Browse Items (573 total)

Left corner: Shinto priest offering prayers of celebration (norito) to the gods. Right: Fires to be used at shrines is created the natural way. Top: Miko (shrine maidens) originally played an intercessionary role between man and the dieties, reaying…

This set is said to have been used by Tokugawa Iemitsu, the third Tokugawa shogun. "The entire set is decorated with a pear-skin ground (nashiji), a gold and silver maki-e clove floral scroll, and the three-leaved hollyhock mon. The edges of the…

Depiction of Sakuma Shogen Sanekatsu (1570-1642) sitting in front of a bamboo screen facing his boy attendant. A warrior who first served Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1537-1598), Sakuma then seved three successive generations of Tokugawa shoguns: Ieyasu,…

Tokkuri, or sake flasks, were produced in great quantity by the Bizen kilns in the Momoyama period. In this example, clean lines define the plump, barrel-shaped body, thin neck, and crisply finished mouth. The neat, concise form, made from a…

A multiple-armed Kannon Bosatsu image, ready to aid those who leave offerings. Found in Kamakura.

During my homestay I snapped a picture of my room for posterity. Note the tatami mats, futon, space heater, and "desk".

On a man-made island in the middle of a small river sits several statues and pillars in honor of the river god.

On our way to Hiroshima, we made a brief stop at Okayama, in the middle of picturesque rice-fields.

Fat pigeons sit near a lake in Kyoto, while a heron sits in the background.

A wooden trellis at a Nara Shinto shrine being used to hang fortunes on.