Kaburaiji Temple 11 Kinki Fudo Myoo Pilgrimage

Kaburaiji Temple

Kaburaiji is claimed to be an ancient temple established by none other than Shotoku Taishi in 581.

His mother was born here, and the mountain, Mount Dokko, had been considered sacred long before the temple was established.

The name derives from a kabura given to the temple by Shotoku Taishi. Kabura is a turnip and it refers to whistling arrows which had a turnip-shaped head and whistled when flying through the air.

It is said that Kobo Daishi visited and dug the well here.

It was destroyed by fire several times, including by a forest fire in the Edo Period.

It was rebuilt in 1862, BUT.........

In 1873, a bunch of local "unruly samurai" who named themselves Tenchugumi after a band of samurai who were active in the years running up to the Meiji Restoration of 1868 attacked and burned down temples and shrines in the area, including Kaburaiji.

The temple was abandoned until 1955 when Prince Kuninomiya Asahiko visited the site and prayed for its restoration.

This began in 1959, and in 1965 the Goma Hall was completed.

In 1973, the three-storey Pagoda was erected and then the main hall in 1992 and the Benten Hall in 1994.

Other buildings now in place include a bell tower, Daishi Hall, large guest building and large Kuri, monks quarters.

There is a miniature 88 temple pilgrimage, pictured above.

The temple is now known for raising a species of Lotus thatbdates back thousands of years...

The previous post in this series on my walk along the Kinki Fudo Myoo Pilgrimage was on the koi-filled pond in the small garden at the temple...

I have no idea what this huge barrel is being used as....

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84,000 Medicine Buddhas

Ichibata Yakushi Temple

Kishigawa Line Japan

Kishigawa Line

Ichibata Yakushi Temple 26 Chugoku Kannon Pilgrimage

Chugoku Kannon Pilgrimage

Dofuchi Kaikyo The Narrowest Strait in the World

The Narrowest Strait in the World

Koizu Inari Shrine & Sansha Shrine

Koizu Inari Shrine & Sansha Shrine

At Koizu fishing port I headed over to see what seafood was being dried in the baskets, only to discover it was nets.

Lower Sagi Toriimoto Historic Preservation District

 

Sagi Toriimoto is an Historic Preservation District in Arashiyama, near Kyoto

In an earlier post, I covered the upper section, a group of thatched, 400 year old buildings, a couple of which still operate as eateries.

This section is more visited and includes plenty of retail establishments as well as private houses.

One of the old houses is open as a kind of free museum about the district.

The Sagi Toriimoto Town Conservation Museum is in a row of traditional machiya townhouses.

The exterior has a facade of lattices and mullioned windows.

The interior has raised tatami floors and some Meiji-era features including a coal-burning kitchen and interior water well.

The building dates back to the early Meiji Period and was renovated in 1993.

There are historic maps, photos, and architectural diagrams of the area.

A diorama shows how the area looked in 1930.

The previous post in this series on Arashiyama was on the upper section of Sagi Toriimoto.

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Koizu Coast Washboard Rocks

 

After leaving Mitsu Shrine, the road carries on down the narrow valley into the fishing village of Mitsu itself.

As with all small fishing harbours, huge concrete seawalls and breakwaters create a safe harbour for a handful of small inshore boats...

The peninsula is part of a large Japanese Geopark and so there are plenty of signs about the geology of the area.

Not much of a geologist myself, though I do prefer land that is bare of vegetation and do enjoy geologic "features" even if I don't fully understand them....

I do know that 10,000 years ago this peninsula was an island off the coast of what is now Izumo.

The road now hugs the sea until the first named feature called Ichinose.... what we would describe as washboard rocks....

Around the headland and we arrive at the main feature of this part of the coast, Koizu Coast Clothes Washing Rocks, more washboard formations....

I do know that the alternating stripes of rock are sandstone and mudstone, with the mudstone the hollow and the sandstone the raised....

In the winter the rocks are off limits because of the seaweed that grows here and is harvested later by the locals....

From the official website.... "This alternating layer of sandstone and mudstone is part of the Ushikiri Formation from the Miocene epoch of the Neogene period. Most of the sandstone in this layer is turbidite. However, the absence of complete boomer sequences suggests that the turbidite was deposited closer to its source. Groove marks on the lower surface of the sandstone layers indicate a southwest-northeast flow, and these, along with changes in lithology, suggest that sediments in this area may have been transported eastward."

It may be uncool or even un-eco, but concrete does have an aesthetic at times....

The previous post in this series on day 42 of my walk along the Chugoku Kannon Pilgrimage was on a couple of shrines just along the coast....

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Tosa Shimizu Sunrise

Tosa Shimizu Sunrise

Christmas Eve, 2011, and just after 7am the sun announces its impending arrival.