At Osawa Pond of Daikaku-ji, a temple founded around 800 under Emperor Saga and closely linked to Kobo Daishi, the author encounters flocks of Japanese grosbeaks and thrushes. Memories of birdwatching in Kyoto, childhood in the coastal town of Yuriage, and a heartbreaking post-earthquake visit converge into a moment believed to be guided by the spirit of Musō Soseki. These photographs are dedicated especially to the people of Yuriage.

This is Osawa Pond at Daikaku-ji, a temple founded around the year 800 by Emperor Saga and deeply connected to Kūkai.
January 27, 2016.

Yesterday, when I looked outside, it was almost completely clear.
I called my close friend and immediately headed for Kyoto.
As usual, before going to Arashiyama, which is like my own garden, I headed first for Osawa Pond at Daikaku-ji.
The day before yesterday, at the rest area, a single Japanese grosbeak (ikaruga) had appeared before my eyes—because of that, I had a premonition that they would surely be there.

At the Kyoto Prefectural Botanical Garden, the finest botanical garden in the East, a pair lived in the small forest where I always walked, and I often heard their call (which is quite beautiful).
There was also a time when a whole group had perched on a tree by the pond where kingfishers once lived.

But I had never encountered a scene like the one I saw yesterday.
Needless to say, I took fifty photographs in no time at all.
In fact, yesterday I took about two hundred photos for the grosbeaks and the thrushes.
Moreover, the thrush was sitting high up on a branch when Nakanoshima Park was covered in overcast skies, so much so that my back ended up aching terribly.

My hometown, the wonderful Yuriage, was a port town facing the estuary where the Natori River flows into the Pacific Ocean, surrounded by river, sea, and fields.
So when it came to wild birds (excluding seagulls), I believe that what I saw were only plovers and skylarks.

The year before last, after the great earthquake, I visited Yuriage for the first time.
I stopped a taxi and, relying on my memory, tried to trace the place where my home had once stood.
The area around the sluice gates facing the Natori River, along the Teizan Canal opened by Date Masamune, was under land-raising construction.
At that moment, a pair of plovers appeared and stayed right beside me as if clinging to me, and my chest felt as if it would burst.

The day before yesterday, it must surely have been Musō Soseki who sent the grosbeaks to me.
And it was as if I were being invited by them that I came to Osawa Pond.
Although it was the first time I had ever seen grosbeaks here, I was convinced that they must surely be here.

I present the following photographs, above all, as a gift to everyone in Yuriage.

This is Osawa Pond at Daikaku-ji, founded around 800 by Emperor Saga and deeply connected to Kūkai, in the morning of yesterday.