KUMANO SHRINE: Kwaidan

Kumano Shrine ~ 

     “I should like, when my time comes, to be laid away in some Buddhist graveyard of the ancient kind, so that my ghostly company should be ancient, caring nothing for the fashions and the changes and disintegrations of Meiji.”

Lafcadio Hearn, "Kwaidan"

KUMANO SHRINE: Shimenawa

Kumano Shrine ~ 

old shimenawa

soiled shide in the breeze

abandoned prayers

KUMANO SHRINE: HEAVENLY MAIDEN

Kumano Shrine ~ 

heavenly maiden

her flute playing for eons

only ghosts listen

KUMANO SHRINE: Ceiling Art

Kumano Shrine ~

faded shapes above

visions of centuries past

from Hearn’s ghostly world

KUMANO SHRINE

kumano shrine ~
the kami sits invisibly,
cradling his head in his hands
no one comes to call.

KUMONO SHRINE: BAA SAKURA

Kumano Shrine ~

baa sakura

lonely national treasure

no one strokes her hair

FIELD OF FLOWERS: Kumano Shrine

FIELD OF FLOWERS

All the brightness and color of youth now fades,

turns brown and withers away.

Autumn approaches quickly...too quickly.

So, I suppose, it is with all of us

KUMANO SHRINE: The first of a series

KUMANO SHRINE. (Based on a photograph by Aoi Tokugawa). 

No one comes here any longer. 

The shrine slowly weathers and crumbles into dust.

 Are we so advanced that we can forget the kami?