JapanDave.com » Shrine/temple

★ Bless me, Buddha

JapanDave — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 04:54:47 +0000

A look up at the altar of Mikawa Betsuin, a temple I’ve talked about before. The altars of these temples often aren’t as fancy as this one.

I have posted a photo of this altar before (→here). I initially was processing this photo the same as that one, but then I decided to take it in a different direction. I opened Nik Silver Efex Pro to see how it would look in monochrome. A somewhat higher contrast and sepia toning fit the image well.

The above post was republished from JapanDave.com, home of the most beautiful daily photos of Japan on the Internet. See the original post: Bless me, Buddha

★ Maples and Lantern

JapanDave — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 14:04:33 +0000

Many people process their photos in order. That is, last week’s shoot, yesterday’s shoot, today’s shoot—as the take them, basically. I do it a little differently. I long ago adopted Trey Ratcliff’s processing method of randomly picking images from past shoots to edit, rather than editing shoots in any linear fashion. It always kind of made sense to me.. that way I don’t bore people by posting all my x photos at once, nor do I bore myself by processing them all at once.

Enough of that. Despite predictions otherwise, the Japanese maples were lovely this year. I trekked up to a small hill side temple for this shot. This stone lantern is hidden behind the temple, somewhat in the woods, in an area I don’t think I’m technically suppose to go. The things we do to get good photos, huh?

The above post was republished from JapanDave.com, home of the most beautiful daily photos of Japan on the Internet. See the original post: Maples and Lantern

★ Water Dragon

JapanDave — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 07:46:58 +0000

It’s the year of the Water Dragon, so another look at the guardian of the temizuya¹ at the shinto shrine.

This shrine is called Ohira Hachimangu² (大平八幡宮), a small shrine right off the old Tōkaidō Highway. I know that info isn’t too terribly important, but it’s my habit to always write down the kanji of shrines and temples I visit and later try to puzzle out the pronunciation. This time it was easy to read, but sometimes the kanji is pretty challenging!

The temizuya (手水舎) is where one is suppose to cleanse one’s self before praying. Traditionally you would bow (to the dragon, I guess), clean your hands, feet, and rinse out your mouth, clean the ladle itself, then bow to the dragon once more before moving on to pray at the shrine. There is even an order to which hand and foot first if you want to get hardcore. These days most people wash their hands, and occasionally rinse their mouths, but I’ve never seen anyone clean their feet!

Look at this poor dragon—he is chained up! A small chain… but a magic one, no doubt, so he can’t get away.

By the way, anyone know if the dragon at the temizuya has a special name? I couldn’t find any in my shinto books.

teh-me-zoo-yah ↩
Oh-he-rah ha-chee-mahn-goo ↩

The above post was republished from JapanDave.com, home of the most beautiful daily photos of Japan on the Internet. See the original post: Water Dragon

★ Waiting for a Wish

JapanDave — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 15:08:36 +0000

Posted in Shrine/temple

I went to hatsumōde today (first shrine trip of the year) to pray for good luck, both for my family and everyone! There were so many disasters this past year… hoping the dragon (this year) is much milder. As usual, it was very busy! But at the same time, I always enjoy this every year. [...]

The above post was republished from JapanDave.com, home of the most beautiful daily photos of Japan on the Internet. See the original post: Waiting for a Wish

★ Six Little Monks

JapanDave — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 07:51:45 +0000

This is one of my favorite shots ever, and wouldn’t you know it… it was taken with the crappy 2MP camera of my iPhone 3G. Not the ideal camera to capture such a scene, but you make do with what you have (or as as Chase Jarvis puts it, “The best camera is the one that’s with you”)

Not monks, rather these are all Jizō, or Ojizō-sama (Kṣitigarbha), one of the most popular bodhisattvas (Buddhist saints) in Japan. Jizō is thought to be the protective deity of many things, including of travel (somewhat similar to St Christopher), and so it is very common to find him along side roads, and it’s also very common to find 6 of them in a row.

Better Buddhist scholars than me can tell us the reason for 6, but to me it calls to mind the folk tale of Kasajizo, a really fun story. Fun enough that I tried my hand at translating it once a few years ago; go read my attempt.

The above post was republished from JapanDave.com, home of the most beautiful daily photos of Japan on the Internet. See the original post: Six Little Monks