Tuesday, June 25, 2019
After the visit at the time of closing the Kiyomizu-dera temple, its too perfect to not to follow the crowd and follow the small stone stairs street, to see the real authentic views of Kyoto. Its called Ninen-zaka street. We walked again to the Marumaya Park via Ninen-zaka street which is full of beautiful houses and few temples. This street is very easy to miss, but if you are careful, one of the best memories it could give. We walked via Kodaijii temple (it would be closed at the point of time, but anyways, we were just passing by) to Marumaya park. This time, we took a left from Marumaya park.
Mount Higwashi
I took a solo walk in the eerie path of the Mount Higwashi from Marumaya park and ended up in Anyoji temple. This place offers partial view of the city but by all means, place is super isolated and if it wasn’t for the few cars and prayers by taxi drivers, am not sure I would have even dared to climb upwards of that mountain.
Anyoji (Yoshimizu soan) – (from their info board) This temple belongs to the Jishu buddhist sect. It is believed Saicho (Dengyo Daish) founded it as a monastery in the late 8th century. Two famous monks, Honen and Shinran, trained in Yoshimizu soan. In the late 12th century, the monk Jichin established it as a temple and named it Anyoji. The temple declined but renewed by the monk Kokua in the late 14th century and converted to Jishu. Formerly six buildings were used for visitors, where they appreciated the beautiful garden and view. However, some were ruined during the Meiji restoration in 1867; the others fell into disuse due to fires. The remaining structures are Amidado and Shoin (in the grounds) and Bentendo and Jichinto (55 meters southerly off). The goddess of music, eloquence and wealth is worshipped in Bentendo. Jichinto was build in the early Kamakura era (1192-1333) and two Buddhas Taho and Shaka are dedicated here.
Yasaka Shrine
Later, we took left from Marumaya Park and went to Yasaka Shrine. Unlike other temples, this is more tourist friendly with attractive lighting and right on the main road with good connectivity. Yasaka Jinja – 八坂神社 (this is also called as Gion temple). As the Marumaya park is super famous during Cherry blossom period, this naturally gets more visitors during that time. Temple is built for Susanoo-no-mikoto, Kushiinadahime-no-mikoto, and Yahashira-no-mikogami. Gion goryoe (now Gion Matsuri) is a super famous festival is celebrated over 100 years.
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