City of Temples and Shrines

As I mentioned, there are temples and shrines all around Kyoto. Today involved visiting three of the more well-known ones.

Nanzen-ji is the head of the Rinzai school of Zen Buddhism. It’s located in the Higashiyama or “easteen mountains” side of Kyoto, as are many other temples. It’s known for its immense entry gate, as well as the gardens inside the temple.

Covered walkways wind through the gardens.

Next I went to the Heian Jingu shrine. This was a present to the city of Kyoto on it’s 1100th birthday. It’s meant to look like the original Heian palace in Kyoto that had burned down long ago. That palace in turn was modeled on the Chinese palace of Chang’an.

Main torii gate. It’s difficult to capture how immense this is.

It is a wide, open space ringed with covered walkways connecting the various buildings.

Lastly, after an excellent kaiseki (set-course) meal on a deck overlooking the Kamogawa, we went to Yasaka Shrine in Gion, lit up by lanterns after dark.