overlooking Otsu on Lake Biwa - a photo on Flickriver

            This part of Lake Biwa, the south end of the footprint-shaped lake (or rather, in the shape of a 4 stringed Biwa lute; head here, body toward the left/north), was known as Omi province during the Edo Period. Omi was synonymous with a group of merchants with the highest reputation who avowed a 3-part code of conduct; that all business relations should bear in mind and benefit all three parties, the business stakeholders, the customer, and the common good or shared spaces and resources. It reads like an enlightened NGO charter today, but proved its value generations ago, extending far before that.

The prominent lake, largest surface area in Japan, forms the center of the doughnut shaped Shiga prefecture of today and also was the reason to twin the local government with the Great Lakes State of Michigan in the USA in 1968. Still today a number of Shiga's schools and cities are twinned with Michigan counterparts. Delegations of citizens, students, teachers, police and so on go back and forth each year on that basis. Michigan's capital, Lansing, and Shiga's, Otsu, correspond to each other in function and have city to city exchanges, in addition to the prefectural exchanges.

Turning the clock back to the 1930s, probably the shoreline was much the same; possibly with some undeveloped marshy areas still not drained or built-upon. Turning the clock back to the last year of Feudal rule in 1867 the skyline would have been much different, since building materials did not include steel girders or cement foundations. Maybe 3 or possibly 4 stories would be the highest, if not limited by technology and wealth, then perhaps because of laws to give the highest viewpoint to the castles of rulers. And yet in all these time-travels, the monastery here on Hiei-zan did much of what it still does in 2017: training monks, running the institutional activities during the year, hosting pilgrims, selling souvenirs, hosting special events, and so on.

See full-image view by pressing 'z' or clicking the image; screen-fill by pressing 'L'.

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Taken in: 日本 / 滋賀県 / 大津市 (show map)

Taken on: September 30, 2017

Tags:

田舎

rural japan

滋賀県

琵琶湖

kyoto-fu

shiga-ken

religious training

religious tourism

pilgrimage

buddhism

buddhist temple

hiezan

lake biwa

feudal law

edo period

castle

hiei-zan

mt. hiei

tendai

比叡山

天台宗 « less

Sets appears in: • japan2017summer-fall

Camera: Canon PowerShot S110, f/6.3, 1/320 sec, 10.8mm, ISO 80 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Canon PowerShot S110
Aperture:	f/6.3
Exposure Time:	0.003 sec (1/320)
Focal Length:	10.8mm
ISO:	80
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Exposure Mode:	Auto
Metering Mode:	Center-weighted average
White Balance:	Auto
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	Windows Photo Editor 10.0.10011.16384
Show full info

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