Sunday, December 31, 2006

Clay wall


This is the outer wall of a temple and made of clay, old or broken tile roofs. These were used as a design pattern. It was a nice recycle system.
Anyway, have a happy New Year!!
Location by Google Map

Saturday, December 30, 2006

A house for viewing the moon


This used to be a small house for viewing the moon. There used to be no TV, radio, DVD, CD and movie in those days. Viewing the moon was one of the major enjoyment at night.

The sharp of roof is just like a bird and the house seems to be about to fly...

Location by Google Map

Friday, December 29, 2006

Zen garden 3

Ryoanji Temple, Kyoto sightseeing
This is a Zen garden in Ryoanji, the most famous one in Kyoto.
My personal thought about this garden
Location by Google Map

Thursday, December 28, 2006

Wooden floor

Katsura Imperial Villa, Kyoto sightseeing
This is a wooden floor and daily maintenance for many decades have made the grain show up and the floor mild and tasteful.
Location by Google Map

Wednesday, December 27, 2006

A dancing tree

Kyoto Gosho, Kyoto sightseeing
This is a cedar in a park in Kyoto. It looks like dancing. Or skating like Shizuka Arakawa, the gold medalist in Torino Olympic?


Location by Google Map

Monday, December 25, 2006

A wooden shelf

Zuiho-in, Daitokuji Temple, Kyoto sightseeing
This is a shelf in tea house and on the shelf are put some tools of tea ceremony.
Location by Google Map

Sunday, December 24, 2006

Checker board design part 3

Tofukuji Temple, Kyoto sightseeing
This is another checker board pattern in a temple, Tofukuji Temple. This pattern is composed of gravels and trimmed azaleas.

Location by Google Map

Saturday, December 23, 2006

Checker board design part 2

Tofukuji Temple, Kyoto sightseeing
This is another garden in a temple, Tofukuji Temple. This pattern is composed of mosses and stones.
Location by Google Map

Friday, December 22, 2006

Checker board design part 1

Tofukuji Temple, Kyoto sightseeing
This is a garden in a temple, Tofukuji Temple. This temple seems to like the pattern.
Location by Google Map

Thursday, December 21, 2006

Sand and the moon

Ginkakuji Temple, Kyoto sightseeing
There is a truncated cone behind a lower horizontal mould. Both of them are made of sand added with a little quartz. Why do they have quartz? Because they can receive the moonlight and shine softly when the night with a clear sky come.

These are made and are based on the pond and the moon. The moonlight turns the flat surface on the top of the truncated cone into the moon and the lower one with stripe pattern into the pond. We cannot see them at night since the temple is closed, but the object would be beautiful....

Location by Google Map

Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Old and new in Ginkakuji Temple

Ginkakuji Temple, Kyoto sightseeing
This is neither in a sandbox nor in a beach. This is an object in a garden of a temple. What purpose is it made for, anyway? The purpose is unclear but some says that a bonze used to heap up sand for sanding a path. The heap gradually turned to be like this.

This object looks rather modern. But more than 500 years old building also is in this temple. The old mixed with the modern in this temple.
Location by Google Map

Tuesday, December 19, 2006

A path to a teahouse

Daitokuji Temple, Kyoto sightseeing
This is a path to a teahouse. The distance between stepping stones is rather narrow. It is too dense for one step. Why are they put so dense? Because people walk on the stones slowly and enjoy seeing the garden fully. The dense stepping stones is a device for appreciating the garden.
Location by Google Map

Monday, December 18, 2006

Shin-Gyou-Sou(真行草)

Shin-Gyou-Sou is styles of Japanese aesthetics: Shin is formal, Sou is casual and Gyou is between them. For example, temple's building is formal and Shin. A tea house is casual and Sou. The following paths are in Katsura Imperial Villa and in Daitokuji. The path of Shin style is often used at temples and the Sou is used at teahouses and villas.

This is Shin(真) style. Location by Google Map
Katsura Imperial Villa, Kyoto sightseeing

This is Gyou(行) style. Location by Google Map
Daitokuji Temple, Kyoto sightseeing

This is Sou(草) style. Location by Google Map
Katsura Imperial Villa, Kyoto sightseeing

Sunday, December 17, 2006

A tea house

Katsura Imperial Villa, Kyoto sightseeing
This is a tea house. Tea house is usually small and simple one like this. Guests go into the house only through a small opening, called nigiri-guchi.
Location by Google Map

Saturday, December 16, 2006

A entrance to the realm of tranquility

Shisendo Temple, Kyoto sightseeing
This is the entrance of Shisendo Temple in Kyoto. A rustic gate welcome you and a flight of steps draw you inward into the realm of tranquility....

Location by Google Map

Friday, December 15, 2006

Trace of some bird?

Kozanji Temple, Kyoto sightseeing
Two maple leaves stick onto the surface of the stone.

The leaves on the stone is just like the trace of some bird.

Location by Google Map

Wednesday, December 13, 2006

The art of cleaning

Shisendo Temple, Kyoto sightseeing
This is a garden early in the morning and the garden is perfectly clean. Lots of lines, drawn by bamboo broom, set off the cleanliness.

By the way, here is an interesting small story about Senno Rikyu, one of great tea masters.

One day Rikyu told one of his pupils to make a garden clean and he cleaned up the garden immaculately. Even after he finished the cleaning, Rikyu said to him, "it is not enough." After that, he did another cleaning for a while and he asked Rikyu if he stop cleaning again. Rikyu said, "No, not enough!" Then Rikyu surprisingly began to shake a tree in the garden to make leaves falling onto the ground. He intended to make the ground feel more clean by putting some leaves.

Turning the perfect into the imperfect, Rikyu thought, made the perfection more perfect and added the depth to the perfection.

He preferred asymmetry to symmetry, imperfection to perfect, simplicity to flamboyance. These are some of criterion in tea ceremony.

Location by Google Map

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

Fence


Katsura Imperial Villa, Kyoto sightseeing
This is a fence made of thin branches and bamboos, well harmony with the natural surroundings.

Old but modern.

Location by Google Map

Monday, December 11, 2006

Zen garden again

Daitokuji Temple, Kyoto sightseeing
This garden is rather simple, composed of little gravels, mosses, a few rock and a small tree. The contrast between mosses of green and gravels of white is also nice.

Location by Google Map

Sunday, December 10, 2006

Why do maikos make their faces so white?

GIon area, Kyoto sightseeing
Why do they make up their faces so white?

Because they used to dance under the dark light of candle at night in those days and only white makeup can make them look as beautiful as under the sun.

Maikos dance elegantly at small evening and night parties to make the guests enjoy. In those day the party used to hold at night only under the dark candle light. So they need to make up their faces so white to make them look as beautiful as in the daytime.

Now we use fluorescent lamps to lighten gloomy rooms at night even in the traditional house and the rooms look light just like the daytime. A candle is used only in electric power failure, occurred once in some years.

We can truly enjoy the beauty of maiko only under the candle light, not under the fluorescent lamps.
Location by Google Map

Saturday, December 09, 2006

A maple leaf in water

Sanzen-in Temple, Kyoto sightseeing
A maple leaf, kaede in Japanese, is floating in water.

The name, kaede, comes from kaeru-no-te, frog's palm.

It surely would be alike if the leaf were green.
Location by Google Map

Friday, December 08, 2006

Combination

Jingoji Temple, Kyoto sightseeing
The picture was actually taken in November.

The maple on your side turned red but the cider trees on the other side stay green.
Location by Google Map

Thursday, December 07, 2006

The tatami mat for the Emperor

Sennyuji Temple, Kyoto sightseeing
The Emperor used to sit on this tatami at annual events.

He sat on a higher place, a thicker tatami mat, and it is edged with wider belt than usual.

These mean that the tatami is for high-ranking people.
Location by Google Map

Wednesday, December 06, 2006

Tokonoma

Tokonoma, Kyoto sightseeing
This is called Tokonoma. little alcove and the heart of a house.

This is now included with a room to receive guests.

On it are exhibited scroll pictures, calligraphy or ikebana, flower arrangement to receive guests.

On the frame of Tokonoma are used the most expensive and greatest woods of all woods in a house.

Tokonoma plays an important role especially in a teahouse.
Location by Google Map

Monday, December 04, 2006

Breaking the silence softly

Enkando Temple, Kyoto sightseeing
Enkando Temple, Kyoto sightseeing
This is a stone basin under a rainwater guttering.

Just a tiny drop from the guttering makes the scenery on the surface distorted. The scenery will get back some time later.

A water drop break the silence softly.
Location by Google Map

Sunday, December 03, 2006

Zen garden

Daitokuji Temple, Kyoto sightseeing
This is Zen garden and very clean and neat one.
Location by Google Map

Saturday, December 02, 2006

Nigiri-guchi, the entrance for a teahouse

Daitokuji Temple, Kyoto sightseeing
This is a little entrance for a little teahouse. The entrance is about 80 centimeters square.

Why is it so small??

There are mainly two reasons.

First, the small entrance is to put the differences of the class aside. Samurais, high-ranking social class of warriors, used to exist in those days. (In Japan, the class society used to exist in those days. The members were samurais, traders, craftworkers and peasants. Samurais were superior to the others. Now the class no longer exist.) They always carried a sword, katana, with them. The sword is the symbol of samurais, or their class. Samurais without the sword meant that they were equal to the other classes.

Samurais needed to put the sword aside to pass through the small door. This meant that all the classes were equal in the teahouse and that the social class had nothing to do with a tea ceremony. This is one of the most important spirits of tea ceremony.

Second, the entrance were made small to suit the smallness of a teahouse. The small entrance make the small house feel natural. If the entrance is normal size, people will feel the house too small.

That's why the entrance is very small.

By the way, I personally like the light from the entrance into the inside.

Reference:
http://artofjpn2.blogspot.com/2006/10/tea-house-in-kyoto-taian-tea-house.html

Location by Google Map

Friday, December 01, 2006

Green

Koto-in, Daitokuji Temple, Kyoto sightseeing
They are looking at a garden, covered with mosses, in a temple and sipping a cup of green tea. Some temple serves green tea to visitors in Kyoto. A peaceful moment ....
Location by Google Map