Poetess & Buddha tale, Tokyo | Kyoto design shops, eco priest interview
This blog post begins with a story about Ono-no Komachi (825 – c. 900), famous and tragic poetess of the Heian Period, and the Medicine Buddha (Yakushi Nyorai, revered across Japan for healing and medicine). The story takes place over a thousand years ago in a hot spring village called Gokurakudera. One evening, a young woman with scabs all over her face and body came alone into the village. The people of the village were frightened by her appearance and when she asked them to let her stay in their inns and houses, she was refused again and again. Finally, she met a very kind man, the one villager who noticed that the woman actually had an elegant manner and a graceful way of speaking. He decided to offer the poor woman his own house to rest in for a while.
However, a few days after the young woman’s arrival, many people in the village discovered similar boils on their skin. As the rash appeared on more and more people, they started to blame it on this blemished woman who had suddenly appeared in their village. This put the very kind man in a difficult position. After giving the matter much thought he decided to get her out of the village, and so he took her up to a little temple in the mountains and told her she would be safe there for the time being. The man took exceptional care of the young woman, never forgetting to bring every meal to her in the mountains. She was greatly indebted to him for his kindness, and began to live in the little temple in the way he had instructed her to.
She diligently followed the kind man's advice, bathing in the hot spring and praying to the medicine Buddha every day. And yet she saw no change in her condition. One day, she offered a prayer to the medicine Buddha in the form of a short, beautiful poem: "I am trying to touch you, yet my prayers fail to reach your most holy heart. I am left only with a sorrowful lament."
That night, the Buddha appeared to her in a dream, replying to her sincere poem with one of his own: "As that which is in your mind and body is ever-fleeting, like a summer storm, so too will your ugly wounds one day disappear." This gave her the strength to persevere, and she continued bathing in the hot spring and praying every day. Finally she noticed that her scabs were indeed beginning to fall off of her body, and the healing process gradually revealed her true beauty. When the people in the village found out that she was actually the famous courtesan and talented poet, Ono-no-Komachi, they became even more deeply devoted to the medicine Buddha and from then on always took great care of this mountainside temple.
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Content by Ian Martin Ropke, owner of Your Japan Private Tours (est. 1990). I have been planning, designing, and making custom Japan private tours on all five Japanese islands since the early 1990s. I work closely with Japan private tour clients and have worked for all kinds of families, companies, and individuals since 1990. Clients find me mostly via organic search, and I advertise my custom Japan private tours & travel services on www.japan-guide.com, which has the best all-Japan English content & maps in Japan! If you are going to Japan and you understand the advantages of private travel, consider my services for your next trip. And thank you for reading my content. I, Ian Martin Ropke (unique on Google Search), am also a serious nonfiction and fiction writer, a startup founder (NexussPlus.com), and a spiritual wood sculptor. Learn more!
Tokyo & Kyoto mod design & aesthetic spots
Tourists that go to Japan fall into broad classes: the people who just want to see the old traditional patina-rich worlds of Japan, and those who are focused on Japan's modern & contemporary interpretations. This section looks a tiny tiny selection of modern design shops and locations in Tokyo and Kyoto. If you are really interested in modern washi paper, elegant contemporary tableware, or stunning textiles woven the old way but expressing the new, then this section is for you! My recommendation is to walk the back lanes of west Shibuya and keys sections of the Ginza district and look at every shop front you see. The same is true in Kyoto, especially on the ever changing back lanes in the Gion district, and also on the machiya townhouse lined streets in the center of town.
A few of Tokyo's impressive modern shops & places
The Cover Nippon: It's a strange name but The Cover Nippon will certainly feel like home if you love Japanese crafts. I have been sending Japan private tour clients to this place for over 15 years now! The Zen temple-like space of The Cover Nippon sells a genius curated range of high-end Japanese crafts. Their main shop is on the 4th floor of the Galerian Building in Roppongi's impressive Tokyo Midtown complex. Details: thecovernippon.jp
Sumida Hokusai Museum: The "W+N" shape of the contemporary Sumida Hokusai Museum is incredible. It was designed by Kazuyo Sejima (winner of the Pritzker Prize) . Inside this futuristic structure are many woodblock prints by the genius Hokusai, who made a tidal wave a tiny boat an international image (in the Edo period!). Details: hokusai-museum.jp
Tendo Mokko: The Tendo Mokko showroom is in the middle of nowhere in the busy Hamamatsucho district. They specialize in pioneering work high-end bent plywood furniture designs. You won't believe these trippy chairs and sofas are made with plywood but they are. Details: tendo-mokko.co.jp
Tsutaya Books in the Ginza and Daikanyama districts: The Tsutaya bookstores in Daikanyama and Ginza are a design lover's paradise in more ways than one. They have exceptional art and design books and apparently also a robot to help you find what you are looking for. Details: store.tsite.jp
Pejite Aoyama: The Aoyama district is home to the contemporary worlds in the Nezu Museum complex and also the iconic Prada building. Pejite Aoyama is on one of the car-free back lanes of Aoyama. And everything they sell is treasure and highly refined. Go here for some of the finest ceramics and porcelains from Mashiko (which is so hard to get to!), and vintage wooden furniture made along the lines favored in the early 20th century. Details: pejite-mashiko.shop-pro.jp
Haibara: Haibara (est. 1806) specializes in handmade, high-end Japanese washi paper. Their stunning paper and stationery range covers everything from notebooks and envelopes to perfect sheets of washi paper. Basically the ancient washi paper craft designed with modern and contemporary twists. Details: haibara.co.jp
Amahare: Young Japanese people are looking for new forms of tableware. Amahare opened in the gentrifying Shirokane district and sells exactly what many affluent and style conscious young people are looking for. All handmade and all displayed in a Steve-Jobs-like modern, gallery-like setting. Details: shop.amahare.jp
Casica: Casica sits in a funky neighborhood on canal across the street from a small park. They sell everything from fine global jewelry and soap and baskets to vintage lighting designs and tableware by upcoming Japanese ceramic artists. Details: casica.tokyo
Kyukyodo: Kyukyodo's headquarters are in Kyoto (est. 1863) but the Ginza shop is just as good. Go to Kyukyodo to drool over their specialty items: incense, calligraphy items, stationery, washi paper post cards, tea ceremony bowls, and stationery boxes. Kyukyodo Tokyo is a 3-min walk NW of Japan's most famous department store (Mitsukoshi) Details: kyukyodo.co.jp
Yakumo Saryo: If you wish to experience the highly refined world of contemporary Japanese tea ceremony then Yakumo Saryo is sure to please. And foreigners will be pleased to know that you don't have to sit on the floor at Yakumo Saryo. That's right! They do the entire ceremony with chairs and tables. Stunning! Details: yakumosaryo.jp
A taste of Kyoto's amazing modern shops & design locations
Hosoo Kyoto: With roots tracing back to the 17th century, Hosoo Kyoto has been in the high-end textile business since the 17th century. Their luxury textiles are made with the old weaving techniques of Kyoto's Nishijin textile district. Hosoo Kyoto's work has long been prized by top fashion designers and architects across the globe. Details: hosoo-kyoto.com/
POJ Studio: POJ Studio covers a wide range of interior design goods. They have handcrafted incense, gold repair kintsugi kits, washi paper items, silk goods and art too. This is a shop that understands craftsmanship and design! Details: pojstudio.com/
Kyoto Museum of Crafts & Design: Encounter the beauty and techniques of Kyoto traditional crafts at this museum a stone's throw SW from Heian Shrine. This museum presents the history and processes related to 74 kinds of traditional crafts. Details: kmtc.jp/en/
Ichizawa Shinzaburo Hanpu bags: Ichizawa Hanpu bags are a Kyoto original dating from early 20th-century Japanese design ideas. I have a shoulder bag that handles my PC for cafe work interludes. These killer canvas bags will last longer than you! For a great gift for a friend at home or for you, visit Ichizawa Hanpu in Kyoto! Details: ichizawa.co.jp/en/
Honen-in Temple head priest Kajita Shinsho interview
Kajita Shinsho has been the head priest at Honen-in Temple (Jodo Shu or Pure Land Sect Buddhism) since 1984, following a tradition that has been in his family for three generations. A graduate of Osaka's Foreign Language University, in the German language department (1980), Kajita-san is very modern in his outlook on life and yet extremely dedicated to trying to help Kyoto and her citizens maintain a environment that is green and beautiful. He is highly active in citizen's movements and has been very generous in offering Honen-in Temple as a spiritual center for green movements. The founding saint of the Jodo Shu sect, Honen (1133-1212), is regarded as one of Japan's greatest spiritual leaders, and was the first person in Japan to offer religious salvation directly to the people. This interview took place at Honen-in Temple, just south of Kyoto's famous Silver Pavilion, in the autumn of 1998.
YJPT: What were Honen's feelings about the state of consciousness of the average person?
Kajita: Very few people really have a real sense of their own imperfection. Most people do not think they are special, but at the same time, very few people consider themselves to be bad people either.
Honen felt that most "normal" people were "bad people," in the sense that they had great trouble achieving great spiritual trust or faith. Honen considered most people, most "normal people," at the most basic level, to be almost entirely controlled by their desires. He felt very strongly that competing with other people and trying to be accepted by society by getting ahead was not at all a "good" thing, and could be in no way beneficial to life.
However, for most normal people, this is the normal way of doing things, and is not especially viewed as a problem. For instance, in Japan, it is quite normal for people go to shrines and pray for assistance so their children can pass exams or so that they can succeed at business, and so on. Such actions stem from one's own desires, and yet most people do not think of it as being "sinful" in the Buddhist sense. And if that is the basic way of living their lives, they cannot possibly get closer to Buddhahood by just by doing a few "good" things.
We will ultimately have an increasing negative impact as the population grows. In order to really reduce the impact we, as human beings, have on the Earth, I think we must embrace and practice ways to reduce energy consumption and make use of alternative, "clean" energy sources.
In regards to greenhouse gas emissions, it would seem that the Americans are behaving idiotically, when they say they will not reduce their CO2 emissions. I feel that the Japanese are also acting idiotically, but the Americans seem to only think of whether their present economic picture will be better or worse. Their present economic situation seems to be the only standard for judging things. However, if you look at their view from the perspective of the future of humanity and indeed all life forms it is really a useless and foolish perspective.
YJPT: How can people learn to change and find happiness that is not derived from materialistic desires?
Kajita: People have to wake up to the fact that no matter how many new things they have, they will not be happy, and that real happiness only comes through being able to communicate more closely and more compassionately with other human beings, and other life forms.
People also have to realize that it is not going to get them anywhere, in terms of happiness, to kill and hurt in the name of their desires. In Japan, traditionally, human beings are considered to be an integral part of nature, the natural world. However, in the West nature is considered to be something outside human beings. The idea that human beings and nature are one and the same, changed after the Meiji era (1868- ).
Along with the acceptance of the Western ideas, philosophies, and concepts, the Japanese lost that original sense of human oneness with nature. It does no good for people to be thinking of nature as something external to be protected or developed, or whatever. I do not really think things will get better until we change our attitude.
Today, people, most people in the world, think about things exclusively from an economic point of view, forgetting that the mountains are part of the people, and the people are part of the mountains.
People have lost the power to imagine or realize truly the damage that goes on outside their field of vision when they buy things. People only judge by what they can see in their immediate field of vision. And yet in reality everything is interconnected, everything is one. People need to understand this again, in the way that certain tribal people still understand it today.
YJPT: What do you think of the future of Kyoto?
Kajita: Of course, people will either agree or disagree on the merits of individual projects. However, in the long run there does not seem to be any real sense of direction for the city of Kyoto either from the citizens or the government. There does not seem to be any sense of long term planning or vision.
And without that it is hard for the citizens of Kyoto to take pride in their city and make it into something they will be proud of in the future. This is a serious problem. A city, like an individual, must have a sense of direction and a sense of pride. This is very important, and that kind of pride has been absent in Kyoto for many years now. There must be more vision, if we are to keep what we have.
YJPT: What would you like to say to the thousands of UN members here this month, who whose decision may change the world forever?
Kajita: It is my deep hope that they will make a decision, at this conference, upon which the entire world can look to the future with hope. At present, it is a very easy time to live as someone who just allows themselves be carried along by the tide of daily living. However, for anyone who looks ahead and tries to imagine the future, it is a very difficult time to be alive.
I would hope that they make a decision that will make life a little easier for the people who are seriously concerned about the future of the planet, so they can look ahead and have an easier time living with the world. of Buddhism which preached that one could only reach Buddhahood through rigorous training.
He felt that in order to help as many people as possible, Buddhist training needed to be simplified. In order to achieve this, he developed the practice of calling on the Amida Buddha (Amitabha) for passage to the Pure Land, which one could loosely translate as heaven or paradise.
To do this all people had to do was follow the practice of nembutsu. All that was necessary was for them to ask the Amida Buddha for help in reaching paradise. His idea was immediately successful.
YJPT: Human desire and selfishness can be said to be at the root of most if not all of our problems today, especially environmental problems. What are your feelings about today's environmental crisis, both on a local and an international level?
Kajita: Environmental problems will not be solved until we learn to live more simply and with less. Since the human population is increasing, if we do not reduce our personal, mostly desire-driven, were so selfish that they could not think about other people.
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Content by Japan travel specialist & designer Ian Martin Ropke, founder & owner of Your Japan Private Tours (YJPT, est. 1990). I have been planning, designing, and making custom Japan private tours on all five Japanese islands since the early 1990s. I work closely with all of YJPT's Japan private tour clients and have a great team behind me. I promote YJPT through this content and only advertise at www.japan-guide.com, which has the best all-Japan English content & maps! If you are going to Japan and you understand the advantages of private travel, consider my services for your next trip to save time & have a better time. Ian Martin Ropke (unique on Google Search) is also a serious nonfiction and fiction writer, a startup founder (NexussPlus.com), and a spiritual wood sculptor. Learn more!