2019 Fall Colors Walk Day 1 Kyoto

2019 Fall Colors Walk Day 1 Kyoto

I missed my traditional autum colors walk last year because of a bout of pneumonia, and this year in my eagerness I started a little early in mid November. Crossing the Katsura River early morning in Arashiyama, western Kyoto, the hillside had started to turn......

At Osawa no Ike Pond next to Daikakuji Temple the clouds started to clear away to reveal some color...

On my first ever visit to Ninna-ji Temple there was not much color to be seen yet except in the eastern part of the temple grounds where there are a couple of shrines.

On my first ever visit to Jisson-in Temple in the northern suburb of Iwakura, the gardens were nice enough, but yet again the colors had only just begun....

I took the Eizan Line train to Kurama, and the famed Maple Tunnel where the train slows down for a couple of hundred meters so passengers can enjoy the colors, yet again it was just beginning....

Hikawa Town

Hikawa Town lies along the Hi River (Hikawa) in Izumo.

The red iron sand of the Hi was one of the earliest sources of domestic iron production in Japan, and the site of the Yamata no Orochi legend, both associated strongly with Susano.

The design of the manhole cover is of Dotaku, bronze bells from the late Yayoi Period (2nd and 3rd centuries) and reflect the large number of archeological sites associated with this ancient part of Japan.

Not much is known for sure about dotaku, though they were probably ritual objects used in early agricultural rites, and that they were introduced, like so much in early Japan, from Korea.

They have been excavated all over Japan, usually singly, but not far from Hikawa at Kamo Iwakura, a cache of 39 were discovered.

I took the photo ofthe manhole cover at the entrance to Kojindani, an archeological site even greater than Kamo Iwakura. Bronze ritual swords were also used in similar ways to dotaku, and all over Japan more than 300 of these swords had been excavated in total. At Kojindani in 1984, 358 swords were uncovered in one spot!!!

The importance of Izumo as an early political and cultural center of ancient Japan was underscored.

There is a small museum at Kojindani, but the 385 swords themselves are on display at the nearby Shimane Museum of Ancient Izumo.