Kitakamakura (北鎌倉 )

Late summer in Kitakamakura (北鎌倉 ).  Hot, humid.  Engakuji (円覚寺) (est. 1282) is huge.  Apparently it used to be even bigger with some 40 sub-temples.  However, the size was significantly reduced by a series of fires in the 14th Century, the Yokosuka railway line cutting through in 1889, and the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923.

Through the immense sanmon gate and up the hill.  I am on a quest - to find director, Yasujiro Ozu's grave.  This is really an impossible undertaking for a gaijin.  Too many graveyards, too many gravestones.  Except for yama (山) and kawa (川) and a few other familial kanji, I have no idea what the names read.  Ah, but Ozu's grave is special.  It is marked only with mu (無) - nothingness.  I noted this kanji before I set out.  Still...where?  I'm looking for nothingness.  A Zen koan.

After climbing to the top of a vertical graveyard built into the side of a hill I began thinking this is futile.  I took respite at Kaikibyou, a mausoleum for Engakuji founder Hojo Tokimune.  An iced matcha and friendly staff encourage me to linger.  It's a lovely garden.  Quiet.  Only the pleasant sound of the tsuku-tsuku-boushi cicada.  An Ozu soundtrack between scenes.  An old plum tree, crusted in lichen twists itself into the blue sky.  My mind drifts.  

I ask the woman who brings me my tea if she knows where Ozu's grave is.  She runs off and asks her colleague who looks at my temple map and makes two red circles.  "We are here.  Ozu-san is there."

Ozu was a big drinker so his grave is perpetually decorated with sake bottles left by admirers.  Once I'm in the right graveyard it's pretty easy to find.  I pay my respects to Ozu-sensei.  Moments later clouds roll in and the rain begins to fall.  I race for cover under the giant sanmon.  It was a "Rashomon" (羅生門) moment.  Wrong director Mother Nature, wrong director.

...

Down the road from Engakuji is another temple called Meigetsu-in (明月院) (est. 1160).  The temple is surrounded by steep rocky hills into which ancient tombs called yagura (やぐら) have been carved.  A glimpse of medieval Japan.  Mysterious.

Temple gardens are always beautiful, but I do sometimes feel many follow a sort of formula.  I suppose, like anything, there were garden design trends.  It is not often you encounter something really different.  Meigetsu-in is different.  The temple buildings really play a supporting role here.  Flowers, which are seldom featured in temple gardens, are the focus, hydrangea and iris being the stars.  Unfortunately my visit is well after the peak blooming season.  There are, nonetheless, a lot of flowers here.  Plants grow freely, invading the paths.  The afternoon rain makes everything more vivid.  The garden pulses in the moist air.  

The summer sun moves slowly towards the exit.  So do I.