Kiyomizu-dera

Kiyomizu-dera is a Buddhist Temple located on the East side of Kyoto, between the Silver Temple and the train station.  It was our last tourist stop in Kobe, and we got their in late afternoon as the sun was beginning to set.  This was the site that Theresa wanted most to see; she had gotten a Facebook message on the "100 places to see before you die", and the Kiyomizu-dera was on the list along with the Golden temple.  We were a bit worried that the temple would be closed, since everything in Kyoto, it seems, closes at 4:00 pm.   We felt a lot more hopeful when we saw the throngs of people trudging up the narrow road towards the entrance.

Kiyomizu-dera hangs on the side of a mountain.  It appears to be suspended in mid-air.  To me, the mention of "Buddhist Temple" has always conjured mental images of Shangri-la or mountaintop retreats in Tibet.  Kiyomizu-dera fits that stereotype.

 

The temple complex is old;  the site dates back about 1400 years.  The current structures are not that old - most were built about 400 years ago.  Though not ancient, that still makes them pretty darned old. 

Though it was January 7, most of the temple's visitors were still celebrating their New Year rituals.  People were getting their fortunes told, and rubbing statues for good luck, and throwing coins toward the temple's altars.  The temple has evidently built up a lot of it's own, special rituals over the years.   It has an assortment of little shrines, each with a specialized purpose of bringing luck of finding fortune, finding love, or improving one's love-related skills.

I'm not really sure what the photo above shows.  I believe these little wooden tablets contain prayers of some sort.  The photo below shows the "thousand stone Buddhas".  These, and any other image of a Buddha, were all dressed in their colorful New Year's garb.  (Again, I'm not sure what this symbolizes.  It looks as if they are all wearing baby bibs.)

Some of the visitors, too, were traditionally dressed.  You can see a group of young ladies below in their kimonos.  They are in the process of obtaining their fortunes for the year.  The lady in the white-dotted-blue kimono is shaking a wooden cylinder filled with sticks.  Out will come a numbered stick.  The stick will be traded for a likewise numbered piece of paper.  Whatever fortune is written on the paper will, supposedly, be her's for the coming year.

The temple site was originally chosen because of a natural, and now sacred, waterfall - the Otowa waterfall.  The waters are now channeled to a pavilion where the visitors can catch them in tin cups and drink for good fortune.  You can see these water-catchers in the photo below, at the left-hand side.