An Old Temple in my Neighbourhood

[vikingBerserker]

That's beautiful.

 

[Aaron Brooks Wolters]

I am with VB, that is beautiful.

 

[Shinpachi]

Thank you very much vB and Aaron

 

[Night Fighter Nut]

I found that there are many beautiful places in Japan. I really enjoy your pictures Shinpachi san.

 

[ontos]

Great shots Shinpachi, I really enjoy the shots of the ancient temples and the modern structures. I have some shots I took when I was there in 1967 on leave, I just have to try and find them Beautiful pictures, thanks for sharing 8)

 

[Shinpachi]

Thank you, Night Fighter Nut and ontos, for enjoying my photos.
I'm glad to post them.

This is the front gate of the building.

 

[Shinpachi]

Photo 1.
This is a mountain of abandoned gravestones.
They had been regarded as abandoned by the temple because no families came to condole.

Photo 2.
I found out a woman's gravestone in the mountain.
The letters can be read "Suga, Mikiko".
She was a famous 'Geisya' a hundred years ago.
Some researchers grieve why her grave was abandoned...

Photo 3.
Mikiko Suga.

Photo 4.
After some follow-up research, I have found out that -
her grave was abandoned because her remains moved to another grave to be buried together with her husband who died thirty nine years later.
This is her new place with her dearest husband!

Thanks.

 

[vikingBerserker]

That is just fascinating!

 

[mikewint]

Shinpachi, i have been following this thread for several days and your pictures are fantastic. i love old photos as those ageless faces look at us, so many stories they could all tell.
i have been looking through all my photo's in Vietnam and i notice many similarities. the 5th was headquartered in Nha Trang and when i first arrived we went to the Buddhist pagoda/temple at Long Son
1. the pagoda entrance
2. the pagoda bell
3. the seated Buddha
4. the altar
5. one of the temple guardians

 

[Shinpachi]

Thanks vB.
Yes, it was a fascinating story.

She was proposed by dozens of millionaire gentlemen but confessed her love to a poor nine years older painter who was her tutor of the picture(water color painting) then. She married him and her husband became famous to be one of the best selling painters at the time in Japan suddenly. Since she was loved by many gentlemen, they thought they should support the poor painer she loved positively.

But she passed away at 38.
Their marriage life was only seven years.
Her husband, Tatehiko Suga, never married again for the rest of his life...

 

[mikewint]

Shinpachi, what a great story. were his pictures really that good or were they just buying them because of her?
I also found these pictures of the Long Son temple. Never thought much about them until our recent posts about the Swastika
1. the reclining Buddha
2. notice the Buddha's feet
3. and a detail from the ceiling of the pagoda

 

[Shinpachi]

Nice photos, mikewint.
They really fascinate me.
Thanks for sharing!

 

[Shinpachi]

Shinpachi, what a great story. were his pictures really that good or were they just buying them because of her?

Here is one of his work.
What do you think?
Maybe fifty to fifty

 

[mikewint]

Shinpachi, I am absolutely no judge of art but this is very expressive, simple and yet very complicated. it is amazing what he does with very few brush strokes. What is the writing?

 

[Shinpachi]

His writing is so good that I can't read it all even with aid of my lettering dictionary
To see the plum flowers flowing, a monk feels seasonal difference between the upper and the lower streams of Haruki brook.

 

[mikewint]

Shinpachi, thank you for the effort. like i said i'm no judge of art. i remember that at some point in time someone who knew what they were talking about said something about a really great artist could express an entire painting in one or two simple lines. So one more question, from your cultural point of view, is this great art?

 

[Shinpachi]

Sorry but I don't think so
The collector of this picture who loved camellias simply misread the letter 'plum' as 'camellia' as two letters look similar.

 

[Night Fighter Nut]

I like the painting. It has a good balance between light and dark. If you look at it closely, you will see how it leads your eyes in a counter clockwise direction. Never leading off the page but never really getting to the middle either. Simple with a few different shades to suggest shape without drawing an outline.

 

[Shinpachi]

Thanks, Night Fighter Nut.
Mr. Suga would be happy to hear that.

 

[mikewint]

Shinpachi, i respect your point of view, so a request, could you please post a picture of something you consider to be great Japanese art.
from a western point of view, I don't consider some of our (western) so called great art to be great or even art. Jackson Pollock painting immediately come to mind or Warhol's soup can "art"