Myosenji 妙宣寺, otherwise known as Goju No Tou (for the pagoda), is an interesting place worth visiting.
Originally built for the Nichiren sect of Buddhism in 1278 by Endo Tamemori, Myosenji was moved to Mano from another location in 1589. It contains the tomb of Suketomo Hino. The later addition of a five story pagoda around 1827 took about 30 years to complete, and it is the only pagoda with that height in Niigata.
I’ve been to many temples, shinto shrines, mosques, churches and other places of worship around the world so I wasn’t really expecting to see anything new at a temple on Sado Island, Niigata.
However, I was very wrong! My partner pointed out to me that there are two statues guarding the entrance and protected in slatted wooden boxes. Unless you look through the slats you would never know they were there. Both taller than a regular human, one has his mouth open in an A sound and one has his mouth slightly closed in an Um sound. Similar to the universal sound Ohm or om, used in chanting and getting in touch with universal energy when in a meditative state. I had never seen these kinds of statues before and to see the craftmanship of the shape of the mouth seem to perfectly display the sound that even the most inexperienced lip-reader can read, meant I was slightly gob-smacked (ironically, the statues had more expression than I did!) Similar statues to these are apparently dotted throughout Japan in hidden areas, giving a silent Aum sound throughout time.
Amazing!
The temples were nice and well-cared for.
The buildings had a certain calming quality, brought on by the nicely lacquered wood. The lady in the booth at the entrance to one of the buildings was very helpful and wanted to tell us everything she knew about the place, which was also nice.
I donated money to collect a random fortune from a container, and I was happy to find out that this was not the time to get pregnant. (!!!) It also told me that I should avoid large bodies of water in the near future. The ideal advice when I’m just about to get in a tub boat!
I then tied it to a line where other similar predictions had been tied and made a wish.
Short video below! Thanks for watching.
Tub boats in the next post.
