The idyllic landscape continues to Tanema-ji, and the temple seems to appear suddenly in a place that is neither on the mountain nor in the town.

Here, too, the main temple seems to be rebuilt and is much newer than Taishi-do (I saw similar pattern several times in other temples). I was wondering about lunch today because there didn’t seem to be any place to eat… When I visited the resting place of Tanema-ji, luckily I found some sweet buns for lunch. I also bought some incense sticks at the temple.

I was interested in this Bodhisattva, a child-caring bodhisattva, which has a baby on her hand. If you carefully look this picture, you’ll notice many ladles with the bottom open are enshrined around this Bodhisattva.

At the temple, they pull out the bottom of a ladle and pray for a safe delivery for two nights and three days, and give it to the pregnant woman with a note attached. Then she bring it back and decorates it in her tokonoma (alcove), and if the baby is safely delivered, she enshrine the ladle to the temple.