An Autumn Walk to Yasaka Shrine & Ishinokuchi Hachimangu

 

I begin day 20 in Tabuse and today's walk along the Chugoku Kannon Pilgrimage will take me into the countryside of southern Yamaguchi.

First stop, walking out of Tabuse, was a Yasaka Shrine.

Enshrining Susanoo and Kushinadahime, like all Yasaka Shrines it was known as a Gion Shrine until the Meiji Period when the separation of Buddhas and Kami meant Gozu Tenno was replaced by Susanoo.

Like many Gion shrines, it was established to protect against plague and disease.

The exact date of its founding I cannot find out, but it was certainly here in 1559.

It is a glorious late Autumn day as I head out on Prefectural Route 63.

As usual in Japan, you can't go far without passing a roadside Buddhist altar.

I have never been in this area before, and I have no idea what I will find along the road.

Exploring seems to be out of fashion nowadays. Most people seem to want to go to places they have seen on the internet.

The landscape I walked through I would describe as typical Japan....

River valleys with forested mountains....

Farms scattered around, and when the valley is wide enough, larger settlements...

At the base of Iwakisan, a sacred mountain with a cluster of ancient shrines on top, a big shrine of a "new" religion, and the remains of a "korean-style" castle of the late 7th century. I came across the entrance to Ishinokuchi Hachimangu.

It is said to have originally stood higher up the mountain but was relocated to its current site in the late 14th century.

Not far up the approach was a small shrine with no name....

Though it did have a lovely ceiling....

Further in, a second torii and more steps...

and then more steps....

To be so far from the road is quite unusual....

I had left my backpack at the first torii so I didn't mind the walk and the forest was quite atmospheric with shafts of sunlight piercing the mist...

In a small storage shed I found an unusual mikoshi shaped like a sea bream....

I finally reached the quite substantial main shrine... I would say about 400 meters from the first torii...

As a Hachiman it enshrines primarily Ojin....

There are several sub- shrines nearby, but I can find no details....

There is also a huge stump of what must have been a sacred tree....

The previous post in this series on my walk along the Chugoku Kannon Pilgrimage was on the ancient mountain temple of Hannya-ji

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Yasaka Shrine Arita

 

Yasaka Shrine in Arita is almost certainly much older than the most popular shrine in the town, Tozan Shrine.

According to the shrine's information board, appropriately written upon porcelain tiles, it says that originally the shrine was for the local kami.

However, it changed with the importation of the Gion ritual, here said to be of Indian origin.

Mention is made of Gozu Tenno and then Susano, to whom is attributed the creation  of the chinowa.

It changed names to Yasaka after Meiji when all the semi-Buddhist Gion shrines firmly became Shinto.

There is a small Tenjin shrine in the grounds, another of the kami associated with protection from pestilence and disease.

There were multiple pairs of komainu, with the oldest pair made of sandstone severely weathered..

The previous post in this series exploring Arita on day 70 of my Kyushu pilgrimage was on the nearby Kyushu Ceramics Museum.

Yasaka Shrine Ebie

 

Ebie is a neighborhood on the bank of the Yodo River in Osaka, west of Umeda. Route 2 crosses the river here and this was the route I was walking west.

The local shrine is a branch of the famous Yasaka Shrine. I visited in 2017 and so a large ema of a Rooster was on display.

There seem to be quite a few Yasaka shrines in this part of Osaka, though I have no idea why. There is no info on the shrine's history, though it is believed to be quite old.

There are several sub-shrines in the grounds including the Ebisu Shrine pictured above, and an Inari Shrine.

The previous post was on some of the interesting architecture I passed by walking through Umeda.

Tashiro Yasaka Shrine

Tashiro Yasaka Shrine

After leaving Ogori Hiyoshi Shrine I continued west along the old Nagasaki kaido and soon crossed over into Saga prefecture.

In Tashiro, which I believe was a post-town on the Nagasaki Highway, I visited the Tashiro Yasaka Shrine. Another branch of the famous Yasaka Shrine in Gion, Kyoto, and previously called Gion Shrine, its primary kami is once again Susano.

Gion Shrine was the origin of the famous Gion Matsuri which began life as a festival to ward off a pestilence that was ravaging Kyoto.

Gion shrines therefore often became established for the purpose of protection against disease, and as disease was seen to come from "outside" a community and travel along roads, it strikes me as why there are so many Gion ( or Yasaka or Susano ) shrines found along the major highways like the Nagasaki Kaido.

This shrine, like all the otheres I had visited this day, was all dressed up in its New Year finery. There was no signboard so I have no info on the shrine.