Today was our first early morning wake-up (5.30) to outrun the crowds at the very popular Fushimi Inari shrine perched on top of a mountain top. This is a shinto shrine but rather than the traditional single torri gate, the path towards this one winds up the mountain with whole corridors of torri. The light reflecting through the pillars at dawn was beautiful and being able to take shots devoid of people felt like a true pilgrimage to the top.
It was a steep climb of well over 45 minutes in a beautiful forest of trees surrounded by birdsong. Signs warned us of wild boar and there were numerous cats.
With only our group of 16 and a handful of others, it was easy to break away and enjoy it by yourself making it mystical and spiritual. You heard little streams and rivulets, came across wells and ponds and again those wonderful ancient trees and the torri gates everywhere, weather beaten and engraved with script. Centuries of history and tradition.
Many small shrines along the way had statues of animals or people wearing bibs, usually red. In the Shinto faith you cross a river to the hereafter but small children need help being carried across. The bibs designate deities to help the kids.
In Shinto you do not believe in one god but multiple deities just like hinduism.
We were meant to meet up at the main shrine at the bottom of the mountain after two hours but I managed to get lost and go halfway down the other side walking along a lovely path by a stream into the forest. First I noticed a couple doing outdoor exercises.
After a few minutes I was puzzled by the lack of torri gates, and I came to a secluded hut by a small waterfall where a man was tending to his shrine. With sign language I managed to convey where I needed to go so he pointed back up the mountain. Huffing and puffing without a soul in sight I finally saw the trademark red columns everywhere and realized they had Kanji script on the side where you were going down. It was easy to make wrong turns to side shrines but as long as I followed the Kanji I was ok.
After a few minutes I was puzzled by the lack of torri gates, and I came to a secluded hut by a small waterfall where a man was tending to his shrine. With sign language I managed to convey where I needed to go so he pointed back up the mountain. Huffing and puffing without a soul in sight I finally saw the trademark red columns everywhere and realized they had Kanji script on the side where you were going down. It was easy to make wrong turns to side shrines but as long as I followed the Kanji I was ok.
What is notable about Japan is how safe it feels even if you are all by yourself. People are polite, helpful and very kind. It is so hard to reconcile this with the brutal atrocities of WW II.
Back at the hotel we had a delicious breakfast of eggs benedict before checking out of our rooms. We gathered in a board room at the hotel for a two hour session critiquing each other's work, before catching the bus to the Kyoto train station for our bullet train to Tokyo.
With time to spare we bought bento boxes and beer to eat on the train.
With time to spare we bought bento boxes and beer to eat on the train.
The ride took just over two hours. This time it was prettier as the mountains were shrouded in fog. It had started to rain just after we got back from the shrine creating hazy conditions.
Upon arrival in Tokyo it was raining heavily and very cold. We were supposed to go to the Zojoji temple and the Tokyo Tower but conditions were too wet so it was pointless to try and take aerial city views. We decided to go to the photography museum instead.
There were three exhibits on. The first one we saw was called the Dawn of Japanese photography. Even though cameras were invented in 1839 Japan did not have any photographs to document this until 1859. Initially it was used mainly for portraits but later on they used photography to document natural disasters as well. Given the fact photography has been around for less than two hundred years it is amazing how we progressed from silver plates, to colour film and then to digital. The early photographs were small but very fine and precise in detail.
The second exhibit was by a Japanese, photojournalist named Hiromi Nagakura. I loved his work despite the hardships they portrayed in El Salvador, South African goldmines, Afghanistan etc. with fascinating portraits of Massoud, "the Lion of Panjshir."
The last exhibit was very modern with work by Yamazaki Hiroshi. This appealed to me less with blurs of light and what I call "clever" photography which for me focuses on gimmicks rather than beautiful photos but it was interesting in a sense as it depicted how to make collections, which our two lead photographers keep hammering on about. They want us to think before we shoot and come up with themes and shared keywords rather than a haphazard collection of snapshots.
In this exhibit the photographer had several shots taken from a road along the coast with the same cliff in the distance but each shot had a different fence or road boundary making it a very interesting grouping of photographs.
We were exhausted by the time we got to the Imperial hotel. This was built in 1923 by Frank Lloyd Wright. It has two wings. We are staying in the Tower one. Rooms are small despite the luxury and there are no gardens so for Tokyo I, by far, prefer the New Otani we stayed at last week. Here restaurants are underground with no view. Our first night we ate at the Brasserie, a french restaurant. Food was good and the waiter was wonderful, but being saturday night it was noisy with sound bouncing off the mirrored walls.
p.s this was Johnny's photo of the monk reflected in the red wood I alluded to, two posts back, then forgot to include.
p.s this was Johnny's photo of the monk reflected in the red wood I alluded to, two posts back, then forgot to include.
glorious red gates
leading upwards to heaven
in harmony with trees
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