Day trip to Osaka
Visiting More Tadao Ando Projects
I planned a day trip to Osaka to see a few Tadao Ando projects but it didn’t quite work out. My first stop was the Osaka Prefecture Sayamaike Museum which is a free attraction that records the history of the Sayamaike artificial reservior. The reservoir was crucial in Osaka’s development, providing the means to control water and irigate the lower lands. Architecturally, it is considered a masterpiece.
The building is composed of four main rectangular boxes that protrude above the ground level while a large void is cut into the ground for a water feature. As I’ve noticed with many Tadao Ando projects, the entrance requires that the visitor descend into the ground. Every half hour water cascades from the ground-level water ponds into the lower level, forming an interesting water screen and shadow play between the pond and the walkways.
At the far end of the void is a second void, this time circular with a ramp and staircase along the edge that winds back up a level to the entrance of the museum. I’ve noticed that many of Tadao Ando’s projects include a circular void or curved walls. It’s also interesting that to access the museum the visitor has to ascend back up a level, but that makes more sense on the inside where the galleries begin on the level 1 basement and descend around a preserved section of the reservoir earth wall to the level 2 basement.
The museum’s cafe is another rectangular box that pops up above ground level with views to the surrounding city. It’s a distinctively different space with wood panelled walls and a garden of bushes. On one hand I liked that the cafe popped up as the separate entity but the wood was kinda weird.
The best part of this museum was the exterior water feature. It’s an incredible surreal space that changes throughout the day as the sun moves shadows across the ponds and with the periodic waterfalls. While I was there, there was a druming performance by a local group but I didn’t stay to watch it because I wanted to get to some other projects before the end of the day.
Unfortunately my planning wasn’t very good and I took a bus to a station where I thought I could connect to another bus but it didn’t exist. To save money I walked to the next station where I knew there would be a bus but I arrived 5 minutes after it left. The next bus wouldn’t be for 40 minutes and by then I’d arrive at the other museum just before it closed so I had to abandon that plan. Instead, I went to Tennoji park in the centre of the city hoping to see a garden but also arrived when it closed.
Not to be dissuaded, I decided to get dinner and then went to see the Teamlab Osaka exhibit at the Botanical gardens. This is a night-time event so I didn’t need to worry about the closing time. It was a pretty cool experience where I saw more acrons in the forest as well as other big balls and lights on flowers. It seemed like bits and pieces from their other installations which isn’t a surprise because I think this is the newest.
I think this would have been better if I’d gone with a date. In Japan there are always lots of people doing things alone, eating, sightseeing, etc… but this especially felt like a couples or friends activity.
After a week in Kyoto I was suddenly on my last day and that came as a bit of a shock. I’d done pretty much everything I planned on doing so it wasn’t like I felt like I was missing out but, well, I’d always like more time.
I spent my last day by starting near where I was staying and ending up at one of Kyoto’s most famous temples. I hadn’t connected that Kiyomizu-dera was what it was until I arrived and there was a crowd of tourists. I also didn’t quite recognize it so it wasn’t all that bad. The last time I was here was 2013, so nearly a decade ago.
But I didn’t stay long and made my way through the old shopping district to some other nearby temples and parks. The shopping districts are fun but they’re pretty touristy and not the kind of souveniers I’m looking for so I only stopped breifly at a small garden that had a nice water reflection on the tea house.
I’d never been to Chion-in temple before and seeing as it’s the head temple of one of the most popular Buddhist sects in Japan I thought it would be pretty good. It has two gardens with a combined ticket but they weren’t that great.
On the otherhand, while looking at the first garden’s rock garden I realized that I’d intended on going back to Ryoan-ji again this trip and had completely forgotten. Fortunately there was plenty of afternoon left so I made my way to that side of the city and then spend a good hour enjoying the 15 rocks in a sea of gravel.
It occured to me that I can’t remember other great dry rock gardens off the top of my head but I know I’ve been to some. If someone were to ask me to recommend my most enjoyable stroll gardens or garden pavilions, I could to that with ease. But for some reason I can’t think of good rock gardens which only means one thing — I need to go visit more.
My other goal for the day was to revisit the Kimono forest at Arashiyama. This is a collection of about 600 cylinders with pieces of textile dyped in the traditional Kyo-yuzen style situated around the train station. Most people come to Arashiyama to see the bamboo groove and pass through this station so it’s well known but the last time I was here the weather wasn’t great and I didn’t think I had very good images of it. This time the weather was better but there were loads more people. Still, I managed to get a few good photos and then went to the river to see the autumn colours on the hillside, also a well known autumn event in Kyoto.
My reveing of Tadao Ando is growing quickly. While planning this trip, I knew I’d be visiting a bunch of his projects but that’s also because I’ve been able to find many of his public projects. Many architects, including Tadao Ando, are commissione for private residences but these aren’t as easily visited and I always feel like I’m intruding on the residence’s privacy (Japan has a different culture of privacy than Canada so even pictures from the street is sort of inappropriate). The other distinction is that seeing Tadao Ando’s work in person I can experience the lighting and ephemeral. I understand the way his work creates its own world.
In Kobe there’s an addition to the Hyogo Prefecture Museum of Art that houses a free museum on Tadao Ando. Interestingly, this museum is four buildings away from the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake Memorial Disaster Reduction and Human Renovation Institution museum that I visited on a previous trip.
The Ando museum has a large collection of his models, some drawings, and some good little explanations on his biggest projects. I really enjoyed looking over all of the models and also identified a few books to get when I get back to Tokyo. It’s a fairly large gallery over two floors with 1:300 and 1:10 models. For being free, it was a very enjoyable hour-long tour.
Outside, Ando also designed the waterfront park at the same time so it blends well with the museum and had a lot of interesting walls in the landscape to subtly mark different areas. I remembered walking this area before and ended up at the same footbath I’d been before.
