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Shirakawa stream interlude, Japanese folklore & gardens

A yurei Japanese ghost

Before we get into this post's content there are a couple of things I should like to stress about Japan travel going forward.

First, Japan has really rocked it for tourism growth and will well exceed the 33 million foreign visitors reached just before Covid hit. And this has started to subtly change how tourists are served. More and more you have to negotiate "less than perfect" Japanese booking engines: for restaurants, experiences and more. Less and less can you reach a person with a phone call! I have been a phone phreak since I was 17 in the late 1970s. I book everything for my clients by telephone. And I never need a credit card! I like to book restaurants and experiences and other things by making the reservation but nothing more. These days it seems almost impossible to reach some restaurants and services providers.

For example, this week I spent a lot of time designing self guided tours of the southern Okinawan islands (Ishigaki and Iriomote). Nearly every dive shop and adventure tour outfit didn't answer the phone. And few of these telephone numbers can be used on WhatsApp. South Korea is much better for WhatsApp and God Bless! Japan uses Line and foreigners never use Line. And that's a problem!

And never forget that Japan's newest attractions are the hardest to visit or get tickets for. Studio Ghibli, brand name character restaurants like Kirbys, and the latest TeamLab attractions are always sold out! And planning ahead doesn't help when all the tickets are sold out on the first day of every month!

Here is a piece of good news about Tokyo. Japan has reached less than 7% renewables for energy (Costa Rica reached 100%, except for cars, in 2017!). A couple of years ago Tokyo decided to do what that Japanese national government should be doing. Tokyo's energy supply will reach 35% in the next few years. And this what I have been saying for a long time! Big cities can no longer afford to wait for slow national governments. Big cities want to survive so they make big improvements faster than national bodies of any kind. Common sense really!

The rest of this blog post is devoted to:

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!

Down the Shirakawa Stream to Shoren-in Temple

Along the Shirakawa Stream amidst the soft tinkling and hurrying of the water you will find willow trees, their long drooping branches swaying gently in the wind. And in this soft, dreamy scene you will feel as if you are far, far away from the 21st century and all its mad hustle and bustle.

As you walk south along the east side of the stream from Sanjo you will often see families of ducks swimming and preening themselves along the stream, and bright white egrets looking for food or flying on. A little bit up the stream from here you will find places that are famous for firefly watching. Some people come from far away to watch the mysterious wonder of the fireflies at night.

Also south of Sanjo you will find a 60-cm wide, slightly arched stone bridge without hand rails. This bridge is a common crossing point for highschool girls, who giggle, titter and laugh out loud as they creep and run over the brigde. On Sundays, it is not unusual to see children playing in the stream, splashing, and exploring.

Further down the stream, you will come to a big wooden gate. If you turn left here and walk to the east, you will see pink crepe myrtle flowers clinging to the ancient stone walls if temple. At the top of a small rise you will come to a T-intersection. To the right the road leads through green, hilly Maruyama Park and on to Kiyomizu Temple. To the left, lies the giant trees at the entrance to Shoren-in Temple.

These huge 500-year-old camphor trees that seem to guard over Shoren-in are amazing. If you sit under them, you will feel as if the wind is calling the trees. The founder of the jodoshu sect, Shinran (1173-1262), entered the priesthood here when he was only nine years old. When he entered the temple, he asked the head priest if he could become a priest. The head monk answered by saying, “You are still very young. Maybe for the moment, you should play with the other children. Later, you can become a priest. It is never too late.” Shinran answered by saying, “I only have now. If you are thinking ‘maybe tomorrow’, you may miss the cherry blossoms. They only bloom once a year and can fail unexpectedly after a sudden rainstorm. I have only now.” For all his wisdom, he entered the priesthood from that moment.

Japanese folklore & old tales #1

From the very beginning, Japanese history, culture and society has been alive with folktales and old stories and legends. I remember when I first lived in Kyoto in the early 1980s of the tale of the taxi driver on a dark moon night. His customer is a woman, a beautiful woman, dressed to the best of the best in kimono. She tells him to take her to Midorigaike Pond, an isolated small body of water on the northern edge of Kyoto City (not far from most of the regions mental hospitals!).

The taxi driver takes her to the pond. When they stop he turns to receive payment but all he sees is water on the floor where her feet were and the door of the taxi is still closed. Water that comes from someone's feet or footwear is the sure sign of a ghost that is trapped between this world and the next. And I have skirted that pond a hundred times by day and by night; on a bicycle, on foot and in my little cars . . . It was always eerie and depressing to see the pond and the dark fringe of forest on the far side.

Kyoto locals say the pond has for centuries been been the spot to kill oneself by drowning. Other spots, like the dark ravines below Kibune Village (famous for its over the river restaurants from May to Sept; and UFO on Mount Kurama), are for hanging oneself. But enough of dark tales and death. The following folklore content is fun, funny and educational. And the next "story" will take you to the next tale or legend. Enjoy!

Once upon a time, a courtesan gifted with both intelligence and beauty, lived in the Old Capital. Her name was Yoshino Dayuu. The 18th-century writer, Saikaku Ihara called her the most exceptional Japanese courtesan of all time. According to legend, requests for her portrait came from as far away as China.

Trained as a high-ranking courtesan from the age of 7, she quickly mastered the arts of Japanese music, dance, poetry, tea ceremony and flower arrangement. She made her debut at the age of 14 and immediately became a sensation. She entranced all of her guests and even drove some mad. One day, the chief adviser to the emperor at that tried to buy her. Instead, she resigned her position because she was in love with a man four years younger than she, Haiya Joeki (a scandal in those days, no doubt). Soon after they began to live together. Joeki’s father, Joyu, disowned his son. But that did nothing to change their love.

One day, when Joyu was standing under the eaves of a house to get out of the rain, the women of the house came out and offered to dry his clothes and gave him a cup of green tea. To him she appeared humble but at the same time extraordinarily refined. He was fascinated by her. Later, when he told his friend about her, he was informed that that woman was his daughter-in-law (Yoshino). Instantly, he forgave them, and so his son and Yoshino were married and allowed by all to live happily ever after.

The shrimp & the sea bream

Long, long ago, there once was an energetic, highly curious shrimp living in one of Japan’s many rivers. Among this little shrimp’s many dreams was his firm desire to visit the sea, just once.

One day, the little shrimp decided it was time. In parting from his friends, he simply stated, “I want to go to the sea and then swim all over the world,” and then set out as energetically and confidently as ever.

That night, after reaching the sea, the now tired shrimp began looking for a safe place to sleep. After a while, he found a big hole in a rock and saying, “this is what I’ve been looking for,” and went in for a good night’s sleep.

However, this was no ordinary hole. This was the nose hole of a big sea bream. As the little shrimp was getting comfortable, the sea bream began to feel more and more uncomfortable. Suddenly, the sea bream couldn’t stand it any longer and let out a huge explosion of a sneeze. Naturally, the little shrimp was sent flying through the water helpless against the power of the sea bream’s super sneeze. Before the shrimp knew what had happened, he had crashed into a big rock and broke his back. And ever since then, shrimps have all had a bent back.

A fox's gratitude

Once upon a time, there was an old couple who lived at the foot of a mountain on the Shirakawa River.

[The Shirakawa River starts near the upper west side of Mount Hiei in Kyoto NE corner and flows SW through the east side of the city. It flows into the big Kamogawa River just north of the Gion Shijo Bridge.]

One day, when they were at home, a white fox suddenly appeared in their house and said, "Please hide me from the hunter." This couple was kind, and so they hid the fox in the closet. Soon after, the hunter appeared and asked about the white fox, but the couple told them that they knew nothing. Finally, the hunter gave up and left. Emerging from the closet, the white fox told the old couple, "I will revive the well in your backyard on the next full moon night. Please drink the water from the well that night."

They old couple waited till the full moon came and went to the well. As the fox said, the well had come back to life. As soon as the old man drank the water his stomach illness completely disappeared. The news of the well's special powers quickly spread through the surrounding area, and people lined up in long queues to get the magic water.

However, one greedy man became rich by selling the water. But as he wanted to be richer still, he mixed the magic water with normal water from his own well to increase his profits. But of course this water didn't work. In fact, it created stomach problems and caused his ruin.

Through a frog's eyes

A long, long time ago there lived a frog in the capital, Kyoto.

One day, after overhearing "Kyoto is a nice place and very beautiful, but the big city of Osaka next door is where all the action is," the Kyoto frog took off on a trip to Osaka to see for himself.

There was also a frog that lived in Osaka.

One day, this frog heard that from somewhere that although Osaka is big and exciting, the capital of Kyoto one city over was rumored to be beautiful, so he went off to see Kyoto. Now, in between the two cities of Kyoto and Osaka there was a very tall mountain.

The Kyoto frog set out up the mountain from the North, and the Osaka frog started from the South. Then, at the very top of the mountain, the two frogs accidently bumped right into one another.

They both postured themselves up high on their hind legs and looked out to view the faraway cities from the top.

"Alas! The city of Osaka looks exactly like Kyoto!" said the Kyoto frog.

"What?!" said the Osaka frog, "the capital of Kyoto looks exactly like Osaka!"

Right then and there, the two frogs decided that "there really is no need to go all this way after all" and they returned home along the same paths they had come by.

It just goes to show that from a higher vantage point, through the eyes of a frog everything appears clearly.

Beneath & behind Japanese gardens

Though Japanese gardens and their design are very strongly connected with temples, nearly everything sublime in Japan’s gardens can be traced back to the basic principles of Shinto, Japan’s native animistic religion. The connection between Shinto and Buddhism is the Taoist philosophy upon which a good portion of China’s Buddhism rests. The mythology of Taoist thought was and still similar in a number of ways to Shinto beliefs. Taoists are not animists, of course.

There are many examples of things in Japanese gardens that come from Shinto. All over Japan there are strangely shaped or unusually large stones, trees, mountains and ponds inhabited by kamisama (deities) with rough rice straw shimenawa ropes wrapped around them to clearly indicate that they are sacred. In Shinto, sacred things are always natural things and they are referred to as Go-shintai (honorable abode of the gods). Sacred stones are referred to as iwakura and sacred ponds as kami-ike (god ponds). A thick, dense formation of tree is called a himorogi (divine hedge) and moats and streams, which often enclose sacred ground, are referred to as mizugaki (water fences).

Another thing that first developed in Shinto is the use of white gravel or sand, so celebrated in dry landscape Zen gardens that first developed in the 13th century. Kamigamo Shrine (see back cover), one of the oldest pure Shinto shrines in Japan, has extensive areas of white sand and two unusual sand cones. White sand in Shinto denotes sacred ground. White is also the color of the great purifying material—salt—that is a common element in Shinto rituals. Shinto is also built on the belief that certain directions are better than others and the certain locations are more powerful than others. Both of these beliefs are used as fundamental rules in designing a garden: which way what faces, where what would go or feel best, and so on.

The fundamentals of Japanese garden design all stem from four principles that are more connected to Shinto than they are to Buddhism. In fact, all of these principles are clearly stated in the Sakuteiki (Garden Making Record), the oldest Japanese record on gardens written in the early Heian period (794-1185). In the Sakuteiki gardens must: 1) create a likeness of the natural world; 2) follow the natural flow of the land; 3) be off balance or irregular and not symmetrical; 4) give a sense of spirit of the location. Upon closer examination of these principles we can say that they are all based upon the core beliefs of Shinto. The first principle is really the first law of Shinto: all that is sacred lives in the world of nature; the second is also from Shinto: leave the important deities where they were (i.e. do not move large rocks from one side of the garden to the other); the third is really a refinement of the first law: nature is asymmetrical and irregular so . . .; the fourth can be read as: try to capture the sense or feeling of the kamisama of a place in your garden design.

When creating a garden from the ground up at a temple or home, the most important thing are the stones. There are many superstitions related to misplacing or moving certain stones which are probably inhabited by kamisama and thus kept sacred. Indeed, when a house and its garden are torn down: only the stones are saved and left on the land. When stones are placed they should look like they have always been there. They are often placed in odd places in groups of three and always in an irregular fashion. Some are jagged to suggest mountains. Some are rounded and smooth to suggest the action of water on stone. Some are symbolic of animals like turtles or cranes.

The paths that lead through a Japanese garden are also very much in keeping with Shinto philosophies. The path or roji should follow a line that is much like a path through a forest: never straight for long and always bending and turning and yielding a sense of wonder and surprise that unfolds before the walker. The view along the path is not for the display of flowers alone or for purely decorative effects: this would be artificial and a violation of rule #1.

The next time you enter a shrine see if you can see the Shinto principles upon which Japanese gardens are built. And remember the world around you is more alive than you think. Learn more!

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!