Friday, September 11, 2009
Kobe Port Tower
Opened in 1963, the Kobe Port Tower soon became a symbol of the city of Kobe.
Designed by the Nikken Sekkei Company, the design is based on a Japanes drum, the Tsuzumi, and was the first tower built using a pipe lattice.
The tower is 108 metres high, and the observation platform is at 90 metres.
The tower is open every day of the year and entrance is 600 yen.
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Hikawa Town
Hikawa Town lies along the Hi River (Hikawa) in Izumo.
The red iron sand of the Hi was one of the earliest sources of domestic iron production in Japan, and the site of the Yamata no Orochi legend, both associated strongly with Susano.
The design of the manhole cover is of Dotaku, bronze bells from the late Yayoi Period (2nd and 3rd centuries) and reflect the large number of archeological sites associated with this ancient part of Japan.
Not much is known for sure about dotaku, though they were probably ritual objects used in early agricultural rites, and that they were introduced, like so much in early Japan, from Korea.
They have been excavated all over Japan, usually singly, but not far from Hikawa at Kamo Iwakura, a cache of 39 were discovered.
I took the photo ofthe manhole cover at the entrance to Kojindani, an archeological site even greater than Kamo Iwakura. Bronze ritual swords were also used in similar ways to dotaku, and all over Japan more than 300 of these swords had been excavated in total. At Kojindani in 1984, 358 swords were uncovered in one spot!!!
The importance of Izumo as an early political and cultural center of ancient Japan was underscored.
There is a small museum at Kojindani, but the 385 swords themselves are on display at the nearby Shimane Museum of Ancient Izumo.
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Hibara Shrine
Hibara Shrine lies on the Yamanobenomichi at the base of Miwa-san. It is an affiliate shrine of Omiwa Shrine, and like it, enshrines the kami of the mountain, now reckoned to be Okuninushi.
There are no buildings at Hibara Shrine. Buildings at shrines only began after the introduction of Buddhist temples.
Amaterasu was worshipped here but it seems that after Okuninushi was installed from Izumo there were problems between the two of them, so Amaterasu was moved to Ise.
This small shrine was added in 1987. Called Toyosuki-iri-hime no miya. Toyosuki iri hime was an imperial princess who was the "priestess" in charge of the mirror that was the shintai ( god body) of Amaterasu.
Monday, August 31, 2009
Monsters in the garden
Found a whole bunch of these critters under some rotting wood.
I gave them to a friend's sons, because they ( the critters, not the boys) turn into.....
...one of the most popular pets for young boys in Japan, Kabuto Mushi.
It's the biggest beetle in Japan, and Kabuto means "samurai helmet".
In English we call them Rhinocerous Beetle.
I found this monster after it had eaten half of one of my tomato plants. We get a few every year, but this one was the biggest I've seen,... it was as long as my hand. If it was in the U.S. it would become a Luna Moth. Not sure what they become here.
Saturday, August 29, 2009
An umbrella at Matsuo Shrine
Just 4 shots of a red Japanese umbrella I saw at Matsuo Shrine near Kyoto.
My favorite is the last one.
Friday, August 28, 2009
Looking down on mom.
One of the reasons our Turkey trip was so cheap, I think, is because we flew with Uzbekistan Airways. After spending 4 hours in the middle of the night in the holding tank that is Tashkent Airport Transit Lounge, the leg of our flight to Istanbul flew over some amazing country.
Not sure what they are mining here in the middle of the desert.
Another very noticeable man-made mark upon the earth.
Whenever I travel I spend the whole time with my nose stuck to the window. I was lucky enough to have a window seat, clear skies, and low light of the early morning.
I think these very high mountains were in Georgia.
Another mine, this time in Turkey
The suburbs of Istanbul.
To see the whole sequence of 42 photos, please click below
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Izumo Dome. One of he biggest wooden buildings in Japan.
Sunday, August 23, 2009
What's all the noise about?
No, this is not going to be a rant about the loudspeaker vans passing through the village electioneering right now. Actually we don't get them very often, and being surrounded on 3 sides by mountains mean the slogans echo and reverberate and kind of sound like a Charles Ives piece.
And I'm not talking about the hot-dogging, top gun watching, U.S. airforce jets that scream overhead just above the trees.... though what a huge waste of resources they are......
I'm talking about these guys....
...Cicadas, or "semi" in Japanese.
Just as the frogs quite down they are replaced by the calls of the cicada. By now they have reduced their sound to a random buzzing, but when they first start up they start up in unison. It can be quite eerie, standing in the garden when suddenly all the cicadas in a few hundred metres of forest start up simultaneously.
There are about 30 different species of cicada in Japan, and they have long been celebrated in song and poem. The sound of the cicada used in a movie ( or drawn in a manga "nim nim nim") lets the viewer know the setting is the heat of the summer.
Friday, August 21, 2009
Anasenimasu Shrine
Anasenimasu Shrine, or Anashiniimasu in its alternate reading, is one of the oldest shrines in Yamato, and yet little is known for sure about it,... most references to it include lots of "maybe"'s.
It's located up the valley a little behind the Sumo Shrine, just off the Yamanobenomichi, and seems to be connected to Emperor Suinin.
The 3 kami housed in the unusual triple honden are Hyouzugami, Wakamitama, and Daihyouzu. Each is associated with the imperial regalia, the sword, mirroe, and jewels.
Some sources equate the 3 with Susano, Kushinadahime, and Onamuchi, 3 Izumo kami.
The main kami, Hyouzu is believed to be the ancient Chinese god, Chi-You, considered to be the ancestor of the Han chinese as well as the Koreans. He was a god of war with associations with metal and weapons, and to have had an Ox's head. Interesting that Susano, in Izumo at least, is associated with metal and weapons, and came to be equated with Gozutenno, the Oxhead king originally a Hindu god, but brought into Japan through Korea. Gozutenno is the original kami at the shrine now known as Yasaka in Gion.
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Red hats.
Red hats on statues are fairly common throughout Japan, and often accompanied by red bibs.
It is said that the red caps on Jizo statues represent the amniotic sac, but the most common explanation for them is that red is the color that drives away disease and sickness.
Making the hats and bibs for the statues is in a sense an act of prayer.
All of these photos were taken at Mitakidera, a temple in the hills just outside downtown Hiroshima. It is my favorite site to visit in Hiroshima.
In a rock nook behind the spring above the temple even the snake representing the kami of water is hatted.