To Cape Muroto Day 12 Walking the Shikoku Pilgrimage

From Temple 23, Yakuoji, to temple 24, Hotsumisakiji, on the Shikoku 88 temple pilgrimage it is more than 80k, and is they first of the long distances between temples. For most pilgrims who do it by tour bus or car it is just a couple of hours, but for those walking it is usually 3 days.

The second half of this route is fairly uninhabited with long stretches of road with the sea on one side and mountains on the other. There are a few small settlements and a few small shrines and such, but it is a nice long stretch with nothing but traffic for company.

I i9magine that if the weather is not so good then maybe it is not so enjoyable, but when I walked it the weather was fine, the road was flat, and the views good.

At lunchtime I disturbed a troop of monkeys feeding the trees at the side of the road... I guess about 20 to 30 of them.....

Nanohanakan Details

As I mentioned last post, here are some more shots of the bizarre architecture at the Nanohanakan sports complex in Ibusuki, Kagoshima.

Like so many similar projects around Japan, it is a monumental piece of architecture spawned by the booming economy of late 20th Century Japan.

Like many of the other examples it is falling into ruin, but for me and the kind of photos I like to take, it is a goldmine.

The architect was Kagoshima-born Takasaki Masaharu, and this final shot is reminiscent of another of his works I have seen......

Nanohanakan

While walking towards the Satsuma Denshokan I notices some curved, gleaming-metal shapes sticking up above the skyline not far away so after visiting the museum I headed over to investigate, and was not prepared for what I found.

Nanohanakan is a sports park and complex with some seriously bizarre architecture that is all the more strange because it is virtually all closed down and bereft of all but a few old people playing gateball in a huge indoor arena.

Sites like this are scattered all over the hinterlands of Japan, built with Bubble-era cash and with many now closed down, this place ranks, to me at least, one of the most outrageous. There was a massive indoor swimming pool, numerous arenas for sports, meeting rooms for conferences and such, and even an accommodation block with rooms.

Given the cash by the central government, architects and construction companies made a fortune, but local government was left with the operating and maintenance costs, and the hoped-for crowds never materialized.

This place was designed by architect Takasaki Masaharu, a native of Kagoshima. I have seen another of his structure up in rural Kumamoto. I find these places fascinating, as a photographer, and will post some more pics next....

Sankei-en Garden in Autumn Colours

As far as I know, the Sankeien Garden is the only Jaoanese garden located within an airport.

It can be found at Hiroshima Airport in the mountains to the east of the city.

If you are flying in or out of the airport it is obviously worth a visit.

Though a ways out of town it is pretty easy to visit from the city as there are very frequent airport limousine buses.

Very reminiscent of an Edo Period daimyo stroll garden, it is good any time of the year, but superb when the autumn colors are on show.

It was opened in 1993 at the same time as the airport, and uses rocks and stones excavated from the airport site.

It was designed by Ito Kunie who I havent heard of although he has designed many other contemporary gardens around Japan. He was originally from Hiroshima.

The name, sankei, refers to three landscapes, in this case, Sea, Mountain, and Village.

The entrance is through a building modelled on the architecture of Itsukushima Shrine in Miyajima and "floats" over the huge koi pond.

The large pond represents the Seto Inland Sea and has many islands.

Bridges are a big feature of the garden and there are quite a few different styles.

The mountain section of the garden features lots of natural forest and a three-level waterfall.

The village section contains lots of maple as well as bamboo and plum.

The garden also has a lot of different Iris species and an Iris Festival is held in June.

The garden is at about 300 meters altitude so the autumn color are a little earlier than down in the city.

There are also 10,000 hydrangeas of about 100 different varieties.

On weekwnds in November they have late openings with illunation.

There is a cafe serving tea, coffee, and snacks, and a 12 tatami room overlooking the pond available for rental.

Shikoku Pilgrimage temple 38 Kongofukuji

Situated at the southernmost point in Shikoku on top of Cape Ashizuri, Kongofukuji Temple, the 38th temple on the Shikoku Pilgrimage was reached after 3 days of walking from the last temple. I arrived on the 23rd day of my walk and as it turns out this was the halfway point.

According to the legend it was founded by Kobo Daishi himself who is also credited with carving the Kannon statue. Like the southern tip of Wakayama, people set off from here to reach Fudaraku, Kannon's paradise.

There is lots of statuary and the colored stones around the pond are impressive. I have heard that some may be petrified wood, but I don't know. Though relatively remote and not so easy to reach it is a surprisingly popular destination.

Its remoteness may have been one of the reasons why it wasn't damaged in the early Meiji years like so many of the other temples. Definitely worth the effort to visit. The temple does have lodgings, sometimes, but there are plenty of hotels nearby.

Satsuma Denshokan Museum

Satsuma Denshokan Museum

Ther Satsuma Denshokan is a private art museum located on the outskirts of Ibusuki in southern Kagoshima. The museum's primary focus is on ceramics produced in Satsuma, the former name of Kagoshima.

The architecture is based on Buddhist temples from the Heian Period, and with the large pool of water makes for some dramatic photography at the right time and under the right conditions.

The museum is a little pricey, but is well laid out, spacious, and with good displays with a fair amount of English.

Satsuma-ware was mostly made for export to the West and like the pottery traditions of many areas in West japan was based on Korean potters "brought" from Korea after Hideyoshi's failed war there.

The museum does have othere examples of arts from historic Satsuma too.....

The Gardens at Kennin-Ji Temple

The Gardens at Kennin-Ji Temple

Kennin-ji in Gion was the first Zen temple established in Kyoto in 1202. My wife grew up in a house literally next door to the temple so I visited it often. The Chouontei garden is quite well known and features the classic triad of central stones.

Another famous garden in the temple is the Circle-Triangle-Square garden, but I don't show any photos of it in this post.

Seeing is not a passive act. Though we can grasp a scene in a single glimpse, mostly we "read" a scene or a garden. Our eyes move around from point to point and are drawn to specific points and aspects. An artist, or a garden designer, will instinctively know this as part of the process.

I take photos of things my eyes are drawn to. A simple enough thing to say, but less easy to explain.

"God is in the details" is a well-known quote with multiple possible meanings, but if God is truth, and truth is beauty, both two statements that are arguable but which I tend to agree with, then my eyes are drawn to beauty and this is what I attempt to capture with my camera.

Okidomari World Heritage Site

Okidomari, near Yunotsu, is one of the sites included in the UNESCO World Heritage site connected to the Iwami Ginzan silver mine. It is one of two harbors that serviced the mines at the end of the 16th Century when the Mori Clan had control.

When the Tokugawa central government took over control of the mines in the early 17th Century they shipped most of the silver overland to Onomichi on the Inland Sea coast but Okiomari was still used a little.

The small settlement at the port is still in existence though many of the houses are now empty. At the head of the little valley is a grove of bamboo through which a path still passes.

This is the start of the Ginzan Kaido, the "road" that leads inland to the mines. It is about 12k long and is also one of the World Heritage sites. It is a very pleasant walk and I recommend it anyone who wants to get off the beaten track.

At the mouth of the harbor is a small island that once was topped with  fortifications guarding the harbor entrance. The Mori used the harbor as a kind of naval base long before the mines were discovered, and it is said it was earlier the hideout of pirates, though the distinction between pirates and navy at that time was flexible.