#shinto — Public Fediverse posts on home.social

Steve McCarty 🇯🇵 @[email protected] · 2026-04-25 · 02:14 UTC

Many responses to my post with photos of the Shintō-Buddhist hybrid shrine Nikkō Tōshō-gū (日光東照宮) dedicated to the first Shōgun Tokugawa Ieyasu at permalink https://hcommons.social/@SteveMcCarty/116460012855652237 included a question from @gclef
> Interesting, thanks for sharing that! Noted the three monkeys motif... is there a Japanese story/parable about them? Familiar with the western version, just wondering about cultural variations.

The three monkeys originated in the 17th Century with a Japanese pun based on an ancient Confucian saying, and the photo I showed was its most prominent illustration. It entered the West in the 19th Century and took on more of a cynical meaning than the austere Asian version, although Japanese has a common expression for pretending not to see something dicey.

Here are more photos of the exceptionally ornate Nikkō Tōshō-gū.

Publications as a Professor in Japan: https://japanned.hcommons.org

#Nikko #Toshogu #Buddhism #Shinto #shrine #Japan #travel #architecture #photography #photos

#nikko #toshogu #buddhism #shinto #shrine #japan

Steve McCarty 🇯🇵 @[email protected] · 2026-04-24 · 13:52 UTC

Returned home to Ōsaka from the best ever trip to the Tōkyō region, staying with our sons, meeting friends, and going to beautiful places. Let's start with Nikkō Tōshō-gū (日光東照宮), a shrine dedicated to the first Shōgun Tokugawa Ieyasu who united Japanese civilization four centuries ago. It's unusually gorgeous and ornate by traditional Japanese aesthetic standards, reflecting warlord grandiosity, but it still blends nicely with the mountain woods. The first photo shows what I noticed first as a researcher, the syncretism of Buddhism with indigenous Shintō. One especially famous feature is the three monkeys who bespeak 'see no evil, hear no evil, and speak no evil.' That last one is a trouble spot when you speak two languages 😆.

#Nikko #Toshogu #Buddhism #Buddhist #temple #Shinto #shrine #Japan #nature #culture #sightseeing #travel #architecture #woodcarving #photography #photos

#nikko #toshogu #buddhism #buddhist #temple #shinto

okanogen VerminEnemyFromWithin @[email protected] · 2026-04-23 · 03:43 UTC

If the #Judaism/ #Christianity/ #Islam #Religions weren't the paradigm running the modern global economy and legal structure, our lives would be radically different. #Shinto, #Buddhism, #Hinduism, Animism of every kind. Even early Greek, Roman, or Egyptian pantheism.
Consider it. Would it be better? Worse?
People love to blame #Capitalism, but the historic alternative worldwide was feudalism.
#WorldOrder

#judaism #christianity #islam #religions #shinto #buddhism

Steve McCarty 🇯🇵 @[email protected] · 2026-03-10 · 01:28 UTC

Buddhist temples and Shintō shrines in Japan double as strolling parks for local people and visitors. When our son the IT executive and innovator comes from Tōkyō, I take him to places like this shrine in nearby Kyōto Prefecture. See the captions for more details.

Publications and projects as a Professor in Japan: https://japanned.hcommons.org

#Japan #Kyoto #Shinto #shrine #pond #plum #blossoms #hiking #walking #photos

#japan #kyoto #shinto #shrine #pond #plum

Tour Japan @[email protected] · 2026-02-27 · 17:46 UTC

https://www.wacoca.com/tour/901254/ 北海道木古内町・佐女川神社【寒中みそぎ祭2日目】（2026年）「19時過ぎの水垢離鍛錬」Part.6 #19時過ぎ #2026年1月14日（水） #hokkaido #JapanFestival #JapaneseCulture #kagura #Shinto #伝統文化 #北海道 #北海道ツアー #北海道観光 #寒中みそぎ祭 #日本の祭り #木古内町 #水垢離 #渡島 #神事 #神社 #神道 #祭り #記録映像 #道南 #鍛錬

#19時過ぎ #2026年1月14日 #hokkaido #japanfestival #japaneseculture #kagura

Steve McCarty 🇯🇵 @[email protected] · 2026-02-21 · 13:41 UTC

I gave a whirlwind tour of little-known gems of Kyōto Prefecture to an Indian woman who teaches at a university up in Kanazawa. The Shintō shrine Umenomiya Taisha (梅宮大社) is named after plums, ume, and you can see three varieties of different colors that blossom from mid-February in these four photos. I've noticed blue herons nesting in the big trees of the shrine, and caught one in the act of building its nest (3rd photo). They are gray, but their name in Japanese (青鷺) uses the character for blue. They are very common around fresh water in Western Japan and elsewhere, often standing still and looking pensive, letting you get as close as two meters before they fly away. In contrast, it's amusing that when nesting they are constantly squawking.

Publications and projects as a Professor in Japan: https://japanned.hcommons.org

#Japan #Kyoto #Shinto #shrine #plum #blossoms #nature #culture #heron #architecture #sightseeing #travel #photography #photos #travelphotography

#japan #kyoto #shinto #shrine #plum #blossoms

Steve McCarty 🇯🇵 @[email protected] · 2026-02-15 · 12:26 UTC

More plum blossoms and other attractions of nature around the Kyōto Imperial Palace. The first two photos are of a venerable Shintō shrine on the palace grounds. Actually, few know that it is a shrine within a shrine, because the palace itself is a Shintō shrine (宮), as its official name indicates: 京都大宮御所.

Open access publications on Japan: https://japanned.hcommons.org/japanology

#Japan #Kyoto #Shinto #religion #Imperial #palace #nature #plum #blossoms #photography #photos