More glimpses of unfamiliar Japan

On the night of my tenth day walking the Shikoku Ohenro pilgrimage I stayed in the tsuyado at Saba Daishi Temple . Next morning, Sa...

Ryugenji is a small temple in the old district of the former castle town of Usuki on the coast of Oita. The pagoda was constructed ...

I won't be posting for a week or so as I am off on the pilgrim trail, and as we are approaching Halloween I thought these would be a...

Fukura is a district of Usuki, and as I walked into town I stopped in at Fukura Tenmangu. Like quite a few shrines it was actually a tem...

Located in Seiyo, about halfway between Uwajima and Ozu in a fairly remote part of the prefecture is the Ehime Prefecture Museum of Hist...

Mangatsu Temple is right next to the Usuki Stone Buddhas. The current buildings date from 1950 though it was established in the Muromach...

Tanemaji Tanema-ji, which means "seed sowing temple" is temple number 24 of the pilgrinmage. The name refers to a legend that ...

On a hilltop among the Stone Buddhas of Usuki is a small Hiyoshi Shrine. One of about 4,000 Hiyoshi Shrines around the current, it is a ...

Along the 1,200k Shikoku Pilgrimage known as Ohenro there are hundreds of "rest huts". Often little more than the kind of picn...

Just outside the old castle town of Usuki in southern Oita are a collection of truly magnificent Buddhist stone carvings known as the Us...