Breakfast at Ikadaya. It’s a community center converted into a hotel. We were the only guests in the whole place. Also, the staff left for the evening so we had the whole place to ourselves.
I think it’s going to get harder to keep this interesting. We wake up, eat, walk, visit a temple or walk some more, and then walk some more. The variation comes with when a temple visit interrupts our walking. Most of today was of the walking variety. We walked approximately 17 miles from one inn to the next. We dropped our backpacks and visited another temple about 25 minutes away. That was our day. For the first part, I’m just going to post a bunch of pictures of what we saw from 7:15 a.m. until 3:10 p.m. when we checked-in to Petite Hotel & Restaurant/Gardentime in Kumakogen.
Dam with a fish ladder.House with human ladder.Route 379Jizo in a little cave along the side of the road.Route 379Changing up the view along Route 380Roadside shrineChanging up the view again on Prefecture Road 42Taking a logging road from Prefecture Road 42 across a ridge to get to Kumakogen.Still climbing to the ridge on the logging road.Descending the other side of the ridge. This was a “hell path.” Not well maintained and falling apart due to the rain carving ridges into it. Tricky footing.One final push to get into Kumakogen.
We checked-in to our lodge a little past three and they arranged for our lodging tomorrow night. I had hoped to make it up to the outer suburbs of Matsuyama tomorrow, but Shigenobu is just a bridge too far. The only other lodging between Kumakogen and Matsuyama is only one-third of the way, but that’s what we were able to arrange for tomorrow night after we visit Temple 45.
After checking-in, arranging the next hotel, and dropping off our backpacks in our room, we were off to Temple 44 which was only 1.7 kilometers away.
Daihoji (Temple 44 – “Great Treasure Temple”)
Bell Tower. One interesting things about Daihoji is that is has two bell towers. A one on either side of the stairs that lead up to the level the temples are on. I only rang one.HondoDaihojiDaihoji – I may get carried away with this “portrait mode” thing.HondoHondoDaihoji. It seems almost as if the placement of the bibs and hats on the two foremost “children” on the left were placed there as a joke.Giant sandals hang from either side of the entrance through the sanmon. New ones are woven every hundred years.Sandals hanging from the sanmon.Kumakogen. Hinamatsuri (“Hina doll festival”) is part of the national holiday Girl’s Day which takes place on March 3rd. The streets were lined with doll displays. Kumakogen keeps the dolls out on display through into April.Hinamasturi – Full hina doll displays often contain a lord and lady, various court nobility, attendants, and musicians entertaining them.HinamatsuriDinner at Gardentime. (I started eating before remembering to take a picture.)
2023 Shikoku Henro 