Ise Stories. A Weekend in Imperial Capitals II.

In a roadside field stands
A leafless willow tree-
Spring will come, and then
The wonders of long ago,
Will all return.

(Sugawara no Michizane, Shinkokinshu)

Kyoto

So, my dear fellow travelers, our journey continues! I almost oversleep and then I finally wake up in a tiny, but comfortable hotel room, where it takes me a couple of minutes to realize: I really am in Kyoto! I’ve heard so many stories of people traveling here or living here for months or years, but there have been many times when I doubted I would actually have a chance to see it. I feel myself an unworthy object to such extraordinary generosity of our organizers, of the town of Ise.

We gather downstairs and then make to our first point in the program, the Tō-ji temple, of the Buddhist Esoteric Shingon School. The temple is closely connected to Kūkai, known posthumously as Kōbō-Daishi, the founder of Shingon and the (credited) inventor of the Japanese kana writing system, the syllabary with which, in combination with kanji, the Japanese language is written today. The temple was built in 796, when the capital was moved to Heian-kyo (the name of Kyoto in that time), and was among the three Buddhist temples permitted in the capital, and the only one of them to survive to this day. The Buddha of the temple is also Yakushi Nyorai, the Buddha of medicine and healing. We are also allowed to visit the pagoda and see the various exhibits there. It is so much information for quite a short time, that I decide to enjoy the scenery this time and take a walk in the beautiful garden, that has some blossomed plum trees and its own koi fish pond.

We then take a bus to the Yasaka shrine, built in 656, that was once called Gion shrine. It is closely connected to the Gion geisha district in Kyoto, and to the Gion matsuri (click here for video), a very important annual festival in the cultural life of the city, which started in 869, when the mikoshi (divine palanquin) of the shrine were paraded through the streets of Kyoto to ward off an epidemic. At the shrine we are met by a young priest, graduate of Kogakkan University of Ise, which is also our host, who gives us a very nice tour of the grounds. From him we find out that the kami enshrined there is Susano-o, the trickster, sea god, brother of Amaterasu, about whom I have written in a post a while ago. He tells us various myths and legends with a youthful, playful smile dancing in his eyes, and I have to reign myself in, not to ask him if there is any actual value of ‘truth’ placed upon them in the tradition of Shinto. Somehow, I doubt people living in the 21st century can believe in such stories anymore, that bear so little resemblance to human life. But then, I have to ask myself if the notion of ‘truth’ bears the same weight in Shinto (or oriental cultures altogether), when a religious ritual starts right next to us, with Shinto priests dressed in full, traditional garments with the appearance of one conducting a sacred task, while people come and bow before the shrine of Susano-o in all depth of thought. May I eat my European suspicious mind.

Another interesting detail in the shrine is the presence of one Buddha statue, the survival of which remains unjustified after the separation of Shinto and Buddhism enforced in the Meiji period (1868-1912). My tired fantasy puts together pieces of imagination of how maybe a young or quite old Shinto priest loved the statue so much, for reasons unknown, that he hid it away and protected it. Are not, in the end, all gestures of love above reasonable explanations? 🙂

We end our visit to the shrine by witnessing a ceremony through which people from the town receive water from the fountain on the grounds, which only happens once or twice a year, being a very old custom. The privilege is also in hearing traditional Shinto music, although we are assured by the Japanese, not to be ashamed if we get sleepy while hearing it, it happens to Japanese too. I am quite convinced they are joking or being exaggeratedly polite with us, but as the music starts I swear I can not keep my eyelids apart. For some reason I think of a Japanese animation of the adventures of Peter Pan I saw as a child, in which John, the uptight English brother of Wendy, can not sleep, and they sneak him into the ship of Captain Hook to hear him play the clavichord, which cures him of his insomnia. My oh my, how my thoughts run wild, M. Proust would be proud of me…

The last stop in our trip is also one of my favorites: the Kiyomizu temple. Built in 789, with the present buildings from 1633, ordered by Tokugawa Iemitsu, it takes its name (“clear water” or “pure water”) from the waterfall that is believed to have wish-granting powers. The Bodhisattva represented there is Kannon,  also called ‘the thousand armed Buddha of mercy’. It is hard to muster any religious feelings or thoughts however, because of the storm of visitors enjoying the splendid view the temple grounds offer of Kyoto, and the various attractions of temples and shrines offering love o-mikuji (fortune notes) for 200 yen, or normal, general o-mikuji for 100 yen. There are also multiple o-mamori, almost like amulets dedicated to certain Buddhist or Shinto figures, which are provided according to various needs: health, safe travel, love, good luck in business or work and so on. Also, down below there is a huge line in front of the waterfall where people are hoping to have their wish granted by its water, while above there is a local custom in trying to find a stone (around which a shimenawa – the Shinto rope used to pinpoint the location of a kami – is tied nonetheless) with your eyes closed, convinced that if you manage to do so, you will end up living a great love story. I am saddened by the commercial and nearly superstitious aspect of the scene and I wish for a moment of peace in the last hours of Kyoto. But maybe in the end, the part of sacredness most close to humans is the one supposed to grant our wishes, so much so that people believed that if you jumped from up the temple (13 m fall), a wish of yours will be granted (which reminds me of the end of the movie ‘Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon‘). There are said to have been more than 200 attempts of such wish-fulfilling, most of them surviving, but whether or not they received their wish will forever be a mystery. There must be magic at heart, to play such a game with life in trusting the sacred unknown.