Day 14: The beauty of Zen

Tuesday March 8th, 2011 by Giel Op 't Veld

For western people, it is often quite hard to understand religion in Japan. We know that Buddhism and Shinto are the two main streams found here, but that is about it. Buddhism has many subcultures of which Zen is the best known in Europe. We often associate it with meditation and a state of complete peace and calmness. Although today was about much more schools of Buddhism and Shinto, as naive Europeans, calmness is exactly what we found today.

We were on a tight schedule. As we have little time to spend in Kyoto, we had a pre-determined plan of what we wanted to see. In one day’s time, we walked the Philosopher’s Route, visited East-Gion and made a little trip south on the side to see the Sanjusangen-Do Temple. Although our route was only 7 km, all the temples and shrines on the way caused it to last a full day. Too much to see, too little time.

We started the Philosopher’s Walk, a canal surrounded by cherry trees and many cultural highlights, at Ginkaku-Ji. This temple is nicknamed the ‘Silver Pavilion’ and left our participants in awe. The Zen gardens were beautiful. There was a calmness that we had never seen before; a rest and peace which was underscribed at every single temple and shrine on the way after.

In the afternoon, we strolled through East-Gion, the Geisha district. It showed us again that Kyoto is nothing like Tokyo. The traditional Japanese culture in the capital city is much more clean and new. Kyoto is more authentic in that sense. That was shown for example in the Sanjusangen-Do, which resided 1000 golden statues of the Thousand Armed Kannon which date from the 12th and 13th centuries. Although fires and earthquakes called for restorations of most temples today, they were still much older than we had seen before.

The day came to an apotheosis as we followed the historical path up to Kiyomizu-dera hill. Our sunny day turned into a rainy day earlier, but as a miracle the sun broke through just as we reached our destination. From there, we enjoyed how the sun set behind the pagoda and opened up a panoramic view of the city. Kiyomizu is regarded as the most beautiful part of Kyoto and after a busy day, I can now only agree that I have found my peace and calmness at this unforgettable sight.