Kibitsu Jinja & Korakuen Garden　吉備津神社、後楽園

April 15^th. 2024

Michi no eki Kayo is reliable for a quiet night but the facilities are limited. It does provide rubbish bins. It is not a bad place though undermaintained.

Kibitsu Jinja

From the michi no eki we set off for Kibitsu Jinja (shrine). This is reputed to hold the second largest, wooden, shrine building in Japan. Only Yasaka Jinja in Kyoto is larger. Not just large, it is more interesting than the average shrine.

The shrine is dedicated to Kibitsuhiko, who fought and defeated Ura who, myth suggests, was terrorizing the local people. Ura was considered a demon or Oni so his castle was Onigajo (Kinojo). Kibitsuhiko is possibly the root of the Momotaro legend.

After Kibitsuhiko beheaded Ura, unusually his buried head continued to howl. This persisted for some years, understandably upsetting the villagers. However, Ura’s dismembered head appeared to Kibitsuhiko in a dream and asked that his wife be allowed to cook an offering in a pot at the spot his head was buried.
Subsequent to this culinary experiment, the howling head became quiet.

Look, I am only passing on the information.

Today, ‘Narukama-shinji’  is a famous fortune-telling ritual in this shrine. A large pot of rice is boiled and the future, for good or ill, is revealed by the sound the boiling pot produces.

When we visited, somebody was performing this ceremony at Okama-den, the spot in the shrine where the howling head was allegedly buried.

The main building dates from 1425 but had already burned down twice prior to that date. It has a splendid lantern adorned entrance and a very long (360m) covered corridor that slopes dramatically.

There is also an adjacent temple with carp pools and an old pine tree stretched out over the water.
A shrine more deserving of a visit than most.

＊Kibitsu Jinja ; free

Korakuen Garden

From the shrine our next destination is Okayama city, here we want to take a look at Korakuen Garden.

In 1687, Daimyo Ikeda Tsunamasa ordered its construction which was completed in 1700.
Reputed to be one of the 3 great gardens of Japan, it provides a pleasant wander, but I don’t think it warrants big 3 status.
Other gardens on a similar scale are to my mind superior. The garden in the centre of Takamatsu （Ritsurin Koen) that we visited earlier on this trip was more pleasing from an ascetic perspective.

It is a fine garden nonetheless and we enjoyed watching a kingfisher diving into one of the ponds.

Adjoining the garden is Okayama castle, known as Ujyo or cormorant castle. Possibly because it is next to the river and has black castle tower.
This is very pretty across the river and the garden entrance ticket suffices for both. Only 200 yen for seniors. Pretty it may be, but we did not enter the castle as it is a replica.

From Okayama we follow route 2 to Fukuyama and stay in a hotel. It is time to enjoy a rare visit to an izakaya.