Wako-ji Buddhist Temple and pomegranates in Osaka, Japan photographs by Sydney Solis. The haibun Pomegranates has been published in MacQueen’s McQuinterly Arts and Literary Journal. The haibun was inspired by this place and its pomegranates.
Ritual and Religion
Nagasaki Kunchi 長崎くんち Dragon Dance Ja-Odori
Nagasaki Kunchi 長崎くんち Dragon Dance Ja-Odori rehearsal.
熊野古道 Kumano Kodō: Nachi Taisha Shinto Shrine and 青岸渡寺 Seiganto-ji Buddhist Temple
熊野古道 Kumano Kodō: Nachi Taisha Shinto Shrine and 青岸渡寺 Seiganto-ji Buddhist Temple
The Magic and Beauty of 鏡 Mirrors in Shinto Shrines
Mirrors 鏡, kagami, have a magical element to them in Japan. You see them everywhere at Shinto as well as Buddhist Shrines.
熊野古道 Kumano Kodō: The Sacred Tree at Nachi Taisha Grand Shrine with Haiku 俳句 – Haibun
An 850-year-old Goshinboku, sacred camphor tree, at Nachi Taisha Grand Shrine, Wakayama Prefecture, Japan greets pilgrims walking the Kumano Kodo.
熊野古道 Kumano Kodō – Hayatama Taisha 熊野速玉大社 in Photographs
Sensei and I continue our pilgrimage on the Kumano Kodō and arrive at Kumano Hatayama Taisha Shinto Shrine in Shingu, Japan.
Photograph: Modern and Zen – Umeda Station, Osaka
Photograph of Zen priest at Umeda Station by Sydney Solis.
熊野古道, Kumano Kodō: Oyunohara 大斎原
The Oyunohara (大斎原) Otorii Gate, the largest of the Kumano Kodo sanzan. Before 1889, 熊野古道, Kumano Kodō pilgrims arriving at Kumano Hongu Taisha Shrine visited its original site of Oyunohara 大斎原, an island located at the fork of the Iwata River and the Otonashi River in Tanabe, Wakayama. Instead of Misogi, 禊 a Japanese Shinto practice of … Continue reading 熊野古道, Kumano Kodō: Oyunohara 大斎原
Walking the Kumano Kodō 熊野古道- Kumano Hongū Taisha 熊野本宮大社-
Walking the Kumano Kodo beings at 熊野本宮大社, Kumano Hongū Taisha. It serves as the head shrine of more than 3,000 Kumano shrines across Japan and is part of the san-zen - three famous shrines that cover the route. Hongu Taisha enshrines its own deity and the deities of the other two Kumano shrines, Hayatama Taisha, Nachi Taisha, as well asthe sun goddess Amaterasu.
八咫烏 Yatagarasu – The Three-Legged Crow of Japanese Mythology – With Photos and Haiku
The divine messenger of the sun, the crow, is exemplified in Yatagarasu, the three-legged crow in Japanese mythology. With photos and haiku by Sydney Solis.
Sydney In Osaka 