Seiganto-ji & Nachi Falls in Wakayama, Japan

Photographer Unknown, Seiganto-ji & Nachi Falls in Wakayama, Japan

The Seiganto-ji Temple is the oldest structure in Wakayama. It is registered as a UNESCO World Heritage site as part of “Sacred Sites and Pilgrimage Routes in the Kii Mountain Range.” Though the year of is establishment is not recorded, there are signs that nature worship has been carried out since ancient times in the area and a legend that the temple was founded during the 4th century.

From the middle period to the early modern period, the temple along with the adjacent Kumano Nachi Taisha Grand Shrine flourished as Shugenjo, a place for ascetic training.

The main highlight is a three-story red pagoda reconstructed in 1972. Its main hall, built in 1590, is designated as Important Cultural Property of Japan and exhibits a waniguchi drum, the largest Buddhist altar drum of its kind in Japan. The enshrined principal image, Nyoirin Kannon, Bodhisattva of Compassion, is said to grant any wish, including wishes for wealth, wisdom, and power.The public may view Nyoirin Kannon only on one day once a year, on August 17th.

This 3-meter high wooden image that was carved by Shobutsu Shonin during the reign of Empress Suiko which was from 592 – 628 AD. Inside the chest cavity, there is a small golden image of Kannon said to be just “1 sun 9 bu”, about six centimeters tall. This tiny golden Kannon was said to be the personal image that Ragyō the hermit enshrined in his hermitage in the 4th century. However, it is more likely to have been the personal image belonging to Empress Suiko.

Red Paper Lanterns

Photographer Unknown, Shinto Temple: Red Paper Lanterns

Albert Einstein: “Science is Their Own Special Sport”

Artist Unknown, (Entry to the Temple)

“In the temple of science are many mansions, and various indeed are they that dwell therein and the motives that have led them thither. Many take to science out of a joyful sense of superior intellectual power; science is their own special sport to which they look for vivid experience and the satisfaction of ambition; many others are to be found in the temple who have offered the products of their brains on this altar for purely utilitarian purposes. Were someone to drive all the people belonging to these two categories out of the temple, the assemblage would be seriously depleted, but there would still be some men, of both present and past times, left inside..”

― Albert Einstein