Showing posts with label abandoned. Show all posts
Showing posts with label abandoned. Show all posts

Sunday, August 26, 2012

Abandoned Mikoshi


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Mikoshi are sacred palanquins or portable shrines used for transporting kami most often seen during matsuris when the kami are paraded around the local community once a year.

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It is believed their origin lies in when the great kami Hachiman was carried by palanquin from Usa in Kyushu to Todaiji in Nara in the middle of the eighth century.

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When not being used the Mikoshi are normally kept in a special storeroom though it is not uncommon for them to be put on display at New Year when many visitors come to the shrine.

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In the heavily depopulated rural areas of Japan many shrines are now virtually unused and the mikoshi are no longer used. These photos were taken in a small shrine in the mountains of yamaguchi Prefecture.

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Friday, January 16, 2009

Hotel Eden

yuda122

This abandoned " Rabu Hoteru", love hotel, is on Route 9 just outside Yamaguchi City. For anyone who doesn't know about love hotels I recommend a brand new book by Ed Jacob, Love Hotels: An inside look at Japan's sexual playground. At $10 to download a pdf it's certainly affordable.

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Obviously, for someone at least, "Eden" is located in the Mediterranean (or a Mexican shanty town).

In my area all the love hotels are located outside of the towns, and while a few are painted a bright color to make them visible, many are simple, innocuous, drab places composed of individual "cabins" more akin to motels. There are none of the outrageous architectural palaces that one sees in the cities.

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Like most Japanese construction, they are cheaply built, and combined with japan's humidty and precipitation it doesn't take long for buildings to become derelict and decompose.

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The sign tells that the room is temporarily unavailable due to it being cleaned and prepared for the next customers.

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Takahirayama Shrine, Miyoshi

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When I go walking and exploring I usually follow a route that takes me from shrine to shrine. Sometimes, in remote areas, the maps are outdated and the shrines no longer exist. This shrine is close to the center of Miyoshi, and was abandoned. The torii had been taken down, the shintai removed from the hondens, but the buildings were still intact, though boarded up.

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I checked on Google maps last night, and now these structures have been razed. I haven't been able to find out why. Sometimes shrines are moved to make way for construction of roads, tunnels, etc but this was not the case here. It was a fairly substantial shrine too, with several secondary shrines in the grounds.

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