Murouji Temple

Points of View
(1)Rhythm of the stairs
(2)Rhythm of the trees
(3)Rhythm of the roofs

This temple is in the heart of the mountains, far from the center of Nara City. It takes about two hours to reach from Kyoto by train and bus, but is definitely worth visiting. The temple was built on a hillside, and you go up and down many stairs while moving through it. The high point is the combination of rhythm through the artificial and the natural. Now, let’s take a look at the complex.

After paying the entry fee at the counter, you continue straight for a while. At the end on the left, you see a flight of stairs made from stones that have a very soft, gentle appearance. They are not sharp, and their corners have become rather rounded. These stones must have been stepped on countless times over a period of more than 1,000 years, and have adapted themselves to nature.

Visitors go up these stairs to reach the buildings above. The stones are almost equal in size and are not very steep. These steps are not tiring despite their number, possibly due to their rhythmic arrangement. As you go up, the building appears gradually in front of you. At first, only the eaves and the back of the eaves can be seen, but as you come closer you see the whole building. The structure is simple and in well harmony with the surroundings. Looking at the building from the side, you can see that the shape of its roof is somewhat irregular. This is due to the front part of the building being extended later. A number of fine images are housed inside.

Moving on, you go up many more stairs and see a similar kind of building. Climbing further, you see a tiny five-story tower between the trees. This is the smallest tower in Japan, and has roofs with a pleasant rhythm.

After seeing the tower, you continue up the stairs for about fifteen minutes and finally come to the top of the site. Many pine trees grow on either side of the stairs, their various sizes rising straight up. The larger ones are 400 or 500 years old, and are randomly mixed with slender ones. The slender, the big, the gaps between the trees and the straight lines carved naturally on the bark surface; I feel the rhythm created by these natural elements. The sunlight passes between the trees and illuminates the ground, making a combination of light and shadow that is also fascinating. Trees that are hundreds of years old stand out, their surfaces partly covered with light green moss. The light falls on the moss and makes it shine a moderate gold. When the light coming through the trees partially hits the stairs, some are sunlit while others are shaded. The man-made stairs mixing with the light coming through the trees creates a rhythm of the artificial and the natural.

A number of twisted trees can be seen among the many straight ones, and these trees fit into the straight scenery. The scene is reminiscent of Broadway in NYC; numerous streets run between buildings all over the city, and one street might cut across a grid diagonally, relieving the oppression created by the wilderness of tall buildings. The presence of some crooked lines serves to soften the atmosphere created by a simple mass of straight ones.