六郷満山開山1300年〜神仏習合の発祥の地 国東半島宇佐地域〜

Muira Baien (1723-1789), born into the family of a physician, spent most of his life in a small village in central Kunisaki and followed his father in also becoming a physician. A prolific thinker, Baien also became a philosopher, scientist and astronomer whose fame spread throughout Edo Japan. He often received requests to serve as teacher and advisor to daimyo feudal lords but just as often refused, only wishing devote his life to scholarship and remain in his home village.

After the usual training in Chinese classics for young men of his social status, Miura travelled to Nagasaki for further education in Rangaku, as European studies of physics, medicine and economy were then known in Japan. Here he developed an admiration for Western experimentation and an opposition to the then common reliance in Japan on the authority of traditional Eastern classics.

Baien’s three main philosophical works are: Gengo or Abstruse Language, an exposition of logic; Zeigo or Superfluous Language, an exposition of the philosophy of nature; and Kango or Presumptuous Language, an exposition of ethics which appealed to reason and nature, rather than written doctrine or tradition, as the sources of knowledge. Gengo is regarded highly because it expounds his original ideas on jorigaku or rationalist studies, logic based not on ancient authority but on rationality and scientific experiment. Jorigaku was an important precursor to modern, Japanese scientific and philosophical thought. Baien also wrote Kagen or The Origin of Value, which discusses wealth and poverty.

Imi was an important port in the Edo Period (1603-1868), which is attested to by the impressive Hachiman shrine in extensive grounds adjacent to small dock. Today, however, it is a sleepy town that momentarily bustles into life each time the ferry, which shuttles between here and the nearby island of Himeshima, arrives at the small dock.
Picturesquely set aside the Seto Inland Sea, Imi is a delightful place to stroll around. Touinryo, an old sake brewery that has been lovingly restored and given a new lease of life as a gallery and cafe, has found itself at the heart of a growing community of artists that have found home and inspiration here.

Baien-no-Sato is a small, onsen hot spring resort atop a hill in the centre of the Kunisaki Peninsula. It also has the additional and very unusual attraction for a hotel of a 65cm reflecting telescope used for star gazing into our Universe and far beyond into deep space.

The skies above Kunisaki suffer little from man-made light pollution making it an ideal position to locate such a complex and expensive piece of equipment. However, it was also placed here to celebrate Miura Baien, local son and famed in Edo Period Japan as a philosopher, economist, scientist and astronomer. The Muira Baien Museum, found close by to Baien-no-Sato in the valley below, retains his family home, a traditional thatched house, and archive.

An annual festival of art and crafts centred on the delightful port town of Imi in Kunimi on the north coast of the Kunisaki Peninsula. Held over three days on a May bank holiday weekend, the festival introduces the the work of the artists who have made their home in Kunimi along with others from further afield. Pop-up galleries join established galleries, such as Touinryo, La Paloma and Suzume-gusa, while artists welcome visitors to their studios.