Japan - Day 2, Part I: Hachiman-gu Gardens

Day 2 needs a little back story.

My dad, for all of our life in California, has created Japanese gardens for homes and businesses.  He still does.  It's an art, and I've come to realize that he is an artist.  He was trained by his uncle Hideo in a garden next to a historic shrine.  When we visited this uncle the day before and came to find out the gardens were in this city, I knew we needed to stay in Kamakura the next morning and find it, even without a guide.

My relatives all referred to the gardens as "Hachiman-gu" and told us we would have no trouble finding it.  The official name of the shrine where the gardens are is Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gu.  The shrine was built in 1063 A.D. and has deep significance in the center of Kamakura.

Ready to dig deep into my Samurai roots: "Welcome to 'Kamakura, Home of the Samurai' for the World Heritage" 

Our taxi ride demonstrates the narrowness of the roads in much of Japan: wide enough for vehicles to travel on, but narrower than the length of most vehicles.  The crazy thing, to us, was that these narrow back roads were shared by cars (going to ways - which sometimes didn't work without backing up) and pedestrians.

At the outer gates of Hachimangu

Immediately inside the gates is a mote, absolutely filled with blooming water lilies.  A wide bridge welcomes you into the grounds.

This may not mean much to anyone else, but my dad always works with trees using poles and strings to either help shape the trees or help support their branches.  It was validating to me to see these methods used.  This was also a wisteria plant, which my dad likes to use overhead a lot.

This section of the grounds had many, many white flags.  I wanted to know the significance.  Without a guide, I started taking pictures so I could ask my dad when I got home.  He said these were representative of a battle that had taken place.

Wishes or prayers of visitors

At this washing area I saw another familiar element of my dad's gardens: bamboo water works.

 There was a little side garden that cost a few coins to enter.  Blake suggested we go ahead and pay to see what was inside.  It was a beautiful and took a LOT of pictures inside.  We were impressed by the level of detail in this side garden.  Even the pathways weren't just hurried slabs of concrete but moved with the gardens and were attended to in detail.  I remember walking past a young gardener, and looking at him with respect, thinking my dad may have been just like him many years ago.

Going through our photos at home with my dad he started getting really excited at this point.  THIS section where we happened to choose to detour in was the garden my uncle worked in and where my dad was trained!  My dad intimately knew the stones and trees and paths in all our pictures and had stories for many of them.  The pictures from this point on are of this garden.

Apparently, this is one of the spots that my dad spent a lot of his time.

 Even the pathways here added to the garden's beauty.  In the photo just above the cement and stones move together in a zig-zag pattern that flows with the garden.  Underfoot, even the measures taken to make the paths more pedestrian friendly were customized to individual stones.

This little gate may not be appreciated by many, but the best artisan was brought in to construct it for the garden during the time that my dad and his uncle were there.

 After leaving the garden we walked up (and up and up) to the main Shrine.

The gates of the shrine are guarded by these warriors.

In the courtyard of the main shrine were these huge barrels or bins.  It looked like food storage to us, but there was no sign explaining what we were seeing.  Several days later we found out these are barrels of sake donated each year by local brewers as an offering. Interesting, no?

The city has a long main street that runs straight up to the shrine.  In the center, between the lanes for traffic is a long walk way, paved with stones and covered with trees.  As we were walking down this path away from the shrine we saw a young couple in wedding attire being escorted to the shrine.  In one sense, it seemed to have such history cultural significance.  On the other hand, the modern couple's photographer and videographer were always rushing just a few steps ahead of the bride and groom.  It's another example of the dichotomy in modern Japanese culture.

The whole excursion to the garden set us back a few hours on our schedule, but I'm glad I got to experience a bit of my own modern family history.  I appreciate my dad's work more, and his uncle for training him.