Revisiting a Graveyard of Abandoned Temple Monuments in the Mountains of Kyoto
Keeping a Weary Eye on Things 京都の田舎にある無縁仏に -- Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/ -- This photo is licensed to the public under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ (non-commercial use is freely allowed if proper attribution is given, including a link back to this page on http://regex.info/ when used online)
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/400 sec, f/5.6, ISO 1250 — image data
Keeping a Weary Eye on Things
京都の田舎にある無縁仏に

A followup of sorts to a four-year-old post about a dumping ground in Kyoto for no-longer-sponsored temple monuments. Wandering through my photo archive, I came across this set and thought to post a few more from that outing...

Paul and a Packed Field of Monuments -- Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/ -- This photo is licensed to the public under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ (non-commercial use is freely allowed if proper attribution is given, including a link back to this page on http://regex.info/ when used online)
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/400 sec, f/16, ISO 6400 — image data
Paul and a Packed Field of Monuments
Plausible Guess I can guess why the headless figurine found its way here -- Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/ -- This photo is licensed to the public under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ (non-commercial use is freely allowed if proper attribution is given, including a link back to this page on http://regex.info/ when used online)
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 — 1/640 sec, f/1.4, ISO 200 — image data
Plausible Guess
I can guess why the headless figurine found its way here
Nice Light for a moment -- Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/ -- This photo is licensed to the public under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ (non-commercial use is freely allowed if proper attribution is given, including a link back to this page on http://regex.info/ when used online)
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 — 1/320 sec, f/2.2, ISO 200 — image data
Nice Light
for a moment
As Far As The Eye Can See sort of -- Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/ -- This photo is licensed to the public under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ (non-commercial use is freely allowed if proper attribution is given, including a link back to this page on http://regex.info/ when used online)
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 — 1/160 sec, f/7.1, ISO 800 — image data
As Far As The Eye Can See
sort of
Section of Spires -- Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/ -- This photo is licensed to the public under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ (non-commercial use is freely allowed if proper attribution is given, including a link back to this page on http://regex.info/ when used online)
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/1000 sec, f/2.5, ISO 200 — image data
Section of Spires
Sad (and Confusing) -- Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/ -- This photo is licensed to the public under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ (non-commercial use is freely allowed if proper attribution is given, including a link back to this page on http://regex.info/ when used online)
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/400 sec, f/5.6, ISO 1250 — image data
Sad (and Confusing)

There's a certain sadness about the whole place, but this kind of monument, of a history written in stone discarded halfway through, seems particularly forlorn. It chronicles deaths starting in 1919 with a 2-year-old girl, and ends in 83 years later 2002 with (I think) her sister-in-law (of sorts).

I'm probably totally misunderstand what I think I'm seeing, but it looks like the last entry in 2002 is for the 84-year-old third wife of the 2nd-to-last entry, a man who died at 82 in 1987. The entry prior to that is 42 years earlier, in 1945, of the man's oldest son who died at the age of 2, a month after the man's second wife had died at age 30. His first wife died at 23, thirteen years earlier in 1932. The first and second wives were sisters. The first two entries (1919 and 1929) were additional sisters who passed at 2 and 19. A fifth sister clearly exists, born between 1916-1918 (and so about the same age as the third wife), but doesn't seem to be referenced anywhere. Anyway, I'm guessing that the third wife had prepaid for her data to be entered, but no one paid the annual maintenance fees after that, so eventually the stone was removed to this area.

Also Sad two miscarriages, but the blanks are not filled in on the dates (which is odd) -- Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/ -- This photo is licensed to the public under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ (non-commercial use is freely allowed if proper attribution is given, including a link back to this page on http://regex.info/ when used online)
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/400 sec, f/16, ISO 6400 — image data
Also Sad
two miscarriages, but the blanks are not filled in on the dates (which is odd)
Indistinguishable From a Rock some were worn down a lot -- Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/ -- This photo is licensed to the public under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ (non-commercial use is freely allowed if proper attribution is given, including a link back to this page on http://regex.info/ when used online)
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/400 sec, f/5.6, ISO 1000 — image data
Indistinguishable From a Rock
some were worn down a lot
Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/ -- This photo is licensed to the public under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ (non-commercial use is freely allowed if proper attribution is given, including a link back to this page on http://regex.info/ when used online)
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/160 sec, f/2.5, ISO 200 — image data
Different Neighborhoods -- Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/ -- This photo is licensed to the public under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ (non-commercial use is freely allowed if proper attribution is given, including a link back to this page on http://regex.info/ when used online)
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/400 sec, f/8, ISO 2200 — image data
Different Neighborhoods
Our Security Guard from the first photo -- Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/ -- This photo is licensed to the public under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ (non-commercial use is freely allowed if proper attribution is given, including a link back to this page on http://regex.info/ when used online)
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/400 sec, f/2.5, ISO 640 — image data
Our Security Guard
from the first photo

All 2 comments so far, oldest first...

Is there a reason they don’t try selling them after so much time passes? Would no one buy them or would it be considered disrespectful or something? I could see them being popular over here but the shipping!

Your guesses seem good, but I really don’t know. —Jeffrey

— comment by sparksofember on September 27th, 2014 at 12:36pm JST (9 years, 6 months ago) comment permalink

I really like your pictures. I stumbled on your website while looking for information on Jingoji (wonderful auturm pictures). Anyway, is this graveyard Adashino Nenbutsu? I’m fascinated with graveyards and try to visit one given the chance whenever I visit a place. One of my favorites is the Yanaka graveyard. I could’ve stayed there half a day taking pictures, but sadly time was against me.

It’s not a graveyard, except in the sense “for unused temple memorials”. —Jeffrey

— comment by Teresa on September 28th, 2014 at 12:05am JST (9 years, 6 months ago) comment permalink
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