I visited Kyoto at the end of last year and will post some pictures of my visit.
With various travel restrictions due to infectious diseases almost completely removed, Kyoto has recently been attracting more tourists from Japan and abroad than ever before, and the city is said to be experiencing a booming economy and the negative effects of overtourism (such as the city being polluted with garbage and the city buses being too crowded for citizens to ride).
Indeed, when I got off the Shinkansen at Kyoto Station, I was stunned at how crowded it was. One of the themes of my stay for a few days this time was how to avoid the crowds. So, I decided to find a place I had never been to before, let alone a place where the wave of inbound tourists had not yet arrived, and visited here.
Iwashimizu Hachiman Shrine in Yawata City, Kyoto Prefecture, is probably a place in the Kansai region that is not easily visited by people outside the Keihan line area. There is a well-maintained path from the Keihan train station to the main shrine on top of Otokoyama, following three torii gates, but this time I decided to take it a little easier.
The Iwashimizu Hachimangu approach cable takes you up the 82 meter difference in elevation all the way to the back of the main shrine on the mountain.
The cable car is about 400 meters long, so it is not a very long distance, but the steep slope from the top is quite impressive.
Yes, the equipment I brought was a lightweight, solid quality Panasonic Lumix G99 and Leica DG12-60mm.
From the cable car station at the top of the mountain to the main shrine, we proceeded through a dense forest in the cold, taut air of a Shinto shrine area. The day was relatively warm for the end of December.
Less than 10 minutes’ walk brings us to the front of the main shrine.
In the magnificent vermilion-lacquered main hall, a large sacred arrow attracts the eye. According to the website, this arrow decoration does not seem to be there during the regular season. It seems that this is a special version of the presentation of Hachiman-taijin, the god of bow and arrow, in preparation for New year. Although my visit to the shrine was at the end of the year, I felt as if I was paying a visit to the shrine for the first time.
There are many other attractions at Iwashimizu Hachiman Shrine. One of them, as introduced on the official website above, is that Edison, the king of inventors, searched for a suitable material for the filament of an electric light bulb and found Oriental Bamboo fibers. And Hachiman-Bamboo here is the first applied material in the Edison’s light.
The Edison Monument is located in a corner of the temple grounds.
Although I’m not sure if the bamboo thicket behind the monument is the Hachiman Bamboo, there is no doubt that bamboo grows naturally in the vicinity of the monument with considerable strength, as there are also thick bamboo thickets spreading along the side of the approach to the monument.
In addition, there are more than 100 carvings throughout the vermilion-lacquered main shrine and other magnificent buildings that are officially national or the same class treasures, and they are also one of the highlights of the shrine. However, I could not take pictures of the sculptures this time because I did not ask for prayer inside the main hall due to limited time, and most importantly, I did not bring a telephoto lens.
I managed to capture this “dragon and tiger” with the tele-end of my standard zoom lens.
So, further exploration of Iwashimizu Hachiman Shrine, including the search for my favorite sculpture, will have to wait until next time.
Kyoto photo walk will continue in the next issue.
