Alongside many other visitors, we took a train to a very popular shrine outside Fukuoka and once the capital of Kyushu.
Everyone buys and eats umegaemochi, a pounded rice cake filled with sweet bean paste and decorated with a plum-flower motif in honour of Tenjin, the person to whom the shrine is dedicated:
Tenjin was a brilliant scholar who died in Dazaifu in 903 AD. There’s a long story about how he was a brilliant child and popular governor who was plotted against and sent to Dazaifu to be kept under armed guard until he died two years later. Soon afterwards, a succession of national disasters was attributed to his restless spirit so the shrine (the first of an estimated 12,000 dedicated to him) was founded to pray for his repose.
The shrine itself is being renovated so a temporary one is currently being used which seemed rather beautiful to us with its grass roof:
Today is a special day- shichi-go-san (or three-five-seven) when parents take their three, five and seven-year olds to their local Shinto shrine to pray for their children’s well-being. The children wear traditional dress – hence the outfits I posted last week – although it’s on November 15th, it can happen before or after that date. The parents dress up and everyone takes a lot of photos before and after the service held by the Shinto priest.
Apparently, its gendered: boys of three and seven and girls of five, but they all look stunning anyway:
And the place was full of exquisite creatures other than children:
A lot of stroking of cows/bulls was going on (very Indian we thought):
And there was a chrysanthemum festival on top of all this excitement:
To top it off, we spent a couple of hours at the Kyushu National Museum, close to the shrine, which focuses on Japan’s history of trade with other Asian countries. There were some quite extraordinary early (for Japan – ie 3000-1500 BCE) figures which seemed to us to prefigure some of the images we’ve seen over the last two weeks:
The building was really stunning but impossible to capture. Nevertheless, it furnished us with yet another wonderful and puzzling sign:
Sounds like you managed to fit a huge amount into one day – but then you always do! The roof of the shrine is amazing – the sloping angle is a brilliant idea. Don’t know how they manage to get trees of that size to grow in such a shallow growing medium.
It was a very stylish temporary shrine and I too puzzled at the trees growing on top – it didn’t seem quite the moment to go peering about around the back armed with google translate, not with all those very smartly dressed families and their gorgeous children milling about…
It is really extraordinary that the Japanese “Assistance Dogs” read, allowing them to know just where to go to the bathroom. And do they have special bidet style, treat-dispensing toilets as well?
Hello, dear Kenny, how lovely to hear from you! And yes, how clever of the dogs to work it all out ( to be quite honest, there are always options and buttons for options in the toilet that I continue to struggle with – perhaps I need an Assistance Dog). The thing I like most about the sign is the use of one of the bidet sign to represent a dog – clever, a bit baffling, possibly funny?
So the dog poo question is finally answered. The children’s elaborate and gorgeously colourful outfits (and hairdos) are especially striking against the adults’ general sombre-suitedness – like chrysanthemums themselves.
Not sure I’d go quite as far as that, Tara – too many unanswered questions.. and yes, the children’s costumes were spectacular and most parents and grandparents were clearly wearing their Sunday best, shrine visiting clothes, looking very elegant.
I love the kids’ outfits! Just great! And what fid that cake actually taste like? Finally, the assistance dogs’ toilet?!? One of the smaller wonders of the world?!
There were some great shops where you could select a range of gorgeous outfits for your daughter or son. M tells me the cake was nice or rather ‘ what you’d expect’ (which is a tad more ambiguous). I have no words to express my appreciation of an Assistance Dogs Toilet…
The green outfit is particularly spectacular!
It is indeed! And the elegant mother in black and shades of grey..
Gorgeous green roof! Beautiful
Stories. Nice photo of Miriam and others
Thank you, Elizabeth – I persuaded M to include a picture of herself otherwise she is just the blog composer!
Good to have a picture at last of Miriam and enjoying herself! Yes I was curious how they achieved trees growing on the roof too. I enjoyed seeing the families.
Sadly I have no pictures of M eating soba noodles – another joyful moment for her! No suggestions about the trees and I too really liked seeing the families so smart and proud of their children