Japan, Land of the Shining Sun!

Part C: Kyoto, Cultural Capital of Japan

Personal Photo Album Part 23

I told him there was one city that they must not bomb without my permission and that was Kyoto.

 -         Henry L. Stimson, US Secretary of War during World War II

 

[This is the third of my four-part travelogue on Japan. The first one on Tokyo and the second, subtitled Horror of Hiroshima, have already appeared.  The remaining one, on Osaka, will appear sometime in future.]

 

Much of the history of Japan is a tale of two cities – Kyoto and Tokyo.  While Tokyo is a highly modern megapolis and the commercial capital of the country, Kyoto is its ancient cultural capital, a city of temples, shrines, gardens and palaces galore, eliciting colossal wonder, admiration and reverence.  Kyoto was the old capital of Japan until 1869 when Tokyo took over this role. Its rich cultural history and heritage, something that US Secretary of War Henry L Stimson seems to have taken note of seriously, saved it from any major aerial attacks during World War II.  The second A-bomb dropped on Nagasaki seems to have been an afterthought to spare Kyoto. How sad this exemption was confined only to Kyoto!

In my short stay during 10-12 June 2018, on my way back from Hiroshima, I could manage to visit only a handful of Kyoto’s innumerable tourist landmarks scattered all over the city.  This narrative is a recollection of my impressions of them, supported by just a small collection of the large number of pictures I captured.

Arrival

The Shinkansen bullet train took just a little over an hour for the 360 km journey from Hiroshima to its brief stopover in Kyoto on its way to Tokyo.  I had booked my lodging in the small Apa Villa Hotel, part of a large complex of buildings just opposite the main railway station (see picture below) in Kyoto, with a prominent bus station also nearby. I had to just walk across a busy intersection to reach the hotel. My room was very much like the ones in Tokyo and Hiroshima, equally small and equally comfortable.  I didn’t lose any time starting on my pre-planned visits. These are described here in no particular order.

Fushimi Inari Taisha Shrine

This is a Shinto shrine, located in a vast area, stretching all the way up to the top of the Inari hill.  It is one of the major tourist attractions in all of Japan as proclaimed in a large banner seen in the picture below:

The shrine is approached through a large gate (pictured below) just opposite the Inari local railway station.  A group of students, some of them seen in this picture, were my constant companions during my tour of the place lasting well over two hours in rainy conditions and dull weather.

The main shrine of the complex is visible through a massive gate in the picture below:

Here is a close-up picture of the huge shrine itself:

Here is a picture showing two other large buildings in the same complex:

 

The primary attraction of the Fushimi Inari Taisha Shrine is the long winding adjacent twin paths all the way up to the top of the hill, each covered with thousands of wooden gates (torii) erected in a sequence with short breaks on the way up.  Each of these gates is donated by an individual or group, with the donor’s name and wishes or prayers prominently etched, as can be seen in the picture below: 

Because of a constant drizzle, with slippery path leading up the hill a considerable distance, I had to stop short of the final destination and return with some disappointment.  Despite the inclement weather, it was nonetheless an exciting experience.  The shrine is a prominent place of pilgrimage for people from both within Japan and abroad, with considerable religious significance.  The statues of foxes dotting the landscape seem to have strong religious, social and agricultural undertones too (see the sentinel statues at the entrance to the main shrine).

I met a young British couple of obvious Japanese origin who said they too had contributed a substantial sum to the construction of one of the thousands of gates lining the route to the top of Mount Inari.

Kinkaku-ji (Golden Pavilion)

Known also as the Temple of the Golden Pavilion, Kinkaku-ji dates back to the early fifteenth century, and became a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1994.  It is an incredibly attractive structure, appearing to be bathed in gold, and actually covered lavishly in pure gold foil, jutting out of a large water body surrounded by lush vegetation!

With a large yet orderly crowd lined up to get as close to it as was allowed, I spent a considerable amount of time admiring the building located amidst spectacular greenery, even as I inched close to it, trying to avoid human presence in my pictures. One of my pictures is displayed as a prelude to this article. Here are two more of my best pictures from different locations:

The following is a less spectacular picture of a structure within the same complex where I made no effort to avoid human presence.  Actually, I shot it deliberately while a tourist group was looking at its leader. 

 

Kiyomiju-dera Temple

Like the Fushimi Inari Taisha Shrine, the Kiyomiju-dera Temple complex is one of the most popular of all tourist attractions in Japan.  It is a Buddhist temple located on the foothills of Mount Otowa overlooking the eastern part of the city and is yet another UNESCO World Heritage Site in Kyoto. The temple's present buildings were constructed in 1633.   Made entirely of wood, with no nails used anywhere, the majestic main building (see picture below) in the complex takes its name from the small waterfall within, which flows down the nearby hills. Kiyomizu literally means clear or pure water.

 

When I visited this site, it was a dull evening with the Sun nowhere in sight.  I had to walk up the long and fairly steep narrow road, with shops on either side selling all kinds of memorabilia, something very familiar at home in India. Having spent much of the day walking till then, it was quite a strenuous exercise for me, and I had to rest frequently as I made my way up the hilly road.

In response to one of my frequent WhatsApp messages, a friend back home had asked me if I saw many women in Geisha/Kimono dresses in Japan.  My answer was a yes in Kyoto and a no elsewhere.  It was an overwhelming yes at this particular site in Kyoto, apparently because of its very close association with religion and tradition.  Even as I thought about it, I clicked the picture below, which speaks for itself in more ways than one, and forwarded it immediately to the friend in question and to a host of others.

After resting for some time at the top and admiring the scene below, I explored the complex that housed several other impressive structures.  The following two pictures show them quite close up. I wondered how much more spectacular they would have looked on a bright sunny evening with the Sun shining directly on them, unobstructed from the east.

Here is a view in dreadful light from the highest point of the complex I could get to, showing parts of the city, including the 130 m tall Kyoto Tower, the tallest in the city:

 

From further back, I shot the following view of the towering pagoda that also dominated the site.  I could notice a likeness to the Asakusa Shinto shrine in Tokyo that I had visited just the previous week.

In 2007, Kiyomizu-dera was one of 21 finalists for the New Seven Wonders of the World, but did not make it to the seven winning sites which turned out to be: The Taj Mahal in India, the Great Wall of China, Machu Pichu in Peru, Petra in Jordan, the Colosseum in Rome, Italy, the Statue of Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and the Pyramid of Chichen Itza in Mexico.  Incidentally, I have been able to visit all but the last one of these.  I hope to make up for the shortfall sometime next year.

Nijo-jo Castle

I had planned an early morning visit to this place, and as it turned out, an hour too early, since the main gate to this ancient tourist attraction was due to open only at 9 am that day.  I had to while away my time walking leisurely up and down the large road-side open space in front of the castle.

Spread over a vast area, with two large rectangular fortifications, one inside the other, this castle is another major attraction in Kyoto, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site too. The antique bilingual plaque at the entrance gives a concise description of the castle in a nutshell:

A corner of the castle with moats on either side, seen in the picture below, should give an idea of how big and ancient it really is.

Here is the massive main outer entrance to the castle:

 

Here is the ornamental ‘karamon’ main gate to the ‘Ninomaru’ Palace, with its uniquely Japanese architecture: 

Here is a beautiful picture showing a bridge across an inner moat linking two parts of the castle, with lush greenery all around, as I could capture looking down from an elevated view point in the complex:

Large parts of the castle interior are dotted by beautiful gardens and water bodies, preserved in their pristine conditions.  Here are two pictures highlighting these features:

Ryaon-ji Temple

Ryaon-ji, the Temple of the Dragon at Peace, is yet another very impressive, large, ancient temple-garden complex in the city, with a rich history, and yet another UNESCO World Heritage centre, like perhaps no other city in the world. The temple belongs to a particular sect of Zen Buddhism.

Here is the main gate to the complex, another example of the distinctively Japanese style of architecture dotting the city:

Here is a picture of the visitors stepping down to a part of the vast complex:

Ryaon-ji is famous for its Zen Garden, also known as the karesansui (dry landscape) rock garden, consisting of groups of different sized stones, large and small.  Here is one such distinctive group, artistically laid out:

Here is a particularly eye-catching portion of the large garden complex:

 

Sanjusangedo Temple

Sanjusangedo, meaning Temple of thirty-three bays, is a Buddhist temple dating back to 1164.  It is most famous for its very long hondō (main hall) with its collection of sculptures, including 1001 standing thousand-armed Kannon, 28 standing attendants, a statue of Fūjin and a statue of Raijin, and the principal image of the temple, a big seated statue of thousand-armed Kannon, all of them designated National Treasures.  These were totally off limits for photography and therefore I having no pictures to post here.  Visitors had to undergo a mandatory airport style search, with designated storage bays for both footwear and electronic devices, before being allowed inside the long corridor of the building housing all these highly revered objects.  Here is a view of the long main building in the rear:

My disappointment in not being allowed to photograph the interior of the building was more than made up by the opportunity to capture the spectacular garden and path ways outside, as on a similar occasion earlier in Hiroshima. The following three pictures speak for themselves:

Chion-in Temple & Yasaka Shrine

Called the Monastery of Gratitude, Chion-in is one of the largest surviving structures of its kind in Japan and belongs to a rather obscure sect of the Buddhist movement.  The picture below, with a lone visitor climbing the steps leading up to its colossal main gate, shows why this is so.

Situated nearby, the Yasaka shrine also has an impressive gate as can be seen in the picture below:

The land encompassing the two structures, including numerous other buildings and attractive gardens, is also a popular picnic site as evident from the following three pictures from my large collection:

Epilogue

Just to emphasize that everthing about the city is not ancient, below are two pictures taken in the heart of the city that showcase a modern Kyoto too.  The first is a commercial complex near the city central bus stand, and the second, a view of the 130 m tall Kyoto Tower, looking almost straight up from an adjacent street, in bright blue skies, something  that had eluded me almost everywhere else.

The sheer number of sights in Kyoto, all richly endowed with the history, culture and traditions of ancient Japan, as many as 17 of them carrying the UNESCO stamp of appreciation as World Heritage sites, meant that I could do little justice to my ambitious visit to this fabulous city during the meagre three days I had set apart. The weather too was very unkind.  Among the sights I missed were the Kyoto National Museum and the Imperial Palace complex with its extensive gardens.  As I went inside the timeworn gate (see picture below) of the palace complex, it started raining quite heavily and I took shelter in a small building close by.  As the rain continued unabated and it was getting late in the evening, I beat a reluctant retreat and managed to get back to my hotel.  That was the last of my tryst with Kyoto, the magnificent relic of ancient Japanese cultural extravaganza.