Mereja

Author: spinkk and Dylan

  • World’s largest rice scoop

    Image of World's largest rice scoop located in Miyajima, Japan | World's largest rice scoop Miyajima, Japan

    World’s largest rice scoop

    This enormous “shamoji” means more to the people of Miyajima than just a way getting rice onto a plate

    Located in the Omotesando shopping street in Miyajima is what is said to be the largest wooden rice scoop in the world. Some 7.7 meters long, 2.7 meters thick and 2.5 tonnes it is said to be made from 270 year old Zelkova tree. The scoop took almost three years to construct and went on display in 1996 to commemorate the designation of Itsukushima Shrine as a World Heritage Site.
    However, as in the case with many of the “world’s largest,” the largeness of the scoop is less interesting than that it represents a kind of collective pride by the people of Miyajima in an object that has helped put their island on the map.
    As the legend goes, between the 1790s and 1800s a Buddhist monk named Seishin lived and worked in the Tokidera Temple. One night he dreamed of a deity known as Benzaiten, the Japanese name for the Indian goddess Saraswati, whose myth arrived in Japan via the Chinese and began being worshiped in the 6th century. She held a traditional Japanese lute which the monk saw as a kind of spoon. Upon awakening he showed the people of Miyajima how to make this magical rice scoop or “shamoji” he had dreamed of.
    In Japan, Miyajima is quite famous for its rice scoops, and though now the scoops sold on the island are made with foreign timber (Miyajima has little native wood) the scoops still come with a stamp with the Chinese characters for ‘Miyajima’. These days most of the practical shamoji sold are made from white plastic or cheap plywood, the island sells many higher grade shamoji to tourists who keep them as spiritual and good luck items.

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    Category: Unusual Monuments
    Location: Miyajima, Japan
    Edited by: spinkk, Dylan

  • Battleship Yamato Museum

    Image of Battleship Yamato Museum located in Kure, Japan | model of space battleship Yamato

    Battleship Yamato Museum

    Museum dedicated to the largest warship ever built

    The Japanese battleship Yamato, built in the shipyards at Kure in 1941, was 263 meters long, with twin screws five feet in diameter, and displaced an astonishing 72,800 tonnes of water. Along with her sister ship the Musashi, she was the largest, heaviest and most powerfully armed battleships ever constructed.
    Sent to “fight until destroyed” while protecting Okinawa, the battleship never made it that far, and its great size may have hindered it when it was spotted by American air forces. The massive ship was bombed by American planes in April 1945. As the ship rolled over and began to sink, the ships explosives detonated and the blast created a mushroom cloud over 4 miles high, visible from 100 miles away. The Yamato lost most of her crew, some 3,055 out of 3,332 sailors.
    The sinking of the Musashi (in 1944) and the spectacular sinking/explosion of the Yamato in 1945, represented a major psychological blow to the Japanese. Both ships had represented the apex of Japanese naval engineering, and were potent symbols of the power of the empire itself. Today the story of the Yamato, serves as a sort of shorthand metaphor for the ending of the Japanese empire itself.
    The Battleship Yamato Museum, dedicated to the ship and her history, is located by the harbor in Kure, near Hiroshima, and opened in 2005. It features a 26.3 meter long scale model of the battleship, and other fascinating items including a Japanese Type 62 Zero aircraft and a “Kaiten,” a one-man human driven torpedo, used by the Japanese as a suicide weapon.
    The battleship has also inspired much in Japanese pop culture such as an anime series about a space battleship Yamato, and models and robots from that series are on display in the museum.

    Read more about Battleship Yamato Museum on Atlas Obscura…

    Category: Unique Collections
    Location: Kure, Japan
    Edited by: spinkk, Dylan

  • Okinawan Bullfights

    Image of Okinawan Bullfights located in Ageda, Japan | Okinawa City tougyu tournament

    Okinawan Bullfights

    A bovine sumo match in which both bulls live to fight another day

    There is no matador in an Okinawan bullfight, or “tougyu.” The athletes are the bulls themselves and spectators are there to cheer for them.
    Two bulls, each one weighing as much as a car lock horns and, encouraged by the shouts of their handlers and the cheers of the spectators, push and strain mightily until one either turns away or is pushed out of the ring. Neither bull is normally injured, and handlers try to end the match if it seems that one of the bulls is in danger of being seriously injured. That said, it is not uncommon for bulls to cut each other with their horns, so it is by no means a sport without violence. It is said as bulls become higher ranked and accustomed to fighting, they are eager to get to the ring and will begin the match of their own accord.
    During the fight, the bulls handlers who have generally raised them from a calf, stand beside the bulls (often in bare feet) and scream, stamp their feet and slap the bulls bottoms to give encouragement. The handlers expend a tremendous amount of energy doing this, and as matches can last half an hour, are sometimes spelled by an assistant who continues yelling and stamping in their place.
    The fighting ring itself is a circular area with a mixture of sand and clay, about 18 meters in diameter, Known as Ushioorashe, thousands of people come these arenas to watch the bulls do battle. A group of judges sit above the arena, and when necessary make a call about the winner in a given fight. In normal circumstances the bull which turns away first is the loser, however, on occasion a bull will turn away, get a running start and come back at its opponent to win the match.
    Once a bull has won the match, like any athlete, he is celebrated. Colored ribbons are tied to the winners horns, he is draped in a colorful cape, and given a once around the ring parade while onlookers cheer and take pictures. The highest ranked bulls weigh in at over a ton and grand champion bulls are called “yokozuna,” as are sumo champions.
    Matches are held in a dozen rings on the 65 mile long island throughout the year, and spectators bet on their favorites. A recommended ring is the Okinawa City bull ring.

    Read more about Okinawan Bullfights on Atlas Obscura…

    Category: Fascinating Fauna, Wondrous Performances, Rites and Rituals
    Location: Ageda, Japan
    Edited by: spinkk, Dylan

  • World’s largest seated bronze outdoor Buddha

    Image of World's largest seated bronze outdoor Buddha located in | Tien Tan Buddha Lantau, Hong Kong

    World’s largest seated bronze outdoor Buddha

    Lantau Island, Hong Kong, China

    The seated Buddha at Lantau, also called the Tien Tan Buddha, is 34 meters (110 feet) tall, weighs 250 metric tons and is approached by visitors from the nearby Po Lin Monastery by climbing 268 steps. It is one of China’s five largest statues of the Buddha, and from a clear day can be seen from Macao.
    Though it may look ancient, it is actually just 20 years old. Begun in 1990, and finished in 1993, the statue was made from over 200 pieces of bronze and cost 68 million to construct. The Buddha, also known as the Big Buddha, gets its name, “Tien Tan,” from the model of the Temple of Heaven (located in Beijing) on which it sits.

    Read more about World’s largest seated bronze outdoor Buddha on Atlas Obscura…

    Category: Giant Buddhas
    Location:
    Edited by: spinkk, Dylan

  • A-bomb Memorial, Hiroshima, Japan

    Image of A-bomb Memorial, Hiroshima, Japan located in Hiroshima, Japan | the A-bomb dome at ground zero

    A-bomb Memorial, Hiroshima, Japan

    Peace Park and the A-bomb dome

    On Monday, August 6th, 1945, at 8:15 am, a US bomber dropped the first nuclear weapon used in warfare over the city of Hiroshima.
    Estimates of the number killed vary from 90,000 to 166,000 people, with at least half killed in the first seconds of the blast, and others perishing of radiation injuries up to four months after the blast.
    A building exactly at ground zero was partly destroyed, but a piece remained standing, making it “the building closest to the hypocenter of the nuclear bomb that remained at least partially standing.” It has been preserved as a reminder of the awful event.
    The museum in the Peace Park faces the A-bomb dome and contains relics of the explosion which includes “clothing, watches, hair, and other personal effects worn by victims of the bomb” and “a section that looks at what happened to wood, stone, metal, glass, and flesh from the heat” and details about the health effects suffered by humans from the radiation from the blast.

    Read more about A-bomb Memorial, Hiroshima, Japan on Atlas Obscura…

    Category: Museums and Collections, Strange Science, Unique Collections, Memento Mori, Ghost Towns, Disaster Areas
    Location: Hiroshima, Japan
    Edited by: spinkk, Dylan

  • Jeweled skeleton of Saint Munditia, patron saint of spinsters

    Image of Jeweled skeleton of Saint Munditia, patron saint of spinsters located in Muenchen, Germany | Saint Munditia, St. Peter's Kirche, Munchen

    Jeweled skeleton of Saint Munditia, patron saint of spinsters

    St. Peter’s Church, Munich, Germany

    As you enter St. Peter’s church bear left, and halfway down the aisle you will find a glass coffin bearing the skeleton of Saint Munditia. Sewn into a transparent body stocking covered with gold and jewels, with glass eyes staring upwards, her remains have been here since their transfer from the Roman catacombs in 1675. She is believed to have been martyred in 310 AD, beheaded with a hatchet.
    Once kept hidden in a wooden box, she was put on display in 1883. The patron saint of ‘spinsters’ she may have once been beautiful, (or maybe not) but today jewels cover her rotted teeth and her body is withered and brown with age. Each year a feast day is held in her honor complete with a High Mass and candle procession.

    Read more about Jeweled skeleton of Saint Munditia, patron saint of spinsters on Atlas Obscura…

    Category: Relics and Reliquaries
    Location: Muenchen, Germany
    Edited by: spinkk, Dylan