Latest news with #KyotoNationalMuseum
SoraNews24
27-06-2025
- SoraNews24
A nearly 400-year-old Kyoto temple ordinarily closed to public is accepting visitors this summer
A rare chance to see this temple-within-a-temple that's off the beaten tourist track. Kyoto is one of Japan's top travel destinations, and with good reason, as the city boasts the densest distribution of historically significant temples in the whole country. As a matter of fact, you can find temples inside temples at Kyoto's Myoshinji. Founded in 1337 and located in northwestern Kyoto, Myoshinjji is a Zen temple that's the head temple of the Rinzai sect, and also a complex that contains more than 40 sub-temples. Most of these sub-temples are closed to the public, but this summer Tenkyuin Temple is making an exception, and we took part in a press tour (which also gave us permission to photograph on the premises) to get a rare look at this ordinarily off-limits part of Kyoto. ▼ Myoshinji Myoshinji is about a five-minute walk from Hanazono Station on JR/Japan Railway Company's Sagano Line. Though many of Kyoto's more famous temples are packed with tourists these days, Myoshinji is slightly removed from the city center, making the crowds smaller and the atmosphere more relaxed than at a lot of other Kyoto sightseeing spots we've been to recently. ▼ It was peaceful enough that we had time to stop and smell the enticing aroma of the gardenias that were blooming on the temple grounds. Tenkyuin Temple was built in 1631, with its construction spearheaded by Lady Tenkyuin, the daughter of samurai lord Ikeda Terumasa, who ruled over the Himeji domain (part of present-day Hyogo Prefecture). Among the design points Lady Tenkyuin decided on was commissioning a set of exquisite wall/sliding doorpaintings for the abbot's chambers. She selected two of the most renowned artists of the day, Kano Sanraku and his son-in-law, Kano Sansetsu. With Sanraku having been born in 1559 and Sansetsu in 1590, the pair's work represents not only a bridge between generations, but also a transitionary period in Japanese art history as the centuries-long civil war of the Sengoku Period gave way to the stability of the Edo Period, which began at the start of the 1600s. Because of their historical value, a number of the Kanos' Tenkyuin paintings are now kept and displayed at the Kyoto National Museum, in an environment where the temperature and humidity can be more tightly controlled, and so some of the panels seen inside Tenkyuin are actually extremely high-quality reproductions by Canon. There are original Kano paintings mixed in among the sections pictured below, however. Not all of Tenkyui's beauty is contained within its walls, though, as it also has a lovely garden. The conventional wisdom says that you should avoid traveling in Japan in June, when the weather is hot and humid in most of the country, and especially so in Kyoto. If you can bear with the steamy conditions, though, this can be an excellent time for visiting gardens, as the misty skies can sometimes give the greenery and floral colors a moist, shimmery look. You don't have to go to Tenkyuin during the June rainy season, though, as this year it'll be open to visitors from June 7 all the way through August 31. Admission is priced at 2,500 yen (US$17.25) and prior reservations are required, and can be made online here through JR Central's EX ticketing service. Reference: Myoshinji official website, JR Sou Da Kyoto Ikou tourism website (1, 2), Kyoto National Museum Photos marked JR東海 provided by JR Central All other photos ©SoraNews24 ● Want to hear about SoraNews24's latest articles as soon as they're published? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter! [ Read in Japanese ]
08-06-2025
Sesshū: The Master Painter Who Brought Chinese Styles to Japan
Sesshū (1420–ca. 1506) was a Japanese Zen monk and ink painting master. He was active around the same time as the Chinese Southern School painter Shen Zhou (1427–1509) and the Italian artist Sandro Botticelli (1445–1510). Amid the many works he produced in a variety of styles, his masterful late painting of Amanohashidate, completed with light brushstrokes like a preparatory sketch, gives a bird's eye view of the picturesque sandbar whose name can be rendered as 'Bridge to Heaven.' Amanohashidatezu (Picture of Amanohashidate), a national treasure. (Courtesy Kyoto National Museum) By contrast, the winter section of his Autumn and Winter Landscapes is a scene impossible in reality, semi-abstract in its overlapping rocks with strong outlines. Shūtō sansuizu (Autumn and Winter Landscapes), a national treasure. Autumn is on the right and winter on the left. (Courtesy Tokyo National Museum) Travel in China Born in what is now Sōja in Okayama Prefecture, Sesshū was raised from a young age at the temple of Hōfukuji and became a monk. After traveling to Kyoto, he studied under another monk and painter called Shūbun at the major temple of Shōkokuji. While his talent was recognized to some extent, his rough, powerful style did not match the delicate tastes of Kyoto intellectuals. Feeling himself at an impasse, in his mid-thirties Sesshū took a position under the daimyō Ōuchi Masahiro, whose territories extended over today's prefectures of Yamaguchi, Hiroshima, and Fukuoka. Masahiro was one of the country's leading daimyō, and his control of the port city Hakata brought him huge profits from trade with China and Korea. Imports included expensive paintings and artworks known as karamono (literally, 'Chinese goods'), which were quite different from the art that Sesshū had seen in Kyoto. As he studied from them, his admiration grew for their authenticity. Masahiro valued Sesshū not only for his painting but also as one of his representatives. When Sesshū was in his forties, Masahiro chose him as an adviser to Keian Genju, a Zen priest who headed the Ōuchi delegation of a trade and diplomacy mission to China. The three arts of poetry, calligraphy, and painting were of central importance to cultured Chinese, and therefore essential to diplomacy and communication, whether as presents, part of entertainment, or to lighten the mood. Another important job for Sesshū meant taking on the equivalent role of a photographer today, depicting the Chinese scenery and people's appearance to convey back to Japan. He must also have selected Chinese paintings to bring home. Sesshū made great progress as an artist over the years he spent in China. When the delegation had an audience with the emperor, there were always first-rate paintings on display, and he could experience many different styles when purchasing artworks. At that time, the Zhe school was in fashion; it was characterized by a rough, energetic style, and allowed for idiosyncratic use of space. This was a good fit for Sesshū's talents, and he picked up techniques from the source like cotton soaking up water. His Landscapes of Four Seasons , completed as a commission while he was in China, has a tight composition that cannot be found in Japanese painting of the era. Sesshū was the only Japanese painter of his time to be recognized in China. Spring (right) and summer (left) from Shiki sansuizu (Landscapes of Four Seasons). (Courtesy Tokyo National Museum) Autumn (right) and winter (left) from Shiki sansuizu (Landscapes of Four Seasons). (Courtesy Tokyo National Museum) At the same time, Sesshū mastered realistic sketching of scenery by studying Chinese artworks. His Picture Scroll of Chinese Scenes , painted on the way back from what is now called Beijing, is a work of high quality that conveys a sense of having faithfully reproduced the landscapes he saw on his travels. Tōdo shōkei zukan (Picture Scroll of Chinese Scenes). (Courtesy Kyoto National Museum) Developing His Style While other artists went to China as part of delegations, they did not so consciously study and absorb the styles of painting they encountered. Some 26 years after returning to Japan, Sesshū was in his seventies when he wrote recollections on a landscape scroll, describing how he had learned artistic techniques from Li Zai in China and Shūbun in Japan. There are no similar long pieces written directly by other Japanese artists of the period. Haboku sansuizu (Broken Ink Landscape), a national treasure. (Courtesy Tokyo National Museum) As Sesshū writes in these reminiscences, while he adapted to Japan after his return, he also opened up his own artistic world. Like someone ordering a Cézanne-influenced work today, in Japan at that time, painters might be asked to create a work in the style of a particular popular Chinese artist, such as Xia Gui, a court painter active in the thirteenth century. Sesshū produced 12 paintings in the style of six famous Chinese artists, as we know from copies by painters in the Kanō school. It was a way of showing patrons what he could do, although he added his own individual touches, so it is clear from a glance that they are by Sesshū. His Autumn and Winter Landscapes and Broken Ink Landscape were developed based on pieces by Xia Gui and Yu Jian. Copies by Kanō Tsunenobu of paintings by Sesshū. Names of the Chinese artists he was imitating appear in the bottom right of each, from left to right: Xia Gui, Liang Kai, and Yu Jian. (Courtesy Tokyo National Museum) Growing Reputation The era helped Sesshū rise to prominence. When he returned to Japan in 1469, the country was in the midst of the Ōnin War of 1467–77. Japan's daimyō split into two armies, taking Kyoto as their battlefield, and the decade-plus of conflict became a major historic turning point. The daimyō who had previously lived in Kyoto, enjoying the capital's culture, returned to their domains after the war was over, where they had to provide their own culture locally. This led to a number of regional 'little Kyotos' arising. Yamaguchi was a classic example, and as its leading painter, Sesshū received many orders not only from the Ōuchi clan, but also from other samurai and monks, sometimes traveling to create artworks. Notably, Sesshū went on a major trip in 1481 at Masahiro's order, trekking from what is now Gifu Prefecture to the Noto Peninsula. He met with governors and other local leaders to convey Masahiro's wishes and also communicated with monks to gather information. His stories of experiences in China and the ink paintings he created on his travels won admiration and his reputation spread. He also made sketches of the places he visited, and in providing both these and the information he gleaned, he was important as Masahiro's 'eyes and ears.' Sesshū's own style, unbound by his Chinese influences, began to be recognized. A work like Autumn and Winter Landscapes followed Xia Gui, but the brushstrokes and composition were all Sesshū's own. A 16-meter scroll completed in his late sixties was a definitive example of Sesshū's style. This monumental work, presented to Masahiro, is filled with every imaginable landscape motif as it depicts the passing of the four seasons. The scroll's rendering of an idealized world and the eternal cycle of time even inspires a religious feeling transcending the laws of nature. While this is also based on a picture by Xia Gui, the rocks and trees are in the Chinese painter's manner, but the landscape is original with Sesshū. It would later become a kind of 'bible' for landscape paintings, and many artists would copy it. Detail from Sansui chōkan (Long Landscape Scroll), a national treasure. (Courtesy Mohri Museum) Building Originality In his seventies, Sesshū painted Eka danpizu (Picture of Huike Cutting Off His Arm), based on a Buddhist legend. Although it is an ordinary ink painting, Bodhidharma's clothes are rendered in dynamic brushstrokes with an unchanging thickness recalling that of a marker pen. In contemporary terms, the face has a graphic appeal, almost like that of a cartoon character. The picture takes inspiration from Minchō, another artist monk who was active in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, with Sesshū incorporating his own 'Zen' in a form of expression that transcends what is considered common sense in ink painting. In his eighties, Sesshū traveled to Amanohashidate in what is now the north of Kyoto Prefecture; this was his last long 'business trip.' His picture of what is traditionally considered to be one of Japan's Three Scenic Views seems to be copied from nature, but there is actually no location from which it appears like this. Sesshū based his sketches on what he saw at ground level, creating a scene from an imaginary viewpoint. In some respects, it is very accurate; a similar landscape can be seen by helicopter today. While it is a common perspective today, among his Japanese contemporaries only Sesshū painted a bird's eye view. This work also faithfully reproduces holy Buddhist and Shintō sites, and recalls Hanghzhou's West Lake in China. In fusing Japanese and Chinese painting traditions, it can be seen as a culmination of Sesshū's work in a different sense than his Long Landscape Scroll . After this, he returned to Yamaguchi, which was where he probably was when he died around 1506. Sesshū's genius lies in how he continued to construct new worlds rather than remaining in any particular style. Among his portraits, Picture of Plum Blossoms and Jurōjin , featuring one of the seven gods of fortune, has a strong Chinese atmosphere, while Portrait of Masuda Kanetaka is in the Japanese tradition, but with a greater realism. Yet he was not simply painting at a whim. While following the styles of his predecessors, he developed his own distinctive approach. This is in the East Asian tradition of both learning from the past and bringing forth new ideas, to slowly build toward originality. Sesshū succeeded brilliantly at doing so. Baika jurōzu (Picture of Plum Blossoms and Jurōjin), at left (Courtesy Tokyo National Museum), and Masuda Kanetakazō (Portrait of Masuda Kanetaka) (Courtesy Sesshū Memorial Museum). Sesshū was also highly influential on later Japanese painters, including those active in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries like the Kyoto artist Hasegawa Tōhaku, who called himself Sesshū V, and Unkoku Tōgan, who started a school of painting in Yamaguchi. The Kanō school, which was backed by the Tokugawa shogunate to become dominant in Japanese art, revered Sesshū as the originator of Chinese-style painting in Japan, with Kanō Tan'yū in particular following him in ink painting. Indeed, no Japanese through history producing an ink painting landscape could possibly be unaware of Sesshū, who is rightly considered a gasei , a 'saint of painting.' (Originally published in Japanese on March 25, 2025. Banner image created based on Sesshū gazō [Portrait of Sesshū] by Tokuriki Zensetsu. Courtesy Tokyo National Museum.)
Tokyo Weekender
30-05-2025
- Tokyo Weekender
What To Do in Kyoto on a Rainy Day
If you're traveling to Japan during the rainy season, checking the weather app can be mildly upsetting — popular areas like Kyoto and Tokyo may display a continuous streak of drizzly cloud icons. But a little rain in Kyoto can actually be a blessing in disguise, offering a unique opportunity to delve deeper into the city's rich culture and hidden gems, away from the usual crowds. From ancient temples to hands-on traditional crafts, Kyoto has a plethora of captivating indoor activities. Here are a few. List of Contents: Explore World-Class Museums Engage in Traditional Japanese Experiences Indoor Shopping and Culinary Gems Temples and Shrines with Indoor Appeal Practical Tips for a Rainy Day in Kyoto Related Posts Explore World-Class Museums As the nation's cultural capital, Kyoto is home to some of Japan's most impressive museums and art galleries. From the vast collection of Japanese art in Kyoto National Museum to the treasure troves at the Kyoto International Manga Museum, there is no shortage of wonders to admire indoors. Below are some great options: Kyoto National Museum One of Japan's most well-known museums, Kyoto National Museum showcases traditional Japanese art and artifacts across various eras. Its vast collections provide an excellent overview of the nation's artistic heritage. Boasting an extensive collection of over 12,000 items, including sculptures, paintings, calligraphy, pottery, fabrics, lacquerware, metalworks and archaeology, the museum is a must-visit landmark. Kyoto City Kyocera Museum of Art Opened in 1933 and recently renovated, Kyocera Museum is a landmark for modern and contemporary art in Kyoto. It houses a diverse collection of around 4,400 pieces of Kyoto art from various eras and genres, including Japanese paintings, Western paintings, sculptures, prints, crafts and calligraphy. Its new wing, Higashiyama Cube, focuses on contemporary art. The museum is known for its excellently curated special exhibitions. Fukuda Art Museum Perfect for those visiting Arashiyama, Fukuda Art Museum offers picturesque views of the river and a more peaceful atmosphere than some of Kyoto's larger museums. It boasts a collection of approximately 2,000 works by Japanese painters from the Edo period to the modern era, including rare pieces. Kyoto International Manga Museum Housed in a former elementary school, this museum is a must-visit for manga enthusiasts. It features a vast collection of over 300,000 manga volumes (many available for reading), exhibits on the history and evolution of manga, interactive experiences and even opportunities to get a personalized portrait drawn by a manga artist. Kyoto Railway Museum Perfect for train lovers of all ages, this museum delves into Japan's railway history with interactive exhibits and impressive train displays, including steam locomotives and bullet trains. Raku Museum Dedicated to the esteemed Raku family of potters, this museum provides a deep dive into their unique style of tea ceremony ceramics, which have been produced since the 16th century. It features an impressive collection of handmade Raku ceramics and seasonal exhibitions. Engage in Traditional Japanese Experiences Tea Ceremony A quintessential Kyoto experience, traditional tea ceremonies provide people with the opportunity to learn the art of matcha preparation and appreciate Japanese hospitality in a serene indoor setting. Many tea houses, like those in Kiyomizu, offer English-friendly sessions, some even with kimono rental options. Traditional Crafts Workshops Get hands-on with Kyoto's heritage. Options include: Pottery workshops , such as making Kyo-yaki. Wagashi-making classes using ingredients like red bean paste, rice flour and agar. Origami and calligraphy classes with easy steps and guidance. Woodblock printing ( Karakami ) , which involves carving an image in reverse onto a wooden block, inking it and then pressing it onto paper or fabric. The Samurai Ninja Museum with Experience: Located near Nishiki Market, this interactive museum offers insights into Japan's warrior culture with engaging exhibits and opportunities to try ninja tools or samurai sword performances. Cooking classes: From sushi and ramen to bento boxes and traditional Kyoto dishes, you can learn to recreate your favorite Japanese flavors. Many classes also include a trip to Nishiki Market for ingredient sourcing. Nishiki Market Indoor Shopping and Culinary Gems Rainy days are perfect for exploring Kyoto's vibrant covered shopping arcades and cozy cafés, offering a chance to discover souvenirs and local flavors. Browse Shopping Arcades Nishiki Market (Kyoto's Kitchen): While often bustling, the majority of Nishiki Market is covered, making it an ideal rainy-day destination. Explore over 100 stalls selling fresh produce, seafood, traditional Kyoto delicacies and souvenirs. Teramachi and Shinkyogoku Shopping Streets : These two interconnected, covered shopping arcades run parallel to each other and offer a fantastic mix of traditional and modern shops. You'll find everything from clothing, cosmetics and souvenirs to quirky anime goods and delicious street food. They're also home to several small temples and shrines. Department Stores : For a more modern shopping experience, Kyoto's department stores offer multiple floors of fashion, homewares and exquisite food halls that are a feast for the senses. Cozy Cafés Cafés with a View : Seek out cafés that offer serene garden views, even on a rainy day. Many traditional machiya (townhouses) have been converted into charming cafés with inner courtyards. Nittodo Kyoto Cafe and Inoda Coffee are some beautiful options. Local Coffee Shops : Kyoto has a thriving coffee scene. Check out places like Weekenders Coffee or Walden Woods Kyoto for a relaxing brew. Kenninji Temple Temples and Shrines with Indoor Appeal While many temples are known for their outdoor gardens, several in Kyoto offer significant indoor areas for contemplation, art appreciation, or to simply to enjoy the tranquil atmosphere. The Thousand-Armed Kannon at Sanjusangen-do. Sanjusangendo Temple An impressive temple that is home to 1,001 life-sized statues of Kannon, all housed in a magnificent wooden hall. Kenninji Temple Located in Gion, Kyoto's oldest Zen temple offers beautiful dry gardens visible from inside its main halls. You can also experience sutra copying or zazen meditation here. Higashi Honganji Temple This vast temple complex near Kyoto Station features immense halls that provide a peaceful and uncrowded indoor experience. Tofukuji Temple Known for its stunning autumn foliage, Tofukuji also has impressive indoor areas, including its main hall and various sub-temples, offering serene spaces for reflection. Nijo Castle While the castle grounds are outdoors, the Ninomaru Palace offers a fantastic indoor exploration with ornate sliding doors, 'nightingale floors,' which chirp to warn of intruders, and historical exhibits. Practical Tips for a Rainy Day in Kyoto Wear Appropriate Footwear Comfortable, waterproof shoes are recommended. Carry an Umbrella While most accommodations offer umbrellas, having your own is convenient. You can also purchase affordable umbrellas at convenience stores, or purchase one of Japan's famously high-quality and quirky designs. Consider Public Transportation Buses and subways are excellent for navigating Kyoto on a rainy day, keeping you dry between destinations. Embrace the Atmosphere Rain can add a slower-paced beauty to Kyoto's sights, especially around temples and gardens, highlighting the lush greens and damp stone. Check Opening Hours Always verify the operating hours of attractions, as some may have reduced hours or specific closing days. Related Posts Alternative, Less Crowded Temples and Shrines in Kyoto Rainy Season Style: How To Stay Both Dry and Fashionable During Tsuyu The Best Indoor Things To Do in Tokyo When It's Raining
