Toshodaiji in fall

Toshodaiji and Yakushiji are five-minute walk away to each other. Both are good to look at the Buddhist statues and their halls and pagodas are architecturally interesting. I especially liked to see Miroku Buddha with a hand sign called Sokuchi-in or Goma-in. A finger looks like touching the ground, signifying that the Buddha is conquering evil influences.

Precisely speaking. Miroku is not yet Buddha but in long training. Sometimes, however, they are already referred to as Buddha. I took time to see Miroku in the Buddha status very closely.

Kofukuji pagodas

Kofukuji lost a lot over its history of 1300 years but the temple still has two pagodas. One is so grand that nobody can miss. 

The other is a three-storied pagoda standing in the corner of the temple quietly and attracts only a small number of visitors. None the less, it was built more than 800 years ago and one of the precious old buildings the temple retains. Here are the pics.

Find Nejiri Manpo tunnel in kyoto

This is my favorite. Good to go to Nanzenji temple through this skew arch tunnel. Feel strange in the tunnel. It's fun.This is part of the constructions related to Lake Biwa Aquaduct. The water channels connecting Lake Biwa and Kyoto provided the city with better transportation, irrigation, hydroelectric power, and drinking water. This was necessary for Kyoto's modernization and revitalization after Kyoto lost the emperor who left for Tokyo in 1869. Find this in Kyoto. This is your mission impossible!

Rock Garden in fall

Here's the rock garden at Ryoanji temple in fall. Seasonal transitions are vividly felt in the Japanese gardens regardless of their styles. 

This is also a garden at Ryoanji, showing an older aristocratic elegance. Don't miss walking around the large pond after your meditation at the rock garden. 

Shimenawa watching is fun

The scenery the other way around with Futakami
 Mountain seen in a distance is also good

This is at Hibara Jinja shinto shrine lying on the ancient trail called Yamanobe-no-michi (the trail along the foot of the hills), Nara prefecture, the oldest trail in written history in Japan. In ancient times, Nara was mostly a large lake and trails were formed along it. Part of the trails which remain to this day is called Yamanobe-no-michi. It's nearly 20 kilometers and an easy hiking is enjoyed. This is where you can experience the DNA of Japanese sentiment, perhaps.

This rope and tassels is called shimenawa. One interesting way to make your journey unique will be to keep records of the shimenawa ropes you saw while in Japan. Since there are shrines everywhere, there are shimenawa ropes of many kinds though they look similar and have the same aura around it. 

This shrine is also called Moto-Ise, or Original Ise because it is believed that Goddess Amaterasu was here before she moved to Ise. Note: there are several places called Moto-Ise, as is often the case. 

The shrine has an attractive torii gate which looks like three gates combined. This will be another way to make your journey memorable: keep records of the torii gates you saw on the trip. 

Mitsu-torii, not seen commonly

Three-storied pagoda @ Yakushiji

West Pagoda rebuilt by NISHIOKA

Each extending roof is double-roofed so at a glance the pagoda looks like six-storied but this is a three-storied pagoda at Yakushiji temple in Nishi-no-kyo, Nara prefecture. Note: three-storied does not mean there are three floors but simply put there's the first floor and the rest is an attic where beams and pillars are combined. 

The temple has two three-storied pagodas standing in a symmetrical manner on the premises. One is from the 8th century and the other was rebuilt in 1981 supervised by late master carpenter NISHIOKA Tsunekazu whom I truly admire.

The old east pagoda will be covered for several years for restoration but the new west pagoda was what I intended to see this time. NISHIOKA had the great opportunities to rebuild two historical pagodas in Nara to try out his mastery of constructing old temple and shrine buildings. 

It seems the traditional techniques and excellent nature of wood are reevaluated and more pagodas are now being built of wood rather than concrete. 

Wood, as timber, is still alive and wooden buildings last longer if their true nature is understood by architects and carpenters in charge.

The west pagoda is currently taller than the old east pagoda, but they will be of the same height in 500 years according to NISHIOKA.

All the ginkgo leaves turned yellow

The tall one

Nishi-hongan-ji is one destination that amplifies your impression of Kyoto. You are not asked to pay for your visit and are free to enter their halls. Temple people are kind and helpful. The English brochures and books are available. It's a thriving working temple instead of just being a historical legacy for tourists. Of course, Kyoto's temples are all active including those packed with tourists. Many of them are worth visiting but this spacious open-minded temple will be good for a refreshing change.

The temple now hosts wedding ceremonies. You might be lucky enough to see a couple. I saw an international couple in traditional wedding attire and everybody there were so excited to see the newly-wed. 

There is a free temple tour that you are asked to register in advance. It's free but your contribution will be appreciated so that the temple can use it for the preservation of their cultural assets. During the tour, you are shown the areas off limits to the general public. You will see their important rooms, corridors, paintings, a Noh stage with interesting tricks (you can't see the pine tree painted on the backboard of the stage first but you see it once you moved to some point - let me make this a secret). Photography is not allowed so you just have to see and remember them well. But that would not be so bad, focusing on seeing without being distracted by anything else. It is done in Japanese but a knowledgeable guide can guide you well in accordance with the tour progress. Count me as one of the knowledgeable guides. 

They have two huge ginkgo trees. One is very tall; the other is not tall but unique because its branches look like roots spreading in the air. Ginkgo trees contain lots of water and many anecdotes remain all across the country that they saved the temples and houses behind. Here too it is believed that this shorter tree spewed out water and put out a fire.  

                                                     Here's the one.

Rice paddy on the premises of Oyamazumi Jinja

The shimanami scenic sea route has lots more to offer besides cycling. Having said that, it must be very special to ride a bike and visit the attractive places on the route, or rather off the beaten path, away from the cycling route directly linking Hiroshima (Honshu side) and Ehime (Shikoku side).

This is part of the Oyamazumi Jinja Shinto shrine in Omishima island. Some thirty minutes’ pedaling from the Tatara Grand Bridge connecting Omishima and Ikuchijima. This shrine has a small patch of rice field. The rice is already harvested as you can see. In front of the hall in the photo is held an interesting and rather humorous ritual biannually in spring and fall: Sumo bouts are fought between a human and a numen of rice grain. They compete three times and always the spirit wins. This is like a pre-celebration of good harvest.

The Records of Ancient Matters (Kojiki), a Japanese mythological history book, does not specify the gender of Oyamazumi deity but another old book writes the deity is female but another says male. Whoever he or she is, the deity has been revered by all, including commoners, warriors, and nobles. 

Green fresh ball of cryptomeria @ Fukubijin, saijo

A month has already passed since the Sake Festival, the biggest annual event in saijo, was celebrated. The first batch of saijo's sake must be ready, because Fukubijin has this green ball hanging in one of their buildings.

When their first batch of sake is ready, breweries hang a large green ball made of cryptomeria branches. It's a sign to tell the public that their sake of the year has been brewed and pressed, almost ready to be enjoyed.  They will continue their brewing and more sake will come and the sake in the tank will settle before being shipped. The green ball will gradually turn brown, which will tell you the sake is maturing and give a sense of transition.  

Toyo Ito's message for the future

one of the many messages on the walls and ceilings

I took advantage of a fine autumn day and went by car to the TIMA or Toyo Ito Museum of Architecture again. I wanted to see the exhibits concerning the project called "home-for-all" for Tohoku that Ito has got involved deeply.

Before going to that section, I read almost all the messages and quotations of architects and others printed on the geometric walls of the museum.

Here's one of Ito's messages:

Future communities have to be rebuilt on the foundations of the lost houses

Memories have to be handed down

Like grass and trees sprout out on the leveled land

New pillars will rise on the former foundations

Seeking for powerful, brighter communities of the future

Two of some 260 islands off Matsushima

Nio Island

There are some 260 islands and islets around Matsushima Bay. People named all of them. Let me post two of the islands. Both are seen while boarding a pleasure boat. 

Nio Island, people thought, looked like a deva king (nio) smoking a cigar.

Bell Island was named so because the waves make a bell-like sound when they hit the four openings formed by abrasive action.

A boat ride should be fun when you tour Matsushima. Zuiganji Temple near the pier is grand but for the time being, the grandest part of the temple is off limits due to preservation work until around March, 2018. However, the temple fore grounds should be appreciated and is access-free. Even ten minute's visit can give you a somewhat solemn, ascetic atmosphere from old days.

Bell Island

Dassai is being made in a remote spot in Iwakuni

Centrifugal machine to separate sake and lees

Asahi Brewery is unique. It has often been featured in the media. They've received more orders than they can currently produce. They are building another factory near the present one and expanding operation. 

They only produce refined Junmai-shu or the sake made purely from rice without adding brewer's alcohol. 

The factory's temperature and humidity are controlled and they produce all the year round. 

Their quality control is extraordinarily meticulous. They should have accumulated volumes of data.

Their very premium uses the rice milled down to 23 % of the original weight. 

Centrifugal machine in addition to an ordinary pressing machine is used to separate final mash to sake and lees, which is a rare practice and the machine is more than twice more expensive than the typical accordion-like press. This way sake does not contain any possible smell from cloth bags which is used for ordinary sake pressing machines.

Pasteurization is done only once after bottling, not twice.

Their dassai brand is exported and can be enjoyed somewhere in NY and LA as well as in Taiwan and maybe some other places.

These are some of the facts I discovered through the factory tour. It was worth going, taking 1.5 hours by car from my place.

They have a web site in Japanese, English and French. Here's their site.

I bought two bottles; one is the most expensive Junmai Dai-ginjo, and the other is a sparking cloudy type sake.

They will be served at the home party coming in two days.

Most common pressing machine
to produce sake from final mash

Flanked by Geiko & Maiko

Maiko-san, left & Geiko-san, right
and me in the middle!

I had a little fun at a former Ochaya or Kyoto's private party venue. It is now converted into a French restaurant and there I attended a "seminar" for professional tour guides. It really was a fun seminar!

Ride a bike and see Hiroshima architecture

Castle moat and architecture

My fellow guide and cyclist, Yoko, has prepared a splendid tour plan. The excursion first takes you around downtown, giving you a chance to visit Hiroshima Castle and Shukkeien Japanese garden. Both are related to Hiroshima's waters, using the river water for their moat and pond, respectively. Then you can get to pedal along one of the six rivers in Hiroshima. You also see how two rivers join and a discharge channel,which looks exactly like a natural river.

Hiroshima has been developed on a large delta area and people's life was once much closer to the waters. There's a movement that Hiroshima rivers be appreciated again to revitalize the city.

Besides feeling the waters and river breeze of Hiroshima, the tour gives you a great chance to see Hiroshima architecture; old and new at the same time.

In the photo stand Hiroshima Castle, the Motomachi High-rise apartment complex (my real favorite, designed by OTAKA Masato), and Motomachi High School (on the right behind the trees; designed by HARA Hiroshi, who also did the Kyoto Station Complex).

Without cycling around the castle, I would never have had a chance to see them from this angle, Thank you, Yoko (she took me along the tour route by bike).

She has her blog with lots of good pics. I feel like riding a bike and touring when I look at them. Here's her blog.

While riding along the river, we passed the Motomachi apartment complex on the right. And I saw its star houses within a close range. I saw them from the rooftop of one of the wings of the Motomachi apartment but never expected that I could be this near.

Come join us. Bike ride in town is fun and will be an eye opener, giving you another perspective. You'll know Hiroshima more.

This is the OSAKA

Tsuten-kaku is celebrating its 100th anniversary. The present tower is the second one, built in 1956. The original tower along with Luna Park which stood around the tower were completed in 1912, exactly 100 yeas ago. The tower and the park were connected with aerial cable cars.

The new tower was designed by NAITO Tachu, who was nicknamed Dr. Tower. He was asked to build the tallest tower by local Osaka merchants but immediately knew it would be impossible, considering the small area for the tower construction site. But the Osaka store owners begged and Tachu made the height of the Tsuten-kaku observatory highest in the country in those days. It was one meter higher than the tower in Nagoya. Tsuten-kaku became a fun tower with its unique bold design.The most famous tower designed by Tachu is no other than Tokyo Tower.

When Japan was struggling after the Great East Japan Earthquake which shook the country on March 11, 2011 and was saving electricity as much as possible, Tokyo Tower lit up one message by using solar energy and eco-friendly LED bulbs: Ganbaro Nippon (Work on, Japan). Tears on my cheek. 

The Tsuten-kaku tower is the OSAKA. When you are there, don't forget to eat KUSHIKATSU cutlet. Many kinds of veggies, fish, seafood, etc. on a skewer are deep fried. They taste really Osaka. 

Here's the official site of Tsuten-kaku for your convenience.

Artwork @ Kamotsuru

Kimono at Kamotsuru

Light plays a trick, especially for photography. The cotton kimono looks more interesting when seen in a photo. The artwork was displayed in the area of the premises usually off limits. The area makes a fantastic gallery and the event was a great stage for local college students studying art.

Four Seasons exhibited @ Fukubijin

Four seasons of Japan at Fukubijin

This is one of the artworks exhibited at Fukubijin Brewery for Art in Sakagura. 

Hot summer days are going away and fall is almost around the corner. We live in a beautiful country with four distinct seasons. 

At the beginning of October, Saijo celebrates Sake Festival for two days. When it's over, the town begins its serious sake making of the year. The breweries are busy but it's a good season to visit Saijo and feel their vibration. 

ART in SAKAGURA is fun

At the stairwell of Shusen-kan

Some of my favorite artworks I saw today happened to depict animals. Loved the eyes of the blue, red, and green guys. The cat and sunflowers seem to be a tribute to passing summer.

Besides seeing artworks, another advantage you will appreciate is that you can enter where it is usually off limits on the premises of the breweries.

This time my friend and I took off our shoes and went in to the detached Japanese style house of Kamoki Brewery, their private area. The rooms and windows formed a gallery. Gorgeous. 

These are part of ART in Sakagura (ART in Sake Breweries), Saijo, Higashi-hiroshima. Remember this; this could happen next year again around this time of the year. 

So much fun.

Tribute to passing summer, I felt.

Mr. & Mrs. Maegaki @ Kamoizumi

Mr. & Mrs. Maegaki, Heart of Kamoizumi 

Energetic President Maegaki of Kamoizumi and his indispensable wife stand in front of Shusen-kan, one of the buildings which consisted of the former Saijo Branch of Hiroshima Prefectural Sake Laboratory. Shusen-kan is now owned by Kamoizumi and used as a sake cafe and sake library. The second floor can be rented and hold a variety of activities. 

Today, my friend and I went up to the second floor to see ART in SAKAGURA artworks. It was much better than an ordinary art museum visit. I much preferred the Sakagura site than the museum setting and fully enjoyed art by local college students.

Besides on the second floor of Shusen-kan, there are other places on the sake factory grounds where artworks by students are exhibited. 

So much fun to tour around the area where eight sake breweries stand. 

This program was held last year too. The second year has been attracting more people of many age brackets. Power of youth and traditional sites interact.

Tomorrow, I'm visiting a rural district called Uyama, where artists display their site specific works. 

Be aware and it's easy to find beauty just around your corner.  Your neighborhood is your living museum.

Matsushima has amazing gulls

Someone's shoulder in the left bottom corner
photo taken while cruising on a boat

Matsushima, known as one of the three most scenic places in Japan since the 17^th century, revived itself swiftly after the great Tohoku earthquake which shook East Japan on March 11, 2011. A few people were sacrificed in Matsushima Town and the tsunami waves attacked the stores and pleasure boats for bay cruising. But compared with the neighboring communities like Shiogama and Higashi-matsushima, the town was spared from the total devastation. By the end of April, 2011, all tour boats resumed their operations.

Lots of black-tailed sea gulls live in the area and they fly to the boats for snacks. Bags of food is on sale on the boat. They are originally for humans and sold at supermarkets or many other places but here at Matsushima the food is used to feed the gulls. They are amazing. They can take food from your fingers or catch it in the air.

Thanks to some 260 islands in Matsushima Bay, the tsunami waves must have been mitigated. The great Zuiganji Temple survived the quake and tsunami with slight scar. All 1300 tourists managed to evacuate to higher places.

Matsushima got a story to tell; not an easy job to talk about the disaster but the locals have to let people know, and pass down the lesson learned.

Matsushima is particularly reputed to be an inspiring place for the moon viewing. Albert Einstein came to Matsushima in 1922. Local story has it that he was speechless, seeing the moon of Matsushima.

Kosaka mine had Koraku-kan theater for workers

Former Kosaka Mine Office

The theater was completed in 1910 for part of the welfare of mine workers. Originally the theater accommodated 800 people. Now the capacity is reduced to 607 due to fire safety regulations.

Performers and audience can be close enough so that the stage should be truly exciting and engaging. The theater is busy and active.

Click here to see the theater photos.

The office building of Kosaka Mine standing next to the theater expresses the idea of “East meets West.” It looks western at a glance but the interior has traditional tools and equipment just like the theater for Kabuki plays. In addition, the design for balconies is Islamic and its open work motif is associated with the company, Fujita, that once owned the mine. It was provided with electric power, a rare case in those days.

Odaira Namihei, the founder of Hitachi, worked for the Kosaka Mine where he, as a young engineer, was assigned to build an electric power station and related facilities. He did it well and hopped jobs to climb up the ladders for starting his own company in 1910 where he developed Japan's first 5-horsepower electric induction motor.

Kosaka Mine first dealt with silver, then switched to copper. Now no mining is conducted but rather metal recycling has been done making the best use of the technology nurtured while the town was thriving as one of the three largest copper mines in Japan. 

Restored roof of the former office
shingled with cryptomeria slates
faithful to the original 

Everywhere in Japan, there are legacies that would lead to the future. What was done in the past leads to the future, whether it was a good deed or not. Face the past and go ahead!

Spiral staircase at the office
built with advanced techniques

Know Shirakami Mountains?

Ao-ike or Lake Blue
Due to refraction, the lake looks mysterious 

In 1993, nearly 17000 ha of the Shirakami Mountains was recognized as a World Heritage Site. It was one of the first designations in Japan along with Horyu-ji temple, Himeji Castle, and Yakushima Island.

Situated in the mountains of Tohoku, this trackless site includes the last virgin remains of the cool-temperate forest of Siebold's beech trees that once covered the hills and mountain slopes of northern Japan. The black bear, the serow and 87 species of birds can be found in this forest.

The Shirakami Mountains comprise a maze of steep sided hills with summits rising to just over 1,200 m. Many streams have their sources within the area and it is an important water catchment area.

The beech forests were already formed some 8000 years back. It is believed that the beech forests grew soon after the end of the glacial age. They have never been cultivated, mainly because beech trees were useless.

However, the trees came to be processed into musical instruments in the 1970s and logging projects were proposed. The construction of a forest road started in Akita but was halted due to active opposition. People in Aomori were fiercely against the projects, which changed the attitude of the Aomori Prefecture. In 1988, the construction was suspended.

The thirty three lakes which form the Juni-ko area are considered to have been formed from the rivers isolated by the landslides in 1704. Juni-ko means twelve lakes but as already mentioned there are thirty three lakes. But at least there seems to be a specific point from which the exact 12 lakes can be seen. That’s where the large scale landslide happened and its trace is still visible.

Serious alpinists will try some of the peaks but casual easy forest walk is also possible.

Wear comfortable walking shoes and explore the Juni-ko area, hopefully with a local guide (and me as an interpreter). Fantastic lakes, trees, air, wind, soil, sky, light and shadow.

The Japanese beech, Siebold's beech, or buna:

A deciduous tree of the beech family Fagaceae. Native to Japan and one of the dominant trees of Japan's deciduous forests.

Walk the beech forest and breathe the fresh air

Shamisen Tsugaru style is soulful

Professional and amateur; both were fantastic
Shakuhachi flute and great folk song

At a hotel in Aomori where my guests and I stayed, there was a great shamisen performance starting at 9:00 pm and lasting more than 30 minutes. Very soulful. The performer invited a few of the audience to come forward and try the drum while he played the musical instruments and sang traditional folk songs. Later toward the end of the show, a gentleman asked to let him sing along the shamisen tune. The whole venue was full of Tsugaru spirit. I didn't completely understand their Tsugaru or Tohoku dialect but even that was fun and impressed me.

Once blind female shamisen performers visited households and played tunes when asked. That was the way they made income. The music had to be loud since they sometimes performed on snowy days when the family would not be able to hear well if the shamisen only made ordinary levels of sound. 

The Tsugaru Shamisen, pronounced Tsugaru Jamisen in Japanese, is powerful and soulful. No doubt about that. 

The performer plays the Tsugaru Shamisen
The lady was invited to come forward to try out the drum

Five-storied pagoda at Kaijusen-ji, Kyoto

Notice the Mokoshi eaves at the lowest level.

The pagoda standing in Kamo Town, Kidugawa City, Kyoto, was built in 1214, relatively short but delightful to your eyes. The location of the temple is not convenient for modern visitors but this remote settings are essential to retain the serenity and peace of the temple. 

The shinbashira central pillar stands from the ceiling of the first floor, one of the six examples among the historical five-storied pagodas in the country.

The pagoda has Mokoshi eaves at the first level. This pagoda and the one at Horyu-ji temple have this type of eaves. Only two examples of this style.

Loved the temple. Quiet and breezy. Talked with the lady who received me at the main hall of the temple. Appreciated the statues enshrined in the main hall.

A combination of this temple, Joruri-ji temple, and Gansen-ji temple are highly recommended. They are all in Kamo Town. Transportation between this temple and the other two is a bit of trouble. Bus services are not frequent at all. But taxis are available.

Five-storied pagoda in Aomori

Notice the reduced dimensions
toward the top

Saisho-in temple has a particularly beautiful, well-balanced five-storied pagoda. The temple is one of the two major among forty six temples standing to the south of Hirosaki Castle, the other being Chosho-ji temple. Saisho-in originated in the Buddhist halls built and dedicated by a warlord in 1532. When the castle was built at the beginning of the 17^th century, the temple was relocated to the northeast of the castle to stop evil influences from entering the castle grounds from that direction. The temple was patronized by the fiefdom, and supervised temples and shrines in the Tsugaru Domain in the Edo period. However, the temple suffered and forced to come to the present site where Daien-ji temple once stood but moved out at the beginning of the Meiji period when the Meiji government made Shinto the national religion and made little of the Buddhist temples. Many of the temples were discontinued at that time.

The pagoda once belonged to Daien-ji and was built in 1667 to honor the sacrifice of those who died in battles, regardless of friends or foes. More than ten years had passed when the tower was finally completed. The Shinbashira central pillar of the pagoda is square and stands from the ceiling of the first floor. Note; the five storied pagodas are practically one-floored, the upper space being a vast attic.

Across the country, there are six historical five-storied pagodas whose central pillar stands from above the first floor. Except the one at Honmon-ji temple in Tokyo, I saw them all. Hey I’m a tower hunter.

The temple premises are accessible free of charge during the day.

Summer day in Sera Highland, Hiroshima

Not typical sunflower but pretty

If you’ve gotta be away from simmering heat but still want to have a summer memory, go to Sera Highland Farm to see sunflowers and have their fabulous corns and watermelons.

There are a couple of interesting restaurants around there. The one I tried is Oheso Café; the other I’m eager to try is Gomokumeshi. Both use old houses refreshed for their new life. Oheso hosts woofers who spice the place up. You need a car to go and move around there. Hop on a car and go. The traffic is easy but you’ll need navigation or a good map.

Amazingly, there are some 30 species of sunflowers growing on the farm. In total, one million sunflowers are planted. Let me pick up one of the uncommon.

The northern area of Hiroshima Prefecture is pastoral and peaceful. Once in a while you could use cleansing of your mind and body by immersing yourself there.

Oheso Cafe in Sera

Saigyo went to Tohoku

Saigyo's android making,
the book from the 17th century

Saigyo lived in the 12^th century. He was an itinerant Buddhist monk who expressed his thought on life and passion toward natural beauty in the form of poetry. His way of life enchanted many, including highly-respected poets Sogi and Basho. Countless legends about him are left in a number of places in the country, many of which are funny and unusual. This must suggest that he was not only revered by the literati but loved and embraced by commoners.

Born Satō Norikiyo in Kyoto to a wealthy family of the samurai class, he lived during the traumatic transition of power between the old court nobles and the new samurai warriors. After the start of the Age of Mappo or the demise of law in 1052, Buddhism was considered to be in decline and no longer as effective a means of salvation. Only Amida’s mercy would save you. The Buddha would take all those who have faith to the Western Pure Land.

As a youth, he worked as a guard to retired Emperor Toba, but in 1140 at age 23, for reasons now unknown, he quit worldly life to become a monk. One of the names he later took was "Saigyō" meaning Western Journey, which would remind you of Amida Buddha and the Western paradise.

Being an itinerant monk, he took long, poetic journeys to various scenic places of the country including Tohoku that would later inspire Basho in his Narrow Road to the North, a journal of his travel to Tohoku. 

Saigyo died in Hirokawa Temple in Kawachi Province (present-day Osaka Prefecture) at age 73. He ended his life like his poem:

Let me die in spring under the blossoming cherry trees, let it be around that full moon of Kisaragi month.

Local legends have it that he met someone like an old woman or a child at a boundary-like point and was made ashamed of his ignorance and turned back. This intelligent monk turned back quite a lot of times!

On his way to Matsushima (Sendai, Miyagi Pref., Tohoku), he was feeling proud of the poem he had just composed. Then a child, avatar of Sanno God, came with a sickle and made a remarkable poem. Saigyo wondered who he was and asked what he did for living. The boy answered “he leaps what sprouts in winter and withers in summer.” Saigyo didn’t have a clue what this meant, then the boy said “you would reveal your ignorance in the holy land Matsushima where people are intelligent.” Ashamed, Saigyo turned back.

The most unusual anecdote about him must be the one that claims Saigyo, feeling lonely after his friend left for Kyoto, made a defective android in Koyasan. He didn’t know what to do and abandoned it deep in the mountains.

Androids were being made in the 12^th century Japan!

On top of the Yashima Plateau

A shinto shrine on the Yashima Temple grounds

These Tanuki statues stand on the premises of Yashima Temple located on top of the Yashima Plateau, Takamatsu, Kagawa. Fox statues are often seen but those of Tanuki are rare and look funny.The torii gates in the photo were dedicated by the worshipful. These gates are apt to be associated with Shinto and behind these torii gates is a small Shinto shrine.


It sounds like Buddhism and Shintoism got mixed up but that was a normal practice for hundreds of years until the Meiji Government severed their intimate relationship in 1868. This rather unfortunate situation lasted until religion and politics were separated after the end of WW2. Their relationship is never the same but legacies remain and make people stop and think.


The temple is said to have founded in the middle of the eighth century. It is the 84th of the 88 temples on the Shikoku Pilgrimage. I saw some people clad in the traditional pilgrimage attire or those in more modern gear. Both seem to be visiting some or all of the pilgrimage temples on Shikoku Island. 


I saw a pair from abroad, two tall men wearing the white authentic pilgrimage clothes and a cone-shaped sedge hat. You don't have to be so religious to visit these temples. Sometimes, we are just so eager to be itinerants, probably because we'd like to go back to basics and think who we are. Visiting temples, either large or small, gives you a good incentive to be away from routines and get refreshed and cleansed.


The views from the Yashima Plateau is spectacular. Below is the photo from the city's official web site.

Yashima Island but not an island anymore

Motomachi Apartment Complex completed!

Looks surreal but a real photo

This is a photo from a special exhibition on Motomachi, meaning the foundation town. The area was named so because Hiroshima’s development in the early 20th century started here.

The special exhibition is currently being held in the gallery on the basement level of the east wing of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. The gallery lies at the further end of one of the two corridors. The poster will tell which corridor you should go down. Quite interesting to see how Motomachi transformed.

For Hiroshima survivors who lost too much, this huge Motomachi Apartment Complex was built by the city and prefecture of Hiroshima. Architect OTAKA Masato, commissioned to design the complex, made four fundamental proposals:

1. The building wings are laid out to stand in a zigzag way.

2. A large scale outdoor public space is effectively secured.

3. Humans and automobiles move on different levels, respectively.

4. Roof tops are open to the public.

Which remind you of Le Corbusier's five points of architecture:

pilotis, the roof garden, an open floor plan, ribbon windows, and a free façade.

No wonder.

OTAKA worked in the office of MAEKAWA Kunio from 1949 to 1961. MAEKAWA (1905-1986) was a drafter for Le Corbusier in Paris from 1928 to 30 and for Antonin Raymond in Tokyo from 1930 to 35.

Another feature which should be mentioned is that OTAKA designed the complex to be a community equipped with a children’s nursery, kindergarten, elementary school, stores, clinic, fire station, police station, and public bathhouse. This sounds a bit like Unité d'habitation (Cité Radieuse) by Le Corbusier. And of course, the Motomachi Complex has pilotis and roof garden.

TANGE Kenzo, who was inspired by Le Corbusier's design for the Palace of Soviets as a young man and later designed Peace Park and the Museum, also worked for MAEKAWA.

There seems to be a world wide web of humans.

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Saijo's modern architecture built in 1920s

TOYOTA Benji [1891-1959]

TOYOTA Benji designed several buildings located in Saijo's Sake Brewery Street district.  Respective office buildings of Kamotsuru and Kirei breweries and the former Saijo Branch of Hiroshima Prefectural Sake Laboratory were all designed by TOYOTA. 

Besides Sake factories, Saijo has these quasi-western buildings and old-fashioned houses of local people. Recently the Kuguri-mon gate, originally built in the 1920s, was restored and now serves as a tourist information and community space. There used to be two gates of the same type as the restored and between the gates stood stores and beyond the gate a theater. 

Feel the history of the town while walking and sipping sake in the Sake Brewery Street of Saijo.