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Toji Temple (May 05, 2004)In the 13th year of Enryaku(794) the Emporor Kammu the capital of this country from Nara to Kyoto and he built, after the model of Chungan, the then capital of China, two huge guardian temples on the east and west side of the Rajyo-mon which was the south gateway to Kyoto. They are Toji Temple (East Temple) and Saiji Temple (West Temple).
About thirty years later the Emperor Saga honored Kukai (774-835; founder of Shingon Biddhism) with Toji Temple and gave it the official name Kyo-o-gokokuji, which means the temple that guards the capital and the land by virtue of Ninno-gokoku-kkyu (the main sutra of the Shingon sect). |
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Teramachi Street (May 05, 2004)| We had lunch on Teramachi Street. This has been an amusement area since the early 17th century. Cool shopping and an interesting mix of old and new. |
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Genkoan Temple (May 05, 2004)| Then we headed out to the Genkoan Temple. I really wanted to go here because there was a horse related Samurai festival going on. On Monday they had Samurai men on horses doing their bow and arrow stuff. On this day they had horse racing down the temple lawn. The men were in full costume and putting on a good show. There were tons of people and I am sooooo short that many of these pictures did not work. I have a few racing pictures but I think I will scan in the program as my pictures kind of sucked. I do have one picture of a racing horse’s tail. Hehehe. |
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Heian Shrine (May 05, 2004)The last temple of the day was Heian Shrine. This place is very orange. The gardens were quite beautiful but we were unfortunate in between flower blooming for this garden. The major attraction for this garden is the cherry blossoms but we missed them by a few weeks.
This place is huge and really resembles a Chinese temple. The white raked sands and court yard areas make a perfect movie setting. |
| 2013 Visits
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Ponto-cho Street (May 05, 2004)| We headed out to Ponto-cho Street for dinner. Very interesting ally. It is situated on the sandbar of the Kamo-River. In 1712 the residents allowed inns and tea houses served by hostess girls to enter and it became a high quality gay quarter. Now it is lined with hostess bars, izakayas, and numerous restaurants. We ate in an interesting BBQ restaurant where our meat was BBQed on a hot lava rock and we were served on hand an foot. We had a lovely dinner. |
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Nijo Castle (May 06, 2004)Nijo Castle was originally built in 1603 to be the official residence of the first Tokugawa Shogun Ieyasu, and it was completed in 1626 by the third Shogun.
Its gardens are beautiful and lavish as well as the guardhouse and palace. The flooring is called Uguisu-bari or Nightingale Floors because they make a soft chirping noise as you walk on them. These floors were designed to warn the guards on intruders, as it is impossible to walk upon them silently. When we went there were unfortunately tons of annoying school children with no respect for the history they were walking in or the beauty if silence. Thankfully they were not in the gardens. In the gardens there were some tree pruners and I took a picture of one of them. Yes I asked first. |
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Kinkakuji Temple (May 06, 2004)Then we headed out to Kinkakuji Temple. This place is BEAUTIFUL! It is covered in real gold flake. The pond was full of purple iris and it was just lovely.
Kinkaku (Golden Pavilion) is a popular name for one of the main buildings of this temple, which is properly called Rokuon-ji Temple. In the 1220’s it was the comfortable villa of Kintsune Saionji.
Yoshimitsu, the 3rd Shogun of Ashikaga, abdicated the throne in 1394. After three years, he began to build Kitayamaden and he made a special effort to make it a breath-taking site. He indulged in his peaceful life in the serene setting. After Yoshimitsu’s death, it was made into a Zen temple in accordace with his will. All of the buildings of those days came to ruin except Kinkaku. The garden, however, remains as it was in former days and can still be enjoyed, as it was hundreds of years ago. |
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Kiyomizu Temple (May 06, 2004)Our last temple of the day was Kiyomizu Temple. This place is neat. It is built into a hill and on pillars. Very wild. It is also a temple to the god of mercy. It is the place of worship that women go to pray for a painless childbirth. It is beautiful. I took pictures of many signs that have more information about this temple.
For those of you looking at this from the gallery, this is a linked folder to our whole Kyoto Trip. |
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