Art & Nature

While in Hiroshima recently, I visited the Hiroshima Prefectural Art Museum and the adjacent Shukkeien Garden.

The urban style art museum is an architecturally beautiful building housing a selection of art works of local masters and arts & crafts of Japan as well special exhibitions. The special exhibition at the time of my visit was "The Moomin's World - from the Tampere Art Museum, Moominvalley"

Shukkeien Garden is a beautiful Japanese garden that incorporates water, greenery, stone and architecture.









The garden "was constructed in 1620 by Soko Ueda (who is known as a famous master of the tea ceremony) as the garden of the villa for the Asano clan. It's name (literally "shrunken-scenery garden") expresses the idea of collecting and miniaturizing many scenic views (mountains, rivers, lakes, teahouses), and according to tradition, the miniature landscape is modeled on Xihu (West Lake), a world-famous scenic spot in China." *

Here's a short video of the gardens:



Whilst in the garden I witnessed a wedding in the open tea house by the lake. The wedding involved a traditional tea ceremony and was eagerly viewed by many on-lookers!











The plum blossoms were in full bloom and made a beautiful picture as did some of the happy admirers!

















There are lots more of my pics of the beautiful Shukkeien Garden here.

Catching up......a wedding, lots of fish, ceramics, sushi, drinks and christmas...

It's now 2008 and I'm playing catch up.....life has been so busy and my blog has sadly remained untouched. Here's my first entry in an attempt to fill in the gaps:

A wedding.....








I was very fortunate to be invited to a Shinto wedding in October. A unique and wonderful experience. I felt very privileged, but very conspicuous as I was the only westerner in attendance! I didn't know anyone there except for my lovely Japanese friend Naomi who arranged for me to go. I met the bride (Rika) afterwards and thanked her for allowing me to come. Following the ceremony there was a celebration which I did not attend, but Naomi kindly gave me photos to complete my education in Japanese wedding customs!

On arrival before the ceremony there is the serious business of giving money (usually around $300 or more per person) to the bride and groom - a special ornate card/envelope is used to present your money to the family and you sign a book, or register, to indicate that you were a guest at the wedding. After these formalities the guests gather quietly and process to the temple and form a "guard of honour" either side of a red carpet leading up to the temple steps -the groom's guests and family on one side, and the bride's on the other. Interestingly, the bride's guests are female and the groom's are male. Apart from family members the bride and groom may only each invite members of the same sex!

The bride and groom, accompanied by temple monks playing special instruments, form a procession in to the temple. The bride is protected by a beautiful big red parasol. Guests then fall in line and follow the wedding party in.
The ceremony is quite short and involves little or no dialogue. There is lots of chanting, temple maidens dancing, and sake drinking by the bridal party. Immediately after the ceremony the guests gather again in front of the temple for an official group photo with the newlyweds. I felt very obvious in the photo as I ended up in the middle right behind the bride!
Invited guests attend the wedding celebration afterwards and the bride and groom change from traditional Japanese bridal costume into western bridal dress. The bride's Japanese dress can either be a very formal and traditional white kimono with white hood or a very ornate red with gold thread kimono with white hood. She wears her hair swept up with the hood worn over the top to cover the "jealousy horns" common to all Japanese women!

Following the celebration, the guests are presented with gifts from the bride and groom - these are usually quite expensive and and can range from designer china to bath products, food or even gift vouchers. Rika and her groom presented traditional Japanese foods and a gift catalogue for guests to select their own gifts.

Certainly different from western weddings!

Kamakura again....

Just can't keep me away from Kamakura! It is so nice to scoot down there for a day of wandering, temple gazing and people watching. Always fun!
This time I walked down to the beach, a 20 minute walk from the station...it's not the most attractive beach..... mmm, at least it gave me a new appreciation for the pristine shores of Jervis Bay.









Not far from the beach is Komyoji temple with a very tranquil Zen stone garden. Quite a lovely place to sit and ponder.... how do they get those stones so nicely arranged????









After that little contemplation I wandered the streets some more and found some interesting things to photograph - a japanese bride arriving for her wedding party at one of the many many "wedding centres" that are so very popular here....














and then for something completely different.... people love to take their dogs for walks in dog strollers! Sometimes I think they confuse their dogs with children....the dogs are often wearing clothing - ribbons, dresses, track suits, raincoats, sunglasses - you name it there is a dog somewhere in Japan that is wearing it. You should see the dog shops/boutiques/cafes!












and .... near the beach by the side of a road, fish drying in the sun....











more photos

life is never dull!