Masterpiece from 130 years ago. (Saifukuji-temple / 西福寺, Uonuma city / 魚沼, Niigata prefecture) No.2

At the entrance of main building, you will see a carved figure.
His face, hands, and legs are crow, body is human.
In own back, he also had strong wings

In Japan, he is called "Tengu".
Tengu is thought as one of Gods in Japan.

In this chance I searched a little about Tengu, and knew one thing.

What I knew was that Tengu were human before his reincarnation.

Ascetic monks become Tengu after they have finished their training and died.

As the monks earns more power in their training, they become stronger Tengu when they reincarnated.

I realized that cloth he is wearing is monk's.

Chouun's work was so great and brilliant that the Tengu seems came out of the wood and fly away.

After I plactice more and more taking pictures, and become better, I would like to visit here and take his pictures again.

Inside of the temple, there were some paintings.

Chouun was also great drawer.

Peacok

Tiger

Goose

Flying Goddess

On the floor, Chouun's playful mind can be seen.

He used wood's knot and used to make a picture.

Leaves on the floor.

I also found flower in the flower.

I think there are lot's of discovery in this temple.

Not only taking a picture of Tengu, to find new hidden things, I would like to visit this temple again.

Thank you for reading!!
Have a nice weekend!

石川蝶雲, 西福寺, 開山堂, 魚沼, 新潟, 天狗

Masterpiece from 130 years ago. (Saifukuji-temple / 西福寺, Uonuma city / 魚沼, Niigata prefecture) No.1

In 130 years ago, a man came to country named Echigo, the north part in Japan.
His name is Chouun Ishikawa.

He was born in Edo, where we call Tokyo now.
Although he were very gifted craftsman, his arts were not found in Tokyo now.
Most of his arts are left in Niigata prefecture.

To see his arts, I went to the city named Uonuma.
This place is famous as production area of rice. They are very tasty that not only eat as a food, they become raw material for "Sake".

Most famous masterpiece of Chouun is placed in a temple called "Saifukuji-temple".
You will find his arts in several places in this temple.

The first art which I liked was dragon sculpture in the bell tower.

What his arts great are that the sculptures done so delicate and how they are stereoscopic.

They are all sculptured so thin that if people touch them, it may break easily.

One more dragon was in the opposite side.
His expression was little different from first dragon.
I thought he has small smile in his mouth.

The bell tower seems like this.

On the bell, there are a lot of carvings of gods.

There where cranes on the roof of this bell tower.

On the entrance of main building, there where several arts.
Other kinds of dragons.

Can you see the old man is unrolling the scroll on the dragon?

The Venus is playing Japanese harp on the dragon.
Look at whiskers and eyebrows of dragon. Isn't it beautiful? I couldn't believe that it was made by a man in 130 years ago.

There where Samurai fighting with goblin.
You can see small horns on his forehead.

The temple's map is like this.

As taking pictures in the main building is prohibited, I couldn't take the most beautiful art in the temple...

If you are interested, please visit following site.
It is so beautiful!

http://www.saifukuji-k.com/gaido.htm

I couldn't get the best arts picture here, but I still got some pictures of others.
I will introduce them to you next time.

Thank you for reading!!
See you soon!

石川蝶雲, 西福寺, 開山堂, 魚沼, 新潟