After I came back to Japan from my trip to Germany (meeting family and friends) and Ukraine (visiting Prypiat and Chernobyl) I kinda lost my drive a bit – living in Japan is way more wearing than you might think and which haikyo could really compete with an abandoned city in the middle of a radioactively contaminated zone? Going with Mike Grist to Nara Dreamland was exciting, but I’ve been to Dreamland before. Going to the Doctor’s Shack with the Gakuranman was interesting, but the place was already trashed pretty badly. Haikyo hiking alone was relaxing, but… well, it was haikyo hiking. Been there, done that many times. Eight weeks and tons of German sweets after I returned to Kansai I met Michael Gakuran again…
About 4 months ago Michael posted a location he called The Lost Subterranean Shrine, an original find he located in early summer. If he would have kept the location a secret and took it to his grave I don’t think anybody could have blamed him for that. You just don’t come across tunnels with religious artifacts – and vandalism as well as theft are common urbex problems, also in Japan. Nevertheless Michael guided me there and I’m even more grateful for that than I was when he showed me the Doctor’s Shack.
Reaching the entrance of the Lost Subterranean Shrine I was exhausted: Half up a mountain and lunch skipped the pouring rain was killing me – especially since I didn’t bring an umbrella. Michael removed the gate at the entrance to the tunnel and we both let out a little scream looking at the hand size creatures on the walls – Michael of joy (he loves critters of all kinds), me of disgust as I like my nature tamed – or grilled… I decided to keep the soaking wet towel on my head, just in case one of those chitin bastards decided to fall on me, and entered the tunnel, which at about 1.70 meters was 20 cm too low for me. This posture of humility was kind of appropriate considering what I was about to see, but it was nevertheless far from being comfortable. Neither was the insanely high humidity you could actually see in the beams of the flashlights we were carrying. After about 40 meters into the tunnel I saw a statue standing at a bifurcation, brightened by the beam of my flashlight – left: dead end, right: continue. After another 40 meters we reached a cave of maybe 15 by 15 meters with two rather small stone tables and a couple of stone stools around. The head end of the room had kind of an altar with several statues, vases and busts, flanked by a beautiful but damaged vase to the left and a simple brown one to the right – judging by their style the items must be from the south; Okinawa, maybe even Taiwan or China. On the main end of the altar were two openings right at the ground, leading to a secret room as Michael found out previously. Being 1.92m tall and blessed with a broad back I passed on crawling through the tight openings and started shooting. Or at least I tried. I never shot in complete darkness before and since I had my wide-angle lens mounted I couldn’t even use the flash since it creates nasty shadows on the pictures – switching the lens was not an option either as the humidity was crazy inside the cave and it was raining outside. Luckily I had some experience shooting manual thanks to my visit to Nara Dreamland at night and so I grabbed my tripod and two flashlights and started improvising. Playing around with different settings and ways to direct the lights was fun, but extremely exhausting, especially at the altar part because there the ceiling was way lower than in the rest of the comfortably sized cave room. Since it was getting dark outside our time was limited and after about half an hour we had to leave, although I wasn’t nearly pleased with what I had seen on the LCD of my D90 – we had quite a walk in front of us through pouring rain, making me worried if my camera would survive.
Well, the camera survived and I was even spared the week long cold I expected to get. What I got instead was a couple of surprisingly good shots of the vases and busts – never trust a camera monitor, especially when feeling tired and worn out.
Looking back at the exploration of the Lost Subterranean Shrine from the comfort of my apartment actually re-ignited my haikyo fire. When I came home that day I was just exhausted: It took me almost 16 hours and 9000 Yen to get to the place and back, I got caught by a rainstorm, had to drag myself up half a mountain, it was cold and humid, the walls were covered with really nasty beasts, I had to shoot under the most difficult conditions so far and on the way home I was soaking wet, smelling so bad I couldn’t stand it myself. But it’s not the average abandoned hotel on a sunny day that’ll stay in my mind. It’s an adventure like this with a friend like Michael and pictures like those…
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- Subterranean Shrine
Addendum 2010-12-01: As I mentioned in the comments I wrote e-mails to my former professors for Japanese History and I’m very grateful they answered quickly although they had barely any information about the place.
One assumed that the busts might depict the former owner / founder of another haikyo in walking distance, the rest being typical items of a butsudan plus some items the man might have liked when he was still alive. Another professor had a closer look at the vases and thinks that they are not that old, rather from “modern” industrial production, since their colors are very strong and not faded at all – maybe pre-WWII, especially since the busts include suits, not kimonos; going along with what sumi said. She guesses that the items were put there during WWII to protect them from American bombardments during the war. It’s possible that the owner(s) didn’t survive the war and therefore the place was forgotten. Then I asked an archaeologist for advice and she wrote me that the items by themselves are of no monetary value whatsoever. Stuff like that would be available in local “antique” junk shops, even the busts have more personal / sentimental value than actual monetary value.
Since we can’t be sure that the place is really abandoned (just because it looks like it doesn’t mean that nobody goes there anymore or claims it as their possession) and the things don’t seem to be of real value I decided not to take any actions. Maybe the place will be left alone for another 30 or 40 years and then the cave and its items might be interesting to some local historians…
Abandoned Kansai 
Awesome shots and great writeup man! It’s a real challenge shooting in the dark with all those bugs and soaking wet clothes. I have real respect for you after coming all the way and hiking up the despite the pouring rain to see these relics. All part of earning the explorer’s stripes I suppose :).
Man, that was quite an adventure and I enjoyed every second of it. Quietly, most of the time, but like I said: It’s that kind of exploration that will stay stay with us. Not the easy going neighbourhood haikyo. So far my favorite location in Japan!
Wow! Those are impressive! Glad that no one besides you and Michael know where that is at – because if they did, that stuff would be gone in an instant. I would imagine those vases are worth quite a pretty penny. Any speculation as to when it was used? (what time frame)
Well, technically three people know about the place – Mike was with a friend when he found the shrine. Every blog entry potentially hurts a place (IMO), but if everybody keeps quiet about the location I think it will be in good shape for many, many years. Sadly I know nothing about the shrine, but it had electricty installed at one point (you can see some remains on the picture with the stools) – I have no idea though when the place was constructed or abandoned.
I found your photos from the Gakuranman website. They are very intriguing. Your pictures show the second marble portrait scupture and some really nice Japanese pottery too.
It looks to me like an accumulation of artworks taken from various locations and placed here over a long period of time, as if they had been either stolen or maybe scavenged from abandoned houses. It does have the feeling of a shrine somehow because of the Buddha and the Buddhist imagery on vases.
This is no ordinary haikyo. I really think you should report this find to authorities because of these objects’ value. It’s only a matter of time until someone takes a lot more than pictures of that cave, or worse, everything could be vandalized.
Hi sumi,
thanks a lot for your comment. Today I wrote an e-mail to my former professors (I studied Japanese history) to ask them for advice and I will get in contact with Michael about the topic soon. Stolen or not, if the items are of historical value they should be put into the safety of a museum – I totally agree with that!
You have done the right thing. This is what I would have done too.
The 2 marble portrait busts definitely belong in a museum. They are outstanding. They were done by a professional who worked in a style reminding me of Rodin, with the base left unfinished. They could be from the 1920s or 30s.
The ornamental marble vase with the grapes belonged to a western style place too.
I’m no expert in Chinese vases but these are beautiful and should be preserved.
On the shelves photographed by Gakuranman, there is an accumulation of Chinese style vases and an ancient style incense burner. The table and stools are Chinese style too, and may have been placed there because it was a meeting place. The fact that there is an electric light fixture might show people came to this place regularly.
Since there is a photo showing the landscape in which this cave is located, I’m afraid a treasure hunter might look for it.
Let me know what your professors say!
Still doing research, but we are getting closer – I’ll let you know when we come to a conclusion.
I can’t believe that the only coherent thought I have for this excellent write-up of a Haikyo Treasure is “Were the bugs really hand-sized?”
Bugs really creep me out so I hope you’ll forgive me 🙂
And wow, 1.92 cm is so tall! I’m only 5’4 so I guess the cave would have been more my size.
Hey Leni,
thanks a lot! This place was such an amazing location that it was very easy to write about it and I enjoyed both parts equally.
Being tall as me was a problem more than once already – overall it can be quite an advantage being of average size and weight when doing urban exploration.
If I remember correctly Michael took some pictures of the insects and I’m sure he’ll put them up in a “revisited” posting or something like that one day. I had a silent agreement with those creatures that I won’t bother them if they won’t bother me…
One of the vases has a clear family crest I recognize from Kyushu. I looked on Gakuranman’s blog and he has more and clearer photos of this same crest on vases. If confirmed, they wouldn’t be Chinese vases. The location I’ve got in mind was big into pottery.
In any event, I’m appreciating your concern for secrecy and respect for the site. I’ve seen similar places in my journeys in Japan.
Thanks a lot, Alan. Maybe we will be able to put the puzzle pieces together with some more hints.
Great find and great work to get all of these photos! As a fellow shutterbug I can relate to the fear you felt for your camera.
I have nothing to add to this, but a huge question mark as to how your friend found this place in the first place?! He must have some local contacts who should know more about it.
It looks to me like the vases and bust were made by the same sculptor, I’d say Chinese manufacturing, 1980’s, 1990’s. They should have manufacturing info on the underside. If the stuff was any older it would have more “wildlife” (fungus, algae etc.).
You can quite easily locate the current owner of this place though, but I guess you know that already…? (^-^)
Let’s hope this place remains undiscovered for a long time!
Unless you do a lot of research on possible urbex location your best chance of finding a place to explore is to keep your eyes open – I guess that’s how Michael found this shrine. I can’t say a lot more about it without giving away too much, but knowing where the place is I’m actually kind of surprised that it doesn’t appear a lot more often on the internet.
If I ever have the chance to go back there I’ll have a closer look at the vases and bust to look for some signs / marks. Sadly the place is far away from where I live, so it might take me a while…
But I totally agree: Let’s hope this place remains undiscovered for a long time! Too many locations have been severely vandalized over the last couple of years…
Amazing and so very interesting! Thanks.
Thanks – the shrine is still one of my favorite locations. And still one of the most secret ones!
As someone stated before the crest on the vases does indeed resemble the well known family crest of the Shimadzu clan who were/are known for beginning the modernization of japan (near kagoshima).
But my guess is that the vases have nothing to with Shimadzu, though I certinly would like to know the story behind the pace.