Honganji Jinaicho (Kyoto Guide)

The area between Higashi Honganji and Nishi Honganji was a temple town administered by the Honganji authorities called Honganji Jinaicho. In the narrow streets between the two huge temple complexes one finds many shops selling Buddhist implements, such as home altars, statues, prayer beads, bells and cushions for bells, glittering ornaments, priestly vestments, etc. Near Higashi Honganji also is a specialist Buddhist bookshop. The main street keading from east to west through this area is called Shomendori. On Horikawa, at the entrance to Shomendori, stands an imposing gate.

[Buddhist shop on Shomendori. Photo Ad Blankestijn]

On Shomendori one also finds Dendoin, a red-brick building designed in 1912 by famous architect Ito Chuta. It belongs to Nishi Honganji and originally housed an insurance company related to the sect. Now it is a free exhibition space of the temple. Note the mosque-like roof and the mythical animals, as well as the unusual masonry, a true mixture of Western and various Eastern elements.

On Horikawa Avenue itself, you will also find several traditional shops, such as a large tsukemono (pickles) shop - a favorite item to take home from Kyoto or give as a present - and Kungyokudo, a traditional incense shop (now in a modern building). Besides various types of incense, it sells scented sachets, candles and kunko, fragrant incense pellets.

Access: The nicest approach is through the traditional gate on Shomendori, opposite Nishi Honganji. It is also possible to walk from Higashi Honganji - in that case go around the temple complex on either the north or south side and then take the first street at the back of the temple either up or down - this is Shinmachi-dori. About halfway Shinmachi-dori you will find the T-crossing with Shomendori.

Nishi Otani Cemetery

Even today, that Kyoto is overrun by hordes of tourists, it is still possible to find quiet spots. One beautiful autumn day, we happened to find a quiet road (away from crowded Pottery Lane) from the Gojo crossing to the Higashiyama range and the grounds of Kiyomizu - the Road of the Dead, as the path cut through the immense graveyard belonging to the Nishi-Honganji Temple.

You will find the entrance to this little road between Gojozaka and the stone bridge leading to the Otani Honbyo, the funerary temple of Nishi-Honganji, to the right of a small drugstore. It leads up the hill with temples to the left, and the wall of the Otani Honbyo to the right. Where the Otani Honbyo grounds end, the real graveyard starts... We skipped the Otani Honbyo temple this time, as there was a funerary ceremony going on, moreover part of the buildings was being restored and therefore packed in the usual plastic sheets.

In the maze of the graveyard, we followed signs pointing to the site where Shinran, the founder of the sect, was cremated (called dabisho; his ashes are buried in the Otani Honbyo, at least part of them, because the sister-temple, Higashi Honganji also claimed its share of the heritage). He died in 1263 at the advanced age of 90. We found the site incongruously in a sort of pit between the overflowing graveyard and some ordinary houses. The fact that the honored founder was cremated and buried here, forms of course the inspiration for his followers to do the same.

The shops selling gravestones, flowers and incense were all open and doing brisk business. Although not a Buddhist festival, we saw many people taking the opportunity of this holiday to visit the family graves to clean them. When you come here during the Obon Festival of August, relatives place lanterns with candles on the graves, transforming the cemetery into a fairyland.

The green and brown hills were beautiful when we entered the valley, and contrasted pleasantly with the gray gravestones. The 40,000 sq. meter large graveyard dates in its present form from the early 17th century, but I do not know if there are any really old gravestones left. The temple religiously checks the annual payments for the gravesites (this obviously is an important money cow) and attaches a yellow notice to graves whose owners are in arrear. I presume they will be demolished and the site sold again.

As every graveyard, this one, too, formed a small history lesson. The tall, pointed stones lining the path at fixed intervals belong to soldiers who died in China during the war. The sides of the stones were inscribed with the names of all the battles they took part in.

We also saw some beautiful autumn leaves, although most trees had probably been cut down in order to make space for the graves, which took up every available inch. The path came out into the grounds of Kiyomizu, next to a small restaurant selling amazake.

We had a great view over Kyoto, with Kyoto Tower visible in the distance. There was already a graveyard here in the Heian-period, called Toribeno, so for ages the people of Kyoto have been bringing their dead to this mountainside.

One last thought: of course these graves only contain ashes, not bodies, but still, they are sometimes uncomfortably close to each other. In life, people here live in houses that are too small for comfort, in death they are buried in tiny graves, and all the time they are as closely lumped together as a bowl of sticky rice...

Kamo River Park (Kyoto Guide)

The Kamo River is the spirit of Kyoto. It is at its most beautiful at the Y-shape where the Kamo (written with another Chinese character) and Takano rivers flow together - on the wedge between both rivers stands the Shimogamo Shrine with the Tadasu forest. The tip of the wedge has been turned into a small park called Kamogawa (Kamo River) Park.

[Kamogawa Park. Here the Kamo River (left) and Takano River (right) merge into the Kamo River (written with a different character from the first Kamo River!)]

The park can also be reached via the stepping stones that have been laid out in the rivers, provided the water level is low enough which is usually the case. The in the past often unruly waters have after all been rigorously tamed.

Already in the Edo period the Tadasu forest was a spot favorite for taking in some cool air on summer evenings. Now you see children playing with fireworks in the park and people sit picknicking here in the daytime. If I could live here in the neighborhood, I would on summer evenings sit with a beer on one of the benches along the river - a nice dream.

[The stepping stones in the river - note the turtles]

The Kamo River originates in Kumogahata, in the mountains northwest of Kyoto. In spring, the river is shaded by pink cherry blossoms, in summer it is alive with sweetfish. In this season, wagtails and herons also make their appearance. In late autumn and winter, blackheaded gulls from Siberia fly in via Lake Biwa - sometimes dancing around in large groups as if it were snowing gulls.

The Kamo River also used to be famous for its plovers - they even form the symbol of the Pontocho geisha quarters and the Kamogawa Dances performed annually by these artists. In the park stands a haiku stone with a poem by (if I am correct) the chairman of the Kamo River preservation society:

in the past
this spot was famous
for plovers

sono mukashi | kokora chidori no | meisho kana

[Stepping stones in the form of plovers are now all that reminds one of these birds]

Kyoto Walks: Shomendori Street

Shomendori Street took its name because it ran "in front of" ("facing") Hokoji, a once famous temple housing the Great Buddha of Kyoto. Shomendori started out with a very wide section right at this landmark temple (still existing in front of the torii gate of the Toyokuni Shrine) and then continued as a normal lane east over the Kamo River to connect with the two Honganji temples. In other words, Shomendori runs on an east-west axis from Yamato-oji Street to JR Tambaguchi Station and is 4.3 km long.

1. Temple Bell of Hokoji
Hokoji once was one of the greatest temples of Japan and its lands covered much of what are now the Toyokuni Shrine and the Kyoto National Museum. Today, Hokoji is not much more than a dusty parking lot with a huge temple bell. The original temple set up in 1586 housed a Great Buddha statue that was even larger than the Great Buddha of Nara. It was the same type of Buddha: Rushana, or the Cosmic Buddha. The hall was on the same scale as Todaiji. But as Hideyoshi was in a hurry to finish the temple, a lacquered wooden statue was installed rather than a bronze one. One thousand priests of (almost) all sects Japan knew took part in the dedication ceremonies. Hokoji was the apex of Hideyoshi's hubris.

Unhappily, not long after completion, in 1596, Hokoji (and most of Kyoto) was destroyed by a gigantic earthquake. Hideyoshi died two years later. In 1602, rebuilding began under Hideyoshi's son, Hideyori, but the project was ill-fated and it took until 1612 before the new Hokoji could be re-dedicated, on a somewhat smaller scale, and again with a large wooden Rushana. To this second incarnation a huge temple bell was added, 4.4 meters high and 2.8 meters in diameter. According to tradition, the inscription on the bell contained an insulting reference to the Tokugawa family, which Ieyasu used in 1615 as a pretext to start the siege of Osaka Castle, where the Toyotomi's lived, and destroy his foes once and for all. The bell survives, but the inscription has been erased.

Hokoji didn't fare much better than its sponsors. Another earthquake wrecked the temple in 1662; what was rebuilt of it, was lost to a fire in 1798. A crude wooden statue was inaugurated in 1843, and again lost in a fire in 1973. The small hall next to parking lot shows some pieces of the hand of this wooden statue, still surprising in size, for a small fee.

Besides the temple bell, another relic of the earlier temple are the huge stones along Yamato-oji Street, donated by various daimyo, reminding us of Osaka Castle. These formed the foundation of Hokoji. The temple gate stood more or less in the spot of the present torii of the Toyokuni Shrine, opening up towards Shomendori.

[Temple bell of Hokoji]

2. Toyokuni Shrine
When Tokugawa Ieyasu decided he wanted to be honored as a god after his death, he was following the example of his predecessor, Toyotomi Hideyoshi. When Hideyoshi felt death was approaching in 1598, he had a lavish mausoleum / shrine built where he was posthumously worshiped as a kami. There are still genre screens left showing a late 16th c. Bon dance with a large multitude of people in front of the mausoleum. But Hideyoshi was too popular among the people of Kyoto to Ieyasu's taste so after he came to power, and had destroyed the Toyotomi family, he had the Toyokuni Shrine razed to the ground. It stood farther east from the present shrine, at the foot of the Eastern Hills (at the present location stood the Hokoji Temple). The Toyokuni Jinja as it is now, was only rebuilt in 1880 by the Meiji government. The great Karamon Gate (shown below) was brought from Konchi-in, a subtemple of Nanzenji sponsored by the Tokugawa - a sort of belated revenge by the Toyotomi. The shrine's treasure house contains memorabilia of Hideyoshi and his times and is worth a look.

[Toyokuni Jinja]

3. Mimizuka, "Grave of Ears"
Toyotomi Hideyoshi undertook two military campaigns in the Korean Peninsula, in 1592 and 1597, with the ultimate view of conquering China, an effort which was unsuccessful due to stiff resistance from the combined forces of Korea and China. As war trophies ears and noses were brought back in barrels of brine instead of the usual heads (which were considered too cumbersome) and these were interred in a small grass knoll crowned by a stone stupa in front of Hideyoshi's "own" temple, Hokoji. Did Hideyoshi really think the Buddha would be happy with this gruesome donation? The number of collected body parts reputedly ran into the tens of thousands. Today, Mimizuka stands immediately next to a children's playground. When Korean embassies visited Kyoto during the Edo-period, they always made a point of worshiping at this mound.

[Mimizuka]

4. Kanshundo
Kanshundo is a shop selling traditional Japanese sweets on Shomedori, in front of Hokoji and Toyokuni Jinja. It was originally set up to cater to pilgrims visiting Hokoji temple. The shop itself has now moved to the southern corner of Shomendori and Kawabatadori. A restaurant set up with the same purpose is Doraku, now 370 years old.

[Kanshundo Higashimise]

5. Shomenbashi
Hokoji was so popular in the Edo-period, that a bridge was built over the Kamo River here, called Shomen Bridge.

[Kamo River seen from Shomenbashi]

6. Nintendo
Just across the bridge stands the former headquarters of the Nintendo company, when Nintendo was solely a hanafuda (Japanese-style playing cards) company. Nintendo was established here at Shomendori Ohashi in 1889.

[Nintendo former headquarters]

7. Kikokutei Garden (Shosei-en)
Shomendori next abuts on the Kikokutei Garden and you have to go around the garden with its stately walls to find the street again. The gate to the garden is in the eastern wall. Kikotei Garden was donated to the Higashi Honganji temple by the Tokugawa shogunate in 1631. It is a large pond garden, said to be designed with the help of Ishikawa Jozan, a samurai scholar who is well-known for Shisendo (and its garden).

Kikokutei is named after the hedge that once surrounded it and is supposed to go all the way back to a garden laid out here by a 9th c. Minister, Minamoto no Toru. The buildings in the garden - the villas of the Higashi Honganji abbots - are all modern replica's as the originals were lost in a large fire in 1864. At that time, the garden was also severely damaged. The picture below shows the central pond, Ingetsuchi, with Tonoshima, a nine-storied stone pagoda an a tiny island believed to be the tomb of Minamoto no Toru. Kikokutei used to be free, but unfortunately now a 500 yen "donation" has been instituted (a bit severe, as it is not one of Kyoto's really famous gardens).

[Wall of Kikokutei]

8. Buddhist shops on Shomendori
The area between Kikokutei and Higashi Honganji as well as the area between Higashi and Nishi Honganji were temple towns administered by the Hongaji authorities. Today, both on Shomendori Kami Juzuyamachi-dori north of it, one still finds many shops selling Buddhist implements, such as home altars, statues, prayer beads, bells and cushions for bells, glittering ornaments, priestly vestments, etc. Near Higashi Honganji also is a specialist Buddhist bookshop.

[Buddhist shop on Shomendori]

9. Higashi Honganji
See my separate post about Higashi Honganji.

10. Buddhist shops between the two Honganji temples
More home altars and other paraphernalia... Note that these differ depending on the Buddhist denomination. In this area you will find only shops catering to Jodo Shin Buddhism.

11. Dendoin
Dendoin was designed in 1912 by famous architect Ito Chuta. It belongs to Nishi Honganji and originally housed an insurance company related to the sect. Now it is a free exhibition space of the temple. Note the mosque-like roof and the mythical animals, as well as the unusual masonry, a true mixture of Western and various Eastern elements.

[Dendoin]

12. Gate to Buddhist shops opposite Nishi Honganji 
This imposing gate leading into Shomendori faces Horikawa Avenue. On Horikawa Avenue, you will find several traditional shops, such as a large tsukemono (pickles) shop - a favorite item to take home from Kyoto or give as a present - and Kungyokudo, a traditional incense shop (now in a modern building). Besides various types of incense, it sells scented sachets, candles and kunko, fragrant incense pellets.

[Gate to Shomendori with Buddhist shops seen from Nishi Honganji]

13. Nishi Honganji
See my separate post about Nishi Honganji.

How to find the starting point of this walk: take a bus to the Kyoto National Museum or Sanjusangendo and walk north up Yamato-Oji Street (running along the western perimeter of the museum grounds). You can also take a Keihan train to Shichijo Station.
When you finish the walk at Nishi Honganji, it is only a 10 min walk back to Kyoto Station.

Kyoto Files: Kyoto addresses

In the long and difficult address system of Kyoto you often find the terms "agaru" and "sagaru." "Agaru" of course means "to go up" and "sagaru" "to go down." This is symbolically measured from the old imperial palace which originally was situated in the northern-most part of Kyoto, as one explanation tells us. Or, less poetically, it refers to the geographical situation that the Kyoto basin gradually slopes upward - when you stand in northern Kyoto, you are on the same level as the top of the pagoda of Toji! So, in translation, "agaru" means "north of" and "sagaru" "south of."

What about east and west? Here we have the terms "Nishi-iru" and "Higashi-iru" which are self-explanatory ("iru" means "to turn into"). This form of addressing is of course at all possible because the old city of Kyoto was laid out like a go-board.

So here is the test: "Kawaramachi-dori Sanjo Agaru" means "north from the crossing of Kawaramachi-dori and Sanjo(-dori)."

And "Shijodori Yamato-oji Higashi-iru" means "east from the crossing of Shijodori and Yamato-oji."

Sanjo Ohashi, Great Third Street Bridge (Kyoto Guide)

Sanjo Ohashi, the Great Third Street Bridge, is the bridge over the River Kamo in Kyoto that formed the last (or first, depending on your point of view) stage of the Tokaido, the Eastern Highway between Edo and Kyoto. Its precise origins are unknown. The historical first reference to this bridge dates from 1590, when Hideyoshi ordered for it to be repaired.

The present concrete bridge dates from 1950. Typical for the bridge are the giboshi, the onion-shaped posts. The bridge is 74 meters long.

On the east side is the Keihan station with bus center, on the west side are the geisha district of Pontocho and the bar town of Kiyamachi. The banks of the river, especially on the west side, or popular for strolling or enjoying the coolness of the river.

The language of Kyoto (Kyo-kotoba)

The language spoken by the inhabitants of Kyoto.... Don't make the mistake of calling it a "dialect" - the language of Kyoto has for centuries been the norm in Japan and Kyotoites are proud of their heritage!

Its roots are in the language of the court and the aristocracy, as well as the townspeople - the traders and craftspeople (including the Nishijin weavers) who catered to the upper classes, and copied their language, plus the elegant geisha towns. Kyoto language is soft and elegant, consonants are long drawn out and the speed is slow. Often circumlocutions are used. It is a somewhat feminine language.

 

[The river Kamogawa in Kyoto]

Roji becomes "rooji," itta "yuutta" and takaku "takoo." "Hon wo motte kite kudasai" (please bring the book) becomes "hon wo motte kite moraehen yaro ka?"

The language is also very polite, and therefore quite vague. It is full of subtle nuances and often you do not know whether something positive or negative has been said. People can criticize by praising.

Here are some typical Kyoto expressions:

standard-Japanese irassharu (polite verb "to be") becomes "iharu" in the language of Kyoto

inai (normal and negative form of "to be") becomes "iihin" or even better "iyarahen"

irasshaimase (welcome) becomes "oideyasu" or, even more polite (only in case of people one knows well), "okoshiyasu"

shitsurei shimasu (pardon me) becomes "gomenyasu"

kutabirete iru (to be very tired) becomes "shindoi"

tamago (egg) becomes "ninuki"

ocha (tea) becomes "bubu" (both of these I have never heard from my Kyoto family, certainly not "bubu" for ocha)

hotto suru (to be relieved) becomes "hokkori"

nenaide itsu mademo okite iru (not getting sleepy, although it is late) becomes "me ga katai" lit. "the eyes are stiff"

Furukawacho Shotengai, Kyoto

The best shotengai in Kyoto is not Nishiki, which is too full of tourists, but rather a neighborhood shopping arcade as the Furukawacho Shotengai which runs from Sanjo (starting next to Higashiyama subway station) south to Kachodori, or rather to where it is stopped by the Shirakawa River. It runs parallel to the busy Higashi-oji Street.

[Furukawacho Shotengai seen from the south side]

The arcade is very narrow, especially at the entrance and therefore a bit dark, which gives it a certain mystery. The shops are invariably small, mostly greengrocers and fishmongers, with a shop selling tofu and a number of tiny restaurants mixed in. There was also a shop selling tea, so I could stock up on bancha! Apparently, the Wakasa Kaido used to run here, bringing travelers from the Japan Sea coast north of Kyoto. In 1666 it was restored and renamed Furukawacho-dori. The shops offering daily commodities came in the Meiji period and Furukawacho became so prosperous it was even called "East Nishiki."

[The narrow shopping street]

That prosperity does not show today - here too, the graying of Japan exacts its grim toll of closed shutters, although happily the street is still alive and it is not as bad as elsewhere. But when you see that most of the shop owners are well past retirement age and that there are no younger people, the future of the Furukawacho Shotengai does not seem very bright.

[The Shirakawa River at the south end of the Furukawacho Shotengai]

Perhaps today Shotengai in Kyoto need a few tourists to survive? Furukawacho is well situated, close to Shorenin, Chionin and the Heian Shrine. Do visit Furukawacho - there is an added bonus when you exit the street on the south side and stand in front of the beautiful Shirakawa River with a typical stone bridge...