🕯️📿THE IMPERMANENCE OF ALL THINGS🙏🕯️
For one week from mid-October each year Tōrin-in (東林院), a sub-temple of Myōshin-ji, illuminates its main garden with 800 candles.
The "Bontō no akari ni shitashimu-kai" (梵燈のあかりに親しむ会) is intended as an elegant form of prayer.
Tōrin-in celebrates Koshōgatsu during the 2nd half of January (小豆粥で初春を祝う会).
Guests are first served 'fuku-cha' (福茶), a tea made with the year's first drawn water.
Plums, resistant to the cold and a symbol of longevity, are eaten to cleanse the mouth and dispel any 'evil'.
In part thanks to the current head, Nishikawa Genbō (西川玄房 *somewhat of a celebrity in his own right*), Tōrin-in has become well known for its (vegetarian) 'devotional cuisine'.
Fresh vegetables are grown behind the temple, and classes are held each Tuesday.
For most communities the New Year began with the first full moon of the first month.
It was customary to eat 'azuki-gayu' (小豆粥), a rice gruel mixed with red adzuki beans, for health and to exorcise evil spirits.
Red was considered a protective colour, especially against disease.
#littlenewyear #newyear #azuki #beans #gruel #Torinin #Myoshinji
🌾LITTLE NEW YEAR🙏
Before the New Year celebrations wrap up, there is one more observance to be made on January 15th.
Tōrin-in preserves the tradition of 'Koshōgatsu' (小正月 'Little New Year'), a once-popular ritual in rural areas, where people would pray for good harvests.
👶THE SAL TREE💀
"The sound of the Gion Shōja bells echoes the impermanence of all things; the color of the sāla flowers reveals the truth that the prosperous must decline. The proud do not endure, they are like a dream on a spring night..."
-The Tale of the Heike (平家物語).
#HeikeMonogatari #平家物語 #saltree #Buddha #Buddhism #zen #Myoshinji #Torinin
27 years ago, during renovations of the temple's main hall, Tōrin-in's head priest struck upon the idea of recycling old tiles as candle saucers.
From then on he arranged the candles each year to form a different message, the event acting as a prayer to erase earthly desires🕯️
#梵燈のあかりに親しむ会 #lantern #lanternlightup #lightup #Torinin #zen #Myoshinji
🕯️📿THE IMPERMANENCE OF ALL THINGS🙏🕯️
For one week from mid-October each year Tōrin-in (東林院), a sub-temple of Myōshin-ji, illuminates its main garden with 800 candles.
The "Bontō no akari ni shitashimu-kai" (梵燈のあかりに親しむ会) is intended as an elegant form of prayer.
Lined up along the length of the temple veranda were thousands of tiny pieces of sliced daikon radishes, drying in the cold winter air😮
Despite the recent rain and snow, winter in Kyōto is a bone-chillingly dry affair.
Camellia Tea Ceremony