Houkai-ji Temple (法界寺) exhibits contact?

[SomeCallMeChris]

So, I'm trying to find the website or official e-mail contact for 法界寺 or the historic artifacts they have on exhibit there, but I'm really not seeing it anywhere on pages that I would expect to link to it. The organizations it belongs to only list a physical address, wikipedia doesn't have an official site for them. I suppose I can write a physical letter, but does anybody know of an online contact point for them? I'm I just missing something obvious?

Also, this is a long shot, but the reason I want to contact them is to find out the particulars of when and where the portrait they have of 中野竹子 was made. Many websites use the portrait, but they are only talking about her history, nobody so much as mentions when the portrait was made.

 

[Uncle Frank]

I wonder if it's a colorized photo and not a painting. Most artwork I've seen has some markings or info on it. Hopefully someone here can find out.

 

[SomeCallMeChris]

Yes, there's a reason that I said 'made' not 'painted', I don't actually know how it was done. I suspect they took a tintype photograph and then either used that as a close reference or painted directly over it. Color photography did not exist at the time, and I do not think the portrait would be with her weapons and armor if it was modern.

 

[Uncle Frank]

It must have been a shock when you're in the heat of battle back in that time and you notice the one trying to kill you is a woman.

 

[SomeCallMeChris]

It must have been a shock when you're in the heat of battle back in that time and you notice the one trying to kill you is a woman.

It was, yes. When they first realized it, there was an order not to kill them, but they were fighting very fiercely and their opponents dying very quickly so that did not last!

(By all accounts, I should say. I wasn't there, personally. I swear.)

 

[Majestic]

I found a tourist-facing website from the Aizu Bange city hall, and they've got an html page specifically for queries regarding Nakano Takeko. Might be worth a shot.

お問い合わせ - 会津坂下町

 

[SomeCallMeChris]

The temple her portrait is at now is in Kyoto, but you're right, it can't hurt to try her hometown, they do seem to take pride in her!

 

[thomas]

How about this:

お問い合わせ／京都でのお墓と永代供養｜「浄華塔」 法界寺

houkaiji-net.ssl-xserver.jp

 

[SomeCallMeChris]

Ah, I don't know how you found that, but yes, that looks like exactly what I need! Thanks!

 

[mdchachi]

According to the wikipedia page, it was painted posthumously but there are no references supporting that assertion.

中野竹子 - Wikipedia

ja.wikipedia.org

 

[SomeCallMeChris]

It's also directly contradicted by the linked wikimedia page... which provides a reference to a no longer existing website. That site's archived page appears to have been a simple table of 'photographs' (I mean, it is a photograph, of a portrait, but is the portrait itself a photograph? Hmm... but I'm only going by the column header being 写真) It's not clear to me how they decided it was 'painted before her death'.

ファイル:Nakanotakeko.jpg - Wikipedia

ja.wikipedia.org

At least a portion of the purpose of this quest is to determine that the portrait is old enough to be out of copyright, because as it stands now wikipedia, wikimedia, and other similarly licensed community sites will not allow any other version of the portrait because nobody knows when it dates from. I've also gotten very curious as to when/where/how this very realistic portrait was created. It doesn't quite look like a photograph but it looks a lot more like a photograph than it looks a Japanese-style painting.

 

[Majestic]

It's also directly contradicted by the linked wikimedia page.

The English: Portrait was painted before her death in 1868.

The Japanese: 死の前後に描かれた肖像画 This portrait was painted at the time of her death. (leaving it vague as to whether it was before or after).

 

[SomeCallMeChris]

Hmm, yeah, the English is probably just an inaccurate translation. That would make it more likely the Japanese wikipedia is correct then.


Interestingly enough,　Houkaiji Temple 法界寺 does have a web page at 京都、永代供養納骨塔「浄華塔」ご案内／京都 裏寺 法界寺／一般墓地・夫婦墓など...ご相談ください！ ... they tell you about in the automated reply from the 問い合わせ form. They must just have a terribly low search ranking.

 

[thomas]

Their website is seriously messed up. They link their logo (and other parts of the site) to their SSL provider's website. Anyhow, I hope they will be able to help you.

 

[SomeCallMeChris]

Their website is seriously messed up. They link their logo (and other parts of the site) to their SSL provider's website. Anyhow, I hope they will be able to help you.

Message sent, fingers crossed. If not, I'll message the town.

I'll also put some time into reading various bits and pieces of accounts, because her story is just interesting anyway, and I might come across the portrait information as I do that. I wonder a little if there isn't a solid biography out there, maybe even on Aozora. I'm more a fiction reader, but this was a pretty dramatic life.

 

[SomeCallMeChris]

Oh, well, this is embarrassing ... it seems it's a different temple altogether.

法界寺（会津坂下）

aiduwakamatu.bufsiz.jp

Apparently there are many temples named 法界寺 and it's not a unique name at all... the one in Kyoto just happens to be in a lot of tour guides and so be the one you find when you search the web.

Unfortunately you can't unsend an e-mail but they haven't responded yet so I guess I'll send them a quick apology and then try that town contact after all!

(I was so confused as to why she had been buried so far away from home, but now it makes much more sense.)

 

[thomas]

Oh, well, this is embarrassing ... it seems it's a different temple altogether.

法界寺（会津坂下）

aiduwakamatu.bufsiz.jp

Apparently there are many temples named 法界寺 and it's not a unique name at all... the one in Kyoto just happens to be in a lot of tour guides and so be the one you find when you search the web.

Unfortunately you can't unsend an e-mail but they haven't responded yet so I guess I'll send them a quick apology and then try that town contact after all!

(I was so confused as to why she had been buried so far away from home, but now it makes much more sense.)

Oh my, who would have thought! Sorry about the mix-up. I remember another phone number was available on Google Maps, though they'd probably be quite surprised by an overseas call.