Back in the stream
Comments: 8
Swam back upstream Thursday to Tokyo after a very nice time in Takayama. It’s really a delightful town once you get away from the station and across the river to the older part. The people are lovely, relaxed and quick with a smile, and the local beef and beer are excellent. I must have consumed a cow and a half. Try the filet at Le Midi — expensive but worth every sen.
Anyone thinking about building a house in Japan should be made to walk down those old streets to learn a thing or two about harmony and proportion and texture and letting the materials guide what you do. There’s probably not much point when all you’ve got to work with is plastic and harmony means looking as ugly as the next place. We’ve penny-pinched our way into an aesthetic oblivion from which we may never escape. (Aren’t I a blast to go on holidays with? Don’t worry, I keep it to myself.)
In Hida Furukawa we visited a carpentry museum where I saw joinery that I can only describe as devotional, really one of those things that gets me as close as I come to God. Japanese carpentry has never been equalled by any other society, and you can see two pieces of wood joined in such an intricate and imaginative way that you realise you’re being given a glimpse of something holy: human skill and ingenuity focused through a deep and joyous knowledge of materials. Generations of experience expressed through a pair of hands and a set of tools. The thought occurred to me that we invented gods because sometimes we surprise ourselves and won’t take the credit (but of course we often also need to beg).
And something happens when you walk through a house that was already old before Europeans ever set foot in your own country that I just don’t have the words to describe.
As for getting out of that photographic slump I mentioned, well, it just didn’t happen. I could blame the weather (which wasn’t so bad after all) and the poor light, or the fact that using public transportation often puts you somewhere in the middle of the day when the light is wrong and the shadows divide what is from what could have been, but the simple fact is that, whatever this means, I am not in the groove. Nothing to do but keep my eyes peeled for that next stroke of luck. It’s out there (or in here) somewhere.
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Posted to General Rants • 2004.08.28 (Sat) • 14:01
Comments
Posted by Jolyon 2004.08.28, 16:10
Wasn't that Alex Kerr's epiphany, too? The simple corner join, which made him realise the genius of the Japanese character (for making good joins…;-) )
I like the new top left-hand corner graphic, BTW. I found the laughing man a little sinister for some reason.
Posted by Kyle 2004.08.28, 16:44
I'm quite sure that if you really tried hard enough, you could have come up with some good photos! You gots skill!!
Oh well – Glad you had a good time!
Posted by Curmudgeon 2004.08.28, 23:10
Glad you enjoyed your stay in Takayama. I went there last year during winter and thought it was absolutely beautiful covered in snow. One thing I really enjoyed about Takayama was that, with the exception of the NTT building, most of the newer homes and offices had been constructed so as to be in harmony with their older neighbours. It's a shame there aren't more places like that here in Japan.
Posted by Charles 2004.08.29, 00:18
"And something happens when you walk through a house that was already old before Europeans ever set foot in your own country that I just don’t have the words to describe."
Are you certain about the age of the house? Japanese tend
to be a little loose about the facts with respect to a building's
age. Kyoto's temples mostly date from the beginning of the
20th century, but because there is a board or two in there
that is older, they neglect to tell you the age of the bulk
of the buldings. Most old Japanese buildings have been
burnt down and rebuilt several times. The Japanese carpenters who do that exqusite joinery exist because of this fact: corporate home builders have no use for those skills, and smaller construction companies mostly work under the big corporate guys.
Posted by Delphictrans 2004.08.29, 05:21
Just wondering where the fish came from… it is such a beautiful image, would you mind letting us know its source?
P.S. been reading your blog for perhaps a year now, and just have to say what a thing of beauty it is…
Posted by jh 2004.08.29, 10:32
Jolyon — I've only read Kerr's Dogs and Demons but I know he has an earlier book I've been meaning to read. Didn't Kerr buy an old farmhouse on Shikoku? Ii na!
By the way, the laughing man was Peter Sellers playing Dr. Strangelove from the Kubrick film. One of my favourites, and so apt in this day and age.
Curmudgeon — how that NTT building ever got built in the middle of the old district is beyond me. I found myself just staring at it in horror.
Charles — I'm sure you're right that some date fudging goes on, but some of these places really are old.
Delphictrans — the fish was on a sign for an antique shop in Hida Furukawa. I love the colour of the surface but unfortunately didn't get close enough to it to see how it had been made.
Posted by Delphictrans 2004.08.30, 06:18
Thanks Jeremy! Com'e bello, questa pittura, as they say here in Toronto…. :)
Posted by steve 2004.08.31, 09:34
Could that carpentry museum have been the Oak Village? They have a great display on wood joining there. Some of them were like puzzle boxes, it was rather fascinating. We stopped by there on Saturday after staying in Takayama for three days. My wife was born there, so we stopped by to visit family on our drive back from Tokyo. I always love going there, as it is really like taking a step back into a time much more esthetically pleasing.
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