A procession of monks in lime green robes
Comments: 8
I’ve been to Mt. Takao several times and was a bit wary of visiting last weekend for our ‘winter holiday’ — the only day we would spend out of town. I’ve taken so many photographs up there that I wondered if I hadn’t fished the place out, but I resolved to find something that I hadn’t seen before.
I needn’t have worried: it found me.
Takao is home to a large working temple. Last weekend I wandered into an area of it that almost seems off-limits (I doubt it is: no one stopped me). Being New Year’s, there were lots of visitors on the hill but none of them were venturing into this less-public part of the temple off to the side.
The buildings were just beautiful (although all of the ones in this area are post-war) and I was happily snapping those fairly boring architectural pictures I tend to take and had worked my way back up to the main gate of the compound when all of a sudden I heard … the conch shell.
A procession of monks led by one in magnificent orange robes blowing what I really do believe was a sea shell descended the steps from the upper temple, passed through the gate, and entered the main hall at the far end of the compound. Not something that happens every day.
All I could think was “procession of monks in lime green robes” and I was still thinking this when, the procession gone into the great hall, one of the temple staff approached me to make sure I’d gotten good pictures.
I was able to show him, and he smiled and said, “Right place, right time.”
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Posted to Photographs • 2004.01.07 (Wed) • 23:27
Comments
Posted by qB 2004.01.07, 23:55
I love your pictures. A constant source of wonder. The story with these is excellent too. You of course are being modest when you talk of your architectural pictures. They're not just interesting to me as a record of an aesthetic that is foreign to me, but beautiful in their own right. A constant pleasure.
Do you know what, if anything, the colours of the robes signify?
Posted by M Sinclair Stevens 2004.01.08, 00:59
Beautiful photos and even more beautifully told story. Yes it's true that you were in the right place at the right time…but I think what sets you apart is that you see things around you; you don't just look at them passively. One book I read termed this "passionate attention".
Thanks for sharing what you see with us so that we can see it through your eyes.
Posted by Mike Steinbaugh 2004.01.08, 01:50
Awesome photo!
Posted by JB 2004.01.08, 02:06
Beautiful indeed. Thank you.
Posted by Fazal Majid 2004.01.08, 02:30
The composition on the first one is simply wonderful, specially the short monk in the darker green robe leading the merry band…
Posted by Pascale Soleil 2004.01.08, 05:21
The color is so wonderfully preposterous against the monochrome of winter and architecture that the cloth looks hand-tinted.
Lovely.
Posted by Tokyo Books 2004.01.08, 19:33
I love the photos. The line of monks looks amazing!! Looks like they are floating in air wearing those geta..
Posted by matthias 2004.01.08, 23:33
Holy Frijoles.
You are so the man! Love the pictures (as always), and, as has been pointed out by voices more eloquent than mine, the story's great too.
Thanks for sharing what you see. It brightens my world!
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