奈良 Nara, City of Antiquity

This weekend was finally the weekend for the other historic city that I had been itching to see: Nara!  The capital before Kyoto, Nara's history goes back over 13 centuries.  I knew that I'd be treated to some incredible scenes and I'd learn a lot, but I ended up learning even more than I had supposed.

Our first stop was Nara Park, which is inhabited by deer.  Lots of deer.  Lots of polite deer, too; they knew how to bow and ask for food, which was supplied by vendors all over the park.

However, the sign reads "The deer of Nara Park are wild animals.  They can occasionally attack people, so please be careful."  It then shows deer biting an old woman's purse and knocking her down, and kicking and headbutting little girls.  But, I mean, look at 'em!  They're so cute!  

Aww, a li'l baby deer!

They gobbled up the packets of shika sembei (deer biscuits) like nobody's business, and still hung around asking for more.  One of them was gracious enough to take a picture with us.

I hereby name you Squishy.  And you shall be mine.  And you shall be my Squishy.

Here's a short montage of happy deer for your enjoyment.

We then made our way to Todai-ji, a Buddhist temple that is the largest wooden structure in the world.  As we passed the main gate we met Ah and Un again (we first saw them guarding the gates to Kiyomizu-dera in Kyoto).  This time, though, they were about ten times as big and menacing.

The righteous get to hang with Ah over here...

...and the wicked get pulverized by Un here.

We then crossed the threshold and approached the mammoth temple.  It was gigantic!  And it had to be, as it was the home of the daibutsu, or Big Buddha, a 50-foot statue made of bronze (largest bronze Buddha statue in the world), situated in the center of the temple.

Here's the temple on approach.  you can see the wee li'l people walking up to the massive gates.

See? It's HUGE!

We came up to the front gate and burned an incense stick offering.  The mammoth Buddha takes up pretty much the whole scene at the door.

The picture doesn't do it justice.  This thing is gargantuan.

As we wound our way around the immense structure, we came to a particular support pillar that's nickamed "Buddha's Nostril," as it has a hole in the base that is approximately the size of the nostril of the Daibutsu.  Legend has it that those who pass through it will gain enlightenment in the next life, or sometimes good luck, etc.  It was a really tight squeeze, but a little bit of wriggling ensured me all the luck I'll ever need.

Look at me! I'm a winner!

As we were walking out of the main hall, we were accosted by another gaggle of junior high schoolers who needed to talk with pasty white foreigners for homework.  We obliged, naturally, and got a picture of them too.

Due to the intermittent rain (nope, rainy season's not over yet), we didn't get to see much of other temples, though we took a photo at Kofuku-ji, another famous temple.

Taylor looks confused...

Now, up until this point I had seen stuff that I had heard about before, and thus was super stoked when I actually got to experience it (and my expectations were met quite satisfactorily).  The afternoon, though, took us away from the popular tourist locales and into the narrow side streets of this primal capital.  We were taken back in time to experience firsthand the making of calligraphy tools, specifically the ink and the brush.  The first stop was a small house where a man who makes traditional Japanese calligraphy ink lives.  We went inside and he explained all about making ink.

For example, there are two methods of making ink; the Chinese method involves using the soot from burning red pine wood, whereas the Japanese method (developed in Nara) included harvesting the soot from burning sesame oil.  A lid is put over the material as it burns, and the soot collects on the bottom of the lid.  This soot is combined with a type of glue, which really is animal gelatin.  The last ingredient is some sort of perfume added to give the mixture a pleasing aroma.

When heated together, the proto-ink almost resembles silly putty.  It is then rolled into a cylinder shape and placed inside wooden presses made from pear tree wood.  This imprints the name, design, and seal of the maker on the ink while shaping the roll into a block shape.  Once shaped properly, the ink is wrapped and placed in a box and allowed to cure for anywhere from 3 to 4 and a half months.  Once finished, the block of ink is hardened and about 30% smaller than it was when first formed.  It also emits a pleasant aroma.

Here's a video of the process.  It's in Japanese, but I think it's worth a watch.

For our demonstration, the ink maker had prepared some proto-ink in advance so we could make our own personalized grip-shaped ink blocks.  First we squeezed the ink tightly,

Then when we released it, we had a perfect imprint of our grip.

Tadaa!

This is a very rare piece of ink.  Not only is it perfectly personalized, but there is nowhere else in Japan or the world where you can make this particular ink; it is a exclusive product to Nara, as is all of the Japanese ink production.  There are 12 extant ink makers in Japan who make the ink the traditional Japanese way, and all of them operate out of Nara.  They supply Japan with 95% of all of their calligraphy ink.

As for brush making, we headed over to a teeny tiny stall in another part of town where an older lady had prepared for us some brushes that we would be allowed to put the finishing touches on.  

This is serious business, y'all.

The process of brush making is actually rather lengthy, starting with the type of hair to be used for the brushes.  They typically take hair from the belly of horses, squirrels, weasels, tanuki (not the mythical figure, the Japanese racoon/badger), etc.  then the hair is trimmed, bundled, and burnt on the edges to bind them together.  They are then placed in a bamboo shaft.  The last step deals with stiffening the hairs (calligraphy brushes differ from most paint brushes in that regard; they are purposefully stiffened to retain their pointed shape).  We saturated the brush with some sort of paste, combed out straggler hairs, then squeezed the living daylights out of the brush to remove the extra paste.

The final squeeze was done by wrapping a string around the hairs and twisting the brush to squeeze out the last drops.

The brush needs to sit in the open air for a few days to finish drying, but after that I'll have a true blue calligraphy brush I prepared myself.  It's the perfect compliment to the personalized ink I just made.

By this time in the afternoon, all the temples had closed, so we headed back home, stopping at a Chinese restaurant on the way.  The desert called an'nin-doufu was like the nectar of the gods.

I cannot believe how lucky I have been to experience Nara the way I did.  It was more than I had ever dreamed.  *sigh*

I love Japan. :)