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sechan19At long last, I take up my pasokon to narrate the tale of my day in Kamakura. I realize it's taken me some time, and I apologize for the delay - citing only my extreme preoccupation with school duties as an excuse.
After our relatively early night, no one had any trouble with getting up around six in the morning to go for a walk on the beach. It was extremely windy that morning, but the air was not particularly chilly and the winds pushed at the water, stirring it up and making the waves especially choppy. We walked along for about half an hour, periodically bending over to examine things in the sand, and then went back to the ryokan for breakfast.
Breakfast was a fascinating melange of Japanese and Western elements - boiled pork sausages and soft boiled eggs alongside natto and sticky white rice and an assortment of vegetables. Sausages are absolutely fantastic with white rice, and I could cheerfully eat them as a morning meal everyday. With breakfast done, we gathered our belongings and spent a little time wandering in the garden before Tanaka-san and Kato-sensei corralled us for the day's sight-seeing.
It began to rain slightly as we left, and for that reason the order of sites was slightly modified. Instead of visiting the Great Buddha at Kotokuin, we first went to Hasedera Temple.
Our first stop there was at the Shrine of Benzaiten - the goddess of words, music, eloquence, and entertainment. There, we entered caves where the goddess is revered as a Shinto kami. (Benzaiten is the Japanese name of the Hindu goddess Sarasvati, and her transition to a Shinto deity is one among many examples of how Japanese religion has often flexibly accepted other religious practices and traditions.) In the cave, I made an offering to Benzaiten and asked for her blessings on the projects of my friends and family members who are musicians, artists, and authors.
Walking up into the temple took us to the Mizuko Jizo shrine. Jizo is a guardian who exists in all worlds to guide people on their journeys. The Mizuko Jizo shrine is dedicated to the souls of children who have been aborted, miscarried, or lost in infancy. The Jizo statue here is surrounded by smaller statues - hundreds upon hundreds - that each represent a lost child under his protection and care.
At last we made our way to the main temple building (honden) where the Hase Kannon statue is kept. The Hase Kannon is Japan's largest extant wooden sculpture. It dates from sometime in the Heian (794-1185) period (although the gold plating and mandara were made in the early fourteenth century) and stands over 9 meters high. We arrived in time for morning services and filed into the hall as the priest beat the temple gong.
Standing in front of this incredible work of art - experiencing it in its proper setting rather than from a slide projection in a darkened classroom - was an indescribable thing. I was transfixed there, feeling the same kind of wonder I felt the first time I saw the Genji monogatari emaki. All my enthusiasm and love for Japanese art seemed to flood through me, and I stood there silently watching the Hase Kannon's beatific expression for what seemed a perfect space of eternity.
We had managed to kill enough time at Hasedera for the rain to stop while we visited the Great Buddha at Kotokuin. There's not much to say about the Great Buddha. I mean, it's really really big. We spent some time inside the Buddha - which is hollow - along with about fifty other visitors, mainly camped out in his knee. I'd been advised by a friend to try and rub the belly, but the stairs leading up to the Buddha beltway were roped off.
We did get to see a Japanese man visiting the temple in drag, however, so there was a sufficient dose of weirdness in the visit.
We broke for lunch - quick fix curry rice and sweet potato ice cream - and then continued on to the Bamboo Garden at Hokokuji. The Bamboo garden was amazingly gorgeous, tranquil, and soothing. We wandered along the narrow path that twisted its way among the stately giant stalks, crossing bridges, passing sculptures, and finally ending at a secluded zen garden.
Our last two stops were the Hachimangu Shrine and the Kamakura Bori Museum. Hachimangu was, by far, the most touristy of the stops, but its ties to Heian and Kamakura period history made for some very intriguing spots - like the Minamoto and Taira ponds, built in remembrance of the Genpei War by the wife of the Japan's first shogun, that symbolize victory and defeat through carefully constructed iconographic patterns in design. (The Minamoto pond is larger than the Taira pond, and there are three stones in the Minamoto pond [san being a homophone for creation] while there are four in the Taira pond [shi being a homophone for death] to contrast the fates of the two opposing clans.)
As an additional treat, there was a traditional Shinto wedding taking place in one of the great shrines that we got to watch for a while.
Finally we stopped at the Kamakura Bori Museum, which is dedicated to a traditional form of lacquer carving that originated in Kamakura in the thirteenth century. It was originally an imitation of Chinese Sung dynasty laquerware, but over time the method was refined and adapted into Kamakura Bori. The museum had a short video that we watched and a number of works by masters and apprentices. The work of the apprentices was quite amazing, and I was fascinated by the idea that such pristine creation wasn't yet considered master work.
With the museum toured, we all headed back to the station and caught a train home to Tokyo.
Check out the Kamakura pictures here. Please note that I didn't have time to get descriptions written yet, but they'll be coming along soon. Also, since I'm not a FlickrPro customer I had to condense the Kamakura set into the Enoshima set. Click on the Hojo Family Crest Lantern and go from there. =]
After our relatively early night, no one had any trouble with getting up around six in the morning to go for a walk on the beach. It was extremely windy that morning, but the air was not particularly chilly and the winds pushed at the water, stirring it up and making the waves especially choppy. We walked along for about half an hour, periodically bending over to examine things in the sand, and then went back to the ryokan for breakfast.
Breakfast was a fascinating melange of Japanese and Western elements - boiled pork sausages and soft boiled eggs alongside natto and sticky white rice and an assortment of vegetables. Sausages are absolutely fantastic with white rice, and I could cheerfully eat them as a morning meal everyday. With breakfast done, we gathered our belongings and spent a little time wandering in the garden before Tanaka-san and Kato-sensei corralled us for the day's sight-seeing.
It began to rain slightly as we left, and for that reason the order of sites was slightly modified. Instead of visiting the Great Buddha at Kotokuin, we first went to Hasedera Temple.
Our first stop there was at the Shrine of Benzaiten - the goddess of words, music, eloquence, and entertainment. There, we entered caves where the goddess is revered as a Shinto kami. (Benzaiten is the Japanese name of the Hindu goddess Sarasvati, and her transition to a Shinto deity is one among many examples of how Japanese religion has often flexibly accepted other religious practices and traditions.) In the cave, I made an offering to Benzaiten and asked for her blessings on the projects of my friends and family members who are musicians, artists, and authors.
Walking up into the temple took us to the Mizuko Jizo shrine. Jizo is a guardian who exists in all worlds to guide people on their journeys. The Mizuko Jizo shrine is dedicated to the souls of children who have been aborted, miscarried, or lost in infancy. The Jizo statue here is surrounded by smaller statues - hundreds upon hundreds - that each represent a lost child under his protection and care.
At last we made our way to the main temple building (honden) where the Hase Kannon statue is kept. The Hase Kannon is Japan's largest extant wooden sculpture. It dates from sometime in the Heian (794-1185) period (although the gold plating and mandara were made in the early fourteenth century) and stands over 9 meters high. We arrived in time for morning services and filed into the hall as the priest beat the temple gong.
Standing in front of this incredible work of art - experiencing it in its proper setting rather than from a slide projection in a darkened classroom - was an indescribable thing. I was transfixed there, feeling the same kind of wonder I felt the first time I saw the Genji monogatari emaki. All my enthusiasm and love for Japanese art seemed to flood through me, and I stood there silently watching the Hase Kannon's beatific expression for what seemed a perfect space of eternity.
We had managed to kill enough time at Hasedera for the rain to stop while we visited the Great Buddha at Kotokuin. There's not much to say about the Great Buddha. I mean, it's really really big. We spent some time inside the Buddha - which is hollow - along with about fifty other visitors, mainly camped out in his knee. I'd been advised by a friend to try and rub the belly, but the stairs leading up to the Buddha beltway were roped off.
We did get to see a Japanese man visiting the temple in drag, however, so there was a sufficient dose of weirdness in the visit.
We broke for lunch - quick fix curry rice and sweet potato ice cream - and then continued on to the Bamboo Garden at Hokokuji. The Bamboo garden was amazingly gorgeous, tranquil, and soothing. We wandered along the narrow path that twisted its way among the stately giant stalks, crossing bridges, passing sculptures, and finally ending at a secluded zen garden.
Our last two stops were the Hachimangu Shrine and the Kamakura Bori Museum. Hachimangu was, by far, the most touristy of the stops, but its ties to Heian and Kamakura period history made for some very intriguing spots - like the Minamoto and Taira ponds, built in remembrance of the Genpei War by the wife of the Japan's first shogun, that symbolize victory and defeat through carefully constructed iconographic patterns in design. (The Minamoto pond is larger than the Taira pond, and there are three stones in the Minamoto pond [san being a homophone for creation] while there are four in the Taira pond [shi being a homophone for death] to contrast the fates of the two opposing clans.)
As an additional treat, there was a traditional Shinto wedding taking place in one of the great shrines that we got to watch for a while.
Finally we stopped at the Kamakura Bori Museum, which is dedicated to a traditional form of lacquer carving that originated in Kamakura in the thirteenth century. It was originally an imitation of Chinese Sung dynasty laquerware, but over time the method was refined and adapted into Kamakura Bori. The museum had a short video that we watched and a number of works by masters and apprentices. The work of the apprentices was quite amazing, and I was fascinated by the idea that such pristine creation wasn't yet considered master work.
With the museum toured, we all headed back to the station and caught a train home to Tokyo.
Check out the Kamakura pictures here. Please note that I didn't have time to get descriptions written yet, but they'll be coming along soon. Also, since I'm not a FlickrPro customer I had to condense the Kamakura set into the Enoshima set. Click on the Hojo Family Crest Lantern and go from there. =]
