Posted in culture, calendar, travel and places, temples, kyoto on Jan 10th, 2007 No Comments »
Toka (Tenth Day) Ebisu is a festival with prayers for happiness and success in business that is held at Ebisu Shrines around Japan, especially in the Kansai, between 8 or 9 and 11 January. The most important shrines are Imamiya Ebisu in Osaka, Nishinomiya Ebisu in Nishinomiya near Kobe and the Ebisu Shrine near […]
Posted in travel and places, gardens, temples, kyoto on Jan 7th, 2007 No Comments »
“Let us sit down quietly and contemplate this garden of sand and stones,” starts the pamphlet handed out by Ryoanji. Unfortunately, nothing could be more difficult. This small temple with its exquisite stone garden, is daily overrun by hordes of tourists. Whole schools, cohorts of kids in sailor’s uniforms, march over the poor wooden floors. […]
Posted in travel and places, temples, kyoto on Jan 7th, 2007 No Comments »
This morning it was snowing in Kyoto, so I did what everyone is supposed to do under such circumstances: I hastened to the Golden Pavilion, Kinkakuji, to take the famous snow pictures. Kinkakuji took some time to reach (it is after all 40 min from Kyoto St), so when I arrived around noon the snow […]
Posted in calendar, travel and places, temples, kyoto on Jan 3rd, 2007 No Comments »
[The wild boar is the messenger of the Go-o Shrine. Photo Ad Blankestijn]
I visited the Go-o Shrine at least three months too early when I came here in last September. As you see on the picture above, this is the Shrine of the Wild Boar, so there could be no more fitting destination for […]
Posted in culture, calendar, travel and places, temples, kyoto on Jan 1st, 2007 No Comments »
The Yanaka Tour of the Seven Lucky Deities, set up by literati sometime in the Edo-period and running from Ueno via Yanaka to Nippori, is one of the oldest in Tokyo. But it was abolished in WWII and only revived after other rounds of the lucky gods had become popular, and at that time the […]
Posted in culture, travel and places, temples, kyoto on Jan 1st, 2007 No Comments »
It was not difficult to decide that Shimogamo should be the place for our New Year shrine visit (or Hatsumode). After all, more than twenty years ago, I used to live close to the shrine and cycle through its grounds to Kyoto University. It is also the shrine where my wife and I had our […]
Posted in culture, travel and places, temples, kyoto on Jan 1st, 2007 No Comments »
The Yasaka Shrine on the eastern edge of Kyoto plays an important role in the cultural life of the old capital, now and in the past. In July it organizes Kyoto’s largest festival, the Gion Matsuri and and top of that it is one of the most popular destinations for a New Year shrine […]
Posted in travel and places, temples, kyoto on Dec 31st, 2006 No Comments »
For most people, Demachi-yanagi is just where you change from the Keihan to the Eizan line when on the way to explore Kurama in northern Kyoto. But if you leave the station you will find that you stand at a very particular spot, where the Takano and Kamo rivers flow together. On the triangle between […]
Posted in travel and places, temples, kyoto on Dec 31st, 2006 No Comments »
The small temples of Kyoto are great when you happen to stumble upon them, but usually they are not places to seek out on purpose. Meyami Jizo is different to me - I have often visited this small temple on Shijo-dori in Kyoto close to Gion with family and friends, and today I wanted to […]
Posted in writing and poetry, travel and places, temples, kyoto on Dec 29th, 2006 No Comments »
In Fushimi today we came across a small temple called Saiganji or more popularly Aburakake Jizo. That means “Jizo covered with oil” and there is of course a story behind it.
[Saiganji, Kyoto. Photo Ad Blankestijn]
Saiganji was founded in 1590 by Unkai. Once upon a time, an oil merchant from Yamazaki stumbled in front of […]