Posts from — January 2006

“Don Gregory, I am honored and grateful that you have invited me to your home on the wedding day of your daughter, with black sesame butter smeared all over your face.”

[This video uses the new QuickTime H.264 high-compression codec. You need to have QT 7 installed, but it's worth it for the greatly improved performance.]

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This is Ginkakuji Temple (The Silver Pavilion, but the actual name is Jisho-ji) in Kyoto during light and moderate snowfall in January, 2006. Ginkakuji does not allow the use of tripods, so this is handheld. Ginkakuji was built by Shogun Ashikaga Yoshimasa in the 1470s and 80s after a 10-year civil war in which most of Kyoto was literally reduced to ashes. Despite this, he wanted to build something that would rival his grandfather’s Golden Pavilion of the previous century. The most famous building at the temple, the Kannon-do beside the pond, is one of the few original buildings on the temple grounds.

There was heavy snow overnight and this morning. Up here in the north there was a lot of snow piling up, but I went down Shirakawa to Ginkakuji and most of the snow was melting as soon as it fell. A couple degrees makes a big difference.

Eventually, I’m going to drink some tea and eat some chocolate there, but it was closed last Tuesday when we were in the neighborhood, so all I got was pictures of the outside.

The White Tiger of the West, represented by a street (Rte. 162) and flood control channel bordering the city on the west.

A book with fascinating details like this, plus absolutely stunning photographs, is Marc Peter Keane’s Japanese Garden Design, which covers a lot more ground than you would think. You won’t regret buying this book.

Red Phoenix of the South (as depicted on a lantern at Heian Shrine). In the ciy itself it was represented by Ogura ike (pond), now mostly reclaimed land with a large highway interchange and Kyoto Racecourse nearby.

The Black Turtle of the North on a lantern at Heian Shrine. the Northern Turtle is represented by Funaoka-yama in the city. Kyoto today fills the valley, but when the emperor Kammu decided to move the capital here in A.D. 794, it needed much less space, and turtle-esque Funaoka-yama (just a hill, really) was selected as the northern centerpoint, running down to the Rashomon (yes, that Rashomon) gate in the south. The original Heian Palace was built just south of Funaoka-yama, which now is quite a bit west of the current center of town.

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Chinese Geomancy at Heian Shrine, Kyoto: The Blue Dragon of the East
Represented in the city by the Kamo River.