Kyoto a Cultural Guide. John H. Martin
the west of the river. While geographically this is true, it is a fact that the wealth of important temples, shrines, and gardens are preponderantly to be found to the east of the Kamogawa river. Thus, as a demarcation line, the river divides the cultural treasures more equitably than would a point midway between the eastern and western mountain ranges which encompass Kyoto. Accordingly, this guide to Kyoto starts with sites to the east of the Kamogawa river, with sites to the west of the river following in due course. Each chapter begins with a brief introduction to the major sites in the area under consideration. Then the temples, shrines, or villas that follow are described. Directions for reaching the sites, the days and hours they are available to the visitor, and whether or not a fee is charged for entry are listed before the description of each site. Directions are given from the bus stop nearest the site to be visited, and a map of bus routes can be obtained from the Tourist Information Office. Although this volume is set up primarily for walking tours, occasionally a bus ride between some sites is indicated if one does not wish a long walk. Naturally, taxis provide the easiest means of travel within the city, and they can provide, the most expeditious transportation to the various sites of interest.
IN THE years since the Second World War, Kyoto has changed greatly. The city of one-story traditional houses has seen modern buildings of extraordinary height rise within its midst. Travelers often come to Kyoto looking for a traditional Japanese city of low buildings and an architecture of past centuries. Instead, they are amazed by the modern steel, glass, and brick structures they find. Kyoto, as with every other city in the world, continues to grow and to change, for it cannot remain a museum frozen in time. Yet there is an active concern within Kyoto itself about the continuing danger to the city's historic natural and architectural heritage. There are ongoing attempts, therefore, to preserve the best of the past both in temples and shrines as well as in Kyoto's traditional housing. Thus, this initial walk takes place in an area that has been designated as a historic section worthy of preservation, and it ends at one of the most venerable of Kyoto's temples, Kiyomizu-dera (Clear Water Temple). Accordingly, this walk offers a partial glimpse of the city as it existed prior to the modernization of Japan in the twentieth century.
Bus 18, 202, 206, or 207 can be taken from various points in Kyoto to the Kiyomizu-michi bus stop which lies between Gojodori and Shijo-dori (Gion) on Higashi-oji-dori. One could walk straight up Kiyomizu-zaka from the bus stop to the temple, but a deviation two streets to the north of Kiyomizu-zaka along Higashioji-dori (the main north-south street) offers a worthwhile diversion. Here, one turns to the right on to Kodai Minami Monzen-dori. At the second street on the right one turns again to the right and up the steps to Ninen-zaka (Two-Year Slope).
NINEN-ZAKA, SANNEN-ZAKA
Ninen-zaka begins a walk into the past and offers a picture of the city of Kyoto as it once was. Fires have destroyed so much of old Kyoto through the centuries that it is unusual to find an area which still provides the appearance of a Japanese city before the modern age. Fortunately, Ninen-zaka (Two-Year Slope) and Sannen-zaka (Three-Year Slope) offer just such a remembrance of times past. Concerned over the disappearance of the two-story shops and homes that were typical of Kyoto city life, the city government created a few historical preservation districts in areas that have remained comparatively unchanged. One such area is that which encompasses Ninen-zaka and Sannen-zaka.
For centuries, pilgrims labored up the Two-Year Slope and the Three-Year Slope on their way to Kiyomizu-dera. (the strange names for the two streets have their basis in a superstition: to stumble on Ninen-zaka brought two years of misfortune, while a fall on Sannen-zaka could result in three years of bad luck.) Here on these streets, pilgrims found small restaurants which offered food, inns which provided a place to sleep, and shops which sold Kiyomizu-yaki and Awata-yaki pottery as souvenirs of a visit to the temple, pottery made in the stepped noborigama kiles which were formerly ubiquitous on this hillside.
Pilgrims still climb these slopes, as do thousands of tourists. The narrow, two-story wood-and-plaster row houses one finds along the way once covered all of Kyoto, and although frequently destroyed by fire, they were always rebuilt in the traditional style with the shop at the front and the family living quarters behind the sales area. Normally only 26 feet wide, the buildings often extended as much as 131 feet to the rear. Some of them were two-story structures which had narrow slatted windows at the front of the second floor. Since commoners were forbidden to look down upon passing samurai or daimyo, the narrow, slatted windows helped to hide the faces and eyes of curious merchant families who dared to peer at their betters passing below. The great fire of 1864 destroyed eighty percent of Kyoto; thus, these buildings represent the latest rebuilding of the traditional cityscape prior to modern times.
Today's shops, with perhaps one or two exceptions, have modern storefronts and interiors. In the past, the shop consisted of a raised platform on which the merchant sat and perhaps even created the wares he sold. The would-be purchaser was always welcomed with a cup of tea so that a proper mood could be established before the merchant's wares were brought forth and displayed. Modern life seldom permits such polite amenities; thus, the present shops are more oriented toward a contemporary display of chinaware or whatever is currently desired by the public.
Ninen-zaka and Sannen-zaka are lined with old buildings which still serve as purveyors to the pilgrim and the tourist, although one must admit that tourists seem to be the main clientele to whom the shopkeepers now appeal. But then, weren't pilgrims of past centuries souvenir seekers as well? Here for sale are small Buddhas, iron lanterns, scarves—all the paraphernalia of an ephemeral trade which the visitor cannot resist A few restaurants tempt the famished with the variety of noodles that such Japanese establishments offer, and, of course, the soft drinks of the modern age are ever present One enterprising shopkeeper on Ninen-zaka even has a rickshaw in which one can be photographed or transported, the latter, naturally, for an appropriate fee. A few rickshaws do still exist but their day is past and those that remain appear primarily at festival times.
KIYOMIZU-ZAKA
Ninen-zaka bends gracefully, as a proper traditional Japanese street should, and it ends in a short flight of steps which leads into Sannen-zaka. In turn, Sannen-zaka also ends in a steeper set of steps which leads up to Kiyomizu-zaka (Clear Water Slope). As has been the case for the number of centuries past, pottery can be found for sale along both Ninen-zaka and Sannen-zaka, but the full panoply of chinaware is not encountered until one mounts the steps at the southern end of Sannen-zaka and enters Kiyomizu-zaka which leads uphill from Higashi-oji-dori to Kiyomizu-dera at the top of the street. Here, one can find shops that sell Kiyomizu-yaki and other chinaware. Souvenir shops line the street cheek by jowl, and the street is always crowded with visitors heading to the temple, many in groups led by their banner-waving leader. It is always a street of excitement and color in the daytime. The making of porcelain was a craft and an art that began to flourish in Kyoto as a result of the incursions into Korea in 1592 and 1597 by the Japanese troops under the command of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the then civil and military ruler of Japan. The Koreans, of course, had learned the craft from the Chinese, and such products were appropriately summed up in one word in English-speaking countries as "chinaware." Among the prizes of war brought back to Japan in the 1590s were Korean ceramic craftsmen and artists, and a fascination with their work led in time to the development of fine Japanese porcelains. The cult of tea which developed with Sen-no-Rikyu under the patronage of Hideyoshi also encouraged the development of the Japanese ceramic craft. Once there were ten different schools or styles of pottery; today only Kiyomizu-yaki remains—and it is no longer made in Kyoto but in the outskirts of the city due to the anti-pollution laws of the last one-third of the twentieth century which have restricted industrial fires.
Once the attractions (or distractions) of Kiyomizu-yaki have been experienced, the top of Kiyomizu-zaka is reached, and Kiyomizu-dera is before one.
KIYOMIZU-DERA
The Kiyomizu-dera temple is open from 6:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., although a number of the temple buildings are closed after 4:00 p.m. There is an entry fee to the main portion of the complex during open hours.
The Kiyomizu-dera is one of the oldest temples in Kyoto, its establishment even predating the founding of the