53,000 knotted handkerchiefs

Stopped by the Hamada Childrens Art Museum to check out the latest exhibit, owing much to Christo methinks.

The building is covered with 53,000 handerkerchiefs knotted together. Each handkerchief measures 30cms by 30 cms.

Its part of Tsunaide Aato ( Connection Art) a collaboration between 6 Japanese artists.

On Saturday the hankies come down off the building and then the garden and grounds of the museum will be covered in hankies.

It makes for some interesting light inside the building.

Hamada Childrens Museum of Art is located on the hilltop next to the University of Shimane, overlooking downtown Hamada.

The Emperor didn't sleep here.

Today is a National Holiday in Japan in celebration of the Emperor's birthday. Actually his correct title is "Tenno" which translates as "heavenly Sovereign", but when the Japanese came to translate the word into English they chose "emperor" as China had an emperor and Japan wasn't going to be outdone by the Chinese.

The new government of Japan in 1868 had the task of molding a unified nation out of the many seperate domains that had existed up till then, and the chose the new emperor as the symbol of the new nation. Problem was that the vast majority of Japanese had no idea who or what the emperor was. Part of the solution they come up with was for the Meiji Emperor to travel the length and breadth of the country on a series of Grand Tours. Like much of the "Imperial traditions" that were invented around this time it was based on the traditions of European royalty.

So all over Japan local authorities scrambled to build suitable accomadation for the Emperor.

Above is located in the grounds of Matsue castle and was built in 1903. Now it houses a local history museum, the Kyodokan.

The Emperor never did stay there.

The Gobenden is now located underneath the castle hill in Hamada. It was constructed in 1907 in case the Meiji Emperor visited Hamada.
He didn't.
The Crown Prince Yoshihito, the future Emperor Taisho, did stay here for a couple of days however.

On a related note, this is the Goseimon at Gakuen-ji temple. It's a gate that is only used by members of the imperial family. The current Crown Prince, Naruhito, used it a couple of years ago.

The view from Hemp Mountain

At 599m, Taima-San (Hemp Mountain) is the highest coastal mountain in the Hamada area. Among the many antennae and towers that bristle from its peak is an observation tower.
This first view is looking NW out to sea. More than 200k away is Korea.

Looking SW down the coast, Misumi Power Station, burning coal, is where we get our electricity. The mountain in the distance is in Yamaguchi. Old legends indicate a conflict between the tribe that poulated the area around Taimasan and the tribe around the Yamaguchi Mountain.

Inland to the SE. Hiroshima City is about 100k away.

NE to Hamada Port.

At the base of the mountain is the town of Sufu, home to the largest kofun (burial mound) in the Iwami area.

The Chugoku Nature Trail passes over Taima-san, and there is an interesting shrine and garden just below the peak.

Tallship Nadezhda

The 109 metre sail-training ship NADEZHDA out of Vladivostock is making a courtesy visit to Hamada this weekend.

When we got there on Sunday afternoon they were already almost finished furling the sails,

But there were still lots of crew up in the rigging.

There was a very festive atmosphere with local people putting on kagura and folk songs,

And the crew reciprocating with Russian songs and dancing.

We were allowed to wander around onboard, but weren't allowed below decks.


I spent an afternoon sailing on a similar boat a few decades ago when I lived in Falmouth while it was hosting the Tall Ships Race. Coincidentally that boat was also built at the Gdansk Shipyards in Poland.

Three Lights Shrine

This is not a mosque, but a shrine. The symbol is of the three kami enshrined at Mihashinoyama Shrine on Sangaisan, at 378 metres the highest mountain overlooking Hamada.

The three kami are Amaterasu, represented as the sun, Tsukiyomi, the kami of the moon, and Susano represented as a star,.... the three lights.

There are actually 3 shrines on the mountaintop, lower, middle, and upper. The middle shrine, shown above, contains the main buildings, and is in the style of the meiji era, so I suspect that the attribution of the 3 kami occurred at that time. Prior to that the 3 kami were known as Gongen, buddhist manifestations of Japanese kami.

The most common version of the story of the creation of the 3 kami is from the Kojiki, when Izanagi fled from visiting his dead wife, Izanami, in the underworld, Yomi. While ritually purifying himself in a stream, Amaterasu, Tsukiyomi, and Susano are expelled from Izanagi's eyes and nose.

In the Kojiki version of the myths, thats the last we hear of Tsukiyomi, and there are very few shrines to him in Japan. I've never come across another shrine where all 3 of the kami are represented in the same way as here.

The mountaintop shrine was known as a place to view sunrise, and a place to pray for safety on sea journeys and for fishing.

There are great views looking down over Hamada as well as down the coast and also inland.

Its possible to drive to within a few hundred meters of the shrine, and there is a footpath up the mountain that starts behind the University.

Temples & Snacks

I love wandering around the old neighborhoods of Japanese towns and villages. All these photos are from one of the old parts of the castle area in Hamada.

There are usually a mishmash of architectural styles and periods. The photo above is probably Meiji era, and was probably a school originally.

The area south of the castle had an awful lot of "Snacks", or Sunaku, little drinking establishments that don't serve meals, just alcohol and "bar snacks" and in some instances female companionship.

I counted at least 30 within a few hundred metres of walking back streets. Most of them kind of funky.

There were also a lot of temples, many of them quite picturesque, with statues, and gardens etc

I'm not sure if there is a direct relationship between a neighborhood having a lot of temples and a lot of bars :)

There is a lot of history in these neighborhoods, and not the contrived museum kind of history one finds in tourist areas, and perhaps more interesting because of that.

Hamada Hachiman Shrine

There are steps leading up to Hamada Hachiman Shrine.

More than 100 of them.

There are steps leading up to most shrines and temples.

I did a rough calculation, and figure I must have climbed more than a million by now.

The steps and road to the steps lead back in a straight line to where Hamada castle stood on its hill overlooking Hamada, as this shrine was the tutelary shrine for the lords of Hamada.

Hachiman, kami of war, tutelary deity of all samurai.

It's a fairly standard Hachiman shrine, though I noticed on my last visit that it had a whole new set of front doors.

Behind the main shrine is a small secondary shrine, a Densha, some type of rice paddy kami, and a small old Inari shrine.

Being hamada, of course there is a kagura den.

To the side of the main shrine is a second, much larger Inari shrine. This was moved here from a few hundred metres away about 30 years ago. The original shrine was established by a son of the lord about 400 years ago.

Though its locally known simply as Hamada Hachimangu, its real name is Hisamitsuyama Hachimangu.

Shakechi Hachiman Shrine, Hamada

Shakechi Hachiman Shrine is tucked away in a quiet neighborhood just off Route 186, the main road south out of Hamada towards Hiroshima.

Like most shrine it is unmanned, but I was surprised to see a display case with ofuda and Omamori for sale, until I learnt that amulets from this shrine are known specificly for traffic safety, so when you get a new car this is the place to come for protection while driving.

There are quite a few secondary shrines within the grounds including this Inari Shrine.

There is an Ebisu shrine, and Omoto Shrine, and a Jyunisha, which I believe is a shrine to the 12. animals of the Chinese zodiac.

Tada-Ji, Hamada

Located in the hills just to the east of Hamada, Tada-Ji is the oldest existing temple in Hamada.
Founded in the early eighth Century by a student of Kukai it is a fairly large complex with several huge trees over 1,000 years old.

Kukai, known posthumously as Kobo Daishi is the founder of the Shingon sect, bases at Koyasan near Osaka/Nara.

This statue of Kobo Daishi stands in front of an Inari Shrine. Around the statue is a short path with 88 stone markers representing the 88 temples of the famous Shikoku pilgrimage. Miniature versions of pilgrimages are common throughout Japan, but this may be the shortest I've seen. Why walk 1,400 kilometres to visit 88 sites when you can walk it in 14 metres!

Of course there are hundreds and hundreds of miniature statues as at most temples.

Interestingly there is also a kagura-den with small shrine within the grounds.

Inside the main worship hall are 59 wooden statues that were found washed up on a nearby beach. Experts date the statues to about 1,000 years ago. They were found in 1870 around the time the new Meiji Government had a campaign to suppress Buddhism. Thousands of temples were razed and buddhist artworks destroyed, obviously sometimes by throwing them into the rivers and sea. The sea current here comes from the west so there is a high probability that they came from a temple in Yamaguchi Prefecture.

There is a big Matsuri here in early march that I hope to attend as I have never been to a Buddhist matsuri.

More posts on Tada-ji here.

Omoto Shrine. Hamada

Tucked away up a little lane about 200 metres from the Otoshi shrine near the harbour in Hamada is a small Omoto Shrine.

I have been unable to find any information on the shrine. Omoto probably refers to the kami Omotojin, or it may refer to the fact that this shrine is built on the earliest shrine in the area before the Yamato Awashima Shrine. Or it may mean both things.

There is a small kagura-den and a small secondary shrine in the grounds, and I found these paper flowers which may have come from a Hana Mikoshi.

I love wandering around the alleys and narrow lanes of the old parts of Japanese towns. Without traffic it is easy to imagine how things were in earlier times.

Some people put plastic bottles of water around their doorways and houses in the belief that it will stop neighborhood cats from peeing there. I have no idea if there is any truth to this old-wives tale, but several houses in the area had put plastic flowers in the bottles which added a nice touch.