“Once tatami took over wooden floors, everything changed. Many a treatise has been written about how Japanese society evolved during Kamakura, Muromachi, early Edo, and so forth. But era names like Muromachi and Edo don't mean much. Just because the era had changed, and a new family ruled from the shogun's castle, why would people do anything differently? There should be a more accurate book entitled *The Transformation of Japan's Social Order after Tatami*.” —Alex Kerr: “Another Kyoto”. 🔥
They did something amazing with this book: instead of photographs, which are frequently forbidden, they had someone paint these brilliant, crushingly-evocative scenes. I am in love with this book and everything in it and everything it talks about.
From Kerr & Sokol’s “Another Kyoto”.
https://octodon.social/media/OeCHV3ReuFmBQGK7FXQ https://octodon.social/media/zQatj5vYP3krgXRD0K8 https://octodon.social/media/UmnsDGPPaBWAXVT_hUQ https://octodon.social/media/kslqo9fpzrtACNiPsfY
I don’t know anything about Buddhist cosmogony or mythological religiosity, and this book is filling in those gaps—the better to appreciate Kyoto art.
Here’s the ten Buddhist realms. Clockwise from the top:
- Buddhas
- Bodhisattvas
- Arhats
- Humans
- Ghosts
- Hell-beings
- Animals
- Asuras (um, like, demons?)
- Gods
- Enlightened ones
(So, 12 o’clock is the highest world, of Buddhas, then alternating right/left until the bottom, of hell-beings.) #TIL
