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Takeshima ("Island of Many Views") is a small island (600 m circumference) in Lake Biwa off Hikone, accessible by a short boat ride from Hikone Port.
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Takeshima shows many different shapes depending on your viewpoint. A Nichiren temple and the priest's family are on the island. Boat for Takeshima at Hikone Port. The island is only 6.5 km from Hikone.
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Hikone Port
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Hikone Castle as seen from Lake Biwa.
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Cormorants. There are to many of them and they deplete fisheries in the lake and cause forest damage.
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Kawau cormorants. Shiga has over 40,000 of these birds, and 30,000 of them live on Chikubushima whose trees are being destroyed by the droppings and branches broken off to make bird nests.
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To Takeshima
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Almost no one in the boat
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Takeshima in Hikone, Shiga. Map
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Nichiren Monument on Takeshima. This giant stone monument is inscribed with the prayer words "Namu Myo-horenge-kyo" from the Lotus Sutra. 南無妙法蓮華経
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Enter Takeshima
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Nichiren temple
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Lotus Sutra monument. In the early 17th century when the temple was built here, it took 3 years to carve out these characters on this stone slab. According to legend, this monument oozed blood when Ii Naosuke, Lord of Hikone, was assassinated in Tokyo.
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Nichiren statue. Nichiren was the founder of the Nichiren Sect of Japanese Buddhism.
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Nichiren statue is next to the giant stone monument.
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It says that the stone monument oozed blood when Ii Naosuke, Lord of Hikone, was assassinated in Tokyo by samurai radicals from Mito, Ibaraki Prefecture.
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View of Takeshima. Before the boat left, it circled around the island to show how different it looked from different angles.
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View of Takeshima
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View of Takeshima
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View of Takeshima
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View of Takeshima, an island with many shapes.
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Another view of Takeshima
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