The diverse Komainu of Suwa

Komainu, the pairs of guardian "lion/dogs" that guard the entrance to shrines, come in a variety of styles and forms. All the ones depicted here are found inside the grounds of Suwa Shrine in Nagasaki.

This was the first time I have ever seen one standing on its hind legs...

Though its partner I have seen before on a temple roof.

One of the pair always has its mouth open, the other its mouth closed.

Suwa is an interesting shrine . It was established in the seventeenth Century expressly to combat the influence of Christianity.

The pairs are seen as male/female, and the open and closed mouth represent the "a" and "un" sounds (equivalent to Alpha and Omega).

The most famous pair at Suwa is probably the ones known as "Stop Lions". One wraps a string or thin strip of paper around their legs when praying to stop something, like smoking.

As the komainu age they become weathered, moss covered, and sometimes damaged, all of which contributes to their strange appearance sometimes.

The money washing komainu is another that I had never seen before. Apparently washing your money here will cause it to double.

The Turntable Komainu is one a circular stone base that you spin around as you make your request. It was used by local prostitutes to pray for bad weather that would keep the sailors, their customers, in port longer.

Golden Week-end walk day 2

I was up walking at first light. Not sure of the time as I havent owned a watch in more than 20 years. In the shrine at Mitsu I found a small but interesting Kojin.

From here I headed inland, south towards Matsue. The road sign said 10 kilometers, but I would be following a zig zag route to visit small shrines up in the hills.

I stopped in at Sada Shrine, once the most important shrine in Izumo until Izumo Taisha took that role in the late heian period. This is the home of Izumo Kagura, believed by many to be the root of all the kagura in western Japan. Excavations in the area around the shrine have found the earliest traces of the Yayoi in this part of Japan.

By 7 the paddies were a hive of activity, with planting or preparations for planting underway. In my village because of the strange weather we are still a week or two away from planting. I also noticed someone unloading bamboo shoots from their bag. This year there are none in my area yet.

At an old temple, numbered 27 on one of the pilgrimage routes, I found this lovely wooden Jizo. Most Jizo are stone.

The morning got hotter as I approached the city. Lots of traffic and convenience stores.

I hit the shore of lake Shinji about 2k along from Matsue. The road around the lake was a non-stop line of traffic. This is Golden Week.

The first place I headed was the ashi-yu ( foot bath) outside of the Ichibata railway terminal. My feet appreciated the soak in the hot water. Ashiyu can be found in many onsen areas, and I imagine they are from the time when most people in Japan travelled as I have been, on foot.

It was noon, 24 hours exactly since I started my walk. I had visited 16 shrines, a couple of which that were not marked on the map. Now its time to sit down and find out about what I have seen.

Golden Week-end walk

Golden Week

I took advantage of the spell of wonderful weather this past weekend to go for a 40k walk. I wanted to walk the last section of the Shimane coast that I had not yet walked. I started out at Kasaura, a little village up on the Shimane Hanto (peninsular) north east of Matsue. I headed up the cape that protrudes north, passing through Noi, where I found a wonderful example of an old-style mikoshi in the local shrine.

Being the Japanese coast, I was never far from tetrapods.

On up through Sezaki, then over to Konami, all just little fishing villages with a few hundred inhabitants. I like these places. The houses are so close together there are only narrow passageways and steps between them, making labyrinths. I could see the shrine on the hill but I had to enlist the help of a passing local to help me navigate through the maze to find the steps up.

Being the Japanese coast, I was never far from concreted mountains.

And on up through Tako to Okidomari, the northernmost settlement on the tip of the cape. Concrete aside, the coast is quite spectacular, with white beaches and a clear, turquoise sea.

There are lots of rugged cliffs, little islands, sea caves. At times the coast of Shimane reminds me of Cornwall.

Then back down the cape along the only road back through Konami to Nonami, a "town" big enough to have three shrines, one of which was mentioned in the 8th century Izumo no Fudoki.

At the Hinomisaki branch shrine I spent at least 30 minutes chatting with three middle-aged ladies. There were the usual questions, where are you from, where are you going, what are you doing. I explained how I walked all over Shimane visiting shrines, learning the stories, histories, etc. One lady seemed to have a hard time getting her head around it. She kept asking "why?", but no matter what explanation I gave she blurted "But they are Japanese kami!!". Reminded me of a recent conversation wher I mentioned to a young woman that I made kagura masks and she replied..."BUT!! you are not Japanese!!!!"

Nihonjinron. The true Japanese religion.

And so I headed on,... the sun was a few hours from going down and I needed to find a nice place to sleep. On though Kaka, the place to take the boat tours to the Kaganokukedo. No boats were going out today though as it was way too windy. And on through Owashi, visiting shrines in each village. I noted that the majority of shrines had female kami.

I made my bed on the cliff above the roaring surf looking down on Mitsu, and beyond it the nuclear power station at Kashima. Built on a faultline that is much bigger than originally claimed, a second reactor is planned to be built here. (when I got home Yoko told me that the company had just publicly apologized for not replacing 530 parts that should have been replaced as part of scheduled safety maintenance)

I love sleeping outside, and I don't do it often enough! I watched a sublime sunset, and then woke regularly through the night and watched the full moons progress across my ceiling.

Inside nagasaki ferry terminal

The inverted, truncated, cone section of the Nagasaki ferry terminal is a large open space lit by strong, natural, light from the roof.

Designed by Shimane-born architect Shin Takamatsu, it reminds me a lot of another of his building, the Public Spa at Tamatsukuri Onsen (which I haven't posted yet)

Nagasaki Ferry Terminal

As we walked towards the new Nagasaki Ferry terminal to catch the tour boat to Battleship island, I had a sneaking suspicion it was a Shin Takamatsu design.

It had all the hallmarks of his work,.... metal, concrete, glass, simple platonic solids, often with spaces cut out...., and a certain whimsy I appreciate in his work.

Sure enough, I was right, it was designed by him and built in 1995.

I have photos of two other ferry terminals designed by him, at Shichirui, and Sakaiminato,.... I will post them soon....

The best part of this structure was the inside, and photos of that I will post tomorrow.

Confucian Shrine

In Nagasaki you are never far from the influence of China, and nowhere is this more obvious than at the Confucian Shrine.

Built in 1893 by Chinese residents of Nagasaki it is reputed to be the only Confucian shrine outside China actually built by Chinese.

It was badly damaged in the A Bomb blast and did not reopen until 1967, though extensive renovations in 1982 brought it to its current vivid glory.

Behind the shrine is the Museum of Chinese History and Culture, and entry to it is included in the entrance fee to the shrine. The museum's collection is quite large and varied with many of the exhibits on loan from the National Museum in China.

A statue of Confucius is the center of worship in the colorful main building of the shrine, and 72 white statues line the entrance.

Oura Catholic Church

Established in 1864 during the closing years of the Edo period, Oura Church was built by the French in Nagasaki to dedicate prayers for the 26 Martyrs of Nishizaka Hill, the place where 26 European and Japanese Christians were brought to Nagasaki and crucified in 1597 to discourage Japanese from becoming Christian following Hideyoshi's edict of 1587 banning Christianity in Japan.

A few days after the church opened a group of Japanese "Hidden Christians" appeared and introduced themselves to the French priest. These people had been secretly practising Christianity since the late 16th Century. I posted earlier about what was done to some of these hidden christians as Christianity was still banned in 1865.

The stained glass was installed in the early years of the twentieth Century, and while the church survived the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, most of the stained glass did not. However it has been replaced with glass from the same period.

Oura Church is the only western building to be listed as a National Treasure.

Oura Church served as the model for the Catholic Church in Tsuwano.

There is a 300 yen entrance fee to enter the church, and photography inside is banned, but I guess my camera accidentally took some pictures all by itself without my knowledge.

Spectacles Bridge

Found this draincover in central Nagasaki, not far from the bridge depicted in the design.

Its name, Meganebashi, means "spectacles bridge", for obvious reasons, and it is believed to be the oldest stone arch bridge in Japan. It was built in 1634 by a Chinese monk from the nearby Chinese temple, Kofuku-Ji.

The buttresses of the central section of the bridge are covered in coins. I can only imagine that it is done for good luck.

There are a total of ten stone bridges along the section of the Nakashima River that runs through central Nagasaki. During a major flood in 1982, 6 of them were destroyed. Badly damaged, all the original stones of Megane Bashi were found and so the bridge could be restored.

On Battleship Island

Since Gunkanjima re-opened to visitors last year the tours have proved to be very popular. I was lucky to get the very last seat. The part of the island that is open is at the industrial end, and visitors are fenced in and herded by guides.

 

When inhabited the island had schools, a hospital, a temple, shrine, a brothel, cinema, and a pachinko parlor. All things that are needed for a civilized life. However absolutely everything had to be shipped in from the mainland including all the fresh water.

 

The guides give plenty of explanations and information (in japanese only), and the island has applied for World Heritage status, but they would need to make an effort to make information available in English. Of course there is a part of Gunkanjima's history that the guides don't mention.

 

During the last years of the war the mine, like most mines in Japan at that time, was worked by slaves, mostly Korean and Chinese. The slaves were of course not paid, and the regulations for controlling the slaves called for "extreme camp security, inferior clothing, overcrowded sleeping quarters, primitive sanitation with no bathing facilities, limited medical care, and minimal amounts of the poorest quality food—which was to be withheld as necessary to ensure discipline." Obviously, the death rate was very high.

 

While some Japanese companies that used slave labor have apologised and paid compensation, Mitsubishi, probably the company that benefited most from slave labor, have absolutely refused to pay anything, and their continued denials make for a sad indictment of Japanese corporate greed, though the main thrust of their argument is that to admit to it would saddle Japan with "a mistaken burden of the soul" for hundreds of years. An excellent article on the subject is here

 To make the place a World heritage Site without dealing with this unsavory episode of its history would be a mistake, I think.

Shots of the island from the boat are in this earlier post

Battleship Island: The ultimate haikyo

Gunkanjima (Battleship island) is the nickname of Hashima, a very small uninhabited island about 15k from Nagasaki. Why that is its nickname should be obvious from this first photo.

 

Originally much smaller than its current size, at the end of the 19th Century coal was discovered under the island and Mitsubishi began mining. As rock was brought up from the tunnel digging it was used to expand the island and protect it with a big sea wall.

 

At the mine's peak in the late 1950's the island had a population of 5,300 people, which translates to a density of 216,264 people per square mile, certainly among the highest in the world.

 

In 1974 the mine closed and all the people moved off, and the buildings began to crumble. Incidentally, Japans first large concrete building, a 9 storey apartment block was built here.

 

There are regular tour boats from Nagasaki that circle the island, and since 2009 there have been tours that actually visit the island, though only a small section, fenced off, is currently accessible, but the plan is to extend the accessible sections. Photos from on the island tomorrow.

 

Fans of the 2012 James Bond movie "Skyfall" may think they recognize the island, and in fact it was used as a model for the lair of the villain Raoul Silva, but it was filmed on a lot at the studio in London.