GETTING THERE
Bus 206 or 208 from Kyoto Station to the Sanjusangen-do-mae bus stop on Shichijo-dori leaves you at the Kyoto National Museum, which is opposite the Sanjusangen-do Temple. Alternatively, bus16 or 202 or 207 to the Higashioji-dori/Shichijo-dori bus stop leaves you just north of the temple, and the temple is one street west on Shichijo-dori from this bus stop, just to the west of the Kyoto Park Hotel.
Sanjusangen-do is open from 8:00 a.m to 4:30 p.m. between March 16 and October 31 and from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. between November 1 and March 15. Entry fee.
The Kyoto National Museum is entered from the Shichijo-dori side. It is open daily except on Mondays from 9:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. If a national holiday falls on a Monday,the museum remains open that Monday but is closed the next day. The museum is closed during the New Year holiday (from December 26 through January 3). Entry fee.
From the end of the tour at Kawai Kanjiro Memorial House, you can walk back (south) to the east–west street. A turn to the left (east) brings you to Higashi-oji-dori at the next corner. There take a taxi or bus 18, 202, 206 or 207 for a return to the center of the city or other destinations as desired.
Walking Tour 3
HIGASHIYAMA AREA
Higashiyama: The Widow’s Temple, the Gion Cart Temple and the Great Chion-in
1 Yasaka Pagoda 八坂の塔
2 Ryozen Historical Museum 山歴史館
3 Gokoku Shrine 霊山護国神社
4 Ryozen Kannon Temple 霊山観音
5 Kodai-ji Nunnery 高台寺
6 Daiun-in (Gion Cart) Temple 大雲院
7 Maruyama Park 円山公園
8 Chion-in Temple 知恩院
To traverse the lanes between the temples and shrines and the romanticized story of the Taira Empress who alone survived the battle of Dan-no-ura in 1185 and who here took the tonsure to spend her final days as a nun in prayer for her lost child and family. The nearby Higashi Otani Cemetery, with its tomb to Priest Shinran, is a sacred spot to those millions who follow in the Jodo Shinshu faith of this great Buddhist religious reformer of the 1200s, who was persecuted for his faith. The close of the Japanese medieval period is also remembered by a site which again recalls the tempestuous relationship between Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Ieyasu (see Tour 2), for it contains the Kodai-ji Nunnery where Hideyoshi’s widow, Kitano Mandokoro, spent her years after Hideyoshi’s death. The modern age is not ignored, for the Ryozen Historical Museum is a monument to the heady days of the mid to late 19th century when the Tokugawa Shogun’s government was losing power and the new Meiji era and modern Japan were being born. An aspect of the unhappy consequences of the militaristic spirit of that period is marked by the gigantic concrete Kannon image that arose after World War II in memory of and expiation for the millions who died in the two decades of Japan’s Greater East Asia folly. Even more recently, the new Daiun-in Temple, with its unusual pagoda in the shape of a huge Gion cart, has added a new element to the skyline at the foot of the Higashiyama hills, a temple which enriches the city with examples of the Buddhist murals of the Chinese caves of Dun Huang as well. There is also a lighter side to this area of Kyoto with its ochaya and geisha entertainment in the inns along the narrow streets between Higashi-oji-dori and Kitamon-mae-dori, and with the opportunity to savor the non-alcoholic delights of amazake, once the beverage of Buddhist nuns, or to enjoy the restaurants about Maruyama Park. The tour then ends at the great Chion-in Temple, where priest Honen is buried and where the devotion to Amida and to Honen is celebrated with great reverence.
1 YASAKA PAGODA
We begin this tour at the small Hokan-ji Temple, the oldest temple in Kyoto, which is best known for its Yasaka Pagoda. It is most easily reached from the bus stop at Higashioji-dori and Kiyomizu-michi, the same bus stop used in Tour 1. Buses 202, 203, 206 or 207, which run along Higashi-oji-dori, serve the bus stop. After alighting from the bus, walk three streets north on Higashi-oji-dori and then turn right on to Yasaka-dori. A torii gate stands at the entrance to Yasaka-dori at Higashi-oji-dori, and that street, after a slight jog to the right and then the left, will lead you to the tall pagoda of the small Hokan-ji Temple. The temple grounds are open between 9:00 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. Entry fee.
The Yasaka Pagoda and its few tiny buildings are all that remain of the Hokan-ji Temple, said to have been established by a family named Yasaka-no-Miyatsuko, who had probably come to Japan from Korea and settled in this region in the 500s, some two centuries before Kyoto was created as a city.
The five-story Yasaka Pagoda towers over the Higashiyama neighborhood.
Their religious life is thought to have centered around the Hokan-ji, which tradition says was created in 588 by Prince Shotoku, the founder of Buddhism in Japan. This claim is, no doubt, one of those pious but questionable traditions, since the prince would only have been 16 years old at that time. Nonetheless, the temple was to become one of the principal Buddhist temples of Kyoto in the early centuries of the city. Historically regarded as the symbol of Kyoto, those who conquered the city were always anxious to display their colors at the Yasaka Pagoda. Time, however, has taken its toll on the original temple buildings, and the pagoda was replaced in 1192 by Minamoto-no-Yoritomo, founder of the Kamakura Shogun’s government. The temple was later destroyed once more by fire and, of the reconstruction by Shogun Ashikaga-no-Yoshinori in 1440, only this five-story pagoda remains, the oldest pagoda in Kyoto. It was restored in 1618 by the governor of Kyoto.
The Hokan-ji Temple precincts are entered on the south side. Today, the temple consists of the five-story pagoda of 1440 and a few small buildings to the north of the pagoda. Two of these units are memorial halls with the flaming jewel atop their pyramidal roofs. The unit on the west (left when facing them) is the Taisho-do (Memorial Hall) to Prince Shotoku, the supposed founder of the temple. The Taishi-do contains an appealing image of the 16-year-old prince, a favorite image that appears in many temples, of the young man praying for his father (Emperor Yomei) as the emperor lay on his deathbed. The small building to its right is the Yakushi-do, with its gilt image of the Buddha Yakushi, the Buddha of healing and medicine, with his staff in his left hand. To the right of the Yakushi-do is the small modern Treasure House, while to the east of the pagoda is a Shinto shrine. The five-story Yasaka Pagoda is 126 feet (38 m) tall, and the interior walls, ceiling and columns of its base level are decorated with paintings, among which are images of Bodhisattvas on the walls. The interior of many pagodas have been decorated in this manner, and this is one of those rare examples which are available for viewing. In the center of the base level, on each side of the main pillar that supports the pagoda, are images of the four Nyorai Buddha: Hojo on the south, Amida on the west, Ashuka on the east and Shaka on the north. A large phoenix tops the spire of the pagoda.
EAST OF YASAKA PAGODA To the east of the Yasaka Pagoda are two sites which a century ago ranked among the most important in the city. Today, they are seldom visited and are mentioned here more as a curiosity. These are the Ryozen Rekishi-kan museum and the Gokoku Jinja shrine (a memorial to those who died in opposition to the Tokugawa Shoguns’ rule that ended in 1868).
2 RYOZEN HISTORICAL MUSEUM
The Ryozen Rekishi-kan (Historical Museum) is located across