(3) "An easy two and a half hours north of Tokyo by train, Nikko is a small mountain town at the edges of both a cultural Unesco World Heritage site — the 126-acre Tokugawa shrine 日光 東照宮 complex — and a 443-square-mile natural reserve, Nikko National Park 日光国立公園. The combination pulls in Japanese tourists by the millions. * * * My first trip to Nikko, 20 years ago, was in winter, when the clear mountain air was crisp and new snow dusted the emerald branches of the 100-foot-tall cedar trees. Against that backdrop, the brilliant red lacquer facade of [three-story-high] Rinnoji, the central Buddhist temple, made an unforgettable picture — almost as vivid in memory as the shocking chill of an unheated wooden floor on feet covered in thin socks (since, of course, shoes must be removed before going in to bow before the 28-foot-gilded statues of Buddha and Kannon). * * * [in this visit:] Inside, one of the three tall statues of gods [namely the statute of 阿弥陀如来 in the 本堂（called 三仏堂）] was missing, but the thousand-armed Senju-Kannon 千手 観音 and the double-headed Bato-Kannon (a horse’s head is atop its human one) were there and as inscrutable as ever."
(a) Nikkō, Tochigi 栃木県 日光市
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikkō,_Tochigi
(in the mountains [Japanese Wiki: 標高600メート meters]; Approximately 140 km north of Tokyo; The Japanese saying "Never say 'kekko' until you've seen Nikko 日光を見ずして結構と言うこと莫れ"—kekko meaning beautiful, magnificent or "I am satisfied"—is a reflection of the beauty and sites in Nikkō; Shōdō Shōnin 勝道上人established the temple of Rinnō-ji in 766, followed by the temple of Chūzen-ji in 784)
Regarding the origin of Nikkō.
(i) Japanese Wiki page for 日光山: "勝道上人が日光の山岳地に分け入ったとされる当時からこの地を「日光山」と呼んでいたかは定かでない。下野薬師寺の修行僧であった勝道一派が日光菩薩に因んで現日光の山々を「日光山」と命名した可能性も含め"
translation: It is unclear if 勝道上人, when forcing his way into [more subtle translation: breaking a path to] this area, he or his contemporaries names the surrounding mountains 日光山. However, it is possible that the mountains were named after 日光菩薩 [who was 薬師如来の脇侍 flanking attendant]"
(ii) Japanese Wiki page for 輪王寺: "天応2年（782年）、勝道は日光の神体山である男体山（2,486メートル）の登頂に成功した。観音菩薩の住処とされる補陀洛山（ふだらくさん）に因んでこの山を二荒山（ふたらさん）と名付け、後に「二荒」を音読みして「ニコウ＝日光」と呼ばれるようになり、これが「日光」の地名の起こりであるという。"
translation: In 782, 勝道 successfully reached the summit of Mount Nantai (2,486 meters [also known as 二荒山]). The mountain was given the name 二荒山 (pronounced "futara-san"), named after the abode of Kannon was/is 補陀洛山 (pronounced "fudaraku-san"). Later, the kanji 二荒 is pronounced [from the Japanese way to Chinese way] as "nikō" [sic] 日光. This is the origin of the place name.
(i) 栃 is Aesculus turbinata, also known as Japanese horse chestnut.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aesculus_turbinata
(ii) kekko けっこう 《結構》 (n): "plendid; nice; wonderful; delicious; sweet"
Due to its kanji--or Chinese language--root, it is officially a noun, that can be converted to an adjectiv--similar to other kanji noun of THIS nature--by adding "na" (not "no") as a suffix.
(b) Rinnō-ji 輪王寺
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rinnō-ji
(i) Japanese Wiki for 輪王寺: 天台宗
(ii) One theory of origin of the Buddhist temple (the other two--東照宮 and 二荒山神社--are Shintō 神道 jinja; but all three are clustered together; they were one but divided into three after 明治初年の神仏分離令 [神道, 仏教]) is it came from
Chaktravartin 転輪聖王
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chakravartin
(Sanskrit)
(c) The Chinese and Japanese pronunciations of kanji 手 are "shu" and "te," respectively. Here, because 手 is not the first syllable/character, the pronunciation is softened from "shu" to "ju."
(d) "the double-headed Batō-Kannon (a horse’s head is atop its human one)"
馬頭観音
ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/馬頭観音
(梵名 hayagriiva * * * 「馬の首」の意である)
translation: Sanskrit is hayagriiva, meaning a horse head
(4) "Nikko’s shrines and temples, as they now appear, date to the 1600s, when the TOKUGAKA shōgun 将軍 Ieyasu decided Nikko was the right spot for his mausoleum, signifying his ascension after death to godly status (as planned, he was posthumously named a Buddhist deity). * * * Later in that same century, another Tokugawa shogun, Ieyasu’s grandson Iemitsu, assembled the country’s greatest artisans and finest materials, commanded an outpouring of cash from the cowed nobility and did more building at Nikko. * * * There’s a large Shinto shrine 日光二荒山神社 [pronounced: Nikkō Futarasan jinja] to the god of nearby Mount Nantai (shoes off, please, to go inside); ornate gates and big, scary statues guarding flights of steps up to the mausoleums of both grandfather and grandson; a walkway flanked by 100 large stone lanterns; a five-story pagoda; even a 'sacred stable.'”
(i) 徳川 家康 [1543-1616; 将軍 1603-1605 (retired after 1605 to let his son--and father of Iemitsu--run as 将軍; Ieyasu was posthumously enshrined at Nikkō Tōshō-gū with the name Tōshō Daigongen 東照 大権現) English Wiki
(ii) Nikkō Tōshō-gū 東照宮
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikkō_Tōshō-gū
(a Shinto shrine; The stable of the shrine's sacred horses bears a carving of the three wise monkeys 三猿, who hear, speak and see no evil)
This stable is what the NY Times article identifies as "sacred stable" 神厩舎 (pronounced "shinkyūsha"). See
日光東照宮ホームページ|社殿の概要)
toshogu.jp/shaden/
(photo title: "神厩舎・三猿")
(A) ホームページ home page
(B) shaden 社殿 【しゃでん】 (n): "(main building of a) Shinto shrine"
(iii) TOKUGAWA Iemitsu 徳川 家光
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokugawa_Iemitsu
(1604-1651; the third shogun of the Tokugawa dynasty; 将軍 1623-1651)
(5) "Isabella Bird, the Victorian travel writer whose books kept her English audience rapt, wrote in 'Unbeaten Tracks in Japan [1880]'”
Isabella Bird
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isabella_Bird
(1831-1903; English; photo legend: Isabella Bird wearing Manchurian clothing from a journey through China)
(6) "I wandered in the tatami maze of the sprawling 100-room Japanese-style Imperial Villa, now a museum, where Akihito, Japan’s current emperor, was sent for safety by his father, Hirohito 裕仁 [昭和天皇], during World War II. You can see the entrance to a bomb shelter in the gorgeous garden. (It wasn’t needed. Nikko and its treasures were never bombed.) The villa, built in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, is near the Kanman Abyss, and the emperor Taisho, Akihito’s 明仁 grandfather, wrote a stylized poem about walking there and getting his sleeves wet from the rapids’ spray. The poem is inscribed on a stone monument at the gorge, one of several such literary monuments in Nikko."
(i) 日光田母沢御用邸記念公園
ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/日光田母沢御用邸記念公園
(元は皇太子時代の大正天皇の静養所)
section 2 沿革:
1944年（昭和19年）7月 - 東京大空襲に備え、当時皇太子（学習院初等科5年生）であった今上天皇の疎開先となる。 [translation: serving as the place of evacuation of the current Tennō]
1947年（昭和22年） - 田母沢御用邸は廃用となり、大蔵省関東財務局の管理下に入る。一般公開開始。[translation: abolished as 御用邸; open to the general public]
1950年（昭和25年） - 御用邸本館と庭園の一部を除く大部分の敷地が日光植物園に帰属する。 [translation: except the 御用邸本館 and part of the garden, the grounds were largely transferred to the 日光植物園]
(ii) Nikko Botanical Garden
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikko_Botanical_Garden
(operated by University of Tokyo; in 1950 enlarged to include part of the Tamozawa 田母沢 Goyotei 御邸 garden, a summer house of Japan's royal family)
(iii) Taishō 大正天皇 (1879-1926; reign 1912-1926; Meiji's son; given name: Yoshihito 嘉仁 [no surname]; 大正 is both rengō 年号 AND posthumous name, but not while the emperor was alive)
(7) "And then there are the hot springs. In Japan, Nikko is almost as renowned for its nearby hot-springs resorts as for its shrine. I stayed close to the shrine and retired at night to the Kanaya Hotel, an old European-style place where expats and diplomats took holidays from steamy Tokyo in the days before air-conditioning. * * * When Ms Bird stayed there in 1878, the building was a small guesthouse and the host was the original Mr Kanaya. * * * But here there were yukatas, the cotton kimonos for lounging that are common in Japan, laid out for the guests. Service was delicate and perfect, in the best Japanese style."
(a) Nikkō Kanaya Hotel 日光金谷ホテル
www.kanayahotel.co.jp
(b) Japanese wiki for the page of 日光金谷ホテル: "現存する日本最古のリゾートクラシックホテル; 1873年（明治6年）6月、日光東照宮の楽師（笙奏者）金谷善一郎が自宅（四軒町：現・日光市本町)を改造して、外国人向けの民宿として「金谷カッテージ・イン」を開業"
translation: the oldest extant Resort/ Classic Hotel [defined as a hotel built before World War II]; opened in 1873 when Zenichirō KANAYA, a instrument player with 日光東照宮 renovated his home , turned it into 民宿 (called "bed and breakfast" in US) and opened as Kanaya Cottage Inn.
(c) yukata 浴衣
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yukata |
发表于 2-9-2014 18:49:24
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