A small temple where women pray for an easy delivery.

A small temple where women pray for an easy delivery., originally uploaded by photoholic image.

This small temple is dedicated to Goddess of Mercy and it is called "Kan-non-do San-no-miya　(観音堂産の宮）" commonly known as "Kyosha-do(香車堂）" among local people.
You can see so many pentagonal shaped wooden pieces on which two characters are written like "香車" saying "Kyosha" that is one of pieces of Japanese Chess called Shogi. The chess piece of Kyosha can move straight forward only so that people thought it can be associated with an easy delivery.
An old tradition in this region has it that pregnant women have an easy delivery of a baby if they borrow any one of pieces of Kyosha from here and bring it back to their home.
After the birth of a baby, women come back to this temple to return the piece of Kyosha with new one as a thank to the deity. Therefore, number of piece of Kyosha are increased gradually.

an old cherry tree in full bloom

an old cherry tree in full bloom, originally uploaded by photoholic's images.

This is an image of my most favorite place, especially in cherry blossom season, where is an approach road to the old and historic Buddhism temple.
There are many old cherry trees on both side of approach road

taken by EOS40D Carl Zeiss Planar T*1.4 50mm 1/400 f/3.5 ISO200 Aperture Priority AE

歴史的な古刹への参道で、特に、桜の時期にはもっとも好きな場所のイメージであります。
道路の両側には、古い桜の木が沢山あります。