Today we went to Kyoto to visit and experience Sanjusangen-do, a Buddhist temple built in 1164. The temple houses 1001 statues of the 1000-armed Buddhist goddess of mercy, which is protected by smaller 1,000 Kannon. One reason this temple is so well known is that during the annual Toshi-ya Matsur archers shoot arrows the length of the hall. In 1686 an 18-year old archer set the record, shooting 8,000 arrows in 24 hours (averaging 7 arrows a minute)!
In the afternoon we visited Tenryu-Ji (heavenly dragon), a major Zeen temple. The temple and garden were incredibly beautiful and we could tell that the cherry blossoms are just about to burst. Maybe we'll be lucky toward the end of our trip to see some.
We have a Bo kata that Shihan learned many, many years ago and passed to us. It is called "Tenryu no kon" and was thought to mean 'heavenly dragon' - I guess you have confirmed the translation!!
ReplyDeleteGood catch Brian. Were you there in class last week when we did the kata and talked about the name?
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