Posted in Food, Kyoto, Temples, Travel on May 16th, 2008 No Comments »
In Kyoto there exist certain “nodes,” a sort of starting points that bring you to all kinds of interesting destinations while also being worthwhile in their own right. Demachiyanagi is, perhaps unexpectedly, one of those nodes.
[The wedge between the Kamo (left) and Takano (right) rivers, with Kamogawa Park and behind that the Tadasu forest of […]
Posted in History, Museums, Nature, Religion, Temples, Travel on Apr 14th, 2008 2 Comments »
In the Tama Hills in the western part of Saitama Prefecture stands an old temple famous for the valuable Buddhist scriptures it possesses. Now only a remnant of a much larger complex, the temple also boasts an Eleven-Headed Kannon. When I visit, the doors of the altar cabinet happen to be wide open and the […]
Posted in Gardens, Kyoto, Nature, Temples on Apr 3rd, 2008 No Comments »
[Weeping cherry in the Kamigamo Shrine, Kyoto. Photo © Ad Blankestijn]
This magnificent weeping cherry (shidare-zakura) called “Gosho-zakura” stands in the grounds of the Kamigamo Shrine in Kyoto. When I saw it last Monday, it was almost fully in bloom, so this week you can still enjoy it!
Read more about the Kamigamo Shrine in my […]
Posted in History, Kobe, Museums, Nature, Temples, Travel on Mar 28th, 2008 2 Comments »
Although I had been living for a year in Kobe, I had not yet made my way to that part of the city where the hot springs of Arima are located. There was no need to play the tourist, I thought, but last weekend curiosity drove me if not to the baths themselves, at least […]
Posted in History, Osaka, Temples, Travel on Mar 19th, 2008 No Comments »
Toyotomi Hideyoshi built Osaka castle in 1585, five years before he completed the reunification of Japan. The donjon was five stories high on the outside and eight on the inside, making it a fitting symbol of the generalissimo’s rule.
[Osaka Castle - Photo © Ad Blankestijn]
After his death in 1598 Hideyoshi had himself deified and […]
Posted in Festivals, Kyoto, Religion, Temples on Mar 11th, 2008 No Comments »
Everybody dies, even for the Buddha the Great Transformation was inescapable.
According to the tradition, the Buddha entered Nirvana at the age of eighty. But as he had reached Enlightenment, his was not an ordinary death. By his enlightenment, he had already extinguished the fires of attachment and passion, thus creating a state of Nirvana. However, […]
Posted in Kyoto, Temples on Mar 3rd, 2008 No Comments »
The best place to see Hina dolls in Kyoto in March is without a doubt Hokyoji Temple in the Nishijin district. It is beautifully solemn and peaceful place.
[Hokyoji Temple, Kyoto]
The Imperial Convent Hokyoji carries on the teachings of Keiaiji, one of the great five Zen nunneries that prospered in Kyoto in medieval times. The […]
Posted in Culture, Temples, Travel on Feb 18th, 2008 No Comments »
What is interesting about Obama?
No, I am not talking politics - I am referring to the small town on the coast of the Japan Sea north of Kyoto that was catapulted into the limelight (also by its own PR) thanks to the fact that it shares its name with an American senator running for president.
So […]
Posted in Kyoto, Religion, Temples, Travel on Feb 17th, 2008 No Comments »
When writing about Sei Shonagon and her poem stone in Sennyuji, I discovered I still had an unpublished article about a visit to that temple. It is one of the pieces that still has to go in the “108 Temple Pilgrimage,” but I will first post it here.
Located at the foot of Mt. […]
Posted in History, Kyoto, Temples, Writing on Feb 16th, 2008 1 Comment »
Sei Shonagon is in the first place famous for her Pillow Book, but she did also write poetry and was even counted among the “Late Classical Thirty-Six Poetic Immortals.”
One of her poems has been included in the Hyakunin Isshu collection - it is a piece that demonstrates her quick wit, something that was expected […]
Posted in Kyoto, Religion, Temples on Feb 9th, 2008 1 Comment »
Kyoto, the old capital, is full of graves. When you walk through Shinkyogoku, the popular shopping street between Shijo and Sanjo that is almost a Harajuku look-alike, you are in the midst of a huge graveyard. Nobody notices, young people are on shopping sprees as if there were no other things in the world. […]
Posted in Kyoto, Photography, Temples on Feb 5th, 2008 No Comments »
Was the outside of the Golden Pavilion originally clad in thick gold, as it is today?
Many scholars doubt this. Is it not rather just a fanciful name, like the Silver Pavilion, about which we know for certain that it never was coated with silver (something which would anyway have been insane considering the wet […]
Posted in Kyoto, Religion, Temples on Jan 23rd, 2008 1 Comment »
As a Sinologist myself, I have always been fond of Sugawara no Michizane, the greatest Sinologue (and writer of poetry in Chinese) from ancient Japan. For the same reason, I have a weakness for the Tenmangu Shrines dedicated to him.
Michizane (9th c.) died in exile, after a frustrated career, and as an angry ghost […]
Posted in Food, Kyoto, Temples on Jan 20th, 2008 No Comments »
In my post “Temples and Sweets in Kyoto” I wrote amongst others about the Inari Sembei (fox rice biscuits) of the Inariya shop near the Fushimi Inari Shrine. Yesterday, when evening was already falling, I was again in the Inari Shrine. A round moon was hanging above the vermillion buildings, slightly hazy. The air was […]
Posted in History, Kobe, Religion, Temples on Jan 16th, 2008 No Comments »
The Ikuta Shrine stands at the origins of Kobe, so it could not be more right that it also stands in the middle of the Sannomiya shopping center of the modern city.
[Ikuta Road, leading to the shrine]
But that is not its original location. The Ikuta Shrine used to be situated at Sunayama, a hill near […]
Posted in Kobe, Religion, Sake, Temples, Travel on Jan 14th, 2008 No Comments »
There are several legends about the origins of the popular Nishinomiya Ebisu Shrine in Nishinomiya. One tale goes back to ancient myth and starts with a sad story. The creator gods from Japanese mythology, Izanagi and his sister/spouse Izanami have received a jewelled spear from the other deities to begin their grand work of […]
Posted in Religion, Temples, Tokyo on Jan 9th, 2008 No Comments »
Lord Enma and Lord Jizo, or Hell in Shinjuku. That is only possible at a dusty small temple called Taisoji, standing in the middle of rows of boring flats.
[The Enma statue, from the temple’s pamphlet]
Enma has remained strictly Chinese in Japan. The Judge of Hell has remained a gaijin, perhaps because his kind of […]
Posted in Kyoto, Temples, Writing on Jan 7th, 2008 No Comments »
The Shimogamo Shrine has Kamo no Chomei as famous resident poet, but also the Kamigamo Shrine with its deep forest and clear streams often was the subject of poetic effusions in former times.
In the grounds stands a monument to Poem No 98 of the Hyakunin Isshu anthology that is situated here in the rustling woods, […]
Posted in Festivals, Kyoto, Religion, Temples on Jan 5th, 2008 No Comments »
Last year it was the Shimogamo Shrine we selected for our Hatsumode, this year we opted for its “sibling”, the Kamigamo Shrine in northern Kyoto. January 1 was a dark and overcast day, with some sleet raining down, but New Year’s day would not be complete without a shrine visit.
The Kamigamo Shrine is dedicated to […]
Posted in Temples, Travel on Dec 9th, 2007 1 Comment »
Last week autumn colors were at their best, especially on a perfect hazy fall day when I visited in Kiyomizu Temple in Kyoto.
[Busy street leading to Kiyomizu temple, Kyoto. Photo © Ad Blankestijn]
It was a Monday and there were less people then ten days before, when the crowds jammed the view. At that time I […]
Posted in Food, Kyoto, Temples on Nov 30th, 2007 No Comments »
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 […]
Posted in Kyoto, Religion, Temples, Travel on Nov 25th, 2007 No Comments »
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 […]
Posted in Art, Gardens, Kyoto, Temples, Travel on Nov 24th, 2007 No Comments »
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 […]
Posted in Culture, Religion, Temples, Travel on Nov 24th, 2007 No Comments »
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 […]
Posted in Religion, Temples, Travel on Nov 23rd, 2007 No Comments »
Usuki is a small town in eastern Kyushu, located at the end of a deeply indented bay (incidentally the place where the first Dutch ship to reach Japan, De Liefde, ran ashore). Now a pleasantly sleepy town, it originated as the castle town of the Christian Daimyo Otomo Sorin, who did his charitable best to […]
