NEWS OF TRAVEL JAPAN

So far a lot of travelers visit Todai-ji Temple continually. They enjoy seeing the large historical statue of Buddhism and giving food to deer in Nara Park near the temple. It looks like a peaceful scene. However, COVID-19 is altering the world extremely. Several thousand people in the world are dying due to it everyday. Many of the people on the earth are forced to stay home. Now few people visit there. Meanwhile, the core desire of this Buddha since the beginning is to cherish people and to guard people from epidemic. If you knew the episode of building the temple, you would become more interested in the temple. The chronicle of establishing the temple The most important key person of the temple was Emperor Shomu. He was born in 701, when the first significant law “Taiho-ritsuryo” in Japan, which was learned from the law in China, was regulated by Emperor Tembu. And Shomu was the great grand-child of Tembu. Ultimately, we can say that Shomu was raised in the atmosphere of ...

Present-days cherry trees that we normally see in towns are a breed called “Someiyosino”, which was bred in the middle of the Edo period of the eighteenth century. Someiyoshino blooms rapidly in spring and the aspects of the full blooming are beautiful, and people can enjoy holding parties beneath cherry blossoms of Someiyoshino. Furthermore, immediate falling petals of blossoms is emotional with reluctance. Japanese people have loved such aspects, so it might have been the reason that someiyoshino spread to every corner of Japan. Someiyoshino isn’t a normal tree and all the genes of someiyoshino in every place are the same, yes those are clones. By the way, the origins of the cherry trees are mountain-cherry trees in the mountains. Probably those might not have been very different from other mountainous trees with blossoms. Nonetheless, some characteristics of mountain-cherry blossoms might have influenced the old Japanese people. This time I will write about mountain-cherry tre...

In a disaster we had better face the disaster. It is the words of Buddhism, but actually, my mind is outside of the words. On holidays my wife and I have stayed home as much as possible since the middle of February. It is due to coronavirus. Contrarily, to restrict our activities strongly leads to our mind being steeped in somber and such somber mind decreases the energy of immunity. And our spending during a short outing may help the economy even though it might be a small step. Besides, the war against COVID-19 is continuing and the end cannot be seen. In the end, we determined we had better shift our last stage of restraining during holidays to the next stage of striking a balance between not to be infected and to make adequate activity to keep the force of our immunity. So then, we decided to go to the Arima-spring-town, Kobe. The Origin of Arima-Springs Firstly, we visited Arima Hot-Spring Shrine. The shrine is on the middle of a hill and the long stone-stairs were in front ...

What a fun picture it is! Looking at the moon they were asking each other how old the moon was. The big man answered thirteen years old and the other answered seven. It is childish, but it is the last mental state where the Zen priest who painted it had arrived after many Zen practices and enlightenments. I showed it to my daughter who is a kindergarten teacher and asked her how she felt. She immediately answered cute, “kawaii”. Sengai The painter is Sengai who was a great Zen priest at the time of 70 years after Hakuin in the Edo period , but Sengai never met Hakuin. Hakuin who painted many amusing pictures for people, but he was a consistent Zen priest. Contrarily, Sengai was the most eager Zen priest likewise amid the then Zen priests, but his last mind state was away from Zen by Zen practices. Look at the picture above. It was painted by young Sengai. He was a good painter and a good Zen practitioner with hope. So it concludes the taste of Zen. Sengai hoped that he wo...

The sky from this point of Kurama-dera Temple is another sky, I have such a impression. Here is the top area of Kamakura-dera Temple. It may be due to the sweat of your walking up, but even by the many aspects of this temple. Kurama-dera Temple has many houses on the slope of the 569m-high Kurama-yama Mountain in the north of Kyoto. The mountain has a 250 million-year-old stratum, so the stratum may include some mysterious energy. From the front of the main gate at the foot of the mountain you can see the mountain beyond the gate. To arrive at the main cathedral on the upper slope of the mountain, you can shorten the time by riding on the cable car but I recommend you go on foot. You can see a lot of small temples along the way that has a road with many bends. The three main deities of the temple The temple enshrines the three deities, “Bishamonten”, “Kannon” and “Gohou-Maoh”. Bishamonten is the deity of the sun, Kannon is the deity of the moon and Gohou-Maoh is the deity ...

The brave Blossoms, the Japanese national rugby team, showed their fighting spirit in The Rugby World Cup in Japan last year. During the cup a former foreign national rugby player inspired the team members with the word of the Japanese spirit, called “yamato damashii” in Japanese. He said that the Japanese spirit was to work hard and the spirituality of devoting yourself to the team and teammates. He has been in Japan for a long time and he learned the Japanese spirit from his rugby experiences in Japan. And he thinks it is nowhere outside of Japan and it is excellent. Eventually, many people think the Japanese spirit is the fighting spirit, however, you may be surprised to know that the true Japanese spirit includes a kind and peaceful spirit. The Japanese spirit has two sides, one is the brave side and the other is the peaceful side. The Genji Story, which is the oldest love story in the world, was written by a female novelist. She wrote about the importance of the Japanese spir...

Look at the picture above. Is it a manga-picture? No! Is he an old western man? No! Does he look headstrong? No! He is Hakuin, a famous Japanese Zen priest of about three centuries ago, and this is his self portrait. What does he see with his big-open eyes? Anyway, it is current for a three-century-old picture. This picture is Darma, the Indian Zen creator, painted by Hakuin. Probably Dahma was the supreme enlightened person in Zen. So he must have had a calm face like a Buddhist statue, but does he have doubtful eyes? The lady in this picture is Kannon, the goddess of mercy in Buddhism, and it is said that she always works to give whatever people want by her thousand hands. Nonetheless, she looks relaxed and she seems to abandon to respond to people’s wishes. This picture was painted by Hakuin as well. The naked fat man is Hakuin, then he looks free with a smile. Why is he naked with a flower in his right hand and a bucket in his left hand? I can’t judge whether those...