Uploads from wallyg, tagged lion, with geodata

Charleston - West Ashley: Alycia Alley - Dustin Spagnola

nobody@flickr.com (wallyg) — Sat, 18 May 2013 07:47:50 -0700

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Dustin Spagnola is an Asheville, North Carolina-based visual artist whose works is often political in nature and inspired by the contemporary urban landscape.

The Charleston Art Outddoor Initiative (chART), founded by Geoff Richardson, curated a series of murals in Alycia Alley behind the Savannah Highway strip of shops at the Avondale Point District in West Ashley in the fall of 2011. Since then, the initiative has added additional pieces to the alley, and expanded to other areas of Charleston.

San Francisco - Lincoln Park: California Palace of the Legion of Honor

nobody@flickr.com (wallyg) — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 18:49:22 -0800

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The California Palace of the Legion of Honor, often shortened to just the Legion of Honor, located at 100 34th Avenue in Lincoln Park, displays a collection spanning more than 6,000 years of ancient and European art as part of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (FAMSF). A gift of Alma de Bretteville Spreckels, wife of sugar magnate Adolph Spreckels, the neoclassical building was dedicated to the 3,600 California men who perished on French battlefields during World War I. It was designed as a three-quarter-scale version of the Palais de la Légion d'Honneur, also known as the Hôtel de Salm in Paris, by George Applegarth and Henri Guillaume and completed in 1924. A 1995 renovation realized a 42 percent increase in square footage, including six additional special exhibition galleries set around the pyramid skylight visible in the Legion courtyard otherwise dominated by Auguste Rodin's The Thinker.

Lincoln Park, covering about 100 acres of the northwestern corner of the San Francisco Peninsula, was dedicated to President Abraham Lincoln in 1909. The park is the Western Terminus of Lincoln Highway, which was conceived and mapped in 1913 as the first coast-to-coast road across America, traversing 14 states. It stands on land that was a cemetery during the late 1860s. After local enthusiasts laid out a three-hole golf course in 1902, the land was turned over to the parks commission in 1909 and the graves were relocated. The course was expanded to 14 holes by 1914 and to a full 18 by 1917. The San Francisco Holocaust Memorial, designed by George Segal, was dedicated in the park in 1984.

Denver - Civic Center: Civic Center Park - Lion

nobody@flickr.com (wallyg) — Sun, 11 Sep 2011 07:53:00 -0700

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Two bronze lions guad the Greek Amphitheater at Denver Civic Center Park. The lions were a gift of Italian immigrants, Alfred P. and Anna E. Adamo of Detroit. A plaque beneath the lion facing west reads: "Man should have the heart of a lion to do the things he loves and that other people love. Money produces no greatness, but man does. The hearts of men of courage produce beautiful ideas and joy for all."

Denver Civic Center Park, located at the intersection of Colfax Avenue and Broadway and bound by Bannock Street, Lincoln Street, Colfax Avenue and 14th Avenue, officially opened in 1919. The park originated with mayor Robert W. Speer's City Beautiful civic improvement campaign. Speer hired Charles Mulford Robinson to develop plans for the area, which were defeated in a 1907 election. Speer remained determined to proceed but was stalled when replaced as mayor in 1912. The new mayor brought in Frederick Law Olmsted Jr, whose ideas included an informal grove of trees on the eastern edge of the park, and a lighted concert area. When Speer was reelected in 1917, he brought in Chicago planner and architect Edward H. Bennett, who combined all the previous plans, and added the Greek amphitheater, the Colonnade and the seal pond.

Nara: Tōdai-ji - Asoka Pillar

nobody@flickr.com (wallyg) — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 16:27:53 -0700

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This Pillar of Asoka, or the Pillar of Ashoka, located just east of the Daibutsuden at Tōdai-ji, is a replica of a series of columns dispersed throughout the northern Indian subcontinent, erected or at least inscribed by the Mauryan king Ashoka during his reign in the 3rd century BCE--only nineteen of which survive in at least a fragmentary state. The replica was erected on the occasion of the All Japan Young Buddhist Assocation's Thousand-Priests' Service at the Hana Matsuri celebration on April 26, 1988. The service was attended by more than 1,700 priests of different sects.

Kyōto - Higashiyama: Yasaka Shrine

nobody@flickr.com (wallyg) — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 19:18:58 -0700

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Yasaka-jinja (八坂神社), or Yasaka Shrine, once called Gion sha (梅宮神社), or Gion Shrine, or Kansin-in, located at the eastern end of Shijo-dori next to Maruyama Park, is a Shinto shrine famous for its Gion Matsuri, one of Japan's largest festivals. It is known for the many lanterns that decorate the shrine's stage that are lit after dark and bear the names of their sponsors, mostly Kyoto businesses. According to the legend of the shrine, its history may go back as far as 150 years before the Heian era, in the second year of the reign of Emperor Seimei. The name of the shrine was changed to Yasaka-jinja when shrines and Buddhist temples were separated at the time of the Meiji Restoration.

Enshrined at Yasaka-jinja are Amaterasu-Omikami and Susanoo-no-mikoto, as representatives of Amatsukami and Kunitsukami.. Susanoo (須佐之男（スサノオ), sometimes Romanazied as Susanowo, and also known as as Tatehaya Susanoo-no-Mikoto (建速須佐之男命) is the Shinto god of the sea and storms, known for slaying the eight-headed serpent Yamata no Oroch and redeeming Kushinada-hime -no-mikoto (櫛名田比売). His sister, Amaterasu (天照?), Amaterasu-ōmikami (天照大神／天照大御神?) or Ōhiru-menomuchi-no-kami (大日孁貴), is the Shinto goddess of the sun and to be directly linked in lineage to the Imperial Household of Japan and the Emperor, who are considered descendants of the kami themselves.

Kyōto - Higashiyama: Yasaka Shrine

nobody@flickr.com (wallyg) — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 19:18:43 -0700

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Kyōto - Higashiyama: Yasaka Shrine

nobody@flickr.com (wallyg) — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 19:18:52 -0700

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Kyōto - Higashiyama: Kiyomizudera - Niō-mon shishi

nobody@flickr.com (wallyg) — Sun, 19 Jun 2011 15:07:33 -0700

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Kiyomizudera (清水寺), or the "Pure Water Temple," officially Otowa-san Kiyomizu-dera (音羽山清水寺), an independent Buddhist temple, was founded in 780 on the site of the Otawa Waterfall in the wooded hills east of Kyoto. Its present buildings were constructed in 1633, during a restoration ordered by the Tokugawa Iemitsu. Originally associated with the Hossō sect, one of the oldest schools within Japanese Buddhism dating from Nara times, it formed its own Kita Hossō sect in 1965, and its present custodians call themselves Kitahossō.

Kiyomizudera is best known for its wooden stage or veranda, that, supported by tall pillars, juts out from its main hall 13 meters above the hillside below. The main hall, which together with the stage was built without the use of a single nail, houses the temple's primary object of worship, a small statue of the eleven faced, thousand armed Kannon. Beneath the main hall is the Otowa waterfall, where three channels of water fall into a pond. Drinking the water of the three streams is said to confer wisdom, health, and longevity.

Kiyomizudera, along with 16 other locations across Kyōto, Uji and Ōtsu, comprise the UNESCO World Heritage Site, Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto (Kyoto, Uji and Otsu Cities), designated in 1994. In 2007, it was selected as one of 21 finalists for the New Seven Wonders of the World.

Nikkō: Taiyūin-byō - Karamon

nobody@flickr.com (wallyg) — Sat, 11 Jun 2011 14:54:29 -0700

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The Karamon (唐門), in front of the Haiden at Taiyū-in Reibyō, was constructed in 1653. At 3-meters high and 1.8-meters wide, it is the smallest gate at Taiyū-in, but true to its name, which literally means Chinese style gate, its design and decorations are among the most elegant. The gate features many exquisite carvings, including a pair of cranes and white dragon on the golden waves under the roof. Two pillars, not exposed to the outside, were made of zelkova tree.

Taiyū-in Reibyō (大猷院霊廟), or the Taiyu-in Shrine, administered by Rinnō-ji (輪王寺, enshrines Tokugawa Iemitsu (徳川家光), the third Tokugawa shogun and grandson of Ieyasu. It was built in 1653 by Masakatsu Heiuchi, the Tokugawa chief carpenter, under the orders of Tokugawa Ietsuna, the fourth Tokugawa shogun. Though it houses many of the same elements as Tōshō-gū Shrine, it is, by design, smaller and more intimate. The buildings of Taiyū-in face Tōshō-gū, indicating Iemitsu's deep respect for Ieyasu.

Together with Tōshō-gū and Futarasan Jinga, Taiyūin-byō, as part of Rinnō-ji, forms the Shrines and Temples of Nikkō UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Nikkō: Taiyūin-byō - Karamon

nobody@flickr.com (wallyg) — Sat, 11 Jun 2011 14:54:35 -0700

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Nikkō: Tōshō-gū - Omote-mon

nobody@flickr.com (wallyg) — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 19:43:32 -0700

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Omote-mon (表門), or Nio-mon, is the main gate to Tōshō-gū. The red-painted gate is 8.3 meters wide, and 4.3 meters deep. It is decorated with 82 carvings of imaginary animals and flowers and is guarded by two fearsome figures, 4-meter tall Deva Kings carved by Hogan Koon in the beginning of the Tokugawa Shogunate Era. The one named "Agyo", meaning beginning or birth, is shown with an open mouth to pronounce the first letter of the Sanskrit alphabet, ah, while the other named "Ungyo", meaning the ending or death, is shown with a closed mouth for the last letter, un,.

Nikkō Tōshō-gū (日光東照宮) is a lavishly decorated shrine complex consisting of more than a dozen Shinto and Buddhist buildings set in a beautiful forest. It was initially built during the Edo period in 1617 by Tokugawa Hidetada (徳川秀忠), the second shogun, as a simple mausoleum for his father, Tokugawa Ieyasu (徳川家康) (1543-1615), the founder of the Tokugawa shogunate. Ieyasu was buried on Mount Kunozan on his death in 1616, but according to his testament, his remains were to be moved to their last resting place at Nikko. It was enlarged during the first half of the 187th century by Ieyasu’s grandson, Tokugawa Iemitsu (徳川家光), the third shogun. Some 15,000 craftsmen were employed on the construction of the Toshogu Shrine, most of them coming from Kyoto and Nara, where there was a great flowering of architecture at that period. The result was a complex of buildings with an over-lavish profusion of decoration, incorporating all the sumptuousness of the preceding Momoyama period.

Today the shrine is dedicated to the spirits of of Ieyasu and two other of Japan's most influential historical personalities—Toyotomi Hideyoshi (豊臣秀吉) (1536-1598), a daimyo (territorial lord) in the Sengoku period who unified political factions of Japan; and Minamoto no Yorimoto (源頼朝) (1147-1199), the founder and the first shogun of the Kamakura Shogunate, ruling from 1192 until 1199.

Together with Rinnō-ji and Futarasan Shrine, Tōshō-gū forms the Shrines and Temples of Nikkō UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Tokyo - Asakusa: Asakusa-jinja - Shishi

nobody@flickr.com (wallyg) — Fri, 27 May 2011 17:12:19 -0700

wallyg posted a photo:

Asakusa-jinja (浅草神社), or the Asakusa Shrine, also known as Sanja-sama, or "Shrine of the Three Gods", is a Shinto shrine honoring the three men who founded the adjacent, Sensō-ji—the Hikonuma brothers and their master. Legend says that in the year 628, the brothers Hinokuma Hamanari and Hinokuma Takenari, two fisherman, found a statue dedicated to the bodhisattva Kannon, also known as Guan Yin or the Goddess of Mercy, out of the Sumida River. Even though they put the statue back into the river, it always returned to them. Their master, Hajino Nakamoto, recognizing the sanctity of the statue, enshrined it in his house, and then in 645 the holy man Shokai built the first temple on this location.

Commissioned by Tokugawa Iemitsu and during the Edo Period in 1649, it managed to, unlike its neighboring structures, survive the Tokyo air raids of 1945. The temple is constructed in the gongen-zukuri (権現造) style, also known as ishi-no-ma-zukuri (石の間造), yatsumune-zukuri (八棟造) and miyadera-zukuri (宮寺造), with the haiden, or worship hall, and the honden, or main sanctuary, interconnected under the same roof in the shape of an H.

Tokyo - Asakusa: Asakusa-jinja

nobody@flickr.com (wallyg) — Fri, 27 May 2011 17:12:34 -0700

wallyg posted a photo:

Asakusa-jinja (浅草神社), or the Asakusa Shrine, also known as Sanja-sama, or "Shrine of the Three Gods", is a Shinto shrine honoring the three men who founded the adjacent, Sensō-ji—the Hikonuma brothers and their master. Legend says that in the year 628, the brothers Hinokuma Hamanari and Hinokuma Takenari, two fisherman, found a statue dedicated to the bodhisattva Kannon, also known as Guan Yin or the Goddess of Mercy, out of the Sumida River. Even though they put the statue back into the river, it always returned to them. Their master, Hajino Nakamoto, recognizing the sanctity of the statue, enshrined it in his house, and then in 645 the holy man Shokai built the first temple on this location.

Commissioned by Tokugawa Iemitsu and during the Edo Period in 1649, it managed to, unlike its neighboring structures, survive the Tokyo air raids of 1945. The temple is constructed in the gongen-zukuri (権現造) style, also known as ishi-no-ma-zukuri (石の間造), yatsumune-zukuri (八棟造) and miyadera-zukuri (宮寺造), with the haiden (拝殿), or worship hall, and the honden (本殿), or main sanctuary, interconnected under the same roof in the shape of an H.

Asakusa-jinja was designated an Important Cultural Property by the Japanese government in 1951.

Tokyo - Asakusa: Asakusa-jinja - Shishi

nobody@flickr.com (wallyg) — Fri, 27 May 2011 17:12:24 -0700

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Tokyo - Tsukiji: Namiyoke inari-jinja - Inari Shishi

nobody@flickr.com (wallyg) — Mon, 23 May 2011 16:28:31 -0700

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Inari (pictured) and Benzaiten (弁才天, 弁財天), the goddess of water, fortune & agriculture. The larger of the two, for Inari, stands is 3.3 meters by 2.4 meters and is the largest shishigashira in Japan.

Namiyoke Inari celebrates its ceremonial rice planting in May, and its ceremonial harvest in August. The new rice harvested from the shrine field is then used to make an offering to the gods during the festival, and to make Nomiyoke sake, which is presented in a grand festival the following June.

Buenos Aires - La Boca: Museo de Bellas Artes de La Boca Quinquela Martín - Leona de Descanso

nobody@flickr.com (wallyg) — Thu, 23 Aug 2012 04:12:05 -0700

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Leona en Descanso by Amerigo Bonetti

Museo de Bellas Artes de La Boca Quinquela Martín, at Avenida Don Pedro de Mendoza 1835, was donated to the state as a cultural center in 1936 by Benito Quinquela Martín (1890-1977), a popular Argentine painter considered the port painter-par-excellence and the man who first put his native neighborhood of La Boca on the cultural map. His canvases, occasionally compared to Van Gogh's with their characteristic spatula marks, featured vibrant port scenes with frequent themes of fire, workers and ship graveyards. Today it contains his former studio on the third floor, a collection of Argentine art and painted wood bowsprits on the 2nd floor, and an elementary school on the first floor. A sculpted terrace offers unparalleled views of the La Boca neighborhood.

São Paulo - Parque do Ibirapuera: Leão

nobody@flickr.com (wallyg) — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 18:22:05 -0700

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Parque do Ibirapuera (Ibirapuera Park), a 400-acre, 2 square-kilometer urban oasis, opened to the public on August 21, 1954, for São Paulo's 400th anniversary. The park was designed by Brazilian landscape architect Roberto Burle Marx, with buildings designed by Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer. During high season, over 130,000 visitors enjoy the park's lakes, fountains, monuments, playgrounds and walking trails on a daily basis.

Parque Ibirapuera is also home to Pavilhão Manoel da Nóbrega Pavilion which houses Museu Afro Brasil, the Grande Marquise which houses Museu de Arte Moderna (MAM), Planetario do Ibirapuera, Auditório Ibirapuera, Oca do Ibirapuera, Ginasio do Ibirapuera, and the Cicillo Matarazzo Pavilion which houses the Museu de Arte Contemporânea da Universidade de São Paulo and events including the São Paulo Art Biennial and the São Paulo Fashion Week.

San Francisco - Lincoln Park: California Palace of the Legion of Honor

nobody@flickr.com (wallyg) — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 18:49:46 -0800

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Nara: Kasuga-taisha

nobody@flickr.com (wallyg) — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 11:29:44 -0700

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Kasuga-taisha (春日大社), or Kasuga Grand Shrine, is the head shrine for around 3,000 Kasuga Shrines spread throughout Japan. Originally established in 768 by the Fujiwara clan, it was completely rebuilt every 20 years according to Shintō tradition until the end of the Edo period.
Kasuga Taisha Shrine is famous for its 1,000 hanging lanterns in the shine main precinct. Kasuga Taisha Shrine is also famous for its 2,000 stone lanterns outside the main shrine precinct and along the path leading to the shrine.

Kasuga Shrine, along with several Buddhist temples including Tōdai-ji and Kōfuku-ji, the remains of Heijō Palace, and other sites in Nara, comprise the UNESCO World Heritage Site, Historic Monuments of Ancient Nara, inscribed in 1999.

Nikkō: Tōshō-gū - Yōmei-mon

nobody@flickr.com (wallyg) — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 19:27:47 -0700

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The Yōmei-mon (陽明門), or the Sunset Gate or Sunlight Gate, also known as the Higurashi-mon, or Twilight Gate or From Sunrise to Sunset Gate, as visitors can spend all day looking at it, was constructed in 1636. The 11.1-meter high, 7-meter wide, 4.4-meter wooden gate is more in the Chinese style than the Japanese style, lavishly decorated with glimmering gold leaf and 508 intricate, colored carvings.

A seated statue of Hideyoshi Toyotomi is placed on the right side of the gate, and a seated statue of Yoritomo Minamoto on the left.

The final supporting pillar of the gate is placed upside down--a deliberate error to introduce imperfection and thus avoid arousing envy in the gods.

Nikkō Tōshō-gū (日光東照宮) is a lavishly decorated shrine complex consisting of more than a dozen Shinto and Buddhist buildings set in a beautiful forest. It was initially built during the Edo period in 1617 by Tokugawa Hidetada (徳川秀忠), the second shogun, as a simple mausoleum for his father, Tokugawa Ieyasu (徳川家康) (1543-1615), the founder of the Tokugawa shogunate. Ieyasu was buried on Mount Kunozan on his death in 1616, but according to his testament, his remains were to be moved to their last resting place at Nikko. It was enlarged during the first half of the 187th century by Ieyasu’s grandson, Tokugawa Iemitsu (徳川家光), the third shogun. Some 15,000 craftsmen were employed on the construction of the Toshogu Shrine, most of them coming from Kyoto and Nara, where there was a great flowering of architecture at that period. The result was a complex of buildings with an over-lavish profusion of decoration, incorporating all the sumptuousness of the preceding Momoyama period.

Today the shrine is dedicated to the spirits of Ieyasu and two other of Japan's most influential historical personalities—Toyotomi Hideyoshi (豊臣秀吉) (1536-1598), a daimyo (territorial lord) in the Sengoku period who unified political factions of Japan; and Minamoto no Yorimoto (源頼朝) (1147-1199), the founder and the first shogun of the Kamakura Shogunate, ruling from 1192 until 1199.

Together with Rinnō-ji and Futarasan Shrine, Tōshō-gū forms the Shrines and Temples of Nikkō UNESCO World Heritage Site.