Monday, February 8, 2010

Red hats & bibs: cliffside

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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.

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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.

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

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

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Buses from Izumo Station stop along the gorge.

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Saturday, February 6, 2010

Concrete Wabi Sabi: Virgin tetrapods

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.

Friday, February 5, 2010

Japan from the air.

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

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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.

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Kochi City on the south coast of Shikoku.

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Somewhere in eastern Shikoku.

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

Thursday, February 4, 2010

The biggest shimenawa in the world

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

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

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

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A new one is constructed every 3 years.

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Monday, January 25, 2010

Hungry Koi

48 Hours. 223 of 600

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

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

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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.

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Friday, January 22, 2010

What big ears you have!

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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!

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

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Thursday, January 21, 2010

Kitakyushu International Conference Center

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

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

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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.

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

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Tuesday, January 12, 2010

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.

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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".

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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.

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

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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.

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

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

Saturday, January 9, 2010

Omiki by the One Cup.

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Omiki is the name given to sake that is left on altars as offerings to the Kami.

At major shrines it will be donated by the barrel. At most shrines it will be donated by the bottle.

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At small wayside shrines (Hokora) or secondary shrines (Sessha) in the grounds of main shrines, the Omiki is left by the "One Cup".

Put on the market in 1964, to coincide with the opening of the Tokyo Olympics, the Ozeki Sake Company's "One Cup Sake" came in a small jar holding 180ml. Other companies soon followed suit.

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The size was based on a traditional measure of rice or sake, the "go", which was a small wooden box with an interior volume of roughly 180ml.

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Obviously, some kami prefer other beverages, like cafe au lait....

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.. or shochu cocktails.

Friday, January 8, 2010

Winter in the village

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It's early days yet, but the stinkbugs prediction of heavy snow this winter has not materialized yet. We are getting a lot of snow, but its melting pretty soon after falling. Hotei, sitting outside our front door doesn't seem to mind the snow.

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My neighbours tea doesn't seem to mind the snow either.

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The village rice paddies with my garden in the foreground. Won't be working in the garden today. I don't mind.

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My favorite viewpoint over the Gonokawa, about 1k upstream from my house.

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