The fascinating enigma of red spider lilies

 

Red spider lilies, in Japanese, “Higan-bana” (flowers which bloom on and around the Autumnal Equinox) have a very peculiar reputation among the older generation in Japan. My grandma, my mother and my mother-in-law all used to say that you can't grow red spider lilies in your home garden.
The reason being that these flowers were likely to bring unwelcome happenings in families- at least this was what they'd been taught. The flowers were often linked to blood and even fire because of their vivid red color. So where does all this come from?

Somehow spider lilies were considered ominous despite their beauty. This was due to a commonly believed association with “death” stemming from a story way back when people buried bodies in the ground after a funeral. To prevent animals unearthing the ground in graveyards, people planted spider lilies in and around graves. The flowers have poison in their bulbs, petals, stems and leaves and grow in clusters. Thus they kept our ancestors’ bodies from being damaged by animals.
Now due to changes in our lifestyle, we don’t use the flowers for this purpose anymore. Nowadays farmers plant spider lilies simply to protect their products from mice, moles, and insects.

Red spider lilies are now, generally speaking, free from this malicious image. However there are still some people who choose to hang on to fears and superstitions and for them red spider lilies are no exception. Ironically Buddhism has a totally opposite view of the flower and regards it as a sign of grace . In Japanese there are more than 1,000 different names for spider lilies, one is “Manjushage”. Sounds exotic, doesn’t it? It comes from Hindi and means - a heavenly flower which doesn't grow on earth but only in heaven!

Nowadays people enjoy watching these flowers bloom in clusters in parks, gardens, rice fields, and riverbanks. They are delightful to look at and weirdly become even more attractive when we hear about the creepy stories surrounding them!
They are just BEAUTIFUL flowers!

The theater is back

The new Misonoza Theater in the city of Nagoya opened after five years of rebuilding. A kabuki play put on by one of the prestigious families of actors is now being performed every day to celebrate the grand opening of the theater. April 25 is the last show.

I love kabuki.

For one thing, I am fascinated by the gorgeous stage, which follows tradition, and also by how it is performed, which has been passed on for generations. And for another, my friend plays a leading gidayu; in other words, a narrator who chants stories with his powerful and emotional voice.

Watching kabuki gives me a chance to leave my routine life behind and get lost in a unique and magical world.

The cutest maching only in spring

It was a beautiful Sunday in the midst of spring.

I could easily imagine that the highway to my mother's was busy with cars--sightseers on their way to see the cherry blossoms. I didn’t want to be trapped in a bumper-to-bumper traffic jam on the way. I gave up on driving and took a train instead.

Soon after the train left, my eyes were caught by the breathtaking view of cherry blossoms in full bloom out the window in the distant mountains, along the riverbanks and the railway lines. I was glad that I had made a good decision.

The nearest station to my mother’s is called “Sakura”, namely “cherry blossoms”. I was most happy when I stood on the platform and saw the sign saying "Sakura" with beautiful sakura at their best in the background. The name of the station perfectly matched the cherry trees that bloomed beyond.

Kabuki at a temporary theater in the Nagoya Castle grounds

The Heisei Nakamura-za, the most renowned troupe of kabuki performers, came back to the Nagoya Castle grounds for the first time in 8 years!
Tickets were quickly sold out.

That just goes to show how people have been waiting for their next performance at a temporary theater, especially after the troupe had lost their main actor to cancer. His name was Kanzaburo Nakamura XVIII, and he was just 58 years old at his death. He put his all his energy into revitalizing the traditional atmosphere which a temporary theater brings to an audience; just the way kabuki used to be.

Unlike many modern kabuki theaters with advanced technologies, this type of theater is a temporary one, and after a run, it will be taken away. This was common in the olden days when a troupe visited rural towns and villages for a performance.

In general, a temporary theater is small but it has an advantage! You find yourself much closer to the stage. Your eyes meet your favorite actor's eyes when he stops on stage for an exaggerated, dramatic pose. It is very particular in kabuki performance.

Kabuki has a very unique style of stage performance, and has a long history of more than 400 years. Historical stories based on the era of the samurai warriors were performed by men-only troupes (they take the women's roles as well). The actors grow up and are trained in notable families of kabuki performers, as it has always been over the generations.

Dynamic stage settings and colorful, traditional costumes are eye-catching. The style of performance is elaborate and bold with lots of motion and sound. Kabuki actors, with their strong attachment toward Japanese traditional arts, have been entertaining people for centuries.


Now the Heisei Nakamura-za troupe is back again with Kanzaburo's two adult sons following in their father's footsteps. That day, in the temporary theater in the Nagoya castle grounds, the whole audience gave a big round of applause for the passionate kabuki performance.

Come in from the rain!

Yesterday evening, when I heard the rain, an idea came to me.  I went outside and from just out the windows picked some Japanese anemone flowers, that were at their best.

The weather report said we would have heavy rainfall all night. I easily imagined that the rain would flatten the tall flowers.

So I saved some, arranged them and left them just by the front door last night.

It was so good to be greeted by them standing up straight in the basket when I opened the door this morning.

What a gorgeous start to the day!

Shioiri no Niwa (Garden with a tidal pond)

Let me introduce you to a unique type of Japanese garden in Shirotori.
We call it Shioiri Garden. “Shioiri” means “incoming tide" in English.
As you imagine from the word, “incoming tide,” the water in this pond depicts the incoming and outgoing ocean flows of Ise Bay.

The main concept of the garden is to portray the tides.
Ise Bay has been so prominent for people living in this region.

Please take a look at the wall in the background with white and grey checkered patterns.
It depicts some mountains in this central region such as Mt. Ontake or the Kiso Mountains.
With that being said, you can see how Shioiri Garden incorporates yet another expression of nature from our region.

It looks very modern though.
Modern technology has made this garden so unique, that it won the Urban Landscape prize from the city of Nagoya 24 years ago.

There are three points I’d like to introduce you to so that you will be able to enjoy the garden.

First, the water is controlled by a pump to reproduce the movement of Ise Bay's ocean tide.
If you stay here, you will be able to see the tide slowly coming in and out every 30 minutes.

Second, a winding titanium pipe hovering on the surface of the water, is eye catching.
This modern sculpture expresses the waves reaching shore after hitting rough rocks.

Lastly, there you can see some fountain spouts along the pipes.
They emit water to fill the pond like that of a tide gradually coming in, which is mesmerizing to watch.

Aside from these three elements, the garden designer also arranged a pair of rocks, one large and one small, in the pond to give you the image of the pair of sacred rocks at the shore near  Ise Grand Shrine in Mie Prefecture.

For some people, they are reluctant to call Shioiri Garden a Japanese garden.

However, considering Japanese strolling gardens were very much appreciated by daimyo; I’m sure they would have enjoyed a unique spot in which they could entertain their important guests.

I personally love the challenging idea of Shioiri Garden.
It is definitely a Japanese garden of this century.

Shirotori Garden as a treasure box of history and culture

 

Let me tell you about Shirotori Garden.
This location was originally a lumber yard dating back to the Edo period in the 17^th century.It had been used as a lumber yard for many years until the Ise Bay Typhoon hit and destroyed this entire area 70 years ago.

 In 1989 when the city of Nagoya hosted the World Design Exposition, the city decided to build a Japanese garden at this site to commemorate the Exposition. 

 So this Japanese garden is relatively young and new when you compare it with the famous ancient Japanese gardens in many other areas. But I personally believe that there is another good reason that Shirotori Garden is located in this place. And that is closely related to our history of the samurai world.

Let me go back to the story that this site was originally a lumber yard 400 years ago.It was a significant period in our history when the outstanding samurai, Tokugawa Ieyasu who was a native of this region won an important battle that finally unified the Japanese society in peace.He opened the government in Edo, the present Tokyo in the east of Japan. 

In order to rule the society and hand down his power to the next generations for many years, he made three of his sons the rulers over important regions in Japan. One of these regions was Owari, the present Nagoya area. Tokugawa Ieyasu put a great importance on the Owari region to protect Edo from a possible attack by samurai warriors. They were against his power and mostly stayed in the west since they lost the war with Ieyasu. Nagoya was a perfect location for a fortress to ward off his enemies. Thus, he ordered to build Nagoya Castle as a symbol of his absolute power.

He handed down the national property of the huge Kiso mountain area to the first landlord of Nagoya Castle, who was his 9^th son, Yohinao.  Kiso was rich and famous for its good quality lumbers and this caused a local economy to flourish.  That way the Owari Tokugawa family became  the largest and influential power out of three branches of the Tokugawa family.

When the second lord of Nagoya Castle, Mitsutomo retired, he left the castle and lived on a vast property where he enjoyed a large scale Japanese garden. As the society became more stable, top samurai called daimyo enjoyed an abundant life rich in culture. Building a garden at their huge properties was one of the examples.

Speaking of Japanese gardens, they are roughly divided into three types
1) strolling garden
2) dry garden
3) tea garden
A daimyo garden is a strolling garden.

They very much loved this type of garden because it was a show of their influence. The gardeners showed great craftsmanship through replicating natural landscapes. The feudal lords spent a huge amount of money and time to complete these vast gardens. Take one of the daimyo gardens the Owari Tokugawa family owned for example, it could compare in size to about 15 baseball stadiums.

I believe it is, for one thing, for their family legacy and for another showing their dignity over other daimyo. They made these gardens not only for their own pleasure but for entertaining other important daimyo. Such events consisted of seasonal viewing, tea ceremonies and traditional dance performances. They occasionally exchanged political talks in the gardens. Having the Shogun at the garden was their greatest honor.

A daimyo garden has distinct elements such as ponds, rocks and stones, mountains, rivers and streams, bridges, arbors, plants, flowers and trees. And at Shirotori Garden, the Kiso mountain area which was exclusively given to Owari Tokugawa family by Ieyasu is faithfully depicted so as to symbolize their strong relationship.
There are many unspoken messages held within the garden. It will be very challenging and exciting for me  to explain the stories behind some interesting spots in Shirotori Garden.
I think a daimyo garden is just like a huge wonderland of those days.
Especially Shirotori Garden will send us various messages  such as the Owari Tokugawa family history,  the history of Nagoya, the charms of Japanese gardens and our tradition and culture.
Although Shirotori Garden does not have a long history but it was designed so carefully and faithfully to show us every features and elements of a traditional Japanese garden.
 
What is lucky for us in Shirotori Garden is that we are able to enjoy all three types of gardens as well.

So let's enjoy strolling around Shirotori Garden and feel the nature just like daimyo and their families and guests once did many centuries ago.

The inner gate and garden moss at Shiratori Garden

 

The gate is usually called “chumon”, which means “inner gate" in Japanese, but it also has another name, “baiken-mon”, which means “plum blossom viewing gate".
The chumon gate’s message to visitors is that they should leave worldly affairs behind, come into the world of the tea ceremony and be prepared to enjoy it.
With that message in mind, you can take your time enjoying the peaceful spots in the garden, which is called “roji”, until it is time for the tea ceremony inside the tea house.

In order to protect the moss from the winter frost and snow, the gardeners cover it with dried pine needles. The carpet of pine needles in the winter is another treat for your eyes so that you appreciate the different views of each season.

Every time I visit a beautifully cared-for garden, I feel somewhat guilty for not taking good care of my own traditional garden at home.

A gardener in Kenninji Temple in Kyoto once gave me some advice about caring for moss in a Japanese garden. He said that I should gently rake the surface of the moss every day, making it stand straight. That exposes it to more fresh air and sunlight.
He recommended I water the moss, especially in the height of summer, twice a day, in the morning and in the evening.

I think a garden requires constant care in order to be a delightful space to look at and stroll around.
 
For the entire Shirotori Garden, there are a total of only six gardeners, getting their hands dirty every day, which must be very challenging.

It is also enlightening for me to know that these six gardeners work on one section each day before they move on to the next, and they repeat this until they cover the entire Shirotori garden throughout the year.

If you have a chance to come over to Shirotori Garden in Nagoya, please enjoy several other elements of the inner garden and please feel how carefully the gardeners have taken care of it for you, guests so that you sense the nature in this little garden.


Shirotori Garden
http://www.shirotori-garden.jp/english/index.html

It's Magic!

I have a very nice story to tell you.

It was on the way back to the cable car to get down from the top of the mountain where Gifu Castle stood when I realized that my hat was gone.

Where did I lose it?

Then I remembered I took it off and put it in a coat pocket, perhaps, on an open-door observatory floor. It was very windy. I might have dropped it there. My friends, Marta and Junko suggested that we should go back and get it.  But I was not sure where I dropped it and I didn't want to walk a bumpy and steep path to the castle tower again only to find nothing there.

It's time to say good-bye to my hat -----this must be destiny for my lovely hat to leave me and be replaced with a new one.  I almost gave up on my hat before I identified a very familiar item sitting on a bench ahead.

OMG! My Hat! 

See, I was wrong. Now I learned I must have dropped it before we reached the castle tower.
Marta and Junko were so excited with this. My hat showed up in front of us the moment we discussed its loss. Someone was kind enough to pick it up and leave it here on a bench..... in front of a small shrine along the path.

Everything is at the mercy of gods.

We were overjoyed with this and laughed a lot.
Welcome back, hat. Happy to see you again. I will keep you company until you get worn out.

So I gave a little prayer of gratitude in front of the small shrine with my hat on.
Isn’t it a nice story?

Magic of Light and Shade

This year again, I went to see my old friends from university at the gallery in Daikanyama.
There one of them holds a photo exhibition every year.
Her exhibition gives us a good excuse  to get together once a year in Tokyo.

Photography is an art of light and I believe a professional photographer is an artist who stops time and captures  the moments we often overlook in our daily lives.

This year her pictures showed  impressive collaboration of light and shade. She looked at the scenery through window glass in the cities of NY and NJ, where she  lived more than 20 years. We saw natural layers of reflections in her pictures, which created a magical world of her own.

We were all fascinated with her pictures as we always are. Afterwards,  we enjoyed dinner and a lively chat with a couple of bottles of wine. That was the perfect ending.