At the lunch on meeting, Mr. Kakichi Suzuki, former chairman of Nara National Institute of Cultural Assets Study, made a speech titled as "Restoration of Suzaku Gate, Heijou Castle".iRemarks by editor: The construction of Heijou Castle was decided by Emperor Genmyou in the year of 708. And as early as in 710, the capital of Japan moved to the new castle.jThe excavation of old castle made a little progress these days and they could find the location of Suzaku Gate, a symbol of the castle. Furthermore the holes where big logs built were found. The government started the restoration of Suzaku Gate with strict scientific studies on new discoveries by excavation and also on ancient documents. The work was completed last year. As I was traveling around overseas frequently, I have never heard of that such a wonderful works had been done by the government. His lecture was quite an interesting one to me.
He said that it was quite a difficult work for fulfilling the severe modern architect standards only using wood for the castle, not irons, concrete, etc. It needed many new ideas. But they could overcome all obstacles with traditional superior craftsmanship of master carpenters.
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After the orientation speech, he explained in details with slide pictures on screen. Almost at the end of his presentation, I took two pictures shown here. You can see how the Suzaku Gate is a magnificent and beautiful building. It surprised me that Japanese in early 8th century had such a superior craftsmanship. |
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On my way back, I dropped in an Olympus Service Station at Ogawacho. Mr. Kitagawa, a class mate, told me that the metal cover of my Olympus Digital Camera might be something wrong because it did not slide smoothly and suggested to bring it to the service station. They said it would take a week for repair (but they added if they finish earlier, they would call me). The Mitsukoshi Clock & Watch Repair Service Station has experienced craftsmen on the station and they make repairs at the front of customers as I reported the other day. Both of cameras and watches are made of fine parts with a few electronic devices. I do not think there would be much difference. I hope someday Olympus will improve their customer service systems.
At the very moment when I tried to go down to the subway station, I heard a tremendous clap of thunder. I took trains as usual and came back to Sengakuji station, When I climbed out to the street from subway, I saw black clouds in north-west direction but it did not rain yet. As I thought I could have a little more minutes before rain, I walked in a food store and bought a few stuffs. But by the time I went out, it started to rain. During only two minutes walk to my home, my suits got wet quite a little. According to TV news, it rained hard in Nerimaku, a little over an hundred millimeter per hour of precipitation with the result that some part of Nerima was flooded. At Mita, it continued to rain until midnight. We rarely experienced such a hard rain in Tokyo.