Thank you for joining our tour at Ueno Park on September 25. 5 people kindly joined us from Australia, Germany and Canada. Autumn is here at last. Weather was comfortable and we could luckily complete the tour before it started to rain. We hope you enjoyed walking with us. The photos we took during the tour are posted.
During the tour we have visited the Kiyomizu Kannon Temple beside the Shinobazu Pond. The temple was built in 1631 and is the oldest existing building at the park. The day (Sept 25) when our tour was held was a special day when the old dolls are burned in a ritual of fire at the temple.
When you stand on the balcony, you can overlook the famous ‘Pine of the Moon’ close at hand. This circular shape was beautifully made like a bonsai (a miniature potted tree). The original ‘Moon Pine’ was painted by an ukiyo-e wood-block print artist, Hiroshige Utagawa during the Edo period. Unfortunately, the tree was destroyed in a typhon in the Meiji period and the new one was made in 2012. There is a reserve tree planted down the slope in case the current tree is lost. Now you can view the pretty octagonal temple through the circle.
The Kiyomizu Kannon temple enshrines the goddess of child-rearing other that the thousand-armed goddess. Traditionally, the parents who wanted to have a child prayed to the goddess. After having one, they offered a doll as a token of gratitude, wishing for the child to grow up healthy. Nowadays, the ceremony has changed to doll memorial services. The owners who loved them for a long time but don’t want them anymore bring them to the temple with thanks to the doll. Since it is believed that spirits reside in the old dolls, they can’t be thrown away.
Old dolls are piled up in front of the doll memorial monument outside the building and the Buddhist monks chant a sutra to dispel spirit when the dolls are burned in a special ceremony on every September 25 each year. It is an annual event of a Buddhist memorial service at the Kiyomizu Kannon Temple.
Again, thank you for taking the time with us at Ueno Park on September 25. We hope you will join our other future tours.
(Yoshi)