Temple central

Kyoto! Imperial capital of Japan for a thousand years, much of which time people were required to register as Buddhists with a local parish. The result: 1600 Buddhist temples, and 300 Shinto shrines. Add to that that Kyoto was one of the few large cities not burned to the ground during WWII, and you have a fascinating city with a reminder of history around every corner.

Before my second conference started, I just had an hour of daylight to see one temple. I chose Nanzen-Ji based on its proximity to a subway station, so I thought it would be easy to find. Even thought it rained continuously, the grounds still had trees turning their autumn colors (although unlike Tokyo, most of the ginko trees had shed their leaves by the time I arrived.)

Of course being Kyoto, there was another temple between Nanzen-Ji and the subway stop: Konchi-In shrine contains a temple as well as a shrine dedicated to the deification of Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu built in 1628.



The picture above is "The Crane and Turtle Garden", an expanse of raked white gravel fronting artfully placed stones.