Walking to Daishoin Shingon-Buddhist Temple, Miyajima

I live in Hiroshima, a few stops up the tram line from Miyajima-guchi, where the tram terminates just across from the ferries that take tourists across to the "holy island" of Miyajima, famous for its "floating shrine" and red "torii" gate that is in the sea in front of the shrine.

Right now we are in the middle of "Golden Week" - a string of national holidays in early May that enable the bulk of the Japanese population to forget about work and go gallivanting around on an extended holiday.

Add to that the return of mass foreign tourism to Japan, aided by the fall in the yen against the dollar, and the idea of trundling over to Miyajima, one of the most popular tourist magnets in the whole of Japan, did not seem like the most attractive option to a Hiroshima old-timer such as myself...

However, Miyajima has much to offer beyond the main attraction of shrine and torii gate, and as packed as the main drag to those sites can get, incredibly, the streets that run more or less parallel to the main route are almost completely free of tourists.

It was a lovely day today, so we decided to hop on the tram and the ferry and try our luck with a back-street walk to Daishoin temple, one of the finest sites on the whole of Miyajima.

Everything went smoothly. We just missed a crowded tram to Miyajima-guchi, but Hiroden, the tram company, had laid on extra trams, and the one that arrived barely two minutes later, was not so crowded and we were able to get seats for a comfortable trip down the line.

The ferry port was heaving with tourists coming and going, but even so, we were able to get seats and enjoy the five-minute voyage across to Miyajima.

We emerged from the ferry port, and avoided the packed main drag that goes along the sea front towards Miyajima Shrine. Instead, we hopped up a side street and strolled along more or less parallel to the main drag. The streets were not empty, but compared to the teeming press of humanity on the main street, they might as well have been.

Daishoin Temple

Daishō-in Temple is one of many founded by the wandering monk, Kōbō-Daishi (弘法大師), in the year grace 806 AD, thirteen years after Lindisfarne was sacked by the Vikings.

The Buddhist sect that Kōbō-Daishi introduced into Japan from China is called Shingon Buddhism. Daishoin is a Shingon Buddhist temple. Kōbō-Daishi went on to found 88 temples in Shikoku and discovered numerous hot springs. If you see a statue of a Buddhist monk wearing a wicker "kasa" hat, it is most likely to be a statue of Kōbō-Daishi.

Photos

1. Walking up from the ferry port, we approach the five-storied pagoda, but skirt around it to avoid the crowds.
2. A shop selling second-hand yukatta. One male yukatta was going for 10,000 yen, just $66 at the current exchange rate.
3. Recently, a lot of "craft" beer bars have popped up here and there on Miyajima.
4. The imposing Niōmon (仁王門, literally, Niō gate) to Daishoin Temple, guarded by two kingly warriors.
5. The two main temple halls of Daishoin, Kannon-dō Hall (right), and Maniden Hall (left).
6. Maniden Hall in the afternoon sun.
7. Lanterns on the ceiling of the "Henjokutsu Cave" where you can pray in front of 88 statues which is apparently the equivalent of doing the whole freaking pilgrimage tour of the 88 Shingon temples on Shikoku. Mind you, praying in front of all 88 statues still seems a bit much to this unregenerate sinner. If it were "drink 88 beers" I could probably do it in a week or less.

Cheers!

David Hurley
#InspiredFocus

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