Yomeiji Temple Tsuwano

 

Yomeiji is a large Soto Zen temple in Tsuwano with a  thatched main hall.

Located up a small mountain valley, the main gate was relocated from the castle town where it marked the boundary between the samurai district and the merchant district.

The temple was founded in 1420 by Yoshimi Yorihiro, the lord of Tsuwano castle.

The first priest was Getsuin Shosho, the grandson of Dogen, the founder of the Soto Sect.

Supported by succeeding clans of daimyo, the temple had at its peak 70 branch temples in the Iwami region and 200 monks in training.

Like many temples, Yeomeiji suffered from fires multiple times throughout its history. The current main hall dates to 1729.

In its most recent rethatching, the rear half of the roof has been replaced with metal.

During the Edo Period it was considered one of the two great Soto Temples in all of Japan.

It remained the family temple of the lords of Tsuwano Castle until the mid 19th century when Koremi Kamei changed his families, and the subjects of Tsuwanos, funerals from Buddhist to Shinto.

After entering under the bell tower one of the first thinsg you see is the great gyoban, a wooden fish struck like a drum to summon monks, especially for meals.

To the rear of the temple is a lovely garden. The temple is worth visiting just for this. I covered it earlier in this post.

The temple has a small, dark, treasure house museum, but more interesting are the painted screen and doors scattered around the spacious interior of the temple.

The previous post in this series exploring Tsuwano was on the Shointei Garden in the old town.

Mitsujo Keyhole Tomb

 

Heading south out of Saijo I stopped in at the Mitsujo Tombs, a cluster of ancient burial mounds inlcuding a rather large "keyhole" tomb.

What is particularly fascinating about this one is that they have replicas of haniwa set up on the mound.

Most of the kofun I have seen have been simply grass-covered, but here they have restored the burial mound to its original form, covered in a layer of river rocks as well as the haniwa. 

It is believed about 1,800 haniwa were placed on the mound originally, mostly simple. cylindrical ones, but a variety of others too.

A small museum at the site contains examples of some of the original haniwa as as ewll as other unearthed materials.

With a length of 92 meters, it is one of the biggest keyhole tombs in Hiroshima and attests to the importance of the ruler who was buried here.

Right next to the main mound is a smaller, circular mound, that predates the larger one.

In the main mound they discovered three burial chambers, two with stone sarcophagi.

On the basis of some of the ceramics found in the tomb they date the construction of the mound to 421.

According to the mythology, still written and spoken about as fact in many cases, this was about a thousand years after Jimmu conquered Japan and established Yamato rule over the whole country. Absurd but still touted as fact.

The materials on the tomb write of it belonging to the person who "governed" the area, not the person who "ruled". In so many subtle and not so subtle ways Japanese history still serves nationalist mythology.

The previous post in this series was on the things seen in the sake brewing district a little to the north.

Seahawk Hotel

The Seahawk Hotel in the Hawkstown area of Fukuoka was originally owned by JAL, the national airline. As part of the company's bankruptcy restructuring they had to sell off all their hotels, so now it is owned by Hilton.

With more than 1,000 rooms, when opened it was the biggest hotel in Japan,

There are 34 floors above ground, rising to a height of 143 meters.

Amazingly, every single guest room has a sea view.

The hotel opened in 1995. It was designed by Cesar Pelli.

At first glance it looks like a generic tower block, but in plan view it is shaped like a sleek yacht with a pointed bow and a flat stern.

There is a huge atrium attached to the building and that looks much more typical Pelli

I will cover it in the next post.

The previous post in this series on some of the striking modern architecture of Fukuoka was on the nearby New Fukuoka Tower.

Saijo Brewery Street Details

 

The wabi sabi of aging metal signs, with their multiple layers partially revealed by the passage of time, is a favoroute photo subject of mine....

In this series I will look at some of the details found while exploring the Sake Brewery Street in Saijo. I refer you to the earlier post for details about the area.

A sugidama hanging outside one brewery. In November, when I was there, all the sugidama were brown after having hung since the spring.

Kazaridaru are the decorative sake barrels that are donated as offerings to shrines. Of course they also serve as advertising. Some can be seen at the local shrine which I visited a little earlier.

Most of the breweries have rooms for groups to listen to talks, see demonstrations, or watch videos...

And of course, plenty of opportunities to taste.....

Nowadays most sake seems to be brewed in large, metal barrels, but plenty of traditional wooden ones can be seen...

Red brick chimney plus sugidama. Unusually, a Shachi ornaments the roof.

Most of the breweries have displays of historic materials....

The spring water used in sake production is highly valued.

Often a small shrine will be found associated with them.

The previous post was on the architecture and history of the Saijo Sake Brewery Street.