Three Lights Shrine

This is not a mosque, but a shrine. The symbol is of the three kami enshrined at Mihashinoyama Shrine on Sangaisan, at 378 metres the highest mountain overlooking Hamada.

The three kami are Amaterasu, represented as the sun, Tsukiyomi, the kami of the moon, and Susano represented as a star,.... the three lights.

There are actually 3 shrines on the mountaintop, lower, middle, and upper. The middle shrine, shown above, contains the main buildings, and is in the style of the meiji era, so I suspect that the attribution of the 3 kami occurred at that time. Prior to that the 3 kami were known as Gongen, buddhist manifestations of Japanese kami.

The most common version of the story of the creation of the 3 kami is from the Kojiki, when Izanagi fled from visiting his dead wife, Izanami, in the underworld, Yomi. While ritually purifying himself in a stream, Amaterasu, Tsukiyomi, and Susano are expelled from Izanagi's eyes and nose.

In the Kojiki version of the myths, thats the last we hear of Tsukiyomi, and there are very few shrines to him in Japan. I've never come across another shrine where all 3 of the kami are represented in the same way as here.

The mountaintop shrine was known as a place to view sunrise, and a place to pray for safety on sea journeys and for fishing.

There are great views looking down over Hamada as well as down the coast and also inland.

Its possible to drive to within a few hundred meters of the shrine, and there is a footpath up the mountain that starts behind the University.

The gardens

There is not a lot to harvest this month, a little spinach, the last of the cabbage, spring onions, and a sack of carrots. Mostly this month is planting and weeding!

The top photo is our village garden. It was constructed with landfill, and was very poor quality. For six years we have been taking out rocks, and now stones, and adding chickenshit, ash from the woodstove, compost, and ricehusks, and therefore the quality of the soil has improved. In the photo you can see potatoes, green onions, carrots, regular onions, a few peas, garlic, lima beans, and some new cabbage and cauliflower.

About half a kilometer away is our riverside garden. It's actually our neighbors land but she is too old to use it so lets us have it rather than see it go to waste. The soil is soft and rich. a couple of years ago the river flooded and took out everything except some sweet potatoes, but in return left a layer of fresh, fertile silt. At the moment it is planted with potatoes, lima beans, onions, garlic, and very young carrots.

Spring color

It was a nice sunny day today, so I took my camera with me when I walked to my garden.

Jitensha. Solitary Japanese bicycles

Water & light

We had a friend visiting last weekend, so of course we took him to my favorite museum, Mizunokuni, and this gives me an excuse to post some more pics.

My overriding experience there is of water, light, and stone, so thats what these few pics are of.

Museum 104, or its more common name "Mizunokuni" is open from 9 to 5, Thursdays through Mondays. Entrance 400yen per adult, 200yen for kids.

Mizunokuni is located on Rte 261 along the Gonokawa River, about 25 kilometres upstream from Gotsu. There is a JR station about 2k away at Shikaga.

The chances are that the vast majority of you reading this blog will never make it to Mizunokuni as it is simply off the beaten track, but if anyone is interested in visiting, please contact me and I can help arrange a visit.

More post on Mizunokuni

Tatara Bridge

I found this draincover on Ikuchijima, Hiroshima Prefecture, and it depicts the Tatara Bridge which connects Ikuchijima with Omishima.

Sunrise

When I took the photos it was the longest cable-stayed bridge in the world, with a central span of 890 metres, but last year a longer bridge was built over the Yangtze in China, and a soon to be completed bridge in Hong Kong will cause the Tatara bridge to drop to third.

Sunset

The bridge is one of 10 that connects Honshu with Shikoku along the Nishiseto Expressway, also known as the Shimanami Kaido. Each bridge has a section for cyclists and for pedestrians, and the route has become a popular cycling destination with plenty of campsites and accomodations along the route.

See more Japanese draincovers.

Typical Japanese Landscape 18

Though you will often see images of the Shinkansen hurtling past Mount Fuji, the Shinkansen mostly runs through the heavily populated corridor along the Pacific Coast between Tokyo and Fukuoka.

This was shot in downtown Hiroshima.

Mizunokuni: the Art (inside)

Continuing on the theme of my favorite museum, Mizunokuni, here are a selection of the artworks that can be found inside.

Many provincial museums in Japan have interesting (and expensive) architecture, but contain weak or thin collections. Mizunokuni's collection is large, diverse, and I would guess expensive, though it is hard to discern the connection to water with some of the art!

A lot of the art, like this sculpture, is kinetic. All these little "aquanauts" are moving.

The nicest thing about Mizunokuni is that it is empty most days so you can wander at your leisure and not have to worry about crowds. It is empty because the museum is in the middle of nowhere, with no public transport, and almost no advertising.

This piece on the lower-level is a huge bar of iron immersed in water encased in a clear perspex block that extends from the inside, through the glass wall to the outside.

This final piece is actually a 3D model, set inside a case with a small viewing window to keep the illusion.

Museum 104, or its more common name "Mizunokuni" is open from 9 to 5, Thursdays through Mondays. Entrance 400yen per adult, 200yen for kids.

Mizunokuni is located on Rte 261 along the Gonokawa River, about 25 kilometres upstream from Gotsu. There is a JR station about 2k away at Shikaga.

See outside Mizunokuni

See inside Mizunokuni

A short history of Kirin Beer (1889-1943)

Mizunokuni (inside)

Continuing on from yesterdays post on my favorite museum, today we go inside.

The first room inside the main building is a 4-story deep chamber with a spiral ramp running around the exterior and various openings looking into the space which is a multi-media environment that is a cloud chamber. At the top of the space are chutes and each day lumps of ice are placed in them. As they gradually melt the water falls as "rain" and react with devices on the floor that trigger various lights and sounds.

Just about every aspect of this museum has really nice touches. Even the benches continue with the water theme.

After passing through a couple of galleries we come to the science of water interaction zone, a kind of mini science museum with all kinds of contraptions and devices to explore the properties of water, even a couple of water-powered musical instruments.

At the end of the building is a large dome.

Inside of which is another kinetic light and sound environment with the perfect acoustics of the dome.

Continuously while walking through the museum and grounds the distinction between inside and outside wavers and often lacks a distinct boundary.

It's one place in japan I've found where modern architecture and concrete really feels like it has adopted and adapted to traditional Japanese aesthetics, as with the small garden viewable from the cafe.

Museum 104, or its more common name "Mizunokuni" is open from 9 to 5, Thursdays through Mondays. Entrance 400yen per adult, 200yen for kids.

Mizunokuni is located on Rte 261 along the Gonokawa River, about 25 kilometres upstream from Gotsu. There is a Jr station about 2k away at Shikaga.

See outside Mizunokuni
See the art inside