Japan trip report #11: Miyajima

[lethargic_man]

Today's blog post takes us to Itsukushima, an island a short distance west of Hiroshima (also known as Miyajima), famous for its torii gate standing in the water before the island's shrine:

At 16m height, it's one of the largest wooden torii gates in Japan.

The five-storey pagoda.

There's also a stone torii gate for pilgrims approaching the shrine via the landward route.

There were deer on this island; possibly smelling the last of the rabbit pellets, they mobbed aviva_m and wouldn't leave her alone.

Itsukushima shrine stands on the beach; at high tide the wooden boardwalk protrudes out over the sea. The shrine goes back to the twelfth century.

A sixteenth-century stage for nōh plays and ceremonial dances called bugaku; note the painted backdrop:

There are in total eleven kami enshrined here, including two deified humans, including Toyotomi Hideyoshi (one of the three daimyō (feudal lords) who put an end of Japan's long civil war, in the sixteenth century. Also Ōkuninushi-no-mikoto, the deity of matchmaking—not inappropriate for a visit on aviva_m and my honeymoon.

We also went into Momijidani Park:

...from which we took a cable car up Mt Misen. At the top, I went in search of holy sites at various locations on the mountain. Here is something my Jewish readers will instantly be able to identify with: a eternal flame, which is never allowed to burn out (though our version consists of just a small flame (or more commonly nowadays an electric light), not a complete fireplace with a cauldron of incense suspended above):

It's even called "The eternal flame" (Kiezu-no-hi), same as our נֵר תָּמִיד. It was used by Kobo Daishi, the founder of Shingon Buddhism, as part of his religious training twelve hundred years ago, and has been burning ever since. The flame was used to light the Flame of Peace in Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park (see my next post).

Another building had incredibly intricate decorations:

...and inner sanctum:

lethargic_man's Japan blog posts