Tanoura Kannondo Temple 80 & Tanoura Yakushido Temple 59 Sasaguri Pilgrimage

 

A striking feature of temple 80, Tanoura Kannondo, is the Seigando Hall with around 300 small statues of a seated Kobo Daishi.

Temple 80, Tanoura Kannondo, and temple 59 Tanoura Yakushido, are located adjacent to each other.

Unfortunately there is very little in terms of dates and history.

As usual there are lots of Fudo Myoo statues as well as others....

The "main hall" is a small cave that was a sutra repository about 300 years ago.

The honzon is a Thousand-armed Kannon. There are numerous other Kannon statues at the temple.

There is one particularly fine, huge sugi tree.

A Benzaiten statue next to yet another Kannon statue....

Nest door is the Yakushi-do, temple 59....

A statue of Fujiki Tosukethe founder of the Sasaguri Pilgrimage. It is believed his hermitage was located near here.

There are also many Fudo statues here...

The honzon is a Yakushi Nyorai, commonly known as the Medicine Buddha.

The statue of Kobo Daishi with his dog relates to a legend that while travelling with his dog they were attacked by a wild boar and the dog dies defending Kobo Daishi.

I have not come across this story anywhere else so it may be a local story...

The previous post was on the nearby temple 30, Higyokudo.

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Daikoji Temple 67 Shikoku Ohenro Pilgrimage

 

Daikoji, temple 67 on the Shikoku Pilgrimage, is located in a fairly out-of-the-way rural area at the bottom of the mountains, with no big towns nearby.

It was established, about 1 kilometer from its current location, in 742 as a branch of Todaiji temple.

The Nio Gate was built in 1318 but rebuit at its current location in 1796.

The Nio are dated to the mid Kamakura Period, around the mid 13th century.

They were repainted in 1790 and are the biggest wooden nio in Shikoku.

Kobo Daishi visited in 792, and thirty years later came back and rebuilt much of the temple.

Two huge trees flanking the approach are said to have been planted by Kobo Daishi himself.

Daikoji was unusual in that it was partly Tendai and partly Shingon, with a Tendai hall still remaining today.

At one point there were 24 Shingon halls and 12 Tendai halls....

A major fire detroyed most of the temple, possibly caused by Chosokabe Motochika, possibly not.

When I visited in 2012 they were already flying banners to celebrate the 1,000th anniversary of the Pilgrimage in 2014...

The temple moved to its current location and was rebuilt in 1597. The current main hall dates to 1741.

The honzon is a Yakushi Nyorai, commonly known as the Medicine Buddha. It is a secret Buddha unveiled to the public every 60 years.

Known as Sanko (triangle) Pine...

Kumano Sansho Gongen Shrine was seperated from the temple after shinbutsu bunri...

The previous post was on Unpenji, temple 66....

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Torin-an & Yuku-an Temples 49 & 50 Shodoshima Pilgrimage

 

December 28th, 2015, and I begin day 5 of my walk along the Shodoshima Pilgrimage with a couple of small hermitages close to each other.

Both are located to the NE of Tonosho, the biggest town and main port of the island. Most pilgrims start in Tonosho and go around the island clockwise. I, however, started in the SE of the island and roughly started at temple 1 and went clockwise, so I am approaching Tonosho for the first time.

I ended up taking 8 days to do the pilgrimage, and as this is thye start of day 5 I have technically passed the halfway point.

Number 49, Torin-an, was in the past a fully-fledged temple called Manganji, but now is downgraded to a hermitage. It's primary statue is a wooden Jizo. As with all these tiny, community supported establishments, there was a well kept undercover seating area for pilgrims.

Very close by in number 50, Yuku-an, with a large lotus pond in front, though at this time of the year no sign of the lotus plants.

Yuku-an is a little more substantial than Torin-an. Its main statues is a Yakushi Nyorai, though it has several other statues inside and a large stone Jizo outside...

The Jizo is probably a Kosodate Jizo.

Flanking the Nyorai, which is a "hidden Buddha", is a statue of En no Gyoja, photo 11, the legendary founder of Shugendo.

With so many mountain cave temples on the pilgrimage, this points to its origins with shugenja and yamabushi.

The final photo shows the remains of last year's lotus plants....

The previous post in this series was on the final two temples of yesterday, Tamonji and Enmanji

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