Temple Lettering
Comments: 6
There’s a folder on my desktop called “Queued Imgs” which started off as a holding bin for photographs that were going to get posted here. It’s got shots in it dating back to May of last year, so dedicated folders don’t seem to help me much organisationally. Definitely more of a chuck-it-in-a-pile (usually on the floor) kind of guy.
I keep coming back to shots of Aiko Amida-dera, a small temple above Hakone Yumoto. This one shows some of the lettering above the main door. You can see a small part of a very unsual feature of this temple — a huge wheel turned by a cord strung with 108 large beads. I’ll try to find a decent picture of it.
Update: found one.
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Posted to Photographs • 2003.09.10 (Wed) • 18:53
Comments
Posted by eliot 2003.09.11, 05:31
What are all the sticker-looking things on the ceiling?
Posted by Robot Johnny 2003.09.11, 06:32
I love the energy of the brushstrokes… do you know what it was painted with? It appears to have some texture to it.
Posted by Dave 2003.09.11, 14:46
Carved into the wood? Oh that’s gorgeous.. I’d pay money!
Posted by jh 2003.09.11, 15:47
eliot —-
I don’t know what these are called. I’ll find out and let you know.
RobotJohnny —-
I’m not sure of the exact procudure (there are undoubtedly variations) but the characters are most likely written on the wood itself, then carved in. After carving, they’re painted (usually gold in the case of temples).
It’s a technique still commonly seen today. Restaurants will often have a signboard done in a similar style. There’s a beautiful example of one on the way to the station. I’ll get a photo of it so you can see a contemporary example.
Dave —-
Japanese woodworking is simply unrivalled anywhere in the world. Nowhere else has ever come close. It really is astonishing, though, to see something like this, where thousands of carved strokes come together to capture the vitality of larger brushstrokes. Countless examples later, I’m still blown away every time.
Posted by orange haired boy 2003.09.11, 17:28
What amazes me about languages like that is the complexity of the letters. To us who are used to Times New Roman and what i would call “relativly simple” letters, it looks almost bewildering.
But…that’s just the language buff in me talking…
Posted by Curmudgeon 2003.09.12, 00:32
I believe those stickers are called “senjafuda” (“thousand shrine tag”), and are a sort of name card left by pilgrims who have visited the temple.
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