Tôsha Suihô: 四季の笛 (Die Vier Jahreszeiten In Kyoto) (1983)

冬 – WINTER

14. Sanzenin No Asa. (Sanzenin In The Morning)

Ōhara, a northern suburb of Kyoto, is very popular with young women. Above all, the temple Sanzenin recorded many visitors.

This temple is one of the secondary temples of Enryakuji and the main priests are from the imperial family regularly until one hundred years ago.

Shōmyō, the Buddhist ritual song, was written here in Ōhara, so it was very important for me to play the flute here.

One early morning in winter I stood in the garden in front of the main room of the temple / It was very cold. Because it had snowed a bit during the night, the moss areas in the garden shone in the morning sun. In the middle of the garden between cedars and maple stands a beautiful Amida hall, which was built in the 12th century. This Amida Hall was built by the wife of Fujiwara no Sanehira to pray for the bliss of her husband.

Admiring the graceful Amida Hall, I entrusted it to the flute, walking in the clear fresh morning air through the garden. – [7] Winter, Site 1, February 1983, Shinobue-flute / Nokan-flute

15. Jakkō No Michi. (The Way To Jakkōin Temple)

For a long time, many people have lived in the village of Ōhara, which earns a living as a charcoal burner or lumberjack. The women go to Kyoto with these goods. The traditional dress of the women was originally supposed to mimic that of a servant of the Holdame Kenreinmon’in.

Kenreimon’in was a daughter of taira no Kiyomori, she was the wife of Emperor Takakura and the mother of Emperor Antoku. During the battle of Dan no Ura (1185), she and her son, Emperor Antoku, threw themselves into the sea, being rescued solely by their opponents, the Minamotos, from the water. After returning to Kyoto she became a nun and lived in the temple Jakkōin from her 29th year to another 27 years.

The Jakkōin stands in the valley at the end of the village Ōhara and is a small, in its kind elegant Buddhist nunnery. The way to the monastery leads through old maple trees.

I walked past the gate of the temple on the mountain trail between the cedars along the stream.

The snow fell silently and there was no one around me. How could Kenreimon’in have spent the second half of her life amid the severe cold in this mountain village? This changeful life between the splendor of the court and the war riots that scattered and eventually drowned her entire Taira family … On the day I played flute there, the weather was extremely changeable; Sometimes snow fell, sometimes sleet, sometimes hail and sometimes rain.

When I had almost finished the melody, a patch of blue sky appeared between the clouds – the bright sunbeams that seemed to shine down through the branches of the cedars: was that the Kenreimon’in yearning for salvation? – [8] Winter, Site 2, February 1983, Shinobue-flute / Nokan-flute

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