Japan

Hello everyone I’m super excited to share with you what we got up to today and it’s going to be a long one so I hope you’re comfortable! As you know we are currently in Kyoto and one of the very special experiences we had planned was for today at Sennyu-ji temple. This experience was advertised as a guided tour of the temple with a monk and an interpreter and then listening to the monks sutras (chant like prayers) during a ceremony but it was so so much more than this.

I want to start off by saying that this tour only happens a few days a year as today was one of the three days in the year that Sennyu-ji temple opens up two of its buildings normally closed to the public one of which we wouldn’t have been able to go into without our tour but we will get to that in due course!

We started the tour by finding our guide and speaking to him for a while, s very sweet man half American and half Japanese, he then explained to us that our tour was private and that we wouldn’t see many other people here. This is partly due to the fact the tour started at 8.45am so not many people are up and about by then, but also as this temple for whatever reason is like a hidden secret in Kyoto. He told us that barely any tourists come up here as it is slightly out of the way and it really is a hidden gem! This temple is the only temple in Japan that is solely dedicated to the emperors and imperial blood line as there is an imperial graveyard here, we weren’t allowed to even see this as it is such a sacred area that even the monks are only allowed in twice a year with the imperial family visiting once a year to pray and to pay respect to the temple. The entrance to the graveyard is gravel and they have grooved lines in the gravel- please see picture to aid my explanation! They do this by hand and the monk told us this takes 3 hours and these symbolise that no one goes into this area until the special times of the year, then these lines are redone after the imperial family visit.

This temple actually burned down during the civil war and was rebuild so very few original pieces remain apart from the granite slabs outside the main hall, due to this the temple now has many symbols of water which is believed to protect it from any future fires. The rebuilding process is extremely impressive. There is not a single nail or bolt or screw in the whole temple, they constructed the roof through a process called joinery. Joinery involves the creation of interlocking joints that join together carefully selected pieces of wood that are cut to perfect size in order to create joints. There are 30 pillars in the temple taken from Elm trees and these are not secured in any way they are simply perfectly balanced on the base and the weight of the roof keeps them from moving. Our guide told us that this also helps the temples survive earthquakes that japan regularly experiences as the “temple moves with the earthquake”.

All the temple buildings have gargoyles and dragons on them and these are thought to protect the temple from any evil spirits. This is not a zen sect temple this is a Shingon which believes in more “magic” such as mystical creatures than other Buddhism sects so there are many depictions of dragons and mythical creatures in the temple. We were being told all of this information as we were being walked through the temple buildings until we reached a new building which had a sloped floor upwards and different rooms leading off on the side. The monk and then our translator explained that depending on your rank in society it would dictate where you would sit with the lowest room being for maids and the highest for the emperor himself! This room was beautifully decorated with intricately painted sliding doors with phoenixes on which is the symbol of the emperor. In china, the symbol would be a dragon but in Japan it is a phoenix.

We were then lead away from the main buildings and through winding corridors until the monk stopped and opened a door signalling for us to go in, jacob and I entered the candle lit room to sounds of a Buddhist sutra ceremony being performed by 6 monks all sat in light yellow robes. Chanting in a song like way the pitch gently rising and falling as they got further through the sutra. We sat down a little distance away and observed them. It was absolutely incredible, we were the only ones in there it was just the monks and us. They took no notice of us whatsoever and didn’t acknowledge us, they were so deep into their prayer that they did not even look up as we’d entered or left.

Beautiful deep red and gold cloths hung from the ceiling and were draped across the shrine in front of them. It honestly didn’t feel real I felt as though I was dreaming, I definitely was watching with wide eyes and bated breath. This is not an experience that many people get to see ever in their lifetime as it is such an important part of the monks daily routine they do not like to be disturbed so they only allow this to happen a few days of the year. We observed them for about 15 minutes before we were beckoned to the door and we left them to finish their ceremony. This ceremony was especially for praying for the emperor and imperial bloodline and would last 40 minutes but the monk told us that the longest one they do at once is 2 hours worth of sutra! He said it took him a long time to learn the discipline for this.

After this amazing experience we were then lead to another building which is only opened to the public three days a year, and yet there were probably only 5 other people in the building with us. This was a very special moment. As you walk into the building you are greeted by a Japanese painting - a nirvana that stretches from the floor to the ceiling and this is the largest one in the whole of japan. This is painted on Japanese paper in small squares and then combined together to make one huge painting that weighs around 150kg! It depicts Buddhas death. Buddha lying down facing north- which is the sign of death and due to this you will never find bed in Japan that points north! Around him are his disciples and followers weeping for him, animals from all different lands scatter the bottom of the painting and they are crying and curled up as they are so sad that Buddha has died. There are 8 trees in this painting, 4 of which are depicted as dead as they have “died of sadness” and the other 4 are still green which represent the hope for the future of Buddhism. It truly is an amazing piece of art with a clear vital importance to the religion and to the monks themselves and is our equivalent of the last supper or Jesus on the cross depictions we have in Christianity.

We then headed to arguably the most special building which we wouldn’t have been allowed into without our tour guide today. This hall is dedicated to Buddha. As you walk in, in the middle there is a beautifully decorated shrine with a box set back into the wall with different gods guarding it on either side. In this box, we were told, are a part of Buddhas ashes. Brought back from China this temple has the canine and some of the ashes of Buddha. I’ll let that sink in for a moment and you can imagine how sacred this hall is and how special it was that we got to see it with no one else there. On the ceiling there are depictions of crying dragons and angels that date back to the edo period. The monk then began to clap and asked us to do the same whilst standing in a particular spot, as I clapped you can hear the vibrations of the clapping around the hall but also the frequency slightly changes and it rings like a chime or a bell in your ear. I really cannot explain it any other way than to say that it feels as though there was an incredible spiritual force in that room. Then, lead by the monk we prayed to Buddha and the monk said that Buddhism is much more open than other religions, that anyone from any religion can pray to Buddha which I think is really special and really sums up the peace and tranquility of the Buddhist beliefs.

I honestly cannot stress enough how incredible this experience was, not only was it amazing to have the tour with a monk and for it to be private, but they only do this a few days a year and we got access to areas that very few people ever see and learnt so much and got a real insight into Buddhism.

We finished up this tour by being taught how to “copy Buddhas image” which is where the monks trace images of the different gods whilst mindfully thinking about what this means to them and is regarded as another form of prayer, the monk then signed these for us and wrote out our names in Japanese too!

We thanked them over and over before head in off to get some food as it was now 12.30 and we were starving! We had some breakfast/lunch and then went around some more temples today with open eyes about what the different symbols mean and the importance of different areas.

It was truly the most special day today, unfortunately we weren’t allowed to take many photos at all due to the sacred areas we were in so I hope my description helps you picture it but it really was the most incredible experience.Read more