Ohashi Natural Bridge

 

If you follow the path up behind Ohashi Kannonji Temple you arrive at the Ohashi itself.

Formed when the roof of a cave collapsed, the natural bridge is about 30 meters long and about 4 meters wide and is split into two sections for most of it.

Scattered around the cliffs underneath it are numerous statues, the biggest being a Fudo Myo.

The community of ferns growing here is quite unusual and is registered as a National Natural Monument.

The natural bridge was one of the historic Hirado Hakkei, the "eight scenic views of Hirado Domain"

Unlike the American Southwest where the natural bridges and arches can be seen dramatically, here in Japan the dense vegetation makes them less than  impressive, but the biggest one in Japan, Onbashi in Hiroshima, is actually quite impressive.

The previous post in this series on day 68 of my walk around Kyushu was on the Ohashi Kannon Temple.

Kounkaku Matsue

In the grounds of Matsue Castle stands quite an elegant Western-style building called Kounkaku.

It was built in 1902-3 as a lodging for the Meiji Emperor. The emperor made half a dozen grand tours around the country, part of the governments program to instill a sense of nationhood among the population using the emperor as a unifying symbol. 

All across the country towns and cities built such places in the hopes of attracting a visit from the emperor.

In the end, Meiji didn't visit Matsue, but his son, the Crown Prince did, in 1907, and he stayed there.

Now it is used for a variety of exhibitions and also houses a cafe.

Many similar, Western-style buildings were built, in the early days as residences for foreigners, like the mansion for foreign engineers in Kagoshima.

Some of the Japanese nobility built them for themselves, like the Jinpukaku in Tottori. However, many smaller, much less pretentious Western-style buildings were used for such things as post offices, hospitals, local government offices, etc. Like this former hospital near Kurume.

The previous post in this series on Matsue was Matsue Castle itself.

Ohashi Kannon Temple 75 Kyushu Pilgrimage

 

The main building of Ohashi Kannonji is a modern, concrete affair, but because of its proportions it is quite elegant.

The main statue is a Kannon, but to the left is a lovely Fudo, and to the right is an Inari, or maybe a Dakiniten, which unusually has a coiled snake.

According to the temple legend the honzon, an eleven-faced Kannon was carved by Gyoki in the 7th century, so yet another temple in the area that claims a connection to Gyoki.

Nearby is an older hall and the priest's residence.

Among the many statues dotting the grounds is a triad consisting of a central Fudo flanked by a statue of Kannon and a Kobo Daishi.

As well as being on the Kyushu 88/108 pilgrimage, the temple is also on a couple of Kannon pilgrimages.

Ohashi means "Big bridge" and refers to a natural stone bridge in the cliff behind the temple. It deserves its own post which will be next.

The previous post in this series chronicling day 68 of my walk was on the small shrine down below the temple. The previous temple was Saifukuji, a few kilometers upstream and on the opposite side of the valley. It also had a natural bridge.

Up the Yoshino River to Ikeda

 

A wayside Fudo Myo statue is a timely reminder that I am walking the Shikoku Fudo Myo pilgrimage as I leave the Teramachi district of Mima in Tokushima and continue west along the Yoshino River.

For these first three days of the pilgrimage, I have been following the river upstream as it heads almost perfectly East to West. I had spent the morning visiting interesting sites in Mima after first visiting temple 3 of the pilgrimage. The next cluster of three temples was around Ikeda 20-30 kilometers upstream, and also where I had a room booked for the night, so I simply walked West along the north bank as quickly as I could, forgoing any distractions.

After the three temples in the Ikeda area, I would be heading back down the river on the southern bank where another couple of temples lay.

The river continued to be wide as did its valley, and there were relatively few bridges.

The valley narrowed as I approached Ikeda, and the river made a turn here and eventually headed into the middle of Shikoku through the spectacular Oboke Gorge and the now-famous Iya Valley. Across from Ikeda the very steep mountainside is terraced with rice paddies and scenic villages.

Once I reached Hashikura I jumped on a train that crossed the river and took me to Ikeda. Hashikura is the site of the next temple but I wanted to return the next day for the next leg.

My room for the next 2 nights was perched high above the river looking down on the Shikinoue pedestrian suspension bridge.

The previous post in this series was on Ganshoji Temple in Mima Teramachi

Kumano Shrine Yoshii

 

The Kumano Shrine in Yoshii, Nagasaki, is a fairly typical small, rural shrine. Set on a small, flat area within a forest clearing, it is reached by several long flights of stairs.

Architecturally it is really just a utilitarian shed housing a small hokora-type shrine with a small altar set up in front of it. However, it looked as if the building had been wider at some point.

There may have been some stone komainu, and the remains of some stone lanterns could be seen, however on the altar was a pair of small, wooden komainu.

Being a Kumano Shrine it enshrines the Kumano Gongen, the collective name for the kami enshrined at the three Kumano shrines in southern Wakayama. There are about 3,000 branch shrines of Kumano in Japan, with three being within just a few kilometers of this one.

I visited in late March 2014 on day 68 of my walk around Kyushu following the Shingon Kyushu 108 temple pilgrimage dedicated to Kobo Daishi. This was the final leg that would see me finishing the pilgrimage ten days later. First I must visit Hirado Island, then go back into Saga prefecture before heading to Munakata in Fukuoka. The previous post in this series was on the shrines I visited on day 67.

Seikantei Garden Kinosaki

 

Gokurakuji Temple is hidden away in a corner of Kinosaki Onsen and is barely visited by the majority of visitors to the resort town, who will miss a quite remarkable garden.

Called Seikan Tei, it is a karesansui, "dry garden" most often associated with Zen, and Gokurakuji is a Rinzai Zen temple.

It is somewhat unusual in that the garden is in front of the main hall and the entrance pathway cuts right through it. many of the traditional gardens were built to be viewed from the rear of the main hall or from the Abbot's residence.

The most unusual thing, to my mind, was that one half of the garden used areas of white gravel and dark gravel, something I don't remember noticing before.

The light and dark areas are separated by a border made of roof tiles set vertically, something that is quite common.

Actually the light areas inside the dark ground form the Chinese character for kokoro, "heart". This is sometimes the shape of ponds.

The rock and moss "islands" in the sea of gravel  also use standard design representations, there being a Crame Island, a Turtle Island, a Three Buddhas Island.....

The garden uses a red rock brought from Kurama, a blue rock from Yoshino, and Shirakawa sand from Kyoto.

 I have been unable to establish when the garden was built. Most sources suggest it is fairly modern and a photo of it dates to 1976.

One source suggests it was designed by a disciple of Mirei Shigemori.

Entry is free, so if you are in the area it would be well worth a visit.

Later I will post on the temple and its history and the nice rock garden in front of it.

The previous post in this series on Toyooka was on the lower part of nearby Onsenji Temple.