Nihonga painter, Kibune Village, Japanese religions from start to finish
Maruyama Okyo (1733-95), the founder of the Maruyama School of nihonga painting was the son of a farmer. He moved to Kyoto and started working as a painter of dolls at a toy shop when he was only 11 years old. Later he also received a proper education in the arts at the Kano School, under the guidance of Ishida Yutei.
When Maruyama was 23, a type of toy known as ‘Dutch spectacles’ was sent to the shop where he was working. ‘Dutch spectacles’ consisted of a wooden box with two glass openings on the top. When you look inside the box through the glass, you see a 3D picture inside, achieved through the combination of a convex lens, reflection mirror and a copper engraved print laid out on the bottom of the box.
‘Dutch spectacles’ were enormously popular. However, as the product was imported, there were only a limited number of copper prints available. As a result of this shortage, Maruyama started drawing the pictures and in that way learned the fundamentals of Western art — perspective, and shade and shadow. In the process of his mastering Western techniques he worked a lot with the scenery in and around Kyoto. It was this experience that in later years would help him become a master of Japanese scenery painting.
In the nihonga world at that time, artists only worked with funhon, or copies of classical art works. Finding inspiration in a completely different way, Maruyama considered sketching the most important tool in the creation of art He once said, “It is by sketching that one starts to truly learn the skills of art.” He was the first artist in Japan to recognize the importance of sketching.
Ueda Akinari (1732-1809), a famous writer of that period, praises Maruyama by saying, “All the arts in Kyoto were raised to a new standard by Maruyama, who made sketching such a popular thing.”
Maruyama, who gave new life to the tradition of nihonga, attracted more than 1,000 apprentices. A great artist in his late years, he reached his artistic pinnacle when he painted “Bakufu-zu (Falls),” which is now stored at Kompira-gu in Kagawa Prefecture.
Though a gifted and dedicated artist, Maruyama sometimes made mistakes in his art. On one occasion, when a farmer looked at Maruyama’s painting of a horse, the farmer started laughing and said, “You know, when a horse eats, it closes eyes so it doesn’t get hurt by the grass. In your painting, the horse’s eyes are wide open”.
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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!
Kyoto's Kibune Village: history & river restaurants
The quaint village of Kibune is a destination gem in any season. But the May to late Sept. season (spring and summer) is undoubtedly the most popular period of all. This is largely due to Kibune's unique cuisine attraction: kawadoko river restaurants. These restaurants are literally built over the rushing Kibune River. And most of them specialize in kaiseki haute cuisine (i.e., think expensive but not too expensive).
Kibune has played a role in Japan since the ancient times, as this is where the "Water or rain God" was born. The Shinto goddess Tamayori-hime ordered the construction of the shrine when she tasted the waters from a deep underground spring.
Kibune (pronounced correctly as Kifune Shrine) Shrine is also considered to be the shrine that created Japan's wildly popular wooden ema wishing boards that you will see at every shrine in Japan. The shrine's black and white horse ema is very popular but there are others too. One features the portrait of famous Heian poet Izumi Shikibu (born in 976). Her poetic style is both romantic, erotic and woven from Buddhist philosophy.
The Kibune-Shikibu connection comes from a period in her life when she felt she had lost the affections of her husband. So, she went to Kibune Shrine to pray for his "return." Whilst there she witnessed the glowing flight of hotaru fireflies over the Kibune River. She wrote a very well-known poem about this experience. And shortly after she went to Kibune her relationship with her husband magically improved. So, Kibune is also a famous Japanese destination for lovers and people with lovers' problems.
Kibune also a its dark sides. It has long been a destination for forest suicide. Not so much in the village itself but in the dark forested lower part of the valley, just above Kibune-guchi train station. And when you walk along this section on your way to the village it is not unusual to have a sense of forboding or unease . . .
The other unsettling Kibune connection relates to the Japanese version of voodoo and the “ox-hour shrine-visit.” And these voodoo practitioner is nearly always a woman who has been scorned or treated cruelly by a man. The ox hour is also the witching hour: from 1:00 to 3:00 in the night (the hour of the Tiger begins at three in the morning and ends a 5:00). Kibune was one of the best places to practice this form of black magic, which usually involves hammering nails into trees for seven consecutive days. In ancient times, these witches wore all white and had an iron ring on their heads lit with three candles.
Kibune is a very special place for tourism and most of tourists are Japanese. On spring and summer weekends the village is super popular with young people in cars from as far away as Kobe. If you drive through the village then you eventually come to Kyoto Prefecture's Shuzan district. Shuzan is home to ancient farmhouses and also lots of forest agriculture.
But you don't need a car to get to Kibune. Not at all! Just go to Kyoto's Demachiyanagi Station (where the main river splits; northeast of the Kyoto Imperial Palace grounds) and hop a train (3 an hour) to Kibune-guchi Station. Exit the station and turn right at the bottom of the stairs and walk uphill. Twenty to thirty minutes later you will see the first structures. The very first is an old high-class restaurant, which also has a kawadoko over-the-river dining platform from May to late September. After that restaurant suddenly there are more and more buildings and businesses. The cafes and inexpensive lunch spots are almost all on the non-river side of the street.
At the top of the village, just past Hirobun, which is famous for delivering packages of white noodles to customers in a half of a bamboo trunk filled with water from the Kibune River, visitors will find huge cedar trees and some really interesting shrine buildings (the upper part of powerful Kibune Shrine). And there are also places here that are beach-like and perfect for picnicking . . .
For many Japanese tourists and day trippers, Kibune is strongly paired with Kurama Village (world famous for its October 22 Kurama Fire Festival) just over the "mountain" to the east of Kibune. The walk between the two villages is incredible and will be featured in my next blog post. Believe it or not, the highest spots on Mount Kurama are a popular UFO sighting location. I lived in Kurama for nearly 10 years and I remember meeting people after the sun had gone down on the upper slopes of Mount Kurama. I asked a few what they were doing there so late and the answer was UFO watching! This means that they stayed all night or at least until the 23:00 final train from Kurama Station departed for Kyoto. Kurama Village is also the birthplace of the reiki healing practice.
A Kyoto perspective on Japanese religions
The main religions represented in Japan, historically and/or actively, are Shinto, Buddhism, Confucianism, and Christianity.
The roots of Shinto developed from the belief that various natural objects, such as mountains, rocks, and trees, were kami or gods. By the eighth century, these beliefs had unified into a convoluted myth that explained the creation of Japan and gave legitimacy to founder of the imperial family, Emperor Jinmu, as a child born of a lineage of evolving kami. The development of State Shinto, the idea that the emperor was a god, was the basis of the nation of Japan from the first emperor until Emperor Showa openly declared in 1945, at the close of World War II, that he was mortal. A modern version of State Shinto, developed in the early 20th century, played a key role in the legitimization of Japan's military conquests and colonization period (early twentieth century to 1945).
Shinto shrines are the home of the Shinto faith and house one or more deities from a large pantheon of deities. The entrance to a shrine precinct is usually marked with a special gate-like structure known as a torii, which is often painted a bright orange color—the color associated with Shinto all over Japan. Weddings and births are celebrated at Shinto shrines, while deaths are marked at Buddhist temples. Shrines, which may be giant structures or nothing more than a small roofed box, can be found all over Kyoto. Kamigamo Shrine and Shimogamo Shrine predate the founding of the city. Other prominent shrines include Heian Shrine and Fushimi Inari Shrine.
Japan's other major religion is Buddhism. Despite the fact that the early development of Buddhism took place prior to Kyoto's founding, mostly in Nara, the city's history is inextricably linked with nearly all later Buddhist developments. In fact, the capital was founded in 794 because of the ambitions of Buddhist leaders in Nara, who threatened to take over control of the state. For this reason, Heian-kyo had no temple within its walls. In order to distance itself from the powerful Buddhist sect in Nara, the emperor sanctioned the growth of a new kind of Buddhism, esoteric Buddhism, by sponsoring the studies of two priests, Saicho and Kukai, in China. Saicho founded the Tendai sect of Buddhism at Enryaku-ji Temple and Kukai the Shingon (mantra) sect on Mount Koya in Wakayama Prefecture. The Tendai sect is the root of nearly all subsequent Buddhist development in Japan. The sect, headquartered on Mount Hiei, was for a long time the only one, outside of Nara, officially permitted to train monks.
The Tendai sect, based on the various levels of truth espoused in the Lotus Sutra, emphasized a wide range of practices and thus was able to recognize the validity of contemporary traditions as they developed. The first of these traditions, at the end of the Heian period, was the rise of Amidism, the belief that faith in the Amida, the guardian of the Pure Land across the Western Ocean, was all-important for gaining access to paradise. The priest Kuya, a student of the Tendai monastery at Enryaku-ji, was particularly important in propagating this belief. One of the results of the rise in Amidism was that temples began to develop at the foot of mountains, instead of on remote mountain tops, in the same way that the Amida descended from paradise to welcome souls. Many Amida temples were built at the foot of Kyoto's eastern mountains, facing the Pure Land to the West. While most of these temples were destroyed by fire or in war, the existing Sanjusangen-do Hall and Byodo-in Temple remain as excellent examples.
The next development in Japanese Buddhism came with the teachings of Honen, also a student of the Tendai monastery at Enryaku-ji Temple. Honen founded the Jodo, or Pure Land, sect, which taught that salvation through the mercy of Amida could be obtained simply by endlessly repeating "Namu Amida Butsu" (Hail to the Amida Buddha). Since this threatened the power of the priesthood, Honen met with violent opposition from Enryaku-ji Temple leaders. The legacy of Honen can be seen in such major temples as Chion-in Temple.
The teachings of Honen were further developed by Shinran, the founder of the True Pure Land sect, and his charismatic disciple, Rennyo, who met with even stronger resistance from Enryaku-ji. Their success, however, was to have the greatest impact on the country, spreading quickly to neighboring provinces and reaching levels of unprecedented religious power. The teachings of Shinran, who founded Hongan-ji Temple, basically taught that even an instant of sincere belief in the Amida Buddha was enough to guarantee salvation and prevent eternal damnation (a theme this sect graphically portrayed in order to send fear into the masses). The legacy of this sect can be seen in the giant halls of the Nishi and Higashi Hongan-ji Temples, which are the headquarters for well over 10,000 sub-temples throughout Japan.
Zen, the philosophical/religious foundation of the samurai class and the last major Buddhist sect to be imported from China, is also strongly connected with Kyoto. It is divided into two main schools: Rinzai and Soto. Most of Japan's major Rinzai monasteries are located in Kyoto.
Confucianism can also be counted as one of Japan’s religions, in a sense. However, it is best regarded as an ethical/moral code of social laws.
Christianity, made considerable inroads to Japan in the middle of the 16th century, when numerous Jesuit missionaries converted a considerable number of Japanese daimyo and samurai. In the latter half of the 16th century and finally in the 17th century, Christianity was made illegal and punishable by death. In Kyoto and at Nagasaki, countless Jesuits and Japanese were cruelly persecuted and horribly executed for their faith. Today, Kyoto has a number of churches, but overall the Christian population in the city is negligible.
A few of Japan's Christian voices & martyrs)
Xavier, Francis (1506-1552): Probably Asia's most famous missionary, Francis Xavier was a founding member of the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits), which was founded in 1534. The Society, possessed of great zeal, reached Japan by 1549, with Xavier at its head, making him the first missionary to enter Japan. He also has the distinction of being the first European to enter Kyoto, in February 1551. While in Kyoto, he tried to obtain an audience with both the emperor and the ruling shogun, but found the city in such a state of disorder and devastation from the Sengoku Wars that he departed frustrated and unsuccessful back to Nagasaki after a stay of only two weeks. He left Japan toward the end of 1551, after establishing a secure missionary base in Kyushu, to continue his work in China. He died suddenly near Canton in 1552.
Spinola, Carlo (1564-1622): An Italian Jesuit, Carlo Spinola arrived in Japan in 1602. He founded a school of science in Kyoto in 1605, where he resided for seven years. Refusing to leave Japan upon hearing of the banishment of missionaries from Japan, he tried to hide from the bakufu. He was captured in 1618 and burned alive in 1622, after four years of hard labor.
Machado, Joan-Baptiste (1581-1617): A Portuguese Jesuit, Machado came to Japan in 1609 and evangelized in Kyoto and Fushimi. He hid himself when all missionaries were ordered banished from Japan in 1614, but he was arrested in 1617 and beheaded.
Namban-ji Temple: Built by Portuguese Jesuits under the name of Eiroku-ji Temple in 1576, this was the first church in Kyoto. After strong opposition by the Buddhists to the church's name, it was renamed, under imperial decree, as Namban-ji, or Temple of the Southern Barbarians. It was later torn down by Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who passed an edict against Christianity in 1587.
Froez, Louis (died 1597): An influential member of the Jesuit mission, Louis Froez came to Kyoto in 1564 and assisted Gaspard Vilela in his mission to convert important members of Japanese society and build new churches. Thought to be the first European to reside in Kyoto, living mostly at Namban-ji Temple, he met with Oda Nobunaga in 1568 and was granted permission by the last Ashikaga shogun, Yoshiteru, in the same year to proselytize in Kyoto. He met with Nobunaga again in late 1569 and continued to meet with favor. Letters written by Froez during his 25-year stay in Japan provide important historical evidence on the state of Japan in the mid-16th century. He left Japan for Macao in 1592, where he died.
Vilela, Gaspard (died 1570): One of six Jesuit fathers sent to Japan in the mid-16th century, Gaspard Vilela was stationed in Kyoto, where he was allowed to move freely around the capital because of his important conversion of Miyoshi Chokei, acting guardian of the shogun at that time. He is known to have converted many warriors to Christianity and traveled widely in the area south of the capital. He was also directly involved in the establishment of a number of small churches around the capital.
To end this section, it would be wise to point out that spiritual sects, new spiritual sects, are as popular in Japan as they are in, say, California. Some of these new spiritual players are Shinto-influenced or nature influenced. And some are derived from Buddhist beliefs. Others can be odd. For example, the sect behind the Miho Museum, which has one of Japan's largest private art collections, believes that spiritual strength and serenity can be found in the appreciation of beauty. Japan has also had more than a few "Rasputin-like" characters, like the bearded leader of the Aum Shinrikyo sect, which attempted to kill Tokyo commuters with a coordinated nerve gas attack on the subway system. Luckily, it failed but all the same some perished.
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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!