Thursday: Nighttime at Kodai-ji


After dinner Wes, Shiela, and I strolled over to see Kodai-ji - about a three minute walk.  During certain times of years they light this temple up for night viewing, and it's pretty spectacular. I cannot image how much work it must have taken to get all those lights placed.

As I write this it's late and so I'm going to run through the photos without a lot of comment.  To tee it off, Kodai-ji is a temple complex founded by the great shogun Hideyoshi's wife Toyotomi Yoshiko, affectionately known by everyone as Nene (hence the name of our home for this week).









To the left of this cherry tree is a classic Zen rock garden - beautifully arranged.  When we came we were treated to a light show set to classical music at the garden.  Yeah you heard right, a LIGHT SHOW - projected onto the garden and the wall behind it.  I've got a video of it, but getting the video to this blog is another thing.  It was wild, technically complex, and beautiful.  I loved the effort to bring a modern art form to that old place.  Seems like Kodai-ji is into that.  For instance, check out the manga-esque wall panel in one of the otherwise very traditional rooms:





I love this scroll.  The calligraphy is "No mind."




 The path leads you higher and higher, until you reach a teahouse at the top, a good spot to view the moon.  Moonviewing was a common pasttime in Kyoto - it was known for it back in the day.  And as luck would have it, the moon was setting over the bamboo grove as we got to the top:


 The tour ends with a walk down the hill through a bamboo forest:




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