Suzuki Museum (Buddhist Studies)

Kanazawa is a modern thriving port with tree-lined wide streets and large stores. The Nagamuchi district near our hotel has preserved some samurai houses, with mud and straw yellow stucco walls topped with tiles. Luckily Kanazawa was not bombed during the war, and sustains many local handicrafts and traditional culture.  Kenrokuen is ranked as one of the three best gardens in Japan (which is saying something). It is a strolling landscape garden typical of the Edo period, with little villas, winding streams, stone bridges, incorporating the six attributes of a perfect landscape garden: spaciousness, seclusion, artifice, antiquity, watercourses and panoramas. Castle Park is a green moss carpeted, beautiful place, like stepping into another world. Hisagoike Pond, with its superb Midoritaki waterfall and Kaisekito Pagoda,on an islet reached by a stone bridge, is near Yugaotei,  a building from 1774 that was raised to perform the tea ceremony. If you visit Kanazawa you must visit the splendid D.T.Suzuki Museum, a contemplative oasis devoted to the memory of a great 20th century Buddhist scholar (see photo above). We loved Kanazawa, not least because its open spaces and precincts contrast so much with towns like Kyoto. Next destination Takayama.

I’ve been reading about a writer who had tried every meditation practice known to man and found them unsatisfactory. He finally gave up on them and “took no special attitude”. To his amazement this “letting go” freed him. As he said, in throwing away these expectation he seemed “to throw myself away as well”. He felt that ” I owned nothing, not even a self, and that nothing owned me. The whole world became as transparent as my own mind. The ‘problem of life’ simply ceased to exist, and for eighteen hours I and everything around me felt like the wind was blowing leaves across a field on an autumn day”.

(quoted in Deepak Chopra, Ageless Body, Timeless Mind, 1993, pp.297-8).

Having visited the main attractions of Kyoto on a previous visit, this time we explored further. The Traditional Crafts Museum has a fabulous display, ranging from dying fabric, weaving, making roof tiles, inlaid metal work, lacquer wear, pottery, etc. Chawanzaka Street literally means “Pottery Street” and is full of studios, where you can see exquisite plates and bowls while drinking green tea. Then on to Kennin-ji, the oldest Zen temple in Kyoto (see photo), founded in 1202 by the priest Yousai. He studied in monastic centres including China, where the Zen sect dated back to the 6th century. By strict training the Zen devotees can transcend the suffering of life to reach equanimity, wisdom and compassion. The famous tea ceremony came from China, as much else in Japanese culture. The temple’s dry landscape garden is a classic. We also spent time at the Hatto Hall, with an extraordinary dragon painting on the ceiling; and then wandered yet again through the Gion, the old part of Kyoto full of restaurants and shops. Hikone next.