Nandaimon gate is borrowed to the garden

I usually recommend our guests to see some gardens in Kyoto. Our city, Kyoto,  has zen gardens consisting of rocks and sand, as well as stroll-style gardens. However, when it comes to Nara, I usually think of the magnificent architectures and buddha or Kannon images. When I visited Isuien garden in Nara, I thought I was all abroad.

Isuien garden is devided into two parts, the front garden and  the rear garden. Originally the front garden was made in 1670 and the other one, in 19th century. The garden which impressed me a lot is the rear garden.
Japanese garden is designed taking the backdrop and its affect on the garden into consideration. We usually call this kind of gardens a borrowed garden. Isuien borrows the top of Nandaimon gate of Todaiji temple and Wakakusa mountain hehind of the temple and another mountain behind it.These backdrops harmonize beautifully with the original garden.
You will surely be impressed by this borrowed garden we can't see in Kyoto.

In addition to this beautiful garden, if you want, you can have Japanese tea viewing the garden, as well as having lunch. It's near Todaiji temple. Why don't you visit here if you  visit Nara?

Isuien garden ; opens from 9:30AM to 4PM

admission     ;  650 yen

Closed  : every Tuesday and year end and New year days

Lunch   ; Mugimeshi tororo  1800yen     Una toro  2800 yen

Tour date ; Sep. 1st, 2011

Tour ; Kasuga shrine, Nigatsudo hall, Todaiji temple, Nandaimon  gate, Isuien
Guest : a man from Spain

The window of enlightment ( Genkoan temple)

They are just windows, but the very windows.
It may sound a little strange. Sometimes something shows us a spefic meaning.
I think that's it.
.


 When you enter the main hall of Genkoan temple, you will find two windows there.One is square and the other is round. The square one is called "The window of hesitation." and the round one " The window of enlightment" Do you know why they are called so?
Imagine the shape of square. It has corners. When the corner hits or touches something, it will make a scrach or a flaw. If you have something sharp or pointed in your mind, it easily makes someone's heart get hurt, or causes the world around you to make some troubles. However, if it is round, when it hits something, it won't make any flaws or troubles. The two windows tell us to have a heart like a round window



Please look upward in that hall, and you will see a ceiling with some steins. What are they? How did it get them?
It is blood... Look carefully, and you will find some footprints or handprints on it. It used to be floor board of Fushimi castle about 400 years ago. The days were going to see another big civil war to decide the next ruler. Ieyasu ( the first Shogun of Tokugawa Shogunate) and Mitsunari ( the first aid of the former ruler Hideyoshi) were going to start the war. The war took place in Sekigahara. Fushimi castle was in the west of Sekigahara ( in the teritory of Mitsunari army),
The surbordenate warlord of Ieyasu, Mototada Torii,  had to stay in the castle to protect the castle from Mitsunari.  Ieyasu offered him to leave more worriors for him to help after Ieyasu left there . However, the warlord ( Mototada Torii ) cordially delined Ieyasu's offer, saying "No more unnecessary deaths". He knew he was going to die.
They drank some sake togather and spent a quiet time for farewell . Mototada and a small number of worriors bravely fought against Mitsunari army which consisted of 40,000 worriors. The fight was supposed to end in a few days but, in fact , it lasted for more than 10 days. The protest by Mototada troop against Mitsunari army was so strong that Mitsunari army could not help taking far more time than they had expected to end this fight.                                                                                              
Motodata and his followers killed themselves at the last moment, and their bodies were left there for a while.  The floor board was divided into several parts and now they are used as a ceiling in several temples so that the monks in those temples and we can  pray for the departed souls.

The other temples which have such ceilings are Hosen-in temple in Ohara, Yogenin temple, Shodenji temple, Koshoji temple, Shin-oji temple, Tenkyuin temple in Myoshinji temple, and Eishunji temple. The Famous ones are Genkoan, Hosenin temple and Yogenin temple. Actually, on the board at the moment in our history,  there were worriors who fought for Ieyasu by sacrificing their lives.

The garden in Genko-an temple

Genko-an
admission ; 400 yen
the nearest bus stop / Takagamine Genko an mae

The entrance

The tour date ; October 3rd 2011
Tour  : Bamboo forest, Golden pavillion, Zuiho-in ( Daitokuji temple),     Kotoin ( Daitokuji temple), Genko-an

Tourists ; a man from Ireland

Pureland in Paradise

In some Japanese gardens, we can find something to be delicately devised. Let's think about the garden in Byodoin temple. As I talked before, the people in those days were eager to realize the pureland in Paradise here in Uji. That is why you can see phoenix hall in the west. When you see the hall from across the pond, the face of Amida buddha can be seen just through the round window of the hall. When you stand in the hall, look up the corner of the ceiling. The wavy light there is something like the one in the heaven. Yes. But how does it waver like that ?
Look at the left corner of the pond! It is just behind the edge of the hall. Did you notice that there is a little fountain at this point of the pond? Water springs little by little, which ruffles the water surface. The water surface reflects the sun light and it gives an irregular pattern of shimmering light to the ceiling and the wall. In the old days, they felt as if they were in Pureland in Paradise when they saw it.

To tell the truth, when I stood in the hall, the hall itself was actually very old and I couldn't feel I was in Pureland. But the time when it was built, the color of the building was so vivid and colorful that it was totally different from what it is today.

Amida buddha is said to come with an orchestra so that the dead won't have a fear at the moment of the death and take them to the heaven. The Amida buddha is right in the center of the hall.


Thinking of the people and the hall in the old days, it makes me a little romantic.

Date : Aug. 23rd
Tourists : a couple from Spain
Tour ;Yasaka pagoda, Kiyomizu temple, Sanneizaka, Nineizaka, Ishibeikouji (the old paths from the temple),tea ceremony in the temple, Sanjusangendo hall, Okonomiyaki lunch, Byodoin temple, Fushimi Inari shrine