Stairs to Heaven

Architect IMAI Kenji named these stairs Stairs to Heaven. Fathers at the church also called the stairs that way. Two sets of stairs were made on the west and the east side of the tower. IMAI commented that these stairs made the heavy weight of the tower look light and airy.

On the wall of the second layer of the tower are the inscriptions referring to the significance of the cathedral. On its west side in Japanese; the east side Latin.

Its English translation from the cathedral's official web site is as follows:
 
This church was erected in memory of the victims of the first atomic bomb, dropped on Hiroshima on 6 August 1945, and as a sign of peace for all nations, symbolizing the true and only way that leads to peace with God and man: the way of truth, not of deception; of justice, not of violence; of love, not of hate. Therefore all who enter this church are earnestly requested to offer their prayers for the eternal repose of the departed and for peace among the peoples of the world.　　The sixth day of August in the year 1954.

Cornerstone of Memorial Cathedral for World Peace

Go through the gate, walk the approach, cross the bridge, proceed to the door to the cathedral, turn left, walk a few steps, and look downward at the wall on the right. This is what you'll see: the cornerstone of the cathedral.

A ceremony to celebrate the construction of the cathedral was held on July 23, 1950. This cornerstone was made at that time and later laid in the place mentioned above.

Interestingly, the inscription on the stone goes "Memorial Cathedral for World Peace" though the church publicly referred to the future cathedral as Peace Memorial Cathedral of Hiroshima in those days. In fact this appellation was used until the very end of the construction.

The real construction started on November 8, 1950. And the cornerstone was laid in the facade of the cathedral to be.

The church announced on July 23, 1954 that Memorial Cathedral for World Peace was adopted as its official name, just before the completion ceremony on August 6, 1954. 

World Peace, it seemed, was always a key word for the cathedral.

The gate to the cathedral

Here’s the gate to the Memorial Cathedral for World Peace; next comes the approach; then a small bridge beneath which there once was water. The competition guidelines included such prerequisites that the cathedral be modern, religious, monumental, and pay respect to things Japanese. MURANO thought a lot about how to incorporate things Japanese in the whole cathedral. This layout, reminiscent of that of Japanese shrines, seems to be one of his answers.

Facade of the Memorial Cathedral for World Peace

The facade of the cathedral is adorned by the sculpture depicting the seven sacraments. It was conceived of by architect IMAI Kenji, one of the competition judges for the the cathedral and MURANO's friend; prototypes were made by architect TAKEISHI Kozaburo; ENTSUBA Katsuzo, helped by SAKAGAMI, made the sculpture on site in 1956. This retains Japanese Buddhist temple atmosphere.

Asian phoenix on the dome

Here's a picture of the Memorial Cathedral for World Peace with its dome scarcely shown. Pay attention to the Ho-oh, or Asian phoenix, perched on the dome due to architect MURANO's idea. The original plan was to erect a cross.

Bridges of Hiroshima

The city of Hiroshima is proud to say that it’s popularly called the city of waters due to its rivers flowing across the delta area where the city has been developed.

Naturally there are many bridges: 2901 in the entire city. There are well over 500 bridges in the central part of the city only.

However, downtown Hiroshima in the Edo period saw only five bridges over the rivers. The number of the rivers was made minimum as a means of security and regulating free flow of people and goods. An old picture of thriving castle town Hiroshima painted on a folding screen is displayed on the second floor of the restored Hiroshima Castle tower which now serves as a history and folklore museum. (The ticket counter is on the basement floor.) The five bridges are visible on the painting.

Forty one out of the major 49 bridges in central Hiroshima remained after the A-bombing on August 6, 1945 but 20 were washed away by a typhoon which devasted the city once again in the middle of September (Makurazaki Typhoon) and floods in October that year.

After the war, many of the bridges were reconstructed but six A-bombed bridges are still in use. Kyobashi is one of them.

This bridge was originally constructed in 1591 by the ruling feudal lord MORI Terumoto as a bridge leading to/from Kyoto. The present bridge was built in 1927, 1380 meters away from ground zero. Many crossed this bridge for their lives 65 years ago.

Another photo of the bridge and the garden

Here's another one. The garden is now surrounded by high-rise condos. If the buildings has to be built, they should be unannoying and more artistic and intriguing.

This picture managed to exclude most of the buildings but not all.

Straddling Rainbow Bridge at Shukkei-en

Here’s a picture of Koko-kyo (lit. “straddling rainbow bridge”), the largest bridge of the 14 bridges esthetically arranged in the Shukkei-en garden.

There are 14 islands in the pond called Takuei-chi divided in half by the bridge. Each division has seven islands respectively. One of the respective seven islands represents a crane, a symbol of long life and happiness. The rest of the islands are all intended to look like tortoises.

A model of the original garden built at the beginning of the 17th century is displayed in the lobby of the Hiroshima Prefectural Museum of Fine Arts. It was designed by UEDA Soko, tea master and senior retainer of the Hiroshima Fiefdom, as a garden of the villa for the ruling Asano family dispatched by the Tokugawa shogunate　at the beginning of the 17th century. It looks totally different from the present garden. However, gardens are destined to change and that should be the way it is.

After your relaxed visit to the garden, go out from the door leading to the museum lobby. You’ll easily find the model. The museum shop is also good to take a look and the clean western-style restrooms are available.

The bridge is said to be modeled after the embankment at scenic Xihu in Hangzhou China and was completed at the end of the 18 century, some 170 years after the original garden was built.

This bridge, a combination of a flat passageway and an arch, about 1300 meters away from Hypocenter, survived the a-bombing. Go closer and see how the blocks are stacked to make a solid semi-circle.

You are kindly asked not to climb up the stairs to the top of the bridge. You might trip on the arch to find yourself in the pond at the next moment. Besides, it’s not really elegant standing like a pole on the bridge.

Take time and breathe every different view while strolling in the garden.

Memorial Cathedral for World Peace in Hiroshima

Photo courtesy of  http://www.arch-hiroshima.net

Hugo LASSALLE, an A-bomb survivor, went back to his “church” four months after the A-bombing though people stopped him not to. In fact it was only a shabby small hut made of board and corrugated tin, where he fostered his dream of building a cathedral to pay homage to the A-bomb victims. People, including a fellow priest, thought it was impossible but he didn’t budge and took action. In August 1946, he left Japan to attend a big conference in Vatican held in the following year. On the way, he went to New York City as the first A-bomb survivor that visited the US. At a press conference, he said that he would ask the Holy Sea to help Hiroshima and talk about his A-bomb experiences to the peoples of the world. The cathedral was completed in 1954 taking four years after its start of the construction. How the architect who designed the cathedral was chosen is an interesting topic in itself. For this refer to “arch-hiroshima” whose English pages for this cathedral and some others were translated by me from its original Japanese articles.

Hugo LASSALLE was born in Germany, ordained as a Jesuit priest, and traveled to Japan as a missionary in 1929. He came to Hiroshima in 1940 and served as a parish priest. He developed interest in Japanese Buddhist practices and studied Zen extensively. He embraced Zen Buddhism, believing Zen would be useful for Roman Catholic Christianity, which was not well-appreciated by Vatican. He became a naturalized Japanese in 1948 and named himself ENOMIYA Makibi, a very old-fashioned name. He was made an honorary citizen of Hiroshima in 1968.

Norman Cousins, an honorary citizen of Hiroshima

This is a monument installed in 2003 and dedicated to Norman cousins (1915-1990), who was made an honorary citizen of Hiroshima in 1964.

He started the project called the Moral Adoption, an attempt to help some thousand A-bomb orphans, who had been made to evacuate from the city and lived separately from their family. Responding to the call by Cousins, many American citizens, out of goodwill, assisted these children. The campaign started in 1949 and lasted for ten years. More than 490 children were helped as a result.

He was one of the most important figures who advocated the treatment project for Hiroshima Girls, along with Reverend TANIMOTO Kiyoshi and Doctor HARADA Tomin from Hiroshima.　In 1955, 25 young girls from Hiroshima flew to New York City. They stayed at American private homes for a year and a half while they received treatment and surgeries for their disfigured skins, called keloid, at Mount Sinai Hospital. One day, Cousins made Rev. TANIMOTO and his family appear on a TV program called This Is Your Life. There he and his family met Captain Robert Lewis, the co-pilot of the Enola Gay, a B-29 Superfortress, which carried the A-bomb to Hiroshima. It seems it was almost a surprise meeting for both of them; Lewis managed to express his genuine feelings and the two men shook hands. He was the one who wrote in the official log: My god. What have we done? Lewis made the contribution to the project for the girls while he was on TV. More donations followed after the program was aired.

Cousins was a prominent journalist and tireless advocate of liberal causes such as nuclear disarmament and world peace, who served as editor-in-chief of Saturday Review of Literature (later renamed Saturday Review) for 30 years. He cured his diseases by taking massive doses of vitamin C and laughing a lot by seeing Marx Brothers films. He died of heart failure on November 30, 1990 in Los Angeles, California.

On the monument is inscribed: World peace will not be achieved by drift or default. The goal must be defined, the approaches must be accepted, the responsibilities must be fixed.