Some More Round Windows

My posts on the round windows of Japan have been popular, so here is a selection of ones I've found recently. This first one has to be one of my favorites. It is in an outbuilding in Henshoin Garden, in Kurume, Fukuoka Prefecture.

This one is in the Ohashi House, a wealthy merchants home in  Kurashiki, Okayama Prefecture.

This one is in a shelter in the garden next to Fukuyama Castle in Hiroshima Prefecture.

Korakuen garden in  Okayama.

The Chinese garden Enchoen, on the shore of Togo Lake in Tottori.

Fukuyama Roses

Fukuyama is the second largest city in Hiroshima Prefecture and is known as the Rose City, so its not surprising that images of roses are everywhere. The bus I took to get there from Hiroshima City was called the Rose Liner.

Obviously designs of roses adorn the local manholes and draincovers.

I visited in March and could find no actual roses, though in May they hold the annual Rose Festival with more than half a million roses on display.Tthere were plenty of rose-related products for sale though.

The rose was chosen as the symbol of the city in the early 1950's to give hope to the inhabitants whose city was 80% destroyed by allied bombing at the end of the war.

Shichi-Go-San

Stopped by an unusual Inari Shrine near Fukuyama on Saturday and there was a Shichi-Go-San ceremony going on. The song the priest is singing is not something I've heard before. There is a cadence and lilt to it that was quite foot-tapping, quite unlike the normal "shinto" chanting which sounds similar to the buddhist chanting it's influenced by.

The Miko performs the purification part of the ritual.



Shichi-Go-San is usually November 15th, so this was a little late. Before the creation of "state" shinto in the Meiji era the celebration took place in the home. Boys of 3 and 5 years old and girls of 3 and 7 years old visit the shrine for purification.

THis little boy, for whom the ceremony was held, is holding a bag that contains Chitose-ame, "thousand year candy" for healthy growth and longevity.