{Inter} Cultural Japan

In Takagamine, in the quiet northern part of Kyoto, stands Koetsuji, famous for a fence of bamboo designed by the artist Hon’ami Koetsu. It is more an explosion of green than a temple, particularly when we visit in the hottest and wettest month of the year, August. After a shower, the smell of earth and plants rises up from the soil and the cicadas are rioting.

[Path leading to Koetsuji. Photo © Ad Blankestijn]

Takagamine (The Peak of the Eagles, so named after the fact that these birds used to gather at the hill here - it was an imperial hunting preserve) is an area west of the Kamo Shrine in Kyoto, which until not long ago was still rural in character. Now a quiet residential suburb, it is dotted with small temples, one of which, Koetsuji, is a reminder of an important event that took place here in 1615. That was the establishment of an ‘artists village’ by the versatile master Hon’ami Koetsu (1557-1637).

Hon’ami Koetsu was born into an upper-class merchant family and trained in the family trade of polishing, sharpening, and assessing swords. He also grew proficient in painting, calligraphy, lacquer, ceramics and the art of the tea ceremony. His contemporaries perhaps most admired his calligraphy, which is characterized by smooth, flowing brush lines. Koetsu became the center of a group of artists who produced extraordinary works, and inaugurated a cultural renaissance in early 17th-century Kyoto. His distinctive style had a lasting impact on Japanese aesthetics. Members of his circle included, for example, the brilliant painter Sotatsu, who decorated the papers for Koetsu’s calligraphy.

[Teahouse in the garden. Photo © Ad Blankestijn]

Summer Garden
We have come to Kyoto on a heavily clouded August day. When we arrive in the old capital, it is raining, but forty minutes later, when the bus drops us off in Takagamine, the skies have miraculously cleared. We still carry the dull air of Tokyo in our heads, but when we step into the hot summer day of Kyoto, with its sweet plant smells, we feel revived and refreshed. The particular, somehow melancholy smell of wet earth pleasantly assails our nostrils. We enter Koetsuji over a long lane and then we stand in the greenest garden we have ever seen. It is a revelry of plants and shrubs, many of which have been left in their natural state. The green is only broken by a number of white and brown wooden teahouses, modestly peeping out of the greenery. From the dripping leaves, cicadas give forth their deafening chorus.

At the back of the garden is an open vista, which reveals the quaint lump of Mt. Takagamine. The mountain looks like an upturned pot, and also this pot is green, densely covered with straight-standing cedar trees. There is not much of a temple to Koetsuji, and that never was the intention. Hon’ami Koetsu founded an artists’ village here, the present temple only grew later out of his family chapel, and became - especially in the 20th century, when the present teahouses were added - a memorial for Koetsu and his art. Koetsu, by the way, was an ardent Buddhist of the Nichiren denomination, and his fellow artists and craftsmen followed the same doctrine. It may have been religion that brought them together.

The artists’ village disappeared a few decades after Koetsu’s death, and no traces remain of it today. Fortunately, Koetsu has left us his rich art, that here in the garden is represented by an unusually curved bamboo fence in front of the Taiko-an teahouse. Although the present fence is not Koetsu’s original, the design certainly is a hint of his genius.

[Bamboo Fence. Photo © Ad Blankestijn]

Bamboo Fence
We walk to that bamboo fence, the centerpiece of Koetsuji, that because of its shape his been named the Fence of the Reclining Ox. The low fence consists of diagonally lashed bamboo. The top is covered with thick round bamboos that curve down to the ground at one end. Beauty is in simplicity. The heavy, rounded top imparts strength to the fence. Bamboo fences are particular to Japan. They originated in the Kamakura area, and flourished in later centuries thanks to the tea masters. In tea gardens, they were not meant as real barriers, their function was rather to evoke atmosphere. In Koetsuji, too, the fence has been artfully placed to set off the teahouse behind it.

After visiting Koetsuji, we stay in the area, entranced by its heavy summer aroma. We visit Genko-an, a Zen temple with two typical windows: a round one to symbolize Enlightenment, and a square one for Delusion. Then we end the afternoon at Joshoji, another Nichiren establishment, where the fierce banging of a drum and chanting of Namu Myoho Rengekyo (I take Refuge in the Wondrous Lotus Sutra) beats even the shrill cicadas into silence. In the cemetery at the back is the grave of Yoshino Taiyu, a 17th century courtesan. Yoshino worked in Shimabara (Kyoto’s pleasure district) where she was the top-ranked geisha. Later she retired to this temple, where she is still commemorated every 3rd Sunday in April by a procession of Shimabara Taiyu.

[The round window of Satori in Genko-an. Photo © Ad Blankestijn]

But those other places are only footnotes to Koetsuji and its wondrous fence of bamboo. When we leave Takagamine, a small breeze has sprung up, further enhancing the sweet flowery smell.

That evening, the lush green of the garden keeps hanging around us like a protective veil.

Access: 3 min. on foot from the bus stop Genko-an.
Suggestion: Combine with other Takagamine temples, such as Joshoji (grave of Yoshino Taiyu) and the Zen temple Genko-an. Shodenji, a temple with a small but fine shakkei garden is also not far away.

Bookmark with Del.icio.us - Digg it