Skip to main content

Kyoto, Day Two

We headed to the Ginkakuji, or Silver Pavilion Temple, the next day.  It is a Zen temple first built in 1482 by Ashikaga Yoshimasa (the 8th Muromachi Shogunate, if that means anything to anyone except Matt).  He modeled it after his grandfather's Kinkakuji, or Golden Pavilion Temple.  Both are considered World Cultural Heritage Sites and National Treasures.  The last time Matt visited Japan he stopped by the Golden Pavilion and was greatly unimpressed, so we decided to see the Silver Pavilion instead.  I can't speak to the pros or cons of the Golden Pavilion, but I will say that the Silver Pavilion was one of the more breathtaking and awe-inspiring sights I've seen in Japan, so I am happy with our choice.

We went with our friends Alan and Steve again, and two more people (Jake and his wife Rieko, friends of Alan who live in Tokyo) met up with us there.  They had hung out with us the other night at the Kannon temple and the Kiyomizu dera, and it was fun to see them again.  We made a fun and boisterous group.


The Ginkakuji visually celebrated and defined the "Zen aesthetic." I had never seen it illustrated so well and so completely before.  It was also my first time seeing the intricate raked sand gardens.  The entrance to the temple is a long corridor lined with tall, trimmed trees with large red flowers.  Around a corner the vista opens up on a stone walkway shining silver in the sun, and gates through which is visible the first of many sand gardens (see pictures one and two of this post).  The trees are elegantly sculpted, pruned to exact Zen specifications using methods that would seem to take the patience of Zen to put into practice (they take a long time to manifest any results).  This is still the entryway to the temple.  Walking the path around this first garden leads to another set of gates, through which is the true wonderland.

The picture to the left is a sand creation called Kougetsudai, or "pedestal that faces the moon". It is a visual representation of Mt. Fuji.  Set back behind it is the pavilion itself, seen here through the gardens that cover the grounds.


The sand garden continues into a sand ocean.  From the Kougetsudai stretches white sand sculpted to resemble waves.  This is called the Ginsyadan and is the main sand garden inside the temple grounds.

We continued on our walk of the grounds, which went farther and were more beautiful than we imagined.  All around us were trees, glistening moss, small streams, all arranged with the greatest care.


Our walk took us up a little way so we could look over the gardens and a bit of the city.  Most glorious: the view of the Silver Pavilion shining in the sun.  It lived up to its name and provided a fantastic sight.  We were lucky; soon after we descended again into the mossy hills, the sunlight faded and the interminable chill returned to Kyoto.

Rieko commented that the Golden Pavilion was built for the purpose of showing off wealth and status, and that it looked overblown, pompous, and posturing as a result.  She saw the Silver Pavilion like I did: a view into the heart of Zen culture, something that valued true beauty and simplicity, and sought to exist as a testament and extension of nature.  The gardens inspire peace as much as awe, and require constant attention and devotion to maintain.  Seeing this temple showed me the heart of Japanese Buddhism and the art of Zen.  Fittingly, afterwards we walked the "Philosopher's Walk" path, ruminating on our experiences, taken in by the beauty of cherry blossoms.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Some Funnies

As our first year (6 months, really) draws to a close, I think it's important to display the winners of this year's worst (as in best) English sentences. Coming in third place is a very silly dialoge written by some third-years at my school.  Another ALT discovered this and thankfully showed me.  It's obvious what they're trying for but they really miss the mark: A: Hello. B: Hello.  This is H.  May I speak to T please? A: This is T. B: Great!  I'm going to prikura (sic).  Can you come to porice (sic) office at midnight? A: Yes!  Of course!  That sounds fun!  Do you want me to bring anything? B: Sure.  Could you bring some monneys (sic)? A: Yes.  Thank you for inviting me.  I'm so bad!  See you! B: You're welcome.  Fuck you! Second place is two sentences that can be taken as a pair or as stand-alone awesomeness.  These were written by one of my third year students when we had a unit on debates: A: ...

Enter: Germany

We stopped in Munich to visit my good friend Martina who studied abroad in America during high school.  Munich is an unbelievably beautiful and clean city, full of spectacular architecture and interesting places to visit.  The surrounding area is made up of rolling hills dappled with stupendous castles.  Martina and her man Christian were the best hosts ever, taking us all over and dealing with us in their space for almost three weeks! The first main tourist site we visited was Hohenschwangau, home of two castles.  The first we saw was Schloss Neuschwanstein, built by Ludwig II.  It was never really completed, especially inside, as the King went bankrupt during the process.  He was removed from the throne and thrown in prison, where he managed to talk his way out for a solitary walk where he drowned himself.  It's a tale befitting such a sight and such a life.  The castle itself, shown below from an onlooking bridge, is an impressive white ...

Hikone

 On April first we began our week-long vacation with previously mentioned good friends Alan and Krista.  The journey starts in Hikone, a smaller city with one of those original castles.  More of the castle is original than Inuyama's, where only the main keep (castle building) is original.  In Hikone, much of the defense structures are also original stone.  It's magnificent to behold; here I will try to give you a glimpse of the majesty. First, let me introduce Hikonyan.  He is the mascot of Hikone (each city has one) and my favorite so far.  To the left, he is doing his signature jump.  Hmm, a cat who does ballet in a samurai helmet?  Hard to see why I love him.    It amuses me to think of Hikonyan as the cat samurai version of this samurai to the right.  The statue is placed near the train station, continuing the trend I've observed so far of placing each city's great warlord statue in the vicinity of the train station...