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| Giant Torii as seen from Heian Shrine |
Heian Shrine and Kyoto Museum of Traditional Crafts
Outbound to Gufu + Tokyo Japan, Day 15 of 19, October 18, 2017
By: PJ M
We joined our tour guide Geiko-san on the bus for our last tour of Kyoto to see the Heian Jingu Shrine and the museum of traditional crafts.
Heian Jingu Shrine
After disembarking from the bus one last time, we walked under a huge Torii gate (above) in front of Heian Jingu Shrine and through the shrine entrance gate. The entrance gate was guarded by fierce giants on each side. It is customary to purify oneself prior to entering the shrine. |
| Purification |
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| Heian Shrine - Outer building |
This shrine was built in 1895 to commemorate over 1100 years since Kyoto was made the ancient capital of Japan (since 794 AD). It is an exact replica at 5/8 scale of the old Chodoin (State Hall of the Imperial Palace).
Just in front of the Shrine proper, on each side, were two large trees, a citron tree signifying Eternity and a cherry tree signifying Loyalty.
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| Citron tree signifying eternity |
We were just in time to see a procession of priests and a ceremony (for a flower arranging competition, we were told). There were some prosperous businessmen receiving blessings, with music and prayers. No photos permitted for the ceremony itself.
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| Priests welcoming the participants |
We then walked through the gardens, and the day was sunny and beautiful, so this was a different garden experience for us. We saw the stepping stones made famous by Marlon Brando in the movie Sayonara and were warned that it is too dangerous to walk over them (one man from Geiko-san's tour many years ago had slipped and fallen in).
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| Risky behavior |
Ducks and carp, a soft shell turtle and a gray heron all joined us in the garden.
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| Trying to feed the carp rice crackers (ducks were faster than the carp) |
Kyoto Museum of Traditional Crafts
We then went across the street to the Kyoto Museum of Traditional Crafts.
We all walked through marveling at the intricate work done with gold and silver, bamboo, ceramics, and textiles. Here's just one example of fine workmanship on display in the museum. There were no photos permitted in the museum itself, this was on display at the entrance.
This is where we said goodbye to Geiko-san and we all went off on separate adventures.
Ray and I took the bus to Kiyomizudera area to walk through the shopping streets. We had lunch and enjoyed browsing the area. We both enjoyed looking at the antiques and beautiful ceramics in Asahido, a wonderful ceramics and pottery shop. We then walked back down the hill through a beautiful Higashiyama Preservation District with narrow streets, lots of steps, old buildings and a five story pagoda.
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| Higashiyama District - one of 4 in Kyoto |
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| Yasaka Pagoda, off a side alley |
Dinner was at Nihon-ryori Sakuragawa, which serves kaiseki cuisine, a traditional multi-course Japanese dinner, analogous to Western haute cuisine. Many courses, each a little work of art. Excellent!
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| Preparing the persimmon dish |
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| The persimmon dish (and a little sake) |
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