#ishiyamadera

Kawazu zakura is blooming (简体中文).

Regarded as an originator of "Yokohama Shashin (photographs)" for tourists, Tamamura Kozaburo (b. 1856) opened his first studio in Asakusa, Tokyo, in 1874. He then moved to Yokohama in 1883 and for the next 30 years became one of the most successful and popular commercial photographers in Japan by selling souvenir photograph albums to foreigners and taking profitable commissions from various organizations, including an order for more than one million hand-colored photographs from the Boston publisher J. B. Millet Company. Tamamura received many awards for his photography.

With close looking, you’ll see a group of workmen standing on a stone mountain in this hand-colored albumen photograph entitled “Ishiyamadera, Otsu.” “Ishiyama” means stone mountain, and the temple literally sits on top of a sacred stone mountain. The temple was built in 747.

The legend says that Murasaki Shikibu confined herself at Ishiyamadera for seven days, observing the full moon of August 1004 CE, and that’s when she conceived the concept of writing “The Tale of Genji,” the world’s oldest novel.

Because of this legend, Ishiyamadera is thought to bring literary inspiration to its worshipers.

A shrine to the Eight Great Dragon Kings (八大龍王社) on the grounds of Ishiyamadera Temple (石山寺) in Ōtsu, Shiga Prefecture

The colours of fall.

“Murasaki Shikibu’s Pilgrimage at Ishiyamadera” (紫式部石山詣図) by Tosa Mitsumoto (土佐光元), 1560

Color on paper from the collection of the Archives and Mausolea Department of the Imperial Household Agency (宮内庁書陵部)

Distinctive New Year’s offerings at Ishiyamadera Temple (石山寺) in Ōtsu, Shiga Prefecture

“Ishiyama Temple” (石山寺) by Yoshida Tōshi (吉田遠志), 1946