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Monday, June 4, 2012

Honen-ji

On May 16th, we went to a local temple called Honenji. The best I can figure it is named after a monk named Honen, who was somewhat of a religious reformer who was exiled to Sanuki, present day Kagawa prefecture. Here there are all the typical things a Japanese temple has like shrines, buildings and of course a lot of stairs...













From the top we had a great view. In the background of the picture below, you can see Yashima mountain. As was explained to me many years ago by the principal of Yashima Jr. High School, this used to be an Island, however lava flowed from this volcano at some point, filling in the narrow distance between the island and the shore. During the Genpei war the Taira had retreated to this island and built defenses here. On March 22, 1185 they were in a battle with the Minamoto at this site. The war, which lasted about 5 years, was because of a dispute about whom was the rightful heir to the throne. There is now a wax museum at the top of Yashima that depicts the battle.









After leaving Honenji, we went to another local temple called Kawahigashi Hachiman. Of course there were many stairs here too.








I had mentioned in an earlier post that people here believe if you trow a stone up onto the beam of the temple entrance (archway) that it is good luck. We both managed, after multiple attempts, to get our stones to stay up there.





















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