Kappa Manholes

The Kappa, one of many mythical creatures classified as "Yokai", is often translated into English as "water sprite", though that does not convey much of the character of these creatures. Stories of Kappa can be found all over Japan, but some areas have a stronger connection to them. The design above is from Tsuyama in Okayama, where the creature is known as Gongo. A Gongo festival is held every year.

South of Tsuyama, though connected by the same river system, is the town of Kumenan. The toen mascot is "Kappy". There were several different designs incorporating Kappa, but I passed through in the dark so the only photo that turned out well was the one above.

Tanushimaru along the Chikugo River in Fukuoka claims to be the original source of all Japanese Kappa. There are many Kappa shrines in the area and statues of Kappa are everywhere. The railway station is also shaped like a kappa.

The photo below is from further south in Kyushu, Satsumasendai in Kagoshima.

The best manhole design of Kappa though is the one from my town, Sakurae, where it is known as "Enko". It can be found here.

Manhole Whales

This first one is from Shishikui Town on the Tokushima coast down near the border with Kochi. I believe you can go whale watching there....

These next two are from Muroto City on the other side of the Muroto Peninsula in Kochi. They certainly offer whale watching boat trips.

The last two are from Omijima Island off the north coast of Yamaguchi Prefecture. It was once a whaling area though whaling ceased in the first decade of the twentieth Century.

There is a small but interesting museum on whaling there and the traditions are still remembered in festivals.

Manhole Ohanami

The annual cherry blossom viewing season is now over for most of Japan, but the cherry blossom can be seen year round by looking down. Not surprisingly given its cultural prominence the sakura appears as a design element in many, like this first one from Tadotsu in Kagawa, Shikoku.

It features as a minor design element in countless designs, like this one from Kamo Town in Izumo.

As I sorted through my files to find these I was expecting sakura to much more common than it is. I was surprised to find the Azalea being more common. The sakura above is from Mizukami in Kumamoto.

From Miyahara, also in Kumamoto, also featuring a rose.

From Toyoshi in Kagawa, with azaleas in the center.

Manhole Horses

There is archeological evidence that horses have been in Japan for thousands of years, however the earliest records of Japan by the Chinese in the third century say that Japan did not have any horses. It is known that horses were introduced from Korea in the 4-5th centuries and this seems to be from when most Japanese horses are descended. The above manhole is from Mochizuki, a small town in Nagano. The area bred and raised horses for the Imperial court since ancient times.

Kushima, at the southern tip of Miyazaki, is home to a breed of wild pony, the Misaki Pony, considered a Japanese breed. They live on Cape Toi and are a tourist attraction. there are about 100 of them. Misaki means "cape".

This final one is from Ishigaki Island in Okinawa, and other than the fact that the area offers horse riding as an attraction I can find no explanation for the horse on their manhole design.

Along the Road.....Azaleas & Haniwa

After leaving Unochi Shrine I continued downstream towards the first temple on this leg of my Izumo 33 Kannon Pilgrimage. It was May, and the azaleas that lined the road were stunning.

The local manhole cover doesnt feature azaleas though, rather cosmo flowers....

Within the azalea bushes were miniature replicas of Haniwa, the terra cotta figurines, often over a meter in height, that surrounded the ancient burial mounds. According to the ancient chronicles the haniwa were created to replace the practice of sacrificial  live human burials along with deceased leaders. Most Japanese insist that such things never happened, though usualy the chronicles are treated as gospel.

Quite probably these roadside decorations are because a little way down the road is quite an important burial mound.

More Avian manholes

It turns out that birds are quite a common design element in Japanese manhole designs.
Previous posts showing some can be found here. and here.

This first one is from the small island of Teshima in the Akinada Sea off of Hiroshima, and the bird is a cormorant.

This one is from Musashi Town, now a part of Kunisaki City in Oita. It depicts a pair of Mejiro, Japanese White-Eyes. For a photo of real Mejiro see this post

Sanko Town, now a part of Nakatsu City in Oita has a pair of Japanese Bush warblers, Uguisu, in Japanese. Strangely the town bird is the Mejiro.

Nago Town on Ishigaki Island in Okinawa features a pair of Ryukyu Mejiro.

Ishigaki City on the same island features an Akashobin, Ruddy Kingfisher in English. Common throughout east and southeast Asia it is quite rare in Japan.

More Beppu Flowers

Beppu in Oita styles itself "flower town" and is reflected in its choice of designs for manhole covers. A previous post can be found here. This post shows a few more. This first one is of tsutsuji, azaleas.

This may very well be another azalea design or possibly hibiscus.

This ones easy.... cherry blossoms and tulips.... but I couldn't find it in color.

Not sure what this one is....

The Delightful Floral Manholes of Beppu

Some places really make an effort with their manhole designs. Yuda Onsen in Yamaguchi with more than 30 different designs being an obvious choice (click here for some examples). Another place I recently discovered is Beppu, the famous hot-spring resort in Oita.
The first one features Cosmos (kosumosu) and Rose Mallow (Fuyou)

Crape Myrtle (sarusuberi) and Sunflower (himawari)

Plum (ume) and Daffodil (suisen)

Wintersweet (loubai) and Pot Marigold (kinsenka)

Bush Clover (hagi) and Canna Lily (kanna)

Peach (momo) and Pansy (panji)

Hydrangea (ajisai) and Daisy (maagaretto)

Another post later as this is not all the ones I found in Beppu.

Nakatsu Castle

Nakatsu Castle is the main feature of the design on Nakatsu Citys draincover in Oita, Kyushu.

Considered on of the 3 great "water castles" that used river and sea as part of its defences. The other two being Imabari and Takamatsu.

The original was built in 1588 and was burned down in 1877 during the Seinan War, commonly called the Satsuma Rebellion.

The current concrete keep was built in 1964. No-one knew what the original keep looked like so it was modelled instead on Hagi castles keep.

Yabakei Gorge & Aonodomon

Honyabakei is a small town south of Nakatsu in Oita Prefecture. in 2005 the town was merged with Nakatsu.

The draincover depicts Yabakei Gorge and Aonodomon.

The gorge was created by the Yamakuni River cutting through the biggest volcanic plateau in Japan.

The result is some spectacular rock formations and sheer cliffs that are particularly popular in the Fall season.

Aonodomon, which means "blue tunnel" is an almost 200 meter long tunnel carved into the base of the cliffs. According to legend it was carved by a single monk named Zenkai using a hammer and chisel and took him 30 years to complete.

Earlier in his life Zenkai had committed a murder and to atone for his sins her carved the tunnel to make the rout to a local shrine safer for pilgrims.

Sand Museum Revisited

While walking the Iwami 33 Kannon Pilgrimage I was able to revisit many places I had been before. There were of course some new things, like the new draincover at Nima.

The design shows a woman playing a Koto, a reference to the "singing" sands of nearby Kotogahama Beach.

Singing is a bit of a stretch!.... as you walk on the sand it squeaks a little. Of course, if you are familiar with Japanese pop music you may realize that there is little distinction between squeaking and singing.

Also in the manhole design are the glass pyramids of Nima Sand Museum, the local museum built to showcase the sand.

Designed by Nima-born architect Shin Takamatsu, the largest pyramid houses the biggest sand-timer in the world.

When I was there in mid December the lower part of the timer was almost full. It takes a full year for all the sand to fall through. At midnight on December 31st the timer is ceremoniously rotated 180 degrees to begin the cycle again.