Kyoto’s Exquisite Zen Gardens

Plus+ Comedian Adam Bloom in Kansai Making Soy Sauce in Wakayama

Contagion’s Infectious Live Shows

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京都の禅庭

Nov 2015 • issue 186

Free Monthly Guide covering Osaka • Kyoto • Hyogo • Nara • Wakayama • Shiga

KANSAI SCENE MAGAZINE | ISSUE #186 NOVEMBER 2015 | kansaiscene.com 3

16 Craft Beer CornerWind your way through the alleys of Fukushima to find these three unique beer havens.

Food & Drink Text: Jason Haidar

DISCLAIMER Opinions expressed herein are not necessarily endorsed by the publisher. We take no responsibility for the quality or content of advertisements. Public and private parties app-proached by those claiming to work for or on behalf of Kansai Scene should call this office to confirm the truth of any such claim, especially where money may be involved.

A BIT OF HISTORY Kansai Scene was founded by Peter Horvath and Nishikawa Keiko in 2000 and published by Jatin Banker between 2003 – 2011.

What’s on Around Kansai

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Art p30

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About Kansai SceneKansai Scene provides monthly English articles, information and listings for visitors and residents of the Kansai area.

Publisher ...........................................Daniel LeeManaging Editor .............Celia PolkinghorneEditor ............................................ Jason HaidarProduction Manager ..................Misa MatsuiProduction Assistant ..............Miyoko Morita Accounts Manager ..................... Michiko LeeArt & Cinema .......................... Deanna WrightEvent & Festival .........................Yuki UchiboriLive Music ................................ Phillip JacksonClub ..................................................Terumi Tsuji

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ON THE COVER: This month’s cover shot was taken at Daitoku-ji in Kyoto by Matt Evans.

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08 Moments of ZenExploring the Zen gardens of internationally renowned landscape artist Yasuo Kitayama.

Feature Text: Matt Evans

Foodspotting Three reasons to get out of the city and try something new near Kyuhoji and Yao.

Food & Drink Text: Ian Yates

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12 Blooming Hilarious! ROR Comedy Presents award-winning British comedian Adam Bloom, coming to a venue near you.

Feature Text: Tom Law

22 Catchy Tunes KS catches up with the Kansai Music Convention’s battle of the bands winner Contagion.

Interview Text: Jean-Yves Terreault

14 The Art of Soy SauceWe visit Yuasa, the birthplace of Japanese soy sauce, and have a go at making our own.

Feature Text: Felicity Tillack

Inside this Issue

Phot

o: M

att

Evan

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Cover Feature

The Spirit of Things Internationally renowned landscape artist Yasuo Kitayama takes us to admire his Kyoto Zen gardens.Text & Images: Matt Evans

8 KANSAI SCENE MAGAZINE | ISSUE #186 NOVEMBER 2015 | kansaiscene.com

! Yasuo Kitayama meets me in a little teahouse on the grounds of Kodai-ji, a temple in Kyoto’s Higashiyama district. Through the open window we look out at the Tsukiyama garden – a landscape of little moss-covered hills, ancient stones and immaculate gravel paths. As I was about to learn, the beautiful scenery before us is charged with history and meaning.

“There are two ways of looking at everything,” Kitay-ama began. “Death and spirit, or appearance and training (shugyo – conducting oneself in a way that inspires mastery). In the winter the scenery is sad – very sad. It shows us the impermanence of all things. It’s very cold and you have to express that, while in the summertime you express green and freshness. My job is different from someone whose job is just to plant flowers.”

Polite and understated like most people of Kyoto, Kitayama is distinguished by a kind of restless energy and something of a mischievous streak. Eyes twinkling with intelligence and humor, he makes no attempt to conceal the depth of his passion. I ask him how he became a gardener, and he beams.

“That’s a great question! My story eventually brought me here. I come from a family of landscape artists. It’s a bit embarrassing but I used to play a lot of baseball. My coach wanted me to go to a school in Tottori to pursue it but I refused. Everyone disagreed, but I didn’t like having my life mapped out for me like that ... It wasn’t that it was what I wanted to be (a landscape gardener), but I said I’ll just try it and if it’s no good I’ll quit,” he explained.

He describes his gardening apprenticeship as a grueling process, as challenging mentally as it was physically. Again and again he uses the word nintai, meaning to endure or persevere – a very deep word in Japanese culture.

“I forget the place, but there were these big logs. I would have been 22, and my job was just to clean these logs. All day long. And it was those kinds of tasks for the first three years,

you know, tidy up this ridgeline like this, stand this stone up like this, work on the edge of this hedge or slope … but that’s how it is.

“When sempai says this is black, it’s black. Even when it’s white … The hardest thing at that time was finding the self-belief. You understand they don’t teach you anything – you have to see it for yourself. Everything is nintai. You just keep trying until it’s perfect – there is no ‘that’s enough.’ It’s a hundred, or zero.”

Kitayama gave it his all and became an accomplished landscape artist, having designed gardens all over the world including the Giardino delle rose at the Piazzale Michelange-lo in Florence, Italy. He started his own business at 26 years old, and has landscaped the Chouon Tei at Kennin-ji, the oldest Zen temple in Kyoto. He is in charge of all the gardens at Kodai-ji, including Entokuin. Up to 2000 people will work on the grounds in one year.

Kitayama is no less rigorous in continuing the nintai tradition with his own students, known as deshi. “The work is very hard – more than full time – I’m very strict with my deshi. They work from 6:30 in the morning until 8:00 at night. You can’t call it overtime, it’s just what you have to do if you want to learn. Preparing for tomorrow, reviewing what you learned today. If you want to be better, you have to practice more than everyone else. That’s very important.

“It’s a bad thing to say, but most people, even if they make a lot of effort, have a limit that they cannot go beyond. It’s not about distinction or discrimination, it’s just the way of things. I always try to encourage the young guys but the truth is most will never become great. It’s depressing, isn’t it! It’s my hope for everyone to succeed, but…”

Discussing form and arrangement, Kitayama describes a complicated geometric system drawn from centuries-old texts like sakuteiki and primarily concerned with the place-ment and alignment of stones on intersecting lines.

KANSAI SCENE MAGAZINE | ISSUE #186 NOVEMBER 2015 | kansaiscene.com 9

“What they tell us is that you can’t beat natural forms – if you understand this you can be a true gardener. There are rules, but beyond that there is something uncertain – in Japanese we say aimai (it’s ambiguous) – and it’s different depending on the place.” The forms of trees and plants meanwhile are governed by the same rules of spatial arrangement found in ikebana (Japanese flower arrangement).

Kitayama takes me to see the Hashin Tei – a karesansui or rock garden that he himself created, with mossy islands bordering a sea of raked gravel, raised at the center around a circle of cones and domes. He brings me to the front, where we sit on the veranda of the old abbot’s residence. It is from this precise angle, he tells me, that he made it to be seen. Another stunning view – but what does it mean?

“The big rock is the Shaka (Bud-dha). The smaller ones surrounding him are his deshi (apprentices). The uzumaki (spiral patterns in the gravel) have to do with the mind lighting up,” explains Kitayama.

He says appreciating a Japanese rock garden is not necessarily about having to know things, but about being able to

connect with the garden in your own way and experience it through your own feelings.

“Kokoro – heart, mind, emotions. It’s not about knowing things ... Look at it from yourself and feel it directly, that’s all. What do you think is within these stones? You create it entirely within your own mind. That gives each one of these stones a spirit or soul of its own, like a living thing.”

I ask him about his design process – those gently curving lines between gravel and moss, for example, where did they come from? He taps his head. “It all comes from here. Think about who you are. How much of your capac-ity do you think you make use of? Think about how you function as your-self – do you do everything with your feelings or your mind? It comes from me – all of me. It’s mugen (infinite).”

I ask if he ever puts a personal mark on his work – how might a true expert see one of his gardens and recognize him? “That’s a good question but there’s no one thing – nothing that will make a person say ‘ah! This is Kitayama.’ But if they have eyes to see everything – I mean the whole – there they can see me.” !

Visiting the GardensThe two gardens at Kodai-ji are the Tsukiyama and the Hashin Tei.Kitayama is responsible for everything but he created the Hashin Tei from scratch.

Kodai-ji (高台寺)• Access: 15-min bus ride (Bus

100 or 206) from JR Kyoto Stn to Higashiyama Yasui stop, 10-min walk to temple

• Open: 9am–5:30pm • Admission: ¥600 (Kodai-ji & Sho

Museum) / ¥900 (Kodai-ji, Sho Museum & Entokuin)

Entokuin is a sub-temple of Kodai-ji with two excellent Zen Gardens, also managed by Kitayama.

If you want to check out some other nearby gardens, head to Daitoku-ji to visit the gardens at the three sub-temples: Koto-in, Ryogen-in and Zuiho-in – all Zen temples.

Daitoku-ji (大徳寺) • Access: Bus 205 or 206 from

JR Kyoto Stn to Daitoku-ji mae stop; Karasuma Subway Line, Kitaoji Stn, 15-min walk west

Koto-in (高桐院) • Open: 9am–4pm• Admission: ¥400

Ryogen-in (龍源院)• Open: 9am–4:30pm• Admission: ¥350

Zuiho-in (瑞峯院) • Open: 9am–5pm• Admission: ¥400

10 KANSAI SCENE MAGAZINE | ISSUE #186 NOVEMBER 2015 | kansaiscene.com

万物に魂が宿る世界で活躍する造園家、北山安夫さんが京都の禅寺で 枯山水の世界にご案内。文と写真：マット・エヴァンス • 翻訳：遠藤 建

KANSAI SCENE MAGAZINE | ISSUE #186 NOVEMBER 2015 | kansaiscene.com 11

京都東山の高台寺。北山安夫さんは、境内の小さな茶室で待っていた。開け放った窓からは、築山の庭が見える。苔に覆われた小さな丘、古代の石、一分の隙もなく敷き詰められた砂利。造園の話を聞くよりも先に、眼前の美しい風景が、長い歴史と深遠な意味を雄弁に物語っている。「物事は、両方向から見る必要があります。死があれば、魂もある。外面の美と、内面の修行もある。冬になると景色は寂しく、物悲しくなりますね。ここに私たちは諸行無常を見出し、その寒々とした感じを表現しなければなりません。一方、夏には爽やかな緑の息吹を表現します。造園は、ただ花を植えるだけの仕事とは異なるのです」京都人らしく上品で控えめだが、疲れを

知らない活力と茶目っ気が顔を覗かせる。知性とユーモアで目を輝かせ、その深い情熱を隠そうとはしない。造園家になったいきさつを尋ねると、笑顔がはじけた。「ここまで来るのに、いろいろな経緯がありましたよ。造園家の一族の生まれですが、学生時代は野球ばかりやっていました。鳥取の学校で造園を学ぶように言われましたが、反発して野球を続けたんです。みんなに反対されましたが、自分の人生を誰かに決められるのが厭でね。最初から造園家になりたかったわけではありません。やってみて、物にならなかったら辞めるつもりで始めました」造園家の修行では、精神的にも肉体的に

もしごき抜かれたという。「忍耐」という言葉を、北山さんは何度も使った。「どこの現場かは忘れましたが、大きな丸太がありました。22歳の頃です。自分の仕事は一日中その丸太を磨くこと。最初の3年はそんな仕事ばかりでした。そこの土地の傾斜を直せ、この石を立てろ、生け垣や坂を作っておけ。白いものでも、先輩が黒と言ったら黒。当時は自信を育てる術もありません。何も教えてもらえないので、自分で発見するしかないのです。すべては忍

耐。完璧に仕上がるまで、何度でもやり直し。『この程度で充分だろう』ということはなく、100点か0点かの世界でした」そんな修行に全身全霊で打ち込んだお

かげで、北山さんは熟練した造園家となった。26歳の独立以来、その活躍の場は広く世界に及んでいる。フィレンツェのミケランジェロ広場にあるバラ庭園でも、日本庭園を造設した。京都最古の禅寺として名高い建仁寺の潮音庭を手がけ、高台寺では圓徳院を含むすべての庭を監督。年間2,000名もの人々が現場作業にあたっている。現在の北山さんは、自分の弟子に対しても伝統的な厳格さを守っているようだ。「仕事はとてもハードで、普通の仕事よりも大変です。弟子は朝の6時半から夜の8時まで働きます。残業ではなく、学ぶために必要なことなのです。明日の準備をして、今日学んだことを復習する。向上したかったら、人一倍練習する。これはとても大切なことです。しかし残念なことに、ほとんどの人には決して乗り越えられない限界点があります。弟子に優劣をつけたりはしません。いつも若手を励ましていますが、実際のところ大成できない人がほとんどです」庭の形状や造作について論じるとき、北

山さんは何世紀も前に書かれた『作庭記』などを引用しながら複雑な幾何学的システムについて説明してくれる。いつも念頭にあるのは、交差する線上に並べる石の配置だ。「古い教えから学べるのは、自然のかたちに勝るものはないということ。それが理解できたら、本物の造園家になれますよ。木々や草花を活かすには、生花の空間理論にも通じるルールに従います。でもそんな決まりごとを超越した、曖昧な領域もあるんです。場所によって正解はまちまちですね」北山さん自身の作である枯山水「波心

庭」に同行する。苔むす島が、波打つ砂利の海に接し、中心部では円形の山がせり上がる。かつては禅僧の住まいだった建物の

縁側で、いっしょに腰を下ろした。まさにこの角度から、素晴らしい眺めが見えるのだと北山さんが明かす。いったいどういうことなのか。「あの大きな岩が釈迦で、周囲にある小さな岩が釈迦の弟子。渦巻き模様は、心が悟りに近づく様子を表しています」日本の石庭を楽しむには、特に知識がな

くてもいいというのが北山さんの意見だ。自分なりの方法で庭とつながり、自分なりの感じ方で庭を体験できることが大切なのだと。「つまり、こころです。知識ではありません。自分自身の視点から眺めて、ありのままの庭を感じられたらそれでいい。この石たちに囲まれ、どんな考えが浮かびますか。心の中ですべてを思い描いてください。すると石がまるで魂を宿しているように感じられるでしょう」庭の設計について尋ねてみた。例えば、

砂利と苔の間を走る穏やかなカーブには、いったいどんな意味があるのか。北山さんは、自分の頭をポンポンとはたく。「すべてはここで生まれます。自分が何者かを考えてみてください。あなたが持っている能力の、いったいどれくらいを使って生きていますか。最大限の力を発揮する方法を考えてください。感覚や意思の働きで、すべてを成し遂げられますか。庭の設計は、私の全存在から生まれています。だから無限なんです」手がけた庭のどこかに、北山さんらしい

痕跡は刻まれているのだろうか。本当に熟練した造園家なら、北山作品だと見抜けるしるしはあるのか。「この部分がいかにも北山だな、というしるしはひとつも残していません。でも造園の仕事を余すところなく見極める目があれば、私の作品だと見抜く人がいるかもしれませんね」

「残念なことに、ほとんどの人には決して乗り越えられない限界点があります。いつも若手を励ましていますが、実際のところ大成できない人がほとんどです」