Hiroshima Optional Tours » hot

Art in SAKAGURA being held

hot — Fri, 31 Jan 2014 02:50:46 +0000

The annual ART IN SAKAGURA is now being held in the sake district in Saijo, Higashihiroshima. This celebrates the third time. Installations displayed in the sake breweries are what I enjoy the most. Always fun to see collaborative works between artwork and surroundings. The SAKAGURA brewery is a special setting for artworks.

Oyamazumi Shrine has a small rice paddy

hot — Mon, 05 Nov 2012 01:49:33 +0000

Rice paddy on the premises of Oyamazumi Jinja

The Oyamazumi Jinja Shinto shrine in Omishima island is some thirty minutes’ pedaling away from the Tatara Grand Bridge connecting Omishima and Ikuchijima. This shrine has a small patch of rice field. The rice is already harvested as you can see. In front of the hall in the photo is held an unusual and humorous ritual biannually in spring and fall: Sumo bouts are fought between a human and a numen of rice grain. They compete three times and always the spirit wins. This is like a pre-celebration of good harvest.

The Records of Ancient Matters (Kojiki), a Japanese mythological history book, does not specify the gender of Oyamazumi deity but another old book writes the deity is female but another says male. Whoever he or she is, the deity has been revered by all, including commoners, warriors, and nobles.

posted by jasmine

To the Kurushima Strait Grand Bridge

hot — Sun, 04 Nov 2012 14:12:34 +0000

Follow the blue line while pedaling

Here we go, coming closer to the last bridge to Imabari, Ehime, Shikoku. The grandest of all the shimanami bridges, completed in 1999, is about four kilometers long. Precisely speaking, three suspension bridges are combined to make the whole Kurushima strait grand bridge, the first of its kind in the world. See the six towers and marvel the slender girder. Fantastic bridge, melting into the surroundings.

posted by jasmine