Toyohira, Hiroshima

This is the draincover for the town of Toyohira, now a part of Kitahiroshima in western Hiroshima Prefecture. It's a picture of buckwheat, soba in Japanese, and one can presume that its a major crop in the area. We were driving through the area on Route 433 heading across country on back roads towards Kyushu.

As is usual, whenever we spy a torii we stop so I can explore the shrine. There was nothing of particular note at this shrine in Shijihara village except the biggest plastic shimenawa I've ever seen.

However, on the way into the shrine we spied a thatched roof nearby that turns out to be the only remaining thatched roof temple gate in Hiroshima.

The temple, Jodo-ji, was fairly large with a good collection of carvings and statues, dragons etc. The priests wife came out to greet us and then spent an hour taking us around the temple.

The gardens on 3 sides of the temple property were extensive and rather nice. I remember thinking that if this was in Kyoto there would have been a hefty entrance fee, but we were getting a free guided tour. The gardens were not built by anyone famous, just 15 generations of the temple priests.

The roof of the main hall was impressively large. I always feel pleased with myself whenever I'm off exploring the backroads and discover something really nice, and I was really chuffed with having discovered this place. But there was more, the priests wife beckoned us to follow and she took us behind the temple to a spot where a BBC film crew had spent 3 months making a documentary, for here was a breeding spot of a rare, threatened creature, the worlds second-largest Salamander, the Japanese Giant salamander

They had a craft workshop where kids from all over come and make models of the salamander and learn about it's ecology and why it's threatened with extinction. I'll post more about this creature later as it can be found in our local river.

So, a brief stop to check out a shrine turned into a pleasant 2 hours with history, art, gardens, and ecology, all for free!!

Freewheeling on Route 46

I've been taking a few bike rides in recent weeks. Actually I cycle about 20% of the time, push the bike uphill about 10%, and freewheel downhill for 70% of the time. My bike has no gears, its a "mamachari", so I get my wife to drop me and my bike off up in the high country and then head home downhill.

Yesterday I cycled 30k from near Iwami Ginzan, and took Route 46 all the way back. Some of the time its a 2 lane road, but some of the time its a single lane mountain road. It passes through a couple of villages, and down a couple of mostly uninhabited valleys.

Lots of people busy in the paddies, planting by machine, and also by hand. Most appeared to be at least 60 years old.

Stopped in at a couple of shrines. The shrine in Oe has 3 beautiful huge cedars flanking the entrance.

There is also a few nice temples, and of course many roadside altars.

Lots of empty and abandoned houses, both in the villages and on the hillsides.

In the heat of the middle of the day most people are inside, but this guy was out and about. I think he was out scouting around for gardens to raid. I saw one this lunchtime in my own village, single male out of the cover of the forest. I suspect he will bring the troop back around dawn.

There were also lots of flowers still. In the last valley there were a lot of wisteria.

Hakusan Shrine, Tenri.

This small wayside shrine is located just of the Yamanobenomichi a little south of Isonokami Shrine in Tenri. I believe it is a Hakusan Shrine, sometimes read as Shirayama Shrine. Shirayama is the older reading. The head Hakusan shrine is up in Ishikawa Prefecture. Nowadays the main kami is said to be Kukurihime, a kami who mediated between Izanagi and his dead wife Izanami, so sometimes eithe of these two are claimed as the main kami.

The shrine may well have been part of a huge temple complex that existed near here before being destroyed in the early years of Meiji when the government dramatically altered the religious landscape of Japan.

Typical Japanese Landscape 20

The last 2 weeks has seen a flurry of activity in the countryside as rice paddies are prepared and flooded and the rice plants transplanted. At night the chorus of thousands of frogs echoes up the valley.

These photos were taken in my village.

The views from Kaikyo Yume Tower

The 360 degree views from the tower are well worth the 600 yen entrance fee.
To the NE the Kanmon bridge connecting Honshu with Kyushu

To the NW, Ganryujima Island

To the south, Kitakyushu.

Below, a fairly typical Japanese urban scene.

See photos of the tower

Kaikyo Yume Tower

Kaikyo Yume Tower, 153 metres in height, is located in the port of Shimonoseki as part of a complex including convention and exhibition areas.

Finished 1n 1996 and designed by NTT Power & Buildings, fast elevators whisk you up to the observation platform inside the towers sphere at 143 metres.

The tower is covered with more than 8,000 panes of glass, and at night is illuminated by more than 600 lights.

Kaikyo Yume Tower is open 364 days a year, closing only on the 4th Saturday in January. It opens at 9:30am and closes at 9:30pm

Entrance is 600yen for adults and 300 for kids. The tower is a short walk from Shimonoseki Station.

See the views from the tower

Children's Matsuri

Today, May 5th, is Children's Day in Japan. In Kawado, the village across the river, it is also the day of the year's most important ceremony and matsuri, the Suijin Matsuri, and in the morning the kids have their own parade.

It begins in the local shrine, where a longer ceremony will take place this afternoon.

The kids are purified and the Kami invited to attend.

The float pulled by the kids has a family of Kappa, or Enko as they are known locally. Soon I will get around to posting the local story about Enko.

The kids taking part are young as the local schools have baseball matches today, and for many young boys baseball is more important.

The birthrate in the countryside is fairly healthy. It's the people of the cities who are having few babies. Hardly surprising.

After the ceremony the lightweight "mikoshi" is carried down to where the float waits and the procession heads off around the village.

Gaijin Hanya

It's been a while since I finished any new masks, but a couple of recent sales has prompted me to get off my butt and finish some.

With an extra long nose, wonky eyes, wrinkles, and brown hair, this must be a Gaijin Hanya.

It is of course for sale, as are all my masks :)

Wabi Sabi signage

The Japanese aesthetic concept of wabi-sabi has associations with impermanence and transition, expressed well I think by the action of the weather on metal signs, when the figurative begins to transform to the abstract.

Bridal attire rental service, Hamada.

A sign warning of pedestrians crossing. I think. (or a company making lower-body prosthetics)

Beware of children on the road

Corporate Oil

A business school in Masuda.

Clear enough.

Isonokami Shrine, Tenri.

Isonokami Shrine is located in the hills east of Tenri, Nara Prefecture. In the early days of the Yamato State it was a center of power as at least 2 emperors lived in the vicinity, and 2 princes hid here during the succession disputes that occurred after every death of an Emperor.

It was the treasure house of the Mononobe clan, one of the king-making powerful families, along with the Soga, Nakatomi, etc, whose support determined which prince became Emperor. Often described as Armorers or Imperial Guards, the Mononobe looked after ritual/political "treasures", many of which were swords.

The main kami of the shrine is Futsunomitama, a divine sword used by the mythical first emperor Jimmu. Another sword, the Shichishito, in the shrines treasury was made in 369 by the King of Paekche and given to the Yamato. Legend has it that the sword used by Susano to slay Orochi is also stored here. Amenohiboko, according to the ancient Yamato myths was a prince from Korea who settled in Japan. He brought with him ten "treasures" that are also thought to be stored at isonokami.

There is a secondary shrine to Izumo Takeo here that unusually for a secondary shrine is on higher ground than the main shrine leading some historians to suggest that maybe the Izumo shrine was here first.

Isonokami is at the northern end of the famous Yamanobe no michi, the oldest road in Japanese recorded history, and the shrine is a good starting point to walk the patyh south to Sakurai.