Last week, there was a festival “Matsuri” at our neighborhood temple (YOU TUBE video), the Komyoji. Every year they have an event at the temple called Ojuya, which means a Buddhist memorial service for the repose of the dead for 3 days. The temple belongs to the Jodo ... Continue Reading
Koyasan is beautiful. The temples are so nice and well maintained and the artwork especially the paintings, sumie on the sliding doors “fusuma” are wonderful and so exquisite. My Japanese artist name is “Shiratori”: white bird and so, I have some extra int ... Continue Reading
In 2 weeks I will have an exhibition at mount Koyasan with 40 other artist. It will be a multi media exhibition and I will have my show in the Eko-in temple. I’m preparing and packing. We will travel for 6 hours and transfer several times on different trains to reach Koyasa ... Continue Reading
The “zaimoku” in the name Zaimokuza means “lumber,” and the “za” generally means a guild of merchants and artisans who did business under the patronage of the large shrines, and temples in the Kamakura (1185/92-1333) and Muromachi periods (1335 ... Continue Reading
After being in the US for a while, I finally returned to Kamakura, Japan. Three years ago when we moved partially to Kamakura, we were just in time to see some “Sakura” and the Spring parade. It was a wonderful start to enter Japan. Now again, after making the decisi ... Continue Reading
On New Years Eve we also went to the Hongakuji temple on our way back home. This temple is beautifully decorated with lighted lamps “akachochin” (red lamps) and “shirochochin” (white lamps). This is the Ebisu-do Hall built by the 1st shogun Minamoto Yorit ... Continue Reading
This year we celebrated our holidays in Japan. We got a Japan Rail Pass and with our 2 oldest boys we traveled first to Koya-san, south of Osaka and about 6 hours of travel from Kamakura. Mount Koya, set amid black cedars at an altitude of 1000 m., is Japan’s most venerated ... Continue Reading
I am on my way back to the US and am in the train from Kamakura to Narita Airport what will take about 2 1/2 hours. A perfect time to continue my writing until the battery runs out. The 2nd day started out with a demonstration of Euan Craig to make different kinds of ceramic ware ... Continue Reading
I’m back in Japan and the weather is of course quite hot and humid. But you adjust and luckily in my little house there is air conditioning. The first thing I did was walking on the beach, seeing lots of vacationers and going to the neighborhood temple, the Komyoji. Kishu T ... Continue Reading
The last couple of days, I also walked around in Tokyo and you find the most beautiful amazing parks. The next pictures are taken at the Kitanomaru National Garden “Koen” at the Imperial grounds and the Yasukuni Shrine “Jinja”. Just incredible! This is pa ... Continue Reading
