Click here to Keypad to see the original P.82 | 中文版
Translation by Linguist Asia (Keypad)
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How many times have you traveled to Japan this year, my friend? How often have you visited Kansai? Is it time to take a trip to Kyoto again?
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Kyoto, having a variety of breathtaking sceneries throughout different seasons, is a historic city that has preserved many ancient Japanese architectures. Can you imagine this beautiful city was almost the target of the atomic bombing during WWII? If it really did happen, a lot of Kyoto’s attractions such as the Kiyomizu-dera, Tenryū-ji, and Nijō Castle would probably have been destroyed. Even worse, Nintendo’s headquarters would have been blown up and there would not be any Pokémon for you to catch today. With this in mind, don’t you think you are lucky? So who actually saved Kyoto from the atomic bomb?
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Although Kyoto escaped the disastrous events and most historical sites were preserved, there was one that did not make it through – the Kinkaku-ji, the “Temple of the Golden Pavilion”. It was completely destroyed, but not by the U.S. Army. To find out who saved Kyoto, let us begin with Kinkaku-ji.
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Kinkaku-ji
Kinkaku-ji, formerly known as Rokuon-ji, was built in the 14th century by Ashikaga Yoshimitsu. Who exactly was Ashikaga Yoshimitsu? If you have watched the cartoon Ikkyū-san, Ashikaga Yoshimitsu was the lord who always challenged the protagonist Ikkyu with all kinds of difficult questions. The lord was a Shogun during the period of Muromachi shogunate and was called the king of Japan by the Ming Dynasty
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Ashikaga Yoshimitsu built Kinkaku-ji as his retirement villa. Originally, he wanted to cover the facades of Kinkaku-ji with gold foil, however, due to financial issues, only the ceiling of the third floor was gold-coated.
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In 1950, Kinkaku-ji was set on fire by a monk named Shoken Hayashi. He is not to be mistaken as Chinese because the surname Hayashi in Chinese character is the same as the Chinese surname “Lin”. The native Japanese, Shoken Hayashi, claimed that the reason for the arson was “to retaliate against the society”. After the incident, he committed ritual suicide in the mountain but failed and was sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment. He eventually died in prison in 1956. His mother ended her life by drowning herself in the sea shortly after the arson because she could not withstand the pressure.
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After the fire, the rebuilding of the Kinkaku-ji started in 1955. In 1987, since Japan’s economy was doing really well, the facades of Kinkakuji were finally made golden just as Ashikaga Yoshimitsu had wanted originally. Perhaps Japan was too rich at that time, the thickness of the gold foil was five times thicker than what is normally used. A total of twenty kilograms of gold was used, amounting to 7.4 billion yen.
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The glittering Kinkaku-ji now stands beside the lake showing its perfect reflection. From afar, it is just like a golden pavilion floating in the mid-air. Being the backdrop of an elegant Japanese-style garden, it is magnificent yet not tacky. You will know what I mean if you compare it with the Golden Bauhinia Square or the Golden Dragon Sculpture in Wan Chai. Kinkaku-ji fully reflects the Japanese aesthetic pursuit of perfection which doesn’t allow even the slightest flaw. Therefore, Kinkaku-ji is not only the icon of Kyoto, but also a symbol of Japanese aesthetics.
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The person who made Kinkaku-ji famous was the writer Mishima Yukio. He wrote the novel “The Temple of the Golden Pavilion” based on the arson, describing a young monk, ugly, stuttering, and paranoid, who was troubled by the insurmountable gap between perfection and imperfection in real life – the “perfect” Kinkaku-ji and him, looking forward to the air raid of the U.S. Army to bomb Kinkaku-ji everyday. However, Japan surrendered at the end. The monk was extremely disappointed, and therefore, he decided to destroy Kinkaku-ji by himself. The novel mirrors the gap between the humiliation from Japan’s defeat and its culture of perfectionism. It also shows the aesthetics of Mishima and his pursuit of beauty – all beautiful things will eventually wither away, and only what stays in people’s heart after the destruction will really last forever. This is Mishima’s so-called “Disillusionment of Aesthetics”. Mishima later also put this philosophy in action and committed ritual suicide in public.
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Going back to the original question, why didn’t the U.S. Army bomb Kyoto? Why didn’t they destroy Kinkaku-ji as the monk wished? Who saved Kyoto?
The answer, based on the Chinese, is Liang Sicheng.
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Who is Liang Sicheng? He is the son of Liang Qichao, a famous late Qing Dynasy scholar, After graduating from architecture in the U.S., Liang Sicheng went back to China and founded the first department of architecture. He was known as the father of modern architecture in China.
The story started at the end of WWII. At that time, the U.S. Army intended to have a large scale bombing over Japanese-occupied Zones in China. They asked Liang where the places with cultural value are so that they can avoid bombing those areas. Therefore, Liang Sicheng, produced a map marking clearly the various historical sites in China. In addition, he also specified two places in Japan – Kyoto and Nara – two cultural cities that should not be destroyed.
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According to the story, the U.S. Army did listen to Liang Sicheng’s advice and did not have a large scale bombing over Kyoto, not to mention a dropping of an atomic bomb. Though the protagonist in “The Temple of the Golden Pavilion” would inevitably feel disappointed, Liang Sicheng became the saviour of Kyoto and the benefactor of Nara. So this is the Chinese side of the story. But is this story true? Was Liang Sicheng the one who saved Kyoto? We’ll find out next time.
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