This is a black-crowned night heron, goisagi in Japanese. They have tremendous patience and wait absolutely motionless for the opportunity to snatch a fish.

The five levels represent earth, water, fire, wind and cosmos. There are no stories, just a bit of a crawlspace platform up a Ladder so that miyadaiku carpenters can access the central post and its ingenious mechanisms.

I assure you, the blowing of conch-shell horns by priests is still a thing in Japan. Last month, as they do every January, Shugendō Yamabushi mountain ascetics (a syncretic religion) walked in rows around Kyoto blowing horns and wailing.