Tenrikyo Church We visited Tenrikyo Church in Tenri City on a fine day. We were guided around Main Sanctuary and other important places in different languages such as Chines, English and Japanes, so that we were fully understood their explanation. In the afternoon, we visited Sankokan Museum which houses various collections in high quality.
We held the 15th Bazaar at Goou Jinja Shinto Shrine. We would like to sincerely thank all the people who came to it. Proceeds from this bazaar will be used for our future activities.
Our event this month was held at Ooe Nho Gakudo built in the Meiji era in 1908. We heard all about noh, its history, the stage, the masks, and about the kind of song called utai in noh from Yasumasa Ooe, the owner's son. During the lecture, people had the opportunity of trying on a variety of the masks and of walking on the stage the distinctive way noh performers do. We also tried singing utai, altogether, after first practicing. In all, forty-two people including twenty-four from overseas came in spite of inclement weather due to typhoon No. 11.
We visited DNP Kyoto Uzumasa Cultural Heritage Gallery which is run by Dai Nippon Printing Co. Ltd., now working on the project to preserve the cultural heritages in Kyoto as digital archive. We enjoyed the high resolution digital images of temples of world heritage with a video and appreciated the replica of the gold painted sliding door which was made by the high printing technology. And we also were given an explanation about the making process. At the ddd gallery, we enjoyed the graphic arts works which were exhibited at Tokyo Type Directors Club Exhibition. We learned a lot about the most advanced technology of digital archive, with 5 foreign and 17 Japanese participants including members.
16 participants from 9 countries and 11 Kamogawa-kai members visited the Shigureden, the museum of Ogura Hyakunin Isshu, in Arashiyama. Mr. Yoshitaka Higashiura, a curator of the museum, explained us in detail about Ogura Hyakunin isshu, which is one of the most famous Japanese classical literatures. Participants also enjoyed making Karuta and trying on colorful costumes of the Heian Era. After that, we took a walk in the Kameyama-koen Park with Mr. Gill who is a Haiku poet as well as an executive secretary of NPO "People Together for Mt. Ogura". We were very happy to visit Arashiyama during the season of new green leaves.
We held a cherry blossom viewing party having 69 participants from 15 countries at one of our member’s house by the Kamo River. The beautiful cherry blossom in full bloom in the garden welcomed us, and we enjoyed Kyogen by Mr. Katsumi Yanagimoto and English Rakugo by Master Fukumaru Katsura. Throughout the rakugo performance, everyone burst out laughing, and after that we had dinner of homemade dishes. We really had a good time together on a beautiful spring day.
16 participants including 6 foreigners visited the studio of Tatsumura Koho Nishiki Textile. Mr. Minoru Yamada, who is the vice president of this company, gave us an explanation about the nishiki textile, its works and the restoration of ancient textile, and we saw a craftsman actually weaving on a big loom. We were all fascinated by the the beautiful works of nishiki textile.
14 participants from 8 countries and 13 Kamogawakai members visited the Yoshida-family house, also known as Kyoto Living Craft House“Mumeisha”. It is a traditional machiya merchant house built in 1909. The present head of the Yoshida-family, Mr. Kojiro Yoshida, who is also the Managing Director of the Gion Festival Preservation Association, gave us a talk about the life style of old-time merchants and the Gion Festival.
23 overseas friends from 11 countries, 7 Japanese friends and 12 Kamogawakai members visited Honke Yatsuhashi Nishio Co.. We listened to the history of the company and sweets of Yatsuhashi at the beautiful, traditional Japanese house. They served a cup of tea and sweets called Nama-Yatsuhashi. Then, we visited the factory which was fragrant with cinamon. As it was very fine and warm, we also enjoyed seeing the wonderful garden with a pond and a new teahouse. We are very grateful to the members of the company for their generosity.
© D. Moritz Marutschke - www.kyotographer.com
More photos are on the URL below.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/1j778o2zpk2fjkr/AAAXC1RLa13QSIFaDrNlCfOna?dl=0