Shitennji in Osaka
The roof spines of temples and castles in Japan usually end with wing like structures.
At first I thought these were Egyptian influenced designs, but later we were informed that these are meant to symbolise fish tails which is a charm against fire. Temples and castles in Japan are often built mainly in wood.
A bronze dragon guardian, his head is shiny from all the rubbing he gets from visitors :)
The roof tiles of various temples in Japan usually end with different flowers. For Shitennoji it seems to be the lotus. The ends of the wood beams are also decorated extravagantly.
Lanterns offered to the temple by devotees hung in the walkways. What a beautiful sight it would be to see them all alight at night.
The Shitennoji Pagoda - 5 levels. Each floor is filled with small and large bronze Buddha statues offered to the temple by devotees.
One of the gates into the Prince's Chamber - the sign apparently translates to "the cat's door to Prince's Chamber"....a huge door for the cat... @_@
The pagoda is still visible from further away. The nine rings symbolise royalty and high status of buddhism.
The gravel zen garden is raked each morning by the temple's monks, unfortunately I was not able to capture its full beauty on the day.
Great shots Selene! It's so interesting how we went to the same place and captured such different things. :)
ReplyDeleteWow Selene, these look like photos out of a brochure!
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