Fushimi Inari Shrine, Kyoto

 

Contemplating the past

[ Norah making her way through the torii gates ]

Yesterday we set off early after a Japanese-style breakfast in our hotel, to find the famous torii gates at the Fushimi Inari Shrine in southern Kyoto. The shrine was built in the year 799 to honor Inari, the god of rice harvest and commerce. This shrine has hundreds of torii gates that wind up the hills to Mt. Inari.

We arrived early and walked past the throngs of tourists to head straight up the path to the gates. For the next hour we wound our way up hill past bamboo forests and small shrines tucked along the path in the forest on either side of the gates. 

Sunlight glittered through the slats as we walked and I tried to imagine a time when one could walk through these gates in silence listening to nature and thinking about the rice harvest.

[ We had moments alone to consider and contemplate along the way. ]

Later in the day we visited the Kyoto International Manga Museum. The museum is curated by a group of scholars from the Kyoto Seika University International Manga Research Center, who have assembled a collection of Manga dating back to the Edo era. Housed in an old school with wood parquet floors and wide granite staircases. The corridors are lined with books and school desks. Museum guests are sitting in every chair and stool available with a stack of manga at their feet reading silently. The museum is a giant library of manga filled with people reading! You can take any book off the shelves to read while you are there.

I did not take photos except for one of a series that I found from 1979 that had beautiful illustrations.

On the way out there is a place to leave a drawing and a memory of the day. Norah and I both added to the message board.