Heading West Off the Beaten Track in the Mountains of Yamaguchi

 

After visiting Kanyoji and its wonderful gardens, there were still a couple of hours of daylight left in the day.

The next temple on the pilgrimage was in Yamaguchi City, about 40k almost directly west.

The route was across a very remote section of mountains, although the Chugoku Expressway roughly went the same way.

It was not an area I had ever been to before, and there seemed to be no notable sights or settlements along the way....

I stopped in at any local shrines I passed....

In Suyama,  a Kumano Shrine with two pairs of Ebisu and Daikoku masks...

As the sun gets lower I keep my eyes peeled for a place to sleep for the night.... something I  habitually do even if I am in a car or on a train....50 years of sometimes having to sleep out means I know what to look for ...... I believe the contemporary term is stealth camping...

 

And then over a small pass  from the Seiryoji River valley to drop into the Kushi River valley....

In Kushi, a small park....

And next to it on the hillside a small Hakusan Shrine....

Rusting metal covering thatched roofs are very common around here...

Kushi Hachimangu is quite rare, a shrine with a thatched roof...

It claims to have been founded in the early 8th century

An unusual pairing of masks... a Karasu Tengu with a Daikoku...

The sun has gone down so it seems this is the best place to sleep..... The previous post in this series on day 21 of my walk along the Chugoku Kannon Pilgrimage was on some of the Mirei Shigemori gardens at Kanyoji Temple...

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Solstice on the Beach

 

I have a personal tradition of trying to sleep out on the night of the summer solstice.

My preferred location is a mountaintop with 360-degree views so I can watch the sun set and then rise again.

My second choice would be a beach facing west, and so it was back in the summer of 2020 I found myself on day 6 of my walk exploring in depth the Sea of Japan coastline

I've seen egrets gathering together to roost for the night before, but I'v not seen so many flying together as a flock.

My spot for the night was a covered picnic shelter on the beach not far from Izumo Taisha.

In the far distance, Mount Sanbe...

My spot was at the mouth of the Kando River....

I could look back and see where I had started walking that day ( photo 3)

During the evening there were several fishermen visiting the beach.....

But otherwise a nice quiet spot with only the occasional mosquito....

The previous post in this series was on my walk from Kirara Taki to this point.

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The Nine Mountains & Eight Seas Garden and the Mount Horai Pond Garden

 

This is the second post on the gardens at Kanyoji Temple in Yamaguchi.

The previous post looked at the temple and mostly the main garden and purely sand and rock courtyard garden.

This time we are looking at two gardens behind the temple, both quite narrow and they run into each other.

I was fortunate to be here during the peak of the autumn colours.

Kanyoji is a 14th century Rinzai Zen temple that is temple 15 on the Chugoku Kannon Pilgrimage, the reason I was visiting this time.

The running water in all the gardens at Kanyoji comes from Choondo Cave behind the temple. It is actually a man-made tunnel, 89 meters long, which brings water from the river. It was constructed in the 17th century.

The Mount Horai Pond Garden represents Mount Horai, which is the Japanese name for Mount Penglai, a  mountain and home of immortals in Chinese mythology.

The roots would seem to be in Daoism, a major influence on Japanese garden design which would include Crane and Turrtle islands.

Both this and the Nine Mountains garden are said to represent Kamakura Period styles, though the bold spirals on the sand are definitely Mirei Shigemori...

The Nine Mountain and Eight Seas Garden depict the landscape surounding Mount Sumeru, the central stone.

This is very much grounded in Buddhist cosmology, though it does have some Hindu origins.

Mount Sumeru is the centre of the world in Buddhist cosmology, and like Mount Horai, is a common motif in many gardens.

The gardens here at Kanyoji, and the gardens at Matsuo Shrine near Kyoto, are both considered masterworks of Mirei Shigemori.

Both were designed towards the end of his career, and both feature garden designs depicting various historical periods.

Matsu Shrine is obviously more accessible, but Kanyoji would be my favorite in the Autumn colors season.

The previous post in this series on the Chugoku Kannon Pilgrimage was on the other gardens here at Kanyoji.

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.