Kyoto Shrines and Temples

Published Categorised as Japan, Photography, Popular Posts, Travel 1 Comment on Kyoto Shrines and Temples

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Kyoto is famous for its Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines, many of which are UNESCO world herit­age sites. There are so many in the city that even though I spent a whole day walk­ing round differ­ent sites, I only saw a small percent­age of them. People place stones on these Shinto torii gates for good luck. You can also see my photos of ema good luck plaques here.

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You can recog­nise Shinto sites by these paper and rope decor­a­tions.

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Many Japan­ese people follow both Shinto and Buddhist tradi­tions.

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As well as big famous temples and shrines, there are a lot of small sites in back­streets in Kyoto. People had left cups of water as offer­ings here, but there was no sign explain­ing the signi­fic­ance, and googling hasn’t got me far.

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These statues of Jizo dressed in bibs and hats are very wide­spread however.

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To the south of the Imper­i­al Palace is a huge park filled with differ­ent temples and shrines, and moss lawns.

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And smal­ler shrines, such as this one dedic­ated to wild boar. A lot of the statues and images you see make films like Prin­cess Mononoke make a lot more sense.

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The other statues in the Go-o shrine weren’t as fear­some.

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There are also a lot of Zen raked gravel gardens in Kyoto.

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Instead of boar, most shrines have lion or fox statues guard­ing the gate.

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I espe­cially liked the smal­ler sites on quiet back streets.

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