religious service before committal to the Mortuary Hall. In 1966, the Muryoju-do (Hall of Immeasurable Bliss) was erected to the south of the Haiden. This modern concrete structure with a pebble finish is a columbarium for the ashes of members of the sect. There is a large chapel on the second floor for services, its entry wall enriched with a gold screen and a golden image of Amida. Across the open courtyard is the columbarium building where the ashes of the deceased are placed in compartments. To the right and left of Shinran’s tombs, in an area not open to the public, are the graves of the abbots of the Nishi Hongan-ji Temple. Old trees about the area lend a dignity and serenity to the site.
GETTING THERE
Bus 18, 100, 206 or 207 can be taken from various points in Kyoto (including bus 100 or 206 from Kyoto Station) to Higashi-oji-dori and the Kiyomizu-michi bus stop, which lies between Gojo-dori (Fifth Street) and Shijodori (Fourth Street). On leaving the Nishi Otani Cemetery, you are back at Higashioji-dori. Here, the same buses or a taxi can be taken to your next destination within the city.
Kiyomizu-dera Temple is open from 6:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. although a number of the buildings within are closed after 4:00 p.m. There is an entry fee at the entrance to the main portion of the complex during the hours that all of the buildings are open. Many charming restaurants and shops can be found along Ninen-zaka and Sannen-zaka.
Walking Tour 2
SANJUSANGEN-DO AREA
The 1,001 Golden Kannon, the General and the Potter
1 Sanjusangen-do 三十三間堂
2 Kyoto National Museum 京都国立博物館
3 Hoko-ji Temple 方広寺
4 Mimi-zuka 耳塚
5 Hokoku Shrine 豊国神社
6 Kawai Kanjiro Memorial House
河井寛次郎記念館
Sanjusangen-do is one of the temples that all visitors to Kyoto wish to see, for its 1,001 golden images are a truly remarkable sight. These images are particularly unusual when one recalls the number of centuries in which they have been in place despite the many fires, earthquakes and even wars that Kyoto has suffered. While this walk begins with the spectacular golden Kannon images of the Sanjusangen-do, there are other fascinating sites virtually across the street as well as a few streets away, places which the average visitor too often misses. These other attractions are connected with Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who ruled Japan at the end of the 1500s and who brought prosperity back to the formerly war-ravaged city. In addition, the lovely house of one of the most distinguished potters of the 20th century, that of Kawai Kanjiro, is another site which few foreign visitors have heard of, and yet it offers an invitation into a well-to-do but traditional home right in the heart of Kyoto. It is a home of a man of taste and artistic ability, and the kilns in which he made his pottery are one of the unusual aspects of a visit to his home and workshop.
1 SANJUSANGEN-DO
Of course, there is little doubt as to where to start this particular walk, since the Sanjusangen-do Temple with its golden Kannon images will always top any visitor’s list of places which must be experienced. Sanjusangen-do is on the south side of Shichijo-dori at Yamato-oji-dori.
A fraction of the 1,001 golden images of Kannon in Sanjusangen-do.
Sanjusangen-do is one of the most famous temples in Kyoto because of its large main image of the 1,000-armed Kannon as well as the 1,000 golden images which surround it. The temple’s official name of 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 33 different incarnations.) The name “Lotus King” was appropriate for this temple since here the devotion to Kannon has been carried to an extravagant level with its 1,001 images of Kannon, the god of mercy, each image standing on a golden lotus blossom. Renge-o-in (Sanjusangen-do) was created in 1164 at the request of the former Emperor Go-Shirakawa (1127–92), a devotee of Kannon, who wished to bring peace 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 donation of the 28 gods whose images appear at the rear of the temple. These deities protect the Buddhist universe—as the Taira felt their clan protected and brought peace to Japan.
Historically, 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 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, and these included the head of the main Kannon image, 156 of the 1,000 smaller Kannon and the 28 followers of Kannon. The 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 re-dedicated in 1266.
Sanjusangen-do, as with most temples, has a tile-topped plastered wall about the borders of its grounds, and its Great South Gate (Nandai-mon) was rebuilt about 1590 in the elegant style of Momoyama times (1568–1603). On the eastern side of the property, the temple outer wall is broken by the restored vermilion To-mon (East Gate) and corridor in the Kamakura period (1185– 1333) style, a mid-20th century restoration. A stone garden and a pond of the Kamakura period lie between the gate and its corridor and the Sanjusangen-do Hondo. The Hondo (Main Hall) is 390 feet (118 m) long by 54 feet (16.4 m) wide. The temple derives its common name from the fact that it has 33 (san-ju-san means 33) bays created by the 34 pillars that subdivide (and support) the gradually curving, tiled roof. (The word do in Sanjusangen-do means “hall.”) Each bay has wooden shutter doors and behind these are movable shoji panels. The 33 bays symbolize the 33 incarnations into which Kannon can transform himself in his merciful acts of saving mankind from the miseries of human existence.
The graceful curving tiled roof of Sanjusangen-do.
The central image of the Juichimen Senju Kannon (the 11-headed 1,000-armed Kannon) has 500 sculpted images of this deity arrayed on either side of him. The main image is an 11 foot (3.3 m) 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 many hollow wooden blocks that were put together and then roughly carved. Thereafter the image was finely carved, smoothened, lacquered and then covered with gold leaf.
It was created between 1251 and 1254 by the most distinguished sculptor of Kamakura times, Tankei (1173–1256), the son of the sculptor Unkei (died 1223), when in his 82nd year. It and nine of the smaller Kannon images here are the only truly authenticated works by Tankei.
This central image, as with the 1,000 smaller images, has 11 small heads about the crown of its head. Although the Kannon has only 20 pairs of arms, since each of the 40 arms saves 25 worlds, figuratively 1,000 arms are 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 33 manifestations of Kannon amid an open-work pattern of clouds and sacred trees. The smaller images of Kannon (each about 65 inches/165 cm tall) were constructed by the same yosegi technique as described above. This permitted several craftsmen to work on the same sculpture at one time, and the technique also created a lighter wooden image that was less likely to split. The images are grouped 500 on either side of the main Kannon, standing in 10 rows of 50 each. The images were created not only by Tankei (1173–1256) but by 70 other sculptors under his direction. The 1,001 images of Kannon symbolize the 33,033