Kinkaku-ji Kyoto Walking Tour
A walking tour ofthe golden temple and the Ryoan-ji Garden
It’s tough to say if people follow a walking route like this because we didn’t do any research and assumed that most tourists go straight to Kinkaku-ji. We, on the other hand, choose to walk an extra kilometer to save a dollar.
Originally we were just going to walk from the Kitano Hakubai-Cho station straight to Kinkaku-ji to save ourselves the cost of a bus trip; it turns out that it was a good decision because we also decided to stop along the way and see some other sights.
Kyoto is filled with shrines and temples at every corner — which is better than having a Starbucks on every corner, because many of them are quite beautiful. Hirano Shrine is popular for cherry blossom viewing, but it is still too early in the year for that. That’s okay because we still got to admire the old wooden buildings and Torii gates.
I am quite enamoured with Japanese gates, both small ones in front of houses and the large ones in front of temples. I like to admire the heavy timber construction, the ornate doors, and the layering of the roof structure. This gate was interesting because it had a lot of moss growing on the roof.
The next shrine, Wara-Tenjingu, wasn’t particularly interesting but we stopped because it was on the way. Then we went to Kinkaku-ji temple.
We are surprised that we didn’t go to Kinkaku-ji on our previous trip to Kyoto in 2013, as it is a world-famous golden structure. It is both a National Special Historic Site and a National Special Landscape, and it is one of 17 locations that make up the Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto (which are also World Heritage Sites). According to Wikipedia, the present golden pavilion is from 1955, when it was rebuilt after burning down.
A visit to the temple is streamlined into a one-way path that funnels visitors around the grounds in a fairly orderly manner. After purchasing our tickets, we were directed into the temple grounds and to the edge of a pond with the golden pavilion in the background. This is where the famous photos of the pavilion are taken from.
There were a lot of people and it was very busy with everyone trying to get their photos, but we managed to get ours after some waiting.
The path then flows around the side of the pond and to the rear of the pavilion before departing into the gardens.
Right before the gift shop exit there is a shrine where people can pray. I think most tourists just like to ring the bell.
We left Kinkaku-ji and walked towards Ryoan-ji Temple, which is also on our “must see” list. Along the way Yuki noticed that we were passing Ritsumeikan University. This happens to be a partner university with UBC and Yuki lived in the Ritsumeikan House dormitory during her second year. The two universities have a cooperation and a lot of Japanese students stay in Ritsmueikan House while studying at UBC.
We walked through the campus and took a break on a fake turf field to have some snacks. There are oodles of dollar snacks in Japan available from convenience stores, so it’s never hard to grab a snack like Pocky or chocolate.
Ryoan-ji is another temple in the Kyoto World Heritage Sites collection. I’ve wanted to visit this rock garden for a long time because it is possibly the most world-famous rock garden in Japan.
Almost every temple, shrine, and historic place we have visited has burned down around 1500 A.D. or later, but the Japanese seem to rebuild and rebuild so it’s impossible to know what the original looked like or who made it. Regardless, the Ryoan-ji temple garden is famous for being a simple 10x25m rectangle of raked gravel devoid of trees and bushes. It is enclosed by plain clay walls and has a viewing terrace along one of the long sides. There are only 15 rocks among islands of moss. Of particular note, when sitting on the viewing terrace that runs the length of the garden, only 14 of the 15 rocks are visible at any given point. One rock is always hidden.
I’ve often thought about rock gardens when doing space planning in my engineering work and I’ve been trying to incorporate Japanese garden design elements into my work. I’d also like to design a rock garden with hidden rocks one day.
The temple had a surprise around the back. The “Tsukubai” is a square washbasin in a circular stone that has a carving on its surface: “I learn only to be contented.” The information brochure has this translation:
He who learns only to be contented is spiritually rich, while the one who does not learn to be contented is spiritually poor even if he is materially wealthy.
I’ve seen this stone basin in many books about Japanese gardens, so it was a pleasant surprise to see it for myself and think that next time I see it in a book I’ll know where it is from.
We thought about visiting the Gochisan Renge-ji Temple, but we only had 45 minutes until closing time when we got there. We didn’t think it was enough time and were also tired, so we decided to skip it rather than pay the admission fee to rush through. We didn’t mind skipping it because we still got to photograph the big Torii gate at the front of the complex, which is mainly what we wanted to see.
