12.07.2018
So after day without temples this time i would be tackling no less than 5 as there is bunch close to each other within Imabari town. With distances no longer than 3.4km at most this should be series of quick hops to temples.
As I had no breakfast on the lodging I
took the chance to start walking very early so I was off the roof 6:15 or so.
I had some discomfort with my stomach though which reminded me awfully
of last year after calling it quits when I spent like 45 minutes going
to the toilet every 4 minutes or so but luckily it wasn't quite that bad this time. But was
worried it might get so was grateful temples would be close with
konbinis etc in route so even 2 km without toilet nearby would be unlikely.
Especially if I was willing to backtravel. Biggest worry was the last
mountain but I figured I can call taxi from previous temple if situation
feels still bad before tackling it.
So
walking in the relative coolness of morning()though relative still means
like 25 degrees which would be nice summer noon in Finland. Funnily
enough it did feel in fact cool. Maybe i'm getting used enough to the 30
degrees that 25 feels actually cool not that it eally stopped me from
sweating
Always amuses me how trusting to laws Japan is. In Finland alchohol vending machine unattended like this would find teenagers emptying it of beer.
I
walked short while and got to konbini where I got myself some lotion
for dry skin, or at least i hope its for that, and had to use toilet
right away. Not a good start. Marching onward and preparing to turn back
and run if stomach feels odd i got to the next temple with stomach feeling
normal again
Arrival to the temple 54, Enmeiji(The temple of long life). Both temple and honzon is credited to Gyogi with Kobo Daishi restoring it later at the request of Emperor Saga. The name was before same as previous temple(Enmyoji, The temple of great illumination) with even same kanjis but during Meiji period the newly set up postal service kept mixing the two so this changed name a bit.
Graveyard next to the temple. From the map I figured I'll be going past that to the next temple.
Originally this temple was at location at 244m over sea level but in 16th century the Chosokabe's armies burned it and 7 shrines it had down and it was later rebuilt, without shrines, to present location.
The temple has particular fame of being place where scholar called Gyonen wrote down a book called "The Essential Philosophical Analysis of Eight Buddhist Sects". He is also the founder of Kegon philosophy.
This temple is sole one in the pilgrimage where there are two belfries. This comes from when original bell was taken to the Matsuyama castle. New one was built but original one, when struct, let out sound that sounded just like "home"(well in Japanese) that eventually it was quickly restored to the original location. Home sick bell eh?
Alternative legend says soldiers tried to take away the bell and trying to leave by boat the bell moved on itself jumping to sea. Soldiers thought this to be sign of Buddha's power and were too affraid to prevent bell from returning to home.
Now THAT I would like to have seen :) Jumping bell!
After
completing the temple rituals I was enjoying a breather when the first
walking pilgrim I saw on this trip appeared! She was an italian
woman who has been doing this from the temple 1 so quite long already an on this
heath. We greeted and continued onward. I figured we might meet again on
this temple rich day. True prediction.
Path
toward next temple first led through graveyard, then through housing
areas and finally through a BIG graveyard. One might think its rude to
be walking past graveyard like this but well...apart from practicality,
walk elsewhere would be huge detour, the pilgrimage is seeped with
images and symbolism of death and indeed we pilgrims are even considered
to be walking more in the world of death so to speak. Pilgrims are
often doing this in memory of deceased relatives so in a some sense
maybe you could say its appropriate route takes through graveyards?
Now that's one overgrown garden. Bit surprised. Gardens here are usually quite well kept.
And through yet another, and even BIGGER, graveyard. Made me wonder how the people are supposed to find grave of the loved ones until they remember. Well parts are numbered. Wonder if rows are as well?
Arriving
to temple 55 with stomach still in fine order I managed to arrive
through side gate realizing where the gate and belltower were only after having
started temple rituals and its said to be bad luck if you ring a bell
after starting temple rituals. Should have at least gone to take a look at the gate though...Plenty of car pilgrims here and sure enough as
i was finished up and resting the italian pilgrim arrived. Sooner than
last so she had gained up on me which albeit wasn't too hard as I wasn't rushing up and she's fitter than me anyway.
The temple 55 is called Nankōbō(The temple of southern lights) and is unusual in that it has neither ji(temple) nor in(another kanji for temple's though nuance difference) but bo(坊) instead. This is likely due to being originally branch temple of Oyamazumi Shintō Shrine of ōmishima Island(north of this area in Shikoku, island between the Shikoku and main island) that was built in 703 by Ochi Tamazumi by Emperor's order. The honzon was carved by Gyogi. However due to waves, wind, rain etc natural troubles the temple was built here and honzon transfered along with priests. So name is basically due to this being priests home while the shrine itself they worked for was elsewhere(I think).
The reason temple and shrine were associated like this comes from the period when the theory called Honji-suijaku(True Nature Manifestation) was in belief. According to it Shinto Kami's(gods) were considered to be manifestations of Buddha's and Bodhisattva's. This is the reason why many temples and shrines were combined and/or co-existed side by side. This lasted all the way until early Meiji period during which they were forcibly separated with Shinto established as state religion.
Again destroyed by Chōsokabe and his armies in the 16th century. On restoration it was done on a smaller scale. The bombings of 1945 destroyed the temple except for Daishido and Konpira shrine at which time it was rebuilt again.
Main hall hosting rather unusual Honzon of Daitsū-chishō Butsu(Great Universal Wisdom Excellence 大通智勝仏). Never heard of it elsewhere. Quoting www.nichirenlibrary.org "A Buddha described in the “Parable of the Phantom
City” (seventh) chapter of the Lotus Sutra as having taught the Lotus
Sutra in the inconceivably distant past. According to this chapter,
after seating himself in the place of practice and defeating the armies
of the devil, he continued to meditate for ten small kalpas and at last attained perfect enlightenment.". Also described as "previous englightened one before the historical Buddha". Ie he was the Buddha before Buddha we are familiar from history.
This honzon would be more common in Nichiren sect rather than Shingon this pilgrimage mostly is. And this temple too is Shingon so unusual choice.
1950 there was famous writer called Kawamura(?) Kizan who attended event
invited by Emperor. There he heard of another writer that had walked
the pilgrimage and remembering his own father who had always wanted to
do it but never got a chance vowed to do it himself. 4 years later he
set out on it taking his daughter with him. Sugekasa that broke down on
that trip is still held in this temple. And note to himself. Why do all these notes if you don't check them at the temple? Maybe you could see that hat if you ask where it was...
Route
to next temple was dead easy as it only took one quick road change and
then huuuuuge long road.
There was konbini I was planning for a lunch.
Hadn't eaten yet after breakfast due to the stomach situation but now
felt
brave(and hungry) enough for lunch. Alas the konbini on the map was
gone...Common enough occurence as konbini's open and close. But luckily I
spotted a new one to my
left so problem solved. Bought drinks a lot and some food and ate. And
off to
the toilet. Not a good day.
Next temple was luckily very close like under a
km so I rushed in there with stomach again holding it's own. I found out that on my konbini break the italian
girl had already made there so we talked now more about the pilgrimage
experiences we had had so far. I found out she didn't speak any japanese except for few
simple phrases from the guide book. Wow. I wouldn't dare to try this
without any japanese. Would be too affraid to get into trouble getting understood! Already
been few times like yesterday on the roadblock where japanese proved
useful. Well maybe road worker knew enough english he might have been able to help me..either way she was
also using automatic translator and already once it had given her very bad
translation but luckily seems she didn't offend the reader with it(well automatic translators are so bad if you are shown rude text with it don't take offense!). That's the
danger with google translator if you dont understand target language at
all. It can give very rude sentences from polite original sentence. Some that I have seen....Brrr...
Anyway this temple 56 is called Taisanji(Peace mountain temple) with Jizo Bosatsu as honzon. No sanmon(temple gate and sanmon refers to ones without guardian statues) here.
BTW another example of japanese name oddities. Pronounciation of this temple is same to 52 that's also Taisanji but 52 means big mountain temple. First kanji is different.
The characters that are used to write this temple's name have the same pronunciation as the characters for "Easy Birth Temple" and, as the main vow of Jizō is to ease child birth, this was the name originally used. (presumably 泰産寺 vs present 泰山寺)。And with that not surprising that amulets of this temple are supposed to help women during their periods.
This temple is credited for Kobo Daishi along with honzon. As usual temple was originally located at the top of the mountain but moved later here. Indeed what I have read is that originally pretty much ALL temples had some relationship to sea. Either next to sea or at least in place where you could see sea so generally in tall mountains. Or in case of temple 45 Kukai likened the morning mist to a sea and made a poem about it and thus that too is figuratively sea related. And why this fixation to the sea? Well before buddhism came to Japan there was still religious practices there in nature worshipping which is now merged into what we call now "Shintoism". Thousands of years ago unsurprisingly sea, being major source of fish for food but also providing dangers due to storms, typhoons, tsunamis etc, would have played important part for Japanese people so people believed in gods and appealed for them for safety, good weather and food. So there were people doing religious ceremonis for gods in sea and often these were held in tall mountains where those gods could see them. Often involved building up big fires. When buddhism came to Japan these sites that were already considered holy sites were popular for buddhism rituals/meditation spots. And thus this way they eventually formed part of this pilgrimage.
So buddhism pilgrimage but it draws origins from old shinto/nature worship rituals.
Main hall.
After
she had left I finished up my prayers and rituals and got my stamp from
the office with cute little dog that was very friendly and jumped to
the table begging me to scratch him/her while priest was writing down the stamp
and I was happy to oblige. I love dogs. And cats. But i'm allergic to
cats. But maybe becayse that cats seems to love me. The cats seems to be
sadistic devils who come deliberately to make my eyes red.
Here more car pilgrims stopped by and chatted with me for a while. Friendly group and curious as is usual.
With
stomach feeling okay i dared to risk it toward next temple. On my way
old lady stopped and asked if i would take a settai. With "never refuse a
settai" rule in mind I bowed deeply and while she went to take settai,
whatever it would be, I pulled up osamefuda in ready. It turns out settai
was pair of hand towels that this place is famous and she seemed to be
pleased when I told her I was aware of them being famous speciality
around here. We talked and thanked each other profusedly several times.
Very friendly lady and hard to get away with mutual thank you's going on all the
time :D
This Soja river nearby of temple 56 has often flooded causing lots of damage and loss of life leading to less pleasant nickname for the river, hitotori-gawa. Human taker river...
In 815 people begged for Kobo Daishi for help who performed secret ritual on the banks of the river which caused Jizo Bosatsu to appear and the river be tamed. Kobo Daishi then built a levee to the river, carved the Honzon for Taisanji and enshrined it to the temple. Probably river banks he built might have somethitng to do with easing of river though.
Crossing
bridge I proceeded south west alongside a river drinking lots and
cursing the hot sun thad had finally come out of clouds. It was hot.
Path to the temple 57 took alongside cyclist route that was very nice to
walk under shade and some small roads.
Arriving to temple 57 Eifukuji(The temple of good luck) I first
proceeded to do prayers and rituals as usual, went to the office and
got myself the stamp and TWO books written by the headpriest of the
temple I opted to buy them. I'm sucker for those kind of books so backback grew heavier.
Thank god for a friend in japan who is kind enough to hold the books for
me. Should get rid of them tomorrow from my backbag.
Founded by Kobo Daishi on orders of Emperor Saga. Complex originally started as a shrine but when Kobo Daishi prayed here for the safety at the sea due to frequent shipping disasters and stopped storm with his prayers. After ceremony an image of Amida Nyorai appeared to him and converted shrine to a temple. Due to temple history is particularly popular among sailors and fishermen.
In 861 the Emperor Saga frequently sent Gyoko(priest from Daianji in Nara) to Usa(in Kyushu) to receive an oracle from the Hachiman, god of warfare(or tutelary god of warriors). On one trip his ship was wrecked in the area of this temple. Since the area around this temple resembles the destination area he climbed up to the temple and received the oracle from Hachiman here setting up a shrine. However that shrine is different to the one Kobo Daishi converted(Kobo daishi was already dead in 861). This shrine was relocated to further up on mountain during Meiji restoration's Shinto/Buddhism separation.
Gyoko believed that the Hachiman was a manifestation of Amida Nyorai. As such the temple is often called as Katsuoka Hachiman by the locals.
The temple has been destroyed by fire several times and was deserted for almost a century, but has always remained as a favorite location for people offering prayers for safety at sea, as is Konpira Shrine in Kagawa Prefecture.
This Daishi-hall used to be main hall but later new one was built on highest spot of temple compounds.
Italian
lady came again after me so I had caught up and overtaken her somewhere.
We talked again for a while and she learned Icould speak(and read)
japanese. She asked if Im buddhist due to my bald(well near bald now as
hair is coming back) but Iexplained that the bald head is counter heat
strategy plus been always curious what Iwould look as a bald due to
expecting to be one as a child.
But
eventually time go go and for biggest challenge of the day. Temple 58.
Located at 255 meters or so it would tallest mountain temple for this year so far and it
was blazing hot by now. Loaded up with drinks I proceeded forward.
At
first along roads and then alongside big laked called "dog mound lake".
Missed the legendary mound though I think. Name originates from story of pet dog that was used to carry messages between this and temple #57. It headed to temple that rang bell. One day both bells rang simultaneously. Confused the dog ended up doing suicide by jumping into lake in between. Local people built a mound in dogs memory performing memorial services there.
The path tooksoon change to first
taste of natural path through hill with trees on this year trip. It was
blessed cool. Well comparitively. I enjoyed my way up despite climb
obviously being tiring.
Under shade it hadn't been too bad but then I entered
car road that zigzagged the mountain that I had to follow for a while
and it was blazing hot. Over 30 degrees no doubt(it had been 29.5 at
temple 55 like 2-3 hours ago) with no clouds between sun and my sedge
hat covered head.
I was waiting for the final walker only path marked on
map. It claimed there would be left turn toward tempe 59 first, then
another left turn toward temple 58 and rest spot. I saw one small path
and assumed that was 59,, saw another path and assumed this was 58 and
saw rest spot. Taking rest there for a while i moved to the 2nd path I
saw and was about to enter when....I noticed another plate that said
"kokubunji". Temple 59. WHOOPS! This would have been annoying mistep.
Now I'm sure I would have grown suspicious on descending road rather
than ascending but how soon?
With
help of another person who was nearby being on rest with his car it
seems I located correct path that was AFTER rest spot. Need to send note
to author of map and ask bit more clearer map page thank you. On the
gate there was worker doing maintanance who had this sound that i have
heard often in animes and often by leazy slimy scumbags. This fellow
meanwhile was super friendly and offered me and another young man win
civilian clothin(didn't look like a pilgrim) slice of banana and cold
tea. Felt sad about sharing probably part of his lunch but "never refuse
a settai". Tasted great. And I do love bananas.
And
final part through the mountain was stairway through forest by paved
stones. Was tiring even with shade.
Getting up I noticed funny effect
how it became lighter and wondered if this could be considered
metaphore for reaching enlightement as I approached the temple.
Arriving
to the temple 58 Sen-yūji(Hermit in Seclusion temple) I found a rest spot and collapsed on it and just poured half a
litre of cold tea into my stomach before I felt good enough to do the temple
routines.
Temple originates to 7th century when it was built by orders of Emperor Tenchi
by local ruler Ochi Morioki. Legend says that early in the history of
the temple hermit called Abo recited suttras here for 40 years before
dissapearing mysteriously. Temple name originates from this legend.
Washing hands and mouth, go to mail hall, do my prayers. Noticed this was also
the stamp office so for the first time this year I had audience for my
suttra chanting which made me nervous. Though locals have praised me for my chanting. Practice makes perfect?
Then complete Daishi
hall, take some photos, get my stamp and asked when lodging checkin was
and it was okay any time here it seems. Asked also of dark tunnel I had heard but
seems I was misinformed about that. So got to the temple lodging
reception though person in charge was on a break so was asked to wait at
the chairs which suited fine. Air conditioned room beats outside!
The main hall. Honzon was carved by a pious girl who became guardian Buddha of the Emperor Tenchi. Another legend attributes Honzon for having being brought from Ryugu(dragon king)'s palace under the sea like legends say about temple #39. Pious girl is said to have prostrated herself once after every cut making the Honzon(oh dear that must have taken time). As such this temple is called Osarei, carving while prostrating yourself, by local.
Buildings were rebuilt after great fires after 2nd world war.
Daishi hall.
When
person I was waiting came I was shown room, told morning ceremony
starts at 6am and shown around. Went to put in laundry right away. Later
coming to put them on the drier the italian lady was searching for her free
lodging place(I like meals, good bed and bath so I went for paid
version) but had no luck finding out so noticing staff I went to ask them for help.
She also had asked me help to translate so we went to front of daishi
hall rest spot and she showed cards she had received. Alas it was
cursive style so i had trouble with it. First one was something about
love and by receiving love of human heart something. Other all i
understood was the expression once in the lifetime encounter.
We
chatted some more and it turned out she's using transportation methods
as well which is good as she has meeting with japanese person on temple
66 in 2 days. Yikes. She's been on this for about a month now and noted
people have been very friendly generally and been doing their best to
communicate despite mutual language troubles. Nice to hear.
Not statue one would expect inside temple compounds but then again Japanese temples have been more lax generally. Incidentally this statue has rather curious detail with her feet. 2nd toe is actually longer than middle one. Some humans have that and I would find odd sculptor would do that sort of tiny detail just for fun so presumably real life model was used?
After
this I went for bath which felt heavenly(incidentally the italian lady
also had received to use bath later which is unusual for free lodgings)
and then to room to write my notes. Around 6pm I went for the dinner
which was tasty as it could
be. Despite no meat this meat eater was satisfied. Even tempuraed
leaves were great though first time seen what looked a lot like tree
leaf being in tempura coating!
Tasty dinner!
Evening
was overall fairly relaxed reading book. Close to 8pm went to see outside view from viewing area(photo above) as I had been recommended of the nightview. Not as good as famous Nagasaki night view but still worth it I was told. She was right.
Listening kids and dogs laughter while watching this view and distant car lights move was oddly relaxing. Reminded
me sunset at himeji almost 4 years ago that i watched. Only pipe music
was missing. Instead i had dogs barking and kids laughter. Staring at
the distant signs of life made me wonder just how many people among
there were that if we met would become good friends? And that in the
end who aenter your friends circle is largely decided by chance. Don't know
how these thoughts came to me.
I
ran into first major hickup for lodgings today though. Next day there
was basically only one lodging that could work out for walking for me.
Issue is i'm visiting bekkaku temples. After this lodging there's
nothing before onsen close to path to Yokomineji. Going to temple 59,
both bekkakus and to there adds to over 30km and 3 temples with mountain in it. Stopping to
previous ones meanwhile leads to less than 10km for tomorrow...
So
what i did was book myself two nights in that onsen and tomorrow i will
walk to 59, then take taxi to first bekkaku temple that's the longest
stint and then walk to next bekkaku temple and lodging. This results in
reasonable walking day for me.
And
why 2 night? I save day with this but rather than go to yokomineji day
earlier I decided to take a rest day to rest my feet before tackling one of the
hardest temples and in summer heat. 700m. Also have blisters on
feet...both.
For
that temple I plan to wake up very early, like before 4, and hit the
deck as soon as possible. This way most of the climb should be completed
before the noon heat hits. From above i'm seriously considering bus
down if legs don't feel like going down. And i am open to simply
cancelling the climb and going back down and use bus to go up if need
be.
Early sleep so i could wake up early for morning ceremony. Standard part in buddhist temple lodgings at 6am.
Walked: 22.73km. Total so far 70,05km
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