Kyoto 3

Now if there are any learned people on Buddhism reading this blog and know better than I do, I appologize if the information I am giving is wrong. Now, as I have been told there are certain things that people need to go to do in thier lifetime at these Buddhist temples/shrines maybe to make it to the other side or something like that. As with any culture, back in the day it wasn't too uncommon in Japan for small children to die before they got very old. As a precaution to this, I guess the Japanese take thier young girls to these shrines around the ages of 7-10(?) where they dress them up in pretty kimonos and have them recite some type of prayer or something or get something like a blessing from a Buddhist priest. Well, unfortunatley I don't have any pictures of these little girls that we saw at the shrine but, there were a handfull of little girls all dressed up. I do have a picture of Ayumi when she was little doing this though and it is dang cute! Anyways, this was one of the things we witnessed at this temple.

Now somewhere in the pictures I have a shot of a few little trees covered with paper. I think these are maybe prayers that people are petitioning the Buddah with and somehow tieing them to a tree works in this cause. Pretty neat looking none-the-less. This place is also known for housing one of the biggest (if not the biggest tori (Buddhist gate) in Japan. I do have a shot of that, you'll see strattling the road. ***This just in! I have been told by some students that people go to these temples and write thier sins and weakpoints on these little papers and by fastening them to the tree, receive forgiveness or are able to forget them. Anyways, enjoy the pictures. Onto the next place.

A few years ago in college I read a book named entitled The Tale of Genji about a young aristocratic playboy written a thousand + years ago. I think it is credited with being one of the worlds oldest novels. Well, our journey in Kyoto took us that a temple named Rozonji where the author Murasaki Shikibu is said to have probably written part of it. While at the temple, on display are old authentic copies of the novel. I don't think any originals exist but, pretty old copies. This place is where the photos of the Japanese garden were taken.

The final place we visited this trip was a place called the Abe shrine. This is the picture of the star fountain and the one with Ayumi standing by a gate. Japan is a pretty superstitious country. A thousand years ago a guy name Abe no Seimei was famed for being a demon slayer of sorts. Apparently he was able to remove possessing demons from people and did all sorts of healings. Well, this shrine was build shortly after his death and then, redone a few years ago after a successful release of a movie based on his life. Too bad because the shrine now feels like a cheap advertisement for the franchise and not the cool, creepy superstitious atmosphere that you think the place would have. It was fun to go and see it though. There you can pay to have priests assess your person and maybe remove spirits.

Well, that was all we had time for this last trip. It was fun but, as you can imagine walking from place to place was a bit tiring. Kyoto is beautiful but, too big to hit in one day walking. I'll try and update this blog a little more often!