Uji — a day in the Heian era

In Uji, the water is never in a hurry.

The Phoenix Hall at Byodoin preserves a second, identical form on the surface of the pond. Built a thousand years ago, its inverted reflection has wavered, but never disappeared.

Tea also waits for water. Matcha powder, fallen from the stone mill, slowly dissolves in hot water, turning green. If rushed, it becomes cloudy.

On Kotosaka, the path leading to Kosho-ji across the river, late autumn maples fall one after another. What Dogen brought to this country is the act of sitting, in other words, the act of waiting.

The procession that carried tea to the shogun, the pace at which the leaves fall, the hall within the coin—all rest on the same water’s surface in Uji. What you may take with you might not be the landscape, but this very unhurriedness itself.