Japan Navigator

Many temples and shrines in Kyoto are associated with particular wagashi, Japanese sweets (also called Kyogashi, Kyoto sweets), either because these were indeed associated with the temple, or because a famous shop started selling them “in front of the gate.” Here is a list of the best ones.

[The fox of the Fushimi Inari Shrine]
Fushimi Inari [...]

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A most useful article in the Japan Times by Mark Schreiber addresses the pitfalls of telephone etiquette in Japan. If you handle this correctly, the person on the other end of the line will think you are 100% Japanese and even ignore your foreign accent… a smooth elevator to making that all-important appointment… Use [...]

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It comes as no surprise that the heart of the average, innocent first-time visitor to Kyoto starts beating faster when spotting these beautiful ladies in kimono… Geisha! Many a proud tourist must have shown pictures like the above one to his friends and family at home. It is good that there is still some tradition [...]

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Kyoto is full of religious establishments and Buddhist images follow you wherever you go. They do not sit still either, but have been pressed into useful service in these days of rampant foreign crime where every true Japanese has to be on the outlook for anything suspicious. As this picture shows, the Ryozen Kannon [...]

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Elsewhere I have written about the ema museum of the Yasui Konpira Shrine in Kyoto, this time I want to take a look at its komainu – but first some history.
There used to be a temple here (Rengeko-in) with as protection a shrine in its grounds that was a branch of the famous Konpira Shrine [...]

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These papier-mache cats are looking into the display window of a shop where manaki-neko sit, the cats that beckon good fortune and prosperity. I saw it on Sannenzaka near Kiyomizu Temple in Kyoto.

The shop is called Hyotanya, “Gourd Shop,” and is in the first place known for its hyotan, gourd flasks, used in pre-vending machine [...]

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Our walk through the Nishi Otani Cemetery was undertaken to avoid the holiday crowds on Gojozaka and Kiyomizuzaka, but it was in fact Kiyomizudera we were headed for. For many years, I had wanted to see the exquisite garden of its priest’s residence, Jojuin – only open for a few weeks in spring and autumn.

[Crowds [...]

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Along the path leading through the Nishi Otani Cemetery stand several small temples, one of them called Myokendo. Myoken Bosatsu was regarded as the personification of the Pole Star and worship was believed to bring prosperity, good fortune and protection from danger. He originated as an Indian Buddhist deity and in China picked up Daoist [...]

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Yesterday, a national holiday with autumn at its best, Kyoto was overrun by hordes of tourists, as was to be expected, but we found a quiet road from the Gojo crossing to the Higashiyama range and the grounds of Kiyomizu – the Road of the Dead, as the path cut through the immense graveyard belonging [...]

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Gojo-dori, one of the most eye-sore heavy-traffic arteries of Kyoto, is not exactly a place where you would expect to find a poem. On an ugly wall behind which lies a small graveyard, Jodo temple Sainenji has put up a board with a beautiful poem by its founder Honen:

[Photo © Ad Blankestijn]
Though the moon [...]

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