How Paintings on Sliding Doors and Walls in Rokuon-ji Temple (or rather well known as Kinkaku-ji Temple) Are Arranged

Ito Jakuchu drew pictures on sliding doors and walls in a study house of Rokuon-ji Temple (or rather well known as Kinkaku-ji Temple) a couple of centuries ago. As you walk into the study house, first you face sliding doors decoratively panted with bamboos. The first room you enter is named rather the 4th Room for the backmost room is called the 1st room. The sliding doors in the 4th Room have chickens and chrysanthemums. The chickens there seem very wild. In the 3rd Room, sliding doors and a wall are adorned with Japanese banana plants. The plants are seasoned with partly ripped leaves, which shows that they have gone through rough winds. The pine trees and cranes in the 2nd Room look very mild and peaceful. The arrangement and depiction of the pictures in those rooms may imply the stages in life. What do you think, then, the 1st Room, the backmost one, has? The room is surrounded with grapes and little birds. You can find a lot of them painted on sliding doors and walls. Approaching 60, I can feel I’m walking through banana plant leaves into pine trees with cranes resting, yet grapes and little birds are still to be seen, still out of imagination of their meanings.