Kinkaku-ji

On 2nd July 1950 the Temple of the Golden Pavilion (金閣寺, Kinkaku-ji) was destroyed in a fire started by a 21 year-old troubled monk. It was not the first time the temple had been lost: the Onin War (1467-1477) and the suceeding century of turmoil saw much of Kyoto lost to fire, including the Golden Temple. (Berry observes that "Before the modern era, war was unusual in Japan"). Yukio Mishima portrays fictional events leading to the 1950 fire in his novel "The Temple of the Golden Pavilion". By 1955 the Temple had been rebuilt, and additional gilding was carried out in the mid-eighties. This picture shows that earlier Kinkaku-ji, resplendent from age, use and a measure of decay. The three levels are in different architectural styles: the ground floor, the Chamber of Dharma Waters, in open Heian style, surmounted by the Tower of Roaring Waves in Samurai house style, and the final floor in Zen style. (It is a Rinzai temple). Each level is now gilded (with 48 kg of gold) and lacquered. The upper level houses an Amida triad and 25 Bodhisattvas, while below is the Buddha hall of the Kannon Bodhisattva. A Chinese fenghuang (鳳凰) tops the building.
I found the photograph in the Museum of Photography in Nara, sought out because of my interest in the architect Kisho Kurokawa. It's a bit off the regular trail, out of town - even the taxi driver had to ask directions.
Today Kinkaku-ji is difficult to view with fresh eyes. More intriguing is the unseen interior, which the guide books show to be of breathtaking beauty. I like the idea of making something beautiful that you cannot see at will, as it were, enjoyed only by the silent Bodhisattvas measuring time and bearing witness.

Copyright prevents me showing these beautiful photographs of Kinkaku-ji here, but they are among the best I have seen.

Incidentally, should you use a taxi, it is easy to arrive at The Silver Temple, Ginkaku-ji. The more you try to distinguish Gi- and Ki-, the more likely is the taxi driver to hear the opposite. "Ah so desu! Kinkaku-ji", and you go to Ginkaku-ji. Like "ice" and "eyes", easy when you know how!

Refs.
"The Culture of Civil War in Kyoto", Mary Elizabeth Berry, University of California Press, 1994
"The Temple of the Golden Pavilion", Yukio Mishima, trans. Ivan Morris, Penguin Twentieth Century Classics, 1987

York Minster

It is not often you see the interior of York Minster free of chairs and benches. Along with the very different cathedral in Durham, a place of great beauty. Even better if the organ is being played! A task: to visit all the cathedrals in England.
Tomorrow I give a seminar at the University. Always a pleasure to return.

Looming crisis?

"Humankind cannot stand very much reality". T.S.Eliot

From yesterday's Financial Times (Wednesday November 23 2005):

Record gas prices prompt supply fears
The price of gas for delivery in January traded as high as £1.20 a therm...Spot prices traded as high as £1.70 a therm up from about 31p at the start of the month...
Because gas is heavily used in Britain to generate power, the wholesale price of electricity has also soared. The price of electricity for the next day rose from about £60 per megawatt hour at the end of last week to £105 yesterday.

Autumn

Almost four years ago to the day, in the garden of one of the sub-temples of the Nanzen-ji (南禅寺) complex. The whole area was a afire: the digital image does not capture the brilliance of the reds. (Perhaps a role for film yet, though equally I may have much to learn about optimising the settings on the Sony Cybershot). A good time of the year to be in Kyoto, cooler and clear skies.

Remembrance (2)

My Belgian family: Maurice and Zoe had, I think, 10 children, not all of whom survived. One boy, many girls. Madeleine, my mother, is in the middle, clutching her raquette, Rachel and Martha behind, Bertha on my grandfather's knee, baby Maurice on my grandmother's lap. I remember a home with an aviary outside, neatly piled logs, chopped wood, the smell of coffee, with a drop of cognac as needed, conversation I could not understand. That was later.

Remembrance (1)

My mother, now 80, was born in Poperinghe and lived in Kemmel up to the end of the second world war. I remember walking with her, and her late father, through the fields, and her finding a rusted hand-grenade. Bullets could be found easily in the ploughed farmland, and shell cases, rusted and broken, were stacked against pubs. Farmers still died while ploughing. The slaughter is well-documented. Whole towns lost in the taking of a ridge, only to be lost a few days later. The young men of Adlington, Chorley, and countless towns, gone, almost to a man. In Ieper, in the Cloth Hall, I remember a display of photographs. The destruction and loss of life is almost unimaginable. A few survived the war only to die in the 'flu pandemic of 1918, exhausted men and women, demobbed, packed into trains, and boats.
In memory of the many then, and the many now, in conflict and war not of their doing.

The picture is from the blog of the music critic Alex Ross.(http://www.therestisnoise.com/2005/11/le_dieu_ravel.html). I have also seen it referenced to the Imperial War Museum. A thoughtful site is http://www.greatwar.co.uk/westfront/ypsalient/ypres.htm.

Autumn

Chion-in, Kyoto. 2003

I try to make at least one visit to Chion-in when in Japan: most days there seems to be a service at 11:00, discreetly captured here. People come and go, small children play on the tatami, old and young offer incense, as I did, while the chanting and sound of the gongs, some deep, some metallic, goes on regardless, as it has done for hundreds of years. Outside, the occasional murmur of voices and the cawing of the crows in the mid-summer heat.
The entrance is the massive San-mon, said to be the largest gate is Japan, and proportionate to the temple itself. A step over a large sill marks your entry into sacred space, emphasised by the very steep flight of stone steps ahead. The construction and steepness is such that you cannot see anything at the top other than the sky - not accidental I think. The steps and the occasional cawing crow emphasise the silence and the heat. Then the cleansing water ladled over the hands, and the sound of a gong from within the great hall. Shoes off, neatly to one side, the soft tatami underfoot, and the cool dark interior picking out the greenish-gold and mirror dark lacquered floor. I sit quietly at the back and go with the moment. Time stops.

Entering a New Century at Chion-in, Kyoto

The great temple bell of Chion-in is justly famous: cast in 1633 and weighing some 80 tons, it is the largest in Japan. Here you see it being struck by monks of the Jodo (Pure Land) school, sleeves rolled back. They were fortunate: their seated venerable abbot less so, it being a bitterly cold night with a chilling wind. He looked frail, and I felt for him. Wandering back down to the city, the night was full of the many temple bells, tolling the 108 reminders of the ways of error. It was good to be amongst the crowds again. New Year is of course a good time everywhere, but the Omisoka tradition of being with your family, cleaning, settling debts, grievances, and generally banishing all that is negative, is a fine way to enter the New Year. The change of century was a special time to be in Kyoto, with many unique events, including outdoor Noh on Karasuma-dori. Of course, we were 8 hours ahead of London too!

Evolving Space

About 8 years ago, I found "Evolving Space" a small gallery on Pacific Avenue in San Francisco (conferences have their uses). I am no collector, and such places would normally intimidate me, but for some reason I went in. I made two discoveries. First, the kind and helpful owner, Michelle Koo and second, the work of the print maker Seiko Tachibana. Over two years, as money allowed, I bought some of her works, Natural #1, #2, #3 of the "Michi (Road / Life)" series, "Spiral (Wa)" and "Encounter (Setten)". If time permits, I may talk about them more later. In the Japanese way, I display them sparingly, and reflect on them, simply because that seems appropriate for them. Time passes, and "Evolving Space" may have gone. The domain name became available, so to honour this memory, I took it, and it also forms the title for this blog.
In another way it is apt. Space or a vacuum is not empty, but full of immense energy that bubbles in and out of existence - the energy of the false vacuum. The shorter the time - and we are talking Planck time (10E-43 sec) - the vaster the energy that can flicker into existence: the present universe may have arisen in this way. That too makes sense. So, Evolving Space works for me on many levels.
A quick search suggests Seiko Tachibana is still working. May I wish her and MK well.