Monday, February 8, 2010

Red hats & bibs: cliffside

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Buddhist statues wearing red hats and bibs can be found all over Japan. In wayside shrines and altars there will be alone or in small groups. In larger temples there may be many of them in lines.

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In Tachikue Gorge on the Kando River a few k south of Izumo City, there are hundreds of them arrayed along a cliff for about 500 meters.

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There are 1,000 statues of various buddhas, and 500 statues of Buddhas disciples.

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This area was a centre for Yamabushi until Shugendo was outlawed in early Meiji.

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Buses from Izumo Station stop along the gorge.

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5 comments:

  1. Looks great. We'll definitely have to visit Tachikue the next time we're in town.

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  2. domo arigato for the nice shots... i have a question: when I visited Daisho-in Temple (Mijajima) 2 years ago in March plenty of statues there also had (blue)hats (+scrafs) on, but afterwards i read,that parents who have lost their children do this...do you know stg about this?thanks!
    have a good week!

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  3. That is one of the more modern reasons for it. It is done as a way of saying thanks for some "blessing" that has been received, or as a request that the childs "spirit" will be protected in the afterlife.

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  4. Looks very nice. Beautiful hats. Thanks for sharing.....

    Regards,
    360 degree photo stitching

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  5. It must be a spiritual place! I think it would be nice if you can add something else about it, maybe more pictures and its characteristics.Those statues seems beautiful and I wish be there soon, might be in my next life.

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