30 04 07 07:25 | No comments § ¶
Wikipedia
Ben, Em and Leo
Will and Kate
Ben, Becky and Henry
Dean and Lisa
Rocko and Ali
Jessie
Nintendo
Edge
Jun 2009
May 2009
Mar 2009
Feb 2009
Dec 2008
Nov 2008
Oct 2008
Apr 2008
Mar 2008
Feb 2008
Jan 2008
Dec 2007
Nov 2007
Oct 2007
Sep 2007
Aug 2007
Jul 2007
Jun 2007
May 2007
Apr 2007
Mar 2007
Feb 2007
Jan 2007
Dec 2006
Nov 2006
Oct 2006
Sep 2006
Aug 2006
Jul 2006
Jun 2006
May 2006
Apr 2006
Mar 2006
Feb 2006
Jan 2006
Dec 2005
Nov 2005
Oct 2005
Sep 2005
Aug 2005
Jul 2005
Jun 2005
May 2005
 |
 |
 |
|---|---|---|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| The amazing sunbathing turtles of To-ji. Every now and then the peace is broken when a turtle emerges from the water and attempts to toss rival sunbathers into the water to win prime place on the tiny rock. | ||
| ||
18 06 09 - 21:40 - kieren - Photostory| No comments - § ¶
 |
 |
 |
|---|---|---|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
Imamiya is one of my favourite shrines, dwarfed by the temple town of Daitoku-ji and almost hidden by immense trees, visible only as a splash of red in the green. Early in the morning very few people were about, and most of those present were work-men resting in the shade and having a late breakfast.
Originally founded in 994 on the Northern slopes of Funaoka, the shrine was moved only a few years later (1001) in response to an epidemic that had struck Kyoto the year before. Three gods (Daikokuten, god and symbol of the earth; Ebisu, god of the sea and prosperous business; and Kushiinadahime-no-mikoto, a goddess of the paddy fields) were enshrined in an attempt to protect Emperor Ichijo from sickness. A festival (Yasurai Matsuri - held in April as this was the time of year when the sakura petals fall) was created as a means to scare off petrels through music and dance. It was believed the birds flying around with cherry blossoms in their beaks were spreading the disease. During the festivities, people costumed as goblins or red and black devils jump and dance to the music of beating drums and flutes. It is said that festival participants won't become ill if they pass beneath a special long-handled, decorated umbrella. Yasurai Matsuri is the first festival of the year in Kyoto (where everything begins in spring) and it is also said that the weather will be fine for all of the year's festival days in Kyoto if the skies are clear when Yasurai Matsuri is held. Inside the grounds is a housed rock called ahokashisan thought to have magical curative properties. If a person rubs the stone and then rubs an injured area of their body, it is said that they will heal quicker than normal. Furthermore, if a person taps the stone three times, then lifts it, the stone will feel heavy. Afterwards, if the same person strokes the stone three times while making a wish and then lifts it for a second time and the stone feels light, it is said that their wish will be granted. |
||
| ||
17 06 09 - 22:46 - kieren - Photostory| No comments - § ¶
 |
 |
 |
|---|---|---|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
Funaoka Hill was used a reference guide for architects when they came to construct the new capital of Heian-kyo. The court diviners believed that great natural powers gathered on the hillside, and therefore they instructed the Emperor to build the main government buildings on the south side of the hill, and a main street (Suzaku-oji) in a straight line from this point as the spine of the new city.The original imperial palace was placed directly south of the hill, though successive fires gradually pushed the city further to the East, leaving the West mostly derelict marsh.
A myth later grew up from Funaoka regarding how the kitsune became the messengers and guardians of the Inari Shrines*. During the Onin Wars Funaoka served as a Western base. Following the rebellion at Honno-ji (1582), Toyotomi Hideyoshi set up the hill as a memorial to his dead master Oda Nobunaga (the shrine still holds many of Oda's valuable possessions). In 1869 the Emperor Meiji set up the Takeisao Shrine (Kenkun-jinja) to Nobunaga (one of the three great unifiers of Japan) and in 1910 it was moved from the East of the hill to its top. |
||
| ||
17 06 09 - 21:23 - kieren - Photostory| No comments - § ¶
 |
 |
 |
|---|---|---|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
Road signs are fairly international, but as I am not a driver some of them are completely nonsensical to me. Pushing my bike up the steep road that snakes to Shogun-zuka, I passed one sign that seemed to suggest that two-wheeled vehicles are banned between the hours of nine and seven. There was no further explanation of whether that was morning or afternoon, and although there was no sidewalk does that necessarily prohibit walking? Two minutes into my climb I was passed by both motorbike and jogger, but rather than set my mind at ease I worried the whole way that I was breaking the law and helicopters would swoop in and pick me up.
Having abandoned the trek on Saturday with Rhod, I was determined to finish the hike alone today, though there were a few times in the shadeless 31 degrees heat that I considered turning back. The road from Keage Station winds steeply through forest, quickly leaving the city far below. Strangely the first thing of any note was an abandoned Aqua-Park, mostly intact though the pools had muddied and weeds poked through the concrete. The saddest thing is that with its slides and diving boards looking over untouched mountains it would be the perfect escape from the summer heat and Kyoto desperately needs more swimming pools. I have no idea why it had been left to rot. Possibly the company went bust. Twenty minutes later and the road forked, taking me past dozens of vans lined up with sleeping inhabitants. I parked and locked my bike, finally discovering the hiking tracks that would have been easier to use but were frustratingly absent from my map. I had the entire Shogun-zuka to myself, though the car-park was again filled with running vehicles, men sprawled in the air-conditioned front seats. A group of men had gathered round a tethered cat lapping up water, giving the stretch of lawns an unreal feel. With heli-pad and picnic tables, I imagine the mountain top is flooded with people come the weekend. For now and I had the view-point to myself. |
||
| ||
16 06 09 - 23:53 - kieren - Photostory| No comments - § ¶
 |
 |
 |
|---|---|---|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
Still searching for a suitable place to build his new capital, the Emperor Kanmu climbed to the top of a hill to get a better view of the flat plains sandwiched between the ancient shrines of Kamigamo and Matsuo. Looking down at the fields and villages, he decided that he would relocate the Imperial Palace from Nagaoka to this spot and construct a new capital based upon the great Chinese city of Xian. Of course there were more realistic reasons for choosing the spot, not least the money of the Hata family, the influence of the Kamo clan and the suggestions of Wake no Kiyomaru, but it is a romantic story and the beginning of what was to become one of the world's greatest cities.
With the construction of Heian-kyo well under way in 793, Kanmu had a mound piled up on top of the mountain he had first viewed his new home from. A 2.5 metre tall clay statue was clothed in armor, armed with a bow and arrow, and buried facing the city. The entombed general was to provide the city with protection. Legend says that since the late Heian period, the mound has rumbled in warning of impending disasters. The Genpei Seisuiki tells of how the mound rumbled three times in July 1179, the year before Minamoto-no-Yoritomo took up arms, in a series of warnings that was soon followed by a great earthquake. Shogun-zuka was also used in battle, first as a camp for the rebel force of Nitta Yoshisada in 1338 (who was later defeated by the shogunate force of Ashikaga Takauji) and much later to house the anti-aircraft guns of WWII. The mound remains, protected behind a rotting wooden fence, keeping watch over a city that while modern and sprawling is still recognizably the imperial capital of old. Tobo Sojo, the Japanese astronomer, artist-monk, and the son of Minamoto-no-Takakuni, drew inspiration from Shogun-zuka in his scroll paintings and although it is not certain, many credit him with the Choju Jimbutsu Giga (a scroll of frolicking frogs and rabbits dressed in Heian costume). |
||
| ||
16 06 09 - 23:26 - kieren - Photostory| No comments - § ¶
 |
 |
 |
|---|---|---|
 |
 |
 |
|
Handing over my 500 yen to a particularly friendly monk, I passed through the rather over-stuffed gardens of Shoren-nin and onto an ugly metal and concrete viewing platform. The gardens were designed by Kinsaku Nakane and are relatively new (10 years or so), doing their best to hide the modern developments that now scar and overshadow the ancient mound I had come to see. I find it amusing that the gardens try so hard to express mountains, hills, rivers, bridges, forests and pastorals scenes when all of this is on offer below for real. Several of the pine trees were planted by Admiral Togo Heihachiro and General Kuroki Tamemoto.
I was the only person at Shogun-zuka which was quite nice as I got to explore without worrying about whether I should be climbing here or there. The view from the platform is quite extraordinary, the entire city laid neatly out beneath you. From up here you can see the wooded rectangle of the Imperial Park, the sandy slash of the Kamo-gawa and the turtle-like humps of Yoshida and Funaoka Hills. Temple roofs rise above the carpet of houses and gridded roads, and on the mountains the shapes that will make up the send-off fires of Daimonji silently look down. It was peaceful and refreshing, and my mind boggled to think that not half an hour before I was swerving through traffic and listening the bustling chatter of the city. Shoren-in Dainichi-do was constructed fairly recently in the Meiji era, when a stone image of the Dainichi Buddha (perhaps originally from Kachoin Temple) was discovered at the top of the hill, now landscaped into gardens. A Buddhist chapel was created to house the statue. People in the Heian period considered that their capital was a Mandala made reality (a symbolic representation of the cosmos), the hill at the centre of their universe and the statue of Buddha the centre of the Mystical and Spiritual World. Angkor Wat is formed on similar plans and beliefs. |
||
| ||
16 06 09 - 23:16 - kieren - Photostory| No comments - § ¶
Last Comments
Emily (Tsuyu): Beautiful
Ki (Temple of Snow, F…): No problem Bill. Kurama i…
Bill Windsor (Temple of Snow, F…): Dear Ki, Thank you very …
Ki (Temple of Snow, F…): Dear Bill, for the most c…
Bill Windsor (Temple of Snow, F…): Can anyone tell me more a…
Ki (Growing up): Hi Hazel, I am looking fo…
Hazel Allen (Growing up): Wow they are both getting…
Ki (Kototaki): Hi Hazel, good to hear fr…
Hazel Allen (Kototaki): So lovely to see all the …
Ki (Koinoburi): Hi Emily. Hope you are al…