Wisteria in Byodoin temple

May is the season that flowers of wisteria bloom. Wisteria is one of my favourite kinds of flower, however didn't have a chance to visit any wisteria site this May. My personal favourite wisteria site is Byodoin temple in Kyoto. I visit Byodoin almost every year in the recent 5 years, but I haven't visited in the wisteria season since 2011. Here are the photos from my visit in 2011. Elegant architecture of the temple just matches such beautiful flowers.

    Byodoin in 2011, before the recent restoration made

Wisteria trees are located somewhat apart from the main temple architecture. One behind the trees is different building. 

 

 

This is from 2015 winter after the restration. Compaing with the above 2011 photo, you can distingish the paint jobs done. However, the one before the restoration seemed to look better with wisteria flowers. 

 

Rikugien - a beautiful Daimyo garden from the Edo era

It is too pitiful for myself to miss the scenery of Japanese gardens like Rikugien under the perfect May weather. Thanks Daimyos and the constrain of the feudel society from centuries ago, for leaving such beautiful garden. Here's why I appreciate in such way.

"Daimyo" is the Japanese word that means powerful feudal load. They were the head of the military bands during the civil war era (late 1500s - late 1600's) as well as the administration of their local territories. Once the Tokugawa's band conquers the entire country then started Edo Bakufu (Bakufu = feudal government) in 1603, Tokugawa provided all of the regional lands, outside of the capital city of Edo (now called Tokyo), to the survived Daimyos after the civil war period, as the local administration of the regions throughout the country, ruled by the central Tokugawa's Bakufu.

In return of the receiving such regional authority, Daimyos must contribute their royalty to Tokugawa. Daimyos are required to stay in Edo for one year in every two years. It means that they will stay at Edo for half of their remaining career as a Daimyo. The expense for traveling to and staying in Edo are at the Daimyos' own expense. This system is called "Sankin-koutai". The Tokugawa's objective for Sankin-koutai is to limit the power and freedom of Daimyos as a prevention from rebel. Daimyos had to build their mansions in Edo as accommodations. What came afterhand is that the Daimyos competed each others in building better mansions especially in it's size and beauty. Making of gardens in the property was the important tool to express their power in such competition. 

Rikugien is one of the remaining gardens among these. It is the garden of Daimyo, Yoshiyasu Yanagisawa, a head of the regional administraion of Kai (where is called Yamanashi pref. nowadays) then later became a high-ranked official in the Tokugawa Bakufu. The garden was built in 1702 and survived through numbers of tragedies such as great fire in the city of Edo, the great earthquake in 1923, and air raid during WWII despite it's large as nearly 90,000 meter in the heart of the city.

 

 

There are a few other Daimyo gardens in Tokyo, and I will introduce them with further posts. 

Shamisen of Tsugaru - Strumming the Sound of Snow Storms

Back from my work today in the evening rush hour, when I just got out of my neighborhood train station, there was a street musician playing shamisen, the Japanese traditional instrument with strings. His style of playing the instrument was called Tsugaru, which is originated in northern Japan called Aomori, far north in the Tohoku region. The sound of Tsugaru style is strongly connected to it's nature, especially to the severeness of northern winter weather. Whenever I hear Tsugaru, I imagine of the snow storm under the gray sky, while the sight of ocean with rocky shore that breaks rough waves in front of me.

Well, enough blahs. It's much easier to actually listen to this great Tsugaru master, Chikuzan Takahashi, to introduce what it sounds like. So here it is.

**Just to leave one note before you actually play the clip below. If you're a cat lover. I might not recommend you to play it, because this clean white body of the shamisen is actually made of cat's skin.

Visiting Rosanjin Exhibition

I went to the exhibition of Rosanjin Kitaoji at Mitsui Memorial Museum yesterday. Rosanjin is known as the last giant of the Japanese traditional art history. He was a multi-talented artist but most famously known of his ceramic works and as a gastronomist, while being an owner and producer of the luxury Japanese restaurant, Hoshigaoka Saryo. He also left more than several essays that many of them are gourmet-related.

The exhibition mainly consists of ceramics and wooden-based lacquerwares. A few of his calligraphic works are also there. Unfortunately, I do not have any photos from the exhibition to post, as no photos allowed in the museum. Instead, you can find part of the collections from the exhibition here (and here, too).

Mitsui Memorial Museum, located near Nihonbashi in the heart of Tokyo, mainly introduces masterpieces of the Japanese art through their exhibitions. They also have a vast of their own collection among the ceramics, religious sculptures, paintings, calligraphies, swords, and etc… If you’ll have a chance to visit the city in near future, the exhibition will be held until 6/26.

Lastly, this is my only Rosanjin-related ones from my tableware shelf. Five small plates that are the reproduction of Rosanjin’s works. They are small as 9.5cm diameter. I use it for serving small amusements as starters, such as olives and cheese. Or, going Japanese, they’d be salted squid, salted fish eggs, and tsukemono (pickled vegetables).

Wabi-sabi on the street

Small wild flowers found in front of an old house. A little visual healing of the day.

Sunday antique market at the Buddhist temple

It's typical in Japan that antique markets are held in Buddhist temples or Shinto shrines in weekends. Variety of things are sold at the markets: ceramics, lacquered wood carvings, kimonos / fabrics, calligraphy goods, religious sculptures, and etc... Today, I went to one of them at Arai Yakushi in Tokyo. This Buddhist temple has an antique market every 1st Sunday of the month. And, May sure is one of the best month to enjoy such event while enjoying mild spring weather.

This temple has a water well that is open to public. The water can be consumed for drinking. Here are some photos I took at the market. I didn't take much detailed photos of each booth, since to respect shopkeepers for not bothering their business by my paparazi-like attitude. But still, hope this informs the brief picture of how the Japanese antique markets look like, especially if you have never gone.

 

And, some more photos from the temple, outside of the shopkeepers' territories.

 

Lastly, this is the lunch I had near the temple afterward, tororo soba.

Tororo, the white foamy matter seen in lower left, partially coverd by cut seaweed is a kind of yam.

It is very sticky as okra, and becomes foamy once shuredded. 

Some other antique market sites in Tokyo city (23 wards) area, held at Shinto shirines / Buddhist temples are: Gogokuji (2nd Saturday of each month), Nogi Shrine (4th Sunday of each month), Yasukuni Shrine (Sundays, except for when the specific events are held, plus 3/27 and 4/3),  Hanazono Shrine (Sundays, except for when the specific events are held), Kasai Shrine (1st Saturday of each month). It's always better to go to the markets in morning, since shopkeepers tend to close their booths from early afternoon.

Memory from last winter pt.2 - Yurine

Yurine is root of lily. Yes, lily as the flower, and Japanese eat it's root. Yurine is most popularly known among Japanese as one of the assorted ingredients contained in chawanmushi which is steamed egg custard. What on the above picture is simply boiled with salted water, and crushed pickled plum(umeboshi) is set aside as condiment.

 
Texture of cooked yurine resembles to potato. More precisely, you feel it somewhat smoother than potato in your mouth once you bite. Cooked yurine creates neither any scent nor rich flavor, but slight sweetness. For me personally, smooth texture is the best part to enjoy this root.

For the black bowl that served yurine, sorry again, I do not have info about where this was made. Based on the black glaze, you can partly see the orange glaze. We call it persimmon glaze that is called ‘kakiyu’ in Japanese (I will explain the variety of glazes used for Japanese pottery in my later posts). This combination of glaze can popularly be seen among Mashiko-ware (however I can’t be sure that this particular one is from Mashiko, such style can also be seen among Tanba-ware and etc...). In the very bottom of the bowl around the lower rim, you see unglazed part that "bare roasted clay" is shown. It's in reddish brown color that gives difficulty to distinish from kakiyu with my photos (sorry for the poor quality photos.... I have to learn photography...). Orange parts seen inside of the lower rim and around the top rim are the persimmon glaze.

 

My personal highlight of this bowl is how the persimmon glaze is mingling into the black and dripping downward from the top rim.Two photos below are the detailed look of the dripping, with and without the flash. The reason I posted one with the flash is that the reflection of the light shows the drips better. The reflection is made by iron containment in both of the black and persimmon glazes. It’s colored somewhat like the oil in the water. Each drip going downward is thin as hair. Chinese people  actually call such dripping “rabbit’s hair”, and I love the way it is called.