day 7, Kyoto and Shikoku (long!)
Sensei’s business friends have arranged an unexpected side trip for us today, so instead of seeing Kyoto proper we’ll be off on another bus jaunt. A little disappointed by this as we had hopes of touring the ancient capital, but wait and see. Up and out early to get pix of a beautiful and huge Buddhist temple a few blocks from the hotel, then dash back for breakfast and we’re off.
[digression: our tour package includes coupons for breakfast at a hotel restaurant every morning. Most have tried valiantly to accommodate the picky America-jin, but after four or five days of frankly pretty bad bacon and eggs my breakfast menu has stabilized at fruit, yogurt, miso and rice, rolls and coffee. My cholesterol count is no doubt the better for it. And the fruit has been the best I’ve ever had, especially honeydew melon, pineapple and lychees. Lychee yogurt is so great I want to hide a stash of it in my suitcase.]
Shortly after we set out Mr. Nomura walks down the aisle handing out color print-outs from a web site =) and my jaw drops when I realize what they’re about: the Phoenix Hall. The 950+ year-old Phoenix Hall, world and national cultural treasure. Are we going to see this? Yes, we are. =)
They’ve hooked us up with a local tour service and we’re trotted through at a friendly but brisk pace. I wish we’d had more time, but holy gods it is beautiful. evb remarks “Europe was still living in huts when they built this place” as we walk through the manicured forestry (busy young guys in neat coveralls and zori are hard at work, clipping and trimming and hauling away sacks of leaves), marveling at the intricate carvings and bronze work. The accompanying museum shows pieces too fragile to be on open display, including 11th century wooden Buddhas, and I finally come face to face with Kanzeon Bosatsu (the Bodhisattva Kannon/Kwan Yin) on Her own ground. ==happy sigh == Everyone knows Buddhas look serene, but that word doesn’t do justice to the blissful peace of this lovely face. I could have sat there with Her all day.
But, um no, cos we had our schedule. So we followed our green-jacketed guide’s flag from Phoenix Hall to the Tale of Genji Museum, weaving our way through other tour groups following other guys with colored flags (and you’d better remember which flag is your group or you’ll end up tagging a tour guide speaking French or Mandarin!), and cross the famous Uji Bridge (actually a handsome reconstruction thereof, I gather) to find our restaurant. Where we have Italian food. That’s right, after our whirlwind dash through nine centuries of Japanese history we have pasta carbonara and gelato at an Italian restaurant. In Kyoto. I love this place. =)=)
(Most chill-inducing moment: the exact spot where Minamoto no Yorimasa committed seppuku and was buried after losing the opening battle of the Ginpei War. . There’s an engraved stone under a huge old cedar. Our guide explains the exact process of death with relish and some of our group looks a little green. But wow, right there.)
Having spent all the time we can in Kyoto **sigh** we’re on a long bus ride-so long that we change islands. We’re headed for Shikoku and something special: a bunraku puppet theatre. The art of bunraku-dramas performed by near-human-size wooden puppets, each one handled by three operators working in perfect synch-was created here, and puppet troupes all over Japan proudly claim their descent from Ija-shima techniques, we’re told.
We get to see some of the gorgeously embroidered doll costumes, and a young member of the troupe graciously gives us an introduction to the puppets and explains how they’re operated: a tricky, skillful grip of cords and knots around the stem of the neck. Both of the heads used in the performance we’ll see today, a woman and a young girl, are over 100 years old, and he shows us a little trick in the woman’s head-at the snap of a knot she can turn instantly into a glaring oni with horns and wide red-rimmed eyes. He grins at the round-the-room gasp this gets, and proudly says that only three masters in Japan can carve and construct a head like this one. Sugoi. =) --They allow a few of us to handle her, and she’s heavy, a good 30-40 pounds I’d say. The hand’s easy to get the knack of but it must take years to learn how to work the head; I can barely even get her to hold it up straight.
The puppet performers don’t speak, and the story is told in old gidayu style, by a singing narrator accompanied by shamisen. The scene is a tragedy, in which a woman parted from her daughter many years ago meets her as a beggar girl seeking her lost family, and can’t tell the girl she’s her mother. The skill of the operators and the expressive faces of the puppets make the sad story even more moving.
Like to say more, but... out of time. Next day: more Kyoto and off to Hakone!