Rokuon-ji, Deer Garden Temple, a Zen Buddhist temple in Kyoto, commonly known as Kinkaku-ji, "The Golden Pavilion." Dates from 1397.
Traveling to Kyoto, the old Imperial capital of Japan, gave me a chance to ride on the Shinkansen, Japan’s famous bullet train. The Shinkansen comes in two versions – the Hikari, which is very fast, and the Nozomi, which is faster yet and makes fewer stops. I took the Hikari to Kyoto, and although it was too late in the day to do much sightseeing, I did walk around a little in the Gion district, where I had booked my room at a modest but comfortable local ryokan, the Rikiya.
Construction near Kyoto Station
As I arrived in Kyoto, I observed that a new station was under construction to replace the existing one, which had been built in 1952.
New Train Station
The new station was going to be the second-largest building in Japan (Nagoya Station is the largest). It was completed in 1997.
New Kyoto Station - Karasuma Side
The new station incorporated a shopping mall, hotel, movie theater, department store, and several local government facilities under one 15-story roof.
Ryokan Rikiya
My lodging in Kyoto was this ryokan located in Gion, the so-called geisha district. It was quite comfortable, although there were no geishas there.
Motorcycle dealership
Although Kyoto, with its rich legacy of history and culture, has many extraordinary attractions, I took a few pictures of ordinary, mundane establishments that would be found in any modern city, such as this motorcycle dealership.
Gas station
Another humdrum item you can't avoid in the modern world, hardly worthy of a photo.
Teahouse in the park
But this elegant teahouse in a Kyoto park did seem worth a snapshot.
The next morning I got up and took a short train ride to Nara, spending the entire day there; the following two days I devoted to seeing Kyoto.
At Kyoto Station I had signed up for a morning walking tour conducted by a local guide who styled himself as Johnny Hillwalker, aka Hiruka Hajime. I met him, along with the rest of a party of 5-6 people, on a rainy, chilly spring morning at Kyoto Station. Johnny, a retired JNTO guide, proved to be a highly affable, entertaining and knowledgeable host, and of course his English was flawless. His fee was more than reasonable – I suspect that he did the tours more to keep fit and busy than to supplement his income.
The rain was pouring down as we began our walk; it didn’t dampen our spirits, but it did impede photography somewhat – I had to be careful to avoid flooding my camera, which was not waterproof. So I took fewer pictures than I would have preferred. Later in the day, when the sky began to clear, I made up for lost time.
The walk, if I remember correctly (it’s been a long time) lasted about 3-4 hours; we visited several temples, shrines, gardens and a few local shops such as bakeries and ceramics makers.
Johnny Hillwalker
Johnny Hillwalker, aka Hiruka Hajime, our guide for a rainy-day morning walking tour of Kyoto.
The Snow-Capped Bridge
The Snow-Capped Bridge in Shosei-en Garden, one of the first places we visited with Johnny Hillwalker.
Rained-on Bridge
Another view of the Snow-Capped Bridge in Shosei-en Garden. On this day it was not snow-capped but rather rain-washed
Higashi Honganji Temple bell.
Our tour guide, Johnny Hillwalker, gives us the scoop on the Higashi Honganji Temple bell. He was quite familiar with it since he attended services there.
Picturesque bridge
One of the bridges we crossed on our walking tour.
Higashi Otani Cemetery
Higashi Otani Cemetery, Kyoto, Japan. Since most Japanese are cremated, burial does not take much space.
Deva gate, Kiyomizu-dera
Our walking tour ended here at the Deva gate at Kiyomizu-dera (temple), which overlooks Kyoto from the foothills of Mount Otawa.
From Johnny Hillwalker I got good directions on how to reach the attractions I most wanted to visit, which were mostly far away in the northwest part of Kyoto – the railway station and Gion are in east-central Kyoto. In the meantime I picked up where the morning walk had ended and checked out some more of the sights in Gion.
Gion is the entertainment district of Kyoto, and it is inextricably associated in the popular mind with geishas (or geiko as they are known locally). I had no particular interest in meeting up with any geishas; I had done enough research – and absorbed plenty of sage advice from Dave Winter – to know that quality geisha performances were likely to be (a) very expensive and (b) mostly unavailable to Westerners, except wealthy or well-connected ones, and I was neither. But I did feel a need for at least some cultural exposure, and I had a free evening, so I bought a ticket for a performance at Gion Corner, which, in the words of one website, offers a “budget experience…a contrived one-stop shop for geisha entertainment open nightly from 6 p.m. that panders to tourists with tea ceremonies, puppets, flower arrangement, music and dancing.” As the description suggests, it wasn’t especially memorable, but neither did it bankrupt me at about $28.
The real glory of Kyoto is in its historical sites and artistic marvels. From 794 to 1868, when Emperor Meiji migrated to Tokyo, Kyoto was the seat of the Emperor and the cultural metropolis of Japan. (The stretch from 794 to 1185 is known as the Heian period, because the original name of Kyoto was Heian-kyo.) It still retains much of that aura, not least owing to the fact that it was spared the firebombing that destroyed Tokyo and other cities during World War II. This was thanks to Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson. When army generals proposed Kyoto as a first target for the atomic bomb, Stimson, who had honeymooned in Kyoto and was familiar with the city, forcefully quashed the idea, on the grounds that Kyoto was a repository of priceless cultural treasures and could not be bombed.
There are too many such treasures in Kyoto to see in a couple of days; it would have taken months to see them properly. I was able to visit and take pictures of a few of the sites I had heard most about, and you can see them here, along with a few shots of places I missed but picked up from other sources.
Kiyomizu-dera Temple
Kiyomizu-dera is a Buddhist temple founded in the eighth century; the present buildings were erected in 1633 on a commission from the shogun Tokugawa Iemitsu.
Niomon (Deva gate) at Kiyomizu-dera
A niomon is a Buddhist temple gate guarded by two wooden warriors called nio. They are located inside the gate and cannot be seen in this picture.
Main Gate of Heian Shrine
Heian Shrine was built in 1895 as a 5/8 scale of the Heian-era Imperial Palace, to commemorate the 1100th anniversary of the transfer of the Imperial Capital from Nara to Kyoto.
Heian Shrine Garden
The pond is a haven for rare species of turtles.
The Dump
Not all places in Japan are neat and clean. I came across this neglected graveyard for old bicycles en route to one of the Kyoto temples.
Ryozen Kannon Temple
Buddhist temple featuring a 24-meter-tall, 500 ton statue of Kannon, the bodhisattva of compassion.
1001 images of Kannon
1001 images of Senju Kannon, the Buddhist bodhisattva of compassion, stand in Sanjusangendo Temple.
Boddhisattva Kannon
700-year-old, 11-foot-tall statue of the Boddhisattva Kannon, carved of cypress wood covered with gold leaf, in Sanjusangendo Temple.
Rokuon-ji, the Golden Pavilion
Rokuon-ji, Deer Garden Temple, a Zen Buddhist temple in Kyoto, commonly known as Kinkaku-ji, "The Golden Pavilion." One of the most popular attractions in Kyoto.
Kyoko-chi - Mirror Pond
Kinkaku-ji's pond reflects the Golden Pavilion rather nicely.
Kinkaku-ji and its pond
Kinkaku means gold in Japanese; the pavilion is literally covered with gold leaf.
Kinkaku-ji, the Golden Pavilion
Still another view of Kinkaku-ji and its reflection in Kyoko-chi Pond.
My ultimate destination in Kyoto, the one place I had come to see above all others, was the Zen rock garden known as Ryoanji. Along with the Alhambra in Spain, it was one of the two places in the world I wanted most to visit. I had first encountered Ryoanji in Edwin Reischauer and John Fairbanks’ college textbooks on Asian history, one of which actually had a picture of the garden; I had wanted to see it in person ever since. I find that the esthetic that elevates an assembly of plain, unadorned rocks to the epitome of artistic achievement has a powerful appeal. I lingered there for a couple of magical hours and shot more pictures of the shrine and the garden than of any other attraction I visited in Japan, and I’m giving it a special section as the culmination of my visit to Kyoto.
Approaches to Ryoanji Temple, Kyoto, Japan
Ryoanji Temple - The main building (kuri) in autumn
The torii at the entrance to Ryoanji Temple.
Ryoanji Temple has a back yard.
The stone wash-basin (tsukubai) for the Zorokuan tea-room.
Ryoanji Temple - the Tea Room Zorokuan
Kyoyochi Pond at Ryoanji Temple
Kyoyochi Pond at Ryoanji Temple
Spiraea thunbergii at Kyoyochi Pond
The kare-sansui (dry landscape) zen garden at Ryōan-ji Temple.
Another perspective on the kare-sansui (dry landscape) zen garden at Ryōan-ji
The splendor of cherry trees in bloom contrasts with, and so enhances, the austere beauty of the rock garden.
Japanese cedars provide a pleasing backdrop for the rock garden.
The rock garden appears to me as a vast Pacific seascape dotted with small volcanic islands.
The jagged island thrusting abruptly out of the sea reminded me of some of the Hawaiian Islands.
Ryoanji Temple - Rock Garden in spring with cherry blossoms; this is what it looked like when I was there.
I never tired of looking at the Ryoanji rock garden; I remained sitting there until spring turned to winter, and then shot these last two pictures. Actually, of course, I got them from postcards.
I thought that the rock garden presented an especially sublime appearance with the snow on the trees and the rocks.
