Holmes of Kyoto Episode 7 Review: Straying and Enlightenment

Woohoo! Party time! …again. The last episode of Holmes of Kyoto adapted the chapter which takes place at Seiji’s 77th birthday party. This time around, we have the birthday party of Seiji’s friend and fellow appraiser, Yanagihara. Not wanting to be outdone by ‘the old fart’, Yanagihara has set up a ‘real or fake?’ game for the guests. However, it isn’t only Yanagihara who has prepared the items for the game…

Japanese Title: 迷いと悟りと

‘Next time… don’t lose to him!’

First off, the best part of the episode was best boy literally barging right into Kura, flopping on the sofa, and putting his arm around Kiyotaka with a smug look on his face. This guy is from a different planet. It’s closely followed in my ranking by the death glare Rikyu gives Aoi as she’s drinking his tea and waiting for her to praise it. I swear they could have ended the episode here and I would have been satisfied.

Moving on, Seiji Yagashira has been invited to a birthday being held by one of his fellow appraisers. However, Kiyotaka and Aoi end up going in there in his stead (and of course Akihito is there because we need his stupidity to make Aoi and Kiyotaka look better). Last week, the main topic was the philosophy of a true appraiser when it comes to telling the truth. This week it is a little more personal. First up is a pleasant game where all the non-professional appraisers had to guess whether an item was real or fake. Aoi was able to really shine with her recently-acquired knowledge and natural eye. However, up next is a piece that Kiyotaka himself is supposed to inspect. It is Hunt’s most famous piece, ‘Our English Coasts’. I’m not all too sure if this has come up in the anime before, but to Kiyotaka, Western paintings are by far the most difficult things for him to properly appraise. But of course, it was a fake by Ensho! He set up the whole thing, meaning that even though Kiyotaka solved the ‘mysteries’ Ensho was leaving for him, he was playing right into the con artist’s hands. It is here that Kiyotaka and Ensho truly declare war on each other…although it seems Ensho is really here for the thrill. Kiyotaka comes out of the confrontation feeling like he has lost, and although Aoi’s first instinct was to comfort him, she knew what it was that he needed. She told him not to lose next time. This is a pretty important step in the relationship between the two of them. We later get to see an almost romantic moment outside the temple…until Akihito gets in the way! Such a third wheel (but I can’t help but love him). What is it that Kiyotaka wanted to say to Aoi? Will we ever find out?? (Spoiler alert: yes, duh.)

Trivia

Rikyu

Rikyu is very good at preparing many kinds of tea, and Kiyotaka refers to the fact that he is not shaming his name. He is, of course, referring the most famous tea master of all time, Sen-no-Rikyu. Sen-no-Rikyu was active during the end of the Sengoku period and was famous for being a close confidant of Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Interestingly, Toyotomi took a great interest in the tea ceremony and built the very famous ‘Golden Tea Room’ in Fushimi-Momoyama castle, which you can read about below for more morbid reasons.

Bloody Ceilings

Yes! I had always been hoping the bloody ceilings would come up at some point. I’m referring to multiple temples in Kyoto and Uji which have blood stains on the ceiling. In 1600, Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s Fushimi-Momoyama castle (in what is now the Fushimi ward of Kyoto) was attacked by Tokugawa Ieyasu’s army. A lot of bloodshed happened in the castle, mostly consisting of Toyotomi’s men committing seppuku. A few decades later, the floorboards of the castle were reused as ceilings for temples across Kyoto. Genko-an is one of these temples. I have visited most of the temples with bloody ceilings, and you would be surprised at how many footprints and handprints you can find. It’s a very popular topic, so if you are interested in seeing some of these temples, a quick search for ‘bloody ceilings’ will provide you with many guides in English. Go on, satisfy your morbid curiosity.

Places Which Appeared in Episode 7

Genko-an

Genko-an is a Zen temple located in Kyoto City’s Kita Ward. The windows of Enlightenment and Confusion (‘Satori no Mado’ and ‘Mayoi no Mado’) are very well-known, and I’m sure you’ve seen tonnes of stock photos using these windows without even realizing! The windows represent the basic Zen teachings, with the square window representing human pain and suffering, and the round window representing enlightenment and peace (to give a super basic explanation). The view is also very beautiful every season, but most especially during the autumn when the Japanese maple leaves in the garden turn red.

Let’s Start the Appraisal

Holmes of Kyoto is not, and is not meant to be, a ‘mystery anime’. This episode had no real mystery per se, and that is completely within keeping of the story.
Although we’ve seen plenty of times the hatred that Kiyotaka has for counterfeits, this is the first time he was actually more-or-less outwitted by a counterfeit artist (of course Kiyotaka does not consider them to be ‘artists’ of any kind, haha). Ensho is not evil, and he is not portrayed as such. However, to Kiyotaka, he is the most disgusting kind of person he could ever meet. It will be interesting to see how much of an effect the shock of what happened at Genko-an will affect Kiyotaka.

Don’t forget that we will be here each week with a preview of the next episode. You can check the stills gallery from Episode 7 here.