A Scenic View — Miyajima

April 24, 2023

It took three trains and a ferry to get to Miyajima, an island off the coast near Hiroshima. Miyajima boasts one of the “Three Scenic Views of Japan” — the iconic floating torii gate in the sea. (A torii gate marks the transition between the mundane world and the sacred world.) Miyajima is also known as Itsukushima.

View from the ferry

We dropped our bags at our ryokan (a traditional Japanese inn), and Libby and Eric went exploring on Mt. Misen. Ken and I poked around some of the shops in the small town, and then visited the Daishō-in Temple. It was a short distance from our ryokan, but there were a lot of steps to go up.

 

Daishō-in is an ancient temple complex tucked away in a secluded glen on Mt. Misen. It was a magnificent setting, next to a clear mountain stream.

This gate, at the entrance to the temple complex, was protected by fierce beings

I was charmed by the 500 Buddhas, plus at least one dragon, inhabiting the grounds. Many visitors had left coins on the statues.

 

Terin had told us to make sure we looked in the basement, but he wouldn't say what we would find there. As I mentioned, this was a "complex." There were several buildings, each of them at the top of a daunting set of stairs. We didn't find the building with the "basement" until our third or fourth try.

Speaking of stairs, here are some stairs with metal spindles. There are sutras written on them. If you spin the spindles with your hand as you pass by, it "counts" as reciting the sutras. When a lot of people are doing it, the noise is dreadful.

Where photos were permitted, we took a few, though we didn't always know exactly what we were seeing.

Offerings of canned fruit have been left at this shrine

Some musical instruments

We finally found the building with the surprise in the basement. It felt more like a cave than a basement, but it was interesting.

We had stunning views walking back to our ryokan.

There were HORDES of tourists on Miyajima, but most of them were just visiting for a few hours. There are also lots of deer here. Not hordes, but cute, curious deer are everywhere. They are not afraid of humans, and they wander through the town, as well as on the mountain trails. There are also, apparently, wild monkeys in the woods, but we did not see any.

The ryokan (Ryoso Kawaguchi) is a historic building, located at a crossroads. The town only has three streets parallel to the shoreline and 5 or 6 perpendicular, so it seems a little presumptuous to tout this site as an important crossroad, but it's nice to know it is a venerable spot.

Ryoso Kawaguchi

After all those stairs, a Japanese bath was most welcome. The ryokan had two private bath suites, suitable for couples or families. There is an area where you first wash yourself off with with a hand-held shower or a washbowl. Then you enter a large, very hot soaking tub or pool, which may be fed by a hot spring. It is incredibly relaxing, especially if you have climbed a lot of stairs.

 

After the bath, you go back to your room and put on the yukata (robe) provided in your room and wander down to dinner.

Dinner was a tour de force - a multi-course kai seki feast of "small plates". It was fabulous.

After dinner we took a short walk over to the floating torii, to enjoy it in the moonlight. Almost all of the tourists were gone. It was quiet and peaceful and thoroughly magical!

While we were eating, our beds had been made up. In this case, that means a futon (a thin mattress) and quilt had been laid out on the tatami floor. Sweet dreams!

 

Miyajima is also very famous for its maple trees. Should you be lucky enough to visit in the fall, I imagine it would be wonderful. To promote the idea of coming to view the maple leaves, there are about 50 shops on the two short commercial streets here selling maple-leaf-shaped cookies and cakes. They do not taste like maple syrup. I don't think Japanese maples produce the right kind of sap for a maplesyrup industry to have developed.

Some varieties of Japanese Maple are red in the springtime

Today's color is Japanese Maple.