Temples, gateways between worlds, loom over many a street in Kyoto. Day by day, they bristle with life. Monks and temple maids sweep, ring gongs, nod to passers-by. Visitors clap their hands, throw coins, cast a wish. In some ways temples are a part of life as prosaic as eating breakfast. They are spiritual, yes, but it is a kind of spirituality one carries with oneself going about the day. Few study the arcane scripts of Buddhism, yet nearly all seem to embrace the philosophy as an elemental part of their existance. If people are the turning cogs of society, surely Japan's unique Shinto-Buddhist fusion serves as the oil.
Yet for all its role in mundane, every-day affairs, an air of spirituality and natural calm lingers in temple grounds. Be it the deep colour of the wooden beams, the surrounding trees, or the sheer beauty of the temple structures, it is there. It changes with light, with the seasons. The temple in the morning is not the same temple at night. In Kyoto, regular night-time temple light-ups bring a very different kind of life to the structures. September's full moon is celebrated annually as a special autumn festival, where many will visit temples at night and behold the rock over traditional Japanese foods and their favourite company. Here is my visit to the Heian period Shingon Buddhist temple Daikakuji.
*Note: in case anyone was wondering, none of the photos were retouched in the slightest, excepting the removal of a particularly ugly bench in front of the pagoda in the second photograph.
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