Lately back on the ‘pilgrim trail,’ I’ve been going to
temples largely in pairs. The first pair was the two situated near the bottom
of Lake Biwa, numbers 13 and 14 (in my head, I think of them as Matchmaker
temple and Everything-OK temple). My weekend plans changed, so instead of going
to Tokyo on Saturday, I went to Kyoto, and spent Sunday (August 5th)
exploring these temples.
Ishiyamadera, temple 13, is built on and around some
wollastonite rock formations, and is fairly famous for being the location where
Murasaki Shukibu began the Tale of Genji. Before we set out, I read that the
Nyoirin Kannon (or wish-granting Kannon) at this temple was seen as a ‘marriage
Kannon,’ to which people prayed for finding a partner, and also to be released
from addictions. Those somehow fit together, I don't know why.
With this is mind, I explored the temple with my friend
Miriam. I crawled through the little cave that is said to bring good luck, if
you traverse it, and marveled at the various water features which are all fed
by an underground river/spring that flows beneath the whole complex (I think). The
area is supposed to be at its best, of course, in spring with cherry blossoms
or in fall with the autumn leaves; in summer a lot of these places are just hot
and green. I liked the rocks, which looked like they were caught in time while
flowing, and there are some really nice views of the edge of the lake.
I thought of it as “Matchmaker temple” in my head, and
having never read the Tale of Genji, probably should have been more moved to be
in the very place its author began her great work. Honestly, I was more
interested in the rocks, the water, the trees and shade.
From there, we triangle-traveled to Miidera, the next
pilgrim stop at number 14. Miidera’s mark on the map is a large bell, and the
temple is famous for more than one of the deep bells that often characterize
Japanese Buddhist temples.
Miidera had an even more pleasant view of the lake, and by
that time of the afternoon, the sky had turned into pure sweetness. On the
train over, I read the legend associated with Miidera.
 |
| Benkei's bell |
Not the one about the stolen bell (in which Benkei stole the
Miidera bell during a raid [warrior monks back then, go figure], and as he
carried it away toward Mt. Hiei it began to toll mournfully as if it wished to
go home. It wouldn’t stop, so Benkei brought it back to Miidera where it
belonged), but one about the great serpent of Lake Biwa. In that story, a man
stops some kids from tormenting a snake, then stops at an inn where he sees a
beautiful attendant, hangs around for a few weeks and falls in love with her,
they get married, etc. When they get ready tohave a kid, she is like “don’t go
into this room until I come out, or say it’s okay,” so he agrees, but after a
while the silence is really scaring him, so he peeks in and sees the newborn
baby being cuddled by a big snake. She of course is his wife/the great serpent
spirit and since he broke contract, she now has to go back in the lake, but she
leaves a note saying the baby is holding a jewel that keeps it from being
unhappy, so the baby doesn’t ever really cry. Then the emperor hears about this
jewel, demands it, has it seized, and the baby starts crying. The serpent had
said if the baby ever gets cranky, just bring it to this spot near the lake and
it’ll be okay, so when the guy does this, the serpent reappears and explains
that the jewel was actually one of her
eyes, and while she’s at it, she doesn’t really mind giving up the other
one if it will make the kid happy. So she produces a second jewel and is
therefore blind, but she says, in the evening go to Miidera and ring the bell,
and I’ll hear it and know everything is okay.
So I really liked the idea of the Great Serpent of Lake Biwa
swimming around down there, blind, but whenever pilgrims ring the bell (said to
be the best-sounding bell in Japan), she is reassured that everything is a-OK.
Since it was a gorgeous day, and the temple complex looked
pretty big from the map, I somehow managed to let go of my usual “must see all
important monuments on site” mentality and just wander happily through the
grounds, which helped contribute to my image of Miidera as the “Everything OK”
temple. Miriam had to go meet someone, so I did half of the wandering with her,
and half alone.
On the walk up to the temple, we followed the canal, which
is pretty cool in its own right, an historical example of some engineering, I
think the first use of dynamite in Japan (don’t quote me on that). We entered
from the left side, the Kannon-do (or Kannon Hall), because the entire temple
complex is not necessarily centered there. In fact, the hall was moved back in
the 1400s to accommodate women pilgrims who wanted to worship there, but who
were not allowed into the main temple precincts (!) at that time.
There was a small bell next to the Kannon-do that we rang,
although I’m not sure it’s the famous Miidera bell. There was also a small hall
that had 100 pilgrimage sites symbolically held in it (the Saigoku 33, which is
the one I’m doing, a different 33 more in the outer Tokyo area, and a set of 34
that is a different pilgrimage. This was a delight, especially as there was
nowhere at Ishiyamadera open for me to burn the special incense I’d brought
along (I bought it last year in Kyoto, it smells awesome, and I still have a
lot left), and I wanted to set something on fire.
The Kannon-do area was especially pretty, with a
moon-viewing pavilion and friendly feel. The path away under the dappling shade
of the maple trees was also exceptionally nice that afternoon.
I eventually found the spring that is the meaning of the
temple name (三井寺means three-wells-temple, apparently three different
royal folks bathed in the sacred spring!), which still makes gurgling noises as
the water bubbles up around the rocks. Also walked through the treasure
hall/museum type thing in the main area, where I was most struck by a statue of
a firey looking guy whose glinting eyes were just catching the late afternoon
light through the slats in the building, so his eyes looked like they were full
of fire.
I found my way back to the train (with a brief stop at a
rabbit shrine, and a little jaunt toward the edge of the lake), and made my way
back to Kyoto, prepared to head to Tokyo the next morning!
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