Buddhist rock carvings in the middle of nowhere...
Japan is full of surprises. I was biking a mountain road in the back and beyond of Shiga, and I saw a bridge and a path leading into the trees. Of course I followed it - I can never resist mysterious paths. Sometimes they just peter out among the trees, but sometimes they lead to a treasure. The path led to stone steps with bamboo hiker's canes prepared for those who would ascend.
Up I went, passing several dilapidated little shrines until I found at the top of the path a large rock face with carvings on it. In front of the rock carvings stood a kind of shrine, and behind the shrine lots of rolled up scrolls were roughly shoved into a container.
With a mind full of questions, I photographed these mysteries and descended. A few days later when I showed the photos to an elderly friend who has lived in Shiga all her life, and knows a lot about the area, she was unable to help, so the impressive rock carving remains a mystery. She did tell me, however, that the scrolls are probably old scrolls that weren't needed any more, but it would be profane to throw away pictures of Buddha or sacred writings, so this was probably one of the places for people to leave them.
Up I went, passing several dilapidated little shrines until I found at the top of the path a large rock face with carvings on it. In front of the rock carvings stood a kind of shrine, and behind the shrine lots of rolled up scrolls were roughly shoved into a container.
With a mind full of questions, I photographed these mysteries and descended. A few days later when I showed the photos to an elderly friend who has lived in Shiga all her life, and knows a lot about the area, she was unable to help, so the impressive rock carving remains a mystery. She did tell me, however, that the scrolls are probably old scrolls that weren't needed any more, but it would be profane to throw away pictures of Buddha or sacred writings, so this was probably one of the places for people to leave them.
