roarfish

Drying kaki

Persimmon trees, or 'kaki' as they are called here, are a feature of the autumn landscape anywhere in Japan, and nowhere more so than in Saga, around where I live. They are a beautiful sight in autumn, after the red-tinged leaves have fallen, leaving the bright orange fruit standing out against the twisted, black branches.

There are two major types of kaki fruit; a flat, bulbous one that is good for eating fresh, and a smaller, rounder variety, pointed at the bottom. This rounder fruit is too astringent to eat fresh, and is mainly used for drying.

Tea 'ceremony'

Last Friday (November 25th) , at Daikoozenji Temple in Saga Prefecture, near Tosu, I had the perfect opportunity to enjoy a cup of Omatcha (green tea) and the usual sweet that accompanies it. It was very relaxing to sit under the eaves of the tea house, eat the sweet, in this case a beautiful, whole chestnut cooked in syrup, and then slowly drink the very refreshing tea, while gazing restfully out into the autumn garden that is a feature of this temple.

Omatcha (green tea) and accompanying sweet, served on a fresh autumn leaf.

When I first came to Japan to live, I often saw these tea houses when visiting such tourist attractions as the Golden Pavilion in Kyoto, or the Meiji Shrine in Tokyo. A handful of people would be sitting inside on soft Tatami mats, or outside on cushions, at bright red cloth covered low tables.

Casting light?

Just near Kashima city in Saga Prefecture, Japan, there is a very beautiful, very large shrine complex named Yutoku. It is probably the biggest Inari Shinto shrine in Saga, and very important. In fact, one of the three major Inari shrines in Japan. About one and a half kilometres from Yutoku is Fumyooji, a very old Buddhist temple of the Ohbaku sect, built around 1670. It nestles well hidden in a large, natural forest garden.The garden is also the site for a set of elaborate grave markers indicating the buried remains of the Nabeshima family, leaders of the original local han (old administrative region). The importance of this family, and their nearby graves, is probably the reason for the continued existence of this temple.
Yutoku Inari shrine in Saga Prefecture. One of the three major Inari Shrines in Japan (the guardians of Inari shrines are foxes).

Priestesses clean the shrine surrounds in readiness for the lantern festival.

In November every year the monks attached to the temple, the priests of Yutoku shrine and the local people organise a bamboo lantern festival. This year I was fortunate enough to see it. I would say it was one of the most beautiful things that I have seen in Japan, or any other places that I have been. It rendered me quite speechless, and prompted many thoughts and possible explanations about contemporary Japanese culture, which I shall raise again later.