Akaoni (red demon) masks of Kunisaki

Since I started to make masks myself I have become interested in searching out examples of older, wooden masks.

Shrines are a good place as many of them have old masks on display.

The red demon is often paired with the white demon.

All of these masks were at shrines on the Kunisaki peninsular in Oita Prefecture, northern Kyushu.

You can see a couple of my red demon masks here.

NCB Seaside Building

The NCB Seaside Building houses the offices of several major banks. It is a fairly nondescript office block with little architectural merit except for the entrances located on the corners of the building.

It is located in the Momochi district of Fukuoka.

Arisanomiya Shrine

The shrine of Arisa is located in a cave about 90 meters above the Takahashi River near Niimi in Okayama Prefecture. To get to the shrine you have to walk and climb through 1 kilometer of the Ikura cave.

Arisa was a local girl who lived in the village about 400 years ago. She had a boyfriend called Mosaku. Apparently all was well until one day the daughter of the local lord passed through the village. This girl/woman was so stunninbgly beautiful that even as far away as China they had heard about her great beauty.

Mosaku became smitten by this girl and left the village to go after her and try to win her hand.
Arisa waited.
And waited.
He never did come back.

No longer able to stand her grief Arisa climbed up to the top of the waterfall that drops down from the cliff above the cave and threw herself off.

The villagers built the small hokora for her.

For some reason, the logic of which defies me, the shrine is now a place where young couples come to pray for good relationships.

Unfortunately the only way to reach the shrine is to pay to enter Ikra-do, but it is well worth it.

Along the tracks

On Sunday I went down to Gotsu for the annual Kagura Festival, but after a few hours indoors I couldnt stand it any longer... outside was another beautiful clear day and as we have had so few this month and as the good weather was not likely to last, I headed off for another walk.

I got off the train in Kawahira and headed up the tracks.

This section of the river has no road on this bank, and as it was 90 minutes or so till the next train I reckoned I could get along the tracks before it came.

There are a few abandoned farms along this side of the river....

Closer to Kawado I passed by a place that has fascinated me since I moved here, a hidden valley. The entrance is very narrow and choked with bamboo and undergrowth and there appears to be no trail in, but one of these winters when the undergrowth has died back Im going to try and find a way in...

Though its the longest river in West Japan, the Gonokawa is not well known but I have yet to see a river in Japan that is more beautiful.

I arrive safely into Kawado without encountering the train.

Kawado, the bustling commercial hub of Sakurae Town.......

Mine-Ji

Mine-Ji is an ancient mountain temple looking down on Unnan Town in the Okuizumo district south of Lake Shinji.

I previously posted on the Nio and Fudo Myojin statues here.

Reputedly founded in 658 by the legendary En no Gyoja, considered to be the founder of Shugendo, the temple was reputedly visited by Kobo Daishi and has been a Shingon Temple since then.

There are a lot of nice statuary in the extensive grounds, and several shrines, one to Inari, and one to Suijin. The shugendo tradition continues here and in April a Himatsuri (fire festival) is held.

With advance reservations the temple is one of the few in the region that offers shukubo (temple lodgings) and shojin ryori (vegetarian buddhist meals) There is a nice garden that can be enjoyed while drinking tea, and an interesting library and an altar for Tibetan Buddhism.

 

This felt very much like a "working" temple, active in many areas, whereas so many temples are simply funerary sites. There is no public transport to the temple but Kisuki Station is about 2k away, and the temple is only at about 180 meters elevation, so not so hard to walk to.

 

I dont usually find painted screens all that appealing, but this one in the temple really struck me.

Phallic Hokora

Hokora are small roadside shrines found all over Japan.

Often the doors are closed, but sometimes they are open and one can see the shintai which is usually a stone, sometimes a small statue.

This one I found in a village in southern Okayama is obviously a small fertility shrine.

They were much more common in earlier days, though one can still find them in the countryside.

Each carving would have been made by a local person to ask the kami for a baby.

Karube Shrine

Karube Shrine is located a few minutes from Kiyone JR Station on the Hakube line. The shrine is a few kilometers south of the Kibi Bike Path and well worth a detour off the path to visit.

Like so many shrines it is built at the base of the hills, and in the grounds are several small secondary shrines, probably gathered here from the surrounding area in the early 20th Century.

When we get to the main building of the shrine however we see what makes Karube Shrine different and why it has the nickname Oppai (boobs) Shrine.

The kami here is Chichigamisama, the kami of breasts and women come here to pray for plenty of breastmilk and safe delivery of children.

The Ema with breasts on can be purchased locally, and the prayers written on them were split 50/50 between asking for good milk and safe birth and for relief from　breast cancer.

What I found more interesting were the ema that were hand-made rather than being purchased.

The custom of breast ema seems to have spread a little. This last photo is from a sub-shrine at nearby Kibitsu Shrine.

Kezo-Ji

Slippers wait for visitors in front of the main hall of Kezo-Ji. When we visited on a sunny Sunday afternoon we were the only visitors there, due mainly to the temples location at 456 meters above see level on a remote mountain between Matsue and Mihonoseki.

Previously I posted on the giant Fudo Myo o statue and the Nio here as well as the fantastic views.

Above the main doors a fine carving of a Tennyo, a buddhist "celestial maiden" sometimes translated as angel.

The temple was founded about 1200 years ago and was originally of the Tendai sect but in the kamakura period it switched and became a Zen temple of the Rinzai sect which it continues to be today.

During the Warring States Period the temple was badly damaged but was rebuilt about 400 years ago when the Lord of the newly built Matsue castle chose it as the temple to protect Matsue. The building date from this period and since the late 19th Century the structures have slowly deteriorated to their present state.

The temple is well worth visiting, but unfortunately you need a car or take a bus from Matsue and then walk up the steep mountain road.

OMMMMK 7

The seventh kagura matsuri for us this month was at Kakushi in Gotsu. Being in a town there were lots of people there and lots of stalls. There were lots and lots of kids running around. It was a Monday night but because of the all night matsuri all the local schools were closed next morning.

First dance we saw was Shioharae, the purification of the dance space. We came here about 6 years ago and Kakushi had their own kagura group, in the more traditional 6-beat style. Tonight Tsuchi kagura group were playing. Tsuchi pay the faster 8-beat style. Actually Tsuchi were the teachers of my own village kagura group.

Next up was Hachiman. The Kakushi shrine, like many round here, is a Hachiman shrine. Last year when we did the rounds of the matsuris it seemed that everywhere we turned up they were dancing the Iwato dance. This year it seems to be the Hachiman dance.

Hachiman danced alone, and fought a single demon.

Next up was Yamato Takeru. There are a whole series of myths/legends/stories about the exploits of the prince known as Yamato Takeru, mostly concerned with his subjugation of tribes outside Yamato control in Kyushu, Izumo, and the East. On his way east he is given a sacred sword by his aunt who was the Head Priestess as the Ise shrine. This is the sword that Susano found in the tail of the 8-headed serpent Yamata no Orochi, and gave to his sister Amaterasu the Sun Goddess, ancestor of the Yamato imperial line.

In the East he is almost killed when his enemies lure him alone into a grassy plain. They light the dry grass all around him but he uses the sword to cut down the grass around him and he creates a firebreak. Since this episode the sacred sword, one of the three Imperial Regalia, has been known as Kusanagi, the grass-cutting sword.

Kibitsuhiko Shrine

Kibitsuhiko Shrine is at one end of the Kibi Bike path near to Bizen Ichinomiya Station where bikes can be rented or dropped off if coming from the other end. The shrine is about 1k from Kibitsu Shrine which is the Ichinomiya (first-ranked shrine) of the old Bitchu province. Kibitsuhiko Shrine is the Ichinomiya of the old Bizen province.

The shrine is also known as Asahinomiya as the building are lined up with the sunrise and sunset of summer solstice.

The main kami enshrined is once again Kibitsuhiko, one of the sources of the Momotaro story. Also the mythical/legendary 7th, 8th, 9th, and 10th Emperors are enshrined here though I suspect that they may have been a Meiji era addition.

Traditionally the Japanese did not enshrine emperors as kami. Other than the case of Ojin who became equated with the kami Hachiman through an oracle, and a couple of emperors who died violent deaths and were enshrined in a buddhist procedure, all the emperors now enshrined as kami were done in the modern era of State Shinto/ Emperor worship. Some of the biggest shrines now, Meiji Jingu in Tokyo, Heian Jingu in Kyoto, Kashihara Shrine in Nara, are all modern creations.

In the grounds of the shrine is a stone lanterm 11.5 meters tall. Possibly the biggest stone lantern in Japan.

There is also an old, large sacred tree, but on closer examination it turns out to be mostly concrete. Most of the tree died with some form of rot so to keep it standing the rotten part was filled in and sculpted with concrete.