Amami Superman Photography

The water in the basin is used for purification. You wash your hands, mouth and sometimes your feet before approaching the shrine.

An omikuji is a fortune. These fortunes tell you what kind of luck you will have over the next year. Once someone receives their fortune, they tie it to a line like in the above photo.

These wooden plaques are called "ema". You write your wish or desire for the New Year on them.

When one goes to say a prayer, they usually throw in a donation into the box in front of the rope. The rope has some large bells attached to the top and after you throw your money into the box, you give the rope a good shaking. You then bow once or twice and clap your hands together twice holding the second clap and say your prayer. Once your prayer is complete, you bow again and you're through.

Most shrines in Japan have this sort of artistic craftsmanship. The larger shrines in central Japan dwarf this small shrine in size and it makes me wonder about all the work that goes into making a big shrine. The only big shrine I've every been to is Dazaifu Tenmangu in Fukuoka.

They were going to have a special event here at the shrine and I wanted to get here early. I arrived about an hour before the event started and I took some time to walk around and snap shots to get a feel for the area.

I'm not exactly sure when but this shrine was rebuilt about 15 years or so ago. I vaguely remember them doing construction on the shrine around the time I first came to Amami. I know that the shrine is older than 15 years because I've read in books that hunger protests were held at the shrine back in 1951 prior to the return of the Amami Islands to Japan. Following WWII, Amami was under American control for about 7 years. Before the actual Peace Treaty with Japan was made, a copy of the final version of the treaty was aired over the radio and nothing was said of the return of the Amami islands to Japan. This caused a significant amount of distress to the people of Amami which in turn led to the many hunger protests. The event I was there to see has nothing to do with this. I just thought I would share some Amami history with you.

As I was writing this post, I was trying to remember the name of this shrine. Every time I said "Takachiho", I was like, "No, that's the dairy farm we visited back in November." I asked my wife and it turned out that the name is the same as Takachiho Farms.