Osaka Castle

Osaka Castle is one of the greatest of Japanese castles and while the central keep is famous for being a concrete reconstruction, the castle is huge and still has much of the original stonework and fortifications.

These photos are from my first visit to the castle area more than twenty years ago, and while I didn't go into the castle at this time as I was more interested in the modern architecture in the surrounding area, the stonework of Japanese castles fascinated me.

Construction of the castle began in 1583 by Hideyoshi and it was built on the site of a fortified temple complex that was burned to the ground at the end of an 11 year siege by Oda Nobunaga.

In 1614 the castle was the last stronghold of Hideyoshi's son against the Tokugawa and eventually fell.

In 1620, with plans to make Osaka the base for the new government the castle was dismantled and reconstructed into its current form, even grander and larger than the original.

The new keep was built in 1628 but was destroyed by lightning-caused fire in 1677 and was not rebuilt.

During the Meiji restoration and the later Boshin War various parts of the castle were damaged. In 1931 the keep was rebuilt in concrete.

During WWII Osaka Castle was an army base and major arsenal and suffered damage from bombing.

The keep was repaired and renovated in 1997.

A good spot to view the castle from above is the Osaka  Museum of History nearby.

Tahara Shrine

Tahara Shrine is a large shrine located at the foot of the hills north of Matsue castle. It is approached up a long flight of steps flanked by dozens of stone lanterns and komainu. Notable are a pair of komainu that are the largest in the San-in region. Most if not all of the komainu and lanterns are made of Kimachi sandstone, quarried not far away on the shore of Lake Shinji.

Another interesting feature is that 12 of the lanterns are topped with small sculptures of the 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac.

Also known as Tawara Shrine, it includes a branch of the Kasuga Taisha, and the main halls shimenawa is I believe Kasuga style, being braided rather than twisted. The shrine is listed in the 8th Century Izumo Fudoki and has therefore existed for close to a thousand years before Matsue and its castle came into being. The shrine was originally located 500 meters away but was moved here during the war between the Amago and Mori clans.

One of the secondary shrines in the grounds had a polypropylene shimenawa that shows how even plastic can achieve wabi sabi!!

The shrine features a twin pair of hondens. In the east honden are enshrined Futsunushi, Takemikazuchi, and Amenokoyane. The latter two kami are considered ancestors of the Nakatomi-Fujiwara clan, and Futsunushi is the ancestor of the Mononobe. In Izumo records it was Futsunushi who came from the High Plain of Heaven to entreat Okuninushi to give Japan to Amaterasu and her descendants. According to Yamato stories it was Takemikazuchi and Futsunushi, and appears to be a rewriting of the myths to favor the powerful Fujiwara.

The west hinden enshrines Ukanomitama, the child of Susano now mostly identified as Inari.

Behind the hondens a path leads into the forest and a grove of sacred trees with numerous altars scattered around their bases.

Secondary shrines within the grounds include Inari, various aragami, Kojin, Suijin etc

Japanese Childrens songs

These 3 short clips of traditional Japanese children's songs are from the Warabekan, a toy and childrens song museum in Tottori City.

The childrens song section of the museum I found particularly interesting and thought the way they displayed these songs were good.

Unfortunately I have no information about these particular songs, so if any readers know what they are aor anything about them please post a comment.

Things missed while sleeping

6:33am April 6th. Jebel Sahro


6:36am April 7th. Jebel Sahro


6:28am April 8th. Jebel Sahro


6:30am April 11th. Jebel Sahro


6:19am April 16th. Marrakesh


6:27am April 17th. Essouira

The view from Sanbe

Sanbe San is the name given to the highest point in Shimane, a cluster of 7 peaks.

!,126 meters above sea level, I have only climbed it one time.

Most people go up it on the trail on the north side but I went up a barely used trail on the south side.

As you would expect there are some great views once you get out of the trees.

In the distance the Shimane Hanto with Izumo Taisha at its base.

According to the Kunibiki myth the peninsular was dragged from Sila and held to the land of izumo by a rope that is now the beach you can just see. The other end of the peninsular was tied by a rope to Daisen in Tottori.

A huge caldera.

More zuijin of Kunisaki

Here are a few more zuijin from shrines around the Kunisaki Peninsular.

For an explanation of what zuijin are, see this earlier post.

This is something I had not seen before, paintings of zuijin. Maybe the original zuijin statues had become damaged or destroyed in some way, or maybe the shrine could just not afford to pay for real statues.

Almost all the zuijin in Kunisaki were carved out of stone, the only place I have seen that, but some of them were originally painted.

The Kojin of Takeuchi Shrine

I have posted before about the wonderful straw effigies of the land kami Kojin. Not far from the Adakaya Shrine effigies there is another big shrine, Takeuchi, and here I found some unusal ones as they are sculpted in stone, not made of straw.

At first I wasnt sure they were Kojin, I thought they may have been Ryujin, the dragon god, but I checked with the shrine priest and he confirmed they were Kojin.

They were carved directly out of large boulders and seemed to grow out of them.

In the Izumo area Kojin is a very widespread and popular kami, basically being the local kami of land. In my area of Iwami the similar kami goes by the name of Omoto.

Canal City (inside)

I must admit I do like the architecture of Canal City in Fukuoka. It is easy to see the influence of the canyon country of the Colorado Plateau on the design.

Designed by American architect Jon Jerde who also designed the Riverwalk complex in nearby Kokura and the Namba Parks complex in Osaka.

The name Canal City derives from a pool of water that snakes along the interior of the canyonlike interior.

There are several fountains and an area for performances.

I was here a few days ago and there was some type of market going on.

Children's Inari Shrine

The 4th shrine I visited on my walk around Matsue was yet another Inari Shrine, knowns as the Children's Inari. It is well known mainly due to the writings of Lafcadio Hearn.

It was built by the Lord of Matsue as a subsidiary shrine of the Jozan Inari within the nearby castle grounds and he named it Komori Shrine which means child guardian.

In Hearns day mothers would come here to ask for help with their children that refused to take baths or have their heads shaved.

Nowadays those two problems are rare but parents leave prayers for any kind of problems they are having with their children, most often illness.

There is a smaller Inari shrine just behind the main building. There are many Inaris. According to the signboard at the shrine the main kami is listed as Uganomitama, the female as opposed to the more usual male Ukanomiama.

Hoki Church

Hoki Church is situated on the hillside of Hoki village with great views looking out over the coastline and islands.

It is interesting architecturally as the foundations are stone, the facade is made of red brick, the walls are wooden, and the roof is tile.

Like all the churches on Hirado, entrance is free.

It is the oldest church on Hirado Island, being built in 1898 to replace an earlier temporary church.