big house 2017 Sept. 23, Ike-no-kami Shinto shrine

            Fall festival (matsuri) or perhaps the autumn equinox (shubun no hi, 秋分の日) was being marked at the Shinto shrine in the distance on this day. Since people have long farmed and resided along these mountainsides and throughout this valley, it is hard to imagine the very first settlers and their decision about where to occupy and build upon.

Perhaps the land where the shrine stands once held a make-shift worship spot such as massive tree or boulder. Later a more durable worship structure was erected and maintained during the seasons of the year & at times that mark the seasons of a person's own life. Then one day a person determined that the adjacent land where this large house now stands would be auspicious or somehow beneficial by association to the powers in this area of the Hiyoshi shrine, called Ike-no-kami. 'Pond Deity' is one reading of kanji; but by substituting different kanji of the same pronunciation this name can be 'above the pond' or 'the upper pond'. However the course of human history may have played out, at the time of this photo it was a large, prosperous land owner or business person who occupied the land adjacent to the shrine, rather than some other enterprise or residential or waste/buffer land use.

The functional explanation for these adjacent buildings is to make a defensible barrier. Such sets of connect buildings still stand here and there in the city of Echizen and surrounding places. Bandits may have existed during times of famine or other disturbance in the 260 years of the Edo Period, but it was a rare thing since the laws and distribution of sword-carrying, title-holding retainers to the governing powers had wide latitude for harming or killing the other classes of people. So (social/civil) disorder was seldom seen in this part of the country. But in the generation leading up to the 1601 beginning of Edo days lots of armed groups competed for control of land and revenues. So this residential design may be a relic from those uncertain times that was remodeled or repeated even when the original danger was mostly past. Impressionistically, perhaps these buildings could date to 1850-1900; probably not much before that or after that, though.

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Taken in: 日本 / 福井県 / 越前市 (show map)

Taken on: September 23, 2017

Tags:

canon s110

915

fukui-ken

echizen city

hokuriku

rural japan

９１５

北陸

福井県

越前市

武生

田舎

武生市

shrine

shinto shrine

jinja

gatehouse

edo period

japanese garden

landscaping

moss

ike no kami jinja

ike no kami shrine

hiyoshi jinja

hiyoshi

fall equinox

autumn equinox

江戸時代 « less

Sets appears in: • japan2017summer-fall

Camera: Canon PowerShot S110, f/8.0, 1/160 sec, 8.8mm, ISO 320 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Canon PowerShot S110
Aperture:	f/8.0
Exposure Time:	0.006 sec (1/160)
Focal Length:	8.8mm
ISO:	320
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Exposure Mode:	Auto
Metering Mode:	Center-weighted average
White Balance:	Auto
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	Windows Photo Editor 10.0.10011.16384
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