Postcards from Kyoto

My client from US, Helga left for Seoul on Tuesday. Together, we had been seeing many buddhist statues at the National Museum in Kyoto and Nara, I wondered why people developed the idea a idolatry.

People did not start making Buddhist statues till two hundred years after Buddha died as the believers thought it was improper to do so. Then people started creating foot marks of Buddha and small boxes to contain Buddha’s bones. I think it was about 500 years after Buddha died that people started making Buddhist statues.

So that means one of the first statue of a Buddha was in fact made by somebody who has never seen Buddha or another word from imagination.

Therefore one could say that all the Buddhist statues are imaginary figures and each country where Buddhism spread made their own special features It is interesting to note that Buddha’s face and body always resemble the people of the country it was created. So although Buddhist statues are imaginary they in fact resemble people of that race.

Chinese people also made wooden sculptures of Buddha but their wood is much softer than Japanese wood. Also there was a big Buddha at the National Museum of Nara which the Chinese made and it was made of one solid wood instead of making it hollow in side. I suppose the technique of making Buddha with several pieces of wood and making it hollow inside developed in Japan.

My client, Helga, has pointed out that the young chef at a Japanese restaurant of Karasuma Kyoto Hotel where we stayed is devoted to his work. We got to know him quite well as we sat at the counter and had few chats. He is 25 and when Helga asked what his dream was he replied ” To have my own restaurant”

Chefs in Japan, who cook in traditional Japanese style work as apprentice at different restaurants when they are young. This young chef started working in a restaurant in Osaka after graduating from high school. Helga is a doctor and she thinks Japanese cooking is healthy and work of art based on tradition. She really took liking to the chef and wants to support him that she even asked for his personal address.

We were invited to have a drink at Ochaya-san (expensive tea house where geisha’s come and entertain) One of the geishas who has become geisha two years ago said now a days it is her own will to become a geisha and since she likes to dance Japanese dance ever since she was three, she wanted to become a geisha after graduating from junior high. She had to go through training of maiko before she could become geisha for four years.

When you start training to be geisha you cannot leave within first four years but if you decide not to become geisha then you are free to leave.

Nowadays young girls find it difficult to continue the training as they have been spoiled at home as their parents did everything for them. But a maiko has to endure the training of obeying orders of the senior geishas.

However I don’t find this kind of custom is practiced only with geishas but it is the Japanese mentality. For instance, at universities, junior students have to respect the senior students and obey their orders.

The heat still continues in Tokyo and is predicted to last for another week. Fortunately I am comfortable as I stay in the air-conditioned places but I look forward to cooler weather in NY.