Oodles of Cheerful Little Men at the Sekisanzen-in Temple in North-East Kyoto
Cheerful Little Men at the Sekisanzen-in Temple, Kyoto Japan Nov 2012 赤山禅院(京都市左京区) 2012年11月 -- Sekisanzen-in Temple (赤山禅院) -- Copyright 2012 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 D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/400 sec, f/2.5, ISO 4000 — map & image datanearby photos
Cheerful Little Men
at the Sekisanzen-in Temple, Kyoto Japan
Nov 2012
赤山禅院(京都市左京区) 2012年11月

Still revisiting autumns past while we wait for the fall-foliage season to start here in Kyoto, here are some genial little men at the Sekisanzen-in Temple in north-east Kyoto.

Lotsa' Cheerful Little Men -- Sekisanzen-in Temple (赤山禅院) -- Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright 2012 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 D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/400 sec, f/2.5, ISO 4000 — map & image datanearby photos
Lotsa' Cheerful Little Men

I'm not sure what they're for, but I suspect they represent votive donations, such as these statuettes at the Sanzen-in Temple.

Sekisanzen-in Temple (赤山禅院) -- Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright 2012 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 D4 + Nikkor 24mm f/1.4 — 1/50 sec, f/4, ISO 1600 — map & image datanearby photos

I stopped by with Damien prior to my first visit to Kyoto’s Shugakuin Imperial Villa two years ago, because we had a few extra minutes and it's nearby.

The affable men were in front of a little sub building on the temple grounds...

Sekisanzen-in Temple (赤山禅院) -- Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright 2012 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 D4 + Nikkor 24mm f/1.4 — 1/50 sec, f/11, ISO 9000 — map & image datanearby photos

Though this was a short visit, photos from it have appeared incidentally on my blog before. One was in A Long But Photogenic November in Kyoto:

Sekisanzen-in Temple (赤山禅院) -- Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright 2012 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 D4 + Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 — 1/100 sec, f/1.4, ISO 180 — map & image datanearby photos

Another was in A Post For Damien Douxchamps’ Parents in Belgium:

Pro Stance -- Sekisanzen-in Temple (赤山禅院) -- Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright 2012 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D4 + Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 — 1/160 sec, f/1.4, ISO 100 — map & image datanearby photos
Pro Stance

They had a nice stone lantern in the garden, but I couldn't do much with it:

Meh ( commenting about my photo, not the lantern! ) -- Sekisanzen-in Temple (赤山禅院) -- Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright 2012 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 D4 + Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 — 1/100 sec, f/1.4, ISO 250 — map & image datanearby photos
Meh
( commenting about my photo, not the lantern! )

It reminds me of the one at the Enkouji Temple, which I think has come across nicely on my blog here, here, here, and here.

But I'm always a sucker for moss and colorful leaves...

Sekisanzen-in Temple (赤山禅院) -- Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright 2012 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 D4 + Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 — 1/100 sec, f/1.4, ISO 250 — map & image datanearby photos

Back at the cheerful little men, I noticed some stickers placed around the frame:

Sekisanzen-in Temple (赤山禅院) -- Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright 2012 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 D4 + Nikkor 24mm f/1.4 — 1/50 sec, f/1.4, ISO 220 — map & image datanearby photos

My initial thought was that they looked like geisha name stickers, like these, but that makes no sense at a temple like this, and then I recalled having seen name stickers of pilgrims at a temple before, out in the middle of nowhere, here. So yeah, they're probably names of pilgrims.


One comment so far...

Just for fun: here is the pic I was taking.

— comment by Damien on October 25th, 2014 at 11:09pm JST (9 years, 5 months ago) comment permalink
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