Finding a Rainy 25-Year-Old Memory on Miyajima Island

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Maniden Hall (right) and Main Hall (left)

at the Daishoin Temple (大聖院), Miyajima Japan

During past weekend's trip to Miyajima Island,
the impending typhoon
brought back memories of my first trip to the island, in 1989 after having
been in Japan for only a month. A friend at work (Andy Krantz) had a nice
trip planned for the week-long Obon holidays the country takes every
August, and kindly invited me along. On this trip we stopped by Miyajima Island,
which I knew nothing about (at the time I knew nothing about Japan except
Perl Harbor and Sony).

On that visit I certainly would have seen the famous shrine gate,
but I don't remember it at all. My only memory of that visit 25+ years ago
is of a small gazebo at a temple where one can shake a rope to jingle bells
to awaken the gods' attention to your petitions, I guess (as described here).
During the visit, we had the island to ourselves because it was nonstop
torrential rain... just amazing amounts of water descending from the sky in
nonstop torrents. I remember the little gazebo because it provided a short
respite from the rain. We shook the rope. It was probably my first visit to
a temple of any kind.

So with this memory in mind this past weekend, I wondered where that
gazebo was. I don't recall having seen it on any subsequent trip to the
island (here and here), so I kept more of
an active eye out this time.

Part of my wanderings brought to the Daisho-in Temple, tucked in the
mountains 15 minutes from the famous shrine gate. With buildings sprinkled
all up the side of a mountain, there are many levels and stairways. Every
time I came to the top of a stairway I thought I might find my gazebo, but
I reached the top without finding it...

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End of the Trail

furthest area of the Daisho-in Temple

I didn't know it at the time, but it turns out that my gazebo is in front of the hall at right in the photo above.
Descending back down to where the stairs to the hall starts...

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Prayer Wheels (摩尼車)

steps leading to Daishoin Temple's Maniden Hall (大聖院の摩尼殿)

The idea is that you spin them as you go by, as the person in the photo
above is doing. According to the note written down the first support for
the wheels, it's believed that spinning a wheel once around provides the
same benefits as reading one scroll of sutras. Whatever that means.

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At the top of the stairs is Maniden Hall, fronted by a gazebo with the rope and bells...

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Revisiting After 25 Years








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I Remember This Scene

I seem to remember more distance between the gazebo and the building proper, but it was immediately clear that this
is the place I remembered. I was happy to have found it.

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Looking Back








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Detailed Carvings

I don't recall the Hall itself on that trip 25 years ago. It was probably shuttered up for the storm. Peeking inside this time...

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Ready for a Crowd

Following the veranda down the side and to the back, you come to a red-velvet steep stairway...

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Steep Stairway








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Twisty

It leads to the upper level of the two-story pagoda, which was mostly empty...

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Table for Two

The ceiling was pretty, though less symmetrical than I would have imagined...

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Remarkably Unsymmetrical









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Nice View

You can see the five-story pagoda in the distance.

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Side Veranda

back on the first floor








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One More Look Inside

the first floor









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Spinning

they're heading up as I'm heading down