The Temples and Shrines of Kamakura - Part 2

The main shrine of Kamakura, Tsurugaoka Hachimangu, was built for worshipping the Emperor Ohjin, Himegami and the Empress Jingu. It is on a long thoroughfare with lots of little shops and food stands, as well as rows of cherry trees. Over two million people visit this shrine each year and in the spring and fall, there are horseback archery (yabusame) festivals on the grounds. There are two major shrines here: the junior shrine on the first level and the senior shrine that is approximately 100 steps above.

The favorite temple that I visited was Hasedera Temple, which features a 9-meter tall statue of Kannon with eleven faces, the largest wooden statue in Japan, as well as a small museum featuring wooden and earthenware statues of the goddess Kannon, complete with crystal eyes. From Hasedera, we could see the beaches of Kamakura as well as the small town of Hase. It was a beautiful place to visit.

Finally, we went to see the Daibutsu, the Great Buddha, the most celebrated landmark of Kamakura. I mentioned a little bit about the Daibutsu in my last post. Yoritomo Minamoto, the founder of the Kamakura Shogunate first saw a Buddha being erected in a neighboring prefecture and wanted to build a larger one in Kamakura. He died before his vision came to fruition. Later a tsunami destroyed the building that housed the Daibutsu and it has sat outside, battered by the elements for more than 700 years. Later on, the mostly copper statue was used as a homeless shelter and a refuge for drunken gamblers. The tradition continues as drunken tourists pose in front of the Daibutsu and pay 20 yen to squeeze inside.

The Temples and Shrines of Kamakura - Part 1

Kamakura is about 45 minutes south of Tokyo and easily reachable by train. Once the capital of Japan during the 1100s, it is now an easy escape from the city, and hoardes of Tokyoites head to the beaches of Kamakura during the hot summer months. During our visit there last weekend, we viewed four temples and shrines as well as Kamakura's most famous landmark, the Daibutsu (大仏) or the Great Buddha. The Daibutsu, which was cast in 1252, was massive: Over 13 meters tall and more than 90 tons, it used to be housed in a temple that was washed away by a tsunami, so now it just sits outside in all of its massive glory. For 20 yen (less than 20 cents), we went inside the statue, but it not so interesting and more to be able to say, "Yeah, we were inside that Buddha!"

Kamakura was interesting in that there were also Japanese tourists visiting there, which was odd. Living in Tokyo, you're used to seeing Japanese at work, going out, etc. so watching them with their own guidebooks and maps was an oddity, particulary when they ask to have their photo taken with ... you of all people. With all the sights in Kamakura, a bunch of us were asked to take photos, and we of course complied. God knows what the captions on those photos will end up being...

We started our trip at Jomyoji Temple, where despite it being pretty cold that day and the middle of February, was still full of lush greenery and zen gardens. We went inside and sat on a heated pad on the porch looking out into the gardens and were served matcha, a powdered green tea used in ceremony. It wasn't the full-fledged tea ceremony with all of its intricate formalities, but we were served a really sweet confection before we sipped the slightly bitter tea.

We were given an explanation about how the tea is prepared before sipped away!

Next to Jomyoji was Hokokuji Temple with yet another Karesansui garden. Also quite peaceful and pretty, particularly with its cliffs and ponds and waterfalls.























Around lunchtime we visited Tsuruoka Hachimangu, the main shrine in Kamakura in the center of town, near all the shops selling the purple sweet potato Kamakura specialties (ice cream, fried potato patties, candy, ramen, etc.) and other things like candy apples, candy grapes (!), candy strawberries. It was a pretty sight, but very crowded, since it was the only shrine/temple that we visited that day that didn't require a small entrance fee of 100 or 200 yen. Visitors climb a series of steps (Rocky-style) to get to the actual temple, but it's definitely worth it to get close and view the intricate woodwork on the buildings as well as the colorful statues encased in glass.

Kamakura au naturel

Got the chance to visit Kamakura with some members of my class from TUJ, and took hundreds of photos while there. I was really happy that I was able to take some nature shots, something that I'm not very used to (I'm more drawn to landscape and architectural photography), but I was pleasantly surprised that a lot of the photographs I took came out pretty well, despite the glare. The weather here has been pretty spastic. Last week it was close to the 70s, this weekend we saw snowflakes, and today is dreary and rainy.

It was great to get out of the city, eat sweet potato ice cream, and traipse around in the greenery, but I will write more about that later. For now, here are a few of the aforementioned photographs. For some of them, I couldn't get away from framing the shots in terms of the great architecture I encountered in Kamakura.

Kinen!

Yeah, they don't like you to smoke and walk around here, which I don't quite get. They have "smokers' havens" around the train stations and prohibit smoking while walking, but pretty much all of the restaurants, coffee shops, bars, etc. are filled with chain smokers and poor ventilation systems.

Edit: Actually, in Kamakura, I found an even funnier smoking sign that said "When you are walking, a cigarette is at the eyelevel of a small child" and had a picture of a guy almost burning some girl's eye out. I wish I had a photo, but we passed by it too quickly.

YAY! I found a photo on someone's blog, right here!


Edit (Part deux): In Shinjuku, the other day, the smoking patrol was out and about, and unfortunately, I did not have my camera at hand and they seemed like really "don't-mess-with-them" type of guys. Basically, it was a group of five middle-aged dudes in blue jackets with "Kinen" signs on them yelling out of a megaphone at people to stop smoking. A couple of blocks later an old guy grumbled, lit a ciggie and promptly ashed it onto the the shoe of a passerby (not purposely). You can't make this stuff up, I tell you.

Meiji Jingu

Right next to the shopping haven and teen heaven of Harajuku is the Meiji Shrine, a Shinto shrine which was originally built around 1920, but was destroyed during bombings of Tokyo during World War II and was rebuilt in 1958. It's quite a peaceful place despite the crowds of people rushing in to pay respects to the Emperor Meiji and his Empress Shoken, who are both enshrined there. According to the shrine's official website, it sits on a 700,000 square-meter forest that contains more than 120,000 trees, which is a nice escape from the sparsely greened city I've grown accustomed to on my walks to and from school. Yoyogi Park, one of Tokyo's other green spaces, is just beyond the forested area, and from what I hear, it's a hot spot for picnicking in spring. The first time I visited Meiji Jingu, I was treated to melting ice sculptures and the second, then we were able to see a taiko drumming performance.

Walkway toward the Main Shrine area

This is a torii, a gateway to a Shinto shrine. This one is made from 1700 year-old cypress planks.Traditional couples will present their newborn babies to the gods here on Thursdays.

This is the main sanctuary, where the Emperor and Empress are enshrined. People walk up to
this point, meditate, and throw 5-yen pieces into an offering table to pay their respects.

Most of the drummers in this performance were women of various ages, which was kind of neat.

Taiko (taiko literally means "drum") were used in order to set a marching pace in battle, much like drums were used to similar effect in colonial America, Civil War U.S., and in other European nations, but its earliest use in Japan was to ward off evil spirits and pesty creatures from the crops and used as a celebration of a bountiful harvest. Now it is a colorful display of sound and movement; this performance incorporated traditional Chinese lion dancing, as two lions battled it out to the sounds of the taiko and the plucking of shamisen, a stringed lute-like instrument.

Lion Dancing!

Here you can get an idea of how big the BIG taiko is!

While the shamisen was played here in a traditional manner, we were able to see more modern shamisen playing at a sake tasting last Friday. There the shamisen player was accompanied by beatboxing. It really was a cool effect, and more selfishly, it made it a lot more listenable for those of us not accustomed to traditional Japanese music.

Traditional shamisen players...

And shamisen with beatboxing background sounds

Supreme trip

We TUJ law students were lucky enough to get a guided tour of the Supreme Court of Japan last week, complete with a Q&A session with the most senior of the Supreme Court justices, Justice Hamada, who is very generous with his time with visiting American law students. We were not allowed to take many photographs, but for a virtual tour, you can visit here.

In Japan, the court system is composed of four tiers, 438 summary courts at the bottom level, 50 family courts and 50 district courts next, followed by 8 high courts and the Supreme Court in Tokyo. Supreme Court justices hear two different kinds of appeals: Jokoku appeals, which deal with appeals of the judgments of the lower courts and special criminal appeals; and kokoku appeals, which are issues of the constitutionality of particular legislation. Decisions may be rendered by the Grand Bench, but usually only in cases of very important kokoku appeals. Usually, cases are dealt with by one of the three petty benches (dealing with civil, criminal, and administratie/patent law) with five justices each. The Chief Justice is chosen by the Emperor with the consent of the cabinet and the remaining 14 are appointed by the cabinet but is reviewable by the public by a popular vote after appointment. Ten of the justices must be either lawyers by trade (usually bengoshi that have distinguished themselves by becoming the head of a bar association) or professional judges, prosectors, and law professors. Justices are required to retire by the age of 70.

Justice Hamada was such a nice man, and it was easy to forget that we were speaking with one of the most powerful and influential people in Japan since he had such a calm and easy manner. He spoke a bit about the appeals process and was particularly interested in how the U.S. Supreme Court is able to get away with hearing so few cases, when the Supreme Court of Japan is inundated with appeals, making the work somewhat tedious and very harrying. He also spoke about rendering dissents, and how when he first started, his colleagues wished him good luck by telling him to write a powerful dissent, but since then he noted that it wasn't so great to be involved in a dissent.

Dissenting opinions in Japan are not common or as well respected; however, I was able to ask Justice Hamada about the most interesting case he has been involved with, and he answered that he was actually included in the dissent of a number of voting malapportionment cases. Voting apportionment is a huge deal in Japan, as the method of electing members of the Diet, or the legislature here, is done in such a way that a vote in Hokkaido or in rural Japan can be worth as much as three times as much as a vote in heavily populated Tokyo or Osaka, leading some to contest the constitutionality of such a system. The Supreme Court has overturned some more egregious cases of malapportionment (and has subscribed a 3:1 maximum "vote weight" ratio) but has never invalidated an election.

The Supreme Court buiding itself resembles a post-modern palace of sorts with thick concrete walls and extremely high ceilings. Surprisingly, there are not many photos or paintings of the justices, and very few national symbols of Japan. The artwork is mostly confined to tapestries (see "Sun" and "Moon" tapestries above) and some simple paintings rendering attributes such as wisdom, courage, and compassion, considered to be integral to the justice system, which are hung in the Supreme Court library. My favorite part of the architecture was the huge dome over the Grand Bench.

Oni wa soto! Fuku wa uchi!

Setsubun (Feb. 3, 2006)

Had the incredible fortune of being in Tokyo for Setsubun, known to me and other ignorant (yet knowledgable) Americans as "Oni Day." For a far better, more specific description of what goes on during Setsubun, see here, here, and here. Suffice to say that beans (mame - 豆) are thrown at devils (oni - 鬼) to banish them from the home and bring good luck instead. The traditional thing to say is Oni wa soto, fuku wa uchi! (Devil go out, good luck come in). My friend Jeremy and I went to Zojoji Temple to celebrate Setsubun and experienced a crowd crushing much like any standing room only rock concert that I've been to. Only this one was replete with old ladies, licking their lips and ready for the loot that would be thrown from the stage into the crowds below and old men just waiting to elbow their way past you for the free tissues and popcorn.

Don't mess with these ladies: they were armed with scarves, bags, and other catching

accoutrements and were armed and ready for the kill.

Before the festivities began, we were treated to a procession of musicians, temple patrons, and adorable kindergarteners armed with their own OniFighting gear (my guess is that they wore oni masks to confuse the actual oni - smart move!).

We were treated to three onis (red, blue, and yellow) who wore comically scary masks, gym shorts and had some pretty great fake bushy chest hair. Half the kindergartners looked like a hybrid of scared and excited while the other half were just plain glad to do some oni hunting...

Afterwards we were visited by a mystical anthropomorphic bag of popcorn, nicknamed Corn Chan by the event's announcers and the crowd moved in closer as they prepared to make the mochi by heating a gooey rice mixture and pounding it. After the mochi was made, the throwers on stage positioned themselves behind boxes on stage and tossed them out...

And one missed my eye by about an inch. I fought an old man for the mochi that had fallen to the ground and he gave up once he realized that the gaijin girl really wanted her loot. Yep. It was rock hard and not very tasty, but I won it! Corn Chan and his crew then threw out some bags of popcorn before the big event, the mame maki (bean throwing)!

Cutest little kids ever! Didn't think that they'd be devil-killers...


Oooh, red oni!

The kids ran at the onis and threw the beans to the uproarious cries of "Oni wa soto! Fuku wa uchi!" and they growled and were eventually driven away. But that didn't stop there from being more throwing of presents - more tissues and dish scrubbers and scarves and bouncy balls and plenty of make (in order for people to do bean throwing at home to protect their own homes from those dastardly onis). I only got hit by one thing this time, but almost fell over when the crowd swayed back and forth in order to get in the crossfire of free loot.

So serious for people who are going to be throwing presents!

Like so!

Much fun for all! Afterwards, I went and got my fortune (big luck!) and lit some incense. We visited a shrine, but were informed that it only had one god, so it might not be worth visiting. It was still pretty neat though and was able to take some good photos and then take my own revenge on an oni (see OniBun below). All in all, a pretty good Setsubun.

Folks headed up to Zojoji Temple

Mame with fortune


Check out Corn Chan on the left.

Setsubun swag!


East meets West - Jeremy and a temple dweller


Oni pastry filled with delicious chocolate custard. Onis, the better for eating.