Showing posts with label jizo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label jizo. Show all posts

Monday, February 19, 2024

From 28 Yakushi-do to 29 Kazaana-an

 


Yakushi-do, temple 28 on the Shodoshima Pilgrimage is located on the east coast and about halfway down the Mito peninsula that has the southernmost point of Shodoshima at its tip.


It is a fairly small, simple, and new structure that has been moved here fairly recently from higher up the slope. It is said that Crown Prince Taisho visited on his trip to the island in the first years of the twentieth century.


The new location is in front of an older cemetery and right next to the village shrine. It is unnamed with no information but the very small shimenawa is of a kind that still has the ears of rice attached to the ends of the straw.


I sit in the little covered rest area next to the Yakushido and drink a can of coffee from the vending machine while I ponder my route. The guide book I am using is written for car pilgrims and says to keep going south down the coast road and then cross over the peninsula at its narrowest part before heading up to the next temple.


Signs from the Yakushi-do point up through the village and I decide to follow them as my experience yesterday suggests that the walking path is quicker than the car route.


I switch back up through the village and take a path leading up the hillside. Once on top the path follows the narrow ridge before starting to descend down the other side.


I pass by a small altar and believe it to be the okunoin of temple 29.


A pair of dolls seem really creepy..... many Japanese I have spoken with seem very superstitious when it comes to old dolls.....


A little further and I come to temple 29 Kazaana-an. There are great views down the coast and across to Shikoku. I believe this is the southernmost point of the pilgrimage.


It is a modern building and well looked after.


I see a couple of young women heading down the stairs. These are the first other visitors to a temple I have seen since starting three days ago.


The honzon is a Jizo, though it, and several other statues, are locked away. A reclining Buddha covered in blankets is in front of the altar.


There is a small Inari shrine. Representations of Inari are either of a young maiden or an old man. This one is the latter.


The previous post in this series on the Shodoshima pilgrimage was on my walk down the peninsula.


As I reach the road below the temple a young pilgrim is parking his bicycle. Our paths will cross several more times today

Wednesday, February 7, 2024

The Climb to Senganji Temple

 


Kawamoto is the next town up the Gonokawa River from my village.


Halfway up the steep hillside across the river from downtown Kawamoto is a small temple, Senganji.


The temple becomes really visible in late Autumn when the trees around it turn orange, yellow, and red.


I have actually only made it up to the temple one time, after walking down from Iwami Ginzan on day 5 of my walk along the Iwami Kannon pilgrimage.


Senganji is temple number 9 on that pilgrimage.


There is no vehicular access to Senganji, only a footpath with more than 200 steps, which is, I think, a large reason the temple has been uninhabited for a long time.


There are numerous statues along the path, inlcuding a lot of Jizo but also some Kannon.


When I visited in the late afternoon in May, the shafts of sunlight illumnated many of the statues quite dramatically.


Tomorrow I will post photos from inside the temple and include what history I have been able to find out.



According to a recent photo I saw, the structure housing this collection of statues has  now completely collapsed.


The temple occuppies a narrow ledge in the steep hillside.


The previous post in this series on the Iwami kannon pilgrimage was Ido Shrine in Omori.


Monday, January 15, 2024

Turtle Rock at Tozenji Temple

 

 
I suspect that we all have specific images or scenes that encapsulate our experience of Japan. While an icon is usually a visual image  that has a very broad or near-universal meaning, Mount Fuji as icon of Japan for instance, for many of us something more personal and related to our own environment and experience is more iconic.


For me, one of the defining images of Japan is of red-bibbed statues set in a green, mossy background, as I encountered behind Tozenji Temple. The first two photos were taken from Hasami Shrine next door, suggesting that the sacred spring behind the temple was also shared by the shrine.


A path running behind the temple that follows a small stream leads up to the source of the water, with statues set along the rocks.


The water is coming out of some rounded boulders that had been given the name Kameishi, or Turtle Rock.


A signboard at the temple now proclaims this to be a "power spot", a term that seems recently to be applied to just about anywhere. When I first came to Japan I noticed that the moniker "powaa supoto" was applied to mostly sites connected to imperial myth, but now is very widespread and applied to many sacred springs and sacred trees etc


The previous post was on Tozenji Temle itself.





Friday, January 12, 2024

Tozenji Temple Number 66 on the Kyushu Pilgrimage

 


When I visited Tozenji, back in 2014, it had no main hall, it having been demolished to make way for a new one.


"Business" was being conducted out of what I believe was the reception area of the priest's residence


The temple is said to have been founded in 711 by none other than Gyoki. I was surprised to learn that Gyoki had been to Kyushu, because even though there is very little actually known about him, what is known is that he was primarily based in the Kinki area, though many temples on Shikoku claim him as their founder.


There were several shrines altars and statues scattered around, and several other buildings but they seemed to be off-limits.


A small bridge stands suspended, connected  to the space where the main hall used to be. There is now a brand new building there.


The honzon of the temple is a Yakushi Nyorai. Tozenji is, like all the 108 temples on this pilgrimage, a Shingon temple.


A small stream runs behind where the main building stood and it leads u a narrow, mossy gully filled with red-bibbed statues. The priest gives me permission to explore and that is what is the subject of the next post.


The previous post was on Hasami Shrine next door.


Wednesday, January 10, 2024

Niomon & Yakushido at Onsenji Temple

 


Onsenji Temple in Kinosaki Onsen, Hyogo, is the guardian temple of the town and was founded in the eighth century by the priest said to have discovered the hot spring.


The main buildings of the temple are located halfway up the mountainside and are reachable by steps from the base of the mountain, or, more commonly nowadays, by the ropeway.


At the bottom of the steps there are several; structures of the temple including an impressive Niomon, and a Yakushi-do.


Constructed in the late 18th Century, the Niomon contains a fine pair of Nio guardians.


The Yakushi-do was constructed a little later in the early 19th Century.


There is another small "hall" with what appears to be statues of Enma and other "Judges of Hell"


In the "foyer" of the Yakushi-do are many ema paintings and a delightful painted ceiling


The Motoyu, or origin of the hot spring is located just outside the temple grounds.


Onsenji is a Shingon temple.



The previous post in this series on Toyooka was on the main buildings of Onsenji.