Prior to climbing to the temple itself, there are a series of buildings below it. One is the station for ritual purification?
A smaller shrine below the main one. The two young ladies in the kimonos had us take their picture, and then kindly posed for us with The Ravishing Mrs. TB:
The Wakamiya Shrine, the second most important shrine at Tsurugaoka Shrine, dedicated to the wives and one son of the Emperor Ojin:
The staircase to the main shrine:
Sake makers traditionally send barrels of sake to shrines as offerings and to ask for good fortune for the upcoming year. It is interesting to see the different labels:
So what happens to the barrels of sake sent the previous year???
ReplyDeleteLeigh, per "The InterWeb", the sake is distributed at New Year's celebrations (whether before or after putting them on display is not clear).
DeleteI’ve never seen a barrel of sake but now wonder why I haven’t seen some on display over here with their unique graphics. Maybe they get reused unlike whiskey barrels so they aren’t sold?
ReplyDeleteEd, it appears that there may be something of a secondary market - in Japan. Probably the cost of shipping them internationally is a bit much; they are a bit bigger than the look in the picture.
DeleteLooked at all the photos first without words and wondered at what was in the last two shots TB....ah! Sake! Barrels! Off to the InterNets again, nice to have access to electronic encyclopedia eh?
ReplyDeleteNylon12 - Traditionally, sake was filled into wooden barrels and shipped. The wrappers/labels are a bit of a more recent development.
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