This is a continuation of my Kyoto photo walk taken with the Lumix G99 and Pana Leica lense.
This time, I took a walk to Kitano Tenmangu Shrine and Myoshinji Temple, which I often stop by when I visit Kyoto. Since I have been here many times over the past few years, this time I tried to find a way to take pictures that did not look like explanatory photos.
First, Kitano Tenmangu Shrine. Instead of taking a decent shot of the main shrine, I blurred out the background and took one shot with a winter withered plum tree in the foreground.
This is a picture with a big head, but if you see it after understanding that this winter withers is the famous “Legendary flying plum”, you will be able to feel its taste.
I usually take pictures of lanterns hanging from the eaves, but this time I held back and let them play a supporting role to the mossy stone lanterns.
As usual, I am not familiar with plants, but the red berries are Nanten (Nandina), correct? I am sorry if I blurred out the small company in the background a little too much.
After leaving Tenmangu Shrine, I headed for Myoshinji Temple, realizing after all this time that it is quite difficult to take “pictures that don’t explain the place or situation”.
Myoshinji , the head of the Rinzai sect, is a vast temple. The temple is famous for Kano Tanyu’s Dragon and Cloud paintings in the Dharma Hall, however, As for me, the purpose of this visit was not to see the Dragon and Cloud paintings, but to see the garden at Taizoin, one of the more than 40 pagodas in the temple.
Karesansui (dry landscape) garden by Motonobu. I thought it would be better to take a frame composition from the window…
I didn’t get the angle of view I wanted and couldn’t capture much of the seeping goodness of this garden. Hmmm.
The view of the garden from the edge of the pond is beautiful enough even when the flowers are not in full bloom. However, no matter how I took it, it ended up looking like a postcard, which was somewhat disappointing this time.
Shadow Stone Garden. When the oblique light in the evening shines on the paving sand, the blackness of the sand, which is typical of a “shadow” garden, is a little lost, but the shadows of the sand patterns created by the oblique light seem to create a different beauty.
I took this photo in a bad way, by not looking at the entire view of the stone garden, but instead taking a shot from the angle I liked best, but I still think it’s an “explanatory” photo.
In the final shot, I used the pine trees and pine hats, which are powerful & healthy even in winter, as a background for the blurred image of the large temple complex inside the mountain.
This is one of the most self-satisfying photos of the show. I can’t really explain in words what it is about.
So, the end of my Kyoto photo walk will be continued in the next article.
