Yokai Temple Enryu-in

 

One of the sub-temples of Daisenji, high up on the slopes of the sacred mountain Mount Daisen, is Enryu-in.

Many temples have painted ceilings where each small square contains a picture of flowers, animals, deities, etc.

Enryu-in is unique in having a ceiling with 108 paintings of Yokai, Japan's supernatural beings, including ghosts, monsters, poltergeists, shape-shifters, and spooks.

They were painted by Mizuki Shigeru, the famous manga artist who revived many of the traditional yokai and created many new ones.

He lived not far from here in Sakaiminato, and it is a mecca for manga and yokai fans. I have posted before on the yokai statues that line the street there: post 1, post 2, post3.

However, the temple has been closed to the public since 2018, so members of the public can no longer view this unique artwork.

The reason, they say, is that now that the cost of rebuilding the temple has been repaid, they are reverting to being a purely religious facility.

Quite a few people are kind of miffed about this. The yokai ceiling has attracted lots of visitors, so the town's tourist office is unhappy, but many, many potential visitors are also unhappy.

Mizuki Shigeru painted the ceiling for free, as a donation to help the temple raise funds. Countless thousands of his fans have donated to the temple, and so it seems a little churlish of the temple.

Anyway, you can enjoy my photos as I visited before 2018...

The previous post in this series was on the walk up the mountain.

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Yumeminato Pavilion

 

Attached to the Yumeminato Tower in Sakaiminato, Tottori, is the Yumeminato Pavilion.

They are both remaining structures from an Expo that was held here in 1997.

In front of the pavillion are several sculptures. They take the form of metal boxes with holes in the shape of Yokai.

Sakaiminato is a Yokai capital in Japan as it is the birthplace of Mizuki Shigeru, a manga artist responsible for reviving many traditional yokai and for creating many ne yokai. Similar statues can be found in the Yumeminato park that runs from here down the coast a ways, and along Mizuki Shigeru Road.

When we visited on this trip, about 20 years ago, the lower floor was devoted to sales of souvenirs and local specialities

On the upper floor was an exhibition that included a full size Mongolian yurt.

There was also a collection of national costumes of countries of East Asia available for visitors to try on and be photographed in.

I was unsure why the focus on Asia, but then I later learnt that a Japanese anthropologist who specialized in Iran and Mongolia and the Silk Road, was born near here.

Later I was to visit a large, but decaying, museum near here dedicated to him.

Yokai made their presence known a little around the building, but at that time I was more interested in the  geometry and light and shadow of the architecture.

The previous post in this series was on the Yumeminato Tower.

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Kappa of Tanushimaru

Japan Guide

When I reached Tanushimaru along the Hita Kaido, another kind of statue, other than Ebisu,  started to appear, namely Kappa.....

One of the most well-known of the yokai, the kappa is usually translated into English as "water sprite" and is a creature that inhabits rivers, ponds, etc. Legends of kappa are found all over Japan. Nowadays it is often rendered in a "cute" form.

The kappa in the area are depicted in other ways as well as by statues. It is one of the towns that feature them on decorated manhole covers. Our local town also features a kappa, though it is called enko in our area. It is based on a legend from my village and one of these days I will get around to telling it to you.

Kappa throughout Japan have a similar form..... a turtle shell, a beak, webbed feet, and an indented skull with a fringe of hair. I suspect this homogeneity of form began in the Edo period when collections of yokai images were published and then later in the twentieth century at first with the work of folklorist Yanagita Kunio, and then later with the manga and anime works of artists such as Mizuki Shigeru.

I confess to not having done the work to research the actual kappa stories of Tanushimaru.

At the end of the days walk I took the train back to Kurume and was surprised to see the small station of Tanushimaru....

Yokai Manholes

I won't be posting for a week or so as I am off on the pilgrim trail, and as we are approaching Halloween I thought these would be appropriate.

Sakaiminato in Tottori was the home of Mizuki Shigeru, the great manga writer and the town has a whole bunch of new manhole covers featuring some of his most famous yokai.....

The first one is Gegege no Kitaro, with Daddy Eyeball. The second one is Kitaro's sidekick Nezumi Otoko, ... filthy, disease-ridden, never bathing, with disgusting breath and farts......

Then we have Neko Musume,...normally with the appearance of a young girl but able to transformn into a monstrous cat........ then there is Konaki Jijii.....Little Crying Old Man...... who attaches himself to enemies and then increases his weight until he crushes them.

The final one is Ittan Momen, a length of cotton cloth that attacks by wrapping itself around the head and mouth........

Mizuki Shigeru Road

I really enjoyed our afternoon in Sakaiminato, and as well as the collection of bronze yokai sculptures (a small selection of which you can see here, here, and here ) there are yokai all over the place.

The trains on the JR Sakai Line, which connect Sakaiminato to Yonago, are decorated inside and out with scenes from Shigeru's stories.

The street lamps around the station appear as Medama Oyaji, Daddy Eyeball.

Halfway down the street there is even a faux "shrine" complete with ema.

Paintings and drawings of yokai adorn the walls and even the sidewalks of the street

Lining both sides of the street are shops selling yokai products of every conceivable type, masks, canned drinks, clocks, the usual range of Japanese omiage with yokai packaging. It was hard to find any type of product that wasn't made in a yokai form. When I next visit I intend to see if I can find some yokai condoms.



There is also another large set of "negative space" sculptures on the street and at a nearby seaside park.

Finally, there is the Mizuki Shigeru Museum which has displays of Shigeru related materials, numerous screens showing anime, and yokai material from around the world collected by Shigeru.

Yokai Gallery 3

This is the third post on the yokai sculptures on the Mizuki Shigeru Road. Details in Yokai Gallery 1

Salaryman Yamada is not, as far as I can tell, a yokai, but he is a character in Mizuki Shigeru's work, and is based on a friend of his.

Omotogami is another name for Omotojin, also known as Kojin in neighboring Izumo. I was surprised to see it classified as a yokai as it is in fact a common kami in this part of the world. It is often known as an aragami, which is usuually translated as "rough deity", but I prefer the translation "turbulent deity", as it is a force of nature and quite capable of causing damage. More posts on Omoto here

These are Shigeru's creation, Daruma and guts, and are based on the well-known Daruma, who was the Bodhidharma who brought Zen (Chan in Chinese) from India to China. In his common form he has no arms or legs as they have atrophied from years of sitting in meditation. In Shigeru's daruma, the little creatures are daruma's "guts", and if they are killed Daruma becomes weaker.

Uwan is an invisible Yokai that inhabits old houses and temples. His shouts can only be heard inside the building. In the Edo period artists began painting images of various "invisible" yokai.

Medama Oyaji is the father of Kitaro, Shigeru's most famous character. A ghost reborn as just an eyeball, the character is known as Daddy Eyeball in the english version. He loves to stay clean and is often found bathing in a bowl.

Keukegen is completely covered in hair and is known to cause disease in humans. It inhabits damp, airless spaces, so the solution is to open windows and doors and allow some air circulation.

Yamabiko is a tree spirit living in the mountains that creates the echoes you hear in the mountains.

Syunobon is a yokai originally from Fukushima. When following you he appears human, but will startle you by reverting to his original form.

Aonyoubou (Blue Wife) is a form of Goryu, an "angry ghost". The most famous Goryu is Michizane Sugawara, commonly known as Tennjin. Humans killed for political reasons are particularly prone to be angry ghosts.

Yokai Gallery 1

Yokai Gallery 2