Shikoku 88 Pilgrimage Temple 23 Yakuoji

With its distinctive hillside pagoda visible from miles away when approaching Hiwasa, Yakuoji is the last of the pilgrimage temples in Tokushima before entering Kochi.

According to the legend it was founded by Gyogi, and Kukai later visited and carved the statue of Yakushi Nyorai. It is a Shingon temple.

Apart from its place in the Shikoku 88 temple pilgrimage, it also receives hundreds of thousands of visitors from all over Japan who come here to pray for protection for their "unlucky" years, ages 41, 42, & 61 for men, and 32, 33, and 61 for women.

The approach to the temple has two sets of steps, the one for men has 42 steps, and the one for women has 33 steps. The steps up to the pagoda has 61 steps. A coin is left on each step as one climbs.

There are some fine views over the coastal town with its small, reconstructed castle....

Yaguchi Shrine

Yaguchi Shrine has no particularly distinctive features, and yet is listed in both the Izumo Fudoki and Engi Shiki.

Yaguchi means "eight mouths", and refers to the 8-headed serpent Yamata no Orochi that was slain by Susano. Susano is the main kami enshrined here.

There is another Yaguchi Shrine in the area that is supposedly where one of the sake barrels that was used by Susano to drug the serpent is buried.

For the next few days of the pilgrimage, I will be passing through the country where the Orochi Myth is set.
It was early May and so everyone was out preparing the paddies and planting the rice.

Kitsune of Shikoku 2

The second installment of photos of fox statues taken on the Shikoku Pilgrimage.
This first one is at the Yosakoi Inari Shrine in Kochi City.

Fox (kitsune) statues will be found at Inari shrines where they serve as guardians. Inari is therefore often erroneously called the Fox God. Actually I was surprised at how few Inari shrines I found on Shikoku compared to some other areas of Japan. This one was at a small shrine in Ehime, not far from temple 40.

This one is at a sub-shrine in the grounds of Taga Shrine, a fertility shrine, in Uwajima, Ehime.

Ryukoji, the 41st temple, was originally part of an Inari Shrine, but the two were separated in 1868.

Wearing a tail-warmer, Taisanji, temple 52 near Matsuyama.

Izumo 33 Kannon Pilgrimage Temple 7 Komyoji

Komyoji

Komyoji, the seventh temple on the Izumo 33 Kannon Pilgrimage is on a mountaintop, Johirayama, overlooking the Ibi River in the Hikawa District. It has a fine pair of Nio.

All temple records were lost so it is not known for sure when it was founded, though a local legend says early in the ninth Century. It is now a Soto zen temple.

A specially constructed building houses what is known as the "Korean Bell", which dates from the fifteenth Century. Almost certainly this was looted from Korea during Hideyoshi's late 16th Century invasion.

The priest wasn't home.... he passed me driving down the mountain while I was walking up, but some of his robes were hung out to dry in the porch of his house.

There are some nice views over the surrounding countryside. This is only the third day of this pilgrimage but it is shaping up to be an interesting and enjoyable one.

Shoin Shrine, Hagi.

One of the most popular tourist sites in Hagi is the Shoin Shrine which enshrines Yoshida Shoin.

Shoin was a local samurai who took part in the anti-shogunate activities that lead up to the Meiji Restoration of 1868, though he was executed in 1859 for his part in an assassination attempt, therefore the shrine is very much a part of modern shinto that emphasised those who supported the emperor and his rule.

The shrine was established in 1890 and moved to its present location in 1950.

Before his death he operated a school that now stands in the grounds of the shrine and many of the future leaders of the Meiji government were taught by him, including Ito Hirobumi, Japands first Prime Minister.

Happy New Year of the Horse

Kanbara Shrine & Tomb

Kanbara Shrine is a little further down the river from Unochi Shrine, but was until recently about a hundred meters from its current location. It was moved when they discovered it had been built on top of a kofun, a mounded tomb....

The three main kami enshrined here are Okuninushi, Iwatsutsuwo, & Iwatsutsune, the latter two being the parents of Futsunushi, the kami from the Kuniyuzuri Myth who arranged the transfer of Japan to Amaterasu's descendants from Okuninushi.

Among the grave goods found in the excavated tomb was a bronze mirror dated 239, which was the year the legendary "queen of Wa" Himiko sent an envoy to China and received one hundred bronze mirrors.

The design of the mirror found here was the one that has been called Himiko Mirrors, but more than 100 have been found. Doing a bit of research for this post I read a convincing argument by one historian that these mirrors were manufactured in Japan by immigrant Chinese craftsmen.

I have often read that "shinto" has an aversion to death, but in western Japan at least I have found quite a few shrines that have been constructed on top of tombs.

Kyushu Yuzu

Shikinaen

Shikinaen is the garden built around a secondary palace of the Rykuan Royal Family not far from Shuri Castle in Naha. Being Okinawan it includes both Japanese and Chinese styles. An earlier post on the palace, the Udun, can be found here.

Most fascinating for me was one of the bridges made out of uncut, sharp and gnarly limestone rocks.

There is also a small pavilion but unfortunately cannot be entered.

What makes the garden interesting is the exotic plants that cannot be found in mainland Japanese gardens. There are also views over Naha.

By way of explanation

Some people get confused by this blog. Many blogs are diaries in chronological form, but mine jumps backwards and forward in time and space. There are a few themes that I return to regularly, manhole designs being one. All the manhole posts can be found by clicking the manhole tag.
Modern architecture is another interest..... click on the architecture tag
I try to post about all the critters I encounter.... click on the fauna tag
I do post vacation snaps... Morocco being a favored destination
Though I havent posted much recently I visit a lot of matsuris, most of which involve Iwami Kagura

Most posts however are concerning my walks around Japan. Currently I am posting about
Shikoku 88 Temple Pilgrimage
Kyushu 108 temple Pilgrimage
Izumo 33 Kannon Pilgrimage
Iwami 33 Kannon Pilgrimage
also
a 3 day walk across the Aki Nada Islands
a 5 day walk across the Kunisaki Peninsula
and a 3 day walk from Honshu to Shikoku starting with the Onomichi Temple Walk.

I post a little from each walk rather than a continuous and chronological sequence from just one.

One topic that is heavily represented is shrines, and an index can be found here.

there are now over 1100 posts, and over the years I have tweeked the code and its all getting a little messy, so I am hoping to start a new blog in what I think will be a better format early in the new year.

Till then I am off walking.........

so seasons greetings to you all

feedback is always appreciated

Hachizu Shrine

After leaving Usa Hachimangu and heading towards the Kunisaki Peninsula I chose to avoid the main road and instead headed through the back roads through the village of Hachizu where I stopped in at Hachizu Shrine.

There is a very unusual mix of kami enshrined here, the primary being Amenominakanushi, by some accounts the first kami to come into being, yet very little is known or written about him. There were apparently no ancient shrines deicated to him, but in the Meiji era when the buddhas and kami were seperated, many shrines chose to rename Myoken, the deity of the North Star, Amenominakanushi....

The next is Yaekotoshironushi, another version of the name Kotoshironushi, the son of Okuninushi and now more commonly equated with Ebisu. Then there is the pair of kami Mikahayahi and Hihahayahi who who created out of blood dripping from the sword that Izanagi used to kill the god of fire. Finally there is Uganomitama, the female aspect of Inari.

I am guessing that the pile of rice straw is to make new shimenawa. Secondary shrines within the grounds include Kibune, Tenjin, Konpira, Gion, Inari, Dosojin, and Wakamiya.