Film: Maboroshi no Hikari, dir. Hirokazu Koreeda (1995)

This film marked Koreeda's first directorial attempt at drama.  His previous three projects were documentary.  Maboroshi is a languid film built largely around images with minimal dialog.  We are left to infer more than we are told.  Over the years Koreeda has added more dialog to his films, but he is still known for showing more than he says.  I found Maboroshi less engaging than some of his later work, but the imagery more powerful.  The film was shot entirely under natural light, which is why some of the images appear somewhat dark or underexposed.  To these I added a bit more contrast.  Click Read more to view a collection of screen shots.

Photography Prohibited

Manjushri (Enryakuji)

Yesterday I visited Kyoto’s Toji, The East Temple.  It’s been on my to-visit list since completing my pilgrimage of Shikoku several years ago.  With a couple of exceptions, the 88 temples along the 1200km route belong to Japan’s Shingon school of Buddhism, a Tantric school established in the 9th century by Kukai.  Toji was the master's base in Kyoto and the first Tantric temple in the capital.  Toji is also unique for housing a large collection of rare sculpture and paintings, much of it brought by Kukai from China.