Some more Ema

Ema 絵馬

Votive plaques, called ema in Japanese, were originally paintings of horses given to shrines with prayers. Nowadays they are mostly small wooden plaques and can be seen at many shrines and temples. By far the most common are pictures of the 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac, but some shrines and temples have designs that are specific to their site. This first one is at the biggest shrine on Awaji Island, Izanagi Shrine. The ema shows Izanagi, along with his wife-sister Izanami, creating the island of Awaji, believed to be the first created.

At a temple in the mountains of Yamaguchi, these ema quite clearly are accompanied with prayers for ample breast milk and for good childbirth. I have seen a lot of these around the Sanyo region, the southern coast of western Honshu.

Rituals blessing your car are a staple income at many shrines and some temples. These ema are for traffic safety.

Increasingly popular are ema for finding a good love match. With Japans falling birthrate and growing numbers of singles,  the number of shrines that "specialize" in love matching prayers is on the increase.

Not sure what the meaning of the peach is.....

Purchase a selection of ema from GoodsFromJapan

Miyazaki Science Center

Located just a stones throw from the main station in Miyazaki City is the Miyazaki Science Center, easily visible by the rocket standing in front. I stopped in befoe heading down the coast on the 22nd day of my walk around Kyushu.

It is very much aimed at kids and is very colorful and noisy and somewhat resembled a games cnter.

The first floor is primarily about space and Japoan's space program which is based a little further south in Kagoshima.

There is also a planetarium and lots of interactive exhibits. There is virtually no information in English but kids would be sure to enjoy it.

Tombi, Japanese Kites (the birds)

Black Eared Kites are by far the most common raptor found in Japan and they can be found especially along rivers and coastlines.

Ive posted pics of them before many years ago, but those old posts have lost their photos so here are some new ones.

I saw this guy as I was walking down the coast of Cape Muroto in Kochi as I was walking the Shikoku Pilgrimage.

Horaisan Chokyuji Temple

Chokyuji Temple is at the base of a small hill called Horaisan in Miyazaki City. I visited it on the 22nd day of my walk along the Kyushu 108 temple pilgrimage of which it is the 38th temple.

I also visited more recently on my 14th day of walking the Kyushu Fudo Myo `pilgrimage. It's the 12th temple of that pilgrimage. It was founded in the late 16th Century.

Horaisan, the small hill behind the temple once had a small castle on top of it. The main hall of the temple is modern and made of concrete with a large Kannon statue in front.

This temple also had a miniature 88 temple pilgrimage of statues in its grounds. As always I was please to find several Fudo Myo statues.

More Mascot Manholes

Though there was reputed to have been a culling of some of the more useless cute mascots that threaten to outnumber the humans in Japan, new one keep appearing and some make it onto manhole covers. These three were all found on my recent trips to Kyushu. This first one was in Omuta which is home to some of the coal mines that have become World Heritage sites.....

This one, found just outside Kumamoto Station celebrates the20th anniversary of Keroro, apparently a famous manga character, and the 70th anniversary of the introduction of theunderground drain and sewage system in Kumamoto.

This last one is thye town mascot for Kurino, a small town up in the mountains near Kirishima in Kagoshima.

Maruyama Konsenji Temple in Miyazaki

Early in the morning of my 22nd day walking around Kyushu I visited Konsenji in the Maruyama district of downtown Miyazaki City.

It's the 37th temple on the pilgrimage and is not an old temple, being founded in the early 20th Century, and it's also an urban temple, but has  a surprising number of statues.

They are the 88 honzons of the all the 88 temples on the pilgrimage.

The main hall is a concrete affair.

Inside Seirei at Nose Myokensan

Looking up from the center of the floor at the Seirei Hall of the Nichiren temple on top of Nose Myokensan.

The altar to the Bodisattva Myoken on the upper floor which is made of glass and is suspended from the roof. Designed by Shin Takamatsu.

Four figures, 2 female and 2 male, representing the Bodhisattvas of the 4 directions hang over the hall.

Only open to the public once a month, I was lucky enough to get permission to photograph inside, but I wish I had more time to spend in this amazing structure. Photos of the outside are in this previous post.

Looking directly up from below the glass floor.

Miyazaki Jingu

Miyazaki Jingu is a shrine set in large, wooded grounds a little north of central Miyazaki City.

It enshrines the mythical first emperor, Jimmu, and is very much a modern creation from the early years of Meiji when thegovernment was building the emperor-centered "State Shinto".

As such it is rather austere and somewhat sterile. In the grounds is the Miyazaki Gokoku Shrine, the regional branches of the infamous Yasukuni Shrine, also a modern invention. Like Yasukuni, there is a small museum here displaying military uniforms and paraphenalia.

There is also an Inari shrine. In the shrine forest is also the Prefectural Museum. Miyazaki Jingu is a popular spot for Shinto weddings, yet another modern invention

Seirei by Shin Takamatsu

I've posted photos of the works of Shimane born architect Shin Takamatsu quite a few times. I do like his work and there are a lot of them in my neighborhood, but I finally made a trip to the sacred  mountain of  Nose Myoken San to see a work that I have wanted to see for ages.

On top of the mountain is a Nichiren temple to Myoken, the Pole Star, and Takamatsu was asked to design a new worship hall which is named Seirei.

Its floorplan is in the shape of a star, and the materials are glass, metal, and wood. The wood was taken from trees on the mountaintop site.

It is open just one day a month, but I got permission to go inside so I will post photos of that next.....

Miyazaki Minka-en

In the grounds around Miyazaki Jingu Shrine is the Prefectural Museum of Natute & History, and in its grounds is the Minka-en, an open air museum of traditional farmouses.

The farmhouses have been dismantled from their original sites around the region and reassembled here. All of them are now thatched, and represent different styles and relative wealth.

They can all be entered and some artifacts are inside. best of all the museum of farmhouses is free to enter.

More details and more photos can be seen in a longer piece I wrote.....

Shikoku Pilgrimage Temple 36 Shoryuji

Shoryuji is one of the temples that was most probably founded by Kobo Daishi. He named it after one of the temples he studied at when he was in China.

It's fairly remote and very pleasant temple, with two pagodas. According to the legend, when Kobo Daishi was in China he threw a vajra and it landed here.

The honzon, claimed to be carved by Kobo Daishi, is a Fudo Myo, and there are several Fudo Myo statues around the grounds.

Pilgrims used to have to take a ferry across the narrow but very long inlet, but now a bridge has been built.