Above is a garden surrounding Nanzenji Temple.
Pond near the temple.
More gardens. It is very serene to walk around the temple grounds. The climb to the top is very steep, but thankfully only a short climb. Pictures are not allowed at the top, but inside there is a beautiful Buddha statue and views of the gardens.
View from the top of the temple.
The front of the temple.
A mieko returning to her hanamachi. Notice the paparazzi-like fervor with which the crowd snaps her picture. I felt a little bad for all the geisha walking around, since they were constantly followed by a hoard of fans.
This fuzzy image doesn't really do Kyoto's Gion district justice. Gion is the area where most of the geisha hanamachi and tea houses are located, and is considered one of the best areas in Japan to see "traditional" Japanese culture and architecture. The streets are all lined with beautifully crafted businesses and restaurants, with rice paper windows, linear wood slatted walls, sliding doors, tapestries, and paper lanterns. The cobblestones streets are filled with more traditionally dressed men and women than any other area, and if you're lucky you will see a geisha hurrying to an appointment. Through the open doorways you can glimpse rows of wooden geta shoes lining the hallways next to tatami mat floors, and stepping stones leading to hidden courtyard gardens with bubbling waterfalls. In the soft glow of the lanterns, it's easy to feel you have stepped back into time. After appreciating the atmosphere, we saw a show which gave an overview of a variety of traditional dance and music.
Koto, the Japanese harp. It is played laying flat like a steel guitar, and the notes are created entirely by fingerpicking. The sound of the strings is similar to the sound of a regular harp, but flat notes and bending of the strings was used frequently. The songs included a lot of interesting cascading riffs.
Above is a man dancing to the Gagaku, or imperial, style of music. This is music which is created with several upright pan-flute type wind instruments, two drums hung like gongs, and a handful of other unusual instruments. If I may be honest, this music is terrible. The pipes are shrill, extremely flat, and out of tune. They sound like someone is strangling a herd of in-heat cats. The drums beat a staccato pattern that was seemingly random and not in time with each other or the pipes. I have no idea how anyone can stand to be in the same room with this music, let alone listen to a whole concert. Since Scott and I were in the front row, we managed to smile weakly and nod appreciatively for the 3 minutes of torture.
Above is a much more easily appreciated form of traditional entertainment - Kyogen. This is a type of short skit based on physical and situational comedy. The skits are performed as intermission to the much more serious Noh performances. Nowadays, they are popular enough to become stand-alone productions. This skit was about a worrisome sake dealer who tricks his two employees into being tied up to keep them from getting into his stores while he is away on business. They still have their hands free, and they manage to open the kegs and drink most of the sake. While they are singing and dancing, their boss returns and makes angry faces into the sake bowl over their shoulders. When they see this, they exclaim how ugly their boss is, enraging him to beat and chase them out of the warehouse.
Two mieko perform a kyomai dance to music. Emphasis is on subtle hand and body movements, with no facial expression.
This picture shows a very large puppet, an art known as bunraku. The puppet is operated by 3 people who look a tad like executioners. The manipulation is very sophisticated, and even the fingers can move independently. This plot was confusing to watch despite the written explaination. The puppet became very aggitated and was stomping around and pulling it's hair out at one point. The show also included a display of ikebana, or flower arranging, plus a tea ceremony. All in all the show was a good overview of various traditional arts. -Anna
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