Beach Debris Art in Tsuda

About 6 years ago I was walking along the coast down near Masuda and while passing through the fishing village of Tsuda spied this wonderful sculpture of an elephant sitting in someones garage. Obviously made from wood and rope that had drifted up on the nearby beach. A few weeks ago I was walking the same section of coast so I was wondering if the man who had made it had done any more. I was not expecting what I found!!

There were now 2 big garages stuffed full of mysterious creatures and other figures all made from driftwood and other debris washed up on the beach.

There were monkeys, bears, hippos, cats, owls, dragons, frogs, penguins, parrots, and several buddhist carvings including Ema the judge of Hell. The original elephant from 6 years ago was still there too.

I found this moose particularly inventive, but my favorite was this frog. I liked that the artist, for that is what he is, had now arranged tableaux. There was another one, not pictured here, next to his front door too.

Marine Day

Monday was Marine Day, a national holiday when everyone goes to the beach.

Well, everyone who CAN  go to the beach, go to the beach. In the Iwami region we are lucky to have many fine, white beaches.

We went to a group of small beaches and coves closest to our house. There are no signs to it, just a small road leading off the main road, but local people know it is there.

Right in front of the area where cars can be parked were several families, so we walked a few minutes to the next little cove. There was a family there.

So we walked another couple of minutes to the next little cove and there was no-one there, so we were able to enjoy our private beach.

Tatamigaura

Decided to take a break from the interminable sequence of garden chores that go along with the rainy season here and took advantage of a break in the rainy weather to spend the afternoon on the coast.

We went down to Shimoko near Hamada where Tatamigaura is located.

In 1872 the Hamada Earthquake occurred. The epicenter of the magnitude 7 quake was just offshore, and one of the results was that a section of seabed rose up and is now exposed at all but the highest tides.

The name tatamigaura comes from the fissures in the flat rock that supposedly resemble tatami flooring. As well as lots of tidal pools, there are various strange rock formations, fossils, and sea caves. Access to the shore is via a tunnel that passes through the biggest sea cave that houses a small Buddhist shrine.

Gonokawa Matsuri Parade

Last saturday was the Gonokawa Matsuri, the social event of the season in Gotsu. All the young females of the species were in their finest.....

The parade consisted of a long line of various civic groups and clubs and companies each in their own style of outfit performing the "dance"..... very few people actually seeme dto be enjoying it....

Kakinomoto Hitomaro, the famed 7th Century poet whose work is well represented in the Manyoshu. His wife, also a famous poet, was a local girl.....

The one group that made a lot of noise and actually seemed to be enjoying themselves were the High School Rugby team.....

And of course no parade would be complete without traditional Japanese hula dancers....

Contemporary Sacred Music & Dance at Mononobe Shrine

On Wednesday I came back one day earlier than planned from my Kyushu Pilgrimage because I found out that my friend Hiroki Okano and friends were performing at a local shrine. Part of their own Izumo Pilgrimage, they brought a flame from the Hiroshima Peace Park. On the previous night they performed at Gakuenji, and I would have loved to have been there but there was no way of getting back in time.

Leading the improvised performance was Hiroki Okano on native-american cedar flute, keyboards, voice, & native drum. Hiroki has recorded with the well known  Navajo flute player R. Carlos Nakai, and even brought him over for a concert in a temple in Kyoto. One of his specialities is performing at sacred sites..... including Enryakuji on Hiezan. A full list of recent performances can be found here

On didgeridoo and kalimba was "Matsu" and the drummer was Kajiwara Tetsuya...... I'm fond of drum solos, so.....

Kajiwara was the drummer with The Blue Hearts, who, I am reliably informed, were one of the top Punk bands in Japan

On Taiko drums was Nobuhito Tomoka, and the dancer was Kunitomo Yuichiro. The dancer was excellent, but unfortunately my video cameras battery was flat.....

He is the son of Kunitomo Suga, generally regarded as the "mother of modern yosakoi dance". Since her death 2 years ago Yuichiro has taken over Sugaren, one of the top yoakoi dance groups in Japan.

Misumi Elementary School

Misumi, a small town on the Shimane coast between Hamada and Masuda has, like much of rural Japan, been depopulated over the last 60 years with a consequence being that many of the smaller elementary schools have been closed and merged into one central school.



For the design of their new school the town council chose to go with Shimane-born architect Shin Takamatsu, one of my favorite Japanese architects.



The school buildings have all the hallmarks of Shin Takamatsu, simple geometric solids like cyclinders, cubes, cones etc. the main building itself is circular.



Extensive use is also made of refelective pools of water. The school was closed when I visited but I hope to go back and see inide as the centre of the building is a circular pool.



The school opened in 1997 and sits on top of a hill with great views out over the Japan Sea.

Fall Colors walk: Yudani Gingko

Winter has arrived early this year, and with being extra busy and the Fall weather being wetter than usual I didnt get to do as much walking in November as I had hoped, but I did make a Fall Colors walk up the Yudani Valley that ends at the Gonokawa near Kawamoto and starts up near Mihara. First stop was this abandoned temple that I had hoped to explore inside of but it has already begun to collapse and their were construction workers there to stop me from entering a "dangerous" place....

Further up the valley a farmer had a grove of gingko trees and he was busy collecting the nuts from underneath...

Solitary gingkos in a background of green are perhaps the most typical image of fall colors round here for me...

I had been told that the huge gingko at the temple in Mitani was particularly spectacular but it had only just begun its metamorphosis from green to gold....

The shrine in Mihara.....

Falls' End

It seems to have been a short, cool, and wet autumn this year....

early this morning while driving back from a friends place upriver we stopped briefly at a riverside temple to snap some shots...

Fortunately it was clear skies...

No idea of the temple name, and when I first visited it many years ago it was non-existent but it seems a new temple has been built here....

More Sanbe Sunrise

I couldn't resist posting some more photos from my recent night on Mount Sanbe.

The earlier posts are here and here...

Turns out this is my 999th post!!!!

Month of Little Sleep part 10

On Sunday 21st October we went to the Omoto Matsuri up in the small settlement of Yudani. It is a small settlement, getting smaller. Only 34 households remain and they are mostly old folks...... there are no kids. The Omoto Matsuris only occur every 7 years and are expensive affairs and only 34 families are left to fund it. It ended up being a fantastic night with all the hallmarks of a true matsuri.... friendliness, generosity, inebriation, humor etc.... I shot over a thousand photos but choose just a handful.....

After the initial rituals and ceremonies the first kagura was Shihogatame, a dance unique to Omoto Kagura but which is similar to Kamimukae in regular Iwami kagura.

At a usual ceremony there may be half a dozen to a dozen offerings placed on the altar, but given the importance of Omoto rituals there will be anything from 30 to 50 different items....

Possibly my favorite Omoto kagura "dance" is Tengai, unique to Omoto. I have seen it performed by priests and also by kagura dancers, but in my experience it is the priests who put on a more dynamic dance.....



The Ebisu dance was unique, for me at least, in several respects. usually Ebisu dances alone, or sometimes with Daikoku, and its usually just a pantomime with him throwing candy to the crowd and then catching a Sea Bream. This was the "complete" Ebisu dance with the first part danced by a dancer as a priest, then with Ebisu, and then finally the "usual" Ebisu dance. usually the fish caught by Ebisu is made out of paper, but here they used the actual fish that had been on the altar as offering to Omoto.

At 6am the final ritual/dance took place and this is where possession, kamigakari, will take place, if it take place. The rope snake representing Omoto is swung violently backwards and forwards by the priests. To the rear you can see the villager who had been designated to be the recipient of possession. kamigakari did not occur.