Dou'unji Temple

 This little roof shelters a bench where I sat for a while and meditated. This time of year is very nice because there are no bugs to distract you while you sit.

 A bit deeper into the valley and I came to the meditation cave carved into the rock cliff. There must be some loose rocks at the top because the red traffic cones are meant to keep you away from the base of the cliff.

 In the previous picture there is a black spot inside the cave. That is a secondary cave. This picture shows it in a bit more detail.

 I love these old stelae that covered with moss. I usually can not read very much but I still like looking at them.

 This is a sign that was placed here by the Izumi Ward office. It says that this temple was established here on June 28, 1747, and traces it roots back to a temple built in 704.

The main meditation hall is completely gone, replaced by an empty field. Buddhism is very high on the idea of emptiness, often a subject for meditation, so I guess it is appropriate. This picture shows the remains of a stone lamp that is still lying where it fell during the tremors. It once stood near the entrance to the meditation hall.

Kifune Jinja

 I finally located the entrance to the shrine (jinja in Japanese). It was rather rundown to say the least. The torii at the entrance was broken. The missing piece were nowhere to be found so, between that fact and a look at the worn surfaces of the breaks, I assume that it was destroyed long ago. Also as you can see the grass has not been cut. I took this picture over a fence, like those on either side of the stairs. To reach the stairs I had to walk back about 10 meters and then walk along the public space beside a drainage ditch. Also I was unable to determine the pronunciation of the name of the shrine. Later I asked a couple of Japanese people but they did not know. I finally found it on a website that showed all the shrines and temples in Izumi-ku. The name is a special reading of the kanji, kifune jinja, which phonetically means sacred boat shrine. At this point we are less than 20 kilometers away from the sea which may have been visible before all the modern buildings were erected. This area was, in the past, a maritime power, establishing trading forts all the way to Shizuoka Prefecture and was heavily involved in national politics and power struggles.

 At the top of the flight of stairs, the guardian lions were worn almost beyond recognition. From the above mentioned website, I found that the shrine is two or three hundred years old, so it is likely that the lions have been there since it was first built.

 At the top of a second flight of stairs there was a long narrow unpaved path. This is the view back toward the stairs.

 Turning around, I faced the shrine and took this picture. It is physically quite small but I could see nothing unusual about it.

The protector lions at the shrine are new and in very good shape, as are the stone lanterns behind them.