Obon vacation , in the middle of August to graciously receive any returned souls according to Buddhism, was over.
I enjoyed to have time together with my family and do some events for the season, visiting our family grave yard for example.
And also I'm relieved now that my usual daily life came back for me.
This post is about a part of my passing of time during the vacation.
Just shortly before Obon, it was held that many tiny candles were lit on the field of Nara Park. It creates a feeling of welcoming returned souls with lightning about 20,000 candles totally, on some fields, along the road and in front of a temple, and so on. This event has been held from 1999.
In addition to the commemorating for ancestors and the war dead, that for the victims by the earthquake and tsunami on 3.11 was accounted this year.
百の燭（しょく）を覗きつつゆく 古都の野にうごめく影の一つとなりて
As a shadow
moving on,
I look into a protection
for each of tiny hundreds of candles
on a field of an ancient capital haricot
For my family's ancestors we visited our family grave yard.
My family is not Buddhists but Shintoists ( Shinto is Japanese indigenous religion), though in the grave yard there are tombs for both.( The shape of tomb stone is different: that of Buddhism is rectangular , that of Shinto is pointed at the top, and Buddhists offer flowers besides Shintoists offer green leaves called sakaki.)
And later I called in a Temple, Byakugo-ji（白毫寺）, because I like the location of the small temple,although most of Shintoists visit shrines not temples in general.
I like the serene atmosphere of this mountain temple as well.
In autumn it is famous for the flowers named Hagi in Japanese which can be seen the both sides of staircases on the fifth photo.
They were still young, but among them there were some precocious ones which had already some flowers like this.
Maple leaves are also still green hones.
But some are precocious, I found.
In spring this temple is famous for camellias. Some camellia trees bear some solid fruits now.
From this small temple ground, we can view Nara basin widely.
This prospect is one of the big reasons that I 'm fond of this temple.
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| The mail hall next to the pagoda is under construction |
