Tanoura Coast to Orii Coast

 

After the Tanoura Beach my route heads inland and then starts up towards another pass.

It's May so paddies are flooded and in some cases planted.....

Miniature farm machinery is one of the reasons rice is so expensive in Japan. Every farmer, who has a tiny farm , must buy machinery to plant and a different one to harvest. Each is used for just a couple of days a year. I my little village there is some sharing, but still Yanmar, Honda, etc are very profitable for a reason...

In many cases after the machine has planted humans must go in finish tings off....

A tiny narrow road over the pass..... I love these roads.... no traffic and wide enough....

Coming down into the tiny settlement of Imaura.....

Really, ormer settlement would be more accurate..... there was a couple of inhabited houses among the abandoned ones, but by now they too are abandoned.....

There is a substantial shrine, and a little harbour without any buildings....

The shrines name is Imoyama Shrine but I can find no sources on which kami are enshrined or any history.

It does have a kaguraden that is still in use, so I guess there are enough scattered farms in the surrounding mountains to support an annual matsuri.

There seems to be just a couple of small boats at the harbour, out of the water.

It is a popular spot for recreational fishermen ( and women)....

After climbing out from Imaura harbour I pass by the Orii Cliifs, top photo of this post. A little while later I look down on the Orii Coast and Mount Taima looms ahead.

Then I drop down to Orii Beach, well "protected" by lines of tetrapods. On the way down I pass another abandoned love hotel..... at Orii Station I hop on a train and head home.

The previous post was on the walk from Kamate to Tanoura...

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Tanoura Higyokudo Temple 30 Sasaguri Pilgrimage

 

Higyokudo in the Tanoura area of the Sasaguri Pilgrimage is yet another of the tiny, unmanned "temples", but a little different...

Until 1996 there was a pilgrims lodgings here and so there are the remains of a small garden...

As usual, and to my continued delight, there were numerous Fudo's....

The honzon is an Amida, though because there was dispute on Shikoku with two different temples claiming to be the 30th for a while, the temple here has enshrined  Amidas from both of the Shikoku temples...

Also I've noticed that many of these smaller, unmanned sites have an older, smaller stone honzon on the altar next to a newer, gold-plated one.

Many of these small temples did not exist before the establishment of the Sasaguri Pilgrimage, so most of the new temples were simples a small stone honzon in a tiny structure.

Over the years the local people enlarged the little temples building bigger structures, erecting new, more expensive honzons, and adding more and more statues....

This pilgrimage, like the one on Shodoshima, shows a remarkable religious system not maintained by any powerful organizations, but simple by local communities....

The previous post was on the glorious forests of giant bamboo the pligrim trail passed through earlier this day.

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From Kamate to the Tanoura Coast

 

My route on day 34 of my walk along he Chugoku Kannon Pilgrimage continues up the scenic coastline of Iwami, the westernmost section of Shimane. The last pilgrimage temple was in Hagi, and the next one is in Hamada, so this is a very long section without pilgrimage temples, but with plenty of other sights to see...

When I first came to Japan I was surprised how many temples looked like fortifications, until I learned they actually were....

Those buildings right on the waterfront are a traditional  hot-spring ryokan with great views of the sunset from windows you can lean out of and fish from...... with prices accordingly... Araiso is the name ....

In Tsuchida I stopped in at the local Hachimangu Shrine before climbing up and around the headland on the tiny, narrow road.

I passed by Okami and dropped down to sea level at the huge Misumi Power Plant.

It is coal-powered, shipped from Australia and China, I think.... Japan has reserves of coal but shut down their coal industry in the 1960's to switch to cheaper oil....

There was a lot of serious construction going on to expand the port facilities as the were about to start construction of a second plant..... coal seems to figure in Japanese future plans...

Offshore, seen here at maximum zoom, is Takashima Island, about 12k away.

With almost 4k of coastline, it was inhabited until 1975, though I'm guessing not a lot of people lived there....

After crossing the Misumi River, I stopped in at the interesting Reikoji Temple before walking back to the coast. Mount Taima ahead, and Tanoura Beach....

Along the beach at where another headland protrudes into the sea is Tanoura Beach.

Popular with locals in the summer, it has toilets and showers but nothing else....

There are a couple of nice rocky outcroppings, and plenty of concrete tetrapods....

and of course, excellent views of the power plant.....

I suspect this is wakame seaweed out to dry....

The previous post was on Reikoji Temple nearby with its cool komainu carvings...

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.