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夫婦恵比須
Even though this ema says it is from the Meotoebisu Jinja (夫婦恵比須神社), I’m pretty sure it was hanging at Kushida Jinja. Maybe the one is a sub-shrine of the other? This ema is sure to provide the wisher with some big fish satisfaction in their business (or at least that’s the literal meaning of some of what is written thereon).
Shofukuji palm trees
Fukuoka, Japan
Japanese maples and pines are common at Buddhist temples in Japan, but this may have been the first palm trees I encountered. Rain began falling, and this was my place of refuge for a few minutes.
Fukuoka hawk statue
The inscription under this statue says something about a hawk which rode on a ship in 1827 for 90 days before landing in Fukuoka. I’m not sure what the 1795-1877 signifies. In any event, the local baseball team in Fukuoka are the Hawks so maybe this story had something to do with their name.
The building in the background on the left is the Hilton Fukuoka Sea Hawk Hotel.
Giant ema pavilion (絵馬堂) @ Dazaifu Tenmangu Shrine (太宰府天満宮)
My retired history professor guide who took me to Dazaifu to check out Tenmangu pointed to the ceiling of this pavilion on the grounds and asked me if I knew what these items were. I did not. He then educated me on the history of the ema that are so common at shrines in Japan.
Currently, there are little wooden plaques (ema) that can be purchased for a few hundred yen to write your wishes on. Long ago, you could make a really large ema and pay a shrine to have your ema hung there. These giant ema at Tenmangu are hundreds of years old and still going strong. The owners, long since dead, have really gotten their money’s worth.
Tochoji pagoda (Fukuoka, Japan)
According to wiki, Tochoji is most famous for having the largest statue of a seated Buddha in Japan. However, the one in Kamakura is several meters taller. Maybe they meant the largest wood statue of the Buddha. In any event, there is more to see at Tochoji, including the pagoda, pictured above, and the paintings of hell.
Shofukuji kittens
Two nights ago I watched Tampopo (タンポポ) for the first time. If you haven’t seen this flick, you should. Although mostly about ramen, it also is about eating in all forms. So when today’s photo showed up as my desktop image of the day it felt appropriate to link the two. Although you can only see parts of two of them, there were actually about five kittens enjoying breakfast via mama cat on this morning.