Gion Matsuri preparations and Koke-dera

Last week was Gion Matsuri, one of the three biggest festivals in Japan. The local community build highly decorated floats that they then pull around in a parade, as musicians play traditional music. They build the floats the weekend before. Then for the three nights leading up to the parade the roads in the center of town are closed at night so that people can wander around the lit-up floats, buying protection charms and apparently eating a lot of good food. Unfortunately the festival coincided with my exam week, so I couldn't make it out for these festivities, but I did go and have a wander around last weekend to see the floats being made.

Here's an almost-complete one tucked down a side street.

 The little platform comes straight out of the second floor of one of the businesses along the main road.

 We managed to be there just in time to see the wheels going on to this one. The men are about to lever the entire thing up a bit with that log so that they can slip the wheel into place.

 One much less complete float. I love the design that the ropes make. It looked like the entire thing is made by slotting pieces of wood together and then making sure they don't fall out with the rope.

 Spent a long time watching these guys run around on the top of this one with big planks of wood, without once wobbling. Okay, so it's not that high, but I'm not sure I would be able to!

 Getting ready to hang the banners down the side of this one.

The next day we got up bright and early and in the pouring rain to go and visit Koke-dera, the moss temple. It's a Unesco World Heritage site, so they really limit the number of visitors and you have to send them a postcard asking to go. That part was kind of exciting, it was my first (and so far only) letter in Japanese. I heard it's best to go when it's been raining, so the moss will be happy, and that was a consolation for how squelchy my shoes got... Actually, it was rather a relief to be out and about in relatively cool weather, and the temple is up in the mountains a little so the air was much clearer. It was raining hardest as the monk recited a sutra at the beginning of the visit, and it sounded all the more beautiful.

 Once you've listened to the chanting and written a wish to offer at the altar, you're allowed to go and explore the garden. You can also copy the sutra you just heard with the calligraphy materials provided.

 It's probably a good thing that you have to book your entrance in advance, because if I could, I would probably go every week, it's that lovely a garden. Even the area around it is pretty. This is the wall by the road.

 This week was also my last ikebana class. I enjoyed this class even more than I expected to, and it was a really nice arrangement to finish off.

 The two sets of flowers we had this week join last week's willow arrangement that's still going strong. Since I took this picture the lilies have opened as well. I always got a little extra kick out of bringing the flowers home in brown paper like I'd gotten a bouquet, and sticking them in the kitchen for everyone to enjoy.

Now, finally, though, not only has ikebana finished but so have the rest of my classes. It was a pretty unforgiving term, but I feel like I learnt a lot. Now to actually organise... everything.

But before I go back to the UK there is still a lot of fun to be had. I was already out touristing yesterday at Uji and then to Fushimi Inari shrine (Again! But there was a special reason this time), so I'll write a post about that sometime this week. I'm also off to Tokyo on Tuesday evening, and when I get back I'm planning a lot more day trips from Kyoto. Watch this space!

Ikebana

Hello! This week I thought I'd tell you about the ikebana class I'm taking. It's part of the traditional arts programmes available to foreign students, the same as the ceramics course from last term.

(It's a lot harder than the ceramics course from last term).

"Ikebana" is Japanese flower arranging. It's linked to Buddhism (like calligraphy and tea ceremony) but it's used in a secular way too. Kind of like the UK, actually - there's a lot of flower arranging in churches but you don't need to believe in God to buy a bouquet. Our teacher explained the most common place for ikebana arrangements are in the alcove (tokonoma) of a traditional Japanese room. But he has also participated in live shows where he might create an arrangement on stage as traditional Japanese music plays, for example.

By the way, our teacher is a really interesting guy. You can check out the homepage for the school here. He's the third generation head of this pretty successful school of ikebana, and through the live shows and some collaborations with other successors to Kyoto's traditional arts has apparently done a lot to keep the arts here going. You could see how inspired he feels about this stuff when he was talking about it in our first class.

So here are a few of my attempts at ikebana. The school we're learning with takes a geometric approach to how the flowers should be laid out. So when you're trying to work out why your arrangement doesn't look quite right, then you move one flower sideways by an inch - suddenly the angles all line up and it's really very satisying. I also like playing with the flowers (the roses were a little less fun...).

 The first week. I was so happy to take the flowers home with me that I set them up just like this in my room. By midnight my nose was streaming and I remembered my hayfever. The flowers were promptly removed to the kitchen, where all subsequent arrangements now live.

 This was an interesting one. Unlike traditional Western flower aranging, which tends to go for a flourishing, in-bloom feel, ikebana is about the entire life of the flower. I really liked using the buds as part of the design. Our homework that week was to watch them open and then die.
(Mine died prematurely because I couldn't get them to water in time...)

This is my favourite! I really like sunflowers, so I was hoping to be able to use them, but thought that they probably weren't the right kind of plant for ikebana or something. Very happy to be wrong!

I'm going to try to update this blog much more regularly from now on - in fact, I'm aiming for every Monday, but don't expect toooo much.

So, fingers crossed, I'll write again next Monday!