Mochi-pounding ceremony

Yesterday, I visited Tanaka Jinja Shrine in Kyoto where mochi-ponding ceremony was held. People living around the shrine were gathering on the grounds of the shrine.

He is cooking glutinous rice (mochi-gome) in front of torii gate of the shrine.

After steaming glutinous rice, it is pounded with wooden mallets (kine) in a big mortar (usu). When I was shooting a video, mochi almost leaped out of the mortar, but an assistant of the mochi-pounder nicely caught it before it touched the ground.

After the mochi-pounding, they put small pieces of it into red bean soup (shiruko) and served it to the people gathered there.

Paddling in the water

I often go to the riverside of Kamo River in weekends. Kids were paddling in the water last Sunday.

Demonstration of a university worker in an oil drum

Last December, Kyoto University decided not to renew the contract of about 100 temporary office workers. A worker who is against the decision holded a demonstration in front of the main building of the university on February 26th, the day of its entrance examination, ...in an oil drum bath.

Wife and sister of Emperor Akihito

Last month, I came across two elderly ladies related to the Japanese Imperial Family.

The first one was Empress Michiko. When I was walking along a road in Kyoto on November 2, I noticed policemen standing at every corner. I asked one of them if any incident had taken place there. He told me in an undertone: "Emperor is coming here soon". So I decided to wait for the Emperor and his party there. According to the policeman, the Emperor was staying in Kyoto for attending an event for celebrating the thousand-year anniversary of the Tales of Genji, and at the time the Emperor Akihito was to visit the tomb of Emperor Go-Nijō (reign: 1301-1308).


After a while, the party on vehicles passed in front of me. I could see Empress Michiko in one of the vehicles but I could not spot the Emperor who should have been in the seat next to the Empress. It seemed that the Emperor canceled the visit to the tomb as he wasn't in good health. Empress Michiko was smiling in the vehicle as always.

The second one was Atsuko Ikeda who is a younger sister of the Emperor. On November 22 - 24, I visited Ise Jingu shrine in the Ise city in Mie prefecture. Ise Jingu is a complex of shrines that is composed of many shrines centered on two main shrines, Naikū (内宮, or inner shrine) and Gekū (外宮, or outer shrine).

After staying in a hotel near Gekū, I visited Gekū in the early morning of November 23. There were again many policemen in the shrine area. They were all in the special uniform as the guards for the Imperial Palace and properties related to the Imperial Family. At first, I thought it was normal circumstances in the Ise Jingu since it is the place that the Emperor administers. However, when I entered the space in front of the main building, I realized that I happened to visit there in the midst of a special ceremony. Asking a guard in ancient uniform who was standing by torii, I learned that the ceremony was Niiname-sai (新嘗祭), or harvesting ceremony, that is held only once a year. The following quote is from the Web page of Ise Jingu shrine.

The Niiname-sai ceremony in Jingu is composed of both Omikesai and Hoheisai. These ceremonies are conducted in the name of the Emperor. The Niiname-sai is held parallel to the ceremony at which the Emperor officiates and offers the newly harvested rice to Amaterasu Omikami in the Imperial Palace. By partaking of the food offered he ritually receives the deity's blessings.

In front of the main building were sitting a priestess in ancient white clothes, a dozen or so of priests in the same white clothes and two people in authentic clothes for court nobles in the Heian period (8th-12th century). The latter two were emboys sent by the Emperor to report this year's harvest to the deities of the shrine. The priestess was the Emperor's younger sister, Atsuko Ikeda, who is saishu (祭主), or the most sacred person of the Ise Jingu shrine. Secularly, she is a wife of a zoo owner, Takamasa Ikeda, who is a direct descendant of the feudal lord of Okayama and the eldest son of former Marquis Nobumasa Ikeda. Mr. Ikeda liked to raise animals so much that he opened his own zoo named "Ikeda Zoo" in Okayama. Mme. Ikeda has been working as the wife of the zoo owner, and at the same time she has been working as the chief priestess of Ise Jingu shrine; Chief priestesses of the shrine has traditionally been chosen from women related to the imperial family.


Mme. Ikeda looked to have difficulty in sitting and standing during the ceremony as she is 77 years old. Those who were born to the imperial family seem to have some obligations even after they were detached from the royalty through marriage to commoners. Mme. Ikeda succeeded her ailing elder sister as the chief priestess in 1988. If it would have become impossible for Mme. Ikeda to work as the priestess, a daughter of the Emperor Akihito, Sayako Kuroda, may be succeeding.

Sayako Kuroda was reported to be fond of anime. In her marriage party, she wore a dress that was designed after the dress of the heroin of Hayao Miyazaki's anime, The Castle of Cariostro. She would be able to enjoy the role as a priestess to some extent if she succeeded.

Kamo River in fall

Last Sunday, I strolled along the Kamo River in Kyoto. The trees with red leaves are cherry trees that I saw in this spring.

Riverside stroll in spring

I walked along the Takano river and the Kamo river in Kyoto last saturday. The following is the course of the stroll.

The following is Takano river near the Demachi-yanagi station. Flowers of the cherry trees on the bank have almost fallen away, but rape seeds are in bloom on the shoals.

We can see many sagi (white egrets) in this area, but I saw the birds with black and white feathers (photo below) for the first time. It seems they are tufted ducks that are called kinkuro-hajiro in Japanese.

Riverside way near the Kyoto Prefectural Botanical Garden is called Nakaragi-no-Michi, or the Path of Nakaragi. There are many weeping cherry trees on the bank. The path was like a flower tunnel.

Weeping Ume trees in Jyōnangu

I visited Jōnangu (城南宮) to see Ume plum blossoms yesterday. Jyōnangu was a detached palace called Toba Rikyu (鳥羽離宮) or Jōnan Rikyu (城南離宮) that was originally constructed by Emperor Shirakawa (1053 – 1129). He ruled Japan as a cloistered emperor at the detached palace. It was also the place where the cloistered Emperor Go-toba (1180 – 1239) staged a rebellion called Jōkyū War in an attempt to overthrow the Kamakura shogunate in 1221. This detatched palace was also a stage of the Battle of Toba-Fushimi in 1868 at the very beginning of Meiji Era. In the battle, troop of Satsuma clan took up thir position here putting cannons at the ruins of the detached palace.

Weeping ume trees were in full bloom in the garden of Jōnangu.


Many Mejiro, or Japanese white-eyes, were pecking around at the core of flowers. Were they sucking nectar in the flowers?


The following is Serikawa shrine in the lot of Jōnangu. Sugawara no Michizane (845-903) who favored ume blossoms is enshrined in the shrine.

Ume blossoms that Ogata Kōrin painted

This ume tree is on a small stream in Shimogamo Jinjya Shrine. It is said that this tree is one of the trees that Ogata Kōrin (尾形光琳, ca. 1657 - 1716) painted in "Kōbai-Hakubai-Zu Byōbu (紅梅白梅図屏風)", or "Folding Screen of Red and white Ume Blossoms". His birthplace was in the walking distance from this shrine.


Ogata Kōrin is known by his decorative style of painting. As described in Wikipedia, the characteristic of his style is a bold impressionism, which is expressed in few and simple highly idealized forms, with an absolute disregard for both realism and the usual conventions. Notice the stylized expression of the stream in the byōbu above. The school of painters who followed Kōrin's style is called Rinpa (琳派) school. The influence of Rinpa (also spelled as Rimpa) was strong in the Japanese art scene in the 18th and 19th century, and even today Rinpa style paintings and designs are popular.

Rinpa shool arts also influenced some European artists. It is believed that an Austrian Symbolist painter Gustav Klimt was inspired by the Rinpa school arts when he painted his highly decorative works.

Kitano Tenmangu Shrine

Ume blossoms in Kitano Tenmangu Shrine. It's unfortunate that internet cannot transmit fragrance!

Kinkakuji, or the Golden Pavilion, in snow

This photo was taken on February 2nd of 2005.

Kinkakuji was constructed in 1397 as one of the buildings of the residence for Ashikaga Yoshimitsu (1358-1408), the third Shogun of the Ashikaga Shogunate. This residence was called Kitayama-dono, or the Residence in the Northern Mountain, at the time. When Yoshimitsu was the ruler of Japan, this residence was considered to be another palace by samurai and court nobles even though there was an imperial palace in the central part of Kyoto where the Emperor resided; Yoshimitsu surpassed the Emperor in authority at the time.

Some historians argue that Yoshimitsu had a plan to make his second son the emperor of the country who would govern religions and court nobles and at the same time to make his first son the next Shogun who would govern politics and samurai. However, Yoshimitsu died before realizing his plan.

After Yoshimitsu's death, all of the buildings but the Golden Pavilion were dismantled by his first son, the 4th Shogun Yoshimochi, who disliked sharing his power with his younger brother. The Golden pavilion was converted into a Buddhist temple. The younger brother, Yoshitsugu, losing his power, tried to rebel against Yoshimochi, but failing in the rebellion he was killed in 1418.

The original building of Kinkakuji had been a National Treasure of Japan. However, a trainee monk set fire to the building and it was burnt down to the ground in 1950. After setting the fire, the monk committed suicide on the hill at the back of the building. This incident stimulated the creation of several novels and films. The most famous one would be Mishima Yukio's work, 'Kinkakuji (The Temple of the Golden Pavilion)'.

The present Kinkakuji is a reconstruction in 1955. However, since gold lieves of standard thickness were used at the time to cover the building, it became messy-looking after several decades. By the early 1980s, the undercoat of brown urushi, or Japanese laquar, was seen from the outside in many parts of the outer walls. So large-scale repairs of the building were made in 1987 using gold lieves of 5 x thickness that weighed 20 tons in total. Thus the glitter of the present building would remain for centuries this time.

Ginkakuji, or the Silver Pavilion, in snow

The photo was taken on January 20th of 2001. I was living near Ginkakuji at the time.

Ginkakuji was first constructed as a villa of the 8th Shogun of Ashikaga Shogunate, Ashikaga Yoshimasa (1436-1490), in Higashiyama (=Eastern mountain) area of Kyoto. He lived in this villa from 1482 to 1490. After his death, the villa was converted into a Buddhist temple.

Ashikaga Yoshimasa was well versed in art. Under his patronage, Japan saw the growth of Higashiyama culture that is the direct origin of representative Japanese cultures such as tea ceremony, flower arrangemant, Noh and Japanese brush painting. Also, he had a huge collection of East Asian arts. Momohato-zu (A pigeon on a peach tree) painted by the 8th Emperor of the Sung Dynasty, Hui Tsung (1082-1135), was one of his collections at the time.

As a ruler, he is counted as one of the worst Shogun. Indulging in art, he left politics in retainers' hands, which caused the outbreak of Onin war in 1467. An old record Onin-ki, or the Record of Onin war, says that, even when the battle ruined the whole city of Kyoto, he continued a feast drinking sake showing no concern about the wretched state of the city and the people. After the Onin war, Japan gradually entered the Sengoku period, or Warring States period. Ginkakuji was the place to hide himself from the horrible state of the country which was caused by his incompetence in politics.