I am sorry for my long absence. I had to prepare projects for my new job application and to pass a job interview. I got the position (I am starting the new job at 1st of April). So now I have again more free time for the blog.

I am glad to be back :)

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These are the pictures from yesterday (the tree was in the yard of a very small temple not far away from Nishinada Hanshin station):

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Not only sparrows were feasting. The Japanese white eyes were also participating actively:

By the way Japan is the only country where you can see the Japanese white eye free in the wild. The only other place is Hawaii but they were artificially introduced there.

A short movie (you can not see the main participants of the feast but you can here them):

Click here to view the embedded video.

And here comes the “Snowball Sakura”:

I do not know what kind of tree is this but from far away it really resembles blossoming cherry trees. From close though the difference is obvious :)

Here we met two more representatives of the Japanese flying fauna. The Grey Starling (first picture) and the Turtle Dove (second picture):

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The Grey Starling is typical for East Asia. During the winter it migrates to warmer places so the one on the picture most probably comes from northern China or even Siberia.

Just one more picture – the flying dove and the “snowball sakura”:

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All the Sumiyoshi shrines (the main one is Sumiyoshi Taisha in Osaka) worship three sea and sailing related deities – the Sumiyoshi Sanjin together with the legendary Empress Jingū (who allegedly waged a successful military invasion in Korea in 2nd – 3rd century). Interestingly, the deities are most probably three deified stars from the Orion constellation (which in ancient times was used by sailors  as an important navigation sign).

As for the name – Sumiyoshi (住吉) – one of the possible translations is – happy (吉) dwelling (住) which (I think) makes sense for a shrine place.

This is the haiden (the oratory) of the shrine:

There were several really big stone lanterns. Here is one of them:

Also there were many additional small shrines (sessha or massha). You can find most of them to the right of the shrine alongside a small alley submerged in green (mainly bamboo but also wintersweet which bloom in yellow and have intensive scent with pinch of vanilla). First the sessha alley:

And second the wintersweet (I mistakenly took it for a yellow sakura tree last week but when it is fully bloomed the difference is obvious (thank you jtomi and Zichi for pointing out the difference)):

Here is a small gallery with selection of the sesshas (the bright red belongs to Inari the god of fertility and rice you always can recognize it by the two foxes in front of it – Inari’s messangers):

And here are the rest of the sesshas:

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As for the main temple the golden decoration was particularly impressive:

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Another particular thing about this shrine is the fact that the people were entering and reaching the main building with their cars. I have never seen such thing in other temples but apparently there was no problem here (may be it is a kind of special local tradition).

The rest are mainly pictures focusing on details so please enjoy :) :

The rope of the of the shrine’s bell and glimpse toward the interior of the shrine:

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The wooden wish tablets (ema):

The Inari’s fox and the “golden” locker of the sessha:

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And the last one – the small stone pond:

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I will start with the statue of Batou Kannon (馬頭観音) – the Horse Head Kannon (also known as Hayagriva).

Yes, indeed – there was a 6 meter tall statue of a Buddhist deity just 20 minutes walk from our place and we didn’t even suspect it.

What does Kannon mean?

Kannon is most often translated in English as the God or Goddess Of of Mercy & Compassion in Buddhist mythology but this is a little bit misleading. Kannon is one of the bodhisattva – an entities which have achieved enlightenment but decided to stay in the world of constant life and death to help the rest of us to reach enlightenment (the Buddhas – and there are 28 of them – are also enlighten but they are completely outside of our world (they didn’t take the responsibility to help us)). As a matter of fact anyone of us can become a bodhisattva or even Buddha if he or she achieves enlightenment (and as a result automatically acquire status equal to this of a Kannon). That is what I meant when I said that simply stating that Kannon is a God/Goddess is a little bit misleading.

Kannon may take many different forms. Sometimes some of this forms can take different forms on their own. To make it even more complicated some of the Buddhas can manifest themselves as a Kannon too.

Who exactly is Batou Kannon?

Batou Kanon is one of the six Kannons responsible for saving all the sentient beings in the six realms (gods, semi-gods, humans, animals, hungry ghosts, hell). He is in charge of the 4th realm – the animals (by the way all the animals are nothing else but our reincarnations). Also he is always represented in its angry form and red skin.

It is said the angriness represents his (and sometimes her) determination to help us save our souls.

I spent quite some time in the Japanese language blogosphere to try to find some additional information about this statue and the temple complex in which it is situated (I used Google translate extensively for this purpose). What I could figure up (or rather conjure) is that the statue was build most probably around 1930 – 1933. It is related (together with some of the temples) with horses and even horse riding was mentioned in some of the blogs . You can see that Batou Kannon is standing on a lotus which is situated on the top of a horse. Also in the the complex one of the temples had two small horse statues in front of it (you can see one of them on the picture below – you may wish to click on the picture to enlarge).

Also it seems that if the pets of the people are sick they will visit the temple to pray to Batou Kannon for help. As a matter of fact we noticed many well fed cats around the temple complex. I think they are most probably something like temple animals (if I got it correctly something similar was mentioned and in one of the blogs).

Here is one of the most comprehensive blogs in Japanese I found dealing with the subject -  http://blog.bonmee.com/. If your reading Japanese skills are good you can go and verify on your own what I got right and what I got wrong.

The complex itself was composed of 4 or 5 different temples – mainly Buddhist one but there were and some Shinto elements like this three small torii just next to the entrance:

Here is a selection from the rest of the photos from the complex:

[View with PicLens]

For an end of this post I would like to show a short movie from the area (the place where Saigo river leaves the mountain and enters the city):

Click here to view the embedded video.

Actually a nice mountain path starts from this place. I hope one day I will have an opportunity to explore it – (moreover I have learned that it leads to a small tea plantation!).

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First we entered a new looking Buddhist temple and this was the place where we saw the blooming in yellow tree:

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Even though the tree was resembling a cherry it was most probably a kind of plum tree (or ume – 梅 in Japanese). The rest of the temple’s garden was also very nice:

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As to the temple it turned out to belong to Nichiren Buddhist Sect and its name was Kyofukuji (教福寺). The first two kanji of the name literally mean “teaching lucky” or “happy teaching” (the third one (寺) means temple) .

Nichiren Buddhism is one of the biggest sects in Japan. Its followers believe that every person can reach enlightenment during his/her own life. Their teaching is also closely related to the so called Lotus Sutra (you can see stylized representations of the lotus on many places around the temple).

What I liked most about the temple (apart from the nice garden) was the clean, white lines of its architecture.

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Here are the rest of the pictures:

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Just one last image from the edge of the roof of the temple (I like the shape and shadows in it):

To be honest – this was a warming post. The real canopy of shapes and colors was a little bit further the road (where the rest of the complex was situated). I will need a day or two more to sort out all the photos from there. I am starting to have a feeling though that I am living in one of the most rich of cultural heritage places in Japan and I never even suspected this before I joined the Japanese blog-shpere. I wander what will happen if one day I start to thoroughly explore and the adjacent to Nada-ku wards :)

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The easiest way to reach is Hankyu railway line (Rokko station) – the station is literally next to the shrine. Alternatively you can take JR (Rokkomichi station) but you will have to walk 10-15 minutes toward the mountain (the only advantage of this approach is that you will enter the shrine from the main entrance (not from behind as it is the case with Hankyu Rokko station)).

In case you are interested in history – the shrine was established in 1026 during the reign of Emperor Goichi. Later Taira Kiyomori (a powerful general from Heian period) relocated at the same places another Hachiman shrine (the famous Iwashimizu Hachiman-gu Shrine)  from Kyoto.

First – the dragon from the water spring (I think I am getting obsessed with them but they are really beautiful):

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Here is the haiden (oratory) of the shrine (notice the red vortexes on the paper lanterns – the symbols of Hachiman the God of War and protector of Japan):

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A glimpse of Rokko Hachimangu’s honden – the real dwelling of the kami  in Shinto shrine (no mortals are allowed there):

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There is a small Inari shrine deeper in the forest. To reach it you must pass by trees like this:

And the Inari shrine itself with the guardian foxes and bakus (the elehpant like creatures eating dreams and nightmares):

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Usually you have small shisas protecting the Inari shrine together with the foxes but here they were missing. You can find them though on the roof of the entrance of the shrine (the haiden) (the shisas were really small – all the pictures below are taken with optical zoom 16 to 20):

[View with PicLens]

I am not sure if it is a rule but it seems that if you have guardian foxes in the Inari shrine you can have only baku or shisa additionally as protective spirits. But if the foxes are missing – than you need both shisa and baku to protect the small shrines.

I would like to finish this post with a picture of a metal lantern form the shrine. It is thanks to the vortex on this lantern that I realized that I was in yet another – god of the war Shinto shrine (it is really nice when you start to be able to “read” at least some of the Shinto signs (and kanji)).

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The shrine is located in Nada-Ku, Kobe and the closest station to it is Oishi (Hanshin railway). If you are coming from Sannomiya you just have to walk a hundred or so meters back next to the railway (on the side of the sea) and you will see it.

The shrine is dedicated to Hachiman – the god of war (mainly) and protector of Japan. I learned that this the second most common type of Shinto shrine in Japan (in Nada-ku may be the most common one). You can recognize them easily by the spiral element/logo (also used by many samurai clans):

By the way the above picture is from Rokko Hachimanguu – another beautiful Shinto shrine in Nada-ku (I will post pictures from it in few days)

I would like to start with the water dragon as a first picture from Funadera Hachimanguu:

Just two more pictures of the dragon (notice the still green bamboo – the old one are burned in the new year fire):

[View with PicLens]

The temple itself (notice the Hachiman’s spirals or vortexes on the curtains):

[View with PicLens]

The real surprise though was the little Inari shrine behind the main temple:

You can see such small shrines in almost every Shinto shrine but this one was particular because of the saturated blue colored animals part of the decoration (one of the animals resembled shisa and the other one an elephant).

Here is a close view of the shisa (a protective spirit with head of lion and body of dog – very popular in Okinawa)

And here is a close view of the elephant which turned out to be baku – a creature capable of eating nightmares!!!

I do not think that in such company kitsune (or fox – the Inari messenger) should worry about anything:)

Just one more photo of the torii leading toward the Inari shrine:

As I like everything local in Japan I would like to finish this post with two photos from the neighborhood of  Funadera Hachimanguu Shrine (it is really as local as it can get):):

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The next post will be about Rokko Hachimanguu – yet another god of the war Nada-ku Shinto shrine.

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First – the pink(u) one:

And the white one:

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First – this is a view toward the Zoo from the Tennoji Koen (the picture was taken just in front of the Osaka Art museum – the second picture):

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The main entrance (I think the white bear on the photo is kind of celebrity in the Zoo):

We are already inside the zoo:

Actually the Zoo is situated on both sites of this road leading toward/from the Osaka Art Museum. As to the family part of the Tennoji Zoo the Disney composition sums a good part of it (colorful – isn’t it?:)):

Now a short pause to present you some of the Zoo inhabitants (the chimpanzees were particularly interesting – non stop arguing for something and quite noisy).

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Of course you cannot have a real Japanese Zoo without Anpanman and all of the rest of the heroes (the white bear from the entrance was also here – it definitely must be one of the Zoo’s main mascots):

[View with PicLens]

Apparently the Tennoji Zoo is famous for its artificial savanna. The idea is that the animals are situated in such a way that it looks like they are in their natural habitat and there are no barriers between them. When we reached the savanna part it was too late (almost 16:30) so we had to hurry but still here are a few photos from it (I think they succeeded with the imitation of savanna quite well but you decide on your own):

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Here is another part of the Zoo – the area around the elephants. It looks more like a jungle (than a Savanna) to me so I grouped the photos separately:

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Now this is an interesting one (you may want to click on the image to enlarge it):

I really had to touch this thing to confirm that it is not real (it was from something like concrete). The Tennoji Zoo people definitely like to craft the details!

And again – if you have any doubts you are in a Japanese Zoo – you will be reminded :) :

At 5:00 p.m. everything is over and you must go (usually toward Tennoji station unless you are Osaka-jin). But we’ll be back that’s more than sure – still too much left to bee seen from both Tennoji Park and Zoo.

Just one last photo for goodbye (taken from the road above the Zoo):

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I always thought it must be a boring one because it is relatively small (only 103 meters) and it is all gray (compare it with the red and white Tokyo tower). What I discovered though is that Tsutenkaku has its own charm especially if you look at it from the artificial savanna of Tennoji Zoo. Actually it was looking like the last building standing in a post-apocalyptic world (semi-submerged in the jungle):

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It reminded me also of  “Time Machine” of Herbert Wells – the giant towers of the far, far future. Eloi or Morlocks are hiding in this one? :) We shall learn if the zoom we use:

Not quite there yet. But it is really difficult to clearly see through the canopy of the forest:

Finally! It looks like there are humans after all (even though the Eloi or Morlocks theory was way more interesting). Just one final zoom to be absolutely sure:

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Yes, definitely humans and it looks like they are staring down at us. The big Hitachi commercial also brings us back to the Nihon world.

And just one final photo (my favorite of this series) – the branches touch the tower (may be better for a sleeping beauty theme):

I must confess though that this post was a warm up for the Tennoji Zoo one (as I mentioned all the pictures were taken from there). The point is that the photos are so many and the themes within them so different that it will be a challenge to sort them in a single coherent story. But this is after all our life in Japan – variety to its extreme (and a lot, a lot of Udon):)!

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