Revisiting a Graveyard of Abandoned Temple Monuments in the Mountains of Kyoto

Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/400 sec, f/5.6, ISO 1250 —
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Keeping a Weary Eye on Things

京都の田舎にある無縁仏に

A followup of sorts to a four-year-old post about
a dumping ground in Kyoto for no-longer-sponsored temple monuments.
Wandering through my photo archive, I came across this set and thought to post a few more from that outing...

Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/400 sec, f/16, ISO 6400 —
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Paul and a Packed Field of Monuments








Nikon D700 + Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 — 1/640 sec, f/1.4, ISO 200 —
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Plausible Guess

I can guess why the headless figurine found its way here








Nikon D700 + Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 — 1/320 sec, f/2.2, ISO 200 —
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Nice Light

for a moment







Nikon D700 + Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 — 1/160 sec, f/7.1, ISO 800 —
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As Far As The Eye Can See

sort of








Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/1000 sec, f/2.5, ISO 200 —
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Section of Spires










Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/400 sec, f/5.6, ISO 1250 —
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Sad (and Confusing)

There's a certain sadness about the whole place, but this kind of
monument, of a history written in stone discarded halfway through, seems particularly forlorn. It chronicles deaths starting in 1919 with a 2-year-old girl, and ends in 83 years later 2002 with (I think)
her sister-in-law (of sorts).

I'm probably totally misunderstand what I
think I'm seeing, but it looks like the last entry in 2002 is for
the 84-year-old third wife of the 2nd-to-last entry, a
man who died at 82 in 1987. The entry
prior to that is 42 years earlier, in 1945, of the man's oldest son who
died at the age of 2, a month after the man's
second wife had died at age 30. His first wife died at 23,
thirteen years earlier in 1932. The first and
second wives were sisters. The first two entries
(1919 and 1929) were additional sisters who passed at 2 and 19. A fifth sister clearly exists, born between 1916-1918
(and so about the same age as the third wife), but doesn't seem to be
referenced anywhere. Anyway, I'm guessing that
the third wife had prepaid for her data to be entered, but no one paid the
annual maintenance fees after that, so eventually the stone was removed to
this area.

Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/400 sec, f/16, ISO 6400 —
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Also Sad

two miscarriages, but the blanks are not filled in on the dates (which is odd)







Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/400 sec, f/5.6, ISO 1000 —
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Indistinguishable From a Rock

some were worn down a lot









Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/160 sec, f/2.5, ISO 200 —
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Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/400 sec, f/8, ISO 2200 —
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Different Neighborhoods







Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/400 sec, f/2.5, ISO 640 —
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Our Security Guard

from the first photo