The dashed spotlight of Senkoku-ishi arrived in May, 31 days before the summer solstice, but due to the pandemic, we have no report of its sighting this year of 2020. However, for July, we have two photographers contributing to this post. Normally the July dates are 7/15-7/22, around 31 days after the summer solstice. It rained for several days until July 19. As you can see from the above photo by Kikuko, it was a beautiful day in the mountains of the Iwaya Valley. The light show would begin around 1pm.
The photo on the left below was taken before the light show began. At 12:50 a patch of sunlight was beginning to enter the upper grotto, but it hadn’t yet reached the triangular face of the megalith. You can see the bumpy surface of this projection. The wire indicates where the dashes will appear. The right photo shows the dashes appearing at 1:04pm as the grazing sunbeam skims the tops of the bumps. These photos were taken by Chika.
The beauty of the dashed line, below, was captured at 1:08pm by Kikuko. Notice that the patch of light is about centered over the tip of the triangular face. There is also an oval on the floor below that matches the oval carved on top of this megalith.
The dashes began to shrink from about 1:15, and you can see a shorter pattern in this photo (left) of 1:22pm. At 1:36 pm (right), the dashes are disappearing as the patch of light moves on.
Please note that the wire had been moved some time before Chika took these last two photos.
Thank you to Kikuko and Chika for sharing your photos with us.
The next main event at the Kanayama Megaliths will take place on August 20. This is one of the astronomical cross-quarter dates, about 60 days after the solstice and 30 days before the next equinox. It is an important to mark the solar calendar.
***
Iwaya-Iwakage of Kanayama Megaliths 