Taikodani Inari Shrine

 

Taikodani Inari Shrine is located in the castle town of Tsuwano in the remote mountains of Shimane.

It is generally considered to be one of the top 5 Inari shrines in Japan, though its exact ranking will vary by whichever part of the country you are in.

Across the valley next to National Route 9, the former San-in Do, a huge vermillion torii is visible.

Founded in the late 18th century, the shrine was used exclusively by the domain lord and his samurai as it was within the castle grounds.

It became public in the late 19th century when the castle was decommisioned.

There is now a road that accesses the shrine, but the original entry was via a tunnel of torii that switchbacks up the hillside.

The shrines location on the mountainside offers some panoramic views down on the town and over the surrounding area....

The shrine occupies the kimon position.... NE of the castle and protecting it from the evil influences that come from that direction

The shrine gets a lot of visitors and is the second most popular shrine in all of Shimane, beaten only by Izumo Taisha.

As an Inari Shrine the eshrined kami is officially Uganokitama.....

When the shrine was opened to the public in the late 19th century, a Kumano Gongensha was relocated to within the shrine and renamed Kumano Shrine, enshrining Izanami. Officially it is a co-shrine, and izanami is enshrined within the main honden.

The name Inari at Taikodani is written with a different kanji than most Inari shrines. with a meaning of granting wishes, rather than the more usual meanin connected to rice harvest.

According to the story, a castle official lost an important key and was ordered to commit suicide. Instead he went to the shrine and prayed for seven days and then found the key. The Daimyo is then said to have changed the kanji in response.

On the lower level of the shrine is a purpose-built area for traffic safety ceremonies.

The tunnel of torii that leads up to the main shrine comprises 263 steps....

It is claimed that almost 1,000 torii line the way, but I think that may be an exaggeration.

There is a Treasure hall at the shrine open to the public, but I have never been inside so can't report.

There are some quite impressive, big, old pine trees ....

The current main hall is concrete and was built in 1969.

The earlier main hall, located opposite, is now called Motomiya Shrine and is operated as a branch of the main hall...

Behind it is a Myobu Shrine, enshrining the white fox considered messenger of Inari

The main offering at the shrine is fried tofu which can be purchased at the main shrine shop or at a small shop halfway up the torii tunnel.

The previous post in this series on Tsuwano was on the big thatched Zen temple down below, Yomeiji.

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Muroya no Sono Merchant Mansion and Gardens

 

This is one of the largest Edo-period merchant residences in all of Japan that still stands.

It is located in Yanai, a small river port on the south coast of Yamaguchi Prefecture.

Muroya was the trading name for the Oda Family who were one of the biggest oil traders in Western Japan.

As far as I have been able to ascertain, the primary oil traded would have been rapeseed oil, which I believe is marketed as canola oil in the west. The Japanese rarely used oil in cooking, so its main use would have been lighting.

At their peak the Oda family owned a fleet of 50 trading ships and operated over the area from Kyushu to Osaka.

The property is open to the public as a museum, and was so full of features and displays that I have split it into two large separate posts.

The property is huge, encompassing more than 2,500  square metres and with internal floorspace of more than 1,500 square metres.

The street frontage was 14 meters wide, but the property extended 119 meters ( see second photo of the post)

Such a long, narrow property was known as "sleeping palce of an eel"

It consists of 11 buildings with a total of 35 rooms.

As well as the main family residence, there is a main warehouse, an accounting house, a rice warehouse, and a tooshed.

Additionally there are stables, tenements for servants and workers, and an oil-pressing room.

Most of the rooms are filled with artifacts and displays relating to the room, and I will cover these in the next post.

There are several gardens, a large one planted in the main courtyard area, another for the main house, and several "pocket" gardens .

The property is next to the river at the eastern end of the historic trading town of Yanai.

It is a Historic Preservation District known for its white walls and goldfish lanterns.

I will cover Yanai in later posts. I like Yanai a lot and I highly recommend a visit.

I was visiting early on day 19 of my walk along the Chugoku Kannon Pilgrimage. The previous post was on my walk down the coast to Yanai from Iwakuni.

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Modern Architecture of the Fukuoka Waterfront

 

On my second visit to the city of Fukuoka, many years ago,  I spent an afternoon photographing the architecture in the waterfront area stretching from Momochi to Hakata Port.

The Momochi district where I began is built on reclaimed land so everything is new.

Lots of apartments...

I previously posted  on the Fukuoka City Museum and the Fukuoka Tower in this area....

Mostly I have chosen photographs that are somewhat abstract and geometric, rather than showcasing the buildings as a whole.

This makes photos that resemble the kind of paintings I used to make 40 to 60 years ago...

The photo above is of the TNC Broadcasting Centre next to the Fukuoka Tower. The previous photo is of the Fukuoka City Library.

Below is one of the corner entrances of an otherwise non-descript office building, the NCB Seaside Building.

I think it may now have a different colour-scheme...

The photo above is not actually architecture, rather a view of a very large public sculpture. Not far away is the unusual Twins Momochi.

Across the river these two shots are of what was called the Yahoo Dome when I was there. Now it is called the Mizuho PayPay Dome.

Next door is the Seahawk Hotel which I covered in 2 posts, one on the main hotel, and the second on the impressive atrium.

Just inland from the dome is a huge shopping mall, itself an ugly concrete box, but the movie theatre had some nice decoration.

Next I headed up towards the port area of Hakata.

I posted earlier on the Hakata Port Tower.

A nice water reflection can make any architecture look interesting... below an unusual angle and crop of the Sun Palace Hotel...

And then a short walk upriver towards my hotel, and I couldn't refuse this shot that presented itself.

The previous post in the series was on Marine Messe Fukuoka.

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