On a recent trip to Kyoto, I started out the day in Shiga prefecture, at Ishiyama Dera Temple,where it is said that lady Murasaki shikibu wrote parts of The Tale of Genji.
The ancient wabi and sabi reeking wooden buildings set among the lush early autumn greenery were not only'Picture Perfect' but refreshing to the soul.
A short train ride later I was atop Mt Hiei where Oda Nobunaga finally put an end to the power of Enryaku Ji Temples warrior monks by incinerating them along with the thousands of temple structures which had been standing on the mountain, which was burned until nothing but ashes remained.
Proceeding down to the Kyoto side of Hiei Zan and on to Jakko In in Ohara I was further overwhlmed by a sense of the passing and vanity of all things, recalling the unfortunate story of Kenreimon in who went from being a pampered aristocrat, the consort of an emperor and then the mother of the child emperor antoku, to living the last decades of her life as a nun in Jakko In after her entire clan, including her infant son was wiped out.
Ahhh the impermanence of all things!
Just the stuff for a new tenGooz song!!
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