Oushuu33Kannon Temples 4-5 Part 15

Ian and I greeted the priest and, while he did the calligraphy for our books, he asked us a few questions. I assume like many other people he was both interested in the answers and was finding out how communicative our Japanese is. We told him that we had walked part of the Henro Pilgrimage and why we had stopped. We also told him that we were now doing the Oushuu 33 Kannon Pilgrimage on weekends, when we had time. He said that we were the first foreigners to ever come to the temple and then offered to show us the inside of the main hall.

He gave us our books and took our money and then we followed him up onto the landing in front of the main doors to the building. These were the doors where I had taken pictures through an open space. I posted them here a few entries ago. The priest continued around the landing to the right side of the building and unlocked a smaller door. He went in but it took us a bit more time because we had to take off our walking shoes. Once inside were were greeting by the typical chaos of a Buddhist temple. The main section of the room was divided into three sections. On the right was a group of statues representing various people, real and imaginary, related to the history of the temple.On the left of the altar there was another group of statues of more people. As you can see, each statue has a sign with the name of the person on it. The problem was that we had no idea who they were.
Behind one of the structural pillars near the altar, was this delightful little statues. Again, I have no idea who it represents and, even if I knew the name, it would probably mean nothing to me. Behind the cabinet you can see gold plated lotus blossoms that are part of the altar display.
This is the table that is on the priests left hand when he sits in front of the altar to chant sutras. It contains various implements that he uses during the ritual. At the bottom you can see part of the tatami mat that he sits on while chanting. Also at the right there is a round black object sitting on a red and white cushion. This is a gong that the priest would ring during the ritual. The hand on the upper left belongs to the priest. Who was using this time to tell us the history of this 350 year old temple and attached shrine. Apparently until the end of WWII, the Buddhist temple and Shinto shrine were combined, but after the war they were separated. No there is no Shinto priest so the Buddhist priest carries out the necessary rituals as a substitute, but they are official separate. This is becoming quite common in Japan. There are not enough priests of either religion, so they often take care of each others' duties. This also applies to the various Sects within each.