Slow Travel Through Rural Japan

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Fiona Tapp, Slow Travel Through Rural Japan. Forbes.com, Mar 10, 2019,
https://www.forbes.com/sites/fio ... hrough-rural-japan/

Note:
(a) "Book a walking tour with expert guides like Walk Japan [www.walkjapan.com] and you'll be totally immersed in Japanese life and culture as you learn all about the history of the area you walk through. * * * Walk Japan's Kunisaki and Yufuin walk wonderfully encapsulates this movement towards more genuine experiences. * * * This route all the way through to Yufuin, an onsen town popular with Japanese holidaymakers, will see you following in the ancient footsteps of monks making the pilgrimage through the mountains of the Kunisaki Peninsula, in Kyushu. Here you'll pass many examples of pawā spotto [katakana for 'power spot'], or spiritual places, including the gravestones of monks, Shinto temples, and shrines and Buddha reliefs cut into the side of cliffs.  Directly opposite one of the ryokans where you will rest after a day's walk is the temple of Fuki-Ji.  Built in the 8th century it still shows evidence of its neglect centuries ago, when state religion was introduced [神道, together with 廃仏毀釈 where 釈 is 釈迦; starting in 1868], and this beautiful ancient wooden structure was used as a children's playroom. Look up high onto the beams where the sun cannot reach, and you'll still be able to see the faded artwork showing scenes of musicians from a time long ago."
(i) Yufuin "由布院 - 大分県由布市 [City of Yufu, Ōita Prefecture] 内の地区の通称名。"  ja.wikipedia.org.
(ii) For Kunisaki Peninsula, see Kunisaki  国東市
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kunisaki
(in Ōita Prefecture, Kyushu; photo caption: "Colour Satellite view of Kunisaki Peninsula")

The "saki" pronunciation for 東 is used in name only.
(iii)
(A) Fuki-Ji  富貴寺
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuki-ji
(a Tendai 天台宗 temple in Bun-go-taka-da 豊後高田 [市], Ōita Prefecture; "Its Amida-dō 阿弥陀堂 is generally called Fuki-ji Ō-dō 大堂. It is the oldest wooden structure in Kyushu. Ō-dō is designated a National Treasure 国宝. The seated image of the Amida-Nyōrai 阿弥陀如来 contained in Ō-dō is designated by the national government as an Important Cultural Property [重要文化財（国指定）]")
(B) 富貴寺大堂の世界. 大分県立歴史博物館 Oita Prefectural Museum of History, undated
https://www.pref.oita.jp/site/rekishihakubutsukan/2002573.html
("富貴寺大堂は、宇佐神宮の大宮司である宇佐氏が、死後の極楽往生を祈願して建立しました。 この大堂は、本尊の阿弥陀如来坐像と、その後ろに描かれた極楽浄土壁画を拝観することで、この世にいながらにして極楽の世界が体験できるという造りになっています。このような建築を、「阿弥陀堂建築」といいます")
(C) The description "faded artwork showing scenes of musicians from a time long ago" is wrong.

富貴寺
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/富貴寺
(photo caption: "大堂壁画")

This photo and the background in (iii) (B) both shows what the afterlife would be once one accepts Buddha as your savior. Those are musicians all right, but in the heaven -- not in this world.

(b) "You'll climb up to Chō-an Ji 長安寺 [718- ; 大分県豊後高田市; 天台宗], once the most powerful temple in all of Kunisaki. At the top of the ascent, you'll happen upon a most unexpected sight. Antony Gormley's "Another Time" statue, an iron man standing alone looking out at the landscape of Oita Prefecture's Sento district below."
(i) Another Time (project). Antony Gormley, undated
www.antonygormley.com/projects/item-view/id/304
("ANOTHER TIME is a series of one hundred sculptures")

Click "SCULPTURE" in the upper right corner of this Web page, and you will see sculptures in this series that are all different from one another.
(ii) Julian Ryall, Gormley Statue of Naked Man Offends Japanese Buddhist Pilgrims. Telegraph, Mar 30, 2015
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news ... uddhist-temple.html
("A work of art by Antony Gormley, the British sculptor * * * Titled 'Another Time XX,' the life-size statue of a naked man in cast iron was positioned on a ridge in the Kunisaki district of Kyushu in February 2014, ahead of the opening of the Kunisaki Art Festival. * * * Five months later [after the festival], however, the rusting, 1,390-lb figure remains in situ, watching the sun rise every morning over the Pacific Ocean. * * * Gōkō IMAKUMA 今熊 豪宏 [who wanted to keep the statue], the head priest of Sentōji Temple 旧千燈寺 [718- ; located in 大分県国東市国見町千燈 (neighborhood); mostly burned down by a warlord in 天正年間 (1573-1593)], told the Telegraph with a dismissive wave of his hand. * * * The Japanese statue is close to the route that was in ancient times walked by meditating priests over a period of three weeks, which fell into disuse in the early years of the last century as Japan modernised. The path was reopened 24 years ago in order to bring tourists to the region. * * * He [Imakuma] has also kept the wooden packing crate that was used to protect the work on its journey from Britain and says he will use it as his coffin when he dies")

(c) 国東半島峯道ロングトレイル Kunisaki Peninsula Minemichi Long Trail. 国東市観光協会, undated.
https://visit-kunisaki.com/visit ... ads/2018/03/101.pdf