Garden at Taimasan Shrine

 

This is the second post on the garden at Taimasan Shrine. In the previous post, I showed how the garden looked in 2010, but this post is photos from a visit at the end of 2021.

In the second and third photos, a new garden has been built between the entrance to the shrine and the old temple garden. This new garden was built by the current head priest and is composed of two parts, Iwakura, and Iwasaka.

An Iwakura is a rock into which a kami descends, and an Iwasaka is a rock that mark the boundary of sacred space.

This makes this new garden very much a shinto garden.

The major difference in the main garden from when I visited 11 years earlier, is the white gravel area.

Also, this was the end of May, so some of the small trees are now full of leaves, and there are still a few flowers left on the azalea bushes.

For information on the history of the garden, please refer to the previous post.

The previous post in this series on  MountTaima, literally Hemp Mountain, was on the garden 11 years earlier....

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Akiyoshidai International Art Village

 

The first place I stopped at to explore when I got to Akiyoshidai was the Akiyoshidai International Art Village.

It is tucked away up a narrow valley at the edge of the karst and I had never seen it before on any of my previous visits to the karst and cave.

A huge red sculpture stands at the entrance. It is Untitled No. 218 by the Japanese sculptor Yonekichi Tanaka.

The main reason I wanted to see AIAV was because it was designed by Arata Isozaki, a major Japanese architect whose work I appreciate.

The first section was the residential complex. Terraced concrete pools emukate the rice paddies that stood here before.....

An then a complex of buildings that includes a rebuilding of one of his earliest works that has been demolished at its original site in Oita.

The Nakayama House was the first house designed by Isozaki after he set up his own arhitectural firm in 1964.

The facsimile built here in 1998 is now used as a salon, connected to another small building and with the large restaurant building behind it.

AIAV was set up to be an arts center that brought international artists to stay in residence. Both visual arts and performing arts.

I think it is still ticking over with a few projects each year, but it did not become as successful as hoped. In some ways, it reminded me of the sports centre in Kagoshima, which was also built with numerous residential facilities and was intended to become a hub for national and international sports training. However, it now only offers gateball for its elderly population.

The largest structure in this set of ancillary buildings is the restaurant, which still seems to be operating.

Clad in unpolished marble, it is a huge cathedral-like space measuring 7 meters wide by 13 meters tall and 30 meters long.

Each end of the building glass, with one framing the main arts center building which I will cover next...

I did read that the location and idea for the arts centre actually came from Isozaki himself. Another intriguing rural art museum by him is the Museum Of Contemporary Art in Nagi, Okayama.

The previous post was on the Iwanaga Hachiman Shrine I visited earlier on my walk.

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Reviving a Lost Garden Part One

 

At almost 600 meters elevation, high on Mount Taima near Hamada is a wonderful garden, truly off the beaten track.

A shrine was established here in 889 after a monk received an oracle. In 947, a temple, Sonshoji, was established just below the shrine. It had an Eleven-faced Kannon as its honzon.

In 969, further shrines were built and over the centuries the shrine^temple complex grew.

In the early 16th century the shrine^temple complex was burned down during the war between the Ouchi Clan and Amago Clan.

It is believed that in the mid to late 17th century the garden was created.

In 1836 a huge landslide destroyed the compkex.

In 1844 the shrine was rebuilt but at the temple, only the priests' quarters were rebuilt.

In 1868, with the Shinbutsu Bunri edict, the temple was moved to Koyasan.

In 1872 the shrine was destroyed by the Hamada Earthquake and then rebuilt soon after.

In 1942 the great garden scholar and designer Mirei Shigemori "discovered" the garden.

In 1979, Shigemori's son and collaborator, Kando Shigemori visited.

Obviously, by now, all the overgrown vegetation has been removed and the bushes pruned back to reveal the stonework.

The current head priest of the shrine used to be a gardener in Kyoto, and I believe it has been he who has been personally responsible for the revival.....

All the stone used is native to the mountain.

From one edge of the garden are views down onto the coast....

Apparently, some of what appear to be smaller stones are in fact huge boulders buried deeply, inplying that the stone work of the garden must have been built around some fixed features.... There are no Crane or Turtle arrangements, although the uppermost grouping of stones is considered a Horai arrangement.

These photos were taken during a visit to the shrine in the winter of 2009. Next up I will show how the garden now looks.

Some other gardens I've covered recently include the Ryushintei Garden at Sorinji Temple, and the Chofuteien garden, both of which I highly recommend.

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Iwanaga Hachimangu

 

A little further along the road to Akiyoshidai after visiting the Hirohata Hachiman Shrine, yet another large hachiman shrine appeared.

Iwanaga Hachimangu had a very long approach with numerous torii....

It is claimed to be the oldest shrine in the area, being founded in 715.

The curious thing is they say it was enshrined from Hyuga, now Miyazaki. All the other Hachiman shrines in western Honshu at around that time are enshrined from Usa. Usa was the original Hachiman shrine and as the cult spread to Honshu due to the association of Hachiman with the founding of the Great Buddha at Nara, it gradually became a national cult.

However, before it spread to Honshu, it had spread somewhat around Kyushu. I came across a couple of Hachiman shrines in southern Fukuoka that had been established very early on. However, I had not found one in Miyazaki. The head priestess of Usa Hachiman had led an army earlier to suppress "revolt" in the southern part of Kyushu, so maybe that explains it.

Like many shrines, this one has been relocated several times, although the exact dates are unknown. It changed its name to Iwanaga in 1922, but it is unclear what it was called before.

Like other hachiman shrines in the area, the kami selection is Ojin, Jingu, and the three Munakata princesses.

Within the grounds is a Tenmangu, and an Arajinja enshrining Susanoo.

In the 1980's a small kofun with an unusual stone-lined coffin chamber was excavated nearby. It was relocated the shrine grounds to keep it safe from the expanding limestone mining.

The final photo shows a quite common feature at many shrines..... a naval artillery shell!!...almost certainly dating to just after the Russo-japanese War at the start of the twentieth century.

The previous post was on another nearby hachiman Shrine, Hirohata Hachimangu.

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