Jeffrey E.F. Friedl's Blog, page 36

Inside The Shodensanso Villa, Part 1

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Tea Ceremony

at the Shodensanso Villa (松殿山荘), Uji Japan

In “Approaching the Shodensanso
Villa” last week, we ended looking at the main entrance to the
86-year-old grand villa just outside of Kyoto. Here's a view from the
entrance looking out.

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“Hi”







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Round Window & Tiger







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Big Room

We received a half-hour talk in this room about the history of the place and the guy who built it
(Tsunetaro Takaya). The whole time I just couldn't stop marveling at the ceiling, whose 4-foot-by-4-foot
panels were each a solid board...

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Gorgeous

on the floor on my back at 14mm








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Alcoves







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Damien

with context, the room suddenly seems a lot bigger, doesn't it?

After the lecture we were ushered to another room for, what turned out to be Tea Ceremony. For a bit I had the room mostly to myself...

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Awaiting Participants

At the start of a Tea Ceremony you receive a couple of small sweets, to
cleanse th palate, I guess. People were still coming in and there was
general hustle and bustle, so it was fine to use the camera...

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Getting Started

Once the ceremony proper got started, everyone put their cameras away. It's unfortunate because the backlit steam rising from the pot (seen in
frame left above) was wonderful.

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After

We could inspect the ornately-decorated implements. Here Damien (in a rare photo without is red hat)
is photographing the small container for the dry green tea, and the little bamboo spoon-ish thing used
to place a bit into each bowl while making tea...

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Paul's Turn







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Sans Camera

I don't quite understand what's going on with the lady above, but she
somehow seems to be able to see and maybe even appreciate the bowl
without the use of a camera. Seems odd. Perhaps she's from another planet.

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My Turn
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The surface was glossy smooth, but the fine pine cones and needles were
very “3D”, so the layer of lacquer (or whatever) must have been quite
thick. It all felt quite high class and delicate. I inquired about its age; it's a modern piece.

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Detail








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Preparing

for the next group







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Back Hallway







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Old Light Switches








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Next Group

preparing to enter the room for the next group's tea ceremony

(she's kneeling where Damien and Paul were photographing the cup earlier)







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Kitchen

not meant to be seen by villa guests

( but I got a special tour by the caretaker )








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Large Doors

the main panel of each is a single massive board perhaps 4½ feet across

To be continued...

A Quick Peek at Kyoto’s Hanadera Temple

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Entrance

to the Shojiji Temple (AKA “Hanadera”)

勝持寺 / 花の寺

Kyoto Japan

Two weeks ago toward the end of a full day of fall-foliage photography
that I scratched the surface of in “The Whole Gamut of My Blog In
One Spectacular Visit to the Yoshiminedera Temple”, after
a great lunch we made a short visit
to Hanadera (“The Flower Temple”, officially called the Shojiji Temple).

Didn't see too many flowers, being the middle of November and all, but the fall colors
were starting to get going.

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After Stepping Through the Door

Here's a wigglegram to give a better sense of the area in front of the main building....

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On the veranda of the main building is the contraption that I posted for
“An Among-the-Fall-Colors “What am I?” Quiz”. To refresh your memory, here's the photo that I posted then:

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The Contraption in Question

something at the Shojiji Temple (AKA “Hanadera”), Kyoto Japan

勝持寺 / 花の寺

My first impression was that it was some kind of machine for pounding rice into mochi, but I was set straight by a lady
I happened to ask.

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Impromptu Explanation

It's a portable fire extinguisher.

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Fire Extinguisher

basin, two-man pump, nozzles

It makes sense... Japan has long had a deep ethos for fire
prevention, and temple buildings are designed to last thousands of
years, but it takes vigilance to keep them save over that many years.

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Business End

This looks like some kind of unused part idly sitting in a holder, like
an attachment to a vacuum cleaner, but it's actually sitting over the hole
where water comes out. There's a hole in one of the faces toward the top
into which a nozzle pipe fits, to spray the water. The whole thing can be rotated
to change the side-to-side direction, though I'm not sure how they might change the up/down
angle.

The pipes used as the spray nozzle can be seen resting on the back of the thing:

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It's 125 years old, and was just sitting there, sort of falling apart.

Anyway, it was a beautiful, rustic temple. I made lots of wigglegrams, so I'll have to revisit the subject
soon to post more.

To be continued...

Smooshed Glasses as a Psychological Indicator

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Found Them!

my lost glasses, back in my loving embrace... sort of

After returning from errands last night, I realized that I couldn't find my glasses. I knew I'd put them in my coat pocket when leaving the gym, but in between had been all
over the city on scooter, foot, and bicycle.

I figured that I'd probably lost them on the 2km walk to a bicycle shop
(to pick up a new bicycle), or on the bumpy 2km ride home. It was warm
enough that I'd slung my jacket over my shoulder for most of the way
there.

I spent an hour in the dark drizzle last night with a flashlight
retracing my steps. I didn't find them, but did learn that it's hard to see
in the dark, and rain is wet. I was bummed.

This morning I tried again in the light, and found them flatter than a pancake on the
Sanjo Ohashi bridge (this bridge),
and the weird thing is that I immediately felt better about the whole thing.

I think the psychological aspect is interesting... I felt much
worse about not knowing than about the loss of the glasses.

Photographer Introspection Amidst the Serenity at Kyoto’s Rurikoin Temple

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A Moment of Quiet Introspection

at the Rurikoin Temple (瑠璃光院), Kyoto Japan
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Your Seat Awaits

this is absolutely what you'll find if you visit this weekend
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Serenity Incarnate

and other lies
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Some friends and I paid a morning visit to the Rurikoin Temple (瑠璃光院) in north-east Kyoto on Thursday. It was my second visit, after the first two years ago when
Damien introduced me to the place.

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Waiting For the 10AM Opening

Two years ago it was probably about 500 yen (US $5) to get in, but I
heard that they stopped being open to the public for a while. This year
they're back, but it's 2,000 yen (US $20) to get in. It's a Buddhist Temple
and so ostensibly a religious place (whose income is tax free), but during
the fall-foliage season their business is all about photography: the vast
majority of visitors are folks like me who want to take pretty
pictures.

It's probably safe to say that 100% of the folks lined up that morning
to pay their 2,000 yen were there for photos.

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Heading In








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Path Up to the Buildings

After entering, you're first funneled to the 2nd-floor room with the
money view (so to speak) of the foliage. It's where I took the “serene”
shots that open this post, but it was far from serene. The scene as it
appeared when I first turned the corner at the top of the steps:

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Scurrying for Shots

(The photo above has its color balance set for the incandescent lighting
in the room, rather than for the sunlight outside. Other photos are
balanced for sunlight.)

The room is intended for meditation and the writing of sutras. The table in the background had pads of blank papers,
ink, and brushes, so that you can copy the provided sutras. The seat pillows away from the table are for quiet contemplation of
the beautiful scene outside.

But nobody here cared about any of that stuff. Everyone was there to
take pictures, and I immediately became embarrassed about it for reasons I
can't quite put my finger on.

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When visiting a temple or shrine, I never forget that I'm visiting a
religious place, and that indeed I'm a visitor among people using
the place for its religious purpose. But this time, there was not even the
slightest pretense by anyone that the sole intent of the location and its
visitors was anything other than photography. This made me sad a bit.

Yet, at the same time, since everyone had the same purpose, the same
“unwritten rules” were followed, so, for example, the photogenic corner of
the room was left empty so that it could be part of a good shot. People
would sometimes try to creep in a bit on one corner or the other to catch a
different angle, but for the most part it was sort of amazing how the
“crowd mentality” worked for the common good:

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Absolutely Teeming

with rabid photographers all over the place just out of frame

In the shot above, one person had snuck a bit forward, only to soon
retreat back to the scrum after she took her picture.

As I said, I felt a bit bad/embarrassed for nondescript reasons, and I was acutely aware of
the old saying:

“You are not stuck in traffic. You are traffic.”

With this in mind I was trying to be extra reserved and deferential to others, but I was still
there clicking away, as the photos on this post prove.

At one point a lone man ventured boldly into the open space to “enjoy”
the view, but he was clearly irked by the photographers and, by the way he
acted, it seemed he had planted himself there merely to spite them.

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Rebellion

I felt bad for him because he had a right to enjoy the place for its
intended purpose. These kind of scenic spots are deluged by folks with
cameras during Kyoto's glorious fall-foliage season, but usually everyone
enjoys the area in harmony, each for their own reasons. Sometimes you get
occasional
bottlenecks when folks' manners are temporarily overcome by their
enthusiasm (an offense I try not to be guilty of, but I'm sure I am from
time to time). But here, in the rush just after the temple opened to
the scrum of photographers, there was no harmony.

I also feel bad for him because it seems his intention was to ruin the
view for photography, but standing there alone, he actually added a nice
human focal point. A photo of him leads this post, but that photo and the
one directly above are the only I took of him. I didn't want to be the
traffic he was stuck in, so I moved to another room for a while.

Eventually he moved on, and again the photo-crowd mentality took over and
the most photogenic part of the room was left open...

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Deserted

at least until you get one pixel out of frame

I often use creative composition to take advantage of the easiest way to
lie with the camera (“If It’s Not in Frame, It Doesn’t Exist”),
and in this room with these “photographer crowd mentality” rules in play,
it was quite effective.

But all good things must come to an end. One of the photographers, after
waiting for a while, sort of asked the crowd whether he could move forward
to take a picture. One of the temple worker said yes, of course, go ahead
by all means don't hesitate, and he very quickly and apologetically moved
forward to take a shot...

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Nabbing a Quick Snap
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But with that the spell was broken and the dike burst. Here's the scene 10 seconds later:

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And another minute and a half later, as I was on my way out for the last time...

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I have some interest in these places as historical sites, to imagine who
build them and who maintained them over the years, but 99% of my interest
is in the ability to take and share photos. I have no qualms or embarrassment
about that, but something about that morning made me very uneasy.

It could be that the hefty admission price filtered out (almost)
everyone but those serious about getting nice photos, and the
resulting scrum/mood just didn't fit the setting in my mind. I've
had the occasion to take photographs during a Catholic Mass
(examples
here,
here, and
here), but even though
in each case I had the explicit permission from the priest, I still felt uneasy because
the intention of Mass lies elsewhere.

And then on top of that, to see someone who didn't get the “cameras
required” memo bristle against the rainfall of shutter clicks made me feel
bad for being part of the problem.

I'd like to think that I and my friends were more respectful and
courteous than the bulk of the scrum there, but perhaps that's just
me looking at myself through autumn-colored glasses.

Anyway, that's why there will be no wigglegrams
from this room. To make one requires a high-speed shutter burst (10 frames
per second for a second or two), and given the particulars of the setting
and my feelings, I just couldn't allow myself to be that much traffic.

Catching a Selfie Among the Fall Colors

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Selfie In Progress

Near the Rurikoin Temple, in the mountains of north-east Kyoto, Japan

京都市の瑠璃光院の近く

I just happened to get lucky to catch these three Kyoto University
students taking a selfie... it shows the fun of enjoying the season with
friends (as I was doing at the time, temple hopping, camera in hand, with
four friends).

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Approaching the Shodensanso Villa

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Entrance Path

Shodensanso Villa (松殿山荘), Uji Japan

As I mentioned in “Oppressive Crowds at the
Shodensanso Villa” the other day, I paid my
first visit to the “mountain cottage” Shodensanso (松殿山荘) this weekend. It's a half-hour drive south-east from my place in Kyoto, just over the border into Uji City.

From the makeshift parking area created for the special event, the path up to the villa looked like an empty river bed or canal.

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Gate Appears

around the corner








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Impressive








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Looking Back

(some hours later)








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(even more hours later)

Anyway, after coming up through the gate, one can approach the main house...

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Dual Entrances









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Sub Entrance

on the left

likely the one used by the family on a day-to-day basis








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Main Entrance

on the right








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Roof Detail

I didn't notice it at the time, but the lowermost tiles along the edge of the roof have the name
of place embedded in them. I took a photo of similar tiles at another spot when I noticed it some hours later...

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Personalized Roof Tiles

The characters are clearly the name of the place, 「松殿山荘」, backwards, but the form of the characters
are quite different from normal. I recognize one (how they wrote 「山」) as being an archaic form, so perhaps
they all are.

And speaking of odd ways to write the characters, the name of the place is also written large above
the main entrance, as seen in this detail shot:

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Again, it's written backwards, but the form used is the normal modern form except for
the one at the far right, which should be written 「松」, but instead
has the left/right parts rearranged in an above/below way

as「木公松」.

I've never seen a “rearrangement” like this in Japanese, so I'm not sure what to make of it.

To be continued...

Oppressive Crowds at the Shodensanso Villa in South-Eastern Kyoto

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The Most Crowded Day in Kyoto

for most everyone else in Kyoto

at the Shodensanso Villa (松殿山荘), Kyoto Japan

(with a little bonus there at the end)
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(You can't tell in the wigglegram, but she was looking at a wonderful garden out in the bright sunlight.)

The peak of Kyoto's fall-foliage season is upon us, and today was likely
the most crowded day the city has seen all year, if not all decade. It's the middle of a
three-day weekend, and every hotel room is taken. (I know two people who wanted to visit Kyoto but
couldn't get a hotel; one stayed 30km away in
Osaka, and the other at our house.) The streets across the city were
parking lots and the crowds were oppressive.

But not for me and some friends, who visited the Shodensanso Villa (松殿山荘茶道会) in
south-eastern Kyoto. It's not normally open to the public, but twice a year they allow a limited number of folks to visit, and
Damien (seen at the end of the wigglegram above) hooked us up with reservations.

At most a scant 100 people total could visit over the course of the five-hour opening, but I didn't notice anywhere near that many folks.

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Oppressive Crowd

this guy stood in my way for 10, possibly 15 seconds!









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Packed Hallway

but they were staff, there to serve me tea

This place was spectacular. I'm sure I used that adjective for
another villa that's appeared on my blog, the Seifuso Villa (seen both inside and out), but this place,
built a generation later (circa 1927) is even more amazing, by far.

I returned home with a camera memory card filled with delights, but unfortunately on the same
roads that everyone else was stuck on. (To quote the phrase, I wasn't “stuck” in traffic; I was traffic). It took me 20 minutes to get 98% of the way home, and another 20 to make the last quarter mile.

To be continued...

An Among-the-Fall-Colors “What am I?” Quiz

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 28mm — 1/125 sec, f/2.8, ISO 1400 —
map & image data — nearby photos

What am I?

something at the Shojiji Temple (AKA “Hanadera”), Kyoto Japan

勝持寺 / 花の寺

The other temple we visited on Tuesday's outing after the spectacular Yoshiminedera
(seen here and here)
is one known as the “Flower Temple” (hanadera — 花寺), though its official name is
the Shojiji Temple (勝持寺).

In any case, the thing seen above was sitting on the veranda of the main temple building. On the front in faded big characters
is 「大原野」(Oharano), the name of the area.

On the side is a date: July 1889.

What is this 125-year-old thing?

As usual with my “What am I?” quizzes, I'll keep all comments from appearing
until after I reveal the answer in a blog post in a few days.

For context, here's a wider view of the front of the temple building:

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24mm — 1/100 sec, f/2.8, ISO 500 —
map & image data — nearby photos

The quiz thing is at left, partially obscured in this view by the stone lantern.

Pulling back farther, and to the right, you can get a small hint as to why we were there...

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 27mm — 1/125 sec, f/2.8, ISO 1600 —
map & image data — nearby photos

Autumn 2014 Trip to Kyoto’s Yoshiminedera Shrine, Part 2

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24mm — 1/250 sec, f/2.8, ISO 100 —
map & image data — nearby photos

Entrance to the Yoshiminedera Temple

Re-imaged

善峯寺の正門
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A few more from yesterday's visit to the Yoshiminedera Temple, about which I posted last night in
“The Whole Gamut of My Blog In One Spectacular Visit to the Yoshiminedera Temple”.

The photo above is similar to one seen yesterday, but with a different, exaggerated presentation.

The parking lot was surprisingly unfilled, so we made a bee-line to the photogenic path seen in yesterday's lead photo...

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24mm — 1/100 sec, f/2.8, ISO 250 —
map & image data — nearby photos

Almost There

the guy in the background is standing at the base of the photogenic

Heading up that way, you get a nice view of the main temple building that we'd zipped on past, and the trees on the
face of the opposing mountain in the background....

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24mm — 1/100 sec, f/9, ISO 1000 —
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Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/640 sec, f/2.5, ISO 360 —
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Roof Detail







Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/640 sec, f/2.5, ISO 1400 —
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Often Not Empty

but it was so uncrowded that we had hope

Sometimes the nature of the folks on the path lent a nice feeling to the photos...

Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/640 sec, f/2.5, ISO 1100 —
map & image data — nearby photos

Relaxing Date






Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24mm — 1/160 sec, f/2.8, ISO 100 —
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Sometimes Not so Much

But patience was rewarded. This next one looks spectacular full screen...

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 32mm — 1/125 sec, f/10, ISO 2500 —
map & image data — nearby photos
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Moving on, we came across a couple of guys working on the landscaping....

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 40mm — 1/160 sec, f/3.2, ISO 100 —
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Shoring Up a Hillside







Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24mm — 1/100 sec, f/14, ISO 4000 —
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Little Shrine

within the temple
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Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24mm — 1/100 sec, f/2.8, ISO 200 —
map & image data — nearby photos

Tripods Allowed

one of the few places that allows tripods.... but only on weekdays

As I wrote in “A Temple with Extra Restrictions on Photography is Now My
Favorite Kyoto Temple” last year, the trend toward prohibiting tripods
is increasing. I noticed for the first time this year that Yoshiminedera
now prohibits tripods during the weekend, and that Kongorinji now prohibits
the possession of a tripod.

It's just as well with me because I'm too lazy to use a tripod, though there are some special
cases where I'd certainly like to be both not so lazy, and allowed to use one.

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24mm — 1/100 sec, f/2.8, ISO 450 —
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That Little Shrine







Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24mm — 1/100 sec, f/2.8, ISO 250 —
map & image data — nearby photos

From Above

To be continued...

Learning Japanese Slang For Ridiculously Large Portions, at Restaurant Kasuga in South-Western Kyoto

iPhone 4S + iPhone 4S back camera — 1/25 sec, f/2.4, ISO 50 —
map & image data — nearby photos

Ridiculously Overflowing Bowl

of rice, raw tuna, avocado, and poached egg

After yesterday's visit to the spectacular Yoshiminedera Temple in south-western Kyoto,
we stopped for lunch at a restaurant we happened across on the way to the next temple. It seemed like an average lunch cafe, but it had a shocking
surprise in store for us.

昨日の昼ご飯は京都市西京区の「茶房か寿が」で食べました。
ポールさんの注文は「マグロとアボカド丼定食」を大盛りにしましたが、びっくりほど大きいマンガ盛りマグロが多かった。本当に８〜１０倍位見込みより多かった。１２００円だけでめっちゃメッチャ良かったです。マグロはハイークオリティーでした。

Paul ordered the “tuna sashimi (raw tuna slices) and avocado over rice”
lunch. At just 1,200 yen (about US$10.50) one doesn't expect much fish, so
he ordered the large. What he got was a shockingly large amount of
fish... 8 to 10 times the amount expected.

iPhone 4S + iPhone 4S back camera — 1/30 sec, f/2.4, ISO 50 —
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Group of Ladies Behind Paul

are similarly shocked

At first this brought to mind the excesses of the not-so-far-away Hagi Burger, but those
comparisons soon melted away as we realized that the pile of tuna
sashimi was not propped up by an interior of rice... it was really
just that big.

We're not big on taking photos of everything we intend to shove in our mouth, but
this was just beyond ridiculous. The experience required documentation.

iPhone 4S + iPhone 4S back camera — 1/60 sec, f/2.4, ISO 64 —
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A Third Gone

yet nary a dent was made

The Japanese word for a regular order is the regular word for “regular”,
futsuu (普通). The word for a large portion of food is
“oomori” (大盛り). These are standard words you'll find on most any
menu, but Damien taught us two slang words that sort of help to describe
the situation.

The next step beyond “large” is “mountain large” yamamori
(山盛り), which is pretty easy to figure out as it calls to mind the image
of food being piled up like a mountain. I suppose this is similar to
“super-size” in American English.

In America, some folks might add a next step beyond “super-size” along the lines of “Texas size”, but if you really want
to go to the extreme... beyond plausibility right to the edge of possibility... you'll want the Japanese word for
the step beyond “mountain large” — such a ridiculously large amount that you could only see it as
a wildly exaggerated caricature in a Japanese comic book — is called “comic large”,
which sounds so much better in actual Japanese:
mangamori (マンガ盛り).

The name of the restaurant is “Kasuga”, so I think we have the birth of a new slang word beyond manga mori:
“kasuga mori”!

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24mm — 1/100 sec, f/2.8, ISO 125 —
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Restaurant Kasuga

茶房か寿が

in the countryside-suburbs of south-western Kyoto, Japan