A sculpted image of the deity of good fortune Daikokuten (大黒天) dating to the very early 9th century at Kongōrinji Temple (金剛輪寺) in Aishō Town, Shiga Prefecture, said to be one of if not the earliest example of this particular deity in Japan and here seen during a rare unveiling lasting until December 10, 2023
A tanuki in front of the Keimei Waterfall in Kōka, Shiga Prefecture, Japan.
Courtesy of Wikipedia: The tanuki has a long history in Japanese legend and folklore. Bake-danuki (化け狸) are a kind of tanuki yōkai (supernatural beings) found in the classics and in the mythology and legends of various places in Japan.
Although the tanuki is a natural, extant animal, the bake-danuki in literature has always been depicted as a strange, even supernatural animal. The earliest appearance of the bake-danuki in literature is in the chapter about Empress Suiko in the Nihon Shoki written during the Nara period. There are such passages as "in two months of spring, there is tanuki in the country of Mutsu (春二月陸奥有狢), they turn into humans and sing songs (化人以歌)". Bake-danuki subsequently appears in such classics as the Nihon Ryōiki and the Uji Shūi Monogatari. In some regions of Japan, bake-danuki is reputed to have abilities similar to those attributed to kitsune (foxes): they can shapeshift into other things or people and possess human beings.
The largest body of water in Japan is the Biwa lake. Located in Shiga prefecture.At its deepest point is 41 meters.It covers an area of 670.4 square kilometers. Points of interest are many but the most famous is the Hikone castle dating back to the 17th century.Pic-and words by Sergio Guyman.
A hanging scroll of the Hie Sanno Mandara (日吉山王曼荼羅), a mandala depicting the local deities of Hie Jinja Shrine (日吉神社), i.e. present-day Hiyoshi Taisha Grand Shrine (日吉大社) in Ōtsu, Shiga Prefecture, as manifestations of the Buddhist divinities of Mount Hiei (比叡山) north of Kyoto, with the deities and divinities matched up throughout the landscape of the mountain
Color on silk dating to the Kamakura period (1185-1333) from the collection of Hyakusaiji Temple (百済寺) in Higashiōmi, Shiga Prefecture
Image from "Shintō: The Sacred Art of Ancient Japan" edited by Victor Harris, published by the British Museum Press. 2001, page 173
An underrated prefecture in Japan which is not as touristy and crowed as Kyoto but not as remote and isolated as the countryside but still as beautiful.