Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
mutineers, they were pursued by the ship's crew. Of the 380 who escaped, most were cap-
tured, but 128 were killed. Some headed into the mountains where they starved or commit-
ted suicide. Only a lucky few were hidden by friendly locals and protected. The memorial was
built in 1971 in honor of those who perished.
The Tōjinbaka memorial is dedicated to a group of Chinese laborers killed in the 19th century.
The American Servicemen's Memorial is in remembrance of three prisoner-of-war airmen.
Kannon-dō Entranceway
The temple entrance path at Kannon-dō Shrine displays one of the inest collecions of tradiional
tōrō
(
灯籠
or
灯篭
,
灯楼
“light basket/light tower”) that you'll find anywhere in Japan. Made of
stone, wood or metal, lanterns originally illuminated the holy path (
sandō
;
参道
; lit. “visiing road”)
to Buddha. Later they were adopted by Shinto shrines. There are two main categories of
tōrō
:
tsuri-
dōrō
(
釣灯籠
,
掻灯・
or
吊り灯籠
, lit. “hanging lamp”), which usually hang from the eaves of a roof,
and
dai-dōrō
(
台灯籠
lit. “plaform lamp,” which can be a pedestal, as here, or squat, standing on the
ground.
Dai-dōrō
are commonly made of stone, in which case they are called
ishi-dōrō
(
石灯籠
lit.
“stone lantern”).
