Showing posts with label kinkifudo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label kinkifudo. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 23, 2023

Umeda Architecture Snapshots

 


The high-rise buildings of Umeda in downtown Osaka may be quite familiar to many visitors, but because I live deep in the countryside and rarely visit cities the sights are quite unfamiliar Japan to me and very fascinating.


The cluster of seven temples that comprise the start of the Kinki Fudo Myo Pilgrimage are all located in central Osaka and after visiting the 7th, Settsu Kokubunji, in the afternoon of my second day walking, it was now time to head West towards Kobe where temple 8 lay.


I had a hotel room booked for the night in Nishinomiya so I had no time to explore or engage in any kind of photographic study of the architecture, just snapshots as I passed by.


This is the Umekita Ship Hall, a commercial property on the northside of JR Osaka Station. It was designed by Nikken Sekkei


The unique Umeda Sky Building, designed by Hiroshi Hara, seen from a distance.


A replica of a medieval Belgian church on the 8th floor of the Hotel Monterey Osaka.


The previous post in this series on the Kinki Fudo Myo Pilgrimage was Settsu Kokubunji Temple.

Monday, June 19, 2023

Settsu Kokubunji Temple 7 Kinki Fudo Myoo Pilgrimage

 This text is from an earlier post that was of photos of Taiyuji Temple, number 6 on the pilgrimage that I mistakingly thought was number 7 Kokubunji. I have now edited that post and added relevant information about Taiyuji. Sorry.


Kokubinji is an urban temple in downtown Osaka that is the 7th temple on the Kinki Fudo pilgrimage. It is also on the Saigoku Yakushi, Settsu 88, and Osaka Jizo pilgrimages. Settsu is the old provincial name for what is now Osaka.


The temple's origins lie in the 7th century when a temple was established on the site of a former palace to pray for the peaceful repose of the former emperor Kotoku. It was called Nagara-ji.


In 741 a nationwide system of temple-monasteries called Kokubunji was established, one for each province. Nagara-ji was chosen to be the Kokubunji for Settsu.


In 1615 the temple completely burned down during the Siege of Osaka and was not rebuilt for a hundred years.


It was completely rebuilt again at the end of the Meiji period, and in June 1945 was once again destroyed, this time in an air raid, so all the structures have been built since then, except for the entrance gate which dates to the Edo Period.


The honzon is a Yakushi, but there are numerous other shrines and altars to a variety of deities and buddhas, including several Fudo Myo. Not surprisingly considering the various pilgrimages it is on, the temple attracts a lot of visitors and is surprisingly quiet for an urban temple.


The large Fudo statue with large eyes is Minori Fudo. The smaller Fudo ( photo 4) is a Mizukake Fudo. Photo 5 is a Kobo Daishi statue.


The Bell Tower is a memorial to the Tenroku Gas Explosion when the nearby subway line was being constructed in 1970 and a gas explosion killed 79 and injured 420.


The previous post in this series on my second day walking the Kinki Fudo Myo Pilgrimage was Kantele Ogimachi Square.


Saturday, April 22, 2023

Kantele Ogimachi Square Osaka

 


Originally called Ogimachi Kids Park, this modern building adjacent to Ogimachi Park in Kita Ward, Osaka, is quite distinctive.


Kantele is the nickname of Kansai Telecasting, a local TV station and broadcaster with sudios and offices in the building.


It is also called Kids Plaza after a large childrens science museum inside.


It opened in 1997 and was designed by Yasui Architects & Engineers Inc, not a household name, but designers of hundreds of major buildings in Japan and elsewhere.


I passed by while on my second day of walking the Kinki Fudo Myo Pilgrimage.


The previous post in the series is on the nearby Settsu Kokubunji Temple


Wednesday, February 22, 2023

Taiyuji Temple 6 Kinki Fudo Myo Pilgrimage

 


Taiyuji Temple, number 6 on the Kinki Fudo Myo Pilgrimage, is a large complex in downtown Umeda close to Osaka Station.


It is said to have been founded in 821 by Kobo Daishi himself with Emperor Saga donating a statue of Senju Kannon which is now the honzon. The temple was burned to the ground during the Siege of Osaka in 1615 and then once again at the end of WWII. Most of the current buildings date to 1986.


There are numerous statues and shrines scattered throughout the grounds. It is said that in the Meiji period, the  Freedom & Political Rights Movement was established here before spreading around the country.


The Okunoin of the temple is a small cave enshrining a Fudo Myo statue.


The much larger Fudo housed in the Ichigando is the focus of the Fudo Pilgrimage


A statue of young Kobo Daishi. The Kuzan Hakkai Garden is a rock and gravel garden with unusual stepping stones covering 200 tsubo.


I was visiting on the second day of my walk along the Kinki Fudo Myo pilgrimage. The previous post in this series is the nearby Osaka Tenmangu Shrine.


Thursday, December 1, 2022

Osaka Tenmangu

Osaka Tenmangu

Osaka Tenmangu.

Osaka Tenmangu is a large, quiet, shrine in the middle of downtown Osaka that is the origin of Osak's biggest matsuri, the Tenjin matsuri.

Ema.

There are countless thousands of wooden ema strung up around the main buildings, the vast majority containing prayers for success in exams, as this is a Tenmangu shrine, enshrining Sugawara Michizane, considered to be the patron of scholarship.

Osaka Tenmangu.

The origin of the shrine comes from when Sugawara Michizane stopped at Daishogunsha Shrine on his journey to "exile" in Dazaifu. That shrine now exists as a sub-shrine in the grounds today.

Turtles.

A small pond in the grounds is home to some Japanese pond  turtles,.... something I think is more common at shrines than at temples....

Lanterns.

The shrine buildings have been destroyed many times by fire, but surprisingly the main hall anf gate survived the destruction of WWII and date back to the mid 19th century.

Torii.

There are a lot of secondary shrines within the large grounds, including the obligatory Inari Shrine.

Osaka Tenmangu.

This was my second day walking the Kinki Fudo Myo pilgrimage and was heading to the next temple after having visited  Houoninji.

Saturday, September 10, 2022

Kozugu Shrine

Japan Shrines


Osaka is rarely seen as a major tourist destination, especially compare with it nearby neighbour, Kyoto, but actually, Osaka is a more historic city except that it was completely flattened during WWII and the subsequent postwar development, whereas Kyoto escaped the war completely.


Kozu Shrine was originally founded just a few years after Kyoto was established as the new capital. Emperor Seiwa established the shrine at what was believed to be the site of the palace lived in by Emperor Nintoku who is the kami enshrined here.


There is almost no verifiable history about Nintoku although the largest keyhole tomb in all of Japan is said to be his. He was a son of Ojin who was apparently a new lineage of "emperors" around the 4th or 5th centuries and who were based in what is now the Osaka area.


The shrine was moved to its current location from its original by Hideyoshi in the late 16th century when he was building Osaka Castle.


There is a large Inari shrine within the grounds that is very popular, and the shrine is known for its rakugo performances.


It is located just across from the small Houonin Temple that I visited on my second day of walking along the Kinki Fudo Myo pilgrimage.


The Shitennoji and Tennoji areas of Osaka that I had been walking through have a surprisingly large number of historic shrines and temples, though they are all modern rebuildings.


Ramune

Thursday, June 2, 2022

Houonin Temple 5 Kinki Fudo Myoo Pilgrimage

Houonin Temple

Houonin Temple 5 Kinki Fudo Myoo Pilgrimage.

Houoninji was founded in the late 17th century with tee erection of the Kitamukizanfudoson, the North-Facing Fudo.

Houonin Temple 5 Kinki Fudo Myoo Pilgrimage.

Located in central Osaka, not far from Ikutama Shrine, it is temple number 5 on the Kinki Fudo Myoo pilgrimage and I visited on the second day of my walk along that pilgrimage.

Statue.

The statue stands against a camphor tree that was planted at the same time, and when the temple buildings were burned to the ground in WWII, only the tree and statue survived.

Houonin Temple.

On the other side of the tree is now a "south-facing Fudo", though I can nt discover when this dates from.

Buddhist statue.

It is a very compact, urban temple with only a few small buildings, but in one was another Fudo statue.
 
Japan.

There was also this statue of who I am fairly certain is En no Gyoja, the legendary founder of Shugendo

Ema

Green Tea