Mary Ellen had an uncomfortable night. The fall was so unexpected and painful that she was in shock and had trouble figuring out what to do. Barry took charge, used our well stocked first aid kit to dress her wounds, took care of dinner, dug out pills for pain and sleep….we called it a night early. She does everything she can to minimize anything that could hurt her wonky knees….but fate and happenstance had the final word.
The view from our room…love the aquamarine colour of the ocean.
Revisiting the scene of the crime….doesn’t feel so scary with a good grasp of the railing. I hope to never forget this freak accident and will henceforth use the railing.
We rode in to the lovely town of Tanabe. There was a world Heritage shrine that we wanted to visit. The fellow on the right is Benkei. He was a larger than life, legendary character who became a warrior monk. His exploits have been made into hundreds of stories, kabuki plays and contemporary movies and tv shows. He was born in Tanabe in the 12th century.
Since travelling in Japan we have wanted to find carp windsocks to add to our flag poles. We stumbled onto this wonderful shop while we were in Tanabe. In Japanese they are called koinobori. They are traditionally flown in Japan to celebrate Tango no sekku, an event which is designated as Children’s Day. From April to early May koinobori can be seen flying in honour of children.
The shrine is well known for its association with one of the decisive battles of the Genpei war, ( 1180-1185 ) between the Genji and Heike clans. The ruler of the Kumano area was not sure who to support and looked to the gods for support. Fortune telling rooster fights were arranged, with a white rooster representing Genji and a red rooster representing Heike. The white rooster was victorious, so the Kumano navy helped the Genji win the battle and the war. The name of the shrine derives from these events- Tokei means rooster fighting in Japanese.
This giant sacred camphor tree is about 1200 years old. There is a legend that a homeless man was living in the trunk and he carelessly started a fire. Suddenly, water miraculously poured from the centre of the tree- putting the fire out. The tree is mammoth in size….it covers a large area as it spans out in all directions. This warrior of a tree has survived 2 lightning strikes which created huge divisions in the trunk clear through. Yet it continues to stand tall, strong and proud.
This statue represents the white and red rooster fight that changed history. On the left is Benkei, the warrior monk and on the right is his father. The father was the ruler who was involved in the famous rooster fights. Note Benkei’s incredible footwear.
Barry is a retired primary teacher and my mom and sister also dedicated their professional lives to education. It is lovely to see an educator honoured and remembered from the19th century.
This charming elderly gentleman is a volunteer guide and was very eager to help us at the shrine. He doesn’t speak any English but he did his best to passionately tell us about the shrine.
The guide gave us these as a gift. The leaf is from the sacred camphor tree. The cat bag is ours and we purchased it at a shrine on a previous trip. We use it to hold our goshuincho book. See the next photo.
Inside our cat bag we keep our goshuincho. It is a special book that contains all of the goshuin (calligraphy) that we have collected from visiting shrines and Buddhist temples. Each temple or shrine has its own design. The priest or staff member will put a red stamp and extra details with black ink your goshuincho book. Goshuins are considered sacred, so putting any other kind of stamp in the book should be avoided.
