Lake Suwa

   

   

   

 

Suwa is a city built around Lake Suwa, one of the many lakes in the Nagano prefecture. Lake Suwa is thought to be the lake referred to in the tenth Touhou project game, Mountain of Faith.

   

     

The Suwa Autumn shrine in Lower Suwa. I've never seen so many shinto shrines in one city before. Not far from this shrine is the giant Bhudda on the right, who is reputed to be all-healing.

   

     

   

The Suwa Spring shrine in Lower Suwa. The fountain on the right has very hot water that comes directly from the hot springs at the lake.

A wooden pillar called an 'onbashira'. These can be found at all of the local shrines, and feature in a festival held every seven years where such a pillar is dragged down the mountain.

An onbashira at Lower Suwa station. Both the heavy rope and the onbashira are design motifs in Mountain of Faith.

   

The other two Suwa shrines are located in Chino city, a little way away from the lake.

   

 

 

The Front Suwa shrine.

 

 

 

Along the way to the main Suwa shrine is a museum of sorts dedicated to the Moriya family, the priests who look after the shrines.

A historical note by Moriya Sanae - presumably the inspiration for the eponymous Touhou character.

 

 

 

The main Suwa shrine.

   

   

   

   

Each one of the four Suwa shrines had Touhou-related ema, so I've just aggregated them all here.