My first few weeks in Japan have been going well! Lots of sightseeing, food, meeting new people, food, figuring out how everything works, food, and food. But more about food in a later post. One of the first things I noticed about the culture here was the mash-up of the ancient and modern with 400-year-old Shinto shrines surrounded by high-end shopping malls and techno stores. Most of what I've been doing since I've arrived is visiting the many different shrines and temples that Kyoto is famous for. They make for great photos (see below) and they're a great reason to explore the city. Kyoto is one of the ancient capitals of Japan, and it was the capital for over 1,000 years, so there's a lot of history here, which also makes it a tourist destination. I definitely visit these places wondering what they looked like 50 years ago before all the tourism made a worship path a street food and souvenir vending area.
This isn't my first time living in a place where the majority religion is different than what I experience back in America (for more info on that, check out this post). While religion isn't as ingrained into society like it is in Zanzibar, there are still practices I've seen that are different than America.
Shinto is the native religion in Japan, but Buddhism is also very present here as well. However, most shrines are part of the Shinto religion. Shinto is as old as Japanese culture and is more about wishing for good luck, good health, business success, and more. This is done at the hundreds of shrines in Kyoto and all around Japan. It's not uncommon to walk past one and find people praying during lunch breaks or in the middle of a shopping trip. The prayer is relatively quick, sometimes involves ringing a bell, and you can tell it is deeply meaningful to those who are there (and I think it's cool that you can go and pray at a shrine whenever, there's not a specific day for worship like in many major religions, so you can pray on your own time). There are many different structures associated with the Shinto religion, and it's not hard to find any of them on just a walk through the city.
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| This is a Torii. It is used to mark the entrance to a shrine and can be any size from this (note cars for size) to just over my head. They are painted orange since this color is believed to keep out malignant spirits. |
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| This is a Komainu. There are usually two of them, one on either side of an entrance, and they act as guardians of the shrine. Sometimes they are dogs, sometimes they are lions. I wouldn't want to mess with them either. |
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| This is a Purification Trough. They are at the entrance to shrines, where as in many religions, you wash yourself to cleanse yourself before entering/praying. You wash your left hand, then your right, then your mouth with the water. However, it is not required for tourists visiting the shrines to do this. |
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| This is the place of prayer. Those ropes, when pulled, ring a bell and you can make offerings here as well. How these look vary from shrine to shrine but the method of prayer is the same. |
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| This is an Ema. You write wishes you have on the wooden blocks in hopes that they come true (i.e. passing college exams, success in business, good health, etc.) The papers tied in front of it are called Omikuji. These are fortunes that you can draw randomly at the shrine, and then tie onto something like this to make it extra good (or negate the bad). |
Different shrines are dedicated to different "kami", which are god-like. One of the most famous shrines is Fushimi Inari, and inari shrines are dedicated to the kami of rice (no surprise there). Fushimi Inari is absolutely beautiful! I went to take pictures last week and was stunned at the intricacy of the entire shrine. It's famous for it's 10,000 orange torii that line a path up to the top of Mt. Inari, a whopping 233m above sea level (still 1,400m under Denver!) with a view of downtown Kyoto. I made it to the top, where the actual place of prayer is, and it's obvious to see why a shrine would be on top of a mountain, I guess it's some form of purification hiking to the top. You're working for your prayer.
Since Buddhism is also very prevalent, and has been since the 6th century, it has started to merge with Shinto and there are aspects of both religions in Japan. It was actually Buddhist monasteries that gained a lot of political power then, and were a driving force in moving the ancient capital from Nara to Kyoto, but Buddhism does not inhabit daily life now like it once did.
Japan is beautiful and I'm excited to experience more of this ancient culture mixed with modern technology, but until then, thanks for reading! Follow me on Instagram at @nesbittphotography for more photo updates!
Arigato!
Kim
Did I miss anything? Is everything correct? Let me know in the comments, I'm learning too!
Credit to: http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2059.html for info on specifics of shrines
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