2012年1月31日火曜日

Place and People

This is a temple in Nagasaki, called Dai-oon-ji. It means ‘loud noise’.
This picture was taken to show how the Dai-oon-ji looks like. However, the person who took the picture did not go far from the temple and tried to take all of the details, instead he took focusing on the entrance which is the main part of the temple.
This is a traditional temple which has tile roofing and the building itself is mainly made by wood. There are some decorations under the roof. The doors are fusuma door and I guess in the inside, there are tatami.
On the left side of the picture, there is palm tree which is just the right height. It does not cover the temple but the tree is not so small. It seems like someone planted there because it is surrounded by the block. On the right side of the temple, there is a tree which is unique looking. At first, I thought these palm trees were from the foreign countries (palm tree gives me image of tropical country), but searching on the Internet, there was some in Japan too.  
It gives me sense of unity of the temple and the nature, because there are tree all around the temple and some of the tall trees are covering the roof.

There is four people visiting there which looks like farmers or merchant. Some are bowing to the temple and the priest standing on the stairs. Next to the priest, there is a samurai. They looks like having a conversation.
This temple is so beautiful because the nature and the building matches perfectly!

The person who took this picture wanted the viewer to see the girl and this way of presenting a picture reminds me of pinhole camera.
This girl is playing koto. Koto is an instrument which you pluck the strings to play. In these days, these instruments must have been expensive. The girl wears nice kimono and has very nice hair accessories. These accessories are called kanzashi. She wears nice kimono and we can tell that she is from a rich family. In the left of the picture, there is a tea pot and a table.
She is sitting up straight and looking at the koto and playing some music. Her eyes are very serious and concentrating on her work. The way she looks at the koto and the way she sits gives an image that she has dignity.

3 件のコメント:

  1. About the picture of the temple, I was wondering why they named the temple 'loud noise". Also the comment about the plan trees was interesting because most westerns saw Japan as a tropical, exotic place. What do you think her playing the koto says about her and Japanese artists in general?

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    1. In kanji, 'daion' means loud noise but according to the Internet, I found out that this temple is built in the Daion city. Daion was the last name of the person who had big power in the Meiji period.
      For the palm tree, I just had an image of Hawaii and some other places that are warmer and have beautiful oceans. However, there are some palm trees in south part of Japan.
      Koto is a very expensive instrument in Japan, and rich merchants and some other people who had wealth could afford it. So I guess she is a daughter from a rich family.
      Thank you for the comment! It really made me think of the picture again:)

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  2. Great pictures! I found it interesting that there were palm trees in Japan too. That's pretty cool. I also like the idea that there's unity between the temple and nature surrounding it.
    I think there's something really elegant and beautiful seeing the Japanese woman playing the koto. The kimono, her posture, and concentration look really graceful and mannered.

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