as "Beautiful Oji Shrine", with two theories as to why. One suggests that the statue of Amaterasu enshrined here ( as a form of Dainichi Buddha) was particularly beautiful. Another that the beautiful sea views from the shrine inspired many songs and poems by courtiers who stayed here.

There are numerous secondary shrines in the grounds, including an Ebisu, an Inari, a Kotohira, and a Susa. The previous post in this series on the Kumano Kodo and Saigoku pilgrimage was From Kirime Oji to Tsui Oji.

Hiradoguchi to Imari. Day 69 walking around Kyushu

 

Friday March 21st, 2014. A walk from  Hiradoguchi Station to Imari Station

Today’s lengthy leg of my walk will include just one temple and other than that I have no idea of what I will see or encounter. Sometimes there are things marked on the maps that I know I will want to check out, but there are no tourist sites of any note in this section. The road is a standard, rural, 2 lane road not choked with traffic but not quiet.

I stop in at a few roadside shrines to see if there is anything to see. Before I started walking pilgrimage routes I used to walk around the countryside visiting shrines. In the truest sense of the word that was pilgrimage, but now when I walk the Buddhist pilgrimages it is still the shrines I pass along the way that interest me most. The road reaches the coast and passes by numerous small coves.

As I approach Matsuura I look down on a huge power station. Like many, it is fueled by coal, and even though Kyushu has reserves of coal in the ground, the domestic coal industry was closed down in the middle of the last century in favor of cheap oil imports. Now the coal is mostly imported from Australia, and there are acres and acres of coal laid out here in neat piles with conveyor belts and automatic chutes.

A little further towards the town I check for the local manholes. I make it a habit to check out the manhole covers in places I am visiting. They often have designs that feature things of local importance. Here in Matsuura the design features kangaroos, koalas, and the Australian flag. Matsuura is twinned with Mackay in Queensland, where the coal for the power station comes from. I get off the main road which bypasses the town and take the main road through the town. Like most rural towns it appears halfway to being a ghost town with half the commercial properties closed up. After Matsuura the road goes around a headland and there are great views out to a scattering of islands

 On the outskirts of the village of Imafuku I get off the main road and head towards today’s only pilgrimage temple. I pass a torii with steps leading up the hill, and as the temple is on the other side of the hill I presume that there will be a path from the shrine to the temple. There usually is as you often find a shrine and a temple right next to each other because they used to be just one place. Sure enough, the path up to the shrine and then the path from the shrine to the temple are lined with red-bibbed Buddhist statues. The shrine itself is just a simple wooden building with almost no ornamentation, more of a shed really, but the view over the rooftops of the village out to sea was worth the climb.

Temple 79, Zenpukuji, is a small, village temple, and there are a constant stream of people arriving and leaving. I suddenly remember that today is the spring equinox, a national holiday in Japan. The 7 days centering on the equinox is called higan, or Ohigan, and like Obon in the summer is a time for visiting the graves of your ancestors and for other acts of memorialization. The priests wife is busy flitting between the visitors and tidying up around the grounds so we just exchange polite greetings. The ceiling of the main hall has been repainted in the not-too-distant past. Each of the small wooden squares is painted with different flowers.

I head off down the coast which now veers towards the south. After a half hour of walking, I pass back into Saga Prefecture. The bay gradually narrows until Imari. Imari, like Arita is famous for ceramics, specifically porcelain, and on the main street leading to the station are a couple of huge porcelain figures.

The sun is setting when I reach the station but I find I have a little wait until my train to Sasebo so I wander near the station but there is little of interest other than a huge wedding chapel built in European style. The last two days have been long but at least by basing myself in Sasebo I have been able to leave my heavy pack there and just use a day pack. I'm sure that carrying a full pack I would not have been able to cover the distance I have.

Most of Day 68 was sent on Hirado Island, which I cover in this brief guide.