Kanagi Town 金木町

A look back at the town of Kanagi 金木町 in Aomori prefecture, now Goshogawara City 五所川原市(photographed in 2005, early morning). The town is known as the birthplace of Tsugaru-jamisen 津軽三味線 (Tsugaru style shamisen music) and as the hometown of the well-known author Dazai Osamu 太宰治 (1909-1948).

A shrine’s horse statue.

Street light with festival decorations.

Main street.

Unshō Temple 雲祥寺.

Statues of Jizō Bodhisattva 地蔵菩薩, a popular Buddhist saint who acts as a guardian of children and the patron deity of pregnant women.

Statues of Jizō Bodhisattva offered in memorial to the departed.

Phone booth elevated to compensate for heavy snowfall.

Dazai Osamu’s home, previously an inn, now a museum. When originally built, it offered a commanding view of the surrounding countryside from its second story (as most homes and businesses were single story structures).

The Faithful’s Graffiti: Senjafuda 参拝者の千社札

Visitors to shrines and temples sometimes commemorate their visit by pasting a paper bearing their name (千社札 senjafuda) on the shrine and temple buildings and gates. Some shrines and temples treat this as a form of graffiti and warn against it. Nonetheless, the faithful seemingly do so as to receive some efficacy and as a way to say, “I was here.”

Here are some photos from the famous Eiheiji (永平寺) Buddhist temple in Fukui prefecture of a shrine covered with senjafuda.

Graffiti? Or a symbol of devotion?

Mutsu day and night むつの昼夜

Scenes from the city of Mutsu in Aomori prefecture.