Monday Morning Star Count

 It’s coming along, little by little.

Stitch Group Saturday

We met yesterday to make plans for our next project - Knot Gardens. 

As background to our next project, in the fall of 2005, I took a three day knot garden class at the Royal School of Needlework, Hampton Court Palace. This is what my garden looked like at the end of the three day class -

I have worked on it from time to time, and now it looks like this:

 

Back to stitch group yesterday. This is show and tell blackwork. It’s hard to see in the picture, but there is some sparkling gold thread with the black.

We didn’t do any stitching, but we made plans. We studied the RSN Knot Garden book and a canvas work pattern book, as well as sketched some possibilities on graph paper. They have some great ideas! They will be working on smaller gardens on stretcher bars.

This was our first get together of the new year, and the hostess made sweet bean and mochi soup. We had a lot of sweets, so I brought much of it home for later.

At the end of every meeting, we choose a date for the next session. I look forward to our next time when we’ll be working on our gardens.

Mefu Shrine

I came across this shrine as I was walking from the train station to my hotel in Matsue and it was so inviting that I couldn’t help stopping. It was quiet and well kept. I’m glad I stopped.

Izumo Taisha

I have wanted to visited this shrine for a very long time. My students told me about the major shrine where all the deities in the country went for a week in the fall. This is it.

Izumo is one of the most important shrines in Japan.  Every year, from the 10th to the 17th day of the 10th lunar month (usually falls in November), all of the shinto deities from across Japan gather at Izumo Taisha for a meeting. I don’t know much about Shintoism, but I thought this left the rest of Japan unprotected during this time.

I took a bus from in front of the train station in Izumo, to the shrine. The shrine grounds are quite large, with many different buildings.

I was amazed by how thick this Shimenawa (Shrine rope) is. They are usually made of rice straw and are believed to ward off evil spirits and invite good fortune. 

The building below is Kaguraden (sacred dance hall). The shimenawa rope measures 13.6 meters in length, 8 meters in girth, and weighs 5.2 metric tons. It is woven by a group of volunteers from Iinan in central Shimane and replaced every 6 to 8 years.

I walked all around and found these maps helpful.

I think the picture above is the jukusha - the housing for visiting deities.

The building below is the Haiden (worship hall).

Below are photos of the Statue of Musubi, depicting the encounter of Okuninushi with a divine light.

This is the Pathway of Pine Trees.

This grassy area with the rabbits is called the Monument of Marriage.

Below is the Honden, the main sanctuary.