(music playing)
- This gorgeous set of screens created almost 400 years ago
in the 1620s captures a scene of Higashiyama,
the eastern hills of Kyoto,
at the peak of the cherry blossom viewing season.
Each of the screens highlights one famous sacred site.
On the right screen, Kiyomizu-dera Temple.
On the left screen we have Gion Shrine.
From a distance you can see the cherry trees
and pine trees against marvelous golden clouds.
And when you see gold clouds in Japanese art,
it's a signal that you are looking at an imaginary space,
an imaginary time.
And so moving across from right to left,
we are able to go a couple miles in the course
of just two screens.
We begin at the Kiyomizu-dera, to this day still one of
the favorite tourist destinations in Kyoto.
You descend the steps.
You'll first come to a wonderful banquet
where samurai are enjoying sake and sashimi
being prepared by a chef.
Some of the samurai are dancing.
Others have had a bit too much to drink,
and are being carried away by servants.
We can follow samurai moving across the screen,
pointing out women of high court rank
who wear veils over their head, or walking by some men
in an archery contest,
or a procession of monks collecting alms,
or people digging in a garden.
You see a cross section of Kyoto society.
We see over 300 people of all walks of life
out on the town enjoying the beautiful afternoon.
The samurai can be identified because they were allowed
to carry swords.
Some young samurai are fighting with each other.
And you can see a preacher speaking to a group of people
beneath the umbrella.
You can see a procession of women from the court.
There is a palanquin.
And we can't see who's inside, but we could imagine
that it's a young princess being escorted.
You see a beggar, a priest saying prayers for passersby.
Samurai having a fan-throwing contest.
On the left screen we see, through the pine trees,
a wonderful outdoor banquet of samurai.
You can stop and have, for a few pennies,
a cup of tea served in a rough ceramic tea bowl.
On the far left of the left screen,
we come to our destination.
We see both samurai and members of the court making a visit
to Gion Shrine.
And when we look at the shrine building, we can actually see
the portable shrines that would be used in festivals
in Kyoto in ancient times, and still today.
It's a tour de force.
We imagine it was commissioned to be a souvenir
of a visit to the capital.
What we see here is a world at peace.
And for the very first time ever,
samurai patrons were commissioning scenes
of themselves picnicking,
enjoying cherry blossom viewing,
that would never have been created a generation before.
For the first time after nearly a century
of civil war, Kyoto, the ancient capital,
was finally at peace.
(music playing)