Arashiyama and Tenryu-ji

This is the Oi river near the temple of Tenryu-ji. Tenryu-ji is dedicated to the Emperor Go-Daigo. Go-Daigo attempted to remove the Shogun (military dictator) from power and bring Japan back under his control. However, his rebillion failed and he was forced into exile were he died about a year later. Shortly after Go-Daigo's death the man who defeated G0-Daigo and became Shogun had a dream that Go-Daigo arose from the Oi river as a golden dragon. Fearing Go-Daigo's wrath the Shogun built Tenryu-ji (The Pond of the Sleeping Dragon) to appease him. Fortunate for us since it is such a beautiful garden. We did water colors of this view of the Oi river shortly after visiting Tenryu-ji.

This is a bamboo forest on the grounds of Tenryu-ji. The bamboo was a good forty feet tall. There is a picture of me at the end of this entry that can give a sense of scale to this forest.










Zen priests are not above using cheesy pond decorations.












This is a dry water fall designed by Muso Suseki. Muso Suseki was a Buddhist priest and gifted garden designer. Many of the famous Japanese gardens and the elements in them that we consider Japanese were created by Muso Suseki.









This is the pond of the sleeping dragon. It is said that the dragon that the shogun saw in his dream still slumbers beneath its waters.












Pond with the Hondo (main prayer hall). We did water colors from the porch of the hondo.













All the hydrangeas are in bloom right now in Japan. This is one unusual one that was in the garden of Tenryu-ji.













Inside the hondo (prayer hall) pictured above is a painting of the golden dragon from the Shogun's dream. This dragon covers the entire screen inside so that its eyes are level with yours when you are standing next to it. Here you can see it peaking out from the hondo.








These are the hills of Arashiyama. When we stepped off the train from Myoshinji this was our first view. It was breath taking to go from being in the middle of this dense city were you can just see the top of the mountains to being right at the mountain's feet. The mists on the mountains was amazing too.







This is a group of Korean Tourists who were going for a boat ride on the Oi river.














A shot of me in the bamboo forest with a stereotypical bamboo shot below. I could get the picture below from the sample pictures on my computer but this is my stereotypical bamboo shot.