Quietude of Zen - Myoshinji Temple (Temples, Kyoto)

Myoshinji ("Temple of the Wondrous Mind") is one Kyoto's major Zen temples. Its 13.5 hectare large grounds lie in the northern part of the city, and like those of Daitokuji, are always open to residents who want to take a pleasant shortcut home. The area is called Hanazono or "Flower Garden," and was the country residence of the abdicated Emperor of the same name. In 1337 the Emperor wanted to turn his villa into a temple and asked his teacher, the Zen master Shuho Myocho (1282-1337), to suggest a suitable first abbot. Shuho recommended his disciple Kanzan Egen (1277–1360). After Shuho's death, the Emperor continued his Zen practice under Kanzan.

[Curtains under the roof of the Hojo - colors of Buddhism]

After Kanzan's death, the temple went into decline, and in 1467, during the Onin Wars, nearly all buildings were destroyed. The temple was rebuilt by the 6th head, Sekko-Soshin Zenji (1408-86) and received the patronage of the powerful Hosokawa family and later also from the Toyotomi and Tokugawa, ensuring its continued prosperity. Most buildings we see today were built from the late 15th through early 17th centuries. The temple expanded over the centuries into a labyrinth of sub temples, of which there are now 47, concealed behind their earthen walls.

[The quiet precincts]

The first abbot Kanzan was renowned for the simplicity and austerity of his lifestyle, and that is perhaps the reason that unlike Daitokuji, Myoshinji does not recognize worldly pursuits as the tea ceremony. It also stood outside the Gozan system. As a consequence, it does not possess the many exquisite tea houses and roji gardens found at Daitokuji. All the same, there are many paintings, hanging scrolls, sliding screens and other art treasures in the possession of Myoshinji and its sub temples. Myoshinji belongs to the Rinzai Zen school, of which it is the largest branch, as big as all others together - nationwide it has more than 3,000 affiliated temples and 19 monasteries. It also operates Hanazono University, set up in 1872.

[Zen in the sand (from the dry garden of Taizoin)]

The garan with its formal array of seven buildings on a north-south axis is found at the southern end of the precincts. Starting from the south, these are the Sanmon (Mountain Gate), Butsuden (Buddha Hall), Hatto (Dharma Hall), and Hojo (Abbot’s Quarters); to the east of this axis stand the Yokushitsu (Bath House) and the Kyozo (Sutra Library) and to the west the Sodo (Monk's Hall). Many of the buildings in Myoshin-ji are National Treasures or Important Cultural Properties. Near the main temple one also finds some gorgeous black pines (kuromatsu).

The ceiling of the Lecture Hall (Hatto) boasts a painting of a dragon by Kano Tan'yu, whose eyes follow you all around the hall. It is one of the best dragon paintings in the country, made around 1661. The dragon is not only a symbol of the life force of nature, but also as a water animal a magical protection against fire. The temple bell preserved here dates from 698, making it the oldest documented one in Japan and a National Treasure. Obviously, originally it belonged to another temple. It won't ring anymore - it has been fatally cracked, but it possessed a beautiful tone, as old records tell us, the sound of impermanence itself. Of interest is also the Bath House (Yokushitsu), a steam bath built in 1656 by the uncle of Nobunaga's assassin Akechi Mitsuhide. It was not so bad to be a monk here!

[Myoshinji's bath house]

Visitors find the sub temples by venturing into the warren of winding paths. The major one is Taizoin (founded in 1404), standing conveniently west of the Sanmon Gate, famous for its two gardens: a traditional dry garden attributed to the painter Kano Motonobu, who once lived here, depicting a stream flowing between cliffs, and a modern garden with a pond, rocks and luxurious plantings such as azaleas blooming gorgeously in May, designed by renowned garden architect Nakane Kinsaku in the mid-1960s.

[The modern garden of Taizoin]

Keishunin was founded in 1632 and contains three small gardens, including a rare tea arbor; Daishinin (1492) has a modern garden again designed by Nakane Kinsaku. This finishes the list of sub temples that are normally open to visitors. Three more are of interest, but usually closed - you have to wait for a special opening around Culture Day etc. These are: Shunkoin, which owns the church bell of a Jesuit church built in the 16th c. in Kyoto and a garden of boulders based on the Ise Shrine (Shunkoin also hosts meditation classes); Reiunin featuring the oldest shoin structure in Japan, an Imperial Visit Room (Goko no Ma) dating from around 1543, as well as a fine dry garden; and Tenkyuin possessing rooms decorated with gorgeous screens by Kano Sanraku and Sansetsu.

Where: Myoshinji's South Gate (Sanmon) is a short walk north of Hanazono Station on the JR Sagano line; the North Gate is a short walk from Myoshinji Station on the Keifuku Dentetsu Kitano line. 

When: From 9:00 to 15:40 there are tours of the Garan (Hatto and Yokushitsu) with 20 min intervals, except around lunch time. Closed April 1 and April 8-12. 500 yen. 

Taizoin: 9:00-17:00, 500 yen. 

Daishinin: 9:00-17:00, 300 yen. 

Keishunin: 9:00-16:30, 400 yen.

The Gardens of Jonangu (Kyoto, Gardens, Shrines)

The site of the Jonangu Shrine, one the east bank of the Kamo River in what is now the southern part of Kyoto, once was the extensive Detached Palace Emperor Shirakawa and his successors. When the palace was built in the 11th century, it stood in a pastoral river landscape south of the capital. The name, "Jo-nan" points at the shrine's location as it simply means "South of the Capital."

[Haru no Yama Garden]

It is not clear how old the shrine is. The shrine's own history makes a link with the myth of Empress Jingu and her just as mythical conquest of Korea, and also mentions that the shrine guarded the southern direction when Emperor Kammu set up the capital here. But the shrine is not mentioned in the 10th century Engishiki, which covers all important shrines of the country, so it seems logical to assume it was founded later than the 10th c. Indeed, its first mention in a reliable historical text is in connection with the Toba detached palace of the 11th c. The shrine apparently formed part of a temple-shrine complex inside the palace, and was called the "Myojin of Jonan Temple." The shrine's deity may have been seen as a protector of the detached palace.

[Heian Garden - the pond]

The shrine shared the fate of the tragic destruction of said palace, but was later reconstructed. It seems to have been a fairly small and insignificant facility, a pious reminder of the imperial villas that once stood in this area. The last Kyoto emperor, Komei, visited the shrine and like all things imperial it rose in standing in the Meiji Period. The present buildings date from the late 1970s, when the shrine was rebuilt after a fire. It is in pleasant and simple State-Shinto style, with unpainted wood and cedar bark roofs, what again points at its modern origins.

There are five gardens at Jonangu, and they are all new just like those the Heian Shrine. They were designed in the late seventies by the famous landscape architect Nakane Kinsaku (1917-1995).

[Heian Garden - the meandering stream for Kyokusui no Utage]

The first garden is called Haru no Yama or Spring Hill. There is man made hill from which a brook flows, there are plum trees, camellias, azalea bushes and a bamboo grove. The stream is the location for a purification ceremony, Hitogata Nagashi, held between June 25 and 30 (people transfer their pain and sorrow to the cut-out figure of a human and let that flow away in the stream). You will also find plantings of flowers mentioned in the Genji Monogatari.

The second garden is the centerpiece at Jonangu and is called Heian Garden. It's main element is a large pond with an artificial hill at the back, many solitary stones simulating islands in the pond and again a stream leading out of the pond into the garden. This is a very attractive and well composed garden, with lots of details. The plantings add color in all seasons.

[Muromachi Garden]

The meandering stream leading out of the pond is the location for the twice-annual "Kyokusui no Utage" poetry festival. Held in April and November, people in Heian-period court costumes float cups with sake in the stream and have to compose a waka poem when the cup reaches them. A colorful spectacle that is worth visiting.

The next garden is called Muromachi Garden. This garden is again dominated by a pond, divided in half by a stone bridge. At the edge stands a tea house (where you can have matcha). There is again a lot of interesting rock work. Plantings include azaleas and small pine trees. At the back of the pond you will see a stone torii gate.

[Momoyama Garden]

The fourth garden (connected with the third) is the Momoyama Garden. This time we find a wide lawn with a rock garden and trees and neatly clipped hedges at the back. This a garden that feels very modern in spirit. It is a sort of re-interpretation of real Momoyama rock gardens. The lawn is a European influence and replaces the raked sand. There is a good balance between all elements. This is perhaps the most interesting garden at Jonangu.

Finally, the fifth garden is called Jonan Rikyu Garden. This one is smaller than the previous ones. It consist of areas of monkey grass and white gravel, a nice contrast. In the green grass stands various rocks. It is an abstract garden, but also symbolizes the arrangement of the various palaces in green gardens at the banks of a large lake (the sand).

[Jonan Rikyu Garden]

A 15-min walk south-west of Takeda Station on the subway and Kintetsu lines. Walk south along the line and turn west at a sake shop where you also see the pagoda of the Konoe Tomb. Turn south to the large road with traffic lights and follow this road in a western direction. Pass under the ramp of the expressway. After seeing the area with love hotels on your right, you will find the white walls of Jonangu on your left. Go around to find the entrance. Gardens open 9:00-16:30 (last entry 16:00). 500 yen. Shrine grounds free.　

A Prayer for Safe Sea Travel - Sumiyoshi Taisha Shrine (Osaka, Shrines)

The Sumiyoshi Shrine in Osaka is one of the great unknowns among foreign tourists, who flock to the ferroconcrete castle and neglect this beautiful shrine with its "national treasure" class structures. The only excuse is that it stands a bit eccentric, in a southern corner of the city. Originally, it stood at the coast but due to land reclaiming projects in recent times, the sea is now a few kilometers removed and can not be seen because of intervening apartment blocks (incongruously, an old lighthouse still stands beside one of the flats, just south of Suminoe Park).

The earliest historical reference to the shrine dates from 686, when emperor Temmu visited to make an offering. It is possible the shrine dates back a few centuries earlier, when contacts with Korea grew and ships bound for the continent set out from the port of Suminoe (a name that can also be read as Sumiyoshi). The shrine served to pray for safe sea travel.

 

Sumiyoshi became the most important shrine in the Osaka area and also received support from the court. Its powerful supporters donated many treasures to the shrine, but the real treasure are the buildings themselves. The NT Main Hall (1810) is in fact a series of four halls. Three are dedicated to the three Sumiyoshi deities, who appeared when the Creator God Izanagi washed the impurities from the Underworld away; the fourth is given to the mythical empress Jingu, who led a campaign against Korea. At that time the Sumiyoshi deities guided her ships to the continent and gave her the necessary protection.

 

The three Sumiyoshi-deity shrines stand in a neat row, one behind the other as a convoy of ships, while the building for the deified Empress stands to the side of the first shrine structure - as if it was added as an afterthought. All the four sanctuaries have the same building plan. Inside are two rooms, the second closed off as it houses the deity. The red pillars and white plank walls provide a nice contrast, also with the many trees in the shrine grounds.

Another interesting structure in the shrine is an arched bridge that is indeed very steep. Not for nothing it is a popular playground for the neighborhood's children. The bridge was originally given to the shrine by Yodogimi, the widow of Hideyoshi.

The shrine has several popular festivals, among them the Rice-Planting Festival (Otaue Matsuri) on June 14 and the Sumiyoshi Matsuri, the shrine's summer festival, from July 30 to August 1.

Sumiyoshi park, just south of the shrine, is interesting to walk into, not only for the Basho haiku stone standing to the left of the path after entering it from the shrine side, but also for the many pine and camphor trees it harbors. These trees originally graced the beach, in the good old days that humans still respected nature (or were not powerful enough to destroy it).

Where: 3-min. walk from Sumiyoshi Taisha Station on the Nankai Main Line, or from Sumiyoshi Torii-mae Station on the Hankai Line. When: March-May and September: 6:00-17:00; June-August: 6:00-18:00; October-February: 6:30-17:00. How much: Grounds free. 

The Lost Glory of the Shoguns (Edo Castle, Kaneiji and Ueno Toshogu)

The Tokugawa shoguns ruled from Tokyo (then called Edo) for almost three centuries. You would think there was still a lot to remind you of them, something like Louis XIV and Versailles... Well, forget it: the castle from which they ruled was destroyed when they fell from power in 1867 and the land is now occupied by the imperial palace; one of their two grand ancestral temples in Edo, Kaneiji, was destroyed and made into a public park - the Ueno Park of cherry blossom fame (although the blossoms were already famous when Kaneiji still stood here!) - the temple's sad fate is clear when you realize that its pagoda now stands in the Ueno Zoo... The second ancestral temple, Zojoji, in its turn was cut up to make space for Tokyo Tower and a bowling hall and the mausoleums of the shoguns in that temple were bombed to pieces in WWII - all the more tragic since the second shogun once occupied a mausoleum of the same class as those in Nikko, one that now would have been a national treasure. And, finally, the shrine where the founder of the shogunate, Ieyasu, is revered, stands in a forlorn and almost forgotten corner of Ueno Park. Let's have a look at the remnants of the shoguns... 

[Three hollyhocks within a circle is the emblem of the Tokugawa shoguns]

Edo Castle 
Edo Castle was the biggest castle in Japan - something now difficult to imagine. As with all destroyed castles, only the giant walls stand as a silent testimony to former greatness. The castle at which feet the city of Edo grew up (and to which it thanked its very existence) was first founded in 1457 by the warlord Ota Dokan. He built it on a hill adjacent to Tokyo Bay. It was also known as the Chiyoda Castle, a name still reverberating in the ward encompassing the castle grounds.

In 1590, Tokugawa Ieyasu took over that castle and in 1603 turned it into the centerpiece of his new capital Edo. It would remain the political center of Japan for the next 250 years of Tokugawa rule. It had a total circumference of 16 kilometers, an area within which also the shogun's palace and government offices were enclosed. The castle originally boasted a black donjon that looked down upon Edo like a soaring eagle. This towering structure burned in 1657 and was never rebuilt. By that time, Tokugawa power was secure and this type of fortification had become unnecessary.

[Moat and tower of Edo Castle]

The shogunal palace, which stood in the Honmaru area (the first citadel) was destroyed in 1863. In its heyday, it covered an area of 33,000 sq. m. One can get a glimpse of the beauty of these palatial quarters in the Nijo Castle in Kyoto, the only case where such a ceremonial palace has been preserved intact. The only remaining original Honmaru buildings are the Fujimi Yagura and Fujimi Tamon (a small keep and defense house).

The Ninomaru or second citadel contained shogunal residences as well - usually the heir apparent lived here. These buildings were also destroyed in 1867 and now we only have the Hyakunin Bansho (a guardhouse for 100 samurai) and Doshin Bansho left as sad remnants. After Edo had become Tokyo, the empty shell of the castle was partly filled by setting up the imperial palace in the grounds of the Nishinomaru. The Kitanomaru site, the northern part of the castle grounds, has become an open park, with the National Museum of Modern Art and the Budokan.

[Location of the donjon of Edo Castle]

Since the early sixties of the 20th c., also parts of the Honmaru and Ninomaru were restored and opened to the public. Together these are now called the East Gardens of the Imperial Palace or Higashi Gyoen. There are green lawns, a Japanese-style garden, and impressive, crumbling walls, but above all it is a welcome oxygen break in the city. Don't miss the small but fine museum housing the imperial collection, called the Sannomaru Shozokan. Almost next to the museum is a rest house with a small shop where a good English brochure of the East Gardens is sold.

One enters by either the Otemon (one of the original castle gates, built in 1620), Hirakawamon or Kitahanebashimon gates. All three are in the masugata form, meaning there is a square-shaped enclosure between two separate doors, like the security gates in modern buildings. In the central part of the gardens, large blocks of stone have been put in place where once the donjon rose into the sky. Once one could look down upon the city from here, but now the surrounding office buildings soar much higher, so it takes some effort to dream them away and imagine the donjon and, in the grassy field in front of it, the shogunal palace (a small-scale model of this palace is on view in the Edo-Tokyo Museum). Anyway, you need a lot of imagination of you want to see old Edo in present-day Tokyo...

[Remnants of the Ninomaru Garden of Edo Castle]

The carefully landscaped Ninomaru garden of Edo Castle was restored in the 1960s. It lies at the foot of the Shiomizaka slope and is thought to incorporate a garden originally laid out in 1630 by Kobori Enshu. There is not much left of that old garden; in fact, it would be correct to state that the old pond has been used as a starting point to lay out a completely new garden. In part of the Ninomaru area, also 260 symbolic trees from all of Japan's prefectures have been planted and there is a small teahouse to make the refined atmosphere complete. The Honmaru, by the way, has spacious lawns and thus provides the contrast of a more Western-style garden. The East Gardens are not at the pinnacle of garden art, but this is as close as one can come to nature in the center of the metropolis.

Kaneiji 
There were two shogunal temples in Edo: Zojoji and Kaneiji and both have fallen on sad times. If you think the fate of Zojoji is hard (having had to give up much of its land to the Prince Hotel, a bowling center, and the obscenity of Tokyo Tower, now towering over it like a modern pagoda), then you have not seen Kaneiji yet. Kaneiji has been so much split up and scattered that it seems as if there never was a temple here. Its Main Hall has been tucked away behind the heavy barrier of the Tokyo National Museum, and its pagoda has ended up right in the middle of Ueno Zoo.

[Kaneiji]

Kaneiji Temple was established in 1625 by the Buddhist priest Tenkai, on the request of the Tokugawa shogun. The temple was located to the northwest of Edo Castle, a direction that was considered to be unlucky and therefore needed some spiritual protection. The temple complex was enormous, covering more than a million square meters, and possessing dozens of buildings. It was one of the most important temples of the Tendai sect, with headquarters on Mt. Hiei near Kyoto, and therefore was called the "Hiei of the East." In its glory days it was twice as large as Ueno Park today. Its buildings were almost all destroyed by fire during the short war that raged here when the shogunate fell in 1867, as some of its troops used the temple grounds to make a last stand.

The rather simple, present temple buildings were brought from the Kitain Temple in Kawagoe in 1879; they stand north of the park. In the park itself, only two of the original buildings still survive: the Kiyomizudo Temple, a smaller imitation of the Kiyomizu Temple in Kyoto, including the stage; and the Five Story Pagoda (Goju no To) standing forlornly inside Ueno Zoo.

[Gate to Shogunal graveyard, Kaneiji]

As all buildings have disappeared, one could say that all that is left of the shoguns, are their graves, and even these are not intact. Except for Ieyasu, the first, and Iemitsu, the third shogun, all others were buried in Edo, in either Kaneiji or Zojoji in Shiba. War and real estate development have taken their toll of both places. In both locations the dead shoguns were literally bombed out of their graves in WWII. In Zojoji the shogunal remains were moved with what was left of their tombs to a new cemetery at the back of the temple. Precious buildings, on a par with those of Nikko, were destroyed; close to Zojoji still one of the gates remains in half dilapidated state.

In Ueno their fate was not much better - here the cemetery lies next to Kaneiji, right behind the Tokyo National Museum. The cemeteries, by the way, are usually closed; the one in Zojoji I once found open on one of the temple's festival days (September 15), but there was not much to see.

[Ueno Toshogu]

Ueno Toshogu 
What is left is the Ueno branch of the Nikko Toshogu shrine, where Ieyasu has been deified. Such branches, all on a smaller scale but often as gorgeously decorated as the original, were in the 17th century set up all over the country. The shrine, built in Gongen style like the ones in Nikko, was erected in 1627 and the elaborately decorated buildings were remodeled in 1651. The 50 stone and bronze lanterns that line the approach were gifts of daimyo. The best part is perhaps the Karamon or Chinese-style gate in front of the main building, which has been attributed to the famous 17th century sculptor Hidari Jingoro. With its delicate wood carvings and golden screens it is the only place where one can get a glimpse of the splendor of the shoguns - the splendor that dominated Edo but which now has faded into oblivion...

[Lanterns donated by daimyo, Ueno Toshogu]

East Gardens of the Imperial Palace
Where: 5-min. walk from Otemachi Station (exit C13b) on the Chiyoda and other subway lines; 15-min. walk from Tokyo Station (if one enters via the Otemon gate).
When: 9:15-16:15. Cl. Monday, Friday, Year-end and New Year period. The gardens may also be closed unexpectedly for court functions.
How much: free

Kaneiji
Where: 15-min. walk from Ueno Station on the Ginza and Hibiya Subway Lines or JR Line.
When: grounds open in daytime
How much: free

Ueno Toshogu
Where: 10-min. walk from Ueno Station on the Ginza and Hibiya Subway Lines or JR Line.
When: 9:00-17:30 (summer: 18:00)
How much: ¥200

Fujita Art Museum and Fujitatei-ato Park, Osaka

One of the most powerful early Japanese business tycoons was Fujita Denzaburo (1841-1912), who set up a conglomerate (Fujita-gumi) of companies active in mining, civil engineering, railways, electrical power generation, finance, textiles and newspapers. Mr Fujita, who was the first commoner to receive the title of "Baron," was not only a sharp businessman, he was also a cultivated person who collected art and practised the tea ceremony - he was known for his lavish spending to acquire expensive tea wares.

 

[The Fujita Art Museum - storehouse and pagoda]

Born in the castle town of Hagi in the Choshu fief in 1841 as the son of a sake brewer, Mr. Fujita as a young man came to Osaka to go into business. As the oligarchical Meiji government was for fifty percent formed by politicians from his old fief Choshu, we may safely assume that his "Old Boys network" was of prime importance in helping his businesses rake in profits. Besides buying magnificent art works, Mr Fujita also established villas in several prime spots in Japan. They were after his death renovated as the Taikoen in Osaka, the Chinzanso in Tokyo, the Hotel Fujita in Kyoto and the Kowakien in Hakone. 

 

[Fujita Art Museum seen from the Fujitatei-ato Park]

The Taikoen stands on the spot where his main residence was and here one also finds the Fujita Art Museum as well as a remnant of the original gardens. In WWII the baronial mansion was destroyed in an air raid, but fortunately the stone kura in the garden containing the artworks remained intact, and that storehouse now serves as a sort of "retro style" museum building. Through a corridor of what looks like an old school building, one comes to the storehouse. Inside, this has been beautifully fitted out with wood. Although there is an upper floor, too, the storehouse is quite small. That gives ample time to view at leisure the exquisite art works exhibited here, but it also leaves one with a feeling of disappointment: when you know how rich the total collection is, the amount on display during the two short annual exhibitions, is rather tiny (as is usual in small private museums in Japan, there is no standing exhibition).

 

[Fujitatei-ato Park, in the background Osaka Business Park]

The collection numbers approximately 5,000 articles and comprises 9 National Treasures and 48 Important Cultural Properties. While tea utensils form the heart of the collection (as in the case of most other Meiji industrialists), there are also excellent Chinese and Japanese-style paintings, calligraphy, sculpture and lacquerware. A famous piece is the "Yohen Tenmoku-glaze Tea Bowl" (one of the three in Osaka museums), possessing a beautiful iridescent bluish gloss on its black glaze – as if you are looking at the starry firmament. Also famous is the "Picture Scroll based on the Diary of Murasaki Shikibu," the first part of a hand scroll in Yamato-e style from the early Kamakura period (13th c.). The "Genjo Sanzo-e" (“Illustrated hand scroll of the Monk Xuanzang,” 14th c.) is a set of 12 picture scrolls depicting the life of Xuanzang, the Chinese Tang dynasty monk who made an arduous journey through Central Asia to collect Buddhist scriptures and artifacts in India. There are Chinese-style ink paintings ("New Moon over a Brushwood Gate," 1405), a sutra box decorated in maki-e lacquer with scenes from the Lotus Sutra (11th c.) and many other treasures. As the collection puts the emphasis on tea utensils, one will often encounter chanoyu bowls, flower vases, water containers, and incense boxes. Whatever is on display in this museum, the value is always high.

 

[Sakura along the Yodo River on the way
from the Fujita Art Museum to Nakanoshima]

Although the museum also has a small garden with a beautiful pagoda brought down from Mt Koya, adjacent to it lies the large Fujitatei-ato Park, containing the remnants of the original gardens of Baron Fujita. These are now under the management of the City of Osaka as part of Sakuranomiya Park. Interesting is that Mr Fujita built his mansion on the site of Daichoji Temple, which figures in Chikamatsu Monzaemon's puppet play from 1720 "Ten no Amashima Suicides." The present gardens, with a grassy green and flowering trees, are pleasant as a city park, but not very special from the point of view of garden architecture, as perhaps too much was destroyed.

Where: 2 min walk from exit 3 of Osakajo-Kitazume St on the JR Tozai line. For the museum, turn left after exiting the station; for the gardens, turn right (the entrance of the gardens is therefore on the opposite side of the entrance to the museum). On the other side of the road opposite the museum stands the Taikoen restaurant, now mainly a venue for weddings. 

When: Note that the museum is only open for the spring (early March to early June) and autumn exhibition (early September to early December), when about 40-50 pieces from the collection are exhibited according to various themes. 10:00-16:00, closed on Monday (unless a National Holiday, when closed the following day). The gardens are in principle everyday open, 10:00-16:00.

How much: Museum JPY 800; gardens free.

Ohatsu Tenjin Shrine, Osaka

Popularly known as "Ohatsu Tenjin," the official name of this shrine is Tsuyu Tenjinsha. The founding goes back to the now grey times more than 1,300 years ago when metropolitan Osaka was a bay with scattered islands and sandbanks. It is difficult to imagine among today's profusion of concrete and glass, not to forget all those humans moving around among them. It was a quiet and lonely place when our shrine was founded on one of these islands, Sone-su. In the 11th c. things improved when the island became part of the mainland thanks to a land reclamation project. A village named Sonezaki was establsihed and the shrine became the guardian of the community. When the railways came in the late 19th century, the area turned into the gateway to Osaka, but the shrine still guards the surrounding area.

[The shrine building]

At the origin of the shrine stands the leading court scholar Sugawara Michizane. Falsely accused, this Minister of the Right was exiled to Dazaifu in Kyushu. On his way in exile, traveling down from the capital Kyoto, he visited this shrine and composed a poem which means something like: "My sleeve is soaked with dew formed by the tears I shed recalling Kyoto." "Dew" is "tsuyu" - and so the official name of the shrine was born, Tsuyu Tenjinsha. Michizane would go on to be deified as Tenjin, the patron saint of scholarship.

 

[Statue of Tokubei and Ohatsu]

Now the popular name. "Ohatsu" is the female protagonist in a play written for the puppet theater (bunraku or ningyo joruri) by master playwright Chikamatsu Monzaemon, called Sonezaki Shinju ("The Love Suicides of Sonezaki"). This work relates the tragic love story of Tokubei, a shop clerk, and Ohatsu, a courtesan, who seeing no way out for their love (it was socially accepted to visit a courtesan, but falling in love with her would lead to ostracism - like in 19th c. Europe) were driven to suicide in the woods of the shrine grounds - woods which do not exist anymore, by the way. The play was based on a real incident that happened in 1703 and became tremendously popular, bringing many new visitors to the shrine, who started calling it "Ohatsu Tenjin." Because of the association with the love story of Tokubei and Ohatsu, even today many couples wishing to have a strong bond visit to pray (enmusubi) - although I would think that the affair between the puppet lovers is not a good omen as it ended rather badly!

 

[The shopping arcade]

The present shrine buildings date from 1957 - they were rebuilt after their destruction in WWII. The area around the shrine with the Ohatsu Tenjindori Shopping Arcade today has a pleasantly retro atmosphere. It is a warm and comfortable place and the shrine itself is always busy with visitors.

Where: Near JR Osaka St, Umeda St on the Hankyu, Hanshin and subway Midosuji lines, and Higashi Umeda St on the subway Tanimachi line.
When: The shrine grounds are always open.
How much: Free.
Note: On the 1st and 3rd Friday of every month, the shrine holds a flea market wherein about 30 antique dealers participate. On the 3rd Friday and Saturday of July the summer festival is celebrated, with lion dances, umbrella dances and big drums.
Website: www.tuyutenjin.com/

 

Visiting Ako (Ako City Museum of History)

Ako is a municipality in the western part of Hyogo Prefecture, bordering the Bizen area of Okayama. It has a certain tourist fame thanks to the fact that Ako was the castle town of Lord Asano Naganori, also called Takumi no Kami, who only being a third-generation daimyo in 1701 lost his life and castle by impulsively assaulting one of his superiors inside the shogun's palace in Edo - a historical incident that gave rise to the famous story of the Forty-Seven Ronin or Chushingura, and the ensuing boom in Joruri, Kabuki and much later, also film and novels. In fiction, however, the character of Lord Asano was changed and from what really was a sort of villain - who attacked a colleague from behind with a sword - he was made into a tragic hero.

Ako was a small but rich fief thanks to salt production on the coast. The castle was built in 1645 by Asano Naganao on the alluvial plain of the Chikusa River. It used to have 12 gates and 10 yagura towers and as it stood immediately at the seaside, one could set sail from docks located in the castle. Salt making took place in salt pans at the seaside and the salt from Ako was sold in the capital Edo and all over Japan.

Tourism in Ako has been built around the Forty-seven Ronin memories, but the problem is that there is not really much to be seen. The castle was dismantled in the early Meiji-period, and although a wall and one gate and one tower have been rebuilt, it doesn't add up to much, especially as - in contrast to for example nearby Tatsuno Castle - the castle grounds have only partly been restored. They just peter out in fields and a large parking lot and have not been made as a whole into a park. There is no unity.

 

[Restored yagura tower of Ako Castle]

The largest space inside the castle grounds is taken up by the Oishi Shrine  dedicated to the leader of the Forty-Seven Ronin, but this was only built in 1900 and is a very commercial-looking affair, not more than a tourist trap. It is second-hand Shinto, and the Forty-seven Ronin statues outside are very ugly - there are more of these in the Treasure Hall if you can stomach the steep fee.

That leaves two things. One is the gate to the house of Oishi Yoshio (Kuranosuke), the Ako chamberlain who led the secret vendetta of the forty-seven. The gate is said to be the original one on which the messenger from Edo knocked, bringing the news of Lord Asano's forced seppuku.

[Gate to Oishi Yoshio's mansion]

The other structure of interested in the castle grounds - and for me the largest point of interest in all of Ako - is the Ako City Museum of History, built in traditional style at the site of the former rice storehouses of the castle. Its displays are mainly about salt production (tools, models) and the Forty-seven Ronin (ukiyoe). There is also a model of the type of ship that carried the salt, packed in straw, to Edo. Although there is nothing in English, two nice videos about both these subjects are shown as well.

[Ako City Museum of History]

Besides the castle and its attractions, Ako also boasts Kagakuji Temple, founded in 1645 as the family temple of the Asano clan - it features grave monuments (the main grave of Lord Asano is however in Sengakuji in Tokyo)  and more Forty-seven Ronin replicas.

Don't forget to taste the local product - salt -, which is best done in the shape of the Shiomi Manju cakes sold in the town - as usual, the inside consists of azuki bean paste, but to the shell some Ako salt has been added.

Ako is easily accessible from the Kansai area. Its station, Banshu Ako, is on a branch line from the main Sanyo line, called Ako line, but there are through trains to Banshu Ako from Kyoto/Osaka/Kobe - otherwise, change trains in Himeji. The Ako castle grounds are 20 min on foot from the station. The Ako City History Museum is open from 9:00-17:00, but closed on Wednesdays and at year end/New Year. Entrance fee is 200 yen.

Plum Blossoms in Suma Rikyu Park

Suma Rikyu Park lies in the western part of Kobe, not far from the Suma Temple. The 58 hectare large park, situated on the side of Mt. Tsukimiyama, finds it origin in a villa of Count Otani Kozui (1876-1948), who was the 22nd abbot of the Nishi-Honganji Temple in Kyoto and also sponsored three archaeological expeditions to Central Asia (the findings formed the important Otani Collection, parts of which can still be seen in the National Museum of Tokyo and elsewhere). In 1907, the site was bought by the Imperial Household Agency, and the Suma Rikyu (Suma Detached Palace) was finished in 1914 - the official name, by the way, was Muko Rikyu. Old photos show a big structure like the halls of the Gosho Palace in Kyoto. The garden was designed by Fukuba Itsusen.

    

[Plum blossoms in Suma Rikyu]

However, this all perished during the heavy bombings of 1945. The buildings were gone, but the garden was as much as possible restored to the original state, and in 1967 was donated by the Imperial House to the City of Kobe, in commemoration of the marriage of the present Emperor (then Crown Prince).

   

[Plum blossoms in Suma Rikyu]

There is also an eastern part of 24 hectares, connected by a footbridge, that originally formed a residence and garden belonging to the Okazaki Zaibatsu (a local industrial group - mainly shipping and banking). It was in 1973 acquired by the City of Kobe and added to the park, but the residence was destroyed in the Great Hanshin Earthquake of 1995.

   

[Early sakura in Suma Rikyu]

The Rikyu Garden consists mainly of a Western-style garden of the Versailles type, with cascades, a canal and rows of fountains, as well as a square with a large fountain. The park also features a large rose garden, an iris garden and a camellia garden. An old stone lantern still stands as a lonely reminder of the former imperial gardens. A lookout-point provides a view over Suma and the nearby sea. A drive lined with maple trees is gorgeous in autumn.

 

[The main view - canals and fountains - in Suma Rikyu Park]

The botanical garden built on the former Okazaki premises features a greenhouse, a plum garden, a hydrangea garden, an English garden and a Japanese garden with a tearoom. There are also a few cherry trees. The plum trees come in many varieties and have all been neatly labeled (in Japanese). I found two statues in the garden: one of the god Poseidon, throwing a spear, in front of the restaurant and donated by Greece and a modern statue of Don Quixote on a stumbling and panting Rosinante.

   

[Fountain in Suma Rikyu Park]

Hours: 9:00-17:00 (enter by 16:30): in spring and autumn, there are sometimes longer opening times in the evening. Closed on Thursdays and from Dec. 29-Jan 3. 

Fee: 400 yen (a year card, also valid for the Shinrin Botanical Garden and Sorakuen Garden is 900 yen) 

Access: 10 min walk from Suma Station on either the JR or Sanyo Dentetsu lines (note that coming from Kobe Sannomiya or Motomachi, the JR ticket is 170 yen, but the combined Hanshin/Hankyu/Sanyo Dentetsu ticket is 320 yen because of the change of operator along the way - one of the rare cases that the JR is cheaper!). After exiting the station  proceed in an eastern direction along Kokudo 2 for about 5 min, then take the Rikyu Road (lined with small pine trees) north all the way to the Main Entrance of the park. There is also an eastern entrance to the a park, about 7 min from Tsukimiyama Station on the Sanyo Dentetsu Line, but this can not be recommended, as the environment with a highway ramp is rather vulgar.

Plum Blossoms in Kyoto Gyoen National Garden

"Gyoen" is the name for the part of the Imperial Palace in Kyoto that is always open to the public, the park so to speak that surrounds the Gosho and Sento Gosho Palaces and other buildings. The important point to note is that historically this was not a park, but that the area was filled with the mansions of the noblest families of Japan, aristocrats who served at the Imperial Court and from among whose daughters consorts for the emperors were selected. That were families as the Kujo, the Saionji, etc.


[Kyoto Gyoen. Photo Ad Blankestijn]

Their residences were situated inside the palace enclosure, surrounding the palace proper. After the emperor moved to Tokyo in 1868, those families followed him and their residences were dismantled. Of course, these mansions also had great gardens and some of the trees in the Gyoen Park are indeed very old; others were newly planted.


[White plum blossoms in Kyoto Gyoen. Photo Ad Blankestijn]

After WWII, Kyoto Gyoen was turned into a public park. With its abundant and beautiful green trees and lawns, Kyoto Gyoen is an easily accessible place to enjoy the changes of the seasons: from plum trees to peach trees, and from cherry blossoms to autumn foliage.


[Plum blossoms in Kyoto Gyoen. Photo Ad Blankestijn]

The plum trees stand in the southwestern corner, just north of the Kaninnomiya Mansion Site, where the walls and gate of the old compound have been rebuilt (inside is a hall where often small exhibitions are held). There are about 300 plum trees, intermingled with other, stately old trees. Blossoming time is usually the last week of February and the first week of March. Next to the plum garden is an area where peach trees have been planed; these blossom in mid-March. The beautiful weeping cherries, in their turn, stand in the northwestern corner of the park.


[Wintersweet (Cimonanthus) in Kyoto Gyoen. Photo Ad Blankestijn]

Among the normal plums also stand a few low trees of the wintersweet (cimonanthus), a plant which like the plum came to Japan from China. It produces a deliciously, sweet scent and flowers somewhat earlier than the plum tree. In Japan it is called robai (蝋梅), so also written with the character for plum, although it is an entirely different tree.

Admission: free.

For seeing the plum blossoms, the most convenient station is Marutamachi on the Subway Karasuma Line. 

Kuginuki Jizo (Kyoto Guide)

Kuginuki Jizo (or, officially, Shakuzoji) is a small temple sitting in the northern part of Senbon Street in Kyoto. The name means the “Jizo that pulls out nails,” and is a wordplay on “Kunuki,” or “removing pain.”

 

[The Jizo Hall with its wooden votive panels with nippers and nails]

According to legend, the Jizo was carved by the famous priest Kukai from a stone he brought back from his sojourn in China. In reality, of course, it must have been one of the many anonymous carved stones standing at the wayside in old Japan. The main image of the temple, an Amida Trinity from the 13th century, was likewise set up by the wayside and later incorporated into the temple.

[Giant, decorative nippers in front of the small temple hall]

The temple must originally have grown up on the basis of the legend that the Jizo statue could bring relief from distress. It was only in the 16th century that a new and more vivid legend took over. A certain merchant had terrible pain in his hands. In a dream the stone Jizo of this temple appeared to him and removed two nails from his hands, telling him they were a punishment because in a previous life he had felt a grudge towards another person. The next day the merchant visited the temple, and saw two bloody nails on the altar – and his pain was miraculously gone.

[Offerings out of gratitude of nails and nippers]

So from then on, when people thought the Jizo helped them find relief, they would offer a set of two nails and a nail puller attached to a small wooden board to the temple as a token of gratitude. The custom still exists and many of these sets have been attached to the outside wall of the Jizo Hall – a most original decoration. The temple is always busy with supplicants.

[Jizo is present in the temple grounds as well]

Hrs.: 8：30～16：30. Free. Access: 3 min walk from Kyoto City Bus stop "Senbon Kamidachiuri."

Best short stories of Akutagawa Ryunosuke (Book Review)

Akutagawa Ryunosuke (1892-1927) was a short story writer, essayist and haiku poet who died young at age 35, but whose about one hundred stories and novellas have become a hard and fast part of the canon of modern Japanese literature, not in the least thanks to his stylistic perfectionism and keen psychological insight. Shortly after Akutagawa was born - with the original family name Niihara - , his mother went insane, and he therefore was adopted into the family of his maternal uncle, whose surname he assumed. From a young age he was a voracious and eclectic reader of Western, Japanese and Chinese literature, and at Tokyo University, where he went in 1913, he studied English literature. After graduation, he briefly taught English, before deciding to devote his life wholeheartedly to literature - he was a fixed contributor to the Osaka Mainichi newspaper. He married in 1918 and had three sons, one of whom became the famous conductor and composer Akutagawa Yasushi.

Akutagawa's first short story to be published was Rashomon, in 1915, and it was praised by veteran author Natsume Soseki, who became a sort of mentor. At this time Akutagawa also started writing haiku, perhaps following the example of Soseki - it is a genre in which Akutagawa's efforts only in recent times have been properly evaluated. In the next years, Akutagawa especially wrote stories set in the past, reinterpreting classical works or historical incidents, and infusing them with modern psychology. But he also wrote modern stories and, in his final years, autobiographical stories, which show his emotional exhaustion.

Akutagawa suffered from insomnia and hallucinations, a condition that had been worsened by an unhappy stint in China in 1921 for the Osaka Mainichi. While searching for new themes in his novels at a time that the "I-Novel" dominated the literary scene, he was harassed by personal misfortune: the burning down of his sister's house, the suicide of that sister's husband, the fact that as head of the family he had to look after those family members, a burden for which he didn't have the strength - also financially, as he only subsisted on his meager income as a story writer. Increasingly paranoid, in the end, he fled the world he found so uncomfortable. On Sunday, July 24, 1927, Akutagawa took a fatal dose of a sleeping aid (Veronal, a barbiturate with which Virginia Woolf had tried suicide but failed) and passed away aged 35. Beside his pillow he left a note in which he explained that he had killed himself because of “a vague unease about my future.”  In 1935, Akutagawa's friend, the writer Kikuchi Kan established the Akutagawa Prize, which is today is still considered as the most prestigious Japanese literary award for aspiring writers.

 

[Akutagawa Ryunosuke, photo Wikipedia]

The best stories by Akutagawa are in my view:

1. "Hell Screen" ("Jigokuhen," 1917). Does great art demand the artist to give up human feelings to reach the pinnacle of his powers? That is the question asked in this story of a medieval painter who looks on at the sacrifice of his daughter to create the best work he can. In order to make a screen with a depiction of sinners tormented in Buddhist Hell, the painter - who can only paint from life - has a carriage set on fire in which the evil feudal lord - out of spite for his rebuffed love - has secretly chained and gagged the painter's beautiful daughter. The painter, who has been shown earlier on to have a cruel streak, is first shocked at seeing his daughter in the fatal carriage, but then when the flames leap up and she writhes in agony, he starts painting in ecstasy. Akutagawa has clearly modernized the story, for in pre-modern Japan painters always worked after templates, in the fixed style of the school to which they belonged - there was no such thing as individual originality and "painting after life." But that comment does not make the story less beautiful... "Hell Screen" was filmed several times (for example in 1969 as a Toho costume drama), and in 1953 was also made into a Kabuki play by Mishima Yukio.
2. "Spinning Gears" ("Haguruma," 1927; the title has also been rendered as "Cogwheels"). The strongest of the autobiographical tales Akutagawa wrote in the years before his death - the reader almost feels he is pulled down the same dark hole as Akutagawa himself. The narrator is a novelist staying in a hotel in Tokyo to write stories. He takes long walks around the city, suffering from insomnia, and gradually loses his grip on reality. A whole life boils down to a few days of intense suffering, and finally inexhaustible paranoia.
3. "In a Bamboo Grove" ("Yabu no Naka," 1922). A perfect demonstration of how humans all interpret events in different ways, and not coincidentally always to their own advantage. Pride and vanity keep us from seeing the truth (if the truth exists at all...). A samurai and his wife travel through a dense forest, they meet a robber, the samurai eventually dies, a passing-by woodcutter reports the crime. The woodcutter, a priest, the robber, the gentleman and his lady all have their own, self-serving versions of the same murder (or was it suicide?) - even the dead man speaking via a medium is still telling lies from over the grave... Together with "Rashomon" this story formed the basis for the classic film Rashomon by Kurosawa Akira. In fact, in my mind the stories are so indelibly linked to the film, that when reading them, before my eyes I see the images of Mifune Toshiro as the bandit, Kyo Machiko as the lady and Shimura Takashi as the woodcutter...
4. "Kesa and Morito" ("Kesa to Morito," 1918). A historical story about the infatuation of a palace guard for a married court lady, told in two monologues, first by the guard, Morito, and then by the lady, Kesa. In the original story in The Rise and Fall of the Genji and Heike (around 1400), Kesa is a paragon of fidelity and she only yields to the violent Morito (in fact her cousin) in order to save her mother, who is threatened by the lovesick man. Next, she asks Morito to kill her husband, as she can not bear the shame of being the wife of two men. This is  a ruse, though, for she ties up her hair and lies in the bed of her husband, waiting for the killer. Morito by mistake cuts off the head of his beloved and mad with grief, he finally becomes a Buddhist ascetic. The original story of Kesa was also used by Kinugasa Teinosuke in the 1953 film Gate of Hell (Jigokumon). Akutagawa probes the complex motives of both Morito and Kesa - in his version Kesa commits adultery out of vanity and ambivalent feelings towards Miroto rather than sacrifice for her mother.
5. "Dragon" ("Ryu," 1919). Another historical tale. A priest who is fond of practical jokes, puts up a sign next to the Sarusawa Pond in Nara with the message: "On the third day of the third month, the dragon of this pond will ascend to heaven." To his own surprise, a huge crowd, from high to low, is assembled at the pond on that day and later all watchers believe they indeed saw a dragon rise up from the pond - the priest is unable to convince them that the sign was just a joke. A perfect story of religious obsession (the dragon in Japan is sacred, like a deity), showing that religion could well just be a form of mass hysteria.
6. "The Nose" ("Hana," 1916). Akutagawa's second story, which gained him much initial fame, based on a classical collection of tales. A renowned priest with an ugly and hugely long nose after much trouble finally gets rid of his nemesis - but then longs to have it back, as he is nothing special anymore. That the vain and egotistic priest is only obsessed about the state of his nose can be seen as a comment on the relative positions in human society of religion and personal vanity.
7. "Rashomon" (1915). Akutagawa's use of the dilapidated Rashomon gate was deliberately symbolic, the gate's ruined state representing the moral and physical decay of Japanese civilization and culture in the later Heian period (12th c.). The story is quite gruesome: a manservant who has lost his job must choose between honesty and crime. We see how he gradually decides to become a thief, when observing that an old hag on the attic of the Rashomon gate is tearing out the hair of dead bodies dumped there to make wigs. The old woman becomes his first victim, in good Dostoyevsky-style... Used as the "frame" for Kurosawa's above mentioned film.
8. "Death Register" ("Tenkibo," 1926). A short but stark and harsh record of the deaths of three close family members, containing a sad look at Akutagawa's estranged, insane mother, the elder sister he never knew and the father who gave him up as an infant. Akutagawa suggests that the difference between the living and the dead is barely perceptible, like a shimmer of heat on a summer day.
9. "Mandarins" ("Mikan," 1919). A jaded young man is shocked into feelings of human warmth when he sees a servant girl (whom he first despised as crude and stupid) throw oranges from the train to her younger brothers. The mikan is a popular citrus fruit, consumed in great quantities in winter. 
10. "O'er a Withered Moor" ("Karenosho," 1918). Relates the death of haiku poet Basho, and the selfish thoughts his disciples harbor at his deathbed, although supposedly "lost to boundless grief." A personal meditation that was also influenced by the early death in 1916 at age 49 of Akutagawa's mentor Natsume Soseki. The tile is based on Basho's final haiku, his death poem: Ill on a journey / Wandering in fevered dreams / O'er a withered moor. (See my post about this haiku).

[Haiku monument in the Minamo-Mido Temple in Osaka,
in front of which the flower shop stood where Basho breathed his last]

And here are two great stories that as far as I know have not yet been translated:

• "A Painting of Autumn Mountains" ("Shuzanzu," 1921). Story set in ancient China. About "the greatest painting of all times," that is an overarching presence in the minds of two art lovers. And "in the mind" is how they want to keep it, for when they are shown a painting that is none other than the famous "greatest painting" they have been enthusing over all their lives, they find it so disappointing that they decide it is not the "real thing." Indeed, the "real thing" only exists in their imagination...
• "The General" ("Shogun," 1922). Features a brutal character named "N Shogun," who may have been based on General Nogi, the hero of the bloody Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05. The story was considered as controversial and heavily censored, but it is an interesting critique of the authorities. Another perfect anti-war tale is The Story of a Head that Fell Off in the Penguin translation by Jay Rubin.

10 out of 10 points. Besides somewhat older translations which are still being reprinted by Tuttle, we have two volumes of excellent modern renderings of Akutagawa's prose:

Rashomon and Seventeen Other Stories, translated by Jay Rubin and with an introduction by Murakami Haruki (Penguin Classics, 2006)

Mandarins: Stories by Ryunosuke Akutagawa, translated by Charles de Wolf (Archipelago Books, 2007)

There is only an overlap of a few stories between these two volumes. Rubin - well-known for his translations of several novels by Murakami Haruki - includes both a generous selection of the historical tales, modern fiction, and autobiographical works, while Keio University Professor De Wolf mostly selects stories set in modern times. Rubin includes nos 1-3 and 5-8 from the above list, and De Wolf nos 2, 4, 9, and 10.

Sukunahikona Shrine and Pharmaceutical Museum, Doshomachi, Osaka

In the Edo-period, Osaka was the trading center of Japan. Not only did important wares such as rice pass through its warehouses before being distributed nationwide, Osaka was also the financial center of Japan. One of the items on which merchants from Osaka had a nationwide monopoly, was herbal medine. As initially Japanese medicine was based on Chinese herbal medicine, plants, roots, bark and other substances were imported from China (or brought from other areas in Japan), collected in the Doshomachi quarter in Osaka, checked, and then distributed nationwide.

In 1722, 124 brokers of such medicinal ingredients received official permission to act as a trade association (kabunakama) - meaning they had a monopoly on the medicine trade in exchange for taxes. Of course, a practical reason was that these traders had built up enough expert knowledge to judge the quality of the ingredients (and recognize fake ones) and see to it that they were used in a proper way.


[Entrance to the Sukunahikona Shrine and Museum]

Dealing in Chinese medicine, these traders honored the Chinese Deity of Medicine, Shennong (Shinno in Japanese). Shennong ("Divine Farmer") is a culture hero and mythical figure who has been credited as the inventor of both agriculture and medicine (in the form of herbal drugs, the therapeutic understanding of pulse measurements, acupuncture, and moxibustion). In the Huainanzi he is said to have tasted hundreds of herbs to test their medical value - and in some traditions, he finally swallowed a poisonous plant and so died for the welfare of mankind. Shennong became the patron deity of farmers, rice traders, and practitioners of traditional Chinese medicine and acupuncture. The most famous ancient book on agriculture and medicinal plants from China has also been ascribed to Shennong: the Shennong Bencao Jing ("Shennong's Materia Medica"), although in fact this is a compilation of oral traditions made between 300 BCE and 200 CE. The book describes 365 herbs and therapeutic substances, among which ginseng, linzhi mushrooms and ginger. Tea, seen as an antidote to poisonous herbs, is also described and Shennong so is also seen as the inventor of tea - a chance discovery, as tea leaves on burning tea twigs were carried by the hot air from the fire precisely to his cauldron of boiling water.


[Ingredients in a store of traditional medicine]

Later, Shennong was coupled with the Japanese deity of medicine, Sukuna-hikona. This deity, whose name means "Renowned Little Prince" appears in the Nihongi as the helper of Onamuchi no Mikoto, in "animating" the newly created land. He also set forth methods for healing illness among humans and their livestock, as well as magical ways of averting disasters. On top of that, he came to be regarded as the deity of curative springs (Onsen). In 1789 a shrine was built in the Doshomachi quarter, in which eventually both deities were enshrined. The popular name of the shrine is still "Shinno-san;" the official name is Sukunahikona Shrine.


[The Sukunahikona Shrine]

In 1822 a cholera epidemic hit Japan, brought into the country via Nagasaki, the only international port at the time. Also in Osaka, hundreds of people were dying every day. The medicine traders created medicine from tiger's bones and also made toy tigers from papier-mache as offering to Shinno and Sukuna-hikona. Although this undoubtedly did not help against the disease, it became customary to purchase a toy tiger (hariko) at the annual shrine festival in November as a prayer for good health.


[Votive plates with on top the two deities Sukunahikona (left)
and Shinno (right) and at the bottom the tiger]

In the Meiji period (1868-1912) Western medicine was introduced, first from the Netherlands. The Doshomachi merchants again acted as importers, although the monopoly of course was gone. A new phenomenon occurred: production of medicines was also started in the area, and the Osaka Pharmaceutical School was set up here. Some of the famous pharmaceutical companies that grew up in Osaka and are still headquartered in Doshomachi are: Takeda, Fujisawa, Kobayashi, Shionogi, Tanabe and Dainippon. There are 300 pharmaceutical wholesalers and manufacturers in the district, many also carrying out research. There are also several companies producing more traditional medicines, as Kaigen.


[A rare traditional building of a pharmaceutical company surviving in the area]

In the grounds of Sukunahikona Shrine (on the 3rd floor of the building housing the shrine office), one finds the Doshomachi Pharmaceutical and Historical Museum, which shows how the Doshomachi district has developed over the centuries. The museum possesses a large collection of valuable documents, but also advertising posters. One can watch several interesting videos as well. Unfortunately, the museum is only in Japanese.

At the entrance to the shrine is a plaque with a replica of the handwriting of the novelist Tanizaki Junichiro - his novella Shunkinsho (A Portrait of Shunkin, 1933) is set in this area.


[Tanizaki's Shunkinsho manuscript]

Address: 2-1-8 Dosho-machi, Chuo-ku, Osaka. TEL: 06-6231-6958  

Hrs: 6:00 - 18:30. Both shrine and museum are free.  

Access: 2 min. walk from Kitahama St. on the Sakaisuji Subway Line