Pacifying the River Gods

Last week while across the river heading to pick up some firewood I was surprised to see some villagers from the little hamlet in a procession with a large Onusa heading to the riverbank. The next day, the 5th of May, both my village and the small town on the other bank would be having the Suijin Matsuri and would be doing the same thing, but this was the first time I had seen Ushiroyama doing it.

We all live on the banks of the Gonokawa River, the longest river in West Japan,  and like all river here it is prone to flooding and causing damage as well as drowning people. Its for this reason that the priest over in Kawado told me that the Suijin matsuri is the most important ceremony of the year. The end of the ceremony involves placing a large Onusa, most commonly referred to in English as a purification wand, attached to a long length of bamboo and hung over the river at several points to pacify Suijin, the river god.

This is a photo of the largest Onusa, from the biggest of the Suijin festivals held in Kawado. I did not attend this year as I was away but I have posted on it before, here, here, and here.

The biggest Onusa on our side of the river is this one, on a large sacred tree at the point on the river that used to be the main, and dangerous, crossing before the bridge was built. I have posted on the Tanijyugo Suijin Matsuri here and here. The small red arrow in the photo points to where the next photo was taken

As part of the Tanijyugo Suijin Matsuri a second Onusa is placed on the riverbank further downstream where my hamlet reached the river above the spot where legend has it a Kappa lives

More Statues at Kobo-ji Temple in Hagi

This is the second post on the many statues found in the grounds of Kobo-ji temple in Hagi. This first one looks distinctly bored.

None of the statuary was particularly outstanding, but there were a lot of them and they were quite diverse.



The previous post can be found here

Whatever was hidden behind these multiple layers of curtains has a story attached to it. "This tragic love story is similar to a verse of long epic "Everlasting Regret"by Hakukyoi who was a famous poet during Tang Dynasty. In the Genroku Era ( 1688-1704) some beloved concubine Kikuyo fell in forbidden love with some handsome page Fusanojo. Their employer got angry and banished him to an island. Before leaving her he promised her to make a faire every evening for her until he dies. Two months later its smoke had stopped. In her sorrow, she threw herself into the sea from the nearby Kikugahama Beach. Their employer felt pity and built this lovers grave for them.

The final photo is a figure I am always on the look out for,,,,, Fudo MyoO.

Izumo 33 Kannon Temple 31 Manganji

Located on the north shore of Lake Shinji. the grounds in front of the main hall of Manganji seem unusual to me.

It is a Shingon temple and claims quite a heritage. According the temples founding legend Kukai (Kobo Daishi) stopped here after visiting Izumo Taisha in 824.

He also took the time to carve the statue of Kannon. According to historical records this was a very busy time for Kukai, in 824 he was given control of To-ji in Kyoto, built Zenpuku-ji in what is now Tokyo, and was appointed to several government positions.

The grounds were pleasant, but there were not a lot of statues.

Deep Kyoto Walks

The editors of the new e-book Deep Kyoto Walks subscribe to one of my basic tenets, ie that the best way to learn about somewhere is to get out and explore on foot. They have collected together 20 walks around the former capital Kyoto and its vicinity. It is no mere guidebook though. The 16 writers are, with a couple of exceptions, non-Japanese who, by chance or design, have made Kyoto their home. I haven't done the math, but for sure their collective experience of the city must be at least  200 years. With 16 different writers you get a mixed bag of concerns. Some focus on history, some on nature, some on food, and a few do include some of the  well known tourist attractions, but they are all very personal walks, so  it is as if you have your own personal guide along with you pointing out things you may not notice or that locals would take for granted and not mention to you. Some of the writers will appeal to you more than others. From some of the pages there is a distinct odor ( I would not go so far as to use the word "stink") of Zen, and there is a bit of pretentiousness to some, though to be fair it would be hard to write about Kyoto without pretentiousness as the city was founded on the pretensions of the rulers and has been fueled by the pretensions of its inhabitants ever since, especially since the capital moved to Tokyo. The focus of the walks and the styles of the writing are varied enough that everybody should find more than enough interesting and enlightening. My own personal favorite was the piece by Michael lambe whose walk delved into some of the more modern history of Kyoto. Each walk has enough detail to be easily followed but each also has its own map. I would recommend the book to anyone planning on visiting Kyoto, anyone who plans to revisit Kyoto, and even anyone who doesn't plan to visit.

Hinase Hachimangu

Hinase, the small port town on the coast of Okayama near to the border with Hyogo, is where I began my walk along the Chugoku 33 Kannon Pilgrimage. There are several shrines in the town but I only passed by one, the Hachimangu.

Located on a small hill overlooking the harbor, it is a fairly standard, small Hachiman Shrine

However, being in the former province of Bizen, the Komainu were made of Bizenware ceramic, a very popular style throughout southern Okayama.

There was no signboard and nobody around to ask, so I have no more details other than there was a small secondary shrine, an Inari, though there were no little kitsune statues....

Well of Beauty

Just below Kongo-ji, the thirtieth temple on the Izumo Kannon Pilgrimage, is a pond-well known as the Well of Beauty. The story dates back to the 15th Century and the time known as "Warring States".

A local warlord, Saiga Yoshitomo, came to the temple and asked that the monk there  serve in his army. The monk refused. In retaliation the warlord gathered up all the statues of the temple and set fire to them. All the statues were destroyed except for one, a statue of Bato Kannon, the Horsehead Kannon.

The warlord had a beautiful, young daughter, and after her fathers sacrilegious act she suddenly became cursed with a disfiguring skin disease. The daughter came to the temple and for 7 days and nights prayed in front of the surviving Kannon statue but received no relief. An old hermit, with a long white beard, approached the girl and gave here a red cloth. He told her to take the cloth to the well below the temple and using the water there to bathe her skin.

She did as she was told and as she wiped her skin great blisters arose and then burst and underneath fresh, beautiful skin appeared.

 Small bottles of the water are on sale in a cabinet beside the well, but judging by the cobwebs I would say that sales are no longer brisk.

Fudo Myo at Ryusho-ji

At a tad under 14 meters from the ground to the tip of the flames, its not the tallest Fudo Myoo statue by any means but it is still quite impressive.

It's located in front of Ryusho-ji, a Shingon temple, number 64 on the pilgrimage I walked around Kyushu. Its on the lower east slope of Mount Unzen, the active volcano in the center of the Shimabara Peninsula in southern Nagasaki.

Two smaller Fudo statues, with quite distinctive faces, flank the main statue.

Miniature Fudo's left by worshippers are lined up at the base.

Izumo 33 Kannon Pilgrimage Temple 30 Kongoji

There were a couple of Fudo Myo statues at temple 30, Kongoji. the 4th temple of the day on this my penultimnate day walking the Izumo Kannon Pilgrimnage. They were surprising because Kongoji is a Rinzai Zen temple and Fudo is most often found at Shingon temples.

Of course it may well have been a Shingon temple before becoming a Rinzai temple, but it is hard to find any history of the temple.

There is a well just below the temple known as the Well of Beauty, and the story associated with it says there was a temple here in the 15th Century.

The main deity enshrined here is Bato Kannon, the Horsehead Kannon who wears a hat that represents a horses head. This kannon is particularly known for looking after animals and so livestock owners pray to her/him. The bato kannon statue is part of the well story and I will post that next...

Sacred Islands

There are thousands of small uninhabited islands and islets  in Japan, many of them sacred and with small shrines on them. One hears often of sacred mountains, the places where the gods descend to, but sacred islands get mentioned much less.

There are many myths and stories of the gods coming from under the sea and from across the sea, the Japanese themselves arrived here by water, so its perhaps not surprising. The most famous sacred island is probably Miyajima, home to the Itsukushima Shrine, and it was for a long time kept uninhabited as an abode of the gods.

On my recent walk along the Japan Sea coast of Yamaguchi I encountered some of these sacred islands. Nowadays many of them are said to enshrine Benten, or Benzaiten, a syncretic deity associated with the sea. Small islands in lakes will often enshrine her. She was also conflated with the Itsukushima goddess.

The first photo is the tiny Megashima, which means Doe island. You can make out the torii on the right under the biggest tree. The next two photos are the larger Ogashima, 200 meters away, which means Stag island. Being a male/female pair they are considered Meoto (married) islands. As you can see in the third photo the shrine has buildings. No-one I asked could tell me which kami were enshrined there or if there was a story....

Further along the coast, the fourth photo is Noshima. You can just make out the torii on the beach to the left and a small honden behind it. Again no-one could tell me which kami is enshrined there. Further along in Susa Bay is Nakashima. A gentleman walking his dog told me Benten is enshrined there. As you can see it has buildings.

Birds along the Yamaguchi Coast

This past Spring while walking the Chugoku 33 Kannon Pilgrimage I took a walk along the Japan Sea coast of Yamaguchi,  It's a particularly fine stretch of coast with azure seas, outcroppings and cliffs, small islands and a lot of small fishing villages. Here are some of the birds I saw. The first is a heron. Sagi in Japanese, maybe its a Grey heron, maybe a Great Blue......

Lots of cormorants. I am guessing that they are Temmink's Cormorants, the most common kind, known as Umi-u in Japanese, though there are some other species which visit during migration. The difference among the onbes in the photo may be due to age and gender.

Lots of Kites, Black-eared Kite being the common species here. Known as Tombi in Japanese.

More cormorants.

This is, I believe, a Blue Rock Thrush, but I have no idea what it is called in Japanese.