Shukkeien Garden in Spring

 

Shukkeien is the daimyo garden connected to Hiroshima Castle.

Not so long ago I posted a sequence of photos taken in the autumn, and so this time I post on a trip there last Spring.

I have visited Shukkeien quite a few times, and my appreciation of it has grown each time.

It seems to me to be quite an underrated garden....

For details on the garden and its history, I refer you to the earlier post.

In spring, green dominates almost completely....

On this trip I was pleasantly surprised to discover that there is free entry to over 65's...

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Renge-ji Temple 44 Shodoshima Pilgrimage

 

At around 250 meters above sea level on Mount Yufune, temple 44, Renge-ji, looks down on the Nakayama Rice Terraces.....

Set in a forest of huge trees and with a sacred spring that feeds the terraces, Renge-ji is quite a small temple.

The temple bell, donated in 1669, is said to be the second oldest on the island.

It is said the temple was founded in the 14th century.

The honzon is a Thousand-armed Kannon.

The tem@le was abandoned in the Meiji Period but revived later.

The small mixed forest around the temple has some huge trees and is a Prefectural Natural Monument.

The spring is one of Japan's Top 100 waters.

The shrine below is a Kumano Gongen Shrine, said to be the only shrine on the island to Kumano Gongen.

The previous post in this series on the Shodoshima Pilgrimage was on the Nakayama Rice Terraces.

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Kumano Shrine & Kochi Shrine on the Sanyo-do

 

The first shrine I stopped in at on my walk along the Sanyo-do in Yamaguchi was a Kumano Shrine in Ezaki.

In the back of the grounds was a corner of Autumn colours....

and a pair of small, weathered zuijin....

but other than that, not much to report as there was no signboard and can find no information online...

Further along the way I stopped in at a Kochi Shrine in the Sayama district.

Under the red metal are the original thatched roofs, which give the buildings' proportions an elegance...

Three female kami are listed. Amenomikumari, Mitsuhanome, and Kuninomikumari. Not sure that I have ever encountered these before.

Amenomikumari and Kuninomikumari are obviously a pair, the 5th and 6th kami born of a brother-and-sister pair of water-estuary kami created by Izanami and Izanagi.

Mitsuhanome was born from Izanami's urine after she was burnt given birth to the kami of fire. All three kami seem to be connected to water and are not found outside of Yamato except in Yamaguchi.

Somewhat to the rear of the shrine is a Tsuka, or Zuka. Usually translated as burial mound, they are not graves but where things are buried , like sutras, or needles that have become too old to use. Ths one seems to get offerings still, but I can not find out what is buries here.

The previous post was on my walk along the Sanyo-do, where I found these shrines...

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Tenjin Shrine Tokushima

 

Right next to the Awa Odori Hall and Ropeway Station in downtown Tokushima is the Tenjin Shrine.

It was established by Hachikusa Iemasa at the opening of the 17th century. It was destroyed during the bombings of WWII and the current buildings date to the late 70's.

The giant red torii was erected in 1986 to commemorate Emperor Showa's 60 years on the throne.

There are several smaller shrines within the grounds, including a Himeyama Shrine with associations with finding a spouse and good marital relations.

There is also a Kunin Daimyojin known for business prosperity and success in exams, which seems to be cutting into the territory of the main kami of the shrine, Tenjin, aka Sugawara Michizane.

The biggest secondary shrine is an Inari shrine right next to the main hall......

It is the one with lots of sake barrels in front of it....

The previous post in this series on Tokushima was on the views from Mount Bizan.

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.