The guardian dog was watching the Seitenkyu Temple built over there from behind a pillar

Guardian dog at Seitenkyu Temple
Guardian dog at Seitenkyu Temple
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The guardian dog, his mouth open, looks at the building over there from behind a pillar. He seems unable to look straight ahead, unsure if this is reality or an illusion. He looks at it with an anxious sideways glance. The building is certainly in a style not often seen in Japan. The three-story roof is twisted and painted yellow, as is the roof of the pagoda on the side. The guardian dog is nestled in a gate without a door, called a "paifang," which is not common in Japan. The temple was so exotic, or more specifically, Taiwanese in appearance, that I almost thought I had teleported to a temple in Taiwan without realizing it.

That's not surprising. The Seitenkyu Temple in Sakado, Saitama, is a Taoist temple of Taiwanese descent. But it is not just any Taoist temple. It is a Taiwanese-style temple that took 15 years to build, using not only construction materials but also craftsmen from Taiwan. There is nothing Japanese about it, and it is so authentic that it has been described as having been moved from a temple somewhere in Taiwan. I had not been able to travel abroad for a while, so I decided to come here to fill my body with Taiwanese ingredients.

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Jan 2023 ARCHITECTURE SAITAMA

PHOTO DATA

No

12438

Shooting Date

Oct 2022

Posted On

January 31, 2023

Modified On

August 9, 2023

Place

Sakado, Saitama

Genre

Architectural Photography

Camera

SONY ALPHA 7R II

Lens

ZEISS BATIS 2/40 CF

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