Kyoto Photos

[drplokta]

Off to Yokohama for the Worldcon in a bit, but here are some photos from Kyoto.



Part of the Kodai-ji temple complex. None of these wooden buildings is, in fact, very old -- every place you visit, they have a list of all the times it has burned down and tell you when it was last rebuilt.




They had dragonflies in their pond. (I recommend clicking through to the larger version of this one.)




The Kenshunmon Gate (although "mon" means gate anyway) to the Kyoto Imperial Palace -- this is the one for use by the Emperor's family.




At the Kyoto Costume Museum, flickgc had me take lots and lots of pictures. Most of these are dolls about a foot high -- the last two are life-size.











We asked if they had similar dolls for sale, and the attendant told us that each doll cost 100 million yen to make (a bit under £500,000). We think she must have meant 100 thousand yen, or £500.


Finally, this lotus flower was in a moat outside the Higashi Honganji Temple.



seph_hazard has set up an LJ feed of my Flickr photostream at drploktaphotos. If anyone is following my Japan photoset on Flickr, note that I'll be creating a different set for Worldcon photos.

Comments

Identity

[libertango.livejournal.com]

"None of these wooden buildings is, in fact, very old -- every place you visit, they have a list of all the times it has burned down and tell you when it was last rebuilt."

The answer you'd get on that subject would depend on who you ask.

When I was in college, I did three semesters (an academic year-and-half) of Japanese history. I wrote a number of papers on Japanese architecture, and I remember one source (googling about, I suspect it's Edo Architecture: Katsura and Nikko by Naomi Okawa, translated by Alan Woodhull and Akito Miyamoto) saying that even though the Toshogu temple complex at Nikko has been rebuilt quite a few times, the Japanese would tell you it's the same building. The belief is, as long as it's built exactly the same as the previous iteration, the building is not "new."

Looking up Kodai-ji, I notice this page (http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e3927.html) saying it was built in 1605. There's no mention of the fires or of the reconstructions. That fits. Wikipedia says (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kodaiji) 1606, but that's much the same.

In re the dolls: The ones with the long flowing hair and somewhat chubby faces are based loosely on images from the Heian Period (roughly 1000 AD), especially in connection with such works as The Tale of Genji and The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon (arguably the first blogger). Very nice work. Heian-kyo was the ancient name of Kyoto, so it's unsurprising a Kyoto Museum would spend the time and effort at making them. The illustrations at Wikipedia's entry (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tale_of_genji) on the Genji show fairly representative samples.

I recommend Ivan Morris' The World of the Shining Prince if either you or Flick are interested in this place and time period.

Re: Identity

[drplokta]

Yes, the dolls in the Costume Museum are explicitly arranged to enact scenes from The Tale of Genji.

Re: Identity

[spikeiowa.livejournal.com]

Then I guess I will have to visit the museum. I might as well just give in and make this trip a Trail of Genji.

Re: Identity

[drplokta]

Oh yes, and 1605 == not very old, as far as I am concerned. I grew up in a town with a lot of Roman stonework, and even more 13th century woodwork.