I did most of my Kyoto sightseeing while there. On Friday, I had a very exciting trip to the Saihoji Temple, also called Kakodera. It is famous in Japan for its exquisite variety (over 120 types) of mosses that grow there naturally. It was a nice break from the more typical tourist-infested temple, but at a price. In order to gain permission to enter the temple and garden, you have to mail them (postal, not electronic) the date you wish to go, alternative dates etc. and then show up with your proof of acceptance. Once arriving, you have to pay a minimum 3000 yen (roughly 26 bones, USD) "donation".
Upon entering the temple grounds, we were ushered into a prayer hall where we got to sit through a buddhist ceremony of sorts. In all there were around 40 people on the tour, and there were only three westerners including myself. Before the ceremony started we all kneeled down at our little tables and wrote a buddhist prayer(Okay, traced a buddhist prayer) to fully prepare ourselves to enter the garden. This was cool because we used the traditional brushes, ink and stone to write it. Afterwards, the monks all chanted the prayer, which was SWEET (very unusual and musical) and we finally went into the garden.
The only reason I knew about this garden was because I saw a photograph of it in a Japanese gardening book of mine, and thought, "Hey, that place looks pretty sweet". The whole deal about writing to them, in addition to the huge cost further tempted me. It was worth it- a very beautiful place.
2 comments:
That garden does sound fine, especially the moss. However, I was just at the Japanese garden at the botanical gardens so...you know...I'm not sweating it either. You wrote the prayer on stone rather than paper? Is Japanese papermaking really just masonry?
Oh Dan...You mischevious tart!
No, the ink stone is a reservoir for the ink that you write with. You rub this hard stick of compressed ink on the stone, which has some water in a recessed niche, which combines to form...ink!
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