Zwinger Palace at Arita Porcelain Park

 

To come across a full-size replica of a Rococo German palace in the countryside of Saga in northern Kyushu might surprise some people, but such things no longer surprise me.

This replica of the Zwinger palace in Dresden is located in a theme park devoted to porcelain, the Arita Porcelain Park, and as well as the Zwinger palace the rest of the park is made out to represent a "german" village.

The connection of porcelain to Arita is a strong one...... Arita is where the first porcelain in Japan was made, but the connection to Germany needs some explanation.

A lot of the porcelain produced in Arita was exported to Europe by the Dutch traders of Nagasaki and was very popular and known as Imari Ware after the nearby port to Arita from where it was exported.

In the 1970's it was discovered that behind the Iron Curtain in the museum of Dresden was an amazing collection of Imari Ware, and with some difficulty it was arranged to bring the collection from East Germany to show in Japan. This led to Arita and Dresden becoming sister-cities.

The original Zwinger was built in 1709 as an orangerie and gardens with galleries and pavilions for exhibitions. It is considered a classic piece of Baroque architecture of Dresden. It was largely destroyed by the infamous bombing raid of WWII but was rebuilt.

The Arita version was opened in 1993, and like many such ambitious projects from around that time the park never really became very successful and so has somewhat deteriorated. The gardens are particularly bleak.

When I visited the two long galleries held exhibitions of European porcelain and local Arita ceramics, but it seems that these exhibitions have now ceased. I suspect the whole park will not be a viable business for much longer, again a fairly common occurrence in the hinterlands of Japan.

I visited on day 70 of my walk around  Kyushu, a day I spent mostly exploring Arita, a town well worth a visit. Next, I will look at the rest of the porcelain park.

Hoko-in Temple 70 Kyushu pilgrimage

 

A statue of Kobo Daishi, the focus of the Kyushu 108 sacred sites pilgrimage, stands outside temple 70, Hoko-in near Arita in Saga.

I reached it on day 70 of my walk along the pilgrimage, a curious coincidence.

A large Bokefuji Kannon statue stands in the grounds. An increasingly popular form of Kannon, prayed to for protection against dementia and senility.

The honzon is a "secret" 11-faced Kannon, and the temple is also part of the Kyushu Kannon pilgrimage.

The temple was founded in the early Edo period when a monk came down from nearby Mount Kurokami.,A shugendo center, and home to temple 69 which I will be visiting tomorrow.

With the ban on Shuigendo in the early Meiji period the temple fell into disuse and disrepair, but was revived in 1968. The Daishi statue in the Daishi Hall was brought from another Shugendo mountain temple, underscoring the historical connection to Yamabushi.

The temple unusually has a Mizuko hall as well as the main hall and Daishi hall.

This was to be the only temple of the day for me as I spent the rest of the day as a tourist exploring Arita.

The previous temple was number 79 Zenpukuji.

Taikoiwa Fudoson

This 7 meter high Fudo Myo is carved directly into the cliff face part way up Mount Kurokami near Arita in Saga.

At more than 500 meters in height, the mountains have numerous outcroppings and rock formations, the type of place Yamabushi were drawn to. The mountain is home to legends of giant serpents and it is though Kukai stopped here on his way to China.

Underneath the carving is a large mirror which faces east and reflects back the sunrise to the land below.

The path leading up to the carving has numerous statues including many Fudo, which I will post later.