Jyoei-ji Temple & the Shigemori Garden

 

Jyoei-ji Temple in Yamaguchi City is a Rinzai temple more commonly known as Sesshuteien after the garden designed by Sesshu within its grounds.

A statue of Sesshu, one of the most important artists and garden designers in Japanese history as well as being a zen monk, stands at the entrance to the temple.

On the approach you pass through Muin, a wide, fairly simple garden created in 2012. photos above and below. This is the first of 4 gardens at the temple.

None of the current buildings are very old, but it is quite a big temple with many smaller halls within the grounds.

The temple also has some nice art...

However, the main focus of the temple is the huge garden to the rear which is the biggest garden designed by Sesshu and said to be based on one of his landscape paintings....

I was here at the start of day 23 of my walk along the Chugoku Pilgrimage and it was peak Autumn Colours time so I highly recommend my post from last year of 24 shots of the Sesshu Garden in glorious colours.

For this post I will concetrate on the garden in front of the main hall.

It was designed by Mirei Shigemori.

It is called Nanmeitei garden and was built in 1968.

There is a story that the head priest asked Shigemori to make a garden that was not so good so that it did not detract from the Sesshu Garden.

The garden uses the two gates as a backdrop.

Please enjoy these close-up shots of the garden.

The honzon of the temple is a Thousand-armed Kannon.

The final garden is a small karesansui garden using  a reddish gravel rather than the usual white....

I once again urge you to check out the post of the Sesshu Garden in full Autumn Colours.

The previous post in this series was on my walk into Yamaguchi City the previous afternoon.

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The view from Mount Bizan

 

Mount Bizan is a 291 metre-high mountain overlooking Tokushima City.

The Bizan Ropeway runs from the 5th floor of the Awa Odori Hall and in six minutes takes you up to Bizan Park.

You have extensive views over the city to the North, East, and South.

The sea is not far away..... on a good day you can see the coast of Wakayama....

It is ranked the number one night view on Shikoku....

There is a small shrine and what appears to be a south-east Asian pagoda...

The view to the west is over the mountains that stretch away....

The broad Yoshino River dominates the view to the north...

The previous post was on the Zen temple of Zuiganji and its garden and pagoda and tea houses....

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Into Yamaguchi City to end Day 22

 

After leaving the Izumo Shrine, I continue on westward along Route 376.

This old, thatched house has not had the thatch covered in tin.....

"Life happy by toy at night" is a piece of excruciatingly translated Japanese...... I did not go into this little roadside vending outlet, but I suspect porno, cheap sexy outfits, lube, condoms etc are what can be found... Japan has quite a range of commodities sold by vending machine..

I saw quite a few of these kind of places in the rural parts of Kyushu.... sometimes not far from a cluster of rural love hotels, but often just in remote spots...

The road is never far from the Chugoku Expressway, but only occasionally does the roar of traffic become audible....

Up ahead I catch a glimpse of an array of very large satellite dishes, apparently among the biggest in Japan...

Not sure why KDDI chose this spot to erect such a relay station.....

This large Jizo statue stands at the start of a mountain footpath that goes to a very small temple building housing a Yakushi. It is said to have been founded by Gyoki in the early 8th Century.

I cross the Niho River and am now close to Yamaguchi where I have a room for the night....

The previous post in this series was on the Izumo Shrine a little further East in Tokuji.

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