Values Differ from Person to Person
A short walk from Todai-ji Temple, in Suimon-cho, lies a garden called Isui-en. Passing through its gate, I found the garden divided in two: the Front Garden near the gate, and the Rear Garden beyond it. In the autumn light, the shadows of the trees fell quietly across the garden path.
The Front Garden is said to have been laid out in the early Edo period, in 1673, by Kiyosumi Dosei, an official purveyor of Nara-zarashi, as the garden of his second residence. Nara-zarashi is a fine hemp cloth woven in Nara. It is said that this site once held Manishu-in, a sub-temple of Kofuku-ji. Beside the pond stands the teahouse Sanshu-tei, and the still water reflects the shapes of the trees.
The Rear Garden was made more than two hundred years later, in 1899, for a wealthy Nara merchant. It is a stroll garden built around a pond. Walking on from the Front Garden, the view suddenly opens wide. In the distance rise Mount Wakakusa and Mount Kasuga, and in front of them the great roof of the Nandaimon Gate of Todai-ji is drawn into the scene as though it were part of the garden. One garden centered on the pond and the teahouse near at hand; another that takes in even the far mountains. The people who made them were different, and so were their times.
What we find valuable, and what we place value on, differs from person to person.
Although we should understand this well enough in our heads, as we go through each day, we tend to forget it.
Over such differences in values with others, at times we become indignant, at times our dissatisfaction bursts out, and at times we even end up reviling the other person.
At such times, let us return once more to the starting point.
Others and we ourselves are completely different beings. Values differ from person to person.
In 1939, Nakamura Junsaku, who had made his fortune in shipping, bought the Rear Garden, and the two gardens became one. Old Chinese ceramics, Korean porcelain and other pieces gathered by three generations of the Nakamura family are now kept in the Neiraku Museum within the grounds. Before leaving, I stood once more by the pond of the Rear Garden and gazed at Mount Wakakusa. Made more than two centuries apart, the two gardens still sit side by side within a single garden, each keeping its own character.