Читать книгу Kyoto a Cultural Guide - John H. Martin - Страница 8

THE SANJUSANGEN-DO is one of the sights that all visitors to Kyoto wish to see, for its 1,001 golden images are remarkable. They are particularly unusual when one recalls the number of centuries they have survived despite the many fires, earthquakes, and even wars that Kyoto has suffered. While this walk begins with the spectacular golden Kannon of the Sanjusangen-do, there are other fascinating sites virtually across the street as well as a few streets away, places that the average visitor too often misses. These other attractions are connected with Toyotomi Hideyoshi who ruled Japan at the end of the 1500s and who brought prosperity back to the formerly war-ravaged city. In addition, the lovely house of one of the most distinguished potters of the twentieth century, that of Kawai Kanjiro, is another site that few foreign visitors have heard of, and yet it offers an invitation into a traditional home right in the heart of Kyoto. It is the home of a man of taste and artistic ability, and the climbing kilns in which he made his pottery are one of the unusual sights seen during a visit to his home and workshop.

Of course, there is but little choice as to where one should start this particular tour, since the Sanjusangen-do with its golden Kannon will always head any visitor's list of places that must be experienced.

SANJUSANGEN-DO

The Sanjusangen-do is on the south side of Shichijo-dori at Yamato-oji-dori. Bus 206 or 208 to the Hakubutsukan/ Sanjusangen-do-mae bus stop on Shichijo-dori leaves one at the Kyoto National Museum opposite the Sanjusangen-do. Alternatively, bus 16, 202, or 207 to the Higashi-oji-dori/Shichijo bus stop leaves one just north of the temple. The temple is one street west on Shichijo-dori from this bus stop, just to the west of the Kyoto Park Hotel. The Sanjusangen-do is open from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. between March 16 and October 31 and from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. between November 1 and March 15. Entry fee.

The Sanjusangen-do is one of the most famous places in Kyoto because of its large main image of the Eleven-faced Kannon (Juichimen Senju Kannon) as well as the one thousand golden images that surround it. The temple's official name, Renge-o, means "Lotus King," the name given to the Senju Kannon who was regarded as the lord of all the other forms of Kannon. (Kannon can appear in thirty-three different incarnations.) the name Lotus King was appropriate for this temple since in the Sanjusangen-do the devotion to Kannon has been carried to an extravagant level with its 1,001 images of Kannon, the deity of mercy, each image standing on a golden lotus blossom.

The Renge-o-in (Sanjusangen-do) was created in 1164 at the request of ex-emperor Go-Shirakawa (1127-92), a devotee of Kannon, who wished to bring peace and prosperity to the country by promoting the spread of Buddhism and its doctrines. The emperor was assisted in the construction of the temple by Taira-no-Kiyomori (1118-81), the de facto civil ruler of Japan. The Taira leaders, as the actual political rulers of the state, identified themselves with the twenty-eight gods whose images appear at the rear of the temple. These deities protect the Buddhist universe—as the Taira leaders felt they protected and brought peace to Japan.

The temple sat amid the various imperial villas that existed in this eastern area of Kyoto. It had many buildings, including a five-story pagoda in the southeastern section of the grounds, a Shinto shrine in the northwest area, and an Amida hall, among other buildings. All these structures were destroyed in a fire in 1249. The temple was rebuilt at the order of the then emperor Go-Fukakusa (1243-1304) so as to appear just as it had been before the conflagration. However, only the Hondo (Main Hall) was reconstructed. Certain images had been saved from the fire, including the head of the main Kannon image, 156 of the 1,000 smaller Kannon, and the twenty-eight followers of Kannon. The Hondo (Main Hall) was reconstructed between 1251 and 1253, and the leading artists of the day recreated the 1,001 images of Kannon of which 125 of the smaller images are from the pre-fire temple. The temple was completed and rededicated in 1266. The Sanjusangen-do, like most temples, has a tile-topped, plastered wall about the borders of its grounds. Its Nandai-mon (South Gate) was rebuilt about 1590 in the elegant style of the Momoyama period (1568-1603). On the eastern side of the property, the temple's outer wall is broken by a mid-twentieth century restoration of the vermilion To-mon (East Gate) and corridor in the style of the Kamakura period (1185-1336). A stone garden and a pond of the same period lie between the gate and its corridor and the Sanjusangen-do Hondo.

Hondo The Sanjusangen-do Hondo is 390.4 feet long by 54 feet wide. The temple derives its common name (Sanjusangen-do) from the fact that it has thirty-three (san-ju-san = thirty-three) bays (ken) created by the thirty-four columns that sub-divide and support the gradually curving, tiled roof. (the word do in Sanjusangen-do means "hall.") Each bay has wood shutter-doors and behind them are moveable shoji panels. The thirty-three bays symbolize the thirty-three incarnations into which Kannon can transform himself in his merciful acts of saving mankind from the miseries of human existence.

Juicbimen Senju Kannon The central image of the Juichimen Senju Kannon has five hundred images of this deity on either side. The main image is an eleven-foot-tall (including the pedestal) gilded Kannon seated on a lotus blossom. This Kannon, with eyes of crystal, was created in the yosegi, style; that is, composed of hollow wooden blocks which were put together and then roughly carved. Thereafter, the image was finely carved, lacquered, and then covered with gold leaf. The image was created between 1251 and 1254 by the most distinguished sculptor of Kamakura times, Tankei (1173-1256), in his eighty-second year. It and nine of the smaller Kannon images are the only works by Tankei that have been truly authenticated.

This central image, as with the one thousand other images, has eleven smaller heads about the crown of its head. Although the Kannon has only twenty pairs of arms, since each of the forty arms saves twenty-five worlds, figuratively there are one thousand arms represented. The image is seated on an octagonal lotus-blossom pedestal with seven rows of petals. A large, oval aureole behind it has small images of the thirty-three manifestations of Kannon amid an openwork pattern of clouds and sacred trees.

The smaller (5.4- to 5.5-foot-tall) images of Kannon were constructed with the same yosegi technique as is described above. This permitted several craftsmen to work on the same sculpture at one time, and the technique also created a lighter wooden image which was less likely to split. The images are in groups of five hundred on either side of the main Kannon, standing in ten rows of fifty each. The images were created not only by Tankei (1173-1256), but by seventy others under his direction. The 1,001 images of Kannon symbolize the 33,033 ways in which mankind can be helped by this deity of mercy (1,001 images multiplied by 33 possible incarnations = 33,033).

The God of Wind (Fujin) and the God of Thunder (Raijin) stand at either end and in front of the rows of the one thousand Kannon. The image of Fujin stands 3.8 feet tall and holds a large bag of wind over its shoulders. Raijin is 3.5 feet tall and is surrounded from behind by a circlet of drums which he beats with his drumsticks, thereby causing thunder to roll. both deities are of a ferocious mien, and both were actively feared and placated by the people of earlier times.

In a corridor behind the one thousand Kannon are the statues of the twenty-eight followers (Nijuhachibu-shu) of Kannon, Buddhist deities with human or animal heads who protect mankind. The Nijuhachibu-shu were made during the Kamakura period or later and are approximately five feet in height. The twenty-eight images are spirits of deified wisdom, beauty, prosperity, relief for the poor, etc., and are lined up in a row along the rear corridor of the temple. Additional images of Nio, Fudo, Jizo, and other deities are also located in the rear of the building.

The platform under the eaves at the rear of the Sanjusangendo structure should be observed on leaving the building, for here is where the annual ancient Hikizome Matsuri (First Shooting of the Year Festival) takes place. The Hikizome Matsuri is held on the fifteenth of each January, and it represents the initial archery contest of the New Year. Since the arrows launched seemed to fly through the air one after another, the ceremony is also called Toshiya, or "Passing Arrows." these bow-and-arrow contests first began in 1606 on the west veranda of the temple, and they remained most popular among the samurai right through the Edo period (1603-1868). The archers had to shoot their arrows from a squatting position, aiming from the south end of the veranda to the target, one yard in diameter, at the north end, 196 feet away. (As a result, the pillars have had to be protected by metal coverings against stray arrows.) In former times, the contests began at 6:00 p.m. and continued for twenty-four hours. The 1686 champion, Wasa Daihachiro, at the age of twenty-two, sent a record 8,233 arrows out of 13,053 to the target at the north end of the veranda.

Today, the contest on January 15 begins in the morning at 9:00 a.m., but it is only a modest repetition of the Toshiya of former times. In truth, it no longer is a real contest, but it remains as a tradition worth retaining. As part of the tradition of this ceremony, a collection of bows and arrows is displayed on the south end of the interior of the hall.

Across Shichijo-dori from the Sanjusangen-do is the Kyoto National Museum, and it is worth a visit since it presents an excellent picture of the arts of Kyoto's past. It perhaps is best saved for a rainy day (as with other museums) when one does not wish to be traipsing between outdoor temples and shrines.

KYOTO NATIONAL MUSEUM

The Kyoto National Museum is entered from the Shichijo-dori side. It is open daily (except Monday) from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.; if a national holiday falls on a Monday, it remains open that Monday but is closed the next day. The museum is closed during the New Year holiday (December 26-January 3). Entry fee.

The Kyoto National Museum was founded in 1875 as an imperial museum, and in 1897 its original building was erected in the then current European style which can best be described as Victorian Neo-Renaissance. The museum was given to the city of Kyoto in 1924 and then was nationalized in 1952. In 1966 an addition in a modern architectural form (designed by Keiichi Morita) was opened.

Originally planned as a museum for important items of artistic or historic merit brought from temples and shrines, it has developed a collection of its own—as well as borrowing from private collections and religious institutions when mounting special exhibitions. As one of the major holdings of artifacts and historical art of early Japan, the exhibits cover the period from pre-history through the Edo period. Inasmuch as the collections are extensive, many of the objects in the museum's holdings are rotated; thus, it is not possible to indicate those items currently on view.

The collections include art, religious objects, and items of archeological and historical interest including sculpture, paintings, ceramics and pottery, metalwork, lacquer, toys, dolls of Japan, calligraphy, sutra scrolls (sacred writings), paintings, Buddhist images, and costumes. Chinese works of art are represented as well since they had a major influence on Japanese art and taste in the past. Special exhibitions are mounted in the spring and autumn in the original Meiji-era building. Labels are in Japanese and in English, and a guidebook to the collections (in English) is available in the museum shop. The museum also contains a research library and a photographic laboratory.

When one leaves the Kyoto National Museum and exits on to Shichijo-dori, one should walk to the right (west) to the corner of Yamato-oji-dori (the next cross-street) and turn to the right On Yamato-oji-dori, one will then encounter the end of Japan's medieval period and become acquainted with the intriguing figure of Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1536-98), the military general and civil ruler of the late 1500s (he ruled from 1585 to 1598).

Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who brought peace and prosperity back to a devastated city, was one of the major personalities in the history of Japan and Kyoto. He was honored by the citizens of Kyoto in particular, for Kyoto was a city that had suffered the depredations of war and fire and the privations of starvation and disease, all caused by the country's internecine wars of the previous one hundred years. Hideyoshi's day in the sun was a comparatively brief but glorious one. By 1585 those who opposed him had been conquered and he ruled a pacified nation; by 1598 he was dead, leaving a memorable legacy which the thankful people of Kyoto could not forget. The fourteen years were important ones in Japan's history, and they are especially remembered as the glorious Momoyama period when art flourished, business and commercial enterprises revived, and Japan was at peace.

Hideyoshi is recalled in many places in Kyoto, but in the portion of the city covered in this walk one encounters some of the most memorable reminders of his life: the Hokoji temple, the site of the image of the Buddha which was meant, in a vainglorious moment, to outshine that of the Daibutsu (the Great Buddha image) of Nara and whose memorial bell, which was to herald an era of peace, led instead to the downfall of Hideyoshi's son and the eradication of his line; Mimizuka, the mound that commemorates his brutal wars in Korea; and the Hokoku Shrine, the restored Shinto shrine to his spirit.

HOKO-JI

It is best to begin with what remains of the Hoko-ji. The Hoko-ji is on the east side of Yamato-oji-dori just beyond the Hokoku Shrine whose main entrance faces Shomen-dori, a street heading downhill to the west. The entrance to the Hokoku Shrine should be bypassed, for the Hoko-ji grounds begin at the end of the shrine property. The Hoko-ji temple is open from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. There is no entry fee.

The only historic unit extant in the Hokoji, the onetime site of the Great Buddha of Kyoto, is its infamous temple bell. There is no charge to see it, but if you wish to strike the bell with its beam, the attendant may collect a small fee for this privilege. Although the history of the temple is fascinating, other than seeing the bell it is not worth entering the remaining buildings which date from the 1970s after the latest of many fires that have plagued the temple.

The Hokoji was erected by Toyotomi Hideyoshi in part out of his own vanity and in part as a ploy to disarm all but the new warrior class which officially came into being as a result of the codification of rank and status which Hideyoshi began and which the Tokugawa shoguns would formulate definitively after 1600. If one thing need be said, it is that this "pious" act of creating the Hokoji temple was hardly based on religious zeal.

Determined to build a huge image of the Buddha which would outclass the Daibutsu (Great Buddha) of Nara, Hideyoshi boasted that his Great Buddha would be created in five years rather than the twenty years it had taken to build the Daibutsu of the emperor Shomu in the seventh century. The temple grounds, which held Hideyoshi's gigantic image, and its hall covered an area 780 feet from east to west by 822 feet north to south.

Hideyoshi's vassals (the daimyo or lords dependent upon him) were required to furnish the funds and the thousands of workers needed to bring this 160-foot-tall Buddha into being. Originally intended to be cast in bronze, difficulties with the casting led instead to the creation of the image in wood which was then lacquered. The Hondo (Main Hall), built in 1587 to house this gigantic image, stood 222 feet wide by 330 feet long and 200 feet high. The creation of the Buddha image gave rise to the device of disarming the general populace. Many citizens had maintained their own weapons for defensive purposes or for use when impressed into military battles during the Sengoku Jidai (Period of the Warring States, 1467-1568). The armed monks who had also plagued the government before being crushed by Oda Nobunaga, Hideyoshi's predecessor, were also a target. Thus, a government decree ordered the surrender of "any sword, short sword, bows, spears, firearms, or other types of arms." the avowed purpose of this 1585 "Taiko's Sword Hunt" (as the campaign was known, Taiko [His Highness] being the title by which Hideyoshi was known by the public) was to melt down such metals in order to cast the fittings needed to erect the great hall that would house the Buddha at the Hoko-ji.

With the public deprived of arms, according to official pronouncements, the populace would have a double benefit: without arms, there would be less chance of death from armed conflict, and by surrendering their arms for the sake of the Buddha, donors would be granted peace not only in this life but in the next world as well. In the long run, this not only removed the danger of uprisings against the ruling authorities but also emphasized the class distinction between soldiers and farmers, soldiers and merchants. It made the wearing of a sword a badge of rank, a privilege granted only to the samurai. The rigid stratification of society during the following 265 years of Tokugawa rule, after Hideyoshi's demise, was in process.

The Bukko-ji, which stood on the site of Hideyoshi's projected Great Buddha image, was conveniently moved across the river in order to provide sufficient land for the gigantic undertaking. Canals were dug and a new bridge was built, the Gojo-ohashi, the Great Bridge of Fifth Street, to facilitate the delivery of materials to the site. The temple was completed in 1589, with one thousand priests participating in the dedicatory ceremonies. Unhappily, the image was doomed to disaster. In 1596 a great earthquake damaged much of the Kyoto area and the Great Buddha was destroyed. Two years later, Hideyoshi was dead. The question of the successor to Hideyoshi lay open since his intended political heir, his son Hideyori, was only five years old.

The various lords who formed a regents' council had pledged to support Hideyoshi's son as the next political ruler when he came of age. Dissension among them, however, enabled Tokugawa Ieyasu (1543-1616) to gain control of the government by 1603 both by guile and by force. Concerned with creating a new ruling family, he determined to get rid of Hideyori in time. In order to weaken Hideyori financially as the years went by, Ieyasu encouraged him and his mother to melt ten million gold coins from Hideyoshi's estate to obtain the needed funds for a gigantic image which would replace the Great Buddha. For Hideyori's political supporters, this rebuilding of the Great Buddha provided an opportunity to restore the family's flagging political influence. Thus, the rebuilding began in 1603. Unfortunately, a fire in the nearly completed hall destroyed the work already done. Ieyasu convinced Hideyori and his mother once more that the project had to be completed, thereby further sapping the Toyotomi finances.

By 1609 the Buddha had been recreated (in wood), and by 1612 the temple was restored. This second hall was 272 feet long by 167.5 feet deep, and it rose 150 feet into the air. Ninety-two pillars supported the roof over the 58.5-foot-tall image of Buddha. In 1615, to mark the completion of the project, a huge bronze bell was cast and mounted in its own structure. It still stands, 14 feet tall and nine feet in diameter; it is 9 inches thick and weighs 82 tons. On it, Hideyori had inscribed the words Kokka Anko, "Security and Peace in the Nation."

Ieyasu, looking for a pretext to undermine Hideyori whom he found too handsome and too capable and thereby a political threat to his and his family's continued rule, had not only refused to contribute funds to the rebuilding of this popular memorial to Hideyoshi but also claimed that the second and fourth characters in the inscription on the bell could be read as "Ieyasu." the intent, he claimed, was to place a curse upon him.

In time, Ieyasu resorted to armed force, and in 1615 he besieged Hideyori in his castle in Osaka, a castle Hideyori had inherited from his father. The Toyotomi family was exterminated, and one of the justifications used by Ieyasu for this treacherous and brutal act was the supposed threat which had appeared on the great bell at the Hokoji. Afterwards, the head of Toyotomi Hideyori's seven-year-old son was displayed at the Sanjo (Third Street) Bridge in the same manner as were those of traitors and criminals. The Hokoji today is a rather nondescript complex. The 1609 Buddha and its hall, which were restored at the expense of Hideyori and his mother, were destroyed by an earthquake in 1662, and the replacements of these were lost in a fire in 1798. The new image of 1843, which replaced the previous Buddha, was destroyed in a 1973 fire. Thus, the existing halls of the temple are not very important since all that was of consequence has been consumed by the flames of the centuries.

What remains of the original Hokoji is the Great Bell of 1615 which stands in a belfry rebuilt in 1884. The offending characters of Kokka Anko were removed at Hideyori's order soon after the bell was completed because of Ieyasu's pretended offense at the curse he claimed to have read. Today, one can have the experience of pulling the cord that sends the wooden beam of the belfry crashing against the side of the bell—to sound the praise of Hideyoshi or to curse Ieyasu, as one is so inclined.

One other item of note remains from the sixteenth-century temple: the huge stone walls along Yamato-oji-dori which served to hold the embankment on which the Hokoji was built. These gigantic stones were gifts from Hideyoshi's daimyo, many of these daimyo competing to see if they could send a larger stone from their fiefdom than could other donors. The stones are still in place, today encompassing the grounds of both the Hokoji temple and the Hokoku Shrine. The entrance to the present Hokoku Shrine at the head of Shomen-dori is approximately the entrance to the Great Buddha Hall of the past. Before leaving the Hoko-ji, one should be conscious of the Mimizuka mound which was created in front of the Great Buddha Hall of the Hokoji. It reflects the obverse side of the honor given to Hideyoshi in his own day, for it is illustrative of the cruelty of the wars waged by the warriors of that as well as of later times.

MIMIZUKA

The Mimizuka (Ear Mound) is on Shomen-dori just west of where that street intersects with Yamato-oji-dori (west of the entrance to the Hokoku Shrine) and immediately to the west of the children's playground.

The Mimizuka is a mound in which the ears and noses of defeated Koreans were buried after the Korean wars of Hideyoshi in 1592 and 1597. The mound originally stood in front of the gateway to the Daibutsu-den (Hall of the Great Buddha) of the Hokoji, a hall which has now been replaced by the Hokoku Shrine in honor of Toyotomi Hideyoshi. The mound is a tall hill surrounded by a fence and topped by a very tall five-tier memorial stone.

In 1592, Toyotomi Hideyoshi determined that he would conquer China, a part of his dream of ruling all of East Asia. He sent a massive army into Korea, penetrating to Pyongyang and to the Tumen River as far as the border of China. Ultimately forced by the Chinese to retreat to the south of Korea, Hideyoshi failed in his quest, and the war merely engendered many casualties on both sides as well as a continuing antagonism with Korea and China. In 1597 he launched a second attempt against Korea so as to reach China. Harassment of his supply lines by Korean armored boats and the combined military forces of Korea and China proved an overwhelming series of obstacles to his expansionist goals. His death in 1598 provided his successors with an excuse for a withdrawal from Korea—until the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

The custom of victorious armies severing the heads of the defeated enemy for presentation to their commander as a proof of victory proved logistically impractical during these overseas military adventures. Therefore, in 1592, the ears of the defeated enemy were cut off and shipped back to Kyoto in barrels of brine. They were buried in a mound in front of the gateway to the Daibutsu-den of the Hoko-ji of Hideyoshi and marked by five large, circular stones. Again, in November 1598, the ears and, this time, the noses of 38,000 victims of the Japanese forces in Korea were buried in Mimizuka. The noses were hung up by threes for inspection, verification, and counting before they were pickled and shipped. According to some sources, the mound should be called Hanazuka (Nose Mound) since it was noses rather than ears that were shipped and buried.

A moat 12 feet broad was created around a mound 720 feet in circumference and 30 feet high. On top was placed a five-story, 21-foot-tall sotoba (Buddhist shrine) with a 15-foot-wide base. In earlier days, there was a bridge with railings which crossed the moat from the north side. The mound and sotoba were built at Hideyoshi's order, and on June 12,1597, he had three hundred priests chant a requiem prayer for the Korean dead. In former times, when Korean embassies came to the court on official visits, they always worshipped at this mound.

The Mimizuka mound reflects the senseless military ardor of Hideyoshi, and today it remains, ironically, before the Hokoku Shrine, the Shinto memorial to his enshrined spirit.

HOKOKU SHRINE (TOYOKUNI SHRINE)

The Hokoku Shrine, also known as the Toyokuni Shrine, is on Yamato-qji-dori where Shomen-dori meets Yamato-oji-dori, north of the Kyoto National Museum. There is no admission charge to the shrine. Its treasury is open from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. The era of peace and a growing economy, after the devastation that had been visited on Kyoto by the century of civil war, endeared Hideyoshi to the public. His festival occasions, though sometimes brash, also warmed the citizens of Kyoto to his rule. Thus, after his death, one of the popular songs sung by the people at his shrine summarized these feelings:

Who's that

Holding over four hundred provinces

In the palm of his hand

And entertaining at a tea party?

It's His Highness [Taiko]

So mighty, so impressive.

When Hideyoshi gave a tea party, he savored the quiet essence of the tea ceremony as created by tea masters such as Sen-no-Rikyu. On the other hand, he could go to the extremes to which his nature inclined. His passion for tea reached such a height that when he held a tea party for the public at the Kitano Shrine in October of 1587, he invited "even those from China" to attend. One had only to bring a mat to sit on and a tea bowl. Some five thousand people are said to have attended the "tea party."

On Hideyoshi's death, the emperor Go-Yozei in 1599 ordered that a Shinto shrine to Hideyoshi's spirit be constructed at the foot of Amida-ga-mine (Mount Amida) to the east of Higashi-ojidori since in death Hideyoshi was seen as a god. The shrine became a gathering place for the people of Kyoto on the anniversary of Hideyoshi's death, a great festival being held before the shrine. The festival was captured in a painting done on a six-panel folding screen by Kano Naizen (owned by the shrine and on public view in its treasury) in the early 1600s, documenting the admiration of the people for Toyotomi Hideyoshi.

Such esteem for his predecessor concerned the new shogun, Tokugawa Ieyasu. As a result, through the years Ieyasu did all that was possible to erase Hideyoshi's name insofar as he could. Gradually the shrine and burial place of Hideyoshi were eliminated by Ieyasu.

With the end of the Tokugawa (Edo) era in 1868, however, the new Meiji government began the restoration of Hideyoshi's reputation together with the shrines connected with him. On April 9,1875, the prefecture of Kyoto was sent an imperial order to rebuild the shrine to Hideyoshi. A ten-year reconstruction program gradually restored the Hokoku Shrine to its previous glory—but on a major portion of the grounds of the Hokoji instead of at its original site at the foot of Amida-ga-mine (Mount Amida) to the east of Higashi-oji-dori. Thus, the Hokoji was reduced drastically from its original size and importance, a result of the Meiji government's hostility to Buddhism and a policy of downgrading Buddhist temples. The former Kara-mon (Chinese-style gateway) which once had stood before Hideyoshi's Fushimi castle, was brought to the Hokoku Shrine in 1876 from its previous location, depriving the Konchi-in Buddhist sub-temple of the Nanzenji of one of its treasures.

To create the appropriate space which Meiji grandeur demanded for the restored Shinto shrine to Hideyoshi, some of the buildings of the Hokoji were moved to the north, thereby restricting the temple to but a corner of its original site. By September 15, 1875, the shrine was in place, and, in a great ceremony, Hideyoshi's spirit was transferred to the inner shrine building. Hideyoshi's cynicism in the creation of the Hokoji with its great Buddha was now being equaled by that of the Meiji government in the recreation of this Shinto shrine in order to undo the disdain of Ieyasu for Hideyoshi—but its underlying motive was to show the new government's hatred of the Tokugawa shoguns and their 260 years of political rule of Japan. The Hokoku Shrine consists of a number of buildings, and, as with most Shinto shrines, all but the Honden (Spirit Hall) and its enclosure are open to the public. A traditional torii stands at the entrance to the grounds, and beyond it a series of lanterns (in vermilion painted wood) are raised on posts leading to the Karamon. The Kara-mon faces west down Shomen-dori, and from it hangs the original tablet-name for the shrine, created by the emperor Go-Yozei in 1599. The cypress-bark-roofed Kara-mon is supported by six large, wooden pillars. Relief carvings of cranes on the transoms enhance the doors of this gateway as do the two finely carved cranes under the front gable. So realistic are the carvings of the cranes by the noted sixteenth-century sculptor Hidari Jingoro that it is said he left them without eyes so that they would not fly away. In keeping with the ostentatiousness of the Momoyama art of Hideyoshi's day, the ornaments of the restored gate were gold plated.

Beyond the Kara-mon is the Honden, the sacred building where the spirit of Hideyoshi is enshrined, ensconced behind a fence which separates the sacred from the secular realm. A statue of the seated Hideyoshi stands before the fenced inner area. To the north of the main pathway is a smaller Shinto shrine with a series of small vermilion torii before it.

To the southeast of the Honden is the treasure house which holds items connected with Hideyoshi and his times, including the folding screen mentioned above which commemorates the seventh anniversary of Hideyoshi's death. In addition, swords, armor, iron lanterns, and manuscripts of the sixteenth century, all associated with Hideyoshi, are on display.

In contrast to the late nineteenth-century attempt to glorify Hideyoshi at the Hokoku Shrine, a short walk to the northeast of the shrine brings one to a simpler and more attractive site. It is not too often that a visitor to Kyoto can see the interior of a traditional Japanese house, but the Kawai Kanjiro House offers just such an opportunity.

KAWAI KANJIRO HOUSE

On leaving the Hokoku Shrine, a right turn brings one onto Yamato-oji-dori. This street should be followed to the north for three streets. At the third cross-street, one should turn right and follow this new street to the east for two streets before turning left (north). One will thus arrive at the Kawai Kanjiro House midway down the east side of the street. The house is open from 10:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., except on Mondays. It is closed from August 10 to 20 and from December 24 to January 7. Entry fee.

Born in 1890, Kawai Kanjiro became noted as a twentieth-century potter and a master of ceramic craftsmanship. His growing interest in traditional pottery led him in time to become one of the founders of the Japan Folk Craft Museum in Tokyo and to bring attention to traditional Japanese folk crafts. Living in Kyoto, the center of traditional craftsmanship, he established a kiln at the rear of his house. In 1937 his home was destroyed in a storm that caused serious damage in Kyoto, and in rebuilding his residence and work area he was inspired by traditional rural Japanese house architecture. Both his home and his studio can be visited today.

The entrance to the house has a hall which would have been the area in which a farmer kept his animals. Here Kanjiro hung one of his wooden sculptures, an art form he took up in his later years. Beyond the entry hall is the reception room with a Korean-style wooden floor and an open hearth. A calligraphic inscription on the rear wall translates as "Folk Craft Study Collection," and display shelves, which can be viewed from either side, hold some of his treasured folk collections. Beyond the reception room is the family dining area with a large table which could seat up to ten people. Under the table is a kotatsu, the traditional brazier used to provide warmth to those sitting at the table. An image of the Buddha carved by a seventeenth-century priest/folk artist sits upon the table.

A traditional staircase with drawers beneath the steps leads to the upper sleeping quarter with its wooden floor and ceiling. Adjacent to this is a small room with a tokonoma, and on its wall is a calligraphic riddle whose answer is "tea." Here Kanjiro and his friends could enjoy tea in a relaxed manner rather than with the formality called for by the traditional tea ceremony. The walls of this room, as with some of the other rooms, are decorated with the wooden masks that the artist began to make in his seventies.

Behind the rooms on the first floor a gravel path set off by bamboo plants leads to Kanjiro's workshop and "Smoking Room" where pieces of his ceramic ware are on display. Here are the potter's twin kick-wheel and the stepped noborigama kilns. These kilns were used by Kanjiro from 1919 until his death in 1966, and they continued to be in use by some of his followers until 1971 when new antipollution laws forced the closing of all wood-fired kilns in Kyoto. The Kawai Kanjiro House is a charming memorial to a famed potter, a house that illustrates the manner in which a prosperous artist tried to recapture the past in his daily life. It stands in sharp contrast to the golden images of the Sanjusangen-do or to the dreams of glory that Toyotomi Hideyoshi cherished.

On leaving the house, one can walk back (south) to the next street running east and west. A turn to the left (east) brings one to Higashi-oji-dori at the next corner. There a taxi or bus 18,202, 206, or 207 can be taken for a return to the center of the city or to other destinations as desired.