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Luckily it was not snowing today, however, the walking pilgrim that I met at the Ryokan Yoshino said that there’re still much snow between Ippon-sugi (一本杉) and No.12 Shozan-ji.
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After a while I found this sign post with “Henro Korogashi (A steep trail letting the pilgrims rolling down)”. 1/6… so I’ll see this 6 times… It is indeed steep but it was not as expected. While struggling with this steep trail, it started to snow, and it’s rather nice since I feel really hot.
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I arrived at the Chodo-an bit earlier than my plan, even though I departed 20 minutes late this morning. I now feel confident with my pace. It is said that Kobo-Daishi took some rest when he headed to No.12 Shozan-ji.
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It’s getting colder and colder outside, and I found pretty big icicle around spring water. Then all the sudden, I found a relatively large building. It’s probably Ryusui-an.
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It is said… when Kobo-Daishi took the rest at this place, no water were available. So he picked up a branch of willow tree and pray, then clear water rose up. This temple took “柳 (willow tree)” and “水 (water)” for its name from that story.
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There’re indeed quite many Jizo (stone statue) along the way, and sometimes you also find some message cards as well. I’m actually encouraged by them.
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At the Jyoren-an, you’ll find this solitary Japanese cedar and Kobo-Daishi statue. It was indeed beautiful with the sun right on the back side.
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So far, I intentionally increased my pace, because I had to change today’s hotel to the one located bit far than the initially planned one (which was turned out to be under construction…). I now realized that I arrived at Jyoren-an much earlier than expected, so I now feel safe… But afterwards, I realized this over-pace was really problematic for my leg.
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Finally I arrived at the No.12 Shozan-ji, after walking more than 4 hours in the mountain. I started to think it’s a kind of luxury to spend this much time for being walking pilgrim, when one of pilgrims in bus tour found me and told me “Wow, are you walking through ? Good luck!”.
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The precincts of No.12 Shozan-ji is indeed solemn, and it rose my feelings after long trail. This time, I read the Heart Sutra together with other pilgrims. Now I got used to this specific rhythm, musical pitch and intervals a bit, yes, it’s indeed very difficult 🙂
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At Ryusui-an, I found the board saying that you can get the temple stamp of Ryusui-an at No.12 Shozan-ji, hence I asked if I can get it. Then they said I can also get the one for Jyoren-an (where there’s beautiful solitary Japanese cedar) and Jyosan-an which is located between No.12 Shozan-ji and No.13 Dainichi-ji.
By the way, it is really beautiful how they write these scripts on the stamp book. But taking picture/video is prohibited.
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Dedicated to | Kokuzo-Bosatsu (虚空蔵菩薩) |
Founded by | En-no-Gyoja-Odunu (役の行者 小角) |
Denomination | Shingon-sect Koya-group (真言宗高野派) |
Mantra | うぼう あきゃしゃ きゃらばや おん ありきゃ まりぼり そわか Ubou Akyasha Kyarabaya On Arikya Maribori Sowaka |
Next temple | No.13 Dainichi-ji (20.8 Km away) |
Previous temple | No.11 Fujii-dera (12.9 Km away) |
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