Ruriji Temple & the Cheerful Hunter

 

This section of the Iwami Kannon Pilgrimage is very exciting for me as it is through country that I have never been before, even though it is not too far from my home.

Ruriji is  temple 14 on the pilgrimage, and I reached it at the end of my 8th day.

It is a Soto sect Zen temple with a Shaka Nyorai as its honzon.

With a bell tower gate, small treasure hall, and plentiful fresh offerings at the Mizuko Jizo, it is obviously an active temple, but I can find absolutely nothing about its history.

The sun was getting low, but my accommodations for the night were just a short walk away.

In the middle of nowhere is a noodle restaurant. The name has changed since I was there. It is now called Countryside Cafe Cheerful Hunter.

At the time, my wife was working for an NPO related to rural revitalization, and so had networked with other similar NPO's in the region, and so had been here.

Takahashi Imada and his wife are  the proprietors. He is a hunter and so wild boar features heavily on the menu, along with other wild, mountain delicacies.

He gave me a plate of wild boar meat, a cup of amazake made by his wife, and a bed in an empty house on the property for the grand price of 2,000 yen. Their noodle restaurant is usually full, and he also offers hunting trips and minpaku-style accommodations nowadays, and yes! he was cheerful.

The previous post was on the afternoon leg of my walk.

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Garden at Kozanji Temple

 

The garden at Kozanji Temple in Chofu, Yamaguchi, is neither well-known nor well-visited, though the temple itself and its grounds are usually crowded.

Kozanji is the 19th temple on the 33 temple Chugoku Kannon Pilgrimage, and that was the reason for my visit. 

It's a large, Zen temple whose main hall is a National Treasure as it is one of the oldest Kara-yo buildings left in Japan. Kara-yo is the Chinese-influenced temple architecture that was introduced along with Zen in the 13th century and so is strongly associated with the Zen sects.

While wandering the grounds I was approached by a priest who engaged me in conversation. Foreign visitors to the temple are certainly not rare, so maybe he was intrigued by my pilgrim jacket.

Anyway, it was he who suggested I seek out and visit the garden which is tucked away at the side of one of the main halls and seems to have been designed to be viewed from what I presume to be the abbots residence.

Since 2020, photography of the garden has been forbidden, but not when I visited in 2014.

The buildings that view the gardenm,... the shoin, kuri, and walkway between them, were built in the late Edo Period, so it is believed that is when the garden was built.

It has a long, shinji pond, but most of the garden is moss.....

Unfortunately, the strong shadows and bright sunlight made it harder to appreciate the garden....

I suspect an overcast day might be better to appreciate the moss.....

The previous post in this series on November 27th, 2014, day 25 of my walk along the Chugoku Kannon Pilgrimage, was on the old samurai district near the temple.

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Ryushintei Garden at Sorinji Temple

 

When I arrived at Sorinji Temple in the outskirts of Ube, Yamaguchi, the day was ending and the temple was in shadow with light fading fast.

I caught a glimpse of colour behind the buildings and upon investigating, was stunned to discover an amazing garden....

It is said to be the oldest garden in all of Yamaguchi.

Sorinji Temple was founded in 1670, but it was built on the site of a much older temple.

The original temple was called Fusaiji, and was founded in 777 by a monk from China.

It is believed that the garden dates from the mid to late  14th Century, although the great garden designer and scholar Mirei Shigemori suggests it might be even earlier

In 1983 the garden was designated a National Place of Scenic Beauty.

It is a pond garden, with a couple of features that, while not unique, are quite rare.

The pond has two straight lines of stones. They are called Yodomariishi, and represent boats at anchor in a harbour.

They are said to be "treasure ships" on their way to Horai, the mythical Daoist home of the immortals.

The other unusual feature is the areas of pebbles laid on the edge of the pond. See the third and fifth photos below.

This is said to represent the ebb and flow of the tides.

Another feature I didnt notice but read about later is a section of the railings along the porch overlooking the garden ahs a section with the lower railing removed.

This is so you can sit on the porch with your legs dangling over...

I hope to be able to return to Sorinji and see the garden in sunlight one day...

There is also a small "courtyard" garden between the buildings.

I visited at the end of day 24 of my walk along the Chugoku Kannon Pilgrimage. The previous post was on the unpleasant part of my walk earlier that day.

if you would like to subscribe by email just leave your email address in the comments below. It will not be published and made public. I post new content almost everyday, and send out an email about twice a month with short descriptions and links to the last ten posts.