Monthly market

Monthly market, a sort of flea market, is held on the temple ground, of Tohji (東寺）in Kyoto.

Many places like station squares have flea markets occasionally, besides this is a typical case that is held on a temple ground.

On the 21 of December and of January the scenes of the market are shown on TV as signature event.

Tohji was built in 796 and later on it became a popular temple with priest Kukai's principal that addressed not only to priests and academic people who could read the doctrine of Buddhism but to ordinary people to be secured.
In 1994 the temple was designated officially as a cultural asset of world heritage.

It is said that such monthly market started on 1239, after it had been held as annual event.

Tohji is also famous for some sacred statues, though some of them are not allowed to open to the public except to do it periodically.

仏像は厚き扉のむこうにて　うすむらさきに線香燻（くゆ）る
between ulterior sacred statues
and some sticks of incense
A thick door exists,
a faint smoke is fizzling out on this side of the world

haricot

On my way to go back, I looked at mountain range surrounding Kyoto over the pagoda of Tohji from a window of a train.

It is yet too early as the season for the word, Yama-Warau which is used in the genre of Haiku;Yama means mountain and Warau is smile rather than a laughter in this case, that refers the season when some young leaves on branches just start to growing.
Yet the mountain gave me such impression as it was smiling gently and beholding on the small market.

Herald of spring


Ume(Japanese plum) blossoms are herald of spring.

Peculiarly when I see some crimson ones which are just at beginning to bloom, I cannot help imaging of them to start to set fire on the top branches of various sort of trees to open up one after another.





And in this season I remember this tanka poem in which the writer Fujiko Ishikawa(1933~ )expresses her excessive desire for seeing some crimson plum blossoms.

紅梅が見たしと思ふ　唐突にせつぱつまりし如くに見たし　石川不二子
(Abruptly a feeling came to me; an eager hope to see some red plum blossoms now.)

White plum blossoms seem to flourish more quietly.

Here is a plum garden which is nearby my living quarter, where various coloured plum blossoms can be seen.

These darkened trunks with bright blossoms remind me of a picture, one of Ukiyo-e

, by Hiroshige Utagawa.(1797~1858)(from website)



And the one by Van Gogh(1853~1890) being influenced with the former picture.(from website)





There are two types of plum garden; one is for pleasure of viewing flowers like this garden and the other is for gathering plum fruits as well as for flowers which has been done from olden days.





Toyohiro Utagawa(1773~1828)(picture from website)

Later I called in a park, man made but looks quite natural, being located not far from the plum garden.
I came here last spring as well, to see wild white plum blossoms that have another effect.

去年（こぞ）も来し疎林の奥の明るめり　一歳老いて咲ける白梅
I came to see you,

a wild plum tree

You brighten the depth of the bush just as the last year

despite of you're one year older

haricot