Posted in Book, Religion, Writing on Jul 25th, 2008 No Comments »
In the process of reading Lafcadio Hearn (again) for my “Canon of 108 best books,” I came across this short story Hearn calls “A Fragment” (from In Ghostly Japan). It is worth quoting in full:
And it was at the hour of sunset that they came to the foot of
the mountain. There was in that place […]
Posted in History, Museums, Nature, Religion, Temples, Travel on Apr 14th, 2008 2 Comments »
In the Tama Hills in the western part of Saitama Prefecture stands an old temple famous for the valuable Buddhist scriptures it possesses. Now only a remnant of a much larger complex, the temple also boasts an Eleven-Headed Kannon. When I visit, the doors of the altar cabinet happen to be wide open and the […]
Posted in Art, Culture, Food, Japan, Nature, Religion, Web on Mar 21st, 2008 No Comments »
The Mitsukoshi Department Store has bought a small Buddhist wood statue carved by famous Kamakura-period master Unkei at Christie’s in New York for $12.8 million. The Dainichi Nyorai (Cosmic Buddha) figure brought in more than ten times the estimated price - this is the highest price ever offered for any Buddhist artwork in the world […]
Posted in Culture, Festivals, Japan, Religion on Mar 20th, 2008 No Comments »
Shunbun no Hi or the “Vernal Equinox” (when day and night are of equal length) is a Japanese national holiday established in the Meiji-period “so that people could commune with nature and show their love for all living things.” It is usually celebrated on March 20 or 21. Similarly, in September, there is an Autumnal […]
Posted in Nature, Photography, Religion, Writing on Mar 12th, 2008 2 Comments »
The lotus is my favorite flower and although the ponds are still empty in this early season, I happened to come across these lotus pictures when reorganizing my slides last weekend. They were taken in Hokongoin Temple in Kyoto, which boasts a fabulous lotus pond in summer.
[Lotus (Hokongoin Temple, Kyoto). Photo by Ad Blankestijn]
I […]
Posted in Festivals, Kyoto, Religion, Temples on Mar 11th, 2008 No Comments »
Everybody dies, even for the Buddha the Great Transformation was inescapable.
According to the tradition, the Buddha entered Nirvana at the age of eighty. But as he had reached Enlightenment, his was not an ordinary death. By his enlightenment, he had already extinguished the fires of attachment and passion, thus creating a state of Nirvana. However, […]
Posted in Kyoto, Religion, Temples, Travel on Feb 17th, 2008 No Comments »
When writing about Sei Shonagon and her poem stone in Sennyuji, I discovered I still had an unpublished article about a visit to that temple. It is one of the pieces that still has to go in the “108 Temple Pilgrimage,” but I will first post it here.
Located at the foot of Mt. […]
Posted in Kyoto, Religion, Temples on Feb 9th, 2008 2 Comments »
Kyoto, the old capital, is full of graves. When you walk through Shinkyogoku, the popular shopping street between Shijo and Sanjo that is almost a Harajuku look-alike, you are in the midst of a huge graveyard. Nobody notices, young people are on shopping sprees as if there were no other things in the world. […]
Posted in Kyoto, Religion, Temples on Jan 23rd, 2008 1 Comment »
As a Sinologist myself, I have always been fond of Sugawara no Michizane, the greatest Sinologue (and writer of poetry in Chinese) from ancient Japan. For the same reason, I have a weakness for the Tenmangu Shrines dedicated to him.
Michizane (9th c.) died in exile, after a frustrated career, and as an angry ghost […]
Posted in Architecture, History, Kyoto, Religion on Jan 19th, 2008 No Comments »
Do old superstitions still influence our modern lives? Are you afraid of the Devil Gate?
In ancient Japan (and even to some extent in modern Japan) certain directions were considered as negative and especially the northeast - called Devil Gate - was seen as a quarter from which demons could assault you.
We are in the realm […]
Posted in History, Kobe, Religion, Temples on Jan 16th, 2008 No Comments »
The Ikuta Shrine stands at the origins of Kobe, so it could not be more right that it also stands in the middle of the Sannomiya shopping center of the modern city.
[Ikuta Road, leading to the shrine]
But that is not its original location. The Ikuta Shrine used to be situated at Sunayama, a hill near […]
Posted in Kobe, Religion, Sake, Temples, Travel on Jan 14th, 2008 No Comments »
There are several legends about the origins of the popular Nishinomiya Ebisu Shrine in Nishinomiya. One tale goes back to ancient myth and starts with a sad story. The creator gods from Japanese mythology, Izanagi and his sister/spouse Izanami have received a jewelled spear from the other deities to begin their grand work of […]
Posted in Religion, Temples, Tokyo on Jan 9th, 2008 No Comments »
Lord Enma and Lord Jizo, or Hell in Shinjuku. That is only possible at a dusty small temple called Taisoji, standing in the middle of rows of boring flats.
[The Enma statue, from the temple’s pamphlet]
Enma has remained strictly Chinese in Japan. The Judge of Hell has remained a gaijin, perhaps because his kind of […]
Posted in Festivals, Kyoto, Religion, Temples on Jan 5th, 2008 No Comments »
Last year it was the Shimogamo Shrine we selected for our Hatsumode, this year we opted for its “sibling”, the Kamigamo Shrine in northern Kyoto. January 1 was a dark and overcast day, with some sleet raining down, but New Year’s day would not be complete without a shrine visit.
The Kamigamo Shrine is dedicated to […]
Posted in Kyoto, Religion, Temples, Travel on Nov 25th, 2007 No Comments »
Elsewhere I have written about the ema museum of the Yasui Konpira Shrine in Kyoto, this time I want to take a look at its komainu - but first some history.
There used to be a temple here (Rengeko-in) with as protection a shrine in its grounds that was a branch of the famous Konpira Shrine […]
Posted in Art, Kyoto, Religion, Travel on Nov 24th, 2007 No Comments »
Along the path leading through the Nishi Otani Cemetery stand several small temples, one of them called Myokendo. Myoken Bosatsu was regarded as the personification of the Pole Star and worship was believed to bring prosperity, good fortune and protection from danger. He originated as an Indian Buddhist deity and in China picked up Daoist […]
Posted in Culture, Religion, Temples, Travel on Nov 24th, 2007 No Comments »
Yesterday, a national holiday with autumn at its best, Kyoto was overrun by hordes of tourists, as was to be expected, but we found a quiet road from the Gojo crossing to the Higashiyama range and the grounds of Kiyomizu - the Road of the Dead, as the path cut through the immense graveyard belonging […]
Posted in Religion, Writing on Nov 23rd, 2007 No Comments »
Gojo-dori, one of the most eye-sore heavy-traffic arteries of Kyoto, is not exactly a place where you would expect to find a poem. On an ugly wall behind which lies a small graveyard, Jodo temple Sainenji has put up a board with a beautiful poem by its founder Honen:
[Photo © Ad Blankestijn]
Though the moon […]
Posted in Religion, Temples, Travel on Nov 23rd, 2007 No Comments »
Usuki is a small town in eastern Kyushu, located at the end of a deeply indented bay (incidentally the place where the first Dutch ship to reach Japan, De Liefde, ran ashore). Now a pleasantly sleepy town, it originated as the castle town of the Christian Daimyo Otomo Sorin, who did his charitable best to […]
Posted in Art, Religion, Travel on Nov 19th, 2007 No Comments »
Everyone who has visited a shrine in Japan has made their acquaintance, often with a smile: the pairs of funny stone guardians that are a cross between a lion and a dog and that often stand at the entrance to the sacred precincts.
[The right lion-dog in the Sudo Shrine in northwestern Kyoto (with the mouth […]
Posted in Kyoto, Religion, Travel on Nov 11th, 2007 No Comments »
The Yoshida Shrine sits on Mt Yoshida, next to the campus of Kyoto University. When you enter the university via the main gate, on Higashi Ichijo Street, you see the bright red torii at the end of the street. Mr Yoshida (also called Kagura Hill) is not much of a mountain, at 102 meters, but […]
Posted in Kyoto, Religion on Nov 11th, 2007 No Comments »
When I studied at Kyoto University, almost 25 years ago, cycling from the area north of the Shimogamo Shrine where I lived, I always passed “Hyakumanben” on my way to the Yoshida campus (I spent most of my time in the library of the Department of Literature, Bungakubu, delving up obscure articles by Japanese scholars […]
Posted in Kyoto, Religion, Temples on Apr 13th, 2007 No Comments »
There is one very special image of Sakyamuni, the historical Buddha, one that claims to be modeled after the Buddha himself, during his lifetime, and that therefore became the object of a particularly fervent popular cult in Japan in the 13th century. This wondrous image still can be seen in the Shaka-do, the Sakyamuni Hall […]
Posted in Art, Kyoto, Religion, Temples on Apr 5th, 2007 No Comments »
Many times I have been in the East Temple, Toji, to experience its mystic three-dimensional mandalas and enjoy its other wondrous statues. It is a temple of esoteric anger and benevolence at the same time, a temple as old as the city in which it stands. Unfortunately, it lies on the wrong side of the […]
Posted in Religion, Temples on Apr 1st, 2007 No Comments »
One of the nicest festivals in the Buddhist calendar is April 8, when the Buddha’s birthday is celebrated. The official name is Kanbutsu-e (”the bathing of Buddha”), and popularly its is called Hana Matsuri or Flower Festival. It takes place just as the sakura and other flowers are in full spring bloom. Many Buddhist temples […]
