Story
Story 150
As the last stage of the Perahera (the biggest parade festival of Sri Lanka) period, I saw a performance of 76-year-old grandmaster of the Kandyan Dance (popular native dance forms seen in Kandy).
He has not been actively dancing at Perahera these years, but still able to dance like no other dancers are.
His joy, passion, and respect towards the Kandyan Dance make his performance possessed by the supernatural.
I immediately felt some divine winds blowing around him when he appeared on the stage.
His unique dance is one and only, and might not be possible to be inherited by anyone in the following generations.
I'm sure that beautiful Kandyan Dance will continue to touch and move people's heart for a long time, and I hope that one day an incredible dancer like the grandmaster will be born to show the real spirit of Kandyan Dnace to the world again.
(photo & story by Tengyo Kura, Kandy)
Story 149
Once upon a time, a severe drought struck a beautiful kingdom and people suffered.
The drought continued more than three months, lakes and ponds in the kingdom began to disappear one after another.
People and animals roamed around and they fought over water and killed each other.
A lush, green field turned into dry barren land now.
The King saw this terrible situation and asked a high-ranking Buddhist monk for his advice.
The high-ranking monk said to the King that there was only one way to save his kingdom.
"We must open the Buddha's tooth box and unleash its mighty power to call rain," the monk said.
"Wait, you said we would open the tooth box?" the King asked in surprise.
The Buddha's tooth box was the ultimate treasure of the kingdom, it had been inherited through successive generations.
Legend had it that there was a Buddha's tooth put inside the box.
However none of the past kings had seen inside the box, because they were never allowed to open the box, and they believed in that they would be cursed by mighty power of the tooth when they broke the rule.
"I am not sure if I am able to open the box..." the King's expression clouded.
"If you do not open the box now, your kingdom will be over soon," the high-ranking monk calmly said.
"Let me think about it alone," the King asked the monk and went to a hill behind his palace.
On the top of the hill, the King saw his land completely dried up.
No rivers were running, no birds were flying.
The beautiful lake he went and swam when he was small was gone.
The big tree he climbed and took a nap on was dead.
He felt that his childhood memories were vanishing as all the natural things were disappearing.
Tear ran down on his cheeks.
The teardrops fell on the ground and soaked into it immediately.
Then, a tiny snake came out from where the tear drops fell slowly.
The snake moved toward the King's leg, and bit.
"What the...!" the King saw the tiny snake and got angry.
"I will kill you!" the King tried to squash the snake, but the snake smoothly escaped and went.
The King chased the snake madly, but the tiny snake was moving quicker than the King.
After a while, the snake and the King came to one small pond that had no water now.
When the King was just about to stamp the snake, he realized that there was one lotus flower blooming.
The beautiful lotus flower stood still under the scorching sun.
The King could not move but gazed at the flower.
He was not able to believe what he was seeing.
None of plants could survive in the drought, but the lotus flower was blooming gracefully in the dried-up pond in front of his eyes.
Suddenly he felt something was rising next to him.
It was the tiny snake turning into a figure of a man.
Being astonished, the King lost words.
The man was standing in front of the King, and talked to the King gently.
"I am an incarnation of Buddha, do not be afraid."
"Oh,,," the King got down on his knees and showed his respect.
"You are not able to decide if you should open the box or not," the man continued.
"Yes, I am scared to be cursed. But I want to save people and nature of my kingdom," the King squeezed his thin voice out.
"You can open the box and put my tooth under the full moon, then pray for rain."
The Buddha's incarnation told the King so, then picked the lotus flower.
"This lotus flower will protect you from any curse while you are having the tooth out."
In front of the King who was quietly listening to what he was being told, the Buddha's incarnation made a necklace from the lotus flower, then put it around the King's neck.
"Remember, after the rain fell and your kingdom became green again, hold a festival and share respect and appreciation to my blessing," saying so the man turned into the tiny snake again, and disappeared into the ground.
The King felt that he was daydreaming.
If he had not realized that he was wearing the lotus-flower necklace, he would not have had believed what had happened to him.
The King went back to his palace, and met the high-ranking monk.
"We will open the box at the night of the next full moon. When will it be?" the King said.
"That is already tonight. I would convey my deep admiration for your brave decision," the high-ranking monk replied.
"Then prepare for the ceremony. We will offer a prayer for rain tonight under the full moon," the King ordered.
At that night, the ceremony was performed solemnly in a big yard in front of the largest temple where the Buddha's tooth box had been kept safely.
The ceremony continued until the full moon set in the western sky in the morning.
The King were single-mindedly praying with all the monks of the kingdom without resting, then he fainted with exhaustion and high fever.
The monks talked to each other in low voices that it might have been a curse of the mighty power.
The King kept sleeping for six days.
Then the seventh day since the King collapsed, rain started.
The high-ranking monk rushed into the King's bedroom and gently talked to the King.
"Rain has been falling. Please wake up."
Slowly the King opened his eyes.
"Finally..." tears overflowed down his face.
He touched his neck.
The lotus-flower necklace was dry, but still it was around his neck.
Now he remembered what the Buddha's incarnation told him.
"We must hold a festival to show our respect and appreciation to what made rain fall," the King said to the high-ranking monk.
One month later when rivers began to run, and all the ponds and lakes were filled with water again, a big festival was held for two weeks from the new moon day to the full moon day.
People danced to musicians' rhythm, and elephants gorgeously decorated marched through the kingdom.
The King ordered to put the Buddha's tooth box on the back of a biggest elephant and displayed it among people during the festival.
250 years ago this happened in a beautiful kingdom of an island in the shape of a teardrop.
(photo & story by Tengyo Kura, Kandy)
Story 148
One of the best Kandyan dancers today, Mr. Susantha Surasena invited me to backstage and showed me the moment when men become holy dancers.
Piece by piece the dancers put sacred ornaments on their body.
Tense atmosphere and mind of peace were mixed in a dressing room.
I was standing there quietly without feeling the sense of time.
After the silent metamorphose the dancers reached spiritual uplift.
Their eyes told me that they were ready.
Soon the holy dancers would shine the world by their fire of inspiration.
(photo & story by Tengyo Kura, Kandy)
Story 147
The tea master was working at a small booth in an old cafe in front of a clocktower.
He had been making tea for more than 30 years, everybody in the town loved his milk tea.
He mixed tea and air perfectly, bubbles on the tea was irresistibly fascinating.
Whenever I had his extremely mild milk tea, a magical feeling captured me.
It permeated into my throat, chest, stomach, and filled my soul with contentment.
One day, I asked him what the secret of making such a beautiful cup of tea was.
The tall grey-haired tea master replied to my question by shrugging his shoulders.
“Well… Milk. Sugar. And black tea. That’s it.”
I smiled at him by shrugging my shoulders, too.
What else I could do for this simple yet so true answer.
(photo & story by Tengyo Kura, Kandy)
Story 146
He was sewing intently in front of a small shop when I came along.
I was touched by the way he worked, and stood there for a while without words.
Then another man came out from the shop, and asked me.
“How old do you think he is?”
“Not sure, around 70?”
The man laughed.
“He is 92, he is doing this in his entire life. I’m one of his sons.”
“Wow..” I was totally impressed.
At that moment, the 92-year-old worker lifted his face, and looked at me.
“Hello, pleased to meet you,” I greeted.
He gazed at me with a frown, and soon went back to his work.
I got confused, and looked at his son.
He smiled and told me that his father could not hear well.
“But,” he continued.
“If you are a sewing machine, he would hear you very well.”
Laughing and he went back to his shop.
After that, I was standing there, and watching the sewing man working heart and soul just like I was a few minutes ago.
To keep changing is beautiful, and to stay the same is also beautiful.
(photo & story by Tengyo Kura, Gelioya)
Story 145
I met a monkey on my way to a temple.
The monkey went into a trance with having grass in it’s hand right in front of me.
Excuse me, can I get that grass, too?
(photo & story by Tengyo Kura, Kandy)
Story 144
At six o'clock in the morning, I visited a temple on a hill.
There was a small school next to the temple, and when I went there before, a teacher there told me that I should come back to the temple at sunrise.
One family from the countryside came to the temple to be blessed.
I asked a monk at the temple if I could take a picture of the blessing ceremony.
"You want to take a picture? Why don't you take a blessing together?" he replied.
"Is that okay?" I asked him?
"Stop looking at what happens, be what happens," he gave me a slight annoyed look and went.
Ten minutes later the family and I were sitting inside a small cave-look room.
The monk entered the room, and offered a prayer to the alter, then blessed all of us.
Then he sang a song while scattering petals over us.
It was a bunch of beautiful waves of vibrations.
After the ceremony, I thanked to the monk for his inviting me.
"So, did you like the blessing?" he asked.
"Yes, I liked it very much. Your singing voice inspired me a lot," I replied.
"Okay, now you take my picture," he said and stood still.
"Ah, sure..." I took a picture of him.
""But I thought that you don't like photography," I asked him before leaving.
"Well, there are things that you cannot miss by taking pictures. Just like the blessing ceremony you had. On the other hand, there are things that you cannot miss taking pictures. Just like me," he gave me a fascinating faint smile.
The morning sunlight lit up the temple and people in gold.
(photo & story by Tengyo Kura, Kandy)
Story 143
Sri Lanka celebrated my return with the aglow sky in the evening.
(photo & story by Tengyo Kura, Kandy)
Story 142
Noriyoshi Kishikawa is a Japanese legendary photographer who once fascinated Yve Saint Laurent, Issey Miyake, King Carl Gustaf of Sweden, and many more by his unique photography.
He became a successful commercial photographer shortly after graduated his photography school in the late 1960s, though which was a very rare case at that time in Japan.
Young photographers were expected to be apprenticed before becoming independent in those days.
He did not like the tradition as he was a “rebel” (according to himself).
Before long, he got tired of commercial photography, and began to travel around the world in 1970s.
During his stay in Paris and Stockholm, he made a set of photographs respectively “The 1970s in Paris” and “The Norse Azure”.
“The Norse Azure” was exhibited in Tokyo in 1980s, and that success brought him back to front and center of the Japanese photography scene.
Soon he became one of the top fashion photographers of Japan, but his glorious days suddenly ended by serious lung disease that caused constant difficulty in breathing.
He had to withdraw from the front ranks of fashion photography, and ended up becoming a master at a small cafe bar in Tokyo.
That cafe bar was where I met him for the first time.
Whenever I visited there, he told me interesting stories from his journey life.
I understood that the time I spent with him was a source of my inspiration.
Since then, I have called him “my vagabond mentor”.
One day, he told me that he had two things to do before he die.
One was to go back to Stockholm, and look up the white night sky which gave young Kishikawa an unforgettable impression, and made him realized what he really wanted to photograph.
The other one was to go to Borneo Island to take photographs of orangutans once more.
He went to Borneo 23 years ago, and photographed orangutans for a book which was published in 1993.
When I met him in 2010, he already could not walk more than 5 minutes without a rest because of an aftereffect of his lung disease.
I told him that I would be his assistant in Borneo when he got a chance someday.
Now, the time has finally come.
After been pushed by me for this five years, he made his mind to carry out his mission even though he knew that it could give him a tough time to walk in the tropical Jungle with his broken lung.
I, myself knew that it would be an irreplaceable experience for me to see my mentor’s devoting all his energy to shooting photos right next to him.
Year 2016, July 16th, the legendary photographer Noriyoshi Kishikawa at last set his foot on the Jungle island again, and completed one-week photo shooting on 24th.
This story is a tribute to a great vagabond who taught me that our journey never ends, only the phrase of “to be continued” awaits us at where we think that is an end.
(photo & story by Tengyo Kura, Sandakan)
Story 141
One early summer morning, a lotus flower told me that we could find a sun anywhere around us.
(photo & story by Tengyo Kura, Ueno)