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Quotation: "The great wave of Buddhist art that swept across and transformed the cultures and art of all of East Asia originated in India. In the fourth century BCE, after the death of the historical Buddha Sakyamuni, Buddhist art proliferated primarily through the construction of stupas (the original form of the pagoda), which held the relics of the Buddha." Tsujii Nobou, History of Art in Japan, p.42.

I found this image to be interesting, as it was an example of a pagoda, a monument dedicated to Shakyamuni, that was created after his death when Buddhist art gained popularity in this form. Even though it was a popular form of building in that period, this Hokiji temple is "a rare example of architecture from Japan's Asuka period and the oldest three-storied pagoda in Japan" (http://www.horyuji.or.jp/en/hokiji/). Early Buddhist art like this pagoda formed the core for the Buddhist architectural elements, which helped solidify Buddhism as an accepted and popular religion in Japan.

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Quotation:
Empress Jito
"Spring has passed
and the white robes of summer
are being aired
on fragrant Mount Kagu -
beloeved of the gods."
One Hundred Poets, One Poem Each. pg 4. Hyakunin Isshu.

The rise of printing technology helped spread Hyakunin Isshu and the study of waka to everyday people in Japan at the start of the Edo Period and at the end of the Edo Period, the popularity of Karuta, a Japanese card game, helped further increase its prominence. I think Shigure-den, the hall of Ogura Hyakunin Isshu, helps bring context and background to the poems, as well as features them in a more captivating way. The gold writing on stone gray plaques along with the dioramas of scenes bring more life to the poems. Karuta cards also present the poems in an alternative way to just writing on pages. The quotation above, which is a poem from Hyakunin Isshu's book, has a lot of imagery and nature references, which can be enhanced by the various ways the poem can be presented to the audience.

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Quotation: "the biwa elements here [in heike-biwa] begin to act more as 'commentary' or provide 'sympathetic responses'. This style (scattered fast arpeggios and dromes) is so-named because it was used to support recitations of the Heikie Monogatari"

I listened to the recitation of The Tale of Heike and it changed the way I read The Tale of Heike. The epic becomes a performance that is dramatized and embellished by not only the biwa but also the song-chant style that the performer recites the words. A full performance of the epic must take a massive amount of time, based on the cadence and tempo of the way the performer was chanting the words and the length of the epic. But these kinds of traditional oral storytelling are very important to preserve in a culture, and I really enjoyed being exposed to and being able to experience the way in which this traditional epic was meant to be performed hundreds of years ago.

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Maison des Cultures du Monde - Centre français du patrimoine culturel immatériel