The highest castle in Japan

At 430 meters above sea level, situated atop Mount Gagyu in Okayama, is Bitchu Matsuyama Castle, the highest castle in Japan. It overlooks Takahashi, and is also known as Takahashi Castle.

A castle was built here in 1331, but this later castle was built in 1683. It is one of the handful of original castles left in japan, and is the only Yamajiro (mountaintop castle) with a Tenshu (Keep)

After the Meiji Restoration of 1868, the castle was abandoned and partially destroyed, but beginning in 1929 sections of the castle and its impressive fortifications have been repaired and restored.

The castle is open daily and there is a 300 yen entrance fee. Unless you are a castle freak, the most impressive thing is the views from the castle, and some of those I will post tomorrow.

The view is worth the climb. More posts on Japanese castles.

Red hats & bibs: cliffside

Buddhist statues wearing red hats and bibs can be found all over Japan. In wayside shrines and altars there will be alone or in small groups. In larger temples there may be many of them in lines.

In Tachikue Gorge on the Kando River a few k south of Izumo City, there are hundreds of them arrayed along a cliff for about 500 meters.

There are 1,000 statues of various buddhas, and 500 statues of Buddhas disciples.

This area was a centre for Yamabushi until Shugendo was outlawed in early Meiji.

Buses from Izumo Station stop along the gorge.

Concrete Wabi Sabi: Virgin tetrapods

Concrete Wabi Sabi: Virgin tetrapods

I like this photo because without any scale reference, one could be looking at something architectural, a stadium maybe.

But in fact, it's just a line of new tetrapods waiting to go in place to "protect" the riverbank. New concrete can have an aesthetic quality, in my opinion.

There are tetrapod production sites all over the place. Mostly they are made in situ, you just need the molds and a constant stream of cement trucks. I haven't been able to find the numbers, but I'm willing to bet that Japan leads the world in the number of cement trucks per capita.

Japan from the air.

Flying back into Japan on Wednesday I was able to get a few decent shots. This first one is somewhere in north Kyushu.

Kyushu has a lot of active volcanoes, and I've studied maps to try and find which one this is, but couldn't be sure. If anyone knows, please let me know.

Kochi City on the south coast of Shikoku.

Somewhere in eastern Shikoku.

In the middle of Awajima, descending to land at Kansai Airport.

The biggest shimenawa in the world

The biggest shimenawa in Japan, and therefore the world, is located up in Izumo at the great shrine of Izumo Taisha.

It adorns the Kagura den, located next door to the shrine proper.

It's more than 13 meters in length and weighs somewhere between 5 and 8 tons.

A new one is constructed every 3 years.

Hungry Koi

Koi is the Japanese name for Carp. They were introduced from China about 500 years ago primarily as a food source.

Around 1820 they began to breed them for color variations and there are now dozens of distinct varieties.

A few years back our river flooded and when the waters receded some koi were left stranded in the rice paddies so our neighbor gave us one to eat, but it is not a pleasant flavor.

What big ears you have!

Pairs of fox (kitsune) statues are common throughout Japan, as they are the guardians of Inari shrines. There is a massive diversity of styles and designs, and I have seen some pretty strange ones, but never any with ears like this!

They are at a small Inari shrine within the grounds of a temple in Takahashi, Okayama.

Kitakyushu International Conference Center

The Kitakyushu International Conference Center is located in the old port area a 10 minute walk from Kokura train station.

It was opened in 1990 and was designed by Arata Isozaki.

Isozaki was born not far from Kokura in Oita, and at 78 years old is the current grand master of Japanese architecture with prestigous building all over the world.

This is not one of his better known buildings, but I found interesting enough with its combination of curves and angles.

Concrete Wabi sabi: Tetrapods part 2

A further look at Japan's favorite construction material... concrete!

I heard an interesting statistic yesterday from an architect who described concrete as a very environmentally unfriendly building material. He said that 10% of all the carbon dioxide emissions on the planet come from the production of cement.

There are some wonderful sections of coastline in Japan, viewable by boat, but too much of it is concreted over. Often I am reminded of the coastal defences built along the English and French coasts during WWII.

The entrance to any harbor is often now a maze of concrete breakers.

The rivers too are lined with concrete making them more like drains than living rivers. There is an environmental biologist working around Lake Biwa who is responsible for concrete being taken out from the lakeside as it destroys the ecosystem.

Isotake Guro

Monday was Tondo Matsuri in my village, but it was cold and rainy so we gave it a miss. Photos from last years Tondo can be seen here.

Instead we went up the coast a little to the fishing village of Isotake where they have a version of Tondo Matsuri that is unique in all of Japan. For their Tondo they erect a 10m wide bamboo structure called a "Guro".

You may think it looks very Mongolian, and you would be right as it is acknowledged that its roots are from the mainland. This area has a strong connection to the mainland through the korean kingdom of Sila. A few kilometres away is the spot where Susano and his son Isotake arrived here from Korea. The shrine behind the Guro recounts how many local "kami" travelled back and forth with Susano to the mainland to learn skills.

The structure is built almost completely out of bamboo, covered with mats. Inside fire burn and the villagers gather for the next 4 days.

The tall central bamboo, similar to other tondo matsuris, is for the kami Toshitokujin, the kami of the new year, to descend into the guro. Toshitokujin, like much that is called shinto now, has its roots in Daoism.

Over the fires mochi is toasted. It was freezing outside but very warm inside.

On friday the guro, along with all the new years ornaments, will be ceremonially burned as with other Tondo matsuri's.