竹生島(Tikubujima)

  I went to 竹生島(Tikubujima) this time.

竹生島 is one of a 名勝 in Japan. 名勝(meisyou) means beautiful and historical important places defined by Japanese government. 

竹生島 is located on the lake Biwa and has a famous Buddhist temple called 宝厳寺(hougonji).

When I hear the existence of it, I was surprised because of 宝厳寺’s location. It locating on a small island on lake Biwa. So I went to there by a ferry and takes 30 minute.

The scenery was beautiful and stairs were naturally assimilated to island. 

 
 Usually in Japan, Buddhist statues are kept under the roof or in a room. But this time is different. I could find Buddhist statues at outside and the color of red was shiny in nature, green color background.
Comparison between red and green was beautiful.
The color of leaves were green when i visited but, if you visit there in the height of autumn, you can see the leaves of autumn colored.
A face of statue was really cool and little scary.

 Through a main temple and keep climbing a hill, there were more old temple I could watch.

This is one of Japanese national treasure called 唐門(karamonn)
Carved design on poles and roof was really cool  and very very tiny details were carved.

http://www.kokuhoworld.com/036.html

I tasted beautiful nature. The smell of lake Biwa was somehow little salty like ocean.









Many people ware visited there though hard to access. something must be there that attract people who want to come.








Official site of 宝厳寺　http://www.chikubushima.jp/