See U in Kyoto!!

How to apply Saiho-ji Temple (Moss Garden)

2009-11-13T02:29:00.005+09:00

Sorry I haven't updated my blog for a long, long time!!

Here are the photos I took in the middle of October @Moss garden.
Now is a good time to see coloured leaves there, I'm sure. ;D

Since I've written about this temple, I've got the same question from a few people. It was 'how to apply Moss Garden from overseas.'

Here's the answer. :)

Send the following information to Saihoji Temple.
(Moss garden's real name is Saihoji Temple)
**You had better type it as it's hard for the Japanese to read English handwriting.

1. Your name & address
2. Number of people to visit the temple in total
3. The date you want to visit (You'd better write down 2 dates)
and
4. Envelop for reply with your name & address on it

They advise you to post the letter 2 months prior to your visit.

Address of Saihoji Temple is:
56 Jingaya cho, Matsuo
Nishikyo-ku, Kyoto
615-8286 Japan

Saiho-ji used to ask a person in a foreign country to enclose an international reply coupon with the information above, but I heard you cannot get it anymore.
If you cannot purchase it in your country, just forget about it. They will give you a permission anyway.

As I've written before, admission fee for Moss Garden is 3,000 yen per person. (33 USD @today's rate)

Duck tour in Osaka

2009-08-31T16:50:00.013+09:00

From Kyoto to Osaka, it only takes half an hour by JR express train. By Keihan or Hankyu rail ways, it takes about 40 minutes. It might be a good option to have a day trip to Osaka♪

This year Osaka has been having a tourist promotion 'Aqua Metropolis Osaka 2009' and one of the attractions is Duck Tour Osaka.

This is newly built Hachikenya pier in Temmabashi for duck tours.

During a tour, a guide tells you a history of the duck tour in Osaka, about a bus (or a ship) and where to look at... in Japanese.

From Hachikenya pier to a launching point, we had a short on-land tour of Osaka.

This is OAP (Osaka Amenity Park) consists of Imperial Hotel, residential towers and an office building.

Five minutes later, we had the most exciting moment in this tour.. Launching!! But sorry, it happened so quickly that I couldn't get a photo. =(
(And I'm afraid photos couldn't explain how exciting it was...)

Now a bus became a ship!

And we are watching OBP = Osaka Business Park.

This area used to have an armaments factory and the whole area was in ruins following the concentric bombing in 1945.

Here you see Osaka castle with lots of railway cables.

If you wanna climb it up, you can walk from Hachikenya pier to the castle. (20 minutes on foot.)

This is the back side of Hachikenya pier.

It has a French restaurant where you can have a wedding party. ;D

The view of OAP from the ship.

After a ship returns from the river & becomes a bus again, it has to have 10 minutes break at the pier under the regulation.

This is where it launched & landed in.

Wet tires tell us it was a ship 2 minutes ago. :D

The car number '808' is the symbolic number for this tour. As I said Osaka is now promoting itself as an aqua city. It is known for having lots of bridges. During Edo period 808 was the number meaning 'a lot' and people said Osaka had 808 bridges. (In fact, there were about 200 bridges though...)

On the way back to Hachikenya, we had another on-land tour.

This is the famous scenery of Osaka in Dotonbori area.

In my opinion, this 3,600-yen tour (on season price) was worth trying! You can see Osaka city which you cannot see if you travel by subway.

Moss Garden.... Saihoji Temple （西芳寺）

2009-07-05T19:21:00.009+09:00

In the end of June, I visited Saihoji Temple known as Moss Garden, which is one of the 17 properties of the World Heritage Sites registered as "Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto".

However, this temple is not a 'sightseeing temple.'

Advanced reservations required by a Japanese reply postal card. So if you're not a resident in Japan, you'd better ask a travel egency to make a reservation for you.
(If you want to do it by yourself, let me know. I can tell you how to. :D )

And admission fee @3,000 yen per person (30USD) is not cheap. This includes a fee to join a Buddhism ceremony to chant & copy Buddhist sutra. At this temple, joining the ceremony is of principal importance and seeing the garden comes in the second place.

Well, let me tell you a little bit of the history of this temple.

Although there's a lack of any conclusive evidence, but it is said there used to be a villa of Prince Shōtoku in the early 7th century. And about 100 years later, Priest Gyoki , who exerted himself for construction of the Great Buddha of Nara, founded a temple of Hoso sect in 8th century.

It was devastated in 14 century, but a famous landscaper Muso Kokushi refurbished it in 1339.

Now it is said that more than 120 species of moss are flowing over the ground in the central garden.

The amazing thing is....

...it was never planned to be covered in moss.

It is considered this scenery was born in 18th to 19th century. Now we can enjoy what Muso Kokushi could not see or imagine. ;P

The garden of Saihoji Temple is divided into two parts. One the circuit-style with woods and pond while the other is the stone garden style.

The circuit-style part has a pond in the shape of '心(kokoro)' , the Chinese character meaning 'heart' or 'mind'. So carefully watching this garden may lead you to reexamine yourself.

The stone garden is halfway up a hill.

And this is thought to be the first dry garden in Japan.

All the Japanese stone gardens including the famous rock garden at Ryoan-ji may not be seen without this garden as an example.

This garden is said to signify the water flow of waterfalls. Can you imagine that??

2009-07-03T08:02:00.014+09:00

Mimurotoji Temple is a temple

in Uji area which is famous for

having two of the world heritage sites,

the Phenix Hall of Byodoin Temple

and Uji-gami shrine.

Mimurotoji Temple is an honorary head temple of Honzan-Shugen-shu sect and was founded in the late 8th century.

There is an interesting story as the origin of this temple. It is said that one night Emperor Konin (709-781) found a light thrown from Uji area, so he dispatched an officer to find the source of the light. Then the officer found a image of Bodhisattva (Kannon) in the stream of Shizu river. Emepror Konin founded a temple to enshrine the image, and it's now called Mimurotoji temple.

Mimurotoji Temple is known as 'Flower Temple.'

The garden has 20,000 azaleas & 1,000 alpine roses which bloom from end of April to early May. In June, we can enjoy 10,000 hydrangeas in bloom come out. After hydrangeas, lotus flowers in 250 pots show their beautiful pink flowers. :D

Oh, here is a early bloomer of lotus.

Now Japan is in the rainy season and it means it's a time of hydrangeas.

I guess you don't need too much explanation. ;P
Please enjoy the beautiful flowers♪

To get this temple, take a public bus from either JR or Keihan Uji station. Or take Keihan line to Mimuroto station, then then 15 minutes on foot.

If you stay near Kyoto station, take JR. But if you're in the east part of Kyoto city such as Gion, Shijo, Shichijo, Higashiyama area, I recommend you to take Keihan line. Transfer @Chicho-jima. :)

Uji is a place of tea plantation. You will find lots of cafes & shops which offer you green-tea icecream! Walking from Mimuroto station to Mimurotoji temple made me enjoy the icecream even better. Bon Appetit★

Iris ensata@Shirokita Park

2009-07-01T19:40:00.013+09:00

Long time no see...

It's too late to talk about Iris ensata, but let me introduce you a nice park to visit in Osaka to see it. In Osaka, we can enjoy Iris ensata (a kind of Japanese iris) in bloom from mid May to mid June.

Shirokita park is a city park in east part of Osaka city. If you take a bus from Osaka station, it takes approx 20 minutes to Shirokita Park bus stop.

While irises are in full bloom, the park opens its Iris garden. (Admission @200yen per person).

This year, the iris season is over... I will (probably) inform you on the blog when the opening period is announed next year! :D

Iris swamp @Ota shrine

2009-05-12T21:48:00.012+09:00

I visited Ota shrine near Kamogamo shrine a few days ago.

(To see a map, refer to Kamigamo shrine HP)

Ota shrine is a sub-shrines of Kamigamo shrine which is one of the world heritage sites in Kyoto.

The deity of Ota shrine is Amenouzume who is known as a god of dancing & performing arts.

This small shrine is visited by many people only in this season...why??

Because of its famous iris swamp.

A poem to adremire the beauty of this iris swamp was read in 12 century, so this scenery has been seen for more than 800 hundred years!!

The irises start blooming in the biginning of May every year, and flowers can be enjoyed for about 2 weeks.

Now this iris swamp was designated as a national protected species in 1939.

The contrast of green & purple is gorgeous!

I shouldn't write too much explanation... maybe just photos are enough.

Hope you can feel the beauty of this scenery. ;P　

Hanami @Ninna-ji Temple (仁和寺)

2009-04-27T22:07:00.007+09:00

Ninnaji(仁和寺) is one of 17 world heritage sites in Kyoto. It was founded in 888, but, like most historic buildings in Kyoto, it suffered repeated destruction in wars and fires over the centuries.

Ninnaji used to be a monzeki temple, which has an abbot (top priest) from the imperial family by tradition. This tradition was over in Meiji period (about 100 years ago.)

In the map, red circle is where Ninnaji-is and blue circle shows Kyoto station.

Ninnaji(仁和寺) is one of my favorite temples in Kyoto. ;D It's nice to visit here anytime in a year, but this temple is famous for having a beautiful cherry garden in their backyard.

This cherry garden is noted for a rare, locally cultivated type of cherry tree, named Omuro Cherry. The blossoms of Omuro cherry trees open relatively late in a hamami season (usually a week later than other kinds of cherries.)

You may have noticed that Omuro chrry trees are lower than other kinds.

For example, this is a weeping cherry tree in Arashiyama.

You can see a person taking a photo on a left-hand-bottom corner a bit. :D

This is one of the reasons many people visit this special cherry garden every year.

In Kyoto, some people tease a girl with a button nose by calling her 'You are a Omuro cherry' because in Japanese we have a homonymous word 'hana' for both 'flower(花)' and 'nose(鼻).'

Oh, well, it's not bad to be like Omuro cherries, is it? They are so beautiful!!

Hanami @Heian Shrine (平安神宮)

2009-04-23T07:52:00.008+09:00

Hanami (花見) literally means 'flower viewing', but in Japan now it means 'viewing chrry blossoms in blooms.' Last year I put some photos of Philosopher's path & Gion. This year I introduce you other famous spot for cherry flowers. ;D

Let me talk about Heian Shrine today.

Heian Shrine is Shinto shrine (Shinto is Japanese original religion) was built in 1895 for the 1,100th anniversary of the establishment of Kyoto. So it's a pretty new shrine in Kyoto. Its main building is designed to imitate the main office of the original Kyoto Imperial Palace built in 8th century on a three-fourth scale.

The shrine is dedicated to Emperor Kanmu (the 50th) and Emperor Kōmei (121st). The former moved the capital to Kyoto, and the latter was the last emperor who lived in Kyoto as his son Emperor Meiji moved the capital to Tokyo.

Well, maybe it's too much explanation... I shall talk about the garden. Heian Shrine has a gorgeous garden famous for weeping cherry trees behind the main building.

Weeping cherries @Heian shrine are known for their bright colour.

This is a colour of weeping cherry we normally think of.

You can see the colour of flowers @Heian Shrine is much stronger.

The garden of full of pink, and full of people in this season.

It's said that there are more than 600 hundred kinds of cherry trees in Japan.

The number is growing each year due to breed improvement & find of new breeds.

Here you find about 10 kinds of different cherries including green cherry. :D

'Cherry flower & water' are our favorite scenery. We never get bored of seeing cherry blossoms in blooms, though we see them every year.

Tea experience @Ran Hotei (らん布袋)

2009-04-21T10:10:00.017+09:00

If you walk 5 minutes from Nijo Castle in Kyoto, you'll find a small cafe called 'Ran Hotei' (sorry, but only in Japanese) in Sanjo Shopping Street. This machiya cafe (machiya=町屋 are traditional wooden townhouses found a lot in Kyoto) is a place where you can experience Japanese tea ceremony. (2,500yen per person & advance reservation required.)

The grand floor is a cafe space. So you may not believe you can learn about tea ceremony here. But when you go up to the first floor, you find table-style tea ceremony space.

A formal tea ceremony is held in a room with tatami mats, but these days even Japanese people find it difficult to sit on tatami floors for a long time.

Here, you can see tea ceremony and ask questions sitting on a chair.

But before start, we go downstairs and visit the small garden in the back.

This garden with wooden bench is a waiting place. We come & wait here till the ceremony starts, but it's also a place where we forget our daily life and get ready for the ceremony.

Here, our host, Mr. Randall Channell explains what tea ceremony is, and brief procedures of tea ceremony and so on.

I shall call him 'Randy sensei' from now on. 'Sensei=先生' means 'teacher' or 'instructor' in Japanese.

Randy sensei is Canadian, and he started his tea study in 1985 and and received his first teaching license in 1996. He often shows up in media including TV and is pretty famous now throughout Japan. For more details of his life, please check his homepage.

After hearing his explanation and having Q&A Time, we go back upstairs. Then there waiting lovely sweets. Can you guess what the motif is? It's a Japanese medlar (枇杷)!! Sweets are definitely one of the most enjoyable things in tea ceremony (for me. ;P)

And now, he starts making tea. This tea making procedures is called 'otemae=お点前.' We see his otemae enjoying the sweets. If we have any questions, we are free to ask.

Even in Kyoto, there are a few places we can experience tea ceremony in English. Randy sensei is a native English speaker & an associate professor of Urasenke school. To solve your questions about tea ceremony, this is a right place to come.

Woops! Who is it?

Well, you can actually make a cup of tea by yourself @Ran Hotei.

After the tea ceremony, my friend and I stayed nearly an hour at cafe downstairs. (Yes, I must admit I have a piece of chocolate green tea cheese cake.) This cafe has both tatami space and table & chair space.

Although this building was totally renovated, you still find origina beams and walls.　A Japanese old machiya & art deco decoration matched well.

And it's fun to see antiques. This is a stair-type drawer or stairs with drawer function?? I don't know what you call it in English. If you have any ideas, please let me know!!

Doll's Festival （雛祭り）

2009-03-03T06:18:00.004+09:00

Today March 3rd is the day of Doll's Festival （雛祭り=Hinamatsuri） in Japan. It's also called the Girls' Festival as we specially pray for young gir's growth and happiness on this day.

Many families with girls display special dolls for this festival & dedicate peach blossoms to them. They are usually arranged on a five or seven-tiered stand covered with a red carpet because odd numbers are considered to be lucky numbers. This is the set of the dolls displayed at Kyoto Brighton Hotel.

At the top are the Emperor and Empress. The next step contains three court ladies followed by five musicians, two ministers, and three servants ending the bottom row in a five-tiered display. (In these photos, it's hard to see the ministers though...)

There are also small pieces of furniture, small meal dishes, and other things.

However, these days many families in Japan live in small apartments or houses, and they don't have enough space to display a huge doll set. So it's more common now to display the Emperor and Empress only.

These dolls were made by my friend. Can you guess what they are? Eggs!!! She is so clever & artistic ! And the dolls are so cute. ;D It's fun to look for many, different Hina dolls during this season in Japan. Each of them has a different & unique face.

Another name for this festival is Peach Festival (Momo no sekku) because of the peach blossom season on the old lunar calendar. So we see peach flowers everywhere around the this festival, and feel the spring is coming.

The origin of Hinamatsuri is an ancient Chinese practice in which the sin of the body and misfortune are transferred to a doll, and then removed by abandoning the doll on a river. Though the festival was originally for both boys and girls, it is now just for girls. The idea of dolls must have matched of lovely girls.

They are the sweets surved at my tea ceremony school last week. The mottif is the dolls (the Emperor & Empress)!

And the mottif of diamond-shaped sugar sweets is "Hishimochi" which you can see in the first photo. They are colored rice cakes, and all of the colors, red (or pink), white and green have meanins. The red is for chasing evil spirits away, the white is for purity, and the green is for health or long life.

Well, this festival is for YOUNG girls, but who cares? Happy Girls Day for GIRLS in all over the world!! And boys! Don't worry we have Boys Festival on May 5th. (3/3 and 5/5... you know how much we the Japanese love auspicious stuffs!)

Lantern Festival @Kasuga Shrine, Nara

2009-02-05T06:57:00.012+09:00

I visited Kasuga shrine in Nara on Feb 3rd. In Japan, we consider that this day is one of the days before changes in seasons. As ancient people were afraid spirits or ghosts mess around on seasonal watersheds , festivals and prayers have held throughout Japan for many, many years. As Maybe the idea is similar to Halloween.

Here at Kasuga shrine, Lantern Festival is held every year. This shrine is famous for nearly 3,000 lanterns donated by people since 12th century. This custom was begun by noble men, but later on it became popular among ordinary people, especially merchants.

Poeple donated lanterns praying for a wish (or wishes?) to come true. The oldest stone lantern was donated by a chief adviser to the Emperor, Tadamichi Fujiwara in 1137. But you know, it's not easy to fint it among 3000 lanterns.

Sacred & serene

By paying an admission fee (500yen), you can enter the inner shrine and see ambulatories with famous hanging lanterns. The oldest hanging lantern in this shrine was donated in 1038 by another chief adviser to the Emperor Yorimichi Fujiwara, known for estabilishing Phenix Hall in Uji, Kyoto.

Here, you totally forget your daily life & feel religious devotion of people succeed for nearly 1000 years.

If you have ever visited Nara, you would know why this lantern is special.

Deers, the symbol of Nara;P!!

A Happy New Year, 2009!!

2009-01-15T06:33:00.007+09:00

Long time no see...
Wish you had or are having wonderful winter holidays!

I went back to my hometown during my New Year holiday. Soon after Year 2009 began, one of my friends came to pick me up and we went to see the rising sun.

In Japan, there is a custom to see the rising sun on the New Year's day. The origin is a court function that the emperor say a prayer to the important Gods of Shinto and his ancestors around 5:30 am on Jan 1st. (This is an ongoing function.) Also, the main god of Shingo, Amaterasu Omikami is the God of Sun. So we still have an idea that the sun has the special energy as an avatar of the god.

Many people go to the seaside or some people even climb up Mt. Fuji to see it at a better spot. My friend I have sticked at the same cape on the Pacific coast for 3 years. Approx. 6:40, we went out of the car.... deadly cold!!

Aren't the clouds beautiful?

Yes, now I can see her head!!

Many people make prayers to it.
(-人-)

Although it is said that we, the Japanese, are not religious any more, we still cannot help feeling the god seeing this scenery.

Wishing Year 2009 be full of happiness & love to you all!!

Sweets Making at Oimatsu（和菓子教室）

2008-12-03T20:50:00.011+09:00

Kyoto is famous not only for temples & shrines, but also for Japanese sweets! When you walk around, you'd find so many sweets shops there.

There are so many kinds of Japanese sweets, but we shouldn't forget Kyoto is the centre of sweets for tea ceremony. Most of sweets for tea ceremony are made from beans & sugar. So even vegetarians can eat them without any problems.

I went to Oimatsu in Arashiyama area to attend a sweets-making class. You need to apply it in advance to have a private class. (3 people or more is required to hold a class.) Oimatsu (Sorry, but only in Japanese) is one of the prestigious sweets shops in Kyoto with nearly 100-year history. It's main shop is near Kitano Tanmangu Shrine, but only their Arashiyama shop holds the sweets class.

When we arrived at the class, all the materials and tools were already prepared. Unfortunately, I couldn't take photos while I was making sweets because it's like making ceramics and I could touch nothing but the bean paste.

But hey!! They look OK, don't they?

The brown ones are leaves... hope you agree with it.
The green ones are Camellia japonica.

These ones are models made by an instructor.

She showed us how to make them in front of us, so even I, the Queen of Clumsiness, could make them!
(＞▽＜)b

After making sweets following the instructor's examples, you can do freely.

Our instructor made them in front of us on a whim ∑o(*'o'*)o

And here's my work!

A Christmas Tree~~~♪

The colours of materials, green, yellow & pink, gave inspiration to me(*'-'*)　You can have one of the sweets with green tea (Maccha) there after the class.

Tea Festival in Uji (宇治の茶まつり)

2008-11-08T11:55:00.016+09:00

Hiya! It's been ages since I wrote the last post. I finally have time to sit down in front of my PC & update my blog♪ I've visited lot of places since then and now I have so many things to update. Let me go back to October today.

Every year, Tea Festival in Uji is held on the first Sunday of October. Uji is one of the two main producing areas of green tea in Japan. (The other is Shizuoka.)

This festival began after the World War II to express our appreciation to people who established & worked for tea ceremony. Expecially Zennist Eisai, Monk Myo-e and a tea ceremony master Sen-no Rikyu are important. In the beginning of 12th century, Zennist Eisai brought tea from China to Japan, and Monk Myo-e made the first tea farm in Uji. Sen-no Rikyu is the one who established tea ceremony in 15th century.

In thanks for their works, green tea, using this year's new tea leaf, is made & served in this festival. But first of all, what they do is to draw water from Uji river.

This tea must be very special(ё_ё)

Then the water is carried to Kosho-ji Temple where tea ceremony is held.

The water arrived at the temple,
then the ceremony began.

But they didn't just make a cup of tea.
First, they grinded fresh green leaf
with a stone mill.

You see, it's special!

Master Horinouchi, a tea master from Omote-sen school, makes a cup of tea for three great men. Even a tea master wears a mask when he makes tea at a temple or a shrine as he's making it for Gods, Budda and our forerunners.

In the end of the festival, tea masters visit the monument of tea whisks to show their gratitude. It's a memorial service for tea whisks. Does it sound strange? But the Japanese have thought that even tools have spirits. This idea is vanishing from the modern society, and I do wish it remain for many, many years to come.

The Japan folk crafts museum, Osaka

2008-10-09T12:22:00.008+09:00

Now The Japan folk crafts museum, Osaka (大阪日本民芸館) (Sorry, but only in Japanese) is now holding the special exhibition of Shoji Hamada (浜田庄司), a famous folk-art ceramist, in commemoration of the 30th year since his passing.

Shoji Hamada (1894 - 1978) was one of the main members of Mingei Movement started by Muneyoshi (or Soetsu) Yanagi. Mingei means 'folk crafts,' and this word was coined by Yanagi, too. .

"Yanagi Soetsu discovered beauty in everyday ordinary and utilitarian objects created by nameless and unknown craftsmen. According to Yanagi, utilitarian objects made by the common people are “beyond beauty and ugliness”." -From Wikipedia
More about Mingei movement, refer to HP of The Japan folk crafts museum (日本民芸館) in Tokyo.

.

The Japan folk crafts museum, Osaka was established as one of the exhibitions of Japan World Exposition in 1970. And it stayed in the Expo park as a museum after the Expo.

The Expo park is between Kyoto and Osaka, on the way to Osaka International Airport (Itami Airport) marked with orange. The green cirle shows the place of Osaka city. To get to the museum, you can take Hanshin Line from the city center of both Osaka and Kyoto to Ibaraki Station, then take a bus to the Expo Land. From Itami Airport, you can directly get there by monorail.

I have been surprised that many foreign tourists to Japan showed their interests in Mingei Movement. (I'm afraid many Japanese kids don't know about this movement though..) Oh, another good place to meet Mingei is Kawai Kanjiro Museun in Kyoto.

If you have a chance & interst, please do visit them(*'-')b !!

Indigo dyeing （藍染体験） Part 2

2008-10-02T23:48:00.014+09:00

So now, let's start indigo dyeing! The liquid in the barrels is colorant for dyeing. It has anmonical order...

First, we got to make a design on cloth. I chose a handkerchief, but you can choose it from a stole, a bag, a towel as well as a handkerchief('-'*)

They are the tools for making a design: clothespins, film canisters, small stones, rubber band, etc.

The places where the tools touch or nip wouldn't be dyed.

Are you ready? Then go for dyeing! The liquid with more bubbles is younger, meaning stronger. So if you prefer deep color, you'd better use younger one.

Souse the cloth in the colorant for about a minute, then rinse it with water. And repeat those works 3 or 4 times.

Do you think the color is deep enough? Then take the tools off.

And then,　dunk it in vinegar water.

Acid restores the color of indigo.

This one is my friend, Miya's work.

She's smart and always full of ideas.

Don't you feel it?

This one is Yuki's.

She's very organized,

and I can tell it from her design.

And this is mine!

(Sorry I'm not showing the whole design... I'm not artistic.)

They gave me a plastic bag & a seal to wrap.

It was fun, and I enjoyed it a lot(≧∇≦)b

By the way, Yamato-Koriyama is one of the best places for cherry-blossom viewing in Nara prefecture.

The ruin of Yamato-Koriyama castle is now a park with lots of cherry trees.

The season of cherry flower in Nara is in the beginning of April.

Why don't you come to Yamato-Koriyama to enjoy indigo dyeing, goldfish catching & cherry blossoms?
I may see you then(ﾟ∇^*)

Indigo dyeing （藍染体験） Part 1

2008-10-01T22:01:00.012+09:00

It's been cold in Kyoto & Osaka these days, but we are expecting to have hot days from tomorrow. What a strange weather!

Today I introduce a craft center called 'Kon-ya（紺屋）'where we can experience 'indigo dyeing.' But I must explain where Kon-ya is. It's in Yamato-Koriyama city in Nara prefecture. It takes about 50 minutes from Kyoto and 20 minutes from Nara city by train.

In this map, red one in the north is Kyoto city, one in south is Yamato-Koriyama, and green on is Nara. (Blue one is Osaka city.)

Yamato-koriyama is a city famous for indigo dyeing & goldfish. You'd see goldfish everywhere. Why don't you try goldfish catching with the local kids ;)?

And here's Kon-ya.

Kon-ya(紺屋) used to be a tradesmen's house, and renovated by the city.

Now Kon-ya is managed by the tourist association of the city.

Once you enter, you'd see pieces of work of indio dyeing. You may feel you are in a different time... maybe in Edo period.

　

In the next article, I'm going to talk & show photos of indigo dyeing experience. See you soon♪(*￣ー￣)ｖ

Genko-an （源光庵）

2008-09-22T21:25:00.010+09:00

Oh, my goodness!
I haven't posted a blog for more than a month<("0")>!!
What a terrible blogger I am!!

Anyway, hope everyone is all right☆*~ﾟ⌒('-'*)⌒ﾟ~*☆

I visited a temple called Genko-an (源光庵) a few days ago. Let me talk about it today.

This temple belongs to So-tou sect of the Zen Buddhism, and it's famous for two window called 'Mayoi no mado(迷いの窓)' and 'Satori no mado(悟りの窓)'.

Mado means 'window'. I would translate that 'Mayoi no mado(迷いの窓)' is 'the Window of Illusion or Anxiety' and 'Satori no mado(悟りの窓)' is 'the Window of Enlightenment or Nirvana'.

This square window is 'the Window of Illusion' and it expresses human being. We face with four sufferings, 生老病死(to be born, to get old, to be sick and to die) and cannot run away from them.

Also, I have another idea. A square has 4 corners, and they are sharpen. So they may symbolize bad points in people's minds. That's why we, human beings, have always had conflicts with the others in the history.

On the other hand, a circle has no corner. So no conflicts with the others. Once our mind becomes like a circle, we would be satisfied and serene. That's why, I think, this circle window may be called 'Satori no mado(悟りの窓)' meaning 'the Window of Enlightenment or Nirvana'.

In addition, the circle is emblematic of the space. So it's opposite of the human being. 'Circle' is an important factor in Zen Buddhism.

Sometimes I see a hanging scroll of '○' in a tea ceremony room where Zen Buddhism has given a strong influence.

Water festivel in Kifune （貴船の水まつり）

2008-07-24T18:45:00.011+09:00

Water festival is held at Kufune shrine on July 7th every year.

The origin of this festival is rain-making rituals.
Now is more like for showing our gratitude to water.

The festival consists of offering tea ceremony, dancing and cooking ceremony in front of the Gods. Tea cremony, of course, cannot be done without water, so it's the symbolic ceremony of this festival. And the cooking ceremony is offered by the special cooking school called Ikuma school. (sorry, but only in Japanese.)

Ancestors of the Ikuma school used to be cookers for the Imperial family. It is said that the current master is 29th-generation of the family.

At the ceremony, he cooks a fish in front of the god without touching it by his hands at all. (The fish is altarage for Gods, so it shouldn't be touched by men.)

We know we cannot survive without water. However, we hardly thank it.Attending this festival was a good oppurnity to think about water.

Plus, kifune is a famous spot for Kawayuka (川床= on-river restaurant.) As it's in the middle of the mountain, the temprature in Kifune is about 3C (5F?) lower than that in the downtown Kyoto. Kyoto people know how to enjoy hot & humid summer!

Noh mask (能面)

2008-06-21T20:48:00.013+09:00

Hello, I'm Mariko♡

Ha-ha! Am I scary?

I'm wearing a Noh mask.

Noh is Japan's oldest form theatrical art with performance, dance & music. It was listed for UNESCO world heritage with Kyogen in 2001. Most Noh repertoires have stories in them, but some only do abstract plots such as admiring beauty of iris flowers or thanking or praying for rich harvest.

It's formally played on the special Noh stage with a roof.

A main role or main roles of Noh wear special masks made of wood. Fortunately I had a chance to visit an atelier of Noh mask artist, Ms. Nakamura. (Sorry, but Japanese only.)

Wow∑o(*'o'*)o!!

Many masks welcomed me,

but some of them seemed

to have agony and

some to be sad.

Ms. Nakamura showed the process.

The Noh performers do not change their masks during the play. So a mask must not have only a kind of emotion with it.

It changes the expression when a performer moves, and it's possible because Noh masks are stereoscopic.

She looks

smiling to me.

What do you

think?

Obi Factory (帯工房)

2008-05-19T21:17:00.010+09:00

Today I'm showing my most favarite photos!!
When I see them, I really feel I'm happy to be a Japanese♡

Those photos were taken at an Obi(帯) factory in Kyoto.
I attended a class of Japanese culture for mature people called
'School of Tradition & Future (伝統未来塾)'　
and it took us to this factory.

The factory is called Obi-ya Sutematsu (帯屋捨松) (Sorry, but it's only in Japanese.) meaning Obi shop owned by Sutematsu. Actually Sutematsu was a name of 3rd owner.

By the way, obi is the sach for kimonos.

It's as important as kimono itself when we get dressed.
In a way, the combination or contrass of kimono and obi tells
if you are a smart kimono dresser or not.

But....

　

Aren't they just beautiful???

　

Red color in an obi is not expressed by only 1 kind of red thread,
and it consists of 2 or 3 kinds of red. It reminded me of oil painting.

What do you think?

Still now there are people who spin cocoon into yarn,
and someone dye yarn and it is used to be woven.

Thinking of this quick & fast modern world,
it sounds like very serene & calm procesures.

This lovely tool was used to spin cocoon in old days. ('-'*)

Furisode (振袖)

2008-04-24T14:13:00.011+09:00

Furi-sode (振袖) is the prime ceremonial cloth for unmarried women among kimonos. Furi (振) means 'swing' and sode (袖) means 'sleeves.' So Furisode has longer sleeves than the other kimonos.

Parents of Japanese girls used to make a set of Furisode for their daughters when girls became 20 years old. And the girls wore it for coming-of-age ceremonies. Now not so many parents do that. Some wear western dresses, and some rent Furisode from shops.

But I LOVE 振袖♡

I can only wear it when I'm single! (Well, physically I can wear Furisode after I get married, but it's strange.) So my sister & I wore it for our cousin's wedding party♬

My parets got these Furisodes made for our coming-of-age ceremonies. They are same cloth in different colours.

They look unpatterned, but actually they got white dots(ﾟ∇^*)! A fabric-dyeing artist sprinkled with wax before dyeing. After that, he washed the cloth, then un-dyed spots remain white.

The back of Obi belt (帯) can be tied in may shapes.

Can you see that the shapes of my sister's and my Obis are different? It's like Origami. We asked a professional kimono dresser to get us dressed.

She had such a wonderful technique, and made those shapes so quickly♥ I want to wear Furisode by myself, but you'd see it's not so easy! I don't think I can make those shapes on my back(＞▽＜；

Night view of Cherry blossoms （夜桜）

2008-04-18T21:32:00.005+09:00

We Japanese love watching cherry flowers at night.
It's called 夜桜 viewing.

夜桜 literally means night (夜) cherry flowers (桜).

Here are the real 夜桜 photos. ;)

Sorry they are not good ones.
It's very difficult to take nice photos of 夜桜!

Anyway, we Japanese love going to see cherry flowers at night. And many of us bring food and drinks to enjoy them under the cherry trees. So if you visit parks famous for 桜 during the cherry season, you may see some people go crazy drinking too much beer.

But seeing real cherry flowers is not only way to enjoy 桜. I take a tea ceremony lesson every week, and my teacher prepares special sweets for us. Those sweets express flowers or sceneries of the season. This week, they were cherry flowers!

Aren't they beautiful!? Every time when I open a sweet case, I get excited!! It's one of the best moments during the tea ceremony... (whoops, my mistake! The best moment must be when I start eating.)

So now it's time for Cherry blossom viewing!!

2008-04-07T15:29:00.009+09:00

Today it's raining here in Western Japan.
I'm sorry for full-bloomed cherry(桜) blossoms.

But I did all my enerty to enjoy beautiful cherry flowers last weekend♡♡♡ I have nothing to regret:)

This is Weeping Japanese Cherry, and it seems like a (pink) waterfall.

This one is Somei Yoshino (Prunus yedoensis.) Very popular & common kind of cherry now. I felt I was dreming when I saw this scenery. Flowers were moving like waves in the blue sky. 'Beautiful' wasn't enough to express the moment.

Woops, don't forget to see cherry branches with a river (water)! They make the best match♥

Oh, YES!! Now it's time for wearing kimono♬

Plum blossom viewing

2008-03-25T10:12:00.002+09:00

Long, long time no update!!
Last time I said 'Happy New Year!' and now it's a time to see
beautiful flowers all over the places.
Plum(梅) blossoms season is almost over, and now we expect
our National flower, cherry blossoms(桜) will come to bloom.

Well, now when we say 'bloom gazing(花見),' it means
we go to see cherry blossoms.
However, a thousand years ago, it meant '梅見',
enjoying plum blossoms.

I think, 梅 is more like teenage girls,
and 桜 have charms of elder ladies.

梅(plum) are lovely and smell very nice.
They cheer me up.

On the other hand, 桜(cherry) has mysterious beauty.
It might be said 'sensual.'

I'll update photos of cherry blossoms when the season comes.
Hope you compare those photos and let me know your impression. ;)

Hatsu-moude (初詣)

2008-01-14T21:54:00.000+09:00

Hatsu-moude (初詣）is the first visit of the year to a shrine.
'Hatsu’ means ‘first’ and ‘moude’ means ‘to go to worship.’

Many Japanese visit a shrine on the New Year's Day.
Some wait in a shrine from the night of New Year's Eve,
and go to worship as soon as a new year starts.

The red arch in the above photo is called 'Torii(鳥居),' and this is a symbol of Japanese shinto shrine. (So Buddism temples don't have it.)

When we visit a shrine, many of us take a fortune slip called 'Omikuji (おみくじ)'. It costs about 100 yen to 200 yen (50p to 1 pound.)
The Omikuji I took this year is this.
It tells about my life, health, love, etc of this year.
This year, my Omikuji was good one saying that my dreams come true, I would meet a nice guy!! So I kept it with me.

If you pick bad one and are not happy with it, you tie it with a branch of the shrine.
It means you leave your bad luck there.

We Japanese love fortune-telling and trying to check our own lucks.

Happy 2008!!

2008-01-11T16:20:00.000+09:00

Long time no updating...(-"-;A
Hope your 2008 be a lovely one!!

Well, I visited a bottega (craft center) of an embroider in Kyoto.
He's one of the best know embroiders in Japan, and famous for
specializing in Noh costumes.

Aren't they beautiful?! I got trembled when I saw them!
Of couse, they both were all handstitched.

Nowadays, we live in 'easy, instant same, cheaper is better' world. But seeing these artistic costumes, I felt we shouldn't lose this kind of cultures.

The world would be so boring if we wear same clothes and have same pictures in our rooms. I wish wonderful Japanese culture keeps going on, and your wonderful cultures do, too. ☆^(o≧▽ﾟ)o

Japanese autumn

2007-12-12T16:16:00.000+09:00

Is it too late to talk about autumn?
Oh, well, never mind! I can't help talking about this place.

I visited a templed called 廣誠院 (Kou-sei-in temple) on December 1st.

This traditional Japanese house is just behind Kyoto Kyoto Hotel Okura.
This year we had very warm autumn, so it was the best time to see
coloured leaves in Kyoto. (Normally it's the middle of November.)

Can you believe it? When I entered the state room (大広間）,

this scenery came into my eyes!!

This temple, built in 1892, used to be a villa of Kanetsune Ijuin.
He was Samurai before Meiji restoration, but after that became a businessman.
You can imagine how rich he was when you know he kept building more than 10 houses and villas! He only lived in this house for 4 years. What a happy man!!

The state room faces a pond. As the floor is raised, I felt this room was in the air.

This house has a very small room for tea ceremony. And it also looks like floating in the air.

The scenery from the circle window in the tea room was astonishing...

We can only enjoy the colour of autum for about 1 week at a place. So we feel it's precious and that's why we love it, isn't it?

I wouldn't forget these sceneries for many, many years to come.

桂離宮 - Katsura Rikyu (Palace in Katsura)

2007-10-29T13:42:00.000+09:00

A few days ago, I visited Katsura Rikyu, which is located on the west of Kyoto. Rikyu (離宮) means a detached palace, and this one was built in the 17th century.
The foundation of Katsura Rikyu was made by Prince Toshihito of the Hachijo family. He was a grandson of Go-Yozei Emperor, but didn't succeed to the Imperial throne. As the Imperial family did not have any political power at that time (the Samurai period,) they had little to do but write poetry, play their musical instruments and perform the tea ceremony etc.
So this palace has several tea rooms, a special place for seeing the moon, and a huge garden with a pond & a boat. (Noble people didn't walk around the garden, they used a boat!)

Can you see the mountain? This garden was designed to include that mountain. In Japan we call it 'Shakkei 借景.'

Shaku（借） means 'borrow,' so they 'borrowed' that mountain as a part of scenery.

Isn't it beautiful?? The weather was perfect!

Over the window, it's hard to see, but there's a rice field. This rice field was created just for this room. Nobles enjoyed seeing farm people work and rice grow.

In Autumn, this rice field must have been beautiful in golden colour. Nobles contemplated it from this room.

This room was closed during winter. When the rice field was empty, there was no reason to visit here.

The blue and white wall is a kind of symbol of Katsura Rikyuu. Many Japanese remember it when they hear about this palace.

The blue colour was derived from a very precious colourant, and it was donated by a famous Samurai family, Maeda in Kanazawa. The design of this wall is very simple, just a repeat of squares. But it gives a very refreshing impression.