Mukai-an Temple Koshin-do Temple & Saisho-an Temple on the Shodoshima Pilgrimage

Mukai-an Temple

Christmas Eve, 2015, was fast drawing to a close, and I still had three more temples to visit on the route back to my ryokan. I had just come down  from Mount Dounzan and the amazing cave temples, Dounzan and Goishizan, and then stopped in at Jokoji, temple 8, on this, my first day walking the Shodoshima pilgrimage.

Temple number 7, as with 9 and 10, was just a small unmanned building. The honzon is an Amida.

Just a couple of days past the winter solstice, the sun was rushing down and it becane obvious that it would soon be dark so I did not tarry nor explore

Temple 9 was Koshin-do, a site of the very popular Koshin cult. A Daoist cult/faith, it is most well known nowadays for the three monkeys. Many Koshin sites also have these strange looking dolls called Sarubobo in some places.

Many Koshin sites are now classed as Shinto shrines, and some, like here, as Buddhist temples. The honzon here is a Fudo Myoo.

My route now took me along the main road of Noma. There was some nice traditional architecture, though my favorite of the day was the old school house that was made famous in a movie.

The sun dipped below the hills as I passed through the biggest soy sauce factory of the island. 

It was almost dark when I reached  Saisho-an, number 10. It was created in the separation of shrines and temples, and the honzon, an Aizen Myoo was originally in the shrine next door.

It was completely dark by the time I got back to my room, and a little while later there was a knock at my door. It was the old priest I had met at Kannonji, and then later at Dounzan. He had brought me a gift, a delightful print of Fudo Myo!! A truly excellent day to start the pilgrimage with, that bodes well for the coming days.

Wild Japan

Kuncho Sake Brewery & Museum

Sake 酒

Just about every town in Japan, large or small, has at least one sake brewery.

In Hita the biggest, Kuncho Shuzo Sake Brewery is located on the edge of Mamedamachi, the historic preservation district of the old town.

To get to the brewery's museum you walk through the front part of the brewery past the huge pots that cook the rice for the sake.

The "museum" is actually just the huge attic space filled with old barrels and assorted , mostly wooden, tools and equipment, some of which is labeled

It's quite a big space, filled with stuff, and would eprhaps be interesting to some.

They have a big shop with a wide range of sakes and masu cups available. Unfortunately, I am not a fan of sake, nor of most alcohol, so I can't comment on its quality.

Wild Japan

ACROS Fukuoka

ACROS

ACROS stands for Asian CRossroads Over the Sea, and houses an auditorium, conference centre, and numerous offices.

It was opened in 1994 and was designed by Argentinian architect Emilio Ambasz.

It was built on part of Tenjin Central Park, the last remaining green space in the area, and so it was designed to include a green roof that is an etension of the remaining park

The roof is a series of 15 terraces that rise 60 meters , and are planted with about 4,000 plants of about 76 different species.

This rood garden is open to the public during daylight hours. The interior of the building is a cavernous space rising up to the semi-circular atrium.

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Kumenan Kamo Shrine

Kumenan

Kamo Shrine is the collective name given to the pair of famous shrines in the north of Kyoto, Kamigamo, and Shimogamo.

This branch shrine in Kumenan Town in the north of Okayama was established in 835 by a notable who moved here from Kyoto.

The shrine enshrines ancestral deities of the Kamo family, one male and one female, but the chigi on the roof indicates that the male is given predominance.

I spent the night here in late July, on the night between my 3rd and 4th days walking the Chugoku Kannon pilgrimage. I would have liked to sleep but the mosquitoes would not allow it.

Tanjoji Temple, my reason for being here, was just a across the valley. The entry to the shrine had a chinowa. A couple of days previously I had been to a shrine in Okayama City that also had one, and in that post you can find a little more detail of what a chinowa is.

Another Japan

Hina Doll Museum in Hita

Hina

This is claimed to be the largest tiered display of Hina Dolls in Japan.

It is part of the Hina Doll Museum in the historic town of Hita in Oita.

Ten rooms display more than 4,000 Hina dolls, that have been collected by a local soy sauce magnate. The museum also sells plenty of his companies wares.

Many of the dolls onj display are from the Edo period, the time that Hina dolls took on the form and function they have nowadays.

Examples of unique styles of Hina dolls from different parts of Japan are also on display.

Entry is only 300 yen, so if you are in the area it is worth a visit. If you have a particular interest in Hina dolls then it would be worth making a trip to Hita.

The Nagashibina Doll Museum in Tottori delves into the origin of the Hina dolls.

Wild Japan

Il Palazzo Fukuoka

Fukuoka 福岡

Hotel Il Palazzo in Fukuoka was built in 1989 and designed by Italian architect Aldo Rossi.

Palazzo means "palace" but it also refers to an architectural style of the 19th and 20th centuries based on renaissance palaces

It is built out of brick and the windowless facade is faced in Iranian travertine with exposed steel beams.

The contrast of the green steel and salmon pink stone works well.

The proportions are also quite pleasing.

However, being windowless it does tend to look like a love hotel, of which there are many nearby.

I must admit to not knowing Rossi's work, although he was the first Italian architect to win the Pritzker Prize.

Wild Japan

Surreal & Psychedelic Shisa of Ishigaki Island

石垣島

Just across the road from Yonehara Beach in central Ishigaki Island, Okinawa, is the Yoneko Yaki craft centre where you can see and buy, among other things,  examples of traditional Okinawan shisa.

However, outside you can see a wide variety of large, colorful statues that seem to be based on shisa.

Their shaes seem alien and surreal, and their color schemes are very vibrant and somewhat psychadelic. 

They are sray-painted so also have the feel of graffiti art.

We were there in the off-season and the lace was closed so were unable to find out about the origin and history of them.

However, they were whimsical without being kawaii, the Japanese cultural style that seems to be growing into a dominant format, that also seems to be very popular. I personally find kawaii somewhat offensive, but then I don't enjoy Marvel superhero movies , so what do I know.

Ishigaki Sea Salt