Stone stair in cedar forests. Nikko. Japan 1986
Sitting in cedar forests at the foot of mount Myoho-san Nikko has been a centre of mountain worship for more than 1200 years.
This complex of temples, shrines, drum towers, lanterns and running water was erected in the 17th century in an age before steam, gasoline and electric power. A time when fashioning stone and timber into built form required intense hard physical labour, supreme technical skill, finest hand tools and great perseverance. A time when trainee temple carpenters spent decades in apprenticeship.
Like the bricklayers and masons of Brunelleschi’s Duomo in Florence the Japanese temple carpenters of Nikko achieved astounding levels of technical skill. Such mastery that they transcended the physical limitations of the materials with which they worked, yet all they did was still within the nature of wood, the nature of stone. These now centuries old forms are hauntingly sublime in the quiet of the tall forests of cedar.
The temples and shrines of Nikko illuminate the capacity of the human spirit to achieve the impossible when the intention to do so is clear.
This complex of temples, shrines, drum towers, lanterns and running water was erected in the 17th century in an age before steam, gasoline and electric power. A time when fashioning stone and timber into built form required intense hard physical labour, supreme technical skill, finest hand tools and great perseverance. A time when trainee temple carpenters spent decades in apprenticeship.
Like the bricklayers and masons of Brunelleschi’s Duomo in Florence the Japanese temple carpenters of Nikko achieved astounding levels of technical skill. Such mastery that they transcended the physical limitations of the materials with which they worked, yet all they did was still within the nature of wood, the nature of stone. These now centuries old forms are hauntingly sublime in the quiet of the tall forests of cedar.
The temples and shrines of Nikko illuminate the capacity of the human spirit to achieve the impossible when the intention to do so is clear.
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Stone stair in cedar forests. Nikko. Japan 1986
Sitting in cedar forests at the foot of mount Myoho-san Nikko has been a centre of mountain worship for more than 1200 years.
This complex of temples, shrines, drum towers, lanterns and running water was erected in the 17th century in an age before steam, gasoline and electric power. A time when fashioning stone and timber into built form required intense hard physical labour, supreme technical skill, finest hand tools and great perseverance. A time when trainee temple carpenters spent decades in apprenticeship.
Like the bricklayers and masons of Brunelleschi’s Duomo in Florence the Japanese temple carpenters of Nikko achieved astounding levels of technical skill. Such mastery that they transcended the physical limitations of the materials with which they worked, yet all they did was still within the nature of wood, the nature of stone. These now centuries old forms are hauntingly sublime in the quiet of the tall forests of cedar.
The temples and shrines of Nikko illuminate the capacity of the human spirit to achieve the impossible when the intention to do so is clear.
This complex of temples, shrines, drum towers, lanterns and running water was erected in the 17th century in an age before steam, gasoline and electric power. A time when fashioning stone and timber into built form required intense hard physical labour, supreme technical skill, finest hand tools and great perseverance. A time when trainee temple carpenters spent decades in apprenticeship.
Like the bricklayers and masons of Brunelleschi’s Duomo in Florence the Japanese temple carpenters of Nikko achieved astounding levels of technical skill. Such mastery that they transcended the physical limitations of the materials with which they worked, yet all they did was still within the nature of wood, the nature of stone. These now centuries old forms are hauntingly sublime in the quiet of the tall forests of cedar.
The temples and shrines of Nikko illuminate the capacity of the human spirit to achieve the impossible when the intention to do so is clear.
Ref:
Date:
Location:
Photographer:
THOUGHT
Stone stair in cedar forests. Nikko. Japan 1986
Sitting in cedar forests at the foot of mount Myoho-san Nikko has been a centre of mountain worship for more than 1200 years.
This complex of temples, shrines, drum towers, lanterns and running water was erected in the 17th century in an age before steam, gasoline and electric power. A time when fashioning stone and timber into built form required intense hard physical labour, supreme technical skill, finest hand tools and great perseverance. A time when trainee temple carpenters spent decades in apprenticeship.
Like the bricklayers and masons of Brunelleschi’s Duomo in Florence the Japanese temple carpenters of Nikko achieved astounding levels of technical skill. Such mastery that they transcended the physical limitations of the materials with which they worked, yet all they did was still within the nature of wood, the nature of stone. These now centuries old forms are hauntingly sublime in the quiet of the tall forests of cedar.
The temples and shrines of Nikko illuminate the capacity of the human spirit to achieve the impossible when the intention to do so is clear.
This complex of temples, shrines, drum towers, lanterns and running water was erected in the 17th century in an age before steam, gasoline and electric power. A time when fashioning stone and timber into built form required intense hard physical labour, supreme technical skill, finest hand tools and great perseverance. A time when trainee temple carpenters spent decades in apprenticeship.
Like the bricklayers and masons of Brunelleschi’s Duomo in Florence the Japanese temple carpenters of Nikko achieved astounding levels of technical skill. Such mastery that they transcended the physical limitations of the materials with which they worked, yet all they did was still within the nature of wood, the nature of stone. These now centuries old forms are hauntingly sublime in the quiet of the tall forests of cedar.
The temples and shrines of Nikko illuminate the capacity of the human spirit to achieve the impossible when the intention to do so is clear.
