Namba Yasaka Shrine to Nakanoshima..... Zen, Love, & Business...

 

Continuing with my little architectural exploration of Namba and nearby areas of central Osaka, from the Yasaka Shrine I headed towards Nakanoshima, about 4 kilometers away...

First sight was Zuiryuji Temple, commonly known as Tetsugenji after Testsugen, the Obaku Zen monk who founded the temple. Knwn for printing the complete Buddhist sutras in Japanese, Tetsugen made the temple huge during the Edo Period.

Totally destroyed during WWII bombing, the main hall was rebuilt in wood, but has since been rebuilt in concrete....

I passed by the octagonal Namba Hatch I had visited a little earlier...

Other than that there were no noteworthy structures.....

Although I did pass numerous urban Love Hotels which offer splashes of colour and whimsy among the glass and steel towers....... I am at a loss to understand Mickey Cookies as a love hotel theme..

Other than a few cities in the US with big rivers to cross, I don't remember seeing the kind of elevated urban roads that seem to be common in metropolitan Japan..... very Bladerunner to me....

I have only ever stayed at a couple of rural love hotels before, so I have no idea what the interiors are like.... but I can guess....

The final photo of the post is Nakaonoshima, my destination,  home to a couple of museums I wanted to visit...

The previous post in this series on the architectural delights of Osaka was on the Namba Yasaka Shrine..

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Namba Yasaka Shrine

 

The Yasaka Shrine in Namba, Osaka, has become well known for its distinctive kaguraden shaped like a Komainu's head.

Though there are no records, the shrine claims to have been established during the reign of Emperor Nintoku in the 4th century. Nintoku is one of those emperors that probably existed, but at least a century later.

It was known in ancient times as Namba Shimonomiya.

Like many Yasaka Shrines it was, until Meiji, a temple-shrine complex and during the late Heian Period was connected to Gozu Tenno, an epidemic fighting deity with nunerous origin stories.

The version I prefer is the one that has Gozu Tenno brought to Japan from Sila by the Hata Clan.

Gozu Tenno was the deity of Gion-sha, the home of the Gion Matsuri and a common name of many Yasaka Shrines before Meiji.

From the Kamakura Period onwards, Gozu Tenno became conflated with Susano, which is the deity now enshrined in all Yasaka Shrines, along with his wife, Kushinada, and their eight children.

There are numerous secondary shrines in the grounds.

The shrine-temple complex burned down numerous times, usually because of war, with the most recent destruction being during WWII.

The current buildings date to the 1970's.

The most interesting structure is called a Shishi-den, but to me it looks like a komainu.

Various performances take place in it, so that would make it a kagura-den by my calculation..

Over the last ten years or so it has become an "instagrammable" spot and is much more popular than it used to be...

The previous post on the architecture and sights of Namba was on Namba Parks

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Namba Parks

 

Shopping malls are true cathedrals of consumption, especially in a country wherein many people claim shopping as a hobby.

Most are featureless boxes, but a few have had some serious money spent on their architecture.

Namba parks is one such location, and from one angle one might understand the name "parks" as having some rekevance.

However, most visitors will see a dark canyon with beckoning lights enticing people into magical lands where things you don't need call out to be bought...

The canyon metaphor is also literal.

The architect, American Jon Jerde, modelled the architecture on the sandstone canyons of the Colorado Plateau in the American Southwest.

As a photographer, I like it.

Jerde has also designed another couple of shopping malls in Japan that I like: Riverwalk in Kokura, and Canal City in Fukuoka.

I notice common elements to all three...

Namba Parks is my least favourite, though that may be simply because I have visited it less than the other two.

I was about to write that after multiple visits to these malls I had never actually bought anything, but then I remembered that Canal City used to have a Wendys that I visited once, and Riverwalk has a Freshness Burger and a map museum that I had visited...

As well as the shopping mall, Namba Parks consists of a cinema, and an office building and a residential building. The rooftop gardens don't seem to get much use...

I currently only have one post on Riverwalk, here, and one on Canal City, here.

The previous post in this series exploring Namba, Osaka, was on sights seen between Namba Hips and Namba Parks.

if you would like to subscribe by email just leave your email address in the comments below. It will not be published and made public. I post new content almost everyday, and send out an email about twice a month with short descriptions and links to the last ten posts.