Places I'm Visiting: Japan 2025 – Usuki

In the past few days, I've been traveling through Kyushu, the southernmost of Japan's four main islands. Kind of a whirlwind tour. We crossed over from Shikoku by car ferry landing very near  Usuki, which is famous for an area with buddhist statues carved into rock faces of tuff, a soft rock of welded volcanic ash. The carvings date from the late Heian to early Kamakura period, which puts them early in the 12th century. 

I was last in Usuki 48 years ago. I first visited Japan in 1977 as a high school exchange student. One of my host families owned a tile factory of renown that made the roof tiles for several famous buildings including Matsuyama Castle and the Glover House in Nagasaki, the oldest surviving Western-style wooden house in Japan. I went along on a trip to inspect the Glover House tiles. 

Memory is unreliable. At Usui I remember seeing mostly a single large carved stone head. I have no recollection of the many  standing and seated figures carved into the rock there. 

In any case, the place looks very different today, nearly half a century later. The head I remembered has been restored to the body it came from, a parking area has been added, pathways have been created and structures have been built over the statues to protect them from the weather. In addition, they've been designated as National Treasures (in 1995) since I last saw them. The place was familiar and strange at the same time. 

It was interesting to see Royal Ferns here (and many more at other locations in Kyushu). These are one of the Osmunda ferns that are unusual in that their spores are borne on entirely separate structures from the fronds (most ferns bear spores on fertile fronds that otherwise resemble the non-fertile fronds). I've tried to grow Royal Fern in the past, but never had much success. It was a pleasure to see them happy in their natural habitat.