Kyoto a Cultural Guide. John H. Martin
which was once the beverage of Buddhist nuns. There are also many restaurants in the area about Maruyama Park.
We begin this tour at the small Hokan-ji, best known for its Yasaka Pagoda.
THE YASAKA PAGODA AND HOKAN-JI
The Yasaka Pagoda is most easily reached from the bus stop at Higashi-oji-dori and Kiyomizu-michi, the same bus stop used in Tour 1. Buses 202,203,206, and 207 which run along Higashi-ojidori serve the bus stop. After alighting from the bus, walk three streets north on Higashi-oji-dori and then turn right on to Yasaka-dori. A torii stands at the entrance to Yasaka-dori at Higashi-oji-dori, and that street, after a slight jog to the right and then the left, will lead one to the tall pagoda of the small Hokan-ji. The temple grounds are open between 9:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. Entry fee.
The Yasaka Pagoda and its few tiny buildings are all that remain of the Hokan-ji, one of the oldest temples in Kyoto. It is said to have been established by a family named Yasaka-no-Miyatsuko who had probably come to Japan from Korea and who settled in this region in the 500s, some two centuries before Kyoto was created as a city. Their religious life is claimed to have centered around the Hokan-ji which tradition says was created in 588 by Prince Shotoku, the founder of Buddhism in Japan. This claim is no doubt one of those pious but questionable traditions since the prince would only have been sixteen at that date. The temple was to become one of the principal Buddhist temples of Kyoto in the early centuries of the city.
Those who conquered the city were always anxious to display their colors at the Yasaka Pagoda since it was historically regarded as the symbol of Kyoto. Time, however, has taken its toll of the original temple buildings, and the pagoda was replaced in 1192 by Minamoto-no-Yoritomo, founder of the Kamakura shogunate. The temple was later destroyed by fire, and of the rebuilding by Shogun Ashikaga-no-Yoshinori in 1440 only this five-story pagoda still remains, the oldest pagoda in Kyoto. It was restored in 1618 by the governor of Kyoto.
The Hokan-ji precincts are entered on its south side. Today the temple consists of the five-story pagoda of 1440 and a few small buildings to the north of the pagoda. Two of these units are memorial halls with flaming jewels atop their pyramidal roofs. The unit on the west (to the left when facing them) is the Taishido (Memorial Hall) to Prince Shotoku, the supposed founder of the temple. The Taishi-do contains an appealing image of the prince at the age of sixteen praying for his father, the emperor Yomei, who lay on his deathbed. This image is a favorite one which appears in many other temples.
The small building to the right of the Taishi-do is the Yakushido, known for its gilt image of the Buddha Yakushi, the Buddha of healing and medicine, bearing a staff in his left hand. To the right of the Yakushi-do is the small, modern treasure house, while to the east of the pagoda is a Shinto shrine.
The five-story Yasaka Pagoda is 126 feet tall, and the interior walls, ceiling, and columns on the base level are decorated with paintings, among which are images of bodhisattvas. The interior of many pagodas have been decorated in this manner, and this is one of those rare examples that are available for viewing. In the center of the base level, on each side of the main pillar which supports the pagoda, are images of the four Nyorai Buddha: Hojo on the south, Amida on the west, Ashuka on the east, and Shaka on the north. A large phoenix tops the spire of the pagoda, a symbol of the temple's rebirth after its destruction by fire.
To the east of the Yasaka Pagoda are three sites that a century ago ranked among the most important in the city: the Gokoku Shrine, a memorial to those who died in opposition to the Tokugawa shogunate which ended in 1868, and the Ryozen Rekishikan (Ryozen Historical Museum). (Today, they are seldom visited and are mentioned here more as curiosities.)
GOKOKU SHRINE
The Gokoku Shrine, also known as the Shinto Kyoto Shrine, is to the east of the Yasaka Pagoda at the top of Kodai-ji Minami Monzen-dori one street to the north of the street facing the entrance of the Yasaka Pagoda. Kodai-ji Minami Monzen-dori should be taken up the hill which the street ascends. At the top of the hill, on the left as the road turns to the south, is the Gokoku Shrine. The shrine is open during daylight hours without charge.
The Gokoku Shrine is an old shrine meant to serve as the protector of the city, and, as a shrine, it differs little from other Shinto shrines. The buildings are behind a vermilion fence on the left as one mounts the hillside street to the shrine entrance. within the grounds, beyond the torii of the entryway, is the unpainted Heiden (Offertory), and beyond it is the Haiden (Oratory) and then the fenced Honden (Spirit Hall). As such, for the casual visitor it is of historical interest only. A century ago, when Shinto was being turned into a militaristic faith which served the military and the state, it held greater significance for the Japanese public than it now does.
To the south of the Gogoku Shrine, a monument/shrine of major importance was raised in the late nineteenth century, a site now almost forgotten. This monument was dedicated to the heroes of the movement, in the decade prior to 1868, who opposed the Tokugawa shogunate and who helped to bring about the Meiji Restoration and the modernization of Japan. Here are buried a number of the heroes of that era, including Kido Takayoshi (also known as Kido Koin, 1833-77), one of the leaders of Meiji times.
RYOZEN REKISHIKAN
The Ryozen Rekishikan (Ryozen Historical Museum) is the third formerly important site. It is located across the road from the Gokoku Shrine on Kodai-ji Minami Monzen-dori. It is open from 10:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., except on Mondays and the New Year holiday. Entry fee.
The Ryozen Rekishikan is a museum of the history of the period on either side of 1868, the year in which the Tokugawa shogunate passed into history and the modernization of Japan under the name of the Meiji emperor began. The displays consist of photographs, writings, armaments, and other articles which relate the epic period of change in Japanese political and cultural life. Special exhibitions on the Meiji era are also presented. In a sense, this museum replaces the memorial to the heroes of the Restoration, which is mentioned above, since time often effaces the public memory of men and events. As a specialized museum whose labels are in Japanese, few foreign visitors will be interested in or will patronize the museum, but it is mentioned for those interested in the period of drastic change which occurred in Japan from the 1860s on.
The Gokoku Shrine and the Ryozen Rekishikan represent the heady days of the 1870s when the new Meiji government came into power and Japanese nationalism began the flowering that would ultimately lead to disaster and the defeat of Japan in 1945. The Ryozen Kannon Temple, just a short distance from these two important nineteenth-century sites, marks the repentance most Japanese feel for the extremes to which nationalism took the nation.
RYOZEN KANNON
The route to the Ryozen Kannon temple heads back down Kodaiji Minami Monzen-dori to Kita-mon-mae-dori, the first narrow street to the right. A turn on to this new street should bring into sight the towering image of the concrete Ryozen Kannon figure and then the entrance to the temple grounds. The temple is open from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Entry fee.
In 1955, a 79-foot-tall, seated Kannon image cast in concrete, a memento mori, was constructed by a transportation firm to honor the war dead of the Pacific War (World War II in the Pacific and Asia). It honors not only the Japanese soldiers who died in combat, but also the dead of the Allied forces who opposed Japan. After paying the entry fee, the visitor receives a lighted incense stick; this is to be placed in the large incense pot before the shrine where prayers may be said for the peaceful repose of the dead.
A modest gateway leading into the Ryozen Kannon grounds is guarded by a Nio (Deva King). within the grounds, beyond the entryway, a reflecting pool is situated before a large, roofed incense pot where one places the lit incense stick received at the entry gate and where one can say a prayer for the dead. Behind the incense pot is the main shrine building, topped by the huge Kannon image. On the ground floor is an altar, under the base of the gigantic Kannon figure, and here an Eleven-faced Kannon, the deity of mercy, is the main image. In the northwest section of this level is an image of the recumbent Buddha as he appeared when he passed from this life on achieving nirvana. A five-foot-tall Buddha is in the southwest area. A staircase behind this portion of the building leads into the lower part of the huge Kannon image where various altars are decorated with the figures of the zodiacal year.
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