Showing posts with label ebisu. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ebisu. Show all posts

Wednesday, November 29, 2023

Togitsu to Nagaura

 


Togitsu Town is situated at the southern end of Omura Bay in Nagasaki, and lined up at the waters edge were these four Ebisu statues. My guess is that they were collecetd from various points along the Nagasaki Kaido as it passes through what is now Togitsu.


The presence of a Honjin here shows a Nagasaki Kaido passed through here, and Ebisu statues are common along Nagasaki Kaidos in nearby areas.


I was taking the road that ran up the West side of the bay while the train line ran up the East side through Huis Ten Bosch. I came upon this remarkable little house with imaginative geometry.


I have been unable to find out anything about it or who the architect was.


The main road was still pretty built-up and busy but for much of the way Iwas able to take a smaller broad along the hillside where I visited quite a few shrines.


There were an awful lot of Love Hotels along the way. Not yet halfway between Nagasaki and Sasebo, I guess they were serving the Nagasaki market. They were more upmarket and modern than the  type of love hotel I usually encountered in rural areas.


Nagaura, a little fishing harbour about halfway up the bay, was where I had a room booked for the night, and as I headed up the narrow inlet to get there it became much less built-up and quieter.


The previous post on day 64 of my Kyushu walk was on Togitsu Inari Shrine.

Saturday, October 28, 2023

Yasaka Shrine Ebie

 


Ebie is a neighborhood on the bank of the Yodo River in Osaka, west of Umeda. Route 2 crosses the river here and this was the route I was walking west.


The local shrine is a branch of the famous Yasaka Shrine. I visited in 2017 and so a large ema of a Rooster was on display.


There seem to be quite a few Yasaka shrines in this part of Osaka, though I have no idea why. There is no info on the shrine's history, though it is believed to be quite old.


There are several sub-shrines in the grounds including the Ebisu Shrine pictured above, and an Inari Shrine.


Tuesday, January 24, 2023

Ryuzoji Hachimangu Shrine

Ryuzoji Hachimangu Shrine

Ryuzoji Hachimangu Shrine.

Ryuzoji Hachiman Shrine is a small urban shrine located in downtown Saga. It was originally located near the original castle, but when the castle was greatly expanded in the mid 17th century, it was moved to the current site. The torii is in the Hizen style, and as far as I know this is the only style of torii based on region rather than cult.

Ryuzoji Hachimangu Shrine.

It was founded by the Ryuzoji Clan who controlled the area before the Nabeshima Clan, who were vassals of the Ryuzoji, were given control. In the middle of the approach are a couple of red torii which lead to an Ebisu statue


Ebisu.

The Ebisu cult is very strong in the area..... along the Nagasaki kaido, which runs through Saga, are hundreds of roadside Ebisu statues. A few days earlier along a branch of the Nagasaki kaido, the Hita kaido, there are also Ebisu statues. This one is very unusual in that Ebisu is holding a child. It is called Kosodate Ebisu. It was made in 2007. Most of the Ebisu statues around Saga have their own names and associations with different benefits.

Roof.

The shrine was founded as a branch of the Tsurugaoka Hachiman Shrine in Kamakura. Hachiman was originally a Kyushu cult based in Usa in what is now Oita. Earlier on this day I had visited Chiriku Hachimangu, a large shrine that had been established as a direct branch of the Usa Hachiman while it was just a local cult.  With the construction of Todaiji and the Great Buddha in Nara, Hachiman was taken up to the home provinces and eventually became a national cult following the establishment of Iwashimizu Hachimangu south of Kyoto. I believe most Hachiman shrines now in existence are branches of Iwashimizu. Later however, the Minamoto Clan adopted Hachiman as their patron deity and established Tsurugaoka Hachiman, and subsequently, Hachiman was adopted by the samurai.

Statue.

Within the grounds of Ryuzoji Hachiman is another shrine, Kusunoki Shrine, established in 1851 by the Nabeshima. Enshrined here is Kusunoki Masashige, a 14th century samurai known for fighting for the Imperial Court in Yoshino, the so-called Southern Court, who were in opposition with the Shogun-supported Emperor in Kyoto, the "Northern Court".

Shrine building.

The shrine is the site of a meeting at this time wherein Saga joined with Tosa, Choshu, and Satsuma in an alliance against the shogunate and for the Emperor which led to the Meiji Restoration. What is not clear to me is whether the shrine or the meeting came first.

Ceiling.

Wednesday, November 2, 2022

Amagi to Tosu. Day 55 Walking Around Kyushu

Saturday, January 4th 2014

It's still dark when I leave my hotel and walk to Kurume Station. I take a train north across the river towards Amagi where I will continue my pilgrimage, but first, get off after a couple of stops at Kitano Station. A few hundred meters from the station is a shrine I want to visit, a branch of Kitano Tenmangu, the first shrine to Sugawara Michizane in Kyoto.


Amagi to Tosu.

 The village here is called Kitano after the shrine's name. That is not unusual, many places in Japan are named after the local shrine or temple. It is quite a big shrine and has a single statue of a white horse, fairly common at shrines, but also has three orange horses,... quite unusual. The walls of the corridors of the shrine are covered with examples of calligraphy, something the Kami Tenjin, the enshrined spirit of Michizane, is known for.


 I jumped back on a train to the last station of the line, Amagi, and when I arrive the sun is up promising another fine day. I had some trouble finding the first pilgrimage temple of the day, Kotokuin,number 7 in the order they are listed. It was located in a suburban area a little north of the station but was not a large temple with a typical large curved roof, but a small single-storey building, so I could not see it from a distance. I asked several passers-by but had no luck. Often in Japan if a place is not famous then even people who live nearby will not know where it is. I find it eventually and there is not much to see. My route now heads west across the wide plain. 


Japan is often characterized as being a mountainous country, and while that is true, there are plenty of wide-open flat areas, this being one of them. While I haven't yet traveled in many parts of Japan, so far in my experience Kyushu seems to have a lot of these flat areas. It is of course mostly farmland, and several times I pass near huge structure with silos. The fields and paddies are also interspersed with small settlements, marked by trees, the largest of the trees often indicate a shrine, none of the ones I visited had any visitors though. The shrines I visited were  Ushiki Tenmangu, Nomachi Takano, Shisojima Tenmangu, Otoguma Tenmangu, and Yokoguma Hayabusataka.


 By lunchtime, it is becoming more urban and I reach temple number 3, Nyoirinji, and it is very busy. It's not a very big temple but is obviously very popular. The most noticeable thing is a large number of frog statues. They are everywhere. In the car park are a line of large metal ones covered in what appears to be graffiti, but what is in fact prayers and wishes. I had hoped to meet with the head priest of the temple, the father of the young priest I had met at temple number 93 some 53 walking days ago, but he was obviously very busy. The grounds did have a nice walk with many fines statues so I leisurely explored before heading off. 


I headed south, now into urban Ogori, and walked parallel to several train lines as well as the main road and expressway. There were several larger shrines to stop at and explore, Rikitake Kamado, Misetaireiseki,  and Ogori Susano. I pass under the East-West expressway and turn west parallel to it.  At a big shrine I am surprised to find many statues of monkeys, not the Three Wise Monkeys, but mostly mother monkeys in red hats holding baby monkeys. It's a Hiyoshi Shrine, a branch of the famous shrine at the base of Mount Hiei whose guardian animal is the monkey.


 In Tashiro I find the last pilgrimage temple of the day, Fudo-in, number 4. It took some finding as it is a small concrete structure in the middle of a crowded suburban area. Nothing much to see except for a nice statue of Fudo Myo O, the temple's namesake. It's now getting late and I head south back toward Kurume. I get as far as Tosu before deciding to call it a day


As usual, I took photos of the many unique manhole covers I saw along the way.

Japan Shop

Tuesday, July 5, 2022

Kusano Juku Hita Kaido Post Town

 


Kusano, a little east of Kurume, was in the Edo period a post town on the main road known as the Hita Kaido, sometimes the Bungo Kaido. This is the former Kage family residence, built in 1780, the oldest building now in Kusano.


This second photo shows just how deep their property was compared to the frontage.


The road runs along the edge of the Mino mountain range. Most settlements were snuggled against the bottom of mountains, hence their names as "yamanobe"


This old house of a less wealthy family is now a cafe and gallery.


The local history museum is housed in the former bank, a western-style building painted pale blue like the nearby culture centre.

Thursday, June 23, 2022

Hatsumode at Kurumesosha Hiyoshi Shrine

Japan Guide


January 2nd, 2014, I arrived back in Kurume to continue with my pilgrimage around Kyushu after having took a break to go home and visit my wife for a few days. On my way to the hotel I stoed in at a small, urban shrine, all decked out for the new year.


Kurume Sosha Hiyoshi Shrine is a branch of the Sanno shrine at the base of Mount Hie. It was originaly located in the castle but was relocated to this spot when the castle was rebuilt.


Hatsumode is the modern tradition of visiting a shrine or temple in the first days of the new year to pray for good fortune for the coming year, and I would guess that most Japanese take part nowadays with the most popular shirn receiving millions of visitors.


In the Edo period most peole did not do this. Some eole in the capital, Edo, started viiting shrines to the Seven Lucky Gods, and it is probably from this that Hatsumode grew with thencreation of a "national" religion and culture in the Meiji period.


Kurumesosha Hiyoshi Shrine has multiple sub-shrines in the grounds, and not surprisingly an Ebisu Shrine was verry popular. The cult of Ebisu is strong in the area.


What was surprising was a buddhist shrine in the grounds, to what appears to be Fudo Myo, and that would have been removed during the Meiji period. There was also an Inari shrine, another very popuar cult.

Sunday, January 23, 2022

Mikka Ebisu Shrine

Mikka


Mikka Ebisu is one of the shrines within the grounds of the Sumiyoshi Shrine in Hakata.


It's built on an island in a large pond.


Mikka means "third day" and refers to January 3rd, 1945, when the shrine was founded.


According to the story, a local man found a small wooden box containing a small Ebisu statue floating in the river. He took it home and consequently had a lot of good luck so decided it was due to the Ebisu statue and wanted to share the statue with others, so founded the shrine.


Being one of the shichifukujin, the seven lucky gods, the shrine is very popular, especially on the 3rd of january each year.


The gate, pictured below, dates back to the Edo period and leads into the Sumiyoshi Shrine and also to the Rakusuien Garden.


Koinobori

Saturday, December 18, 2021

More Ebisu on the Hita Kaido

 

A few days ago I posted 7 shots of Ebisu statues I found along the Hita Kaido while walking day 52 of my walk around Kyushu. There were A LOT of Ebisu staties. here are another seven. That was not all I saw in this one day, and if I had gone looking I am sure I would have found even more.


Usually depicted with a Sea Bream tucked under his left arm, ad a fishing rod in his right, this suggests that Ebisu was originally a fishing god, but by the Edo period, when these statues probably date, he was more well known as one of the Seven Lucky Gods.


Among the Seven Lucky Gods, Ebisu is singled out as being the only Japanese god of the seven. He is very often paired with Daikokuten. Originally a Hindu deity, Daikoku is written with the same Chinese characters as Okuni, so he became equated with Okuninushi. Okuninushi's son, Kotoshironushi, is featured in the ancient myths as always fishing, so the two became equated with Daikoku and Ebisu.


The Meiji government cemented this identification when they decided that the head shrine for Ebisu in Japan was to be Miho Jinja. Located in Mihonoseki at the tip of the Shimane peninsula, a site where Kotoshironushi enjoyed fishing.


In the Kansai region,  a different origin of Ebisu is given. In the origin myths, the first child born to Izanami and Izanagi was Hiruko, the "Leech Child". Born deformed, it was determined that this was caused by Izanami, the female, speaking first in their wedding ritual. They redid their wedding "correctly" and all future children were born OK. Hiruko was cast out in a boat and is believed to have landed on Awaji Island.


The characters for Hiruko can also be read as Ebisu. Ebisu is also an old name to refer to foreigners and in the north of Japan some stories suggest that Ebisu was a "foreign" god of the Emishi/Aimu.