Shigureden

I came here to join the event of a small lecture and a demonstration of Japanese flower arrangement performed by the school master of Misyoryu, Ryuho Sasaoka. It was Jun, very sultry weather!!! Here Arashiyama was also hot and humid. We listened to and watched in a large saloon tatami-​mat room on the second floor, where I had to sit down in a Seiza position． Although I concentrated on a series of amazing demonstration, my feet were being numb.
In the next room the service of wearing Junihitoe (traditional tweleve-​layered garment with sleeves for court ladies during the Heian era, now worn in a wedding of Imperial Family) and taking photos was offered for free. I didn’t have enough time to change my clothes, but I saw an elderly woman wearing it with the help of female staff members.
On the first floor there is a regular exhibition room, where dolls of one hundred master poets or Yumebutai (Dream Stage where aristocrat poets were making their poems) are displayed. Splendid!!! I felt as if I made a time trip to the Heian period! Ancient poets also described their feelings of love, affection toward their family or friends, nostalgia of their remote hometown in the same way as today’s people do. You can read one hundred elaborately selected poems called Tanka or Waka, classical Japanese literature here. If you come here, you may want to make a poem on a strip of paper with a brush.