Temples of Shogunate 2

"Myoshin-ji"

We went to "Myoshin-ji" taking a JR line. JR Saga-arashiyama station is east of "Tenryu-ji" in 10 minutes walking. Hanazono station, our next getting off point is two stations away in the direction of Kyoto station. 

Leaving the north entrance of the station, we walked several minutes along the broadway in front of the entrance to the east. And we found a three forked road, and we went on its north a little more, then the south entrance of this temple there. 


The dragon of Hondo from a paper of Myoshin-ji

We would like to explain one of Myoshin-ji's features first. In the ceiling of the Houdo, a dragon is living. Of course, it's a metaphor. The dragon was drawn on the ceiling by a famous painter of the Edo era.

People in the Muromachi era, approximately 700 years ago, believed evil consequences of deadmen and also believed metaphysical beings. "Tengu" and "Ryu" are the typical examples. It is said that "Tengu" are goblins who have supernatural power and strange faces, red skin and long-noses. And "Ryu" are dragons very similar to Europian legendary creature.

In Zen temples, there are many scrolls drawn "Daruma-daishi" who is a symbol of Buddhism practitioner. And also "Ryu" were drawn in many Zen temples, because it's a symbol of supernatural existence.

Daruma-daishi

There lives another dragon in the Hondo of Tenryu-ji where visited just before. We didn't have a chance to look at it, so, we definitely want to look at the dragon of Myoshin-ji.  

Now, we are standing in front of the main south entrance gate, called "Chokushi-mon". And this gate opens only in special events.

Entrance of Myoshin-ji

We went through a little gate beside of Chokushi-mon and realized a stall like an entrance ticket-stall. Middle-aged man sitting inside explained that we needed no entrance fare to enter the siting. 

There are several massive buildings in a straight line. They are "San-mon", "Butsu-den", "Hatto", "Dai-hojyo". And, "Kuri" is west of "Dai-hojyo".

San-mon

Butsu-den

Hatto

People except for believers of this sect only can enter "Hatto". And, the famous dragon lives in its ceiling. The dragon stared at us,  its eyes glared at us when we were at the right side of it, it glared the right side, and when we moved to its left side, it gazed us to the left side. As long as we were in this building, we couldn't escape from its eyes.

This dragon symbolizes something almighty in the sky. And to be face to face with this something almighty means kind of experience of "Zen".   

The authorities in the Muromachi era had devoted themselves the "Zen-syu" or the Zen sect strongly. This had been by the people not only the Muromachi Shogunate but also anti-Muromachi-Shogunate. Actually, anti-Muromachi-Shogunate temples had been represented by this temple those days.  

Buthu-den and Hatto

Why both groups were influenced by this philosophy? We suppose  people in this era learned a new view of the world taking a look at themselves again. This spiritual practices in Zen-syu were very effective for the people of those days. So, powerful men of both sides did.

From Chokushi-mon to San-mon, Butsu-den, Hatto and Dai-hojo, there are big buildings lined straight. This scene that big buildings line straight is attractive enough.


Bird's-eye view of Myoshin-ji

That's the only charm of this temple. A great amount of "Tattyu" temples is another charm. The number is amazing 46.

Usually, people except for believers of this sect can't enter these Tattyu temples, because these facilities are actually only for believers and practitioners. It's a pity for us, but temples are not only for tourists. We should understand how to enjoy visiting temples as comprehensive tourists.

In this siting, many narrow alleyways run all over this compound and they connect 46 Tattyu temples each other. If you can use light vehicles, you can move even in these narrow alleys. But they aren't.

A Tattyu temple

Tattyu temples are surrounded by tall earthen walls. We felt the solemn atmosphere even from the outside of them. And we looked at the entrances, front of buildings and front gardens beautifully arranged.

Entrance of a Tattyu temple

Several Tattyu temples are open to the public. And one of them is famous for its garden. So we visited. It's "Keisyun-in". "Sanpai-ryo" or a contribution offering was 400yen for an adult.

We supposed that this temple was popular for autumn leaves viewers. Because frontpage of the paper they gave us was a picture of "Chashitsu" or a building for the tea ceremony and trees with bright red autumn-colored leaves. However, today, a few tourists were only visitors. The gardens were brushed cleanly and trees and plants in the garden were also well treated. 

Paper of Keisyun-in

We think you should take the precinct of this temple is a kind of barrier, and a ritual boundary of the Zen sect. When we visited this temple, there're a few tourists, and met only few temple's persons. We felt a quiet and special atmosphere, and the devout mood of the whole boundary made us faithful temporarily.  


The history of "Myoshin-ji"

Myoshin-ji was established in 1337. The place this temple is located had been the residence of Hanazono-jyoko. And it was reformed to a Zen temple. At that time, the Zen sect groups in Kyoto separated into pro-Muromachi-Shogunate and anti-Muromachi-Shogunate. Myoshin-ji was one of the major temples of anti-Muromachi-Shogunate.

If we cast a spotlight the date when it was established this year was the next year when the Muromachi Shogunate was established. Looking at the details, this temple was supported by Hanazono-jyoko ("Jyoko" means former emperor). Hanazono-jyoko was a leader of anti-Muromachi-Shogunate. People belonged these two parties we explained above had been belonged one governmental party which had been established two years before 1337. And some people changed their political position and established the Muromachi Shogunate. But he and his retainers remained the former governmental party. And now their position became the opposition of the shogunate.

Around this year, these two big groups had almost same power. However, Emperor Godaigo died in 1338, who was the most important person in the anti-Muromachi-Shogunate group. So the death canged the situation dramatically. The Muromachi Shogunate group improved its power, and, by contrast, the anti group began to decrease its power year after year. 

It's difficult to examine the relationship between Myoshin-ji and the shogunate at that time. Also the scale of Myoshin-ji's site those days is unknown. 

At the last few decades of the 14th century, Ashikaga Yoshimitsu became the third shogun and the shogunate flourished mostly. On the other hand, Myoshin-ji was cramped down by Ashikaga Yoshimitsu and confiscated its siting. Myoshin-ji passed through its hard history.

Around 1430th, Myoshin-ji was reconstructed, but the fire of the Onin war destroyed its hole buildings again and hard time continued. And a few more years was past, around 1510th, next reconstruction started by the grants from many Sengoku lords. Myoshin-ji began to reconstruct buildings, and at the same time, many "Tattyu" temples began to belong with Myoshin-ji.

Main facilities remained are bellow. San-mon was built at 1599, Chokushi-mon at 1610, Hatto at 1656, Dai-hojyo at 1654. These main buildings were restored during the end of the Azuchi-momoyama era and the beginning of the Edo era. This restoration was carried out with the support of the Samurai class at that time. And these properties remain still now.  
 

Study of teaching of Buddhism

Myoshin-ji is a main temple of one of Zen-sects now. It gives high priority into spiritual practices and achievement of believer's tranquility.

Myoshin-ji thinks past history isn't important. However, the rivalry with the Muromachi Shogunate once upon a time existed absolutely. In spite of this historical truth, there is no description about the rivalry with it in its paper for tourists. We suppose the Muromachi Shogunate isn't so much famous in Japanese history, then this temple don't recognize the importance of the relationship with it.


"Kinkaku-ji"

The premise of "Myoshin-ji" occupys huge area of north-west of Kyoto. We went into the temple from the south gate, and went out the north gate. Outer area of the gate isn't so far from Kitayama area where is our next destination.

There is the Kitano line of the "Ran-den" train at the north of Myoshin-ji. This line is worth to travel north-west sightseeing spots. If you want to visit famous temples of this area, stations in this line will be starting points such as "Ninna-ji" and "Ryoan-ji". The nearest station was "Touji-in", but this is the previous station of the terminal. So we thought it wasn't worth to ride. 
 

Ran-den

As far as we checked the map, distance to "Kinkaku-ji" was only a few kilometers from where we were standing. Furthermore, there aren't other public transportation systems except for "Ran-den". So, we chose to walk. Several tens of minutes, we walked along a residential street.

By the way, Ritsumeikan university is near here. And many young students were around there. This is an another aspect of Kyoto city. We were a little impressed by a new charm of this city.

Going to Kinkaku-ji in Kitayama area, we had to keep walking gentle uphill a little long time. Facing unexpected hardness, we were so tired. Just in a half way, we went through in front of the entrance of "Touji-in". We noticed information that this temple had been deeply connected with the Muromachi Shogunate. We expected to visit this temple, if we had an extra time. Unfortunately, our watchs pointed predetermined time to arrive Kinkaku-ji already, so we gave up to visit Touji-in temple.

In this way, we stood in front of the entrance gate of Kinkaku-ji. We felt this entrance was a little poor-looking and doubted it was correct? However, this narrow gate swallowed endless huge amount of international tourists successively. It's exactly right place! 

Alley to Kinkaku-ji

There was a gravel-covered alley moderate width and depth, and bordered with a row of garden trees. There should be "Houyo", "Shoin" and "Kuri" in the way to the ticket office. But, we didn't find these buildings. Why?

After paying the entrance fee, 400 yen for an adult, the very famous sight came to our front suddenly. In front of us, a wide pond was there, and beyond it was the famous temple, Kinkaku-ji. This building overwhelms every man-made things. Other buildings didn't care anymore.  

It's too difficult to talk about the wellspring of its beauty. From points of the design, for example, its pillars of the original had been a little thinner than the present one (So, the present one may not represent hundred percent beauty of the original one) or the proportion of each volumes of three floors was ideal (So, the beauty of this building came from the balance of each floor). And from the point of architectural style, each floor was planed in different architectural forms. Like these examples, there was so much information about its beauty. So, we decided to pay no attention to these specialists' talks. Because we usual visitors were able to walk along nearby Kinkaku-ji and weren't able to enter inside.

As additional information, there is another golden temple at Hiraizumi in the Tohoku region. This temple is covered by a reinforced-concrete building to avoid direct heavy snow of winter time. So, we think that this temple doesn't have an elegance like the appearance of Kinkaku-ji which is the part of the whole ideal garden world.

Another golden temple in it

And we want to mention another example of a structure covered gold, although it's a little strange to compare these buildings. It's the golden Chashitsu in Osaka castle (It's a replica). In our opinion, it doesn't represent the beauty which would have originally. Because it's in a corner of the museum space. Accordingly, we think Kinkaku-ji is the best, and the beauty will shine in the garden more.

Replica of the golden Chashitsu

Just then we walked through the nearest side of Kinkaku-ji building, a summer shower began to rain violently. Tourists having no umbrellas flew in all directions, and escaped under eaves all around. Soon, nobody stood in an alley beside Kinkaku-ji. We also gave up on further exploration and left this temple. We could run some more things, if the sudden summer shower hadn't rained? Well, the shower rained or not, the situation would not change.

Kinkaku-ji was a hall of a stroke-style garden when it was made. And this garden was belonged with "Kitayama Goten" or the Kitayama palace. It was made as a retirement residence of ex-Shogun. The owner had been the third Shogun of the Muromachi Shogunate, and his name was Ashikaga Yoshimitsu. The Muromachi Shogunate was flourished mostly during the reign of him. He handed over the rank of Shogun to his son and he became the guardian of Shougun.

But he didn't hand over political power, so, his son had strong resentment to his father. When Ashikaga Yuoshimitsu died, his son ordered to destroy the Kitayama palace, and only gardens and Kinkaku-ji were remained. We suppose he couldn't destroy the beauty of Kinkaku-ji even though he had resentment to his father. After the incident, it became Kinkaku-ji, a temple belonged "Shoukoku-ji." Then, its was a facility for fun when it was firstly used.

Beyond the garden pond

Considering relationship between the Muromachi Shogunate and this golden temple, we can find how big its wealth and power were. The wealth and power were big enough to make this golden temple. However, a golden structure made by people related the Muromachi Shogunate was only this. So, their wealth and power weren't infinity. 

This beautiful Kinkaku-ji remained until modern days, but, it wasn't an important building in those days and the following days. It was already a sightseeing spot in the Edo era, and asked of visitors "Sanpai-ryo". 

Overcoming every painful experience, Kinkaku-ji became one of the most famous buildings. We have no idea when it became to gather attention this much? All in all, there's Kinkaku-ji in Kyoto, and this is the reason we visit Kyoto.