Susanoo's Unusual Komainu

Scattered across the remote mountains of Inner izumo are a series of mountain shrines to my favorite kami, Susano. Finally i was able to visit Yaeyama Shrine located on Mount Yaeyama .

I will post more on the shrine at a later date, but for now I just want to show you the rather unusual komainu.

As I wander the backroads of rural japan I am always on the lookout for diversity.... homogenity is such a sickness :). and in the "arts" of local shrines is one place where diversity can be found...

The faces of these komainu are not so unusual, but the stance and body forms are....

The author of a book I have on the komainu of izumo believe these were carved by a man in Yunotsu, but doesnt give any dates. He also believes that originally they were located inside the gate.

Incidentally, a pair of komainu at another Susano shrine, Yaegaki near Matsue, are believed to be among the oldest in japan....

Akiyoshidai: the biggest karst in Japan

Compared to some countries Japan does not have a great diversity of landscapes. The first place  I visited in Japan that struck me as unusual for Japan was Akiyoshidai in central Yamaguchi.

It is a karst, a limestone plateau, and is in fact the largest karst in Japan with an area of about 130 square kilometers.

Some 300 million years ago it was a large coral reef which rose above the sea and became limestone. Being soluble the limestone is easily eroded by water and has created the unusual  landscape of rolling hills with sinkholes and unusual protruding rocks. It also is home to hundreds of caves, including Akiyoshido, the largest in Japan.

Off in the distance the more usual Japanese landscape can be glimpsed.

The early Japanese eventually cut down the forest that stood over the plateau and replaced it with Susuki, Japanese Pampas Grass, which they used as fodder and thatch. To stop the forest from regrowing the plateau is burned every February.

There are numerous trails all over the plateau and it offers an unusual landscape in any season of the year.

Lying down in the Mountains

heading off for a few days in the mountains again so I thought I would post some pics from a recent trip sleeping out on top of a mountain to show the obvious reason why...... the views...

All these photos are from a night I spent on top of Mount Kannomine on Osakikamijima, an island in the Inland Sea

Its only 453 meters high, but getting to the top means starting at sea level so its still a good climb.

Unfortunately it was cloudy so the light was not as good as it could have been, but still there were some stunning views over the numerous islands that dot the Inland Sea between Honshu and Shikoku.

The sun set over the Aki Nada chain of islands that I had spent 2 days walking across to get here

Unfortunately it was even cloudier at dawn but still it was an awesome view across the  islands that the Shimanami Kaido now runs across from Ohnomichi to Imabari....

Misumi Power Station

Misumi Power Station, owned by Chugoku Power Company, is where we get most of our electricity from.

It can generate 1,000,000 Kilowatts by burning coal, though a certain percentage of biomass, local woodchips, are also mixed in.

I grew up in the industrial heartland of the UK, and my home was located within site of a coal mine and a gasworks, so belching smoke and grimy soot is what I associate with coal power, but Misumi Power Station is white and spotless and very hi-tech.

The coal mostly comes from Australia and the power stations own ship ferries back and forth every two weeks.

The storage silo is one of the biggest of its kind in the world and its interior volume is larger than that of Tokyo Dome.

The whole process is completely automated and there are very few workers. Free guided tours are available.

Shikoku 88 Temple 17 Idoji

Temple 17, Idoji, was founded under orders of Emperor Temmu in the 7th Century.

The main deity is Yakushi, the healing Buddha, and there are 7 statues of Yakushi Nyori supposedly carved by Shotoku Taishi.

Idoji means "Well Temple" and refers to the legend that when Kukai visited here he dug a well with his staff and renamed the temple.

The temple was burned down several times and rebuilt in the 17th Century, but the present concrete structures only date from the 1970's.

Morning rainbow

Snapped this early this morning on my way up Asari Fujisan, a local mountain shaped like Fuji.

Passing by Taisha

From Temple 2 of the Izumo 33 Kannon Pilgrimage to temple 3 is over the Kitayama Mountains which form the spine of the Shimane Peninsula. The shortest route take me right through Izumo Taisha passing by this shrine, the Izumotaishakyo Soreisha. It was founded in 1882 which if I am correct is the same date that Izumotaishakyo was founded by the Senge in what is known as the "Pantheon Dispute". As a soreisha the shrine enshrines the ancestral spirits of the Senge family, the hereditary priests of Izumo Taisha.

Izumo's distinctive "fat" shimenawa are everywhere to be seen...

Including, of course the Kaguraden, home to the biggest shimenawa in the world.

Though it is called a kaguraden the buildings main use is for conducting shinto weddings and as Izumo Taisha is the most sought after destination for such ceremonies there are a continuous stream of weddings taking place just about every day....

I noticed for the first time that there is a group of three hondens to the rear of the kaguraden.... have yet to search out the identity of the kami enshrined therein......

Month of Little Sleep part 9

Past midnight and the inevitable Iwato was performed. It is one of my least favorite dances, but the last sequence after Amaterasu has been brought out of the cave and the assembled kami celebrate is performed with gusto by 8-beat groups such as Tanijyugo, and it gets quite frenetic with much leaping about.

Then onto Jinrin with the usual spectacular demons entrance.....

Next up was a rare performance of Benkei & Yoshitsune. Benkei, the legendary and archetypal sohei (warrior monk) is waiting on Gojo bridge in Kyoto to challenge the next samurai who passes. he has done this successfully 99 times. A slight, young Yoshitsune comes along.

Yoshitsune had been trained in swordsmanship by a tengu in the mountains north of kyoto, and his acrobatic skill is too much for Benkei who after being defeated becomes Yoshitsunes lifelong loyal vassal.... a very similar story to Robin Hood and Little John....

next dance was Tenjin, the first time I had seen the dance this season. Sugawara Michizane, the hero,, deified as Tenjin, wears a mask uncannily like the Guy Fawkes mask in V for Vendetta, takes on his arch-enemy Fujiwara no Tokihira.

It was 2:30am, still 4 more hours of kagura to go, but I left to grab some sleep as the next day there was an all night Omoto Matsuri up in the mountains and I wanted to stay all night for that....

Sunset on Sanbe

On Thursday I started walking the Iwami 33 Kannon pilgrimage. The second and third temples lie around the base of Mount Sanbe (1126m) so I decided to make the detour and climb to the top as it had been some years since I was up there. I started out in Oda just slightly above sea level and the route took me along the river directly towards Sanbe some 20k distant.

It was a mostly overcast and showery day and I got to the top about 4:30 and off to the west the clouds cracked open to reveal a splash of color....

About 2 minutes later Wes of Hiking in Japan arrived at the top and we took a few photos before the clouds closed and settled on the mountain. 2 minutes after that it started to rain and kept up all night long becoming sleet and snow at times. Fortunately there was a hut to take shelter in....

Aki Nada Island Hopping

The Aki Nada Islands are a chain of islands in the Inland Sea off the coast of Hiroshima Prefecture that run approximately from near Kure to near Takehara. A series of bridges have been constructed that link the islands to each other and to the mainland so now it is possible to drive, cycle, or in my case walk from island to island. The Aki Nada Ohashi bridge connect the mainland to Shimo Kamagari Island.

This bridge connects Shimo Kamagari Island to Kami Kamagari Island. Shimo and kami mean "lower" and "Upper" and refers to which is closer to Kyoto as this was the main transportation route between Kyushu, Western Japan and the old capital.

Kamikamagari connects to Teshima. Not to be confused with another Teshima further east in the Inland Sea off Hyogo. That Teshima has become quite well known as an "Art Island" and when I booked a room at a minshuku on this Teshima they wanted to double-check that I wasnt confusing it with the other Teshima.

Teshima connects to Osaki Shimozima. There is a little bit of fishing on the islands but they are too steep to support agriculture but all the islands now grow a lot of oranges on the steep slopes.

A very short bridge connect Osakishimozima to Tairajima, a small uninhabited island.

Tairajima to Nakanoshima.

And finally, with an almost carbon copy of the previous bridge, Nakanoshima connects to Okamura Island which is in Ehime Prefecture.

The largest of the Aki Nada islands, Osakikamijima, lies to the north and is only accessible by ferry.