| Submitted by: Mark Leeper United States |
| Submission Date: 09 February 2005 |
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Legend has it that to move the heavy timbers ordinary ropes were not strong enough and many women donated their hair to make 53 ropes strong enough. One hall has calligraphy and the poems of great Buddhist poets. One such poem read:
The faults of others we all know too well. It's the faults of our own person that we tend to overlook. Rennyo, 15th century Buddhist leader
There was another hall that was about a high lookout. Evelyn said that she didn't have the strength to climb it. I wanted to see it, so I went through the effort. It was a long climb and the steps all took two paces so I was lifting myself with my right leg. I got to the top and there was a flood of boy students coming out. I stood to one side and let them pass. It took something like ten minutes for them all to pass, but I figured I would be polite and not fight the tide. At the end of their line was a man who said 'OK, we are closing now.' I was less than pleased. I got back to the bottom and Evelyn and I had to leave. Walking around I got a cramp in my right leg. I had to bend over and grab it. I explained to Evelyn that it was just a temporary cramp. Walking down the front steps I got a worse cramp and almost fell over. Luckily Evelyn did not see that one since she was a few paces ahead. In fact, she may never know about it if she doesn't read this log. It is dangerous to make a climb without knowing there is something waiting for you. They say there is the carcass of a leopard near the peak of Kilamanjaro. He climbed all the way up there and found nothing. Nobody knows what he was looking for either.
Luckily my leg problem was probably just a temporary fatigue from the climb. I didn't have any more problems I didn't have with the other leg. Both were very tired, but Evelyn and I have both been feeling exhausted at the end of the day. I guess age takes its toll at last.
We stopped at a 7-Eleven for a cool drink. Evelyn got a Cafe au Lait and I got a grapefruit juice. The place was full of school kids pouring over the mangas. One was photocopying parts of one. There are a strange collection of magazines. I saw the cover of one aimed at teenage boys called GIRLS: SUPER DYNAMIC PHOTO MAGAZINE. It had just pictures of (dressed) girls, apparently.
On the way back to the room we picked up some baked rolls from the grocery.
Our evening has been marked by exceptional fatigue. It is hard for us to pull ourselves off of our folded futons.
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10/23/96 Kyoto: Haunts of the Past, Ghosts of the Present
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One of the things that make it noisy here is the size of the hall slippers. To make them one-size-fits-all, they are very large. That means people have to shuffle down the hall to keep them from falling off their feet. I wonder what is the basis of all this slipper-changing? Perhaps at one time the streets were pretty dirty, but shoes now seem to be treated as untouchable parts of the anatomy.
Calling the Seiki a Ryokan is a bit of an exaggeration. It is like calling a ferry a cruise ship. Ryokan are traditional inns in which the service is flawless. In a real Ryokan a traditional dinner is included and breakfast in your room. Each room has a personal maid. They generally overlook gardens. We would neither have wanted nor would we have wanted to pay for the service of a real Ryokan. That is not the way the cheap Leepers travel.
The Kimi was not really a Ryokan either, but it was a lot closer. They paid lip-service to some of the traditions of the Ryokan. Each room is supposed to have a shelf with calligraphy. While it surprises me to say it now, the Kimi was the best of the places that we stayed. The same company has a branch here where Ward and Warren are staying. It would have been a better choice than the Ryokan Seiki.
My right leg is still a little sore, but serviceable. (You can tell when I am caught up in my log, I lapse into the present tense.)
The main site for today is Nijo Castle. The murder of the archbishop of Canterbury by Henry II's men was over the fact that the King and the Archbishop were both masters of England at the same time, neither with allegiance to the other. The same was true in Japan, but here it was the Shogun and the Emperor. ('Shogun' actually is short for a title that means 'Commander-in-chief for quelling the barbarians.') Each basically ruled Japan in competition with the other. Nijo Castle was Tokugawa Ieyasu's show of strength to the Emperor. It was a warning to the Emperor not to mess with the Shogun. It was not really necessary. The emperors were weakening at this time, the shoguns becoming the main show. The Emperor ruled the country, but the shogun ruled the military and that was where the real power lay. The Shogun kept the Emperor on a tight leash. The Shogun just had to keep the barbarians at bay, and the barbarians were not trying to enter the country until 1853 when Perry arrived with his Black Ships. Then one after another European countries came demanding trade concessions.
In a battle in 1864 the Shogunate had proved itself incompetent to throw the foreigners out of Japan. Samurai methods were really good against an enemy who used samurai methods. And those were the methods that were used in Japan during the Tokugawa Shogunate. Japan closed its eyes to the rest of the world and missed the fact that methods of warfare were advancing in Europe. Suddenly Japan had to fight mid-19th century armies who had things like good, reliable artillery. It wasn't much of a battle and the samurais quickly decided to side against the outmoded shogunate whose policies obviously were useless. The barbarian was going to be in the country whether the commander-in-chief for quelling him had power or not. Guess what happened to the power of the Shogunate. Suddenly by default the Emperor started to sound good again. In 1867 the Shogun Yoshinobu resigned in Nijo Castle. The same castle that had been used 264 years earlier to show the Emperor he had no power. That Castle is our goal for the morning.
On the street you often find people wearing surgical style masks on the street. In Japan, when you have a cold it is considered good manners to wear a surgical mask. Americans are not so altruistic.
I have not mentioned the weather in a while because after the first week it has been pretty good.
We get to the castle and we see hordes of schoolchildren. That is the one problem with coming in October. All of the school children are on field trips.
The Kyoto Imperial Palace was built 1603 by Ieyasu and expanded and renovated 1626 by his grandson Iemitsu. The donjon was struck by lightning and burned down in 1750. The inner palace was destroyed in a city-wide fire In 1788. In 1867 the palace was the site where Tokugawa Yoshinobu signed a declaration restoring the power to the Emperor. Then it was a young man named Meiji. His rule transformed the country.
The Ninomaru Palace is a collection of buildings totaling 3300 square meters. Not only is photography not allowed, neither is sketching. There was a tour group that came in about the same time and spoke English getting a tour and with the narrow halls it was tough to pass them so we got some of the tour lecture ourselves. There was some discussion of the nightingale floors, designed to squeak when trod upon. These were specifically used to protect against ninja assassins that might be sent against the Shogun.
Motifs that are used in the decor are paintings of tigers and of pine trees. (the pine tree is a longevity symbol). Later there is also a peacock motif. In one of the rooms is a recreation of feudal lords meeting with the shogun. We passed by the room in which last shogun gave up control to Meiji 1867.
We were told the Shogun could have as many ladies as he wanted, but only one legal wife. The Shogun's ladies had to be faithful to the Shogun. One of the woman complained that women couldn't be Shogun's. Of course there were women samurai, not many but some. But human are a lot alike in some ways. Give someone ultimate power as Caesar, Shogun, or Rev. Jim Jones and they will turn it into the right to reproduce.
One of the women we overheard in the palace said that this is really the only castle they have been inside of. That probably makes sense. I would guess that tour groups don't go through castles much. Most castles were plain and practical military defenses. Frequently the lord did not live there, he only retreated there under attack. So other than displays of guns and swords, there might not be a lot to show a tour group. In addition it must be a real pain to take an older group of people through a castle. The castles are set up with a single route to get through the castle to see everything. That includes some very steep steps. The students go up them like mountain goats, but older visitors might have problems. It is one thing for this castle that is all on one level and has some ornate decoration to be seen. I personally find the castles the most rewarding sites to visit, but if I were a tour manager I would certainly avoid them.
The grounds are quite big with many buildings and many gates. There is a Zen rock garden much like we had seen at Ryoan-Ji.
When our visit was over we set out to find lunch and head for the Japan Foundation. We stopped to walk through a two-block-long arcade. In Japan they don't seem to have malls so much as arcades. Basically it is just small shops that build a roof overhead to make it a little more pleasant to walk down. I think they should not let people drive and ride bicycles down center, but some do. This one did and it made it a lot harder for pedestrians.
We stopped for lunch at about 11:20 at a place we saw at one end of the arcade. I had Kutsuiya and rice. Evelyn had tempura udon. From the restaurant we walked to the Japan Foundation. We had a movie there at 2 PM. We got to the Japan Foundation about 100 minutes before the film. We clearly needed a place to sit down. I looked at the map and looked for a green area, which would indicate a park or a temple. We found a temple that was nearby and bought some drinks from a ending machine. I figured at least it would be a place to sit. Actually we did not have to partake of Buddhist hospitality since there were some benches there. We sat down outside a small shop and open the cans we had gotten. Evelyn had gotten coffee and I got what I thought was orange soda. It turned out to be very tart orange juice. The flavor was between orange juice and grapefruit juice.
People were bringing out scrolls from a shop and apparently drying them with hair dryers on a workbench that was in front of the shop. I think this was a calligraphy store. You bring them something you want said and the man inside writes it for you in beautiful Japanese brush-writing. But then it is still wet. You can make it dry faster by bringing it out and drying it with the hair dryers.
We sat down for a drink and to write our logs. People were coming and feeding pidgeons near us and quite a mob of pidgeons turned out. They would jump on the woman feeding them and she would push them away. As soon as she did another group would jump on her.
The Japan Foundation seemed to be a nice office with small library and newspapers in English. If anything they were a sort of foreign aid office to make things nicer for visitors to Japan, sort of a Travelers' Aid society, though they did also offer information about Japan. And Wednesday afternoons they seem to offer films subtitled in English. It was about time. With nothing bilingual on TV I was going into cinema withdrawal. About 25 people attended, many of whom seem to know each other. I think we were about the oldest. Most of the others seemed to be in their 20s at the oldest. They were dressed more or less like Americans, not like the fashion-conscious Japanese. |
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