Tamanooya Jinja

Tamanooya Jinja.

In the small city of Hofu in Yamaguchi Prefecture, sits a shrine devoted to one of the most ancient kinds of craftsmanship — the making of small, precious things from translucent stone.

In old Japan, "tama" meant a polished bead, a curved magatama, a piece of jade or jasper, anything in which light could become caught. The maker of these objects worked at a scale most people no longer pay attention to. Their tools were simple. Their patience was extreme. And the things they produced were small enough that one could be hidden in a closed hand.

The shrine has been honored for over thirteen hundred years as the spiritual home of this craft.

Today, by an unexpected continuation, this same shrine is recognized as the patron place for modern eyeglass-makers. Lens grinders. Optical laboratories. The connection — translucent stone, polished by hand into a shape that captures and bends light — has not actually changed. Only the use has.

Around the shrine, a small population of black-feathered chickens still wanders the grounds. The Kuro-Kashiwa, considered the original chicken breed of Japan. Their crows are unusually long, drawn-out, almost musical. They have been here for generations, scratching at the same soil their ancestors did.

Stand at the modest entrance. The ground is bare and clean.

Some places hold the memory of attention to small things. Most of us, in our hurried lives, forget what that level of attention even feels like.

This shrine, by simply continuing, remembers for us.