Sightings of a world traveler: Kyoto, Japan

Jidai Matsuri is known as the festival of ages and is a daytime festival where a parade of people dressed in outfits from all the Japanese historical periods walk from the Imperial Palace to Heian Shrine (平安神宮). Although you can sit and watch from anywhere along the route the best places are said to be the Imperial Palace or the shrine where the parade starts and ends.

Heian Shrine (平安神宮)

Jidai Matsuri, Kyoto

Dancers, musicians and people simply dressed in costumes paraded down the street to pass through the gate to Heian Shrine (平安神宮). It was very neat to see all of the costumes depicting the various historical ages of Japanese culture but over the loud speaker they described the various costumes in Japanese and it was impossible to really tell what age they were from and where one tarted and the other began.

Jidai Matsuri, Kyoto

We stayed at the shrine from about 2pm to 5pm and despite the fact the parade was interesting I found it was a very long time and we spend the entire day at the festival so we didn't get to see anything else in Kyoto for the day. I know it is supposed to be one of the most famous and largest festivals in Japan but I was more excited for the Kurama Fire Festival that ended up being canceled due to typhoon damage.

Jidai Matsuri, Kyoto

Our first morning in Kyoto we started out sightseeing with visiting Kinkaku-ji (金閣寺) or the Golden Temple. Even arriving early the short walk around the temple was packed with tourists.

Kinkaku-ji (金閣寺)

The view across the calm waters of Kyōko-chi Pond (鏡湖池) of the golden temple is quite beautiful and one of the few places you can see the temple through the crowds of tourists. The zen temple, which was originally a retirement pavilion has been rebuilt multiple times after burning in fires. The golden pavilion now contains Buddhist relics and formally the zen temple is called Rokuon-ji.

Kinkaku-ji (金閣寺)

The temple is very unique compared to any of the others I have seen in Japan. It sits on the edge of the pond and the golden leaf is supposed to reflect the suns light.The first floor is wooden beams and plaster with the two floors above being gold. The top floor is gold on both inside and out and is capped with a golden phoenix. Gold foil on lacquer covers the upper two levels. The pavilion is representative of Muromachi- period architecture with first level is 11th century imperial aristocracy, the second is buke style of warrior aristocracy and the top level is Chinese zenshu-butsuden style.

Kinkaku-ji (金閣寺)

The walking trail for the temple goes through the temple's gardens which have retained their original design from historic days. The gardens hold a few other spots of interest including Anmintaku Pond that is said to never dry up, and statues that people throw coins at for luck. Continuing through the garden trail takes you to the Sekkatei Teahouse and exits beside the many souvenir shops, a small tea garden beside the entrance of the temple.

Kinkaku-ji (金閣寺)

Daitoku-ji (大徳寺) is a Rinzai Zen Buddhist Monastery Complex known for it's zen rock gardens, founded in 1319. Each of the 22 sub-temples in the complex costs a few hundred yen to enter. We only visited Ryōgen-in Temple (龍源院) and Zuihō-in Temple (瑞峯院), which were both incredibly beautiful.The temples are built with wood floors above the ground and the buildings have tatami floors and sliding doors.

Totekiko is the smallest stone garden in Japan. Sandy ripples on the right are the main focus of the garden. The stronger the power of stone thrown into the water is, the larger the ripples are.

Ryōgen-in Temple (龍源院) - Totekiko

Ryogintei is a zen-garden from the Muromachi Era and is the oldest garden in Daitoku-ji. A sheet of moss shows the waters and stone in the center symbolizes "Shimisen" or the core of the universe.

Ryōgen-in Temple (龍源院) - Ryugintei

There we multiple gardens within the temple that varied in size and they had raked gravel, moss and large stones. The largest garden was Isshidan. It was reconstructed into a horai-san style rock garden with rocks representing Mt. Horai, Crane Island and Tortoise Island with the white sand representing the sea.

Ryōgen-in Temple (龍源院) - Isshidan

Ryōgen-in Temple (龍源院) - Ishidan

The main temple has a series of large gates and a much larger grounds than the smaller two we visited.

Daitoku-ji (大徳寺)

Zuihō-in Temple (瑞峯院) had different gardens and you can have a short tea ceremony. The tea ceremony doesn't come with any explanation and is a very short one compared to the really long 4 hours ones that you can go to. To reach the main building you have to take multiple turns around the temple, a design that helps the visitor feeling a distance between the busy outside world and the quietness of the temple itself. After entering the temple one arrives at the main hall and can view the main garden that lies in front of it.

Zuihō-in Temple (瑞峯院)

The main garden is of the dry landscape type (karesansui - 枯山水), and was designed in 1960 by famous landscape artist Mirei Shigemori. The design of the garden has some unique features, most striking of which is the high profile of the sand raking that represents a rough sea. The tall and pointy stones also enhance the dynamic of the garden.

Zuihō-in Temple (瑞峯院)

During the tea ceremony you sit in a small tatami room and you don't actually have a view of the garden but it is still nice and on the cold rainy day was a nice warm drink.

Zuihō-in Temple (瑞峯院)

You can sit along the edges of the covered walkways and have a nice relaxing break. The moss and gravel were spectacularly manicured and starts with its front garden.

Zuihō-in Temple (瑞峯院)

On the other side of the main hall is another garden called the "garden of the cross", after the pattern that the stones make on the sand. Clearly, the idea of a cross was inspired by Otomo's beliefs. In fact, apparently under the stone lantern of this garden hides a small statue of the Virgin Mary!

Zuihō-in Temple (瑞峯院)

An afternoon shopping in Nishiki Market (京都錦市場商店街振興組合) was a nice active change to the relaxing atmosphere of the temples.

Fushimi Inari Taisha (伏見稲荷大社) is a Shinto shrine famous for it's walkways with 1000s of torii gates. You start at the temple grounds with many buildings. The temple grounds are quite extensive and actually have wifi.

Fushimi Inari Taisha (伏見稲荷大社)

The route takes you up through a huge Romon gate and to the main temple buildings behind it.

Fushimi Inari Taisha (伏見稲荷大社)

There are many small places to worship but most stop to do at the main building in the least. Other small buildings also support the bells and donation boxes like other shrines and likely represent other gods. You can see some people stopping at each shrine as they walk the path.

Fushimi Inari Taisha (伏見稲荷大社) main building

Fushimi Inari Taisha (伏見稲荷大社)

The buildings are lit up at night and pretty much all of them are brightly coloured with a mix of red, white, green and gold. Roof ornaments are ornate and some buildings have carvings decorating the outer walls and pillars.

Fushimi Inari Taisha (伏見稲荷大社)

The path of torii gates (Senbon Torii) isn't as lit up as the main temple grounds but only has a few scattered lanterns throughout it. It's very nice to walk through but not the most photogenic at night without a flash or a tripod.

Fushimi Inari Taisha (伏見稲荷大社)

The path splits into two sections (one-way going up and one-way going down) as it winds up the hill towards a shrine

Fushimi Inari Taisha (伏見稲荷大社)

At the top of the hill there is a shrine and another section of path with torii gates. This section was closed at night sadly so you couldn't walk the loop towards the mountain trails and back so we had to walk the same way down but this let us notice the wrightings that were only on one side of the torii gates. The writing is just the name of the donors name and the date of donation but since I can't read any of it, it all looks exotic and interesting to me.

Fushimi Inari Taisha (伏見稲荷大社)

The shrine is dedicated to the shinto god of rice, Inari, and the paths and gates are decorated with statues of the foxes said to be his messengers.

Fushimi Inari Taisha (伏見稲荷大社)

Seeing Fushimi Inari Taisha (伏見稲荷大社) at night was quite spectacular but I would definitely recommend seeing it during the day when you can see it all well and can walk the entire path or torii gates. So just in case you weren't sick of pictures of red gates yet here are some more!

Fushimi Inari Taisha (伏見稲荷大社)

Apparently an 1000 dollar donation can get you a torii gate but the larger ones are more like a million.

Fushimi Inari Taisha (伏見稲荷大社)

As with everywhere in Japan, cats are common around temple grounds. What was unusual about this little guardian is that he was so friendly. He greeted us with little meows and purred his heart out to all the attention he got. Not quite as serious as a fox messenger but similar expressions sometimes.

Fushimi Inari Taisha (伏見稲荷大社)

Nijō Castle (元離宮二条城) has beena UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1994. It was originally built in 1603 as the Kyoto residence of Tokugawa Ieyasu, the first shogun of the Edo Period (1603-1867). The shogun is best known for bringing an 130 year civil war to an end. The castle was completed and expanded by the first shoguns grandson 23 years later.

Nijō Castle Map (元離宮二条城)

After the Tokugawa Shogunate fell in 1867, Nijo Castle was used as an imperial palace for a while before being donated to the city and opened up to the public as a historic site. Its palace buildings are arguably the best surviving examples of castle palace architecture of Japan's feudal era.

Nijō Castle (元離宮二条城), Ninomaru Palace

Although no photos are allowed in the palace itself there are so many beautiful paintings on the walls, doors and ceilings. The one way route around the palace is quite crowded but it is worth taking your time and looking at all the paintings and signs.

Nijō Castle (元離宮二条城), Karamon gate

The carvings on the Karamon gate to the palace are incredibly ornate. The gate is Chinese style and allows entrance into the part of the grounds where the Ninomaru Palace is located.

Nijō Castle (元離宮二条城), Karamon gate

This castle is where the 265 years of Shogunate rule and 700 years of samurai rule ended as in 1867 the 15th shogun handed over rule back to the Emperor.

The gardens on the castle grounds are simple and mostly lawn and shrubs or trees with a few ponds. One pond in particular was quite large and beautiful even though it was very full of algae. The walk is enjoyable and at one point you can go up the the wall with a view of the moat below.

Nijō Castle (元離宮二条城)

The castle is made of six buildings and is the only surviving example of a fortified castle structure in Japan. Most other castle structures were destroyed in fire, war or the Meiji restoration period.

Nijō Castle (元離宮二条城)

The buildings are connected by walkways called nightingale floors, that squeak when stepped upon as a security measure against intruders. This is possibly the most secure castle I have seen in Japan that wasn't on a high point in the topography (like on a hill in the town).

Nijō Castle (元離宮二条城)

Other gates are not decorated and likely were likely less used.

Nijō Castle (元離宮二条城)

There are a few birds around the castle grounds and you can see waterbirds in the moats along with passerines in the gardens.

Japanese Pygmy Woodpecker

One interesting thing I did see was a heron actually swimming. I have never seen these birds actually hunting for fish in water they couldn't stand in but this one was swimming in deep water with much aquatic vegetation, likely some sort of milfoil.

Gray Heron

Sightings of a world traveler

Wednesday 24 October 2018

Kyoto, Japan

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