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Iwate Day 2 At Chusonji, Hiraizumi, an unexpected unique building of Noh Theater. Usual Noh Theaters are inside a larger building and only the stage and a walkway is seen. Here, being outdoors the whole building stands alone.
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| Bishamondo | Hiraizumi Chusonji - World Heritage | Hakusan Shrine and Noh Theater | |
| Walk to Hiraizumi train station | Hanamaki Miyazawa Kenji Museum | ||
| Iwate Day 2 - Hiraizumi and Hanamaki | |||
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Takkoku Bishamondo, a temple built into a huge rock, is on the way to Chusonji in Hiraizumi. It was a walking distance from our inn but because the bus from there to Chusonji was not in service, we opted to take a taxi to Chusonji with a stop at Bishamondo.
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_23apr09-nn_0601.jpg Buddha's face is carved in the rock. His body was destroyed by the 1896 earthquake.  |
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_23apr10-bw_0952.jpg The ropes to shake off snow in winter?  |
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_23apr09-nn_0611.jpg Kondo (Golden Hall)  |
_23apr09-nn_0611a.jpg Itsuko loves to take pictures of wild flowerw, in this case 'katakuri' (dogtooth violet) flowers  |
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_23apr10-bw_0958.jpg 500 years old Okkou (a kind of yew) tree  |
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Chusonji, originally founded by Priest En'nin in 850 AD, was greatly expanded in 12th century by the Fujiwara family, who poured thier wealth over three generations. Although many buildings and treasures were lost in the 1337 fire, what remains still is impressive, especially the Konjikido, and was designated UNESCO World Hieritage site in 2011. It is known to preserve the best of Heian Buddhist Culture in the Eastern Japan.
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_chusonjitemplep1.jpg Important treasures are preserved at this place. Thanks to this remote location they were not destroyed in the many wars since Heian times. The brochure shows the "golden hall" which we saw but could not photograph.  |
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_23apr09-nn_0701.jpg Katakuri flowers abundant  |
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_23apr09-nn_0755a.jpg Matsuo Basho, a welknown haiku poet, stopped by at Chusonji during his travels in 'Oku no Hosomichi' (The Narrow Road to the Deep North).  |
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_23apr10-bw_1140a.jpg Statue of Basho who loved this place.  |
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_chusonjitemplepagodaofsutras.jpg One of the exhibits in the museum. This "linework" of this graphic actually consist of sutras written in tiny script.  |
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Within the compund of Chusonji Temple, stands Hakusan Shrine with its unusual outdoor Noh Theater. This conforms to the Noh Stage template layout, which is explicit. I have never seen an outdoor Noh theater which true to the form. There remain very few outdoor Noh theaters.
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_23apr09-nn_0809.jpg Hakusan Shrine  |
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_23apr10-bw_1202.jpg This praises the Noh Theater: "If I were a Noh Actor my life would be incomplete unless I had played on this stage."  |
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This was a bit of a walk but the road was lined with sakura in full bloom.
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Miyazawa Kenji is most famous as author of "Night Train to the Stars" or 'The Night of the Milky Way Train" (the title is translated variously.) He has written several childrens stories as well as poems. Nearly everyone in Japan knows this. Noriko has always been intrigued by him and by his work. The museum had little physical artifacts to show but manuscript pages. All text was all in Japanese but the foreigner could get access to translations by QR code. Using my phone I downloaded them all. This took a while.
For easier consumption I posted all the photo deposits to the web.Miyazawa Kenji The narrative asserts: "Miyazawa's was the life of a boddhisattva." I agree this description fits. He lived too brief a life to develop virtuosity at a single thing nor was he interested in specializing. His interests were in everything and in what my be discovered by find relations. I have never heard of anyone of such scope of interests. One would expect that by spreading himself so thinly he would never do or write anything of consequence. Instead the opposite prove true in his case. I will always remember my impressions. | ||
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