The Demon Plates
Comments: 2
I called by the demolition site this morning as instructed but they weren’t ready to get up on the roof and begin dismantling the tiles yet. Was told to come back at 2 o’clock. I was late getting back there and as I approached I could hear the smashing of tiles as they were tossed down off the roof into the back of a truck. It’s an unpleasant sound. Baked clay, one of the oldest human technologies, meeting its end.
The guy who I’d spoken to previously saw me and got me to climb up on the back of the truck so I could point out which oni-gawara I wanted. It was like some morbid shopping experience. But I got what I wanted. I took home one representative of each style used, including the main one from the top of the roof, a total of five different designs. I’ll photograph them tomorrow and give you a good look at them.
In Australia, all of those tiles would be kept and sold as salvage; there’s another 60 years of life in them (much more, of course). Here, nothing is kept. I suppose the wood goes to some sento (public bath) to heat the tubs, but other than that transient benefit, nothing is used again. The construction companies wouldn’t like that, of course, and they absolutely run this country.
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Posted to General Rants • 2002.09.05 (Thu) • 21:18
Comments
Posted by Kurt 2002.09.05, 22:46
Way to build suspense Jeremy. I thought surely after finishing the first paragraph that the demons had met their end….glad to hear you managed to keep them from burning in hell.
Posted by jh 2002.09.05, 23:06
;-)
The largest two finials contain an astonishing detail which I’ll show you tomorrow when I can photograph them in proper light. I may be reading too much into it, but I think it’s fair to say they bear the seed of their own destruction!
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