Okayama

Manhole cover designed with Momotaro!

There is a famous old Japanese tale called “Momotaro”.  Momo means a peach. Taro is one of typical boys’ names in Japan. A giant peach were floating the river and an old lady found it, took it home. When she was just about to cut open the peach so she can share with her husband, a baby was born from the peach!! They were happy to have him, named Momotaro and cherished him as their son. When Momotaro was grown up, he decided to defeat bad demons on an island. He got 3 followers along the way to help him.…a dog, a pheasant, and a monkey. They succeeded and returned home with treasure, lived happily with the old couple.

Everyone in Japan knows this story. Momotaro is such a popular character! It is believed the story was based on an actual person…? A god….? Well it is kind of myth & history mixed together which I love about Japanese history!!

According to Kibitsu Shirine website, Kibitsuhiko-no-mikoto was sent by 10^th emperor to fight against a person / demon (again, myth & history mixture!) named Ura who has been an act of violence, and bring peace to the area. At fight, Kibitsuhiko released two allows at the same time and one got Ura’s left eye. Ura turned into a pheasant and flew away but Kibitsuhiko turned into a hawk and chased him. Then Ura turned into a Koi fish making a river with his own blood from his left eye, Kibitsuhiko turned into a cormorant and finally caught Ura. It sounds like a fantasy movie, but there are sites spotted as their fighting scene and remains, designated as some worship sites….so is it a true story?? Well, no one knows…

Anyways, I love old folk stories like this and I visited 2 shrines both enshrined Kibitsuhiko-no-mikoto. Actually there are 3 Kibitsu-shirine, the main one was split into 3 Kibitsu-shrine as the area divided into 3 regions, each region needed a holy place. I visited Kibitsuhiko Shrine first. It was surrounded by a pond with lots of turtle and as I talk to them, they swam and gathered. So many small shrines were lined up on the hill, with a board showing who is the enshrined god. It almost looks like houses on the street with name plate. I gave all of them a short prayer.

Then I took a train to next station. Kibitsu Shrine (yes, almost same name), which used to be the main, has a unique structure which has 2 shrine roof connected. This way of architect is called “Hiyoku Irimoya zukuri” and unique to this shrine only so it’s also called “Kibitsu-zukuri”.

 

Also, there is a wooden corridor, almost 1000 feet long. This shrine is on the mountain surrounded by rush green and so quiet.

Funny thing is, wind making sound in my ear as I walked, bow bow bow…..I felt like something, some sprit thing, is somehow contacting. Maybe that’s just something I want to believe, but sure it made me smile!

Beautiful blue dragon fly on the bottom!!