Some older household shrines in Japan

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Kim O'Hara
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Some older household shrines in Japan

Post by Kim O'Hara »

hida-village.jpg
hida-village.jpg (205.41 KiB) Viewed 1866 times
Hida Village, on the edge of Takayama, preserves old houses of the region, most of them brought there from outlying areas in pieces and reconstructed. They are all ‘old’ but I don’t know just how old most of them were. The Nobuki house was dated to the late 1600s but I think most were more recent - perhaps as recent as the mid-nineteenth century. Most were farmhouses - with internal barn and a hearth on the earthen-floor part of the house, as in the Nobuki house - but the ‘Headman’s house’ was larger and more elaborate.
The shrine in the Nobuki house occupied the small space between the room to the right of the hearth and the bedroom behind it. Its main image, painted in gold on black silk, was the same as the one in the other farmhouse shrine (next post) - complete with moustache, which I thought was a bit odd. All of the shrines have been darkened by years of smoke from the open fires.
nokubi-house-shrine.jpg
nokubi-house-shrine.jpg (146.3 KiB) Viewed 1866 times
nokubi-house-plan.jpg
nokubi-house-plan.jpg (91.47 KiB) Viewed 1866 times
These two pages outline the architectural history of the butsudan
http://www.aisf.or.jp/~jaanus/deta/b/butsudan.htm
and butsuma
http://www.aisf.or.jp/~jaanus/deta/b/butsuma.htm

:namaste:
Last edited by Kim O'Hara on Sat Oct 22, 2016 6:34 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Kim O'Hara
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Re: Some older household shrines in Japan

Post by Kim O'Hara »

(continuing)
hida-farmhouse-shrine.jpg
hida-farmhouse-shrine.jpg (166.29 KiB) Viewed 1865 times
shrine-image.jpg
shrine-image.jpg (139.69 KiB) Viewed 1865 times
The Shinto equivalent, according to Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamidana is a ‘kamidana’
I photographed this one in the headman’s house without really knowing what it was, but it fits the description beautifully.
kamidana-headman's-house.jpg
kamidana-headman's-house.jpg (228.19 KiB) Viewed 1865 times
:namaste:
Kim
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Re: Some older household shrines in Japan

Post by Admin_PC »

Beautiful Obutsudans!
I think the moustache is representative of central Asian iconography for Amida, but don't quote me on that.
Fortyeightvows
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Re: Some older household shrines in Japan

Post by Fortyeightvows »

always seemed like a korean thing thing to me....or really old gandhara/greek style
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