Tokyo Before Tokyo by Timon Screech
Author:Timon Screech
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Reaktion Books
65 Katsushika Hokusai, âTurbo Hall at the Temple of the Five Hundred Arhatsâ, from the series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji (Fugaku sanjÅ«rokkei), c. 1830â32, multicoloured woodblock print. At the top of the Gohyaku Rakan-jiâs Turbo Hall, viewers look out towards Mount Fuji.
Around one century later, the authorities noticed that the pictures had darkened. They sent an official painter to copy them, or at least one of them â probably both, but only one copy is extant. Tani BunchÅâs rendition was so meticulous that it even included the artistâs signature, thanks to which the maker can be identified as Willem van Royen (illus. 64). Not a household name today, van Royen was popular in early eighteenth-century Amsterdam for nature painting, though he is unlikely to have painted the military themes. Edo thus acquired a kind of European sacralization, too, turned Buddhist, to cleverly avoid outlawed Christianity.
Later, another building was added to the Rakan-ji, in about 1780, furthering its strangeness and inserting yet another dimension. The structure was a three-storey tower with an internal spiral slope. It was dubbed the Sazae-dÅ, or âturbo shell hallâ, for its twisting shape. Kannon statues, copied from those on major pilgrimage circuits, were placed in the stairwell. Having witnessed the Buddhaâs sermon at Vulture Peak, and having seen the natural world of Europe, a visitor now walked through Japanâs most sacred landscapes of rebirth â all without leaving Edo.
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