I've spent the last two days in Kyoto, but mostly not doing the typical things a tourist does in Kyoto – which is visiting temple after temple after temple and maybe a shrine or two. That said, I did stop at Sanjusangen-do for the first time in nearly fifty years. The first time I saw the place was in 1978. The grounds have been spruced up since then. It now has its own parking lot and a fancy modern entrance. When I first saw the main hall, I think I was pretty much alone. Yesterday I was one of hundreds of visitors.
Sanjusangen-do is famous for its 1,001 statues of the thousand-armed Kannon, each one carved by hand, each one slightly different. The statues have eleven heads (one large, with ten more small heads on top) and many arms (although not actually 1,000 arms). The life-sized statues are arranged in tiers in the main hall of the complex, which also displays 28 guardian figures, and a large central Kannon figure. The statues of Kannon and the guardian figures all have the designation 'National Treasure', the highest in Japan's system of recognizing important cultural properties. According to Discoverkyoto.com, the thousand-armed Kannon is said to have eleven heads to better see the suffering of mankind, and one thousand arms to save everyone in need. The statues actually have only 42 arms, but each holds a Buddhist symbol or is posed in a symbolic Buddhist gesture (known as a mudra).
The temple was founded in 1164. The main hall with the statues was completed in 1266, rebuilt after an earlier structure burned. 124 of the Kannon statues survived the fire. The remainder there now were created over a 16-year period following the fire. Thus, even the youngest statues are going on 750 years old.
Sanjusangen-do is known also for the archery contests it hosted for hundreds of years. These are said to have begun around 1606 and at peak drew crowds of thousands to watch sometimes as many as 10,000 or more archers shoot at targets down the length of the building's veranda. These events appear to have petered out in the 1850s, but the tradition has been revived and a couple thousand archers compete in January exhibitions today.
No photography is allowed in the hall as the statues are considered sacred, but I've reproduced a stock image from the Internet. I also visited the Kyoto National Museum, which had a small but interesting exhibit of Heian Period Buddhist sculptures and painting, but the ceramics and textiles sections of the museum that I would liked to have seen were both closed.
I walked through a market similar to the one I visited in Kanazawa. Among the many things on offer this time were skewers of sparrows. Many of my friends reading this will know that the 'tori' [bird] in 'yakitori' traditionally was a small songbird, usually some kind of sparrow, but it's rare these days to see actual sparrows on a stick. It was funny to me that the photo used was a photo of a White-throated Sparrow, a bird native to North America. I hope they aren't importing North American sparrows to skewer.
Before leaving I also walked around the grounds of Miidera, a temple near the house of the friend I was visiting. The temple was pretty in the rain and there were some birds present. I saw a Japanese Pygmy Woodpecker and Oriental Greenfinches, both new to my life list. I heard the distinctive song of the Uguisu (Japanese Bush Warbler) and saw the Brown-eared Bulbuls that seem to be everywhere. I also got.a good look at a Daurian Redstart, one of the birds I saw fleetingly in Tokyo near the Imperial Palace moat. As I was leaving, the temple's mascot (in the form of a anthropomorphized bronze bell came walking through the main gate and posed for a picture. The ancient temple gate and the stylized bell figure made of styrofoam created an odd contrast.
On the first day in Kyoto, my son and I had lunch with the college friend we were visiting, dining in a striking building along the Kamo River built in 1926 designed by the American architect William Merrell Vories. According to the Internet, it opened as the Chinese restaurant Toka Saikan (where we ate) in 1945. The building has a richly decorated facade, the oldest continuously operating elevator in Japan, and numerous interior details to look at while enjoying the food. It rained most of the day and it's supposed to rain all day tomorrow again. I'm now in Tottori, hoping to visit the famous Tottori sand dunes tomorrow, but I'm not hopeful they will look like much in the rain. We'll see...
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