Japan’s Goju-no-to Pagoda at Night.
Nikon D70/18-70G, 1/8s, f/3.5, 1400 ISO, +0.6 EV, 18mm Focal Length
Last time I was in Epcot, the Goju-no-to Pagoda in Epcot’s Japan pavilion was shrouded as Disney Imagineers were rehabbing it. I dug into my personal Walt Disney World photo archive and found this one I took back in 2007 for my Disney Pic of the Week on Japan.
Fun facts from AllEars.net: The five 5 levels of the Goju-no-to Pagoda, which is 85 feet tall, represent the elements from which Buddhists believe all things are created: earth, water, fire, wind and sky. Above the pagoda is a bronze, nine-ringed sorin, or spire, with gold wind chimes and a water flame.
Hello Scott,
Beautiful photo! I love the Japan pavilion. I’ve never paused to study the detail at the top of the pagoda. Do the wind chimes make a sound that you can hear from the promenade? What is a water flame?
Thanks,
Diane C.
Scott replies: Hi, Diane! I got our cracker jack AllEars research team right on this and here’s what they (Thanks, Erin!) came up with:
I’ve never heard the wind chimes while in the pavilion.
The water flame: I did research and its not easy to find anything other than the standard quote. But, I finally found this:
“This roof ornamentation is composed of nine rings, each with a host of wind chimes, to represent Buddhist deities and a water flame to protect the pagoda from fire. While the sorin is usually the sole enhancement to a temple to protect it from fire and to be used as a lightning rod, the goju-no-to in Epcot includes the addition of a more standard lightning rod at the peak of the sorin.”
So my guess is that perhaps it’s a symbol to ask protection from fire – hence the bells on it too, like the rings, but also has been adapted to be a lightning rod…. with Epcot making sure it had a Ben Franklin lightning rod too, just in case.
FYI: the pagoda has a basement too which houses the restaurant’s kitchens.