Kyoto – Noh Theater, Confectionery Museum, Imperial Gardens, Golden Pavilion and Nishiki Market

Friday, October 13, 2017

We filled our taxis and headed for a small, family-run Noh Theater, where a mother and son, representatives of the proprietary family’s third and fourth generation, offered a lesson in a few of the essentials of the oldest (over 650 years) dramatic art form still practiced.  The original venues were outdoors, with a roofed main stage and a flanking stage, representing a bridge for traveling characters as they arrived and departed. 

Hidden beneath the main stage are large pottery vases that enable the sounds made by actors’ stamping feet to vary according to the desired dramatic effect. In Noh, each sound, gesture, step, piece of scenery, and prop is chosen or executed in order to have maximum impact and meaning with minimal movement.

Noh dramas, performed in ancient Japanese, are often based on traditional tales involving a supernatural being interacting with human characters; the pine trees depicted on the backdrop represent a passageway allowing deities and spirits of the dead to enter the action.

Masks are a vital element of Noh dramas and are highly respected objects, handed down for centuries and stored with great care.  A single mask, depending on the side the actor presents to the audience, or even the tilt of the actor’s head, can display varying emotions or demeanor.  (Side note: Horned masks always represent women, a custom that carries over into the traditional headdress worn by Japanese brides; the white fabric is meant to cover their horns!)

Music for Noh productions is provided by singers and by several instruments. A couple of members of our crew tried their hands at beating the hand drum, held in their left hands at their right shoulders while squeezing the drums’ cords and intoning just the right bellow.

Then it was on to the costumes, and three lucky women (including yours truly!) had the chance to try on a couple of silk kimonos (red for youth) and another lovely robe (pale purple signifying royalty).

A co-ed ensemble of then arrived onstage from afar (via “the bridge”) to learn how to walk the Noh way and not fall off the stage, despite the fact that they were not allowed to look down at their tabi (two-toed socks) clad feet.  The rest of us were happy to remain safely in our seats!

Our lessons complete, we watched a brief performance by the young man, who has been assisting in the family enterprise since age 3!  He has taken the family mission to preserve this ancient art form and keep it alive for new generations of Japanese and visitors to heart.  His mother does presentations similar to the one we experienced today to school groups and others over 200 times each year; this gracious woman has committed her life to fostering cultural communication beyond borders!

We made a brief stop at the Kyoto Confectionery Museum, located next door to the theater.  Confections are big in Kyoto and this museum, operated by a candy-making family, has a small gallery exhibiting sculpture and other works of art constructed out of sweet doughs.  An unusual concept, and no photos were allowed, so feel free to let your imaginations run wild, or have a look at http://sharing-kyoto.com/see_Kyogashi_Museum .  I’m not sure we would have stopped had it not been right next door to our primary destination this morning.

En route to lunch, we walked through the large Syokoku-ji Temple Complex, established in the late 14^th century and rebuilt in 1605 after a fire. It contains a number of sub-temples, a large temple bell which is symbolic of the relationship between China and Japan at the time of the temple’s foundation, and the largest temple meeting hall in Japan.

As we left the temple, we walked through an area with distinctly American-style brick buildings.  It is the campus of Doshisha University, founded by the first Japanese to graduate from an American University. In 1864, Joseph Hardy Neesima defied an overseas travel ban and traveled to Massachusetts, studied at Phillips Andover, graduated from Amherst  College, and was ordained after study at Andover Seminary.  Upon returning to Kyoto as Japan’s first ordained Protestant minister, he founded Doshisha University, which to this day maintains a relationship with Amherst College.  Four members of our group live in Amherst and as we passed by a building bearing a the name Amherst House, we all felt a special connection to a place half a world away.

We cut through the extensive Imperial Palace Gardens, now a public park, to a hotel with a restaurant overlooking a lovely strolling pond and water garden, where we had lunch and then struck off on our own for the afternoon.

We took a cab to the Kinkaku-ji Temple, better known as the Golden Pavilion.  This is the symbol of Kyoto, and even on this cloudy day punctuated with a few rain drops, it was mobbed with visitors.  The chance to see the gold-leaf clad temple on the shore of a quiet pond, surrounded by yet another wonderful garden, was worth being overtaken by the swarms of school groups that were also visiting this afternoon.  Though there was some jostling to get into position for the best photo ops, the presence of the school kids lead to one of the sweetest encounters of the trip.  A small group of students politely asked if they could practice their English with us.  (This is a common occurrence in Japan.) They introduced themselves and had a list of questions about where we were from, what we’ve seen in Kyoto, etc.  After our conversation, they asked if their teacher could take our photo with them and then they presented each of us with a handmade bookmark as a thank you.  It was a lovely moment, and reminded us of an encounter we had with a group of young students in rural Turkey.  (In that case, they and their teacher helped us find our way back to the road we’d wandered off!)

From the Golden Pavilion, we taxied to the closest subway station and took one of Kyoto’s two metro lines back to the center of town to visit the Nishiki Market, a long, covered stretch of shops and stalls selling everything from two-towed socks to sea urchins.  We had a matcha ice cream cone, which tasted pretty much what you’d expect powdered green tea ice cream to taste like; we didn’t ask for a second helping!!

Tonight, we had a farewell dinner at a local dinner.  We were seated at low tables on tatami mats and our feet were in a well below the table.  The courses kept coming and the wine kept flowing and everyone had their fill of both!  Spirits were high and it was a great finale to a memorable two weeks.  This trip was focused on Japan’s culture and Road Scholar provided an excellent program.  We toasted Chiaki, who has shepherded us from day one, warmly; she’s worked really hard to ensure we were where we were supposed to be when we were supposed to be there.  Our other guides, who joined us for specific parts of the trip, were excellent as well.

Late tomorrow morning, we leave for the drive to the airport in Osaka, a trip that should take between two and three hours.  Our flight out is late tomorrow afternoon and, even allowing for a three-hour layover in San  Francisco, we’re scheduled to be back home before we leave Japan; there’s nothing like crossing the International Dateline to mess with your head!

Thanks for reading, and we hope to see you next time.

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Random notes, gross generalizations, and stray observations made throughout the trip in no particular order, and with no attention paid to complete sentence structure or punctuation:

We were struck by the extensive system of raised-pattern sidewalk markings for the blind – parallel lines for straightaways, dots for intersecting paths and crosswalks.  In one ladies’ room, there were even raised dots to indicate where feet should be placed relative to the toilet.

There was lots of bowing -- by and to everyone along the way.

No street names in many cities.  Instead, locations are indicted in terms of the nearest intersection.

Hats and caps embroidered with English words -- often nonsense phrases.

Cloth panels hung at the entrances to shops and restaurants, indicating that the establishment is open for business, a remnant of the time they were used to keep the road dust out.

Frequent queries about where we were from as we encountered locals wherever we went.

In this non-religious country, there are Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples everywhere, sometimes on the same grounds, and there is much cross-pollination and coexistence between both systems in the lives of typical Japanese.

Architecture as an expression of status – a raised room indicated entry to the domain of someone of exalted status, likewise, a raised ceiling.  Stepping up into a building was a signal that shoes must be removed; in some places, slippers (provided) can be donned, but in others, e.g. where tatami mats cover the floors, not even slippers can be worn.   And then, there’s the whole matter of special slippers to be worn in the bathroom, and nowhere else…

In Japan, traditional construction relied on wood and paper, which were constantly endangered by fire.  Consequently, in an effort to invoke protection by higher powers, images of dragons breathe water instead of fire.

Vending machines everywhere, selling everything.

Matcha (green tea powder) is also ubiquitous – garishly green ice cream, cakes, candies and pastries.

Golf is big in Japan, with Top Golf-like driving ranges a common site, sometimes so close that one is in sight of another.

Taxi cabs are as clean as everything else in Kyoto.  Seats and headrests are protected with embroidered or lacy, sparkling white fitted covers.  White-gloved drivers are often in uniforms that have military overtones, with gold –accented epaulets on their jackets.  Taxis have automatic doors to open for boarding passengers and keep departing ones in the car until they’ve paid their fare!

The tidiness of Japan extends to its political advertising.  With a snap election approaching, we’ve noticed the appearance of white message boards of a standard size, segmented into six numbered rectangles of equal size. Originally, the boards were all blank; now, candidate posters (of a standard size – of course!) are beginning to neatly fill the spaces – in order!

Maps are not necessarily oriented with North at the top of the page.  Ergo, check the compass rose before checking the map!

Oh, and did we mention the toilets?!?