Monday, August 25, 2014

Sanematsu Hachimangu

Sanematsu Hachimangu


Within sight of Nogi Shrine is the local village shrine Sanematsu Hachimangu. While being a fairly common village shrine in many areas of Japan, there are surprisingly few hachimangus in Izumo.


Like most shrines in Izumo there are a couple of altars to Kojin, the rope serpent. By far the commonest kami in the region, he/she is relatively unknown. I am not sure of the gender. In my area the equivalent kami is Omoto and she is female.


The shrine also has a Zuijinmon with a fine pair of zuijin and wooden komainu. When I first walked this valley many years ago I was struck by the fact that every single shrine had a zuijinmon.


The other thing that struck me is that none of the shrines in the area had a toilet. Most shrines I visit have a simple, pit toilet in the grounds. But in this valley not a single shrine does.

1 comment:

  1. Hi,

    I’m Laurene, I’m a french short film director and I’m about to travel to Japan this October/November.
    I will be in Kyushu mid November and I really fell in love with the Kunisaki Peninsula while I was searching a place to walk, hike, sketch and feel away from all. I really love to lose myself when I can as it is my way to get inspiration and draw peacefuly.
    Then I saw your blog, and as it’s difficult to find informations about the peninsula (+ the fact that I’m not Japanese). I was wondering what was your route, and how did you find places to sleep or maybe some advices/tips.
    It’s maybe not very humble for a non Japanese girl like me to go around alone (at the beginning I was about to hike the Kumano Kodo wich has more informations for travelers and I’ll be working on a farm nearby), but I’m very interested by the story of this part of Kyushu.

    I’m sorry my mail is a little vague and messy but in any case your blog is very interesting and detailed!

    Looking forward to hearing from you,

    Cheers,

    Laurene
    laurenebraib.tumblr.com

    ReplyDelete