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.

Chiringashima Island

Chiringashima

Located in Kagoshima Bay about 800 meters offshore near Ibusuki, Chiringashima Island is the largest island in the bay. It is uninhabited, with a circumference of about 3 kilometers, and only 90 meters high.

Between march and October the island becomes connected to the mainland at low tide by a winding sandbar that enables visitors to walk out to the island. The sandbar exists for periods of time up to 4 hours at the longest. I visited in mid-October and wasn't sure if the tide was going out of coming in so didn't risk it.

Because the sandbar connects the two pieces of land and therefore creates  a bond it has become known as a power spot for love and matchmaking, one of many such spots that have sprung up around Japan in recent years.

Apparently the island is registered as one of Japan's Top 100 Aromatic Spots..... an obsession with ranking that continues to bemuse me

Sunrise at Shirahige Shrine

Shirahige

Shirahige Shrine is located on the western shore of Lake Biwa in what is now Shiga. It is home to one of the famous "floating torii", shrine gates set in water and a place where many people gather to watch sunrise.

It is said that on the equinoxes the sun rises through the gate, though I was here a few days before the winter solstice so it rose to the north of the gate. I was surprised how many people came before dawn to such a relatively remote spot.

Shirahige Shrine is the head shrine of about 300 Shirahige shrines across Japan, but this was the first time I had visited. I had visited other Shirahige shrines before and was intrigued by its origin. This area, called Omi in ancient times, was heavily settled by immigrants from the Korean Peninsula, like the area that later became Kyoto. Shirahige was a Korean deity, and the name means "White Whiskers"

15 years ago this information was easy to find, though nowadays it seems harder. Most sources don't mention the Korean origin anymore. Maybe a result of the dumbing down of the web that now overwhelms us with "popular" and  simple facts, clickbait, and the information and disinformation that  powerful forces in society prefer spread.