Saturday 5 July 2014

In the footsteps of Nikos Kazantzakis in Japan



        

          Through a grille in a thirteen hundred year old wooden pagoda I see them: tiny clay figures of incredible age, their expressions concealed by the semi-darkness. Unlike the handful of squinting Japanese around me, I was prepared for this. Feeling like a minor criminal, I grab my flashlight and direct the weak beam at the scrawny ascetics before me. They are ululating and pounding their chests in lamentation, mourning the passing of the Buddha in their midst.



          I did not come to Horyu-ji to see these miniature statues, though. I was instead inspired by a description I chanced upon in a musty biography of one of my favourite writers: Nikos Kazantzakis. A student of Buddhism, he made a pilgrimage here in 1935, and raved about it in a letter to his wife in these terms: “Exquisite. Peaceful, pagodas, springtime-sweet air, Buddhas smiling in the half-light, paintings on silk, dancing girls and, above all, the goddess Kwannon, the goddess of mercy. This is the most beautiful statue I’ve ever seen.’



          On this late June day, however, the air is not springtime-sweet. The sun is bright, ferocious and dazzling. For once I look at the umbrella-wielding Japanese women with something other than scorn. Nor is it especially peaceful. Smart tour guides with blue flags and squeaky voices march hordes of bored-looking Japanese junior high school children around the large grounds at military pace. Occasionally, a shout of ‘atsu!’ (hot!) from one of the boys rises above the general murmur.  



          There’s a dearth of foreigners, or at least white people at Horyu-ji, underlining the fact that it’s not that easy to get to. It took me two hours from Kyoto Station, first on a slow-paced local train along a single-track railway to Nara, then across a tableland of saturated rice fields and ugly houses to the dusty town of Ikaruga. Green hills could be seen in the distance in all directions. After a fifteen minute walk in unforgiving heat and humidity I reached a long and narrow avenue of sloping pines. It seemed a fitting approach to one of Japan’s oldest temples.  



          Indeed, according to the tourist bumf, Horyu-ji is home to ‘the world’s oldest surviving wooden structures’, among whose number is the aforementioned five-story pagoda. Looking at this brown and white edifice with its deep eaves, I find the claim hard to believe: rather disappointingly, it looks in great shape. I had hoped for a sight redolent of antiquity that would send a thrill though my body. Of more interest are the immense and discoloured clay guardians, with their rippling muscles and fearsome expressions, that protect the central gate. Now they do look old. 



          As I leave the spacious western precinct, exiting through the long and shady cloister gallery, I feel a thrill of excitement. Ahead in the gallery of treasures the statue of the goddess Kannon waits, the one Kazantzakis called the most beautiful he’d ever seen. It stands before a mandorla in a hall of its own, a remarkably tall and slight wooden figure, with long arms and a water vase in its left hand. The figure is feminine, but the face looks more like a man’s. 


          It’s a mesmerising sight, well over a thousand years old, but is it the one Kazantzakis spoke of? Later, back in Tokyo, I discover that Horyu-ji houses another celebrated statue of Kannon, a so-called ‘secret Buddha’ that can only be seen in the spring and fall. I guess I’ll never know.


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