In the Pines

These mountains and waters of the present are the expression of the old buddhas. Each, abiding in its own dharma state, fulfills exhaustive virtues. During a visit to Hokkaido in the summer of 2003 I developed a relationship with Dogen's san-sui-kyou (山水経)--Mountains and Waters Sutra . The words of the sutra solidified within me during a hike of Hokkaido's Asahi-dake; I've held a deep affinity for Dogen ever since. So, it was with great joy that I recently had the chance to visit Dogen's temple, Eiheiji (永平寺) , for the second time. Eiheiji is located in the low foothills above Fukui City in Fukui Prefecture. The temple is one of the main of the Soto-zen sect and practicioners from around Japan still come to study there. Lay practicioners are also allowed (you can find more information here ). Don't know that my words will do much justice to Dogen or Eiheiji--and surely not to the mountains and waters of the world. So, I thought I would just offer some of Dogen...

Been back in Kyoto for the last few days--taking care of business, signing for money, and taking a break (perhaps more of the latter than anything else). Went into the city today with my wife for lunch: excellent, cheap Indian food at Kerala just north of Sanjo-dori on Kawarachi. After that we decided to visit Nazenji, the temple we were married at. Didn't go to the main temple this time however, but rather a smaller garden-villa called Tenjuan 天授庵. The grounds consist of a dry rock garden and a wonderful pond. We had visited here earlier when we first started dating and had loved it, but hadn't been back since. We were happy to have a chance to see the place again. . .beautiful garden.

Hmmmm. . .been a while me thinks; this bloggin' business. My computer is down now. I have it with a friend in Nagasaki; he's pullin' out the photos and such so that I can wipe the thing and start over again. Any computer expertise I possess requires quite a bit of tinkering and fumbling, so when there was a chance that I could lose everything I have stored on that damned machine--fotos and music--I figured I'd better let a pro handle it. What ever happened to shoeboxes full of photos, cassette tapes, and books? Funny us folks, on the edge of the full-internet generation. We remember a time without the internet, and yet all of us seem so damned addicted to the thing. I mean, you can't blame the full internet generation-ers, they don't know any better--which implies that we, the edge-internet generation, do know better. Was it better? The philosophical implications of Youtube and the democratic realities of internet porn. Matters for another day. Today I a...

Happy New Year Hope everyone’s New Year is off to a good start. Mine has been mixed so far. I’m trying to pull myself from the lethargy of the holidays so that I can actually get some work done. As for the holiday itself, it was very nice. This was my second New Year holiday spent with my in-laws in Japan ; I like the holiday in Japan much more than I do in the U.S. The focus is very much placed on preparing to greet the new year, which is good in the end, but a horrible process. “Horrible”. . .that may be strong. What makes it so bad is ōsōji 大掃除 , the “big clean”—of house and car mainly. This may not be such a dread for many Japanese, but my wife is a fanatic cleaner. I, though nowhere near my wife, am fanatic once I get going (however I am often content not to “get going”) . The whole event is made even more pleasant by the fact that Japanese homes do not have central heating, which is actually a moot point as often the windows and doors are left...

This last weekend I was able to get out to see some parts of Kyoto I hadn't seen before. On the 17th I joined a volunteer course on forestry offered by Nagaokakyo City where I live. The course took place at a place called 西山 Nishiyama on land that belongs to a nearby temple (Youkokuji 楊谷寺）. In the morning we learned about thinning techniques, known as kanbatsu 間伐. This includes felling trees to create space for nearby trees to grow and to open the canopy so that more sunlight can come through. We did the cutting with little hand saws, which was quite tiring, but they don't let the rookies have chainsaws. I felled two trees myself, which was quite satisfying I must say. We cut the trees into sections about 3 meters long and laid them perpendicular to the hillside so that the forest could "take them back"--a glossy phrase that conceals the fact that there is no market for wood in Japan (hence volunteers are used to "manage" forests). The second half of the...

First off, this picture is from a "take-asobi" (lit. bamboo playing) event at a temple near my home here. Hundreds of cut bamboo are placed in a bamboo forest and lit with candles. Taiko drummers performed as well. A nice way to spend a fall evening. Several things to rant about today. I can start by apologizing for not posting more often. The reason is that we don't have a solid internet connection yet, so I've been pilfering off a neighboring wi-fi signal. Japan, despite being light years ahead of the U.S. in cell phone, TV, and toilet technology, is woefully behind when it comes to internet access. I guess I won't say woefully, but rather will point out that I am having to wait a month to get cable internet because they don't have the infrastructure . In part this is because Japanese haven't been suckered into paying for cable television like Americans have--whatever the reason, it's a bit annoying. I must say that I love my cell phone tho...

Part of my research is focused on historical changes in forest landscapes in Japan. Historical ecology as an approach emerged from critiques of the neo-functionalism of Rappaport, who I wrote about previously. The neo-functionalist approach focused on ecological and human systems as functional entities that took on a timeless quality. The idea was to understand how a system maintains balance, so little attention was paid to processes of change (history). Thinking in terms of ‘non-history’ stemmed from the old dichotomy of nature/culture, which I’ve focused on a lot. In these terms culture is historical, changing—humans create culture and it progresses through time. Due to their very ‘primitiveness’ tribal groups were conceived of as existing outside of culture. Obviously things were not so simple as this, but it’s important to understand how anthropologists (and others) were struggling to think about historical versus natural processes. It was Eric Wolf and his book Europe and the Peop...