temples & shrines, Osaka

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We came accidentally to this small garden with a shrine and a cemetery inside and had a look around: Shinko-in Temple A ceremony had started shortly after we came and we were invited to participate. We took off our shoes and sat on small chairs and listened to the singing and praying, before we finally left after some 10 minutes or so. We had a look around in the garden and cemetery as well and finally we go a present by one of the people there,it was a small wrapped box with maybe some food in it - read more about it in my "local custom-tips"
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Through another VT-er,Rabbityama I got some infos about this temple:
This is Shinko-in Temple, it is famous for its thousands of Jizo statues
and is part of the 88 Temples of the Settsu pilgrimage route !
Thanks a lot for these infos !

Sumiyoshi Taisha is Osaka's grandest shrine and is a 10minute train ride South of the city centre (on the Nankai line from Nankai Namba - 200 yen).

The shrine supposedly houses the Shinto Gods of the Sea, and is most famous for the beautiful humpbacked Sorihashi Bridge. For a change of pace from Osakas's other sights, it is well worth a visit.

Whilst the wooded grounds are permanently open, it is worth noting that the shrine itself closes at 5pm.

From Sumiyoshi Koen station turn left and you will see the bridge straight in front of you.

Shi-Tennoji Temple, a short walk from Tennoji is a large and impressive temple complex. Most of the time its really quiet and a great place to escape from it all. On the morning of the 21st of every month a flea market is held there and the character of the temple changes completely - the place is packed and its easy to pick up some excellent bargains, like kimonos complete with original lining etc. The temple is illuminated at night, another good time to visit if you happen to be passing.

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Temple Nr. 4 was the strangest place in my opinion, because it included several things that looked rather like sports-instruments and soccer-flags for me than as things with a religious meaning. And when you take a closer look at my last 2 photos, that puppet of a snówman & Donald Duck and also that "bee" or whatever that sculpture should be are certainly a part of the arrangements there and not something that is lying around there accidentally.

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maybe someone here on VT can give me some explanations about this temple Nr.4

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I show you here some of my photos that I took in shrine Nr.1 while they had their ceremony. We really did not want to go there first, but we were again and again invited by the friendly people there to step in and take a seat, so we finally gave up our hesitation.
NObody there spoke any english nor did we know any word of japanese but their guestures were clear and their smile was as well.
We stayed there for 10 minutes before we silently left again.

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This was obviously a whole temple-district there with various temples and also some graveyards. The area was open to everybody with its own gate from the street and we hardly saw any single person there. Most of the shrines and temples had their doors open, so we could enter and take a look and take photographs as well.

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Temple Nr.3 was next to the other 2 temples and shrines, but also clearly fenced in as a seperate place. They had some instructions there, how to pray (my 4th photo) and an interesting bell (my 5th photo)
The strangest part of this temple for me was in the backside of the temple Nr.3 and it is shown in my next tip !

This temple has 'Okotsubutsu', statue of Buddha made of human remains. To produce such a statue the temple needs the remains of 200,000-250,000 humans. The ashes are powered and kneaded into the form of Buddha. Because this temple believes in worshipping the deceased, they decided to make Buddha statues of it. This way the remains are no longer out of sight in graves or cremation urns. The deceased are able to live in Jodo (the pure land), and from Okotsubutsu one can feel the deased closer to himself. The first statue was made in 1887, and after that every 10 years another one. In worldwar II the temple burned down and the statues were lost. After the war they have made another 6 statues now.
The adres of the temple:
2-8-69 Tennohji-ku
Osaka,
543-0062
From the ***ennoji cross the Tanimachi dori and after 5 minutes the temple is at your left.

The Mitsu Hachimachi shrine was very close to our hotel. It is also known as the Shimanouchi Hachimangu. It enshrines the Emperor Ojin, the Emperor Chuai and the Empress Jingu. The best time to visit is on one of the festive days: Natsuharai (15 june) or Hojoe (15 august).
The shrine can be found in 2-chome, Nishi-Shinsaibashi, Chuo ku.

There is a temple in Namba, a very small one. It's shown on detailed maps of downtown.

One night , a friend of mine brought us there as it's one of the rare temple in the middle of downtown. How surprised were we when we saw that a ceremony was taking place. It lasted more than an hour ans was amazing.

It's very tiny, surrounded by restaurants but located on a quiet tiny street.

DIRECTION: Go to Exit 25 of the Namba subway station. Go down the narrow road by the convenience store, cross Shinsaibashi-suji, and look
for a gate straight ahead with some cobblestones behind it. Walk through the
gate and the shrine is right there.

(Thanks Nicki !)