Kyoto a Cultural Guide. John H. Martin
The Sanjusangen-do is on the south side of Shichijo-dori at Yamato-oji-dori. Bus 206 or 208 to the Hakubutsukan/ Sanjusangen-do-mae bus stop on Shichijo-dori leaves one at the Kyoto National Museum opposite the Sanjusangen-do. Alternatively, bus 16, 202, or 207 to the Higashi-oji-dori/Shichijo bus stop leaves one just north of the temple. The temple is one street west on Shichijo-dori from this bus stop, just to the west of the Kyoto Park Hotel. The Sanjusangen-do is open from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. between March 16 and October 31 and from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. between November 1 and March 15. Entry fee.
The Sanjusangen-do is one of the most famous places in Kyoto because of its large main image of the Eleven-faced Kannon (Juichimen Senju Kannon) as well as the one thousand golden images that surround it. The temple's official name, Renge-o, means "Lotus King," the name given to the Senju Kannon who was regarded as the lord of all the other forms of Kannon. (Kannon can appear in thirty-three different incarnations.) the name Lotus King was appropriate for this temple since in the Sanjusangen-do the devotion to Kannon has been carried to an extravagant level with its 1,001 images of Kannon, the deity of mercy, each image standing on a golden lotus blossom.
The Renge-o-in (Sanjusangen-do) was created in 1164 at the request of ex-emperor Go-Shirakawa (1127-92), a devotee of Kannon, who wished to bring peace and prosperity to the country by promoting the spread of Buddhism and its doctrines. The emperor was assisted in the construction of the temple by Taira-no-Kiyomori (1118-81), the de facto civil ruler of Japan. The Taira leaders, as the actual political rulers of the state, identified themselves with the twenty-eight gods whose images appear at the rear of the temple. These deities protect the Buddhist universe—as the Taira leaders felt they protected and brought peace to Japan.
The temple sat amid the various imperial villas that existed in this eastern area of Kyoto. It had many buildings, including a five-story pagoda in the southeastern section of the grounds, a Shinto shrine in the northwest area, and an Amida hall, among other buildings. All these structures were destroyed in a fire in 1249. The temple was rebuilt at the order of the then emperor Go-Fukakusa (1243-1304) so as to appear just as it had been before the conflagration. However, only the Hondo (Main Hall) was reconstructed. Certain images had been saved from the fire, including the head of the main Kannon image, 156 of the 1,000 smaller Kannon, and the twenty-eight followers of Kannon. The Hondo (Main Hall) was reconstructed between 1251 and 1253, and the leading artists of the day recreated the 1,001 images of Kannon of which 125 of the smaller images are from the pre-fire temple. The temple was completed and rededicated in 1266. The Sanjusangen-do, like most temples, has a tile-topped, plastered wall about the borders of its grounds. Its Nandai-mon (South Gate) was rebuilt about 1590 in the elegant style of the Momoyama period (1568-1603). On the eastern side of the property, the temple's outer wall is broken by a mid-twentieth century restoration of the vermilion To-mon (East Gate) and corridor in the style of the Kamakura period (1185-1336). A stone garden and a pond of the same period lie between the gate and its corridor and the Sanjusangen-do Hondo.
Hondo The Sanjusangen-do Hondo is 390.4 feet long by 54 feet wide. The temple derives its common name (Sanjusangen-do) from the fact that it has thirty-three (san-ju-san = thirty-three) bays (ken) created by the thirty-four columns that sub-divide and support the gradually curving, tiled roof. (the word do in Sanjusangen-do means "hall.") Each bay has wood shutter-doors and behind them are moveable shoji panels. The thirty-three bays symbolize the thirty-three incarnations into which Kannon can transform himself in his merciful acts of saving mankind from the miseries of human existence.
Juicbimen Senju Kannon The central image of the Juichimen Senju Kannon has five hundred images of this deity on either side. The main image is an eleven-foot-tall (including the pedestal) gilded Kannon seated on a lotus blossom. This Kannon, with eyes of crystal, was created in the yosegi, style; that is, composed of hollow wooden blocks which were put together and then roughly carved. Thereafter, the image was finely carved, lacquered, and then covered with gold leaf. The image was created between 1251 and 1254 by the most distinguished sculptor of Kamakura times, Tankei (1173-1256), in his eighty-second year. It and nine of the smaller Kannon images are the only works by Tankei that have been truly authenticated.
This central image, as with the one thousand other images, has eleven smaller heads about the crown of its head. Although the Kannon has only twenty pairs of arms, since each of the forty arms saves twenty-five worlds, figuratively there are one thousand arms represented. The image is seated on an octagonal lotus-blossom pedestal with seven rows of petals. A large, oval aureole behind it has small images of the thirty-three manifestations of Kannon amid an openwork pattern of clouds and sacred trees.
The smaller (5.4- to 5.5-foot-tall) images of Kannon were constructed with the same yosegi technique as is described above. This permitted several craftsmen to work on the same sculpture at one time, and the technique also created a lighter wooden image which was less likely to split. The images are in groups of five hundred on either side of the main Kannon, standing in ten rows of fifty each. The images were created not only by Tankei (1173-1256), but by seventy others under his direction. The 1,001 images of Kannon symbolize the 33,033 ways in which mankind can be helped by this deity of mercy (1,001 images multiplied by 33 possible incarnations = 33,033).
The God of Wind (Fujin) and the God of Thunder (Raijin) stand at either end and in front of the rows of the one thousand Kannon. The image of Fujin stands 3.8 feet tall and holds a large bag of wind over its shoulders. Raijin is 3.5 feet tall and is surrounded from behind by a circlet of drums which he beats with his drumsticks, thereby causing thunder to roll. both deities are of a ferocious mien, and both were actively feared and placated by the people of earlier times.
In a corridor behind the one thousand Kannon are the statues of the twenty-eight followers (Nijuhachibu-shu) of Kannon, Buddhist deities with human or animal heads who protect mankind. The Nijuhachibu-shu were made during the Kamakura period or later and are approximately five feet in height. The twenty-eight images are spirits of deified wisdom, beauty, prosperity, relief for the poor, etc., and are lined up in a row along the rear corridor of the temple. Additional images of Nio, Fudo, Jizo, and other deities are also located in the rear of the building.
The platform under the eaves at the rear of the Sanjusangendo structure should be observed on leaving the building, for here is where the annual ancient Hikizome Matsuri (First Shooting of the Year Festival) takes place. The Hikizome Matsuri is held on the fifteenth of each January, and it represents the initial archery contest of the New Year. Since the arrows launched seemed to fly through the air one after another, the ceremony is also called Toshiya, or "Passing Arrows." these bow-and-arrow contests first began in 1606 on the west veranda of the temple, and they remained most popular among the samurai right through the Edo period (1603-1868). The archers had to shoot their arrows from a squatting position, aiming from the south end of the veranda to the target, one yard in diameter, at the north end, 196 feet away. (As a result, the pillars have had to be protected by metal coverings against stray arrows.) In former times, the contests began at 6:00 p.m. and continued for twenty-four hours. The 1686 champion, Wasa Daihachiro, at the age of twenty-two, sent a record 8,233 arrows out of 13,053 to the target at the north end of the veranda.
Today, the contest on January 15 begins in the morning at 9:00 a.m., but it is only a modest repetition of the Toshiya of former times. In truth, it no longer is a real contest, but it remains as a tradition worth retaining. As part of the tradition of this ceremony, a collection of bows and arrows is displayed on the south end of the interior of the hall.
Across Shichijo-dori from the Sanjusangen-do is the Kyoto National Museum, and it is worth a visit since it presents an excellent picture of the arts of Kyoto's past. It perhaps is best saved for a rainy day (as with other museums) when one does not wish to be traipsing between outdoor temples and shrines.
KYOTO NATIONAL MUSEUM
The Kyoto National Museum is entered from the Shichijo-dori side. It is open daily (except Monday) from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.; if a national holiday falls on a Monday, it remains open that Monday but is closed the next day. The museum is closed during the New Year holiday (December 26-January 3). Entry fee.
The Kyoto National Museum was founded in 1875 as an imperial museum, and in 1897 its original building was erected in the then current European style which can