A little beyond Nikkō in Tochigi Prefecture is the Lake Chūzenji (中禅寺湖) area with white birch trees and snow on the nearby peaks, although it was warm at 1,500 meters. In my 45 or so years here, I had only gone a little north of Tōkyō to Tsukuba to teach a graduate school class.

There were quite a few monkeys around, though I'm not sure which one saw no evil. There were signs in Japanese about bears, usually docile to humans, but not always. We didn't see any on lonely paths with few tourists. Frankly, you need wheels to see much of these great sights, although I saw Western guys waiting for buses, which run infrequently in the countryside of Japan. Also interesting was an onsen (hot springs) village in the mountains, with a mild sulfur smell and colors welling up, and hot water puddles.

Open access publications on Japan: https://japanned.hcommons.org/japanology

#Japan #nature #mountains #Nikko #Chuzenji #Tochigi #Buddhism #Buddhist #temple #sightseeing #travel #photography #photos

Many responses to my post with photos of the Shintō-Buddhist hybrid shrine Nikkō Tōshō-gū (日光東照宮) dedicated to the first Shōgun Tokugawa Ieyasu at permalink https://hcommons.social/@SteveMcCarty/116460012855652237 included a question from @gclef
> Interesting, thanks for sharing that! Noted the three monkeys motif... is there a Japanese story/parable about them? Familiar with the western version, just wondering about cultural variations.

The three monkeys originated in the 17th Century with a Japanese pun based on an ancient Confucian saying, and the photo I showed was its most prominent illustration. It entered the West in the 19th Century and took on more of a cynical meaning than the austere Asian version, although Japanese has a common expression for pretending not to see something dicey.

Here are more photos of the exceptionally ornate Nikkō Tōshō-gū.

Publications as a Professor in Japan: https://japanned.hcommons.org

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Returned home to Ōsaka from the best ever trip to the Tōkyō region, staying with our sons, meeting friends, and going to beautiful places. Let's start with Nikkō Tōshō-gū (日光東照宮), a shrine dedicated to the first Shōgun Tokugawa Ieyasu who united Japanese civilization four centuries ago. It's unusually gorgeous and ornate by traditional Japanese aesthetic standards, reflecting warlord grandiosity, but it still blends nicely with the mountain woods. The first photo shows what I noticed first as a researcher, the syncretism of Buddhism with indigenous Shintō. One especially famous feature is the three monkeys who bespeak 'see no evil, hear no evil, and speak no evil.' That last one is a trouble spot when you speak two languages 😆.

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Mt. Ikoma (生駒山) looms over Ōsaka, and there is a cable car to the summit. Since the Edo Period, Hōzanji (Treasure Mountain Temple) has been a unique pilgrimage destination devoted to a Japanese version of the Hindu elephant god Ganesh. The mountaintop has a sheer cliff where ascetic practices evidently took place. Staff told me in Japanese that the visible statue is Miroku (Maitreya in Sanskrit, the Future Buddha), placed up there 350 years ago, no doubt with difficulty. Seeing statues of Kūkai amid the syncretism (mixing) of Buddhism, Shintō, Hinduism, and folk religion like the Seven Lucky Gods, and the sacred mountain, I guessed correctly that it was a Shingon sect temple. The university where I taught before retirement, near Ōsaka Castle, although Christian, starts its college song with an ode to Mt. Ikoma, harking back to prehistoric mountain worship.

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The cherry blossom viewing season is at its peak in Arashiyama (嵐山), the area of Kyōto with preserved nature and tradition. Sakura, the bamboo forest, the river and Moon-Crossing Bridge, the first early-blossoming azaleas, and the little-known lookout for those who know and hike up that far, are all here for your viewing pleasure.

Open access publications on Japan: https://japanned.hcommons.org/japanology

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Select spots in north-central Kyōto: the Buddhist temple Chōtokuji (長得寺) with its unusual okame zakura (オカメ桜) cherry blossoms, the World Heritage Shintō shrine Shimogamo Jinja (下賀茂神社) with lingering plum blossoms, and the Kyōto Imperial Palace (京都大宮御所) with its spectacular early-blossoming weeping or hanging sakura (枝垂れ桜) cherry blossoms. Several varieties of sakura at different stages converge for a brief moment as spring begins.

Open access publications on Japan: https://japanned.hcommons.org/japanology

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There's a Buddhist temple Seiryō-ji (清凉寺) in Arashiyama, Kyōto, that is free to walk through and fairly close to other attractions and JR Saga-Arashiyama Station. It has an elegant pagoda, with flowering plum and early-blossoming cherry trees, a guardian deity of the gate that is a designated Important Cultural Property, a lantern and an early-blossoming kawazu-zakura (河津桜) cherry tree in its late stages with leaves coming out. The last photo is a close up of magnolia blossoms.

Publications and projects as a Professor in Japan: https://japanned.hcommons.org

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Hiked up to a hilltop kofun (古墳) tumulus of a regional leader from around 1,400 years ago in Kyōto. First photo: it has a bird's eye view of the World Heritage temple Ninna-ji (仁和寺). Second photo: Under the hilltop is a chamber with thick stone walls, sealed by a boulder. Third photo: Details about the burial chamber and some precious objects from the Kofun Period found there. Fourth photo: this shows how high I climbed up, and the view to the south on such a clear day is across Kyōto City to Ōsaka Prefecture where I live.

Open access publications on Japan: https://japanned.hcommons.org/japanology

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Buddhist temples and Shintō shrines in Japan double as strolling parks for local people and visitors. When our son the IT executive and innovator comes from Tōkyō, I take him to places like this shrine in nearby Kyōto Prefecture. See the captions for more details.

Publications and projects as a Professor in Japan: https://japanned.hcommons.org

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