For today's Beautiful Japan photo, we are going to look at the main building of one of the more popular shrines in the Okazaki area.
This is the main shrine of Okazaki Tenmangu (岡崎天満宮)†. You might also see it spelled as temmangu, which is a little closer to how it is pronounced but is not as common. The shrine is dedicated to Sugawara no Michizane, a scholar, poet, and politician in the Heian Period. I also often see his name misspelled Michizune, so watch out for that.
There are many Tenmangu shrines around Japan. They worship the kami Tenjin, who is the god of scholarship. I’m not sure which came first, Tenjin or Sugawara no Michizane, but they are thought of as the same person at these shrines. Michizane loved ume trees (Japanese plum) and so many tenmangu shrines have lots of plum trees around them. Plum blossoms were much preferred to cherry blossoms during the Heian Period, so his love of them probably wasn’t that uncommon.
Okazaki Tenmangu Shrine claims to have over 1000 different plum trees on their grounds. I didn’t count, but they do have a lot!
The huge rope you see in the photo is called a shimenawa. It is used to mark holy places or objects. These ropes are common at all shrines and temples, so there is a good chance you have seen them before in other photos of Japan. The paper hanging from the shimenawa is called shide and is thought to repel evil. Because as we all know, evil hates folded paper.
If you have any comments or questions about things you see in the photo or about Tenmangu shrines in general, let me know in the comments.
Footnotes:
†: gu means shrine, so we could translate it as Okazaki Tenman Shrine. In practice, translators tend to keep the gu on the end, but add shrine anyway, thus Okazaki Tenmangu Shrine. A little strange that we are basically saying "shrine shrine", but it is common in Japan, so there you go.
Don't miss the other great photos in the Beautiful Japan photo series!
#1 - The Shogun's Keep
#2 - Gate to the Shogun's Shrine
#3 - The Golden Torii
#4 - Across the Universe
#5 - To Walk With You Under the Cherry Blossoms
#6 - I Once Knew This Place
Thank you for reading. :)
If you enjoyed this post, please like and resteem. Also be sure to follow me to see more from Japan everyday.
I post one photo everyday, as well as some misc posts such as haiku, videos, more Japanese history, and so on. Let me know if there is anything about Japan you would like to know more about or would like to see.
David LaSpina is an American photographer lost in Japan, trying to capture the beauty of this country one photo at a time.