at a grand temple, Tōshōdai-ji

Today I came to Tōshōdai-ji (唐招提寺) which is located in southwest in Nara city. The gate came within sight by a road in local and rustic town.

 
The main hall called Golden hall has eight stout columns at its facade, and they, as well as the shape of the roof with tiles, make this architecture significant .

 

This temple was established in 759 by Ganjin( 鑑真)(688～７６３） who had been a high Buddhist priest in China. According to the leaflet, " Ganjin Wajo decided to go to Japan. Overcoming the hardship that even took the loss of his eyesight, he crossed the ocean to arrive in Japan on his sixth such attempt in 753."


It is said that the difficulty for Ganjin was not only to travel overseas but also to leave China as he was already well known and important priest for his mother country.

As for travelling overseas I remember the scene, in a novel「天平の甍」"Tenpyo- no- iraka"（Tenpyo is a period , iraka means tiles on a roof), that massive numbers of handwritten books are sinking in the sea when the ship was wrecked.


The novel tells the story of Ganjin and also of ambitious Japanese students who went to China to learn. They dedicated themselves to write down Buddhism doctrine, as it was the main subject for them to learn at that era, and many of them got older until finally they came to be able to go back to Japan with their manuscripts. And then the travel itself was a great obstacle for them.

Many years have passed since I read the novel, yet I remember clearly the scene of the books sinking .
 
There are greenery yard and several paths in the precincts. Hundreds of leaves are flowing in the breeze.
 
 



It is said that haiku poet Bashō(1644~1694) wrote the following haiku facing up to the Seated Stature of Ganjin.

青葉しておん目の雫ぬぐはばや

I wish

I could wipe your eyes

with a green leaf

 

 

  One of the paths led me to a yard where lotus were planted in some pots.

Some  are not yet blooming and some are flourish.

 As it is often said lotus flowers are symbolic for enlightenment, for the bright bloom after growing in the mud. Ganjin must have seen the brightness with his mental eyes.

Getting back to columns at the Golden hall, there is a stone at a corner of the precincts and the inscribed on it is a tanka by Yaich Aizu(1881~1956)in regard to these columns. 
 
おおてらの まろきはしらの つきかげを. つちにふみつつ ものをこそおもへ 会津　八一

Stepping on the shadows

of columns

at the grand temple

in a moon light

I think now is the time to ponder



The archtectures of  Tōshōdai-ji were designated World Heritage site in 1998.

on a rainy day

We are in the rainy season, called Tsuyu, in Japan now. It takes about one month to come to the end of the season, moving the rain front from west to east.

This dismal weather, however, is important for water supply in upcoming summer and for good harvest in autumn.

Hydrangeas in my garden started to colour at last. They are late in bloom because there is less light by adjacent walls of my neighbours.


 
 
Any way hydrangeas become well with rainy days.


I'll go to see them in the drizzle walking around my residential area a little.

 
 
I'm walking alone but I don't feel lonely, for I've invited my brother's soul to listen to the sound of rain of tapping lightly on my umbrella. He passed away four days ago. He was five younger than I, and it was too late to go through an operation when his cancer of oesophagus was found out about one year ago.

The language of flowers on hydrangea signifies change of heart as many of them turn from faint colour into deep one, in blue, pink and purple.


Among them white hydrangeas do not change their colour if we could say white is a colour.

I like their atmosphere as if they dream whitish dreams.

 

 
Seeing colourful hydrangeas in rain fall, like a door opened, I suddenly remembered the day when I visited a river side in Nishinomiya in Hyogo prefecture this April. It was a bright day.
 
 

A great earthquake attacked mainly Hyōgo Prefecture  in 1995. 1.17. and it brought more than 6,000 victims consequently.


By the Nigawa river, land slide occurred and 34 people's lives include students living in lodging were lost.

One of my accompanies who visited there is a volunteer who is taking care of the slope after that disaster, planting some flowers and helping the maintenance of a memorial hall and a monument.
The woman who is working for the flowers, shibazakura or Phlox subulata, is a doll like a scarecrow.

In the memorial hall, a painting of God of Mercy was beholding on souls of the victims.

And, at the opposite side of the slope many hydrangeas were planted.
They must be in full bloom now.

By a shrub of hydrangea a tiny flower, hotaru-bukuro or Campanula punctata Lam., is blooming.

I like the naming hotaru-bukuro, literally meaning sac for firefly.
I saw many flying fireflies above rivers when I was a kid.

We need daily effort more for depollution and to call them back to rivers. I really want to see their translunary flies again.

 

紫陽花はほっかり咲いて青むともひとよたやすくほほゑむなかれ　今野　寿美

Even when a hydrangea opens up

in heavenly blue

Please refrain from

letting ease your mind easily

and smiling of vanity

by Sumi Konno(１９５１～）

Many maple leaves and a water fall

Minoh city, northern area in Osaka prefecture, is my hometown.


Looking back my childhood I think that the city was like a village with many open fields, rice pappies and was close to some small mountains.

In a mountain there is an old park, Minoh park, that was set more than one hundred years ago. By a park I don't mean a square nor a plaza but a hiking trail which follows along a brook and the ascendant way leads hikers to a water fall in heart of the mountain.

 
 
This way is about three kilometers long from the nearest station and beside it hundreds of maple trees stand in a row. My family sometimes used to walk there with packed lunch in early summer and in autumn.


Walking the path I remembered the days when my parents were young and my brother and sister were very little.

 
 
Clustered Yuki-no-shita, Saxifraga stolonifera Curtis, reminds me of my olden days in this season.

 

A tiny hydrangea is already in bloom. Hello, thank you for welcoming me.

This area is famous for a variety of habitats, monkeys, deer, various kind of insects and river fish. A passenger kindly told me that there were Ōsanshōuo, Japanese giant salamanders, between some small rocks in the river.


The three stone- like round heads slowly moved to breathe.

Some parts of the brook were in emerald by the shining maple young leaves.

These young leaves and the shimmering reflection on water make me think about song in praise of adolescence.

Let me introduce my favourite tanka poem in regard to passion of youth and love.

あの夏の数かぎりなきそしてまたたつた一つの表情をせよ 小野　茂樹

 

Show me again

the totally unique

and an endless number of

your sign of emotion

that you gave me in that summer

by Shigeki Ono (１９３６～１９６９）



two exhibitions

An exhibition of a grand collection of Meissen porcelain is taking place from April 7th to July 22nd, at The Museum of oriental ceramics, Osaka(東洋陶磁美術館）.


 
 
 
This cozy museum is located in Nakanoshima which is a long island-like sandbar between  two rivers, Dojima river and Tosabori river.


Near the museum there is a park and there are many kinds of roses blooming .

The roses have past their prime with tiny soft thorns...

and bud stage, too...

finally they started to open up beautifully.



Kakiemon style via Wikipedia

Getting back to the exhibition, the porcelain of Meissen developed by the two great artists, Ehrenfriend Walther von Tochirnhaus and Johann Fiedrich Böttger around 1710, under strong influence mainly of Chinoiserie, a Japanese style of painting represented by Kakiemon, Art Nouveau and other European arts.


 
The title of exhibition is "300 Years of Meissen", and the wide variety of the installations include figures of some animals and birds, figurines of vendors and clowns, various size of vases, and many table wares.


 
 
The original Meissen products were so expensive that only noble people could buy, but eventually some became an affordable luxury for the common people.


 
 
 
 
 
Rose pattern called Meissen Rose is the typical one, and I found it very attractive.
 
 

image via website

The other exhibition which I saw recently was quite small one. It took place in a room rather than a gallery in Osaka.

I introduced my brother's etchings in older post( here), this time he exhibited some works of etching which he created afterwards.

His works in this exhibition were made in colour , although the ones which I saw in his previous one were  all in monocrhrome.

My brother's wife was in the room instead of him because his health condition was getting progressively worse.

His wife told me about his poor health condition, while I looked at his colourful works which showed no sign of any darkness or sadness..

His works have numbers and she explained that he decided to start  numbering  from 001, rather than from 01.
The above one's number is 043.
Thinking of him I  remembered  the following tanka poem.

としどしにわが悲しみは深くしていよよ華やぐ命なりけり　岡本かの子

Year by year

I have greater awareness

of my sorrow

letting burn with a flame

in the depth of my life

by Kanoko Okamoto (1889~ 1939)

taken in a rose garden next to Ryousen-ji temple in Nara



in the afternoon in May

Nowadays we can buy any kind of vegetable at market regardless of season. Among them broad beans are exceptionally seasonable.


My neighbour has a vegetable garden. Today she gave me some broad beans. I'll boil them for our supper. To cook some fresh seasonal food is one of my small pleasure.

そら豆の殻一せいに鳴る夕 母につながるわれのソネット 寺山修司（1935～1982)

husks of broad beans

rustling all together

this evening―

my sonnet

connected to mother

written by Shūji Terayama

translated by Amelia Fielden

I suppose that Terayama's mother grew broad beans in her vegetable garden.

Usually beans grow in abundance in the short term, so many of them are left behind after gathering. Terayama seems to remember the sound of rustling which I do not know.




Yet I know the sound of string beans  rustling which my grand mother grew.
The dry light sound on the wind comes to me from far away and far distant past.

 

 

On the other hand, tiny wild beans are growing before my nose in a small field.

They look like children holding hands with each other.

This field is next to a small pond and a part of the field is covered with clover, and it is near some vegetable gardens.

I take a walk with my dog around here time to time .



Today I did not meet anyone but some little butterflies.

Seeing them in the field I remembered some past scenes which were connected with my dead mother and some old friends.

The memories flash back like the dim light which ripples toward the roots of new leaves of reeds, or shining surface of a river in backlight as it is shown in an old photo which I took with my film camera.

翅を閉じさかしまに蝶眠る野にたまゆらわれは白昼夢見つ　haricot

Hanging upside down

on a little flower

Butterfly is still with its wings shut,

I do have a momentary day dream

in the same field

on a fine day in spring

The weather is very fickle in this season, but it has been warm and fine these days. In my garden Japanese Andromeda bloomed and began to fade away.






And I found the wild violet this morning by the shrub of the Japanese Andromeda.

It was really fine day last Thursday.


My husband went out for viewing cherry blossoms with his friends.
They are always searching for some reason and occasion for drinking and eating.




Cherry blossoms near my house were in full bloom last week.

The day was too fine to just stay at home doing some more laundry or cleaning the floor.


I could not resist my impulse to go out in the sunshine ,so I took a train bound  for Kyoto shortly after, remembering that I happened to see a magical picture of weeping cherry blossoms along Kamogawa river in Kyoto.

The colour of the blossoms were pink-red and each flower looked a little bigger than that of common cherry flower called Somei-yoshino which are seen in the above picture.
On earth how many sort of cherry blossoms are there. I know the names of only a few.

The blossoms came into sight just like the picture I saw, hanging the branches on a basket- like arch and bathing spring brilliant sunlight. This district is called Nakaragi(半木）.

There were fewer people than I expected, but all of them look up at the ceiling decorated with cherry blossoms when they go through the arch.

Some are pushing their baby cars and some are doing the same for wheelchairs, and every one looks happy.

It was relaxing time, and I thought as if I could take a long long walk along the river.

But now it was time to return, for I did not leave any message for my husband because I left home impulsively.

しゃりしゃりとガラス毀（こぼ）るる音のして再生工場前さくら咲く　haricot

sha-ri, sha-ri, sha-ri,,,

bits of glass were falling

inside of the recycling plant

and by the gate

cherry blossoms are fully in bloom

I composed this tanka last spring, walking along a river which was closer to my residence.

I was caught by a strange sensation when I heard such a sound like glass breaking and were littering somewhere in the factory and I saw some cherry blossoms as they were reborn in front of the recycling plant.

Cherry blossoms make me feel some mysterious power.

It is supposed that they were at their peak last weekend.