MIDNIGHT IN A KATAYAMAZU GRAVEYARD

MIDNIGHT IN A KATAYAMAZU GRAVEYARD - 

Hearn would have liked it.

ONIWA HOTEL

ONIWA HOTEL ~ 

oniwa hotel

tanuki and spiders wa

now the only guests

A PALACE FOR BATS

the trains have now passed

tiny eyes watch from above

a palace for bats

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: 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