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Daikoku at Kiyomizudera (清水寺) in Kyoto
Daikokuten is one of the Seven Lucky Gods. Frequently seen with Ebisu, at Kiyomizu he is solo. Daikokuten is best known as the god of wealth. The mallet in his hand is supposed to magically conjure up money. The rice bags he stands on symbolize wealth. He also has a bag of rice slung over his shoulder.
“When we reached Arashiyama, we walked towards the Togetsu Bridge…
One could see the Hozu River from the path. We were exactly by the dam north of the Togetsu Bridge. The Ranzan hills on the opposite bank were heavy with gloomy green, but at just that point a vivid white streak of foam stretched across the river and the air was full of the water’s roar.
We walked along the river until we reached the Kameyama Park at the end of the road. There was a good number of boats on the river…
At the gate we turned back and looked once more at the Hozu River and the green foliage of Arashiyama.” (The Temple of the Golden Pavilion, p. 116-118)
I’m having a most fabulous time reading this book that features images I encountered just last year even though the book is set in the late 1940s.
If you click on the above image to make it larger you will be able to read a sign that says ボートのりば on the right which means something like “boat launch” or “boat boarding area.” You can also see a couple of different style empty boats on the opposite shore. I’ll show you some pictures of people in the boats that we encountered further up the river in a future blog entry.
This is basically the same view as the one previously shown. This photograph was taken back 50 yards or so, showing the bridge that the other was taken from.
While in Kyoto I happened to catch this wedding party coming down the street in a rickshaw. The bride doesn’t seem to be enjoying the occasion as much as the groom. Maybe the expressions would be reversed if he was wearing the hat instead.
In the hills at the back there was a solitary pond covered with duckweed, known as the Yasutamizawa. There was a minute island in the pond and on it stood the Shirahebizuka, a five-storied stone tower. The surrounding morning air was noisy with the twittering of birds.” (The Temple of the Golden Pavilion, p. 37)
This past weekend I began reading Yukio Mishima’s famous book for the first time (subsequent review posted here). I came upon the above passage, and as the picture of the scene arose in my mind while reading I realized that I had actually photographed it last year. I dug through my pictures to find the above. It seems nothing has changed in the subsequent 60 years.
Of course, when I took the picture I had no idea what I was taking a picture of. In fact, I probably only took the photograph because of the crane (on the log on the right). I’m glad that the island and stone tower made it into the photo though.
If you plan to visit the golden pavilion (kinkakuji or 金閣寺) on a trip to Kyoto I would strongly suggest you read this book first. It will make your experience there far more meaningful.
The pond seems to be called anmintaku (安眠沢) even though the translator, Ivan Morris, used an alternative reading of the characters (yasutamizawa). The stone tower also has a different reading of hakujanotsuka (白蛇ノ塚). Ivan Morris used the kun reading of the kanji to come up with shirahebizuka.
Here is another scene from the book.
In my last entry on the topic I noted that I didn’t know if all of the Maiko dashing about Kyoto were real or not. In the afternoon there were many in the Gion neighborhood, but most were probably just regular people who got dressed up and made up to look like Maiko.
At night we saw the above, real Maiko dash from her okiya to an ochaya so I’m quite confident she wasn’t just some tourist who paid to look the part. You can tell the difference between a Geisha and a Maiko in a number of ways. Those include the hair (Maiko usually don’t have wigs and have more adornments in their hair), longer obi (going all the way to the armpits for Maiko), shoes, and red around the eyes (for Maiko).