Author: John D. (Page 115 of 202)

Shinto and anime

March 7, 2014 / John D.

The inclusion of Shinto elements in manga and anime has been a notable feature of popular culture in contemporary Japan. The following is taken from a much longer posting by Jonathan Tappan, a software developer, which covers much of the general history and customs of Shinto in remarkably informed manner. (For the full article, see here.)

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Publicity shot for 'My Neighbour Totoro" (1989)

Religious sites and artifacts appear constantly [in anime]. Clerical characters such as monks and mikos are regularly included in the cast. (Imagine if a high percentage of American TV shows included a nun with supernatural powers.) Ordinary characters routinely pause to engage in some sort of religious observance.

Sometimes the religious elements aren’t obvious to outsiders. Most Americans who watch My Neighbor Totoro would never think of it as a religious movie, yet it is loaded with Shinto symbolism (and to a lesser extent, Buddhist symbolism.) Shinto in particular is so different from what Americans think of as a religion that references to it are sometimes overlooked.

Even those Japanese who do not think of Shinto as literally true tend to think of it as a key part of their national and cultural identity. One reason that anime characters are so often shown visiting or praying at a Shinto shrine is that this is an easy way to establish that they are Japanese and proud of it, without invoking nationalistic symbolism that might be seen as militaristic and controversial.

Even secular symbols of the nation often show a Shinto influence. The Japanese flag for example features a red disk, representing the sun goddess Amaterasu, on a white field representing purity.

Kamichuu - nickname for a possessed schoolgirl made up of the words 'kami' and 'chuu' as in chuugakou or middle high school.

THE SHINTO WORLDVIEW
Kami
Shinto is a type of “animism”, the belief that all things in nature have unique spirits (anima in Latin, kami in Japanese). In fact it is broader than that, since even man-made objects are sometimes though of as having kami. The popular anime Kamichuu!, which presents Shinto beliefs in a whimsical but respectful manner, even shows us kami for obsolete video disc formats. The Kanda Shrine in Akihabara offers ceremonies to purify cell phones, which implies that they must have kami of their own.

Though any spirit might be considered a kami, the word is usually reserved for the very pure spirits that have shrines dedicated to them. Lesser spirits, which may be mischievous or malevolent, are usually referred to with terms like youkai, bakemono, or yuurei (ghosts).

Purity
The concept of purity is central to Shinto. Purity is thought to promote happiness and good fortune, while impurity (kegare) leads to the opposite.

Purity and impurity are not quite the same as good and evil. One might support a bad cause with a pure heart; indeed this would be more admirable that halfheartedly supporting a good cause.

In order to promote purity one should live a simple life in harmony with nature, honor traditions and one’s family, maintain physical cleanliness, and avoid contact with impure people and things. Since this is not always practical, much of Shinto practice is devoted to purification rituals.

The most common purification rituals involve water. This may be as simple as a shopkeeper splashing water outside the entrance of her shop to keep out impure spirits. Anime often shows images of a more extreme practice in which white-clad worshipers stand praying under a mountain waterfall.

In principle any kind of bathing might be considered a purification ritual, which helps explain the culture’s obsession with cleanliness and is one of the main reasons why anime characters are so often shown taking baths.

Other techniques include throwing salt at an impure spirit, or chanting prayers while waving an oonusa (a wand with paper streamers) at the thing to be purified.

Washinomiya Shrine and Lucky Star anime figurines {image by Hideki)

Shrines
At the Washinomiya shrine, which was used as the model for the shrine in Lucky Star,hordes of crazed otaku have hung thousands of ema expressing their devotion to the characters, and in some cases their desire to marry them. This is a very ancient and important shrine and some people have complained that these are not suitable kami for people to be worshiping there, but the shrine has attempted to accommodate the fans by including the characters in its annual festival.

Shrines also sell omikuji or paper fortunes. These are folded strips of paper that say things like “good fortune”, “bad fortune”, “medium fortune”, “very bad fortune”, etc. If you get a good one you should take it home with you. If you get a bad one you are supposed to tie it to a tree or wire rack at the shrine for the kami to take care of. (The kami, being a very pure spirit, should have lots of good fortune to share.)

To deal with common life problems, shrines sell a variety of omamori or protective amulets. Typical omamori provide for things like safe childbirth, safe driving, finding a good spouse, good health, business success or passing one’s school exams.

I can’t leave the subject of shrines without mentioning the mikos or shrine maidens who are often seen at busy shrines selling charms or fortunes or giving directions to visitors. These are among the most popular character types in manga and anime, beloved as embodiments of purity and credited with supernatural powers for fighting evil.

“Miko” is sometimes translated as “priestess”, but this is misleading. A miko is an unmarried young woman who volunteers or works part-time at the shrine. Mikos perform routine non-spiritual tasks and also assist priests in performing rituals. Sometimes mikos perform a kagura, or ceremonial dance.

In past eras the miko had a more central role in the religion. The kagura was used for divination; the dancing miko would go into a trance, be possessed by a spirit and make oracular pronouncements (as shown in Akira Kurosawa’s classic film Rashomon). This is rarely done today.

At shrines in recent years it's increasingly common to see 'ema' prayer tablets influenced by manga or anime

Miko are often taken up as glamour stars of manga and anime

Shrines 5): Evolution

March 6, 2014 / John D.

This is Part 5 of an ongoing series about different aspects of Japan’s shrines. For the full, unabridged version, please refer to Shinto Shrines by Joseph Cali and John Dougill.

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The raised loghouse style, characteristic of Ise shrine buildings and reflecting the development from early rice stores

Example of a dōgu from Japan's Jomon Age (in the Kokugakuin museum)

Archeological discoveries are constantly challenging scholarly opinion about the earliest forms of Japanese culture. Humanoid figurines (dōgu) from this period point to fertility and or death related rituals, while stone circles point to some form of ritual. For now, it is generally agreed that the worship of kami and associated practices began in the Yayoi period (300 BC to 300 AD).

Though Japan originally had a hunter-gatherer and fishing culture, during the Yayoi period rice cultivation became widespread, and one of the main forms of kami worship was almost certainly bound to protection of the harvest. There is evidence of rituals to call the kami to a particular site from this time.

Generally, areas were chosen relating to water, mountains, or environs that inspired feelings of awe. Places related to the survival of the crop, protection of shipping, and others were also chosen. An area called a himorogi was marked off, perhaps by surrounding it with a rope or covering the ground with white sand or straw mats. The area was considered purified, and within it was placed an object for the kami to enter (yorishiro), usually a branch from a tree or a stone.

Example of a yorishiro for summoning down the kami

The location and consecrated ground were not permanent, but some sites became frequented by worshippers. One such place was Okinoshima, about thirty-five miles off the northern coast of Kyushu on an important shipping route to Korea. Excavations there have yielded objects used as offerings from as early as the fourth century, which show that rituals were carried out in open spaces, on large stones, and in caves.

Wooden construction and rice cultivation developed in tandem, and storehouses for rice were built that became places where the kami of the rice grain was venerated. This style of storehouse construction became one of the first styles of shrine construction called shinmei-zukuri. Indeed, Japan’s most important shrine, Ise Jingu, is constructed in this style.

Another prominent style is the taisha-zukuri, which most likely developed from the homes of the village chiefs who were charged with performing worship rites. (The homes were called miya, a word now used for shrines.) The most famous example of this type is Izumo Taisha.

The taisha style of shrine, here exemplified by Yaegaki Jinja, with a steep corridor leading up to the honden sanctuary on top of which are the characteristic 'chigi' crossbeams.

Doll’s day (Hina matsuri)

March 3, 2014 / John D.

Today is Doll’s Day in Japan, and the stores are full of amazake (sweet sake) and sweets called arare, traditional fare which are consumed along with chirashizushi (fish on a bed of rice etc) in front of the display of family dolls. Some shrines hold events to celebrate the occasion, and Tomisaki Shrine in Katsuura, Chiba Prefecture is particularly worth a visit, as the article below from Japan Today makes clear (photo above from the same source).

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Origins (from Wikipedia)

The custom of displaying dolls began during the Heian period. Formerly, people believed the dolls possessed the power to contain bad spirits. Hinamatsuri traces its origins to an ancient Japanese custom called hina-nagashi lit. “doll floating”), in which straw hina dolls are set afloat on a boat and sent down a river to the sea, supposedly taking troubles or bad spirits with them. The Shimogamo Shrine (part of the Kamo Shrine complex in Kyoto) celebrates the Nagashibina by floating these dolls between the Takano and Kamo Rivers to pray for the safety of children. People have stopped doing this now because of fishermen catching the dolls in their nets. They now send them out to sea, and when the spectators are gone they take the boats out of the water and bring them back to the temple and burn them.

7-tier hina doll set (Wikicommons)

The customary drink for the festival is shirozake, a sake made from fermented rice. A colored hina-arare, bite-sized crackers flavored with sugar or soy sauce depending on the region, and hishimochi, a diamond-shaped colored rice cake, are served. Chirashizushi (sushi rice flavored with sugar, vinegar, topped with raw fish and a variety of ingredients) is often eaten. A salt-based soup called ushiojiru containing clams still in the shell is also served. Clam shells in food are deemed the symbol of a united and peaceful couple, because a pair of clam shells fits perfectly, and no pair but the original pair can do so.

Families generally start to display the dolls in February and take them down immediately after the festival. Superstition says that leaving the dolls past March 4 will result in a late marriage for the daughter.

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Playing with dolls: Explore the traditional trappings of Hina dolls
By Vicki L Beyer Japan Today March 1, 2013

Traditionally in Japan the third day of the third month was celebrated as girls’ day and the fifth day of the fifth month was celebrated as boys’ day. When the decision was made to create a Children’s Day national holiday after World War II, the date of boys’ day was selected. But that doesn’t stop people from observing the girls’ day holiday with its traditional trappings, most notably the Hina dolls. In fact, an alternative name for the girls’ day holiday is Hina Matsuri, or doll festival.

There are a number of theories as to the festival’s origins and the display of dolls representing an emperor and empress and their courtiers is believed to have begun early in the Edo Period (1603-1867). Over the years, the doll sets have become increasingly elaborate, with the grandest collections consisting of an emperor and empress, ladies-in-waiting, other courtiers, musicians with their instruments, dancers and various furnishings, including lamps, chests, food boxes and sometimes even a palanquin. The dolls, usually in Heian Period (794-1195) dress, are arranged on a red felt covered stair-step dais, with the imperial couple at the top and then the courtiers by descending rank.

Emperor and Empress set (Wikicommons)

Part of the tradition is that when a baby girl is born into a family, she is given a set of Hina dolls that are put on display in the family home each year during the festival, usually beginning in the middle of February. In modern Japan, where storage space is limited, some stores that sell Hina dolls offer a special storage package with the sale.

The culmination of the festival is its last day, March 3, when diamond-shaped rice cakes (“hishi-mochi”), a rice malt and sake drink (“shirozake”), and sugar-coated puffed rice (“hina arare”) are consumed.

As one would expect of a festival for girls that is centuries old, the point of the festivities is to instill femininity in young girls. Even the colors of the festival, white, pink, and pastel green, symbolize various feminine virtues.

It is believed that if the dolls are not put away promptly after the festival’s end, it will delay the girl’s marriage. (I never put mine away and got married when I was 30, so it would seem it doesn’t cause too much of a delay.)

In keeping with the marriage theme, one of the popular games of the festival is a form of Concentration that involves matching the paintings inside pairs of clam shells. Since only an original pair of clam shells will fit together properly, such a pair symbolizes the perfect match of marriage.

Display of dolls with accompanying items such as drawers, furniture and carriage (Wikicommons)

While the festival was originally a family celebration, it became a popular grade school activity in the latter half of the 20th century. Recently, the symbols and decorations of the festival have joined the ranks of seasonal decorations in train stations, hotel lobbies, department stores, and other commercial establishments. They’ve even become popular displays at this time of year in Japanese parks and gardens around the world.

In addition to these seemingly ubiquitous Hina doll images, in this season there are a number of formal (and sometimes extensive) collections of Hina dolls featured in special exhibitions. Below are three particularly fine displays to consider visiting. They may even provide an excuse for a weekend getaway.

Tomisaki Shrine (Katsuura, Chiba; through March 3): Chiba’s Katsuura takes its observance of the Hina Matsuri seriously, with several large displays of dolls in various locations around the city. The observance is also traditional, insofar as the dolls are put away immediately after girls’ day. One of the most spectacular displays in Katsuura is at hilltop Tomisaki Shrine, where 60 steps leading to the shrine are covered with red carpet on which more than 1,200 dolls are displayed. Although the size of the display makes it difficult to examine the dolls very closely, it’s still a very impressive collection in a very impressive setting. The display is especially dramatic after dark, when it is specially illuminated.

Tomisaki Shrine display (from Japan Attractions website)

Rice origins

March 3, 2014 / John D.

Shinto is often associated with Japan’s rice culture, and its origins are linked with the introduction of wet rice production from the continent. In this respect research into how, when and where rice cultivation reached Japan is of interest for the spread of the belief systems that went with it. In an article for the Japan Times, Winifred Bird writes below of a site near Fukuoka in Kyushu that may have played a formative part. Unsurprisingly it’s on the northern coast near Hakata Bay, which served as a gateway to the Korean peninsula.

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Back in the late 1970s, the city planners of Karatsu, a fishing community on the northern coast of Kyushu, decided to build a new road. This provided a rare opportunity for local archaeologists. Seizing the chance to burrow with abandon in the densely developed region, they established a dig and began to search for pollen and seeds from ancient plants (among other buried treasures).

One day, they mixed a scoop of soil with water to separate out the pollen, and something unexpected floated to the top: a handful of tiny black discs. It turned out to be carbonized millennia-old rice that would soon lead them to the oldest paddy fields ever discovered in Japan.

Rice is central to many of Shinto's rituals, both as an offering to the kami and as a symbol of vitality

“Reporters were calling around the clock,” recalls Ryuuta Tajima, who was a young researcher at what came to be known as the Nabatake Ruins, and who today directs the Matsurokan Museum built on the site in Saga Prefecture.

Rice — though it came from abroad and was never the staple food for all parts of the country — has long been a symbol of “authentic” Japanese culture and identity. Its origins are entwined with those of religion, government, war and many other facets of contemporary society; the public was captivated by the Nabatake dig not so much because it revealed interesting things about agriculture, but because it revealed their own roots back at the tail end of the Jomon Era, around 2,500 years ago.

The Itazuke ruins in Fukuoka was the site, more than 2,500 years ago, of another village also inhabited by some of Japan’s first rice farmers. Wild rice does not grow in Japan; the tall wetland plant that eventually became the squatter Japonica variety farmers grow today was first domesticated in China 8,000 or more years ago. Over the course of several millennia, the techniques evolved and spread — eventually to the Japanese islands, although the route and timing of their arrival remains controversial.

Kazuo Miyamoto, a professor of archaeology who studies that complex question at Kyushu University in Fukuoka, says immigrant farmers from the Korean Peninsula most likely arrived by boat around the eighth century B.C., making landfall somewhere around present-day Karatsu, and then on the broad plain where Fukuoka is now. They established rice paddies and probably shared their techniques with local hunter-gatherer communities, who already grew some vegetables, grains and beans in dry fields. Population grew, leaders emerged, conflict arose — and Japan was on its way toward “modernity.”

Ancient bones tell the story, Miyamoto says: Around the time rice cultivation began, the people of northern Kyushu grew taller, and their facial structure became flatter, indicating intermarriage with immigrants from the Korean Peninsula. Another hint that rice farming developed elsewhere is the fact that even the earliest sites like Itazuke and Nabatake show signs of advanced techniques, such as highly diversified tools and complex irrigation systems.

Wet rice cultivation continues to be a defining characteristic of Japan in the present day

Shrines 4) Other items

February 28, 2014 / John D.

This is part of an ongoing series about shrine buildings abridged and adapted from the introduction to Shinto Shrines by Joseph Cali and John Dougill. It follows on from Part 3, which covered the main structures of a shrine. (For the full-length version, please refer to the book.)

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The outer courtyard of Shimogamo Jinja, with festival participants circling around the kaguraden. The stage is used for occasional performances and ceremonies.

Kaguraden: A raised, covered, and open-sided pavilion that is used as a stage for sacred dance (kagura), court dance (bugaku), and court music (gagaku). Also called a maidono, maiden, or buden. The kaguraden is usually built in front of but separate from the haiden. It is sometimes used for other rituals and performances. Some believe its history preceded and inspired the construction of the haiden.

Shamusho: The shrine administration building, usually also the place where amulets are sold.

Tamagaki and mizugaki: Types of fence employed at shrines. The tamagaki is generally a see-through picket fence, sometimes combining vertical and horizontal elements. Stone is sometimes employed, but wood is most common. Such fences surround the honden and are also used around the entire shrine grounds. When more than one fence is used for the honden, the inner fence is usually called a mizugaki, and there is usually no open space between the horizontal or vertical elements. Some fences are quite decorative while others are plain. Some also have roofs.

Part of the Tosho-gu at Nikko, showing a tamagaki fence in front of the shrine

Kairo: This is essentially a corridor with a large roof, which acts as a covered walkway. There is no wall along the inner side, where the roof is supported on pillars. It usually begins at the romon and encircles the entire inner grounds. The outer side is often solid, punctuated with windows along the upper half. The form originated from Buddhist temples, but it is a common sight at shrines as well.

Shimenawa, shide, and gohei: A shimenawa is a thin or thick twisted rope made of straw, and indicates sacredness. It is usually strung around an object or hung directly in front of a space. Shide are hanging white paper streamers, folded in a sort of zigzag and attached to the shimenawa at intervals. A number of shide made of paper or cloth and attached to a stick is called a gohei.

Shinboku: A sacred or divine tree, usually located adjacent to the honden. It may be extremely old and considered a dwelling place of kami. The tree is easy to identify, as it has shimenawa and shide paper streamers.

Hanging bronze lanterns at Kasuga Taisha in Nara. bearing the shrine's deer emblem.

Toro: Originally votive lanterns imported from Korea, used for offering fire or light to the Buddha. The custom was for a single lantern to be placed in front of the temple. It quickly spread to shrines and then Japanese gardens. Made of bronze, stone, or wood, the lanterns can be of a hanging or standing type. The most common type is the stone lantern (ishidoro). Such lanterns were donated by worshippers as offerings to the kami, which is why some large shrines such as Kasuga Taisha in Nara and Toshogu in Nikko have literally thousands.

Komainu, kitsune, deer: “Korean dogs” (komainu) are a pair of guardian figures. Despite their name, they originated in China or possibly India, and rather than dogs they represent lions said to ward off evil spirits. Typically one figure has the mouth open and one closed, expressing the Sanskrit sounds a-un (alpha and omega). The two guardian kings (nio) that stand in front of Buddhist temples serve the same purpose (though komainu are also found there). At Kasuga shrines komainu are replaced by deer. At Inari shrines, the komainu are replaced by foxes (kitsune), because of the belief that they guide the mountain kami when it descends to the fields. The posture of the foxes (open and closed mouth) and the purpose of warding off evil are the same as the komainu, but they may also hold a “key to the rice granary” in the paw (Inari is a kami of food, especially rice).

Gohei made of paper strips called shide attached to a central upright. It symbolises the descent of the kami (thought to be in the form of lightning.)

Direct worship of a 'shinboku' sacred tree at Sumiyoshi Taisha, Osaka

A striking komainu guardian at Sumiyoshi Taisha, Osaka

Benten ponds

February 27, 2014 / John D.

Naturalist Kevin Short’s latest piece for the Japan News concerns the irrigation ponds which are often presided over by a Benten shrine, since the deity is associated with water. (For the full article, see here.)

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Kevin Short, for the Japan News

Benzaiten started off as Sarasvati, an Indian native river goddess, but was absorbed into the Buddhist pantheon as a protector deity. Here in Japan she is considered to be the patron saint of musicians and performers, as well as a bringer of fortune. Benzaiten is one of the Shichifukujin, or Seven Lucky Gods, honored at pilgrimages around the New Year.

In the countryside, however, Benzaiten is worshipped almost exclusively as a Suijin, or no-nonsense water deity. Most shrines dedicated to her are located on tiny islands set in tameike irrigation ponds.

These simple ponds are typically constructed at the head of narrow valleys, where water seeps out naturally from the surrounding slopes. The water is temporarily collected in the ponds, then sent downstream to the paddies through a system of sluices and ditches.

Interestingly, although Benzaiten is of Buddhist origin, in the countryside she is often worshipped as a Shinto kami. Buddhism arrived in Japan in the fifth century. At first there was conflict between this new religion and the older Shinto-like beliefs. Eventually, however, accommodations were reached.

One way of reconciling the two traditions was to match up Buddhist deities with specific Shinto counterparts. Benzaiten was coupled with Ichikishima Hime, a Shinto suijin worshipped at the Munakata Taisha in Fukuoka Prefecture and the famous Itsukushima Shrine on Miyajima island in the Seto Inland Sea.

In Japanese folk spirituality, however, the distinctions between Shinto and Buddhism have always been blurred at best. For rice farmers a steady, reliable supply of water is absolutely vital, and no one really cares what religious tradition the spiritual energies that protects and animates the irrigation ponds belong to. The tameike ponds are thus major hubs in both the physical and spiritual landscapes.

The tameike also play an important role in preserving local biodiversity and ecosystems. Often fringed with reeds, cattails and other native water grasses, the ponds provide excellent breeding habitat for small fishes, crustaceans, frogs, turtles, and aquatic insects such as dragonflies. Japanese weasels, kingfishers, and several species of egret and heron hunt regularly in the tameike.

Snakes, excellent swimmers that prey heavily on frogs, also abound in the suijin ponds. In fact, in Japanese folk spirituality snakes are considered to be the familiar or spirit-helper of Benzaiten. The goddess is typically depicted playing the traditional three-stringed biwa, but in some spectacular avatars she appears as a coiled snake with a woman’s head.

In many areas water for the rice paddies is now pumped up from underground, and the tameike no longer function as irrigation ponds. The farmers, however, continue to think of themselves as beneficiaries of a natural cosmos. Simple feelings of gratitude for these benefits still runs deep in Japanese folk spirituality, and the tameike ponds and small Benzaiten shrines are usually maintained in excellent condition.

As the countryside landscape modernizes and urbanizes, these ponds become more and more important as bio-reserves, often providing the only local habitat for regionally endangered species. Certain species of dragonfly rely heavily on tameike, as does the Japanese fire-bellied newt.
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Short is a naturalist and cultural anthropology professor at Tokyo University of Information Sciences.

The Benten Pond at Kyoto's Daigo-ji - not a 'tameike' irrigation pond but a beautifully landscaped temple pond

Space-age Shinto

February 26, 2014 / John D.

Picture for the day on the Japan Today site shows how Shinto, despite its cherishing of traditions, manages to keep abreast of contemporary developments, including rocket science. Here blessings for a successful launch are requested of the local kami by technicians at the Tanegashima space centre – a safety precaution to the guardians of the other world, you might say. (Aptly enough, ten in Japanese can translate as both sky and heaven.)

REUTERS/NASA/Bill Ingalls (Japan Today Feb 26, 2014)
Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) team members bow at Ebisu Shrine, the first shrine in a traditional San-ja Mairi, or Three Shrine Pilgrimage. The team was praying for a successful launch of a Japanese H-IIA rocket carrying the NASA-JAXA, Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Core Observatory on Tanegashima Island on Friday.

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Tanegashima island lies south of Kyushu, next to the World Heritage site of Yakushima, and it was the first place that Europeans ever landed in Japan, with the arrival of a couple of Portuguese merchants (possibly three) in 1543. I visited the bay where they landed as part of my research for In Search of Japan’s Hidden Christians, and found it marked by a model of the Chinese junk carrying the Portuguese, which was blown off-course from its route along the Chinese coast and shipwrecked on the Tanegashima coast. The Portuguese brought muskets with them, which soon spread across Japan thanks to the expertise in iron-smelting, and next to the bay is a shrine which as you can see in the photo below commemorates the event in the statuary at its entrance.

Shrine at Cape Kadoma next to the bay where the Portuguese merchants landed, bringing muskets to Japan. The country's main space centre is located nearby.