I'd read that if we only had time to visit one place in Japan, Kyoto should be that destination. We were lucky that though we had time to explore much more of the country, we'd set aside a week in the former capital, the country's most historically significant city, and the only major city spared WW II's bombs. Planning our time in the home of the former Imperial Court for over 1,000 years was daunting because there are 17 heritage sites in Kyoto Prefecture or state/province that were designated UNESCO Historic Monuments. We knew it'd be all too easy to get "templed out" if we didn't mix up seeing religious buildings with other places that intrigued us.
Just down the street from our apartment was the Yasaka-jinja Shrine but we delayed seeing it until the end of our Kyoto visit.
Instead, we spent the day in the city's Higashiyama District, catching a bus to Sanjusangendo Hall originally founded as Rengeoin Temple in 1164 and rebuilt following a fire in 1266. The hip and gable roof was built in two traditional Japanese architectural styles and was covered in fired clay tiles. The large, long hall, was built of cypress wood and measured nearly 120 meters in length. It consisted of 33 bays or spaces between the pillars running down the hall and was thereby known as the Hall of Thirty-Three Bays or Sanjusangendo. When the hall was originally built, it was painted inside and out in brilliant shades of red, blue, and green with images of Buddha, flowers, and clouds. It was said almost to have been almost the Incarnation of Paradise.
On entering the massive hall, we immediately came across the powerful Wind God statue placed on a raised cloud-shaped pedestal. Like the Thunder God statue at the other end of the temple hall, both images were derived from people's fear of, and gratitude for, nature in the old days. The Wind God came from the Sanskrit name Vayu which was introduced in Rigveda, the ancient Indian scripture. Behind the wind god was row upon row of 1,001 life-sized figures, each one with different facial features. All of the standing statues were carved from Japanese cypress, 124 when the temple was founded in the 12th century and the remaining 876 when the temple was renovated in the 13th century.
Another guardian deity was Birurokusha whose original Sanskrit name was Virudhaka. He was believed to be one of the Four Heavenly Kings who keep watch on the southern hillside of Mt. Shumisen, a mythical mountain forming the center of the world according to one Buddhist cosmological view.
As it was the longest wooden building in Japan, Sanjusangendo has hosted archery competitions for centuries in the nearly 120-meter-long corridor behind the statues. Standing at one end we could only imagine how difficult it would be to pierce a sacred cloth attached to the wall at the opposite end. The target was hit 8,133 times when a competitor fired off 13,053 arrows for 24 hours nonstop in 1686, marking the greatest record.
We easily caught another bus to near Kiyomizu-dera Temple, Higashiyama's most famous temple and a UNESCO World Heritage site, where pilgrims have climbed to the mountain-side temple for centuries.
It was sad that we couldn't fully appreciate the temple because of the inadequate signage. I took photos galore but of what remains largely a mystery!
A sign indicated the temple's Main Hall was constructed over a cliff and featured a veranda supported by 139 pillars, each 15 meters high. Though dedicated to the goddess of mercy and compassion, most people are drawn for its magnificent sight and views.
The Jishu (Shinto) Shrine behind the main hall was long considered to be the dwelling place of Okuni Nushi-no-mikoto, the god of love and matchmaking. At the shrine, people could, for a fee, write down their troubles on a piece of paper before submerging it in a bucket of water so that both the troubles and the paper dissolve. If the shrine hadn't been closed for renovations, it would have been fun to try to walk in a straight line from one love fortune-telling stone to the other, nine meters away with our eyes closed. However, it wouldn't have mattered as our desires for love had long ago been granted!
Descending the long stairway to Otowa Falls:
Leaving the temple, we'd already seen our fair share of unusual bathroom amenities in Japan but listening to the sound of running water from speakers in each bathroom stall took the cake!
I thought of my pickle-loving, pool friends when I saw these lemon-flavored cucumber pickle sticks.
Another gently sloping, pedestrian-only lane was Ninenzaka with beautifully restored traditional shops and a delightfully atmospheric place to stroll. It was easy to imagine what Kyoto might have looked like before modernity descended in full force.
Kasagiya on Ninenzaka was described as the single most atmospheric teashop in Kyoto. We didn't peer through the half curtain to see what it was like inside.
The Hall of Memorial Tablets commemorated the more than 48,000 foreign soldiers who died on Japanese territory during the war. As there was no English-language information or anyone to ask, I could only guess that its old library-style drawers contained information on each of the soldiers who perished so far from home.
Almost completely hidden away was the Memorial Hall which was dedicated to the unknown soldier killed during the war.
In an adjoining room were containers of soil or sand collected from military cemeteries all over the world.
Buddha's footprint stone:
In 1588, Nene was awarded the nobility's highest rank by Emperor Goyozei and she was accorded in 1603 the honorary name Koda-in, from which the temple derived its name. Following the custom of noblewomen at the time, Nene became a Buddhist nun after her husband died in 1598.
We climbed higher up the mountain to reach Kasa-tei and Shigure-tei, adjoining teahouses designed by Sen-no-Riku, a famous 16th-century tea master. They were moved there from Fushimi Castle in southern Japan. Kasa-tei's name is derived from its unique ceiling construction in which bamboo and logs were interwoven in a radiating pattern.
The outside corridor connected the two teahouses.
We hadn't remembered seeing this bluish-gray shade before in any other bamboo grove
Described as the single most beautiful lane in all of Kyoto, there was no way we wanted to miss Ishibei-koji Lane especially as it was supposed to be like entering another world.
Perhaps we were tired or jaded but we found it hard to get terribly excited even at the beautifully maintained buildings that lined the 200-meter-long lane. There were none of the traditional inns, restaurants, or shops to break up the somewhat confining wooden walls.
Of more interest to us was the adjacent and far livelier Nene-no-Michi Lane also named for the widow of Toyotomi Hideyoshi. It was fun window shopping and seeing rickshaw pullers making their way as we strolled along the cherry tree-lined walkway.