{"id":2396,"date":"2014-03-07T09:13:38","date_gmt":"2014-03-07T00:13:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2014-03-07\/2396"},"modified":"2014-03-07T09:13:38","modified_gmt":"2014-03-07T00:13:38","slug":"heading-up-to-see-the-naked-roof-of-kyotos-chionin-temple","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2014-03-07\/2396","title":{"rendered":"Heading Up To See The Naked Roof of Kyoto’s Chion’in Temple"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
<\/a>\nNikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f\/2.8 @ 26mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>160 sec, f<\/span>\/5.6, ISO 100 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nDoesn't Look Too Promising<\/span>\nbut within is a rare site\nat the Chion'in Temple (\u77e5\u6069\u9662), Kyoto Japan\n\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The 10 huge characters across the face of the massive building seen above say:<\/p>\n

\n“<\/span>National-Treasure Mieido<\/i> Heisei Overhaul<\/b>”<\/span>\n<\/center>\n\n

where “<\/span>Mieido”<\/span> is the name of the main building at Kyoto's Chion'in\nTemple (\u77e5\u6069\u9662)<\/span>, and “<\/span>Heisei”<\/span>\nis the name of the current emperor-of-Japan's reign. The overhaul<\/span> refers\nmostly to the roof, which apparently undergoes this kind of thing about once every hundred years.<\/p>\n\n

This is the same temple that appeared in “<\/span>Huge Main Gate of Kyoto\u2019s\nChion\u2019in Temple<\/a>”<\/span> last month, which I wrote<\/span> in preparation for writing\nabout the roof.<\/p>\n\n

The ugly building above is a shell built around the circa-1639 main-temple building\nbeing overhauled, and the line of people is for a special<\/span> viewing were you\ncould go up and see the guts of the old roof. After having seen a news\narticle<\/a> about the special three-day once-in-a-hundred-years event, I took a<\/span> walk over, arriving just before the end of the final day. This was last November.<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f\/2.8 @ 26mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>50 sec, f<\/span>\/10, ISO 500 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nLong Line<\/span>\n\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n

I ended up waiting in line for 75 minutes, but I figured<\/span> it was better\nto do it now than to wait for the next opportunity in 2110.<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D4 + Voigtl\u00e4nder 125mm f\/2.5 — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>250 sec, f<\/span>\/5.6, ISO 1800 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nTemporary Tile Storage<\/span>\nroof tiles, having been removed from the roof, stacked all over\n\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n
<\/a>\nNikon D4 + Voigtl\u00e4nder 125mm f\/2.5 — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>250 sec, f<\/span>\/5.6, ISO 720 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nBuilt-in Throttling<\/span>\n\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n

I thought it was smart how they used safety helmets to throttle the flow of visitors... once all the helmets were used,\nnew folks could go in only when others came out and surrendered their helmets. It felt better<\/span> than a security<\/span> guard controlling\nthe flow like a bouncer<\/span> at a club.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

As far as I could tell, the helmets served no other purpose.<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D4 + Voigtl\u00e4nder 125mm f\/2.5 — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>250 sec, f<\/span>\/2.5, ISO 800 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nTemporary Layers<\/span>\none of the many floors of the temporary shell building\n\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n
<\/a>\nNikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f\/2.8 @ 24mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>50 sec, f<\/span>\/5, ISO 360 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nGetting Closer<\/span>\n“<\/span>National Treasure Miei...<\/i>”<\/span>\n\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n
<\/a>\nNikon D4 + Voigtl\u00e4nder 125mm f\/2.5 — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>250 sec, f<\/span>\/8, ISO 320 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nHow the Shell Was Constructed<\/span>\n\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n

As you got closer, various things were posted to give you something to do while waiting. The one above<\/span> shows how\nthe shell was constructed over the temple building. First rails were placed on the ground along the north and south edges\nof the building, then off to one side an 18'-wide slice of the building was constructed, then rolled on the rails to position\nover the building. With this approach they didn't have to worry about construction accidents damaging the building. It took about<\/span> a year<\/span> to get all twelve sections into place.<\/p>\n\n

Finally I got to the front of the line and put on my silly little hat, and could go in and up the many flights of stairs\nto get to the top of the building...<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D4 + Nikkor 85mm f\/1.4 — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>160 sec, f<\/span>\/1.4, ISO 6400 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nOn The Way Up<\/span>\nmuch scaffolding everywhere\n\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n

And finally you could see what you came for...<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f\/2.8 @ 24mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>50 sec, f<\/span>\/2.8, ISO 900 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nNaked Roof<\/span>\nthe “<\/span>bones”<\/span> of the roof, after the tiles and planking had been removed\n\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n

It was quite an amazing site to behold when first emerging from the stairwell, and the size and scale of the roof\nis difficult (for me) to convey in a photo.<\/span> It was expansive<\/span>, to say the least.<\/p>\n\n

You couldn't climb on the thing, of course, but you could get right up to it and touch the 400+ year-old wood.<\/p>\n\n

Continued here...<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The 10 huge characters across the face of the massive building seen above say:<\/p> \"National-Treasure Mieido Heisei Overhaul<\/b>\"

where \"Mieido\" is the name of the main building at Kyoto's Chion'in Temple (\u77e5\u6069\u9662), and \"Heisei\" is the name of the current emperor-of-Japan's reign. The overhaul refers mostly to the roof, which apparently undergoes this kind of thing about once every hundred years.<\/p>

This is the same temple that appeared in \"Huge Main Gate of Kyoto\u2019s Chion\u2019in Temple\" last month, which I wrote in preparation for writing about the roof.<\/p>

The ugly building above is a shell built around the circa-1639 main-temple [...]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,2,10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2396"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2396"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2396\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}